For the past 2 ½ years I have been driving monthly from my home in Grass Valley, Ca, 30 miles out to Beale Air Force Base for a non-violent protest against drone warfare. There I have met other activists from around the state, as we have hung and held banners, passed out current information about drone warfare to those entering and leaving, camped together at the base entrance, shared food, celebrated birthdays, supported each other through hard times, sung and played guitar, risked arrest, and come to be a group of dedicated activist friends. These are some of the things I have learned about drones since I started protesting them at Beale AFB:
• Beale AFB is the home of the Global Hawk, the U-2, and the MC-12 Liberty aircrafts. The Global Hawk is an unmanned ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) aircraft which provides near real-time information to support our “war on terror” across the globe, and which has been complicit in the killing of many innocent civilians in countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Bosnia, Serbia, Libya, and Somalia
• The use of drones for targeted assassinations/extra-judicial killings is immoral and illegal under international law, and their use threatens us all. The U.S. does not have the right to inflict capital punishment without trial on whomever it has put on its “kill list”. “Signature” drone strikes target people with suspicious behavior and also kill many innocent people, including children, who have no relationship to attacks on the U.S. “Secondary strikes”, that is, drone strikes on rescue workers, also constitute war crimes.
• The U.S. government claims that drone attacks are very accurate, but, in fact, many innocent people have been killed by our drones. At least hundreds, and by some reports, thousands of innocents, including hundreds of children have been killed and injured by our drones. There is great discrepancy in the numbers reported killed. Our government considers “combatants” or “militants” to be any male who appears to be of military age. The deaths of these men or boys are not reported in the civilian death counts.
• Since 9-11-01 we have spent almost $1,500,000,000,000 (that’s 1 ½ trillion) on our “war on terror” in Iraq and Afghanistan, neglecting needed services at home and abroad, including our fragile environment, education, homelessness, food, healthcare, and infrastructure. So those are some of the facts. I believe that killing civilians only creates more enemies, instead of our intended goal of getting rid of those who may be plotting against us. I can only imagine what “we” would do if we found a foreign drone flying overhead, surveilling, much less killing even one child.
For many months, I tried to obtain the names of the child victims, as I felt moved to do some kind of memorial to them, to acknowledge their existence, and their deaths. Last year I found a list of names on several different internet sites. This incomplete list included the names of children killed, their ages, gender, and their countries of origin. All the children on the list were from Yemen and Pakistan. The U.S. considers Pakistan an ally, and yet I had a list of almost a hundred children, ages 1 to 17, killed in Pakistan by U.S. drones. Aware that Yemen and Pakistan were not the only countries where innocents were killed by the U.S., we began planning a memorial project. Last fall, at Nevada County’s International Women’s Day Celebration, the “Children Killed by U.S. Drones Panel Project” started to emerge…9” by 20” fabric pieces with figures of children painted in acrylics, 
markers, pastels, pencil, and fabric, each including a name, gender, age and country. Though a work in progress by many people, (see http://www.artforthesetimes.org for more information and photos), the panel project has so far traveled to The Federal Courthouse in Sacramento four times, Sierra College for Earth Day, Beale Air Force Base three times, the Broad St. Bridge and the Constitution Day Parade in Nevada City (rogue participants). Anyone is invited to participate in this project by contacting The Peace Center of Nevada County (ncpeace@sbcglobal.net) and leaving your contact information.
In my memory of my time going to Beale AFB to protest, there have been 17 arrests. The first was my sister, cited for handing out leaflets in the yellow triangle which divides the “in” and “out” lanes outside the base. Those charges were dismissed in court. Then a woman delivering a vase of home grown sweet peas to the guard house, was handcuffed and cited, along with a woman from Germany, filming a documentary on peace activists. Those charges were dropped after a few weeks.
Then nine people, including myself, were arrested in October, 2012, charged with trespassing on federal property. Charges were dismissed on four of those. In April, 2013, five were arrested at the Wheatland Gate for federal trespassing. The five arrested in October, who still had charges, including myself, came to be called the “Beale 5”. We went on trial August 12, 2013 at the Federal Court in Sacramento for trespassing onto Beale Air Force Base.
More than a dozen people blocked the county road at the base for several hours. When we moved closer to the gate, it was swiftly closed. Eventually, five of us sat on a small area about five feet wide, in front of the base gate, and shortly thereafter, we were detained on the base, cited for federal trespassing, and released with a citation indicating further action.
Though our pro bono attorneys petitioned to obtain a jury trial for us, the judge decided on a bench trial. Our attorneys were determined to “get us off” and presented lots of evidence regarding confusion about the base boundaries. The morning of the trial was filled with these details, but in the afternoon, we were at least allowed to testify regarding our reasons for the direct action. After the testimony and cross examination, the judge presented her verdict of “guilty” of trespassing.
September 9th at 9:30 was the sentencing date for the “Beale 5”. First we had a rally with about 50 friends and supporters/activists in front of the Federal Court House in Sacramento. So many faces I have grown to know and love, and some new ones too…. Brother Kevin Carter with his megaphone, speaking the truth about the “fierce urgency of now”, my sister, Pamela, friends and neighbors from Nevada County, my loving co-defendants, co-activists from the Beale AFB vigils, (including Flora from Linda!), Bay Area supporters (go Toby and Code Pink!), and new friends from Sacramento. Then there is Cres, our wonderful trial coordinator from National Lawyers’ Guild, and our team of pro-bono attorneys from Sacramento. The court room was filled with supporters. (That did feel very nice.) Judge Delaney was ready to give the sentence, and I think perhaps she did give it immediately, but also gave each of the five of us the opportunity to give a pre-sentencing statement.
The other four had prepared statements, and they spoke eloquently of their histories, drone warfare, and their reasons for being there. I had not written a statement, though I had general ideas floating in my head. I don’t remember exactly what I said, but it was something about being a grandmother, my grandchildren being children of the world, just like the children on the drone panels, who have been killed in Yemen and Pakistan. And something about our fragile little planet, and how war does not support its healing. Though our sentence was small…only 10 hours of community service…. there was a controversy about being on probation until our 10 hours are done and reported.
After leaving the court, a group of about 10 of us went to my favorite restaurant in Sacramento, the little Afghani Restaurant at the corner of 8th and J St. This has become our tradition after our court hearings. I look forward to eating there again after supporting the “Wheatland 5″, whose trial for trespassing at Beale AFB will be October 28th.
Who will be next to challenge the dronewarfare our country is waging around the planet? You? Tune in for more news!
