Drone Strike Kills 7 in San Diego

Last weekend, California was alive with anti-drone ferment. While the Walk to Peace, a 10 day sojourn to Beale Air Force Base, set off across the San Francisco Bay, activists in San Diego held a weekend of demonstrations in solidarity with the nationwide Spring Days of Drone Action. One feature of the weekend was an evocative and powerful street theatre performance in San Diego's Balboa park, simulating a drone attack on American soil like those that have been and continue to be deadly reality in Pakistan and Yemen. Click here to stream video of the event.

The simulated Hellfire missile
 was lowered from above.

Balboa Park soon became a grisly scene indeed.

When Drones Fly, Children Die. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism 
has documented over 200 children confirmed killed by U.S. drone strikes.

What if they were our children?

Nearly five thousand people have been confirmed killed by
 drone strikes in Pakistan and Yemen alone.

Those killed by U.S. drone strikes leave behind families and
 communities that are traumatized by their absence and
 by the randomness and violence of their slaughter.

Photos by Cristie Ann Paris

Thank you for bringing the consequences of U.S. drone policy
 home so vividly in San Diego, the home of General Atomics
 and many other military contractors that profit from drone terrorism.

The Spring Days of Drone Action continue throughout
 California and nationwide! Click here for more information.

San Diego “Drone Days of Action”

May 15-17, 2014

 
Join us in San Diego, May 15, 16 and 17, 2014
for action and education against US global drone wars, drones violating civil liberties, and the US “pivot to the Pacific”

San Diego continues to be the US capital of spy and killer drone production

Stand Up and Speak Out! 

THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY, following last year’s “No Drones Days” in April, to be a part of moving this nation away from mechanized warfare and military empire, toward a better future!

During April Days of Action 2013, a graphic display
 of the civilian murder perpetrated by U.S. drones. 

Morning street theatre at the home of General Atomics CEO
 Neil Blue during April Days of Action 2013

- PLANNED EVENTS -

Thursday May 15

·        4-7 PM – San Diego Veterans for Peace Demonstration: Federal Building, Front and Broadway, downtown San Diego; Street Theater staged aerial “drone attack” by Artful Activist San Diego

·        8 PM – 9:30 PM – Overpass Light Brigade, light/sign demonstration at Clairemont Drive overpass at I-5 freeway

 Friday May 16

·        8 – 10 AM – Demonstration, including street theater against drones, Northrop Grumman, 9326 Spectrum Center Blvd. and Ruffin Road, San Diego 92123

·        4-6 PM – Women Occupy San Diego, Demonstration at SPAWAR, Pacific Highway (gather at 3:30 at parking lot of Old Town transit center, Pacific Hwy. just south of Rosecrans/Tayor St.)

Saturday May 17

·        9:30 AM – 2 PM – Stop the Drones Convergence!   Registration 9:30 AM; 10 AM – 2 PM:  Issues panel, break-out groups to discuss and plan NEXT STEPS! First Church of the Brethren, 3850 Westgate Place, SD 92105 

2014 Anti-Drone Days of Action is a collaborative action of:

San Diego Coalition for Peace & Justice; Peace Resource Center of San Diego; Veterans for Peace San Diego Chapter; San Diego Overpass Light Brigade; Women Occupy San Diego (WOSD); Occupy San Diego; Artful Activist San Diego; Canvass for a Cause (CFAC); Back Country Voices; San Diego Alliance for Marriage Equality (SAME); San Diego BDS; United Against Police Terror San Diego; Green Party of San Diego; Code Pink; San Diego International Socialist Organization  (Contact us if your group would like to be a sponsor).

For more info/action updates: www.sdcpj.org  info@sdcpj.orgnodrones@prcsd.org  https://www.facebook.com/events/630247980379475/

The nationwide Spring Days of Drone
 Action continue! CLICK HERE to learn more.

We Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust | 2014

“From late Neolithic times in the Near East, right down to our own day, two technologies have recurrently existed side by side: one authoritarian, the other democratic, the first system-centered, immensely powerful, but inherently unstable, the other [hu]man-centered, relatively weak, but resourceful and durable.” - Lewis Mumford, Authoritarian and Democratic Technics

                              

"We Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust" is a public sculpture with related artwork and ephemera created by Finishing School, a Los Angeles-based artist collective in collaboration with artists Nadia Afghani and Matt Fisher. The sculpture is a full-scale model of a MQ-1 Predator Drone. The drone substrate will be fabricated with a subtractive 3d CAD process. The public is invited to the Occidental College campus in Los Angeles (March 14-16, 2014) to help FS and collaborators with the application of architectural-grade mud to the surface of the drone using age-old participatory construction methods and traditions. In the dichotomy between the drone's form and its surface, the sculpture opens a powerful discussion of technology and contemporary foreign policy while inviting multiple propositions about cultural legacies and possible resistances in the era of pervasive global surveillance and warfare.

March 14-16, 2014 // Drone Building Workshop // 10AM-Sunset
March 19, 2014 // Reception // 5-9PM

"We Will Show You Fear in a Handful of Dust" is made possible by the Wanlass Artist in Residence Program, which is supported by the Kathryn Caine Wanlass Foundation. 
Support for this project also provided by the Remsen Bird Fund. 


To learn more about the upcoming Spring Days of Action against drone kiling and surveillance, CLICK HERE!

April Days of Action Against Drones in SAN DIEGO

Aprils Days of Action Against Drones receives worldwide media coverage:

Shia international news association

NBC 7 San Diego

Mi'raj news agency

San Diego Free Press

April Days of Action Against Drones in SAN DIEGO: Sunday, 4/7 Update

This just in: a video showing the evocative die-in demonstration at General Atomics Headquarters on Friday, 4/5. Speaking in the video is Medea Benjamin of Code Pink, discussing the perverse incentives of war profiteers such as General Atomics.

Day 2 demonstrations led by CodePink at the La Jolla home of General Atomics CEO Neil Blue (coverage by local media here), at GA HQs in Torrey Pines (featured on NBC) and at Northrup Grumman’s plant in Kearny Mesa continued to shine the light on their war profiteering, the civilians killed and maimed by their products, and the invasion of Americans’ privacy. They emphasized the need for Congress to set the rules for this unbridled technology NOW. 

The early-morning demonstration at the home of Neil Blue shed 

a light on the intimate relationship between Washington politicians 

and the drone-industrial complex, which makes fabulous wealth 

from the profits of drone warfare possible.

Northrop Grumman, another war-profiteer dependent on drone warfare
 to protect its bottom line, was targeted in day 2 of the demonstrations.

Day 2's protests also highlighted civilian fatalities
 as a result of drone warfare.

An evocative display of what murder by drone looks
 like, brought to the drone industry's doorstep.

END THE EMPIRE

            "The US government has lost its moral compass," said Carol Jahnkow, Director Emerita, Peace Resource Center of San Diego. "Over 4,000 lives have been lost to American Drones made right here in San Diego, yet only 2% of those hit were considered high-level targets. The deaths of these innocent people is reprehensible.  And, the deaths of the other 2% without due process of law makes a sham of international law."

 Day 3 of the San Diego Anti-Drone Days of Action saw the unveiling of “Children At Play” on the grass in front of the U.S.S. Midway Museum in downtown San Diego, with music by the socially-conscious youth rap/hip-hop band, Vibe, as well as Women Occupy San Diego’s acapella chorus, the Occupellas, with brief speeches by local artist and activist, Doris Bittar, and Faith Leaders for Peace co-founder, Rev. Beth Johnson.   

The "Children at Play" display delivered a stark message: the illusory 

economic benefits of the drone industry in San Diego are delivered at

 the cost of innocent young lives.

The Occupellas chorus paid further tribute to children killed by drone strikes.

Day 3  concluded with a forum featuring Medea Benjamin, author of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control (2012) and co-founder of Global Exchange and CodePink, Pedro Rios of the American Friends Service Committee, U.S/Mexico Border Project, personal testimony from a former worker in the drone military-national security-indusrial complex, and other speakers on what drones mean for the U.S. and the world. Throughout the evenings, the Overpass Light Brigade continued to propagate the anti-drone message to the people of San Diego:

  Our San Diego Anti-Drone Days of Action concluded on Sunday, April 7, 2013, with a General Assembly and Workshops:

Topics included "Using New Media for Protest," "The Changing Face
of Empire," and"Drones in the Middle East and Africa."

