Please Post to Lists and Media. Video links below. Watch for Press
Conference & Sentencing Statements video posts coming this weekend.
Fines of $5,300 ordered by Judge Gideon were withheld by 14 of the
co-defendants and redirected to Voices for Creative Non-Violence who
is sending the money to Afghan youth who are working for peace in
Hancock Air base. We must stop the drones on behalf of the whole
human family. (web site below)
N E W S R E L E A S E
March 1st, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Carol Baum 315-472-5478 (SPC), 315-383-5738 (cell)
Mary Ann Grady
Vicki Ross 716-884-0582,
Judy
Remaining Hancock 38 Drone Protesters Sentenced
On April 22, 37 people were arrested for lying down in a blocked
access road leading into Hancock Air National Guard Base along with a
support person. On February 29, the last members of the Hancock 38
were sentenced in
defendant was given a 1 year conditional discharge and fined $250.
Kathy Kelly, Ann Wright, Martha Hennessy of NYC Catholic Workers,
Elliott Adams, past President of Veterans for Peace and Jules Orkin
appeared in front of Judge David Gideon in
evening.
Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Non Violence, who had not been
previously tried because she was in
supporting youthful Afghan peace activists, plead guilty to the two
counts of Disorderly Conduct so that she would be free to return to
her work. However, she did not elocute to the charges as she was
unwilling to make false statements before the court.
Each of the defendants made a uniquely powerful sentencing statement.
Kathy Kelly told the stories of Afghan victims of Drone strikes;
Martha Hennessy spoke for our youthful Afghan friends, who said that
they would like to live in peace. They asked “Aren’t we human beings
like you?” Retired Colonel Ann Wright and Elliott Adams spoke from
their experience in Military and Government roles about the dangerous
proliferation of the Drones and aggressive
Jules Orkin enumerated instances where the government of the
the
to assemble in public and to ask for redress of grievances, the most
recent examples being quotes from President Obama and Hillary Clinton
talking about the rights of the people of
The Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars will
continue to resist the use of drones. As we argued in court, drone
warfare violates the
well as moral, laws. We resist those who would normalize the use of
robotic assassins as mode of warfare and reject the policy of
dehumanization of peoples in other land.
By Mary Anne Grady
JUDICIAL ASSASSINATIONS OF BLACK AND BROWN PEOPLE IN OUR NAME!! Not
here in the city of
brother Shawn Greenwood or by police in the
18-year-old Ramarley Graham, as is done routinely in our inner cities.
Not one one more killing of our Latino brothers and sisters on our
borders patrolled by drones, and of our American Indian brothers and
sisters on the reservations. Not one more
assassination by
assassinations anywhere in our world. We say no more! NO MORE WEAPONS
CONTRACTORS BEING THE WINNERS. If we didn't do these actions against
the drones, we would be guilty of war crimes, standing by as a crime
is being committed in our name, according to the Nuremburg Principles.
We stand on the side of our human family remembering that we are all
one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApDsCOoKzLE
http://centralny.ynn.com/content/top_stories/575471/final-five-drone-protesters-sentenced/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xhdtj89k4I - Anti-Drone Rally @ Hancock
Airbase-April 22, 2011
http://upstatedroneaction.peaceworksrochester.org/
Drone Strikes? What's to Feel Bad About?
by LAURA
“Three major investigations were under way on Wednesday into the Koran
burning at Bagram Air Base by the American military last week, the
event that plunged
begins a New York Times report.
To read the New York Times you’d think the only American offense that
truly riles people up after ten years of war is book burning. It’s
certainly the only offense that’s so far merited “three major
investigations.”
“There’s been real blowback from the burning of the Quran, but there
has also been real blowback from the killings from continued drone
strikes,” says Ann Wright, a former State Department diplomat and
retired Army colonel who stood trial this week for protesting US drone
attacks.
Wright’s riled up. So is
Wajid Shamsul Hasan. Just last week, Hasan warned
American “Drone Wars” that, he said, are slaughtering hundreds of its
innocent civilians, or else the nuclear power “has the means” to
retaliate. The British Sun quoted Hasan as saying that his country’s
relations with
A nuclear power threatening retaliation unless US robo-killings cease?
“Three major investigations” into drone attacks might not be too much.
The CIA claims that since May 2010, drones have killed more than 600
militants and not a single non-combatant. Recently the British-based
Bureau of Investigative Journalism concluded after a long
investigation that that is simply bunk. According to the Bureau, at
least 45 civilians were killed in 10 drone strikes on the
Pakistan/Afghanistan border region during this past year alone.
Between 282 and 535 civilians, including 60 minors, have been credibly
reported as killed as a result of drone strikes since US President
Barack Obama took office.
Most damning, the Bureau reported that at least 50 civilians have been
killed in follow-up strikes after they rushed to help the wounded. More than
twenty other civilians were killed in strikes on funerals.
Clive Stafford-Smith, the lawyer who heads the Anglo-US legal charity
Reprieve, believes that such strikes ‘are like attacking the Red Cross on
the battlefield. It’s not legitimate to attack anyone who is not a
combatant.’
Wright, with Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence and other
activists were sentenced Wednesday for their participation in a symbolic
‘die-in’ at the main entrance to Hancock Air National Guard Base in upstate
“From Hancock, they are flying killer drones over
and killing civilians” explained fellow defendant, Judy Bello of the Upstate
Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars. The 174th Fighter Wing of
the
annual Earth Day protests, including last year’s at which more than 38
protestors were arrested for lying in bloody shrouds in the street at the
base gate.
Kathy Kelly wrote this week (right here in CounterPunch) “Drone warfare,
ever more widely used from month to month from the Bush through the Obama
administrations, has seen very little meaningful public debate…. An
expanding network of devastatingly lethal covert actions spreading
throughout the developing world passes with minimal concern or comment.”
How about one “major investigation” – just to start?
Judy Bello, a retired firmware engineer, brought and prepared the “bloody”
sheets that the protestors wore April 22. The defendants wore them again
this Wednesday in a crowed upstate court.
“I have friends from
think we should be out there killing people with robots and calling it a
war. If other countries were to play by the same rules that we play by –
they could logically attack someone they think is a pilot, right here in his
SUV as he’s taking his kids to baseball practice.”
Maybe if the next drone attack killed a child with a Koran actually clutched
in her hand, the President would be forced to apologize and we might see a
major investigations. Maybe the Coalition could work some Korans into their
protest. Just a thought.
On Wednesday Wright and Kelly joined
contest to the charges. They face fines of $250 and court fees of $125. Most
intend to redirect their fines to The Afghan Youth Peace Volunteers. To see
their video: http://vcnv.org/2-million-candles-to-end-the-afghan-war
--
Mary Anne Grady
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