<\/p>\n
<\/span>\u201cPredator drones from the war in Afghanistan are being transplanted to the control of the US Command (SOUTHCOM)for use in its operations in Latin America.\u201d This past November, like every November since the mid-nineties, Central New Yorkers traveled to Ft. Benning, Georgia. There, with thousands of others, we rally to close the Pentagon\u2019s School of the Americas. Each year such protests involve a few in direct action leading to arrest and trial. For these nonviolent actions over a dozen Central New Yorkers have served federal prison terms ranging from two to 12 months.<\/p>\n Having finally been \u201couted\u201d by SOA Watch for training Latin American soldiers in torture and other terrorist tactics, in 2000 the SOA was forced to close\u2026but weeks later it reopened under its current alias: the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (\u201cdifferent name, same shame\u201d). Recently Benning acknowledged that it had become a drone base. <\/span><\/p>\n The two-decades-long SOA Watch campaign has now become a template for our own campaign to expose and de-fang Hancock Air Base on the outskirts of Syracuse. Hancock, like Benning, is an \u201canti-insurgency\u201d training school. Hancock trains and deploys technicians to maintain and pilot the Pentagon\u2019s MQ9 Reaper drone \u2013 a deadly flying robot, wreaking havoc over Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere. Like soldiers indoctrinated at the SOA, with the weaponized drone these technicians and their chain of command perpetrate terrorism, shattering civilian lives. <\/span><\/p>\n [img_assist|nid=446|title=|desc=Drone resisters attempted again on October 25 to deliver an indictment for war crimes to personnel at Hancock Airbase. 17 people were arrested as they blocked all three gates to the base (see SPC in Action, PNL #819). Photo: Ellen Grady|link=none|align=right|width=444|height=331]<\/span> <\/span>Lately many of us who persistently protest the SOA\/WHINSEC have also been arrested as we protest outside the gates of Hancock. Here, named for the number of arrested in each protest, is the roster so far: the Hancock 38, the Hancock 33, the Hancock 2, the Hancock 15, the Hancock 10, the Hancock 17. In what we call a \u201cGandhian Wave,\u201d the last five arrests have occurred in 2012.<\/span><\/p>\n Drones Over Latin America<\/b> For several years US drones have been flying deep into Mexico, and now crisscross the Caribbean. Drones are penetrating South American airspaces. They are used for drug-interdiction, monitoring borders and detecting the desperate and undocumented trying to enter the US. Within the US there\u2019s strong pressure for local police to use the drone for domestic surveillance and crowd control. <\/span><\/p>\n So far there seems to be little evidence that the drones now roaming Latin America are weaponized. But some \u2013 like the Reaper and Israel\u2019s Hermes 900 drone \u2013 can be adapted to deploy bombs and missiles. Missions drift: the so-called \u201cwar on drugs\u201d segues into \u2013 and serves as cover for \u2013 war on \u201cinsurgents,\u201d i.e. perceived enemies of the local oligarchies and clients of the US empire. <\/span><\/p>\n While the US Congress currently regulates drone export, the Israelis sell their drones all over the place. Customers include Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Mexico. Reminds me of when back in the eighties Congress cut out military aid to Guatemala\u2019s genocidal regime, the Israelis conveniently (for the Pentagon and for the US corporations operating there) provided such aid. Assisted by Israel \u2013 and, in the case of Venezuela, by Iran \u2013 several Latin American nations are already developing their own drones.<\/span><\/p>\n [img_assist|nid=311|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=224|height=619]Homework<\/b> But being better informed isn\u2019t enough. We can actively resist the Reaper in our midst. Often inspired by the SOA Watch campaign, anti-drone activists are doing civil resistance at military bases in California, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Florida, New York \u2013 as well as at various drone research and manufacturing sites. [ <\/span><\/a>See report on our recent Drone Country Tour in SPC in Action, PNL #819<\/a>.]