Get involved in April Days of Action Against Drones in your state!

April Days of Action Against Drones in SAN DIEGO: Day 2 Update

La Jolla- Code Pink led another demonstration at the General Atomics Headquarters this morning, April 5th, at 10 AM.

The demonstration featured a graphic simulation of the effects of a fatal drone strike on U.S. soil, implicating General Atomics and other war-profiteering corporations in similar carnage happening abroad.

Medea Benjamin leading reenactment of civilian and rescue
 worker kills by General Atomics Predator and Reaper drones. 

This protest followed an early morning demonstration in which 50 people showed up at the La Jolla home of General Atomics CEO Neal Blue.

CodePinkers performed a billionaire cocktail party skit/street theater at which Blue and his buddies chatted about why it is sooo good for their class to have drones making money for them and it only affects terrorists anyway.

Get involved in San Diego or in your state!



More images of yesterday's demonstration at General Atomics were just posted here :

Code Pink and San Diego Veterans for Peace came together to
protest at the headquarters of General Atomics 

Media was there in force to cover the demonstration.

Realistic model Predator Drones simulate the experience of drones 

flying overhead, targeting families and children.

The weekend-long event is still in full swing! Click here for a description of today's program, and here for a full schedule of the weekend's demonstrations.




Day 1 update:

Day 1 saw a coalition of citizens representing San Diego Veterans for Peace and Code Pink come out to demonstrate at the headquarters of General Atomics.

That evening, the message was passed to San Diego at large with a demonstration by the Overpass Light Brigade

More details and a preview of Day 2 can be found here. A schedule for the full weekend can be found here.

April Days of Action Against Drones: Report on Day 1 in San Diego

Dave Patterson of San Diego Vets for Peace reported on the first day of the multi-day demonstration leading the way in the April Days of Action Against Drones: "Today we had 75 people from San Diego San Fransisco, Fresno, LA, Albuquerque, Prescott Az, Washington DC and other places... Code Pink was there with their leader Medea Benjamin, as were many members of the press. 

San Diego Veterans for Peace and Code Pink demonstrate near the General Atomics Headquarters

We started in a cul-de-sac about 1,000 yards from General Atomics, not far from the place we have been demonstrating for 7 months. We marched along the 1 mile road past GA facility after GA facility, and eventually to a very busy intersection where thousands of car pass every hour. We had in tow our Reaper Drone model and made our presence known. The honks and thumbs up were frequent, giving the indication that our message is getting across. We are at the edge of a Tsunami of public anger regarding the misuse of this technology, and our message to Congress is fix it quickly!"

A tsunami of public anger regarding the misuse of drone technology.

Following the afternoon demonstration, the OverPass Light Brigade sent a clear message to Thursday's evening commuters heading south on I-5 at Clairemont Drive.

San Diego's answer to the drone industry has only begun.

Join us for Day 2 
Friday, April 5th will start with a demonstration by Code Pink at the home of General Atomics CEO Neal Blue, one of the most egregious of the industry's drone profiteers. 

Another rally at the General Atomics Headquarters will begin at 10 am. Northrop Grumman, a corporation that is in the process of expanding its foothold in the San Diego area, will be targeted between 4 and 6. And this evening will again see the Light brigade take to a San Diego overpass.

Schedule:

http://www.sdcpj.org
http://www.prcsd.org

Livestreaming of the action will continue on http://www.ustream.tv/occupysf

April Days of Action Against Drones are in full swing in San Diego

A weekend-long anti-drone event began today in San Diego. Based in the heartland of the high-tech drone industry, this banner event of the nationwide April Days of Action Against Drones (full nationwide schedule accessible at Knowdrones.com) focuses on San Diego-based corporation General Atomics. Continuing in to the evening with demonstrations at freeway overpasses, the event is making the voice of the nationwide anti-drone movement heard both in the mainstream media and internationally. Livestreams of the weekend's events, which will also include tributes to the victims of U.S. drone strikes worldwide, can be found at http://www.ustream.tv/occupysf.

