Drones

Passers-by Monday on Middle Street looked toward the ground, where a handful of protesters lay motionless, covered in sheets that looked bloodied. They covered their faces with placards that bore the names of Yemeni wedding party members who were killed by a U.S. drone strike in December. One protester held aloft a model drone, symbolizing what members of Code Pink, the group that organized the demonstration, say is the constant threat of bombing that civilians in the Middle East face every day. Another activist used her mobile phone to play the buzzing sound of drones flying overhead. After the bit of street theater ended, Mark Roman, a protester from Solon, said that as he lay there, he felt “tremendously sad, and also pretty angry.”

Following a deadly U.S. drone strike on civilians in Yemen, members of a dozen peace groups wearing blue scarves gathered at the entrance of CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. With guards and barricades on one side and cars whizzing by on Rt. 123 on the other, they held a vigil in memory of civilians, especially children, killed by U.S. drone bombings in Yemen, Afghanistan and Pakistan. “The CIA touts that drones are accurate,” said Jack McHale of Pax Christi USA to about 30 protestors from groups including CODEPINK and Veterans for Peace. But, he said, according to the Navy’s own analysis, they’re no more accurate than traditional air power. “I think we saw that this week when a wedding party was targeted and 17 people were killed as a result of an armed drone in Yemen.”

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel threatened Pakistani heads of state on Monday with cutting off up to $1.6 billion in aid if the country's mass protests against U.S. drone strikes continue, Pentagon officials said, according to The New York Times. The warning came after nonviolent blockades in protest of U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan forced the United States to halt ground transport of NATO military supplies from Afghanistan via Pakistan last week, as Common Dreams previously reported. A statement from Pakistan's foreign ministry reported by Reuters says Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif "conveyed Pakistan's deep concern over continuing U.S. drone strikes, stressing that drone strikes were counterproductive to our efforts to combat terrorism and extremism on an enduring basis." Yet Pentagon officials said Sharif gave his assurances that he would end the blockade and ensure safe passage of military equipment, The New York Times reports. The Express Tribune reports that last week Sharif ordered police to devise a strategy for shutting down the protests if the opposition party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) refuses to disband them. PTI and coalition forces have vowed to continue the protests until the U.S. drone strikes end in Pakistan.

This afternoon, December 9, 2013, two Yale Divinity School students and a Catholic Worker were arrested as they attempted to deliver an Order of Protection on behalf of Afghan children and their families at the Hancock Air Base main entrance on East Molloy Rd. near Syracuse, NY. Since October 25, 2012, over 50 citizens have been arrested – and issued Orders of Protection – for protesting the killing of children by Reaper drones piloted from Hancock Air Base. The local DeWitt Town Court has issued these Orders at the request of the Hancock colonels. Such Orders suppress the First Amendment right of all those arrested to petition their government for redress of grievances at Hancock. The grievance is that Hancock’s 174th Attack Wing technicians pilot weaponized Reaper drones over Afghanistan, engaged in the targeted killing of civilians.

A Grass Valley, California resident was arrested at Beale Air Force Base Tuesday and cited for trespassing as part of a protest against the U.S. military use of drones — a scenario that almost landed her in federal prison following a similar protest nearly a year ago. “We are concerned with the role Beale is playing in murdering people,” said Shirley Osgood, who was part of a group of five protesters arrested for trespassing at Beale in October 2012 and ultimately sentenced in September to 10 hours of community service in a Sacramento federal court.

"We will put pressure on America, and our protest will continue if drone attacks are not stopped," said an angry Imran Khan, leader of Pakistan’s third largest political party, the PTI (the Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf). He was speaking on Saturday, November 23, to a crowd of over 10,000 protesters who blocked the highway used by NATO supply trucks taking goods in and out of Afghanistan. The latest protests in Pakistan show that even when the US hits its mark, as in the case of the last two strikes in Pakistan that killed key leaders of two extremist cells, they’re still counterproductive. Most Pakistanis reject the Taliban and other extremists. But they also reject the American drones that violate their sovereignty and operate with impunity. The Pakistani resistance, along with growing opposition within the United States, has had an impact: the number of Predator and Reaper drones strikes in Pakistan has been steadily declining, from a high of 122 in 2010 to 48 in 2012, and even fewer this year. But the strikes have not stopped, and each strike now receives greater scrutiny and opposition.