DRONE ACTION ALERT – May 14, 2015
This is a special action bulletin to enable you to plan action and participate in:
1. STOP U.S. DRONE WARFARE VIA RAMSTEIN.
Please plan a protest in your area on or before May 26 urging the German Government to order the U.S. to close the satellite relay station at Ramstein Air Base that is essential to U.S. drone surveillance and attacks globally. Numerous German human rights and antiwar organizations have issued the joint call, “Stop U.S. Drone Warfare Via Ramstein” and are asking U.S. organizations to support the call.
On May 27
th a vigil will be held at the German Parliament in Berlin to draw attention to the opening of the court case of the bin Ali Jaber family of Yemen against the German Government. The family lost two of its members to a U.S. drone attack in 2012 and demands that Germany stop allowing Ramstein to be used for U.S. drone strikes in Yemen. Under German law, extra-judicial killings are illegal.
At this point, protests in the U.S. are being planned as follows:
- May 21 – Syracuse, NY – 4:15 – 5 pm at the front gate of Hancock Air Base, timed at the shift change.
- May 26 – New York City – 11:30 am – Outside the German Consulate, 871 United Nations Plaza, on First Avenue between East 48th and 49th Streets.
The German Embassy is in Washington, DC, and there are also German consulates in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and San Francisco. Any courthouse would be an appropriate point for a witness.
http://www.germany.info/Vertretung/usa/en/03__Consulates/00/__Consulates.html
For more information see Attachment A, below.
2. MAY 17 DRONE WAR PROTEST AT WHITEMAN AFB IN MISSOURI.
On Sunday, May 17, from 2 – 3:30 pm there will be an anti-drone war rally at the entrance of Whiteman AFB in Knob Noster, MO. Cars will leave at 12:30 pm from 912 E. 31
st Street, Kansas City, MO for the base. To carpool, call
913-206-4088.
Brian Terrell, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence (VCNV), will speak at the rally. He served 6 months in a federal prison camp for resistance at Whiteman AFB in 2012 after crossing a line on the entry road to protest remote control of killer drones from Whiteman and other bases.
Brian says, protesters plan to stay on the public right-of-way and will invite the base commander and officers “to join us to break bread and converse,” and that no civil resistance is planned. Last year Georgia Walker, of PeaceWorks-KC, and Kathy Kelly, of the Chicago-based VCNV, did civil resistance at Whiteman AFB. Georgia is on probation for a year, and Kathy served 3 months in a federal prison camp.
The rally is sponsored by PeaceWorks-KC, Mid-MO Fellowship of Reconciliation and PeaceWorks-Mid-MO.
3. A REAL MEMORIAL DAY PARADE!
On Sunday, May 24, 3 pm (Rain date, Mon, Memorial Day, May 25, same time), gather at Peace Park, behind Village Hall, in New Paltz, NY for a sidewalk march to honor victims of governmental and corporate militarism, such as victims of: drone killings, other acts of war violence, Guatanamo, police militarism and racism and gender violence, and ecocide (think fracking, Lac Megantic, the rain forest, the oceans, the PA forest, etc.) One major theme will be: "This isn't ISIS, this is US"
Barbara Kidney, Drone Alert – Hudson Valley, an organizer of the march, said:
“We realize people may be away or committed to other plans on Memorial Day weekend. We decided to do this event despite that because we feel it is urgent to present to the community a real Memorial Day event, meaning one that does not glorify militarism on the Memorial Day weekend.
“We will also honor the protectors and champions of life, healthy community, and unalienable rights, such as Chelsea Manning, Edward Snowden, Julian Assange, Earthfirst! and Hugh Sampson (the Army helicopter pilot who intervened to save people from his fellow military during the My Lai massacre).”
Feel free to bring signs to honor victims and/or champions of your choosing. The march will end with picnicking at Hasbrouck Park.
An organizational meeting will be held on Sunday, May 17 from 7:30 to 8:30 pm at Inquiring Minds Bookstore, 6 Church Street, New Paltz.
Other groups are very welcome to co-sponsor, Barbara said. You can text her at
(845) 313-8035 or call Andrew Dalton at
(845) 699-3051.
4. DAY OF ACTION! ON US DRONE STRIKES
On, Friday, May 15, 2015, call the Capitol switchboard toll free at
(877) 429-0678 to ask for your House Representative (find at
House.gov) and your two U.S. Senators (find at
Senate.gov) and tell them you are concerned about drone strikes.
Attachment A
Speech of Elsa Rassbach at the UNAC (United National Anti-War Coalition Conference – May 10, 2015
Black lives matter. Muslim lives matter. And this is a worldwide struggle.
When I heard Michelle Kamal tell us that she is prepared for a long struggle to get justice for her son, Abdul, who was executed without due process – murdered - by police on the streets of Irvington, New Jersey, I thought about all she has in common with Faisal bin Ali Jaber of Hadramout in Yemen.
Faisal’s relatives Salim and Waleed were killed by a US drone strike in Yemen in 2012. Faisal and his family are seeking justice, and they too are prepared for a long struggle. They have met with US national security officials and members of Congress, but the United States has not formally acknowledged or apologized for the incident. Now Faisal and the family have brought a legal case for the drone killing of their relatives in a German court against the German government.
Why Germany? Because all – I repeat ALL -- lethal US drone strikes are guided via the Satellite Relay Station located on the US Air Force Base Ramstein. It is believed that about 650 people work at the Satellite Relay Station. And the bin Ali Jaber family is demanding in court that the German government “take legal and political responsibility for the US drone war in Yemen” and “forbid use of the Satellite Relay Station in Ramstein.” German law and European law and international law do not accept the premises of the so-called “War Against Terror.” The killing of people all over the world without due process or trial is murder, plain and simple.
And what about AFRICOM in Stuttgart? This is the Pentagon’s Africa Command, responsible for all US military and Special Forces operations in Africa, including choosing the targets in Africa to be killed by drones. AFRICOM was established in Stuttgart in 2008 after the US could find no African country willing to host it. And since 2008, US military operations in Africa have doubled. The US is murdering Africans with impunity, and doing so with German government complicity.
I wish I had time to tell you more about the strength of anti-war feeling in Germany – where people know so much more than Americans do about what war means. Germans this weekend are commemorating the 70th anniversary of their liberation from the Nazis. Germans at all levels of society are deeply dismayed at seeing the US violate all standards of international law that were established at the end of World War Two. And most Germans are well aware that the Red Army played the greatest role in their liberation, and at by far the greatest sacrifice.
There is a growing movement in Germany. This May Day more than 18,000 mainly young Germans together with refugees and immigrants from war-devastated countries in Africa and the Middle East marched through the streets chanting, “Immigrants are welcome here” and “Anti- Anti- Anti Captialista.” This was double the size of last year’s May Day demonstration.
We have great potential to build a worldwide movement. Therefore, I am not here only to bring greetings and a statement of solidarity. Let us work concretely on international projects together. Let us together force the German government to close down the US Africa Command in Stuttgart and the Satellite Relay Station in Ramstein and the use of military bases in Germany for the US wars that are murdering people of color all around the world. And let us bring those responsible before the courts of justice.
(Followed by brief information regarding planning in Germany for May 27th and request that US organizations join us.)
In solidarity,
Nick Mottern