A recent Overpass Light Brigade demonstration,
of which there will be several more this weekend in San Diego

Fox 5 San Diego recently featured San Diego Veterans for Peace member Dave Patterson discussing the way in which drones enable unconstitutional extrajudicial killing by decree. As highlighted by a recent article in the Daily Beast, however, San Diego is uniquely positioned, as a center of the U.S. drone industry, to grapple with the very real conflict of interest this burgeoning industry founded on the violation of constitutional liberties and the killing of foreigners in far-off lands presents.

A recent protest at General Atomics Corporation highlights the stark tradeoff implied
 in San Diego's embrace of the drone industry.

As is happening throughout the nation, a growing, vocal resistance in San Diego is eschewing the drone industry's and President Obama's attempts to make drone warfare the inevitable future of American foreign policy. Follow the livestream and check back here for frequent updates on the events of the weekend.

National Anti-Drone Days of Action Kicks off April 4th in San Diego

The National Anti-Drone Days of action begins Friday in San Diego. Organized by the San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice,  the event spans the weekend and features daily demonstrations at the headquarters of General Atomics, a prime player in the burgeoning drone-industrial complex.

Recent images from the weekly protest at the General Atomics Headquarters
 (See coverage in the  San Diego Free Press)

On Saturday, April 6th, demonstrators clad in black will assemble at the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum. The event will focus on honoring the names of 178 of the children and youth who have been killed by U.S. drone strikes to date. Performances by Vibe, a socially conscious hip hop group, as well as by the Occupellas (Occupy SD's female a capella chorus) will honor the many victims of U.S. drone warfare.

 More information on locations of individual events can be found at the SDCPJ website. Updates on the weekend will be forthcoming as the events unfold.

UPDATE: April 4-7: National Anti-Drone Days of Action

The National Days of Action are rapidly approaching and we’re excited about the schedule that is shaping up! The events below show what the host committee and other organizations have lined up so far! There are still some time slots for other actions if your organization would like to plan something! We’re also looking for groups and individuals who would like to do workshops. Please join us in San Diego!!

(NOTE: The San Diego call was the impetus for the subsequent call for anti-drone actions to take place nationwide throughout the month of April, 2013.)

Join the Facebook event page and invite friends!

April Days in San Diego
April 4-7, 2013
Day-by-Day Schedule

April 4 - Thursday

3PM - SDVFP demonstration at General Atomics Predator drones production site along with an Overpss Light Brigade Action nearby

April 5 - Friday

Morning: Demo at General Atomics Headquarters coordinated by CodePink

Afternoon: Demo at Northrup Grumman site coordinated by CodePink

Evening: Assembly with socializing and movie (location TBA) (Also, Overpass Light Brigade Action)

April 6 - Saturday

Mid-day: Peace Train riders arrive from LA will join us at the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum for an afternoon demonstration

Evening: Speaker's Forum at First Church of the Brethren, 7 p.m./dinner before

April 7 – Sunday (ending by 3 p.m.)

General Assembly – Workshops, next steps

Call for National Anti-Drone Days of Action

April 4-7, 2013

The Drone Diego Coordinating Committee invites organizations and individuals to come to San Diego on April 4-7, as we protest and bring attention to the dangers drones present to the people of the world. Join us for nonviolent actions, workshops, street theater and more, or organize your own activities.

Our opposition to drone warfare is based on our stand for peace and justice. We believe that:

• Armed drones are weapons of terror. They kill combatants and civilians, children and adults, men and women, alike. Their presence overhead terrorizes entire communities.
• Extrajudicial assassinations by killer drones violate U. S. and international law.
• Surveillance drones threaten our liberties, spying on communities and borders, invading our personal privacy.
• Drones make our families less secure by making it easier for military and paramilitary agencies (like the CIA) to continue endless war without limits in either space or time.

Why come to San Diego? San Diego is the drone production capital of the world. San Diego is home to General Atomics, builders of the killer Predator and Reaper drones (which may be armed with Hellfire missiles), and Northrup Grumman, maker of the Global Hawk surveillance drone. Surveillance drones also regularly fly along the border between San Diego and Mexico.

A strong presence in San Diego will draw attention locally and nationally to the hazards posed by these robotic killers and spy craft. We hope that this will be the first of many actions in San Diego.