<\/span><\/p>\n Anti-drone activists here say \u201ccivil resistance\u201d instead of \u201ccivil disobedience\u201d \u2013 our actions, sometimes leading to pre-emptive arrests, are meant to enforce <\/i>both US and international law. These actions attempt to expose and impede the law-breaking at Hancock. The Nuremberg protocols demand citizens do what we can to stop the government\u2019s war crimes and crimes against humanity. For the human face of those crimes, read the Stanford and NYU law school document, Living Under Drones<\/i> [see Living Under Drones<\/i>: A Synopsis<\/a>].<\/span><\/p>\n For over two years upstate New Yorkers have been demonstrating at afternoon shift change twice-monthly outside Hancock\u2019s main gate. Several times we\u2019ve been arrested blocking the main entrance while trying to deliver a citizens\u2019 indictment of base personnel and the chain of command. In November 2011 at our week-long Hancock 38 trial, former US attorney general Ramsey Clark testified to how Hancock\u2019s Reaper violates international law and how the 38\u2019s actions legitimately responded to the Nuremberg mandate. Instead of paying the DeWitt Town court our $375 fines, we diverted those thousands of dollars to an Afghan peace group which, like us, is committed to ending militarism nonviolently. <\/span><\/p>\n In a scandal comparable to an earlier era\u2019s judicially-tolerated lynching, US judges violate their oaths of office and ignore international law \u2013 which Article Six of the US Constitution decrees is the supreme law of the land. Such judicial disregard for the Constitution seems to stem from either careerism or willful ignorance.<\/span><\/p>\n Do Drones \u201cSave Lives\u201d?<\/b> <\/span><\/b> Drone surveillance in combat zones can give the boots on the ground an edge over their ragtag, low-tech, but tough, adversaries. Further, no human crew is killed when the unmanned drones crash (as they often do) or are shot down or hacked. So, yes, a few military lives are<\/i> saved. But weaponized drones kill or maim or displace untold numbers of civilians and non-combatants in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Gaza and elsewhere. And terrorize hundreds of thousands \u2013 who never know when the drones continually buzzing overhead will strike.<\/span><\/p>\n Drone technology is evolving and proliferating at an alarming pace \u2013 at an even faster pace than nuclear weaponry. Not only in Latin America but worldwide dozens of nations are now importing or developing the drone. Who knows when such drones will be used against US bases and US personnel and citizens, whether abroad or within Fortress America. Already here in upstate New York we\u2019ve come to realize that, thanks to the killer robots we host, we too live in a war zone. The drone has not made our lives \u2013 or the lives of anyone on this planet \u2013 any safer.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cPredator drones from the war in Afghanistan are being transplanted to the control of the US Command (SOUTHCOM)for use in its operations in Latin America.\u201d \u2013 \u201c!Presente!,\u201d SOA Watch Fall 2012 newsletter This past November, like every November since the mid-nineties, Central New Yorkers traveled to Ft. Benning, Georgia. There,…<\/p>\n
\n\u2013 \u201c!Presente!,\u201d SOA Watch Fall 2012 newsletter<\/span><\/p>\n
\nThe MQ9 Reaper is the Pentagon\u2019s and the CIA\u2019s lead device for aerial surveillance and assassination \u201cover there.\u201d Now the Reaper \u2013 and a slew of its robotic cousins \u2013 are coming home to roost in the Western Hemisphere. Driving this trend are US and Israeli drone manufacturers eager to expand their markets.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nSince Benning is getting into drone warfare mode and since US and Israeli drones are increasingly taking on dubious roles in Latin America, SOA Watchers and anti-Reaper activists have our homework. We need to grasp the multiple threats that surveillance and weaponized drones pose. A good place to begin is with Medea Benjamin\u2019s Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control<\/i> (2012).<\/span><\/p>\n
\nPropaganda works. Here in the US there\u2019s been immense hype promoting weaponized drones. The mantra is \u201cdrones save lives.\u201d The media focus on the drone\u2019s gee-whiz technology and its magical ability to keep taking out the \u201cbad guys\u201d \u2013 a shuck since the Pentagon defines a \u201cbad guy\u201d as any male over 16 years of age spotted in one of its self-declared war zones. <\/span><\/p>\n