Of course not everyone has the resources to come to San Diego. We encourage those who cannot come to make April 4-7 days of action against drones in their own communities.

Kickoff day is Thursday, April 4, with a demonstration at the General Atomics drone production facility in Poway, just north of San Diego. The San Diego chapter of Veterans for Peace is holding a weekly vigil there and we will join them.

We invite other organizations to develop workshops, forums and actions during the four days of action. If you or your organization would like to plan an event, please contact our host committee so we can provide information about locations, venues, and schedule coordination. We also welcome sponsoring organizations (which provide financial or organizational resources) and endorsing organizations (which express their public agreement with our goals) to contact the host committee.

Our host committee will work to provide housing in San Diego for activists who need it. We are also working to establish an encampment, with more details to follow.

Join the Facebook event page and invite friends!

For more info about the National Days Against Drones Actions in San Diego, or if your organization would like to become a sponsor or endorser, please contact info@sdcpj.org, nodrones@prcsd.org, or dpatterson998@yahoo.com. We can also be found on the web (sdcpj.org).

Tax-deductible donations to support this action can be made online through the Peace Resource Center of San Diego, www.prcsd.org (specify anti-drone action from the drop-down list). Checks should be made payable to the Peace Resource Center and mailed to 3850 Westgate Place, San Diego, CA 92105.

Drone Diego Coordinating Committee

Initial sponsoring organizations:
Peace Resource Center of San Diego
San Diego Veterans for Peace
San Diego Coalition for Peace and Justice
CODEPINK
Global Exchange
Canvass for a Cause
Af3irm
A Future Without War.org
Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft (COMD)
San Diego International Socialist Organization
SAME Alliance
Peace Fresno
Fresno Light Brigade
Peace Madera
ANSWER San Diego
San Diego Party for Socialism & Liberation
San Diego Committee Against Police Brutality
International Action Center San Diego
San Diego Libertarian Party
Environmentalists Against War
Al-Awda San Diego
ANSWER Coalition
San Diego Boycott
Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
Okupi Damsels in Distress (Palm Springs)
Women Occupy-San Diego
United Nations Association-San Diego Chapter
Women's Equity Council-UNA-SD
San Diego Overpass Light Brigade
San Diego Faith Leaders for Peace
San Diego Democratic Socialists of American
Residents Organized for a Safe Environment (ROSE)
National Lawyers Guild, San Diego Green Party
International Action Center

(List updated 2/24/13)

Report: Disruptive Breach of Vandenberg Air Force Base Security Zones

October 22, 2012

Contact: tierralinda@live.com

Nonviolent Backcountry Resisters Cause Disruptive Breach of Vandenberg Air Force Base Security Zones

For the first time in nearly a decade, nonviolent civil resisters caused a disruptive breach of the backcountry security zones at Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB), coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Cuban Missile Crisis. VAFB enforces a sweeping global pattern of violent high-tech military abuse. Three participants were arrested for federal trespass and others eluded base security patrols. One participant [Theo Kayser] was hand-cuffed face down on the ground with an M-16 automatic rifle trained on his back during his 2 a.m. arrest, while search lights swept the surrounding hills. He was then held under armed guard for nine hours at a special security command post which VAFB had set up to deal with the backcountry occupation. Vandenberg security stated that they believed at least 15 individuals were spotted in base security zones between 0ctober 20th and 21st.

Action participants hope that others will follow their example in the months ahead. They entered the huge US Strategic Command facility at widely dispersed points and hiked miles into the base, crossing fences and rough terrain under cover of night, hanging banners on nuclear first-strike missile silos deep inside Vandenberg. They also conducted an unauthorized Christian prayer liturgy and exorcism of evil inside VAFB boundaries. Multiple sources, including contacts within VAFB, confirmed that the announced plans and the backcountry security zone occupation caused days of disruptive base alerts, interrupting Vandenberg’s business as usual to prepare for and deal with the security zone breaches.

Backcountry action participants and their supporters say that “Vandenberg, built on land stolen from the Chumash nation, launches and controls key satellites which run worldwide drone strikes that kill civilians, and are positioning US forces for a catastrophic peak-oil war with Iran. VAFB is making nuclear world war more likely by its first-strike Minuteman III flight tests, which seriously contaminate stolen indigenous territory at the Earth’s largest coral atoll, Kwajalein.”

Arrested action participants include Franciscan Priest Louie Vitale and Los Angeles Catholic Worker community members Theo Kayser and Rebecca Casas.


See Count of California Drone Bases Tops National List for drone testing, training, and operations activity at Vandenberg and seventeen (17) other California locations.

San Diego: Protests of Drone Maker General Atomics Go Global

Members of the San Diego chapter of Veterans for Peace (VFP) and a growing body of fellow protesters gather every week at the headquarters of the company that supplies the workhorse of the U.S. program of drone killing and drone surveillance -- the Predator and Reaper drones. Their goal in demonstrating outside the General Atomics facility is to heighten public awareness of the problems presented by drone technology, and to instigate oversight of drone use.

Thursday, September 27, will be special because the group will be coordinating the protest with their counterparts in the United Kingdom. As protesters here in San Diego gather at Scripps-Poway Pkwy and General Atomic Rd., people in London will be protesting at the General Atomic offices near the UK Ministry of Defense. (Learn more about the UK movement against drones and the week of action to protest the growing use of armed drones from 6th – 13th October, organized by the Drones Campaign Network.)

DRONES PROTEST AT GENERAL ATOMICS

Date: Thursday, September 27, 2012
Time: 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Location: Scripps-Poway Pkwy and General Atomic Rd., San Diego
More information: dpatterson998 [at] yahoo.com

Bring banners and signs!

PRESS COVERAGE OF PAST PROTESTS AT GENERAL ATOMICS

KPBS San Diego, August 16, 2012 - Drones Are Controversial But Profitable For San Diego - Good snapshot of the drone economy in the San Diego area -- General Atomics, Northrop Grumman, and several smaller contractors. Quotes Dave Patterson from VFP: "“People need jobs, and that’s a good paying job,” he said. ”But we need oversight of these products. There’s no oversight. They are just kind of run amuk!"

North County Times editorial, September 16, 2012 - Drones and our privacy - "Ultimately, the courts will decide the constitutional limitations on the domestic use of drones. But the courts look to Congress for guidance; Congress is the direct representative of the American people, and needs to weigh in on these difficult issues. And soon."

Gail Chatfield in the North County Times, September 10, 2012 - Domestic drones a threat - "The sudden use of military surveillance equipment to spy on private citizens in the U.S. is frightening and controversial. ... When government and private industry are given more and more tools to track and control its citizens, is the system ripe for abuse?"

Gail Chatfield in the North County Times, September 16, 2012 - Liberty demands oversight on drone use - "I doubt that our founding fathers could have imagined that 250 years after the formation of out great nation, the president would have the power to kill people without authorization from Congress, or oversight of any kind. This should deeply worry all Americans. On our borders, Homeland security is flying 20 of the Predator drones, and if local law enforcement wants them to put someone's private property under surveillance, Homeland Security is happy to help out. Big pipe technology is advertised where high-resolution video or sensor data can be collected and shared with "select" law enforcement and government officials. We are asking, who are these "select" officials and what are they doing with video taken over our private land? "


ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Video: Drone Demonstration, Vets for Peace

MAP: Scripps-Poway Pkwy and General Atomic Rd., San Diego






Related posts

The 2013 April Days of Action Against Drones activities in San Diego were an unprecedented demonstration of opposition to U.S. warmaking and drone killing, and helped spur actions nationwide.

(See April Days of Action Against Drones in SAN DIEGO )

Activists in San Diego held a weekend of demonstrations in solidarity with the nationwide Spring Days of Drone Action. One feature of the weekend was an evocative and powerful street theatre performance in San Diego's Balboa park, simulating a drone attack on American soil like those that have been and continue to be deadly reality in Pakistan and Yemen. Click here to stream video of the event.

(See Drone Strike Kills 7 in San Diego)

Today, people protesting drones are contacting their representatives to encourage support for H.R.4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act. If passed, the bill will require the Obama administration to come clean about the killings it has carried out using drones -- killings that, up until now, the administration has been able to pretend don't exist. So now's the time: write or call your member of Congress today.
(See Write or Call Your Member of Congress Today: Make the U.S. Come Clean on Drone Killings )