TAKING ON THE EMPIRE by Max Obuszewski

TAKING ON THE EMPIRE by Max Obuszewski

  You know it is overkill when there are more police vehicles than protesters. On October 5, four long-time activists celebrated Keep Space for Peace Week, annually organized by the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, at the National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Maryland.  We were the proverbial mosquitoes on the trunk of a mastodon.

We did our annual October trek to Fort Meade using the Canine Road entrance, and set up our protest near Route 32 calling for the release of both Chelsea Manning and Reality Winner.  Our signs also carried the messages NO to Trump’s ridiculous call for a Space Force, Keep Space for Peace and Impeach Trump. 

   Since July 4, 1996 when we first came out to the NSA, I have written a letter requesting a meeting to discuss the Agency’s history of illegal surveillance and other activities which violate the constitution.  During that visit, Phil Berrigan, Jeremy Scahill and I risked arrest.  However, the police declined to take us into custody.

   As mere citizen activists, we have received but one response to these letters. It made the point that the NSA was there to prevent another Pearl Harbor-like attack.  This would turn out to be an ironic response, as the NSA and other government entities failed to protect the country from the 9/11 attack. 

   On July 4, 2019, we engaged in our annual Interdependence Day gathering at the NSA. Greg Julian, the NSA’s Media Relations Chief, came out to hob nob with us for about 30 minutes. He did take a copy of the letter we sent to the director, but again it was not answered.

  That day, one of the demonstrators saw a dragonfly near us and suspected it might be a drone.  See Gavin Hood’s film AN EYE IN THE SKY with Helen Mirren which raises the issue of using predator drone strikes to attack alleged terrorists while non-combatants are in the area.  Field agents use short-range “ornithopter” and “insectothopter” cameras to provide drone pilots with information which could be used in selecting targets. These tiny drone cameras are camouflaged as birds or insects.

  On October 5, I saw a shadow of a hawk, and then noticed it flying above us.  Later, I brought this to the attention of the person who suspected the dragonfly of being a drone camera. She was just as suspicious of that hawk.

  During the Keep Space for Peace demo, we were there for about twenty minutes before attracting the attention of the NSA gendarmes.  Eventually, police vehicles started to arrive, five in total.  Several of the officers came over to tell us not to jump over the barrier to wind up on heavily- traveled Route 32.  We affirmed that we had no intention of taking the protest out on the highway.  Then we were asked to show an ID, but we declined to do so. I did give one of the officers a copy of our letter, signed by Janice Sevre-Duszynska and me, and beseeched them to help arrange a meeting with someone in authority

   I also asked the officers if they had heard of the movie OFFICIAL SECRETS, and if they knew of Frank Koza, an NSA special operative, who is an unseen character in the film.  One said he did hear of the film, but they were unaware that Frank Koza sent a memo to British Intelligence in 2003 hoping to gin up support for the disastrous invasion of Iraq.  Of course, I informed them about the courageous whistleblower Katherine Gun who released the memo to the media, hoping to prevent the United Kingdom from participating in that awful war. Gavin Hood is the director of OFFICIAL SECRETS.

I had no illusions that my rhetoric about the events portrayed in that film would have any effect on these police officers. One of them told me that the movie he hoped to see was JOKER, which is about a cartoon character.

 

   The time for amiable conversations was over as an officer with Special Agent emblazoned on the back of her coat took over.  She gave me back the letter I gave to another officer.  She claimed they were not permitted to take a letter from us.  Then she got down to business and informed us that we had to move about 120 feet as we were on federal property. 

  Having a lot of experience dealing with police, I always resolve not to vacate territory occupied during a protest.   I explained I was not going to move.  Dick Ochs, Mary Elieisar and Janice also remained on “federal property.”  The special agent indicated we could be arrested for trespassing, and my retort was that we are citizens and thus have the right to be on federal property.  Besides, we were simply exercising our First Amendment right to speak truth to power.

  She was persistent in her demand that we must move.  I reminded her that Greg Julian was very gracious in speaking with us on July 4.  It was rather obvious that we were not interfering with Agency business, and definitely were not disturbing the peace.  Our vehicles were parked on federal property, so why should we move?

  It should be noted that we were actually on the fringes of the National Security Agency.  To get close to any of the buildings where the surveillance is ongoing, you have to go through a guarded gate.  In all the years of protesting at the NSA, only once did I and three others slip past that gate. Of course, we were arrested and taken into custody.  Eventually, the government dropped the charges which included trespass, destruction of government property and conspiracy.

 

  I explained to the Special Agent that I was prepared to be arrested, so that this infringement of our First Amendment rights can be settled in a court of law.  She emphasized that she did not want to arrest us, but that it was her mission to have us move.  We went through this back and forth for some time.  But our plan was to be there for an hour, and it was now time to go. We finished for this day the jousting with windmills.   Stay tuned for future encounters on the front lines with the Guardians of the Empire.

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Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 325 E. 25th St., Baltimore, MD 21218.  Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at] comcast.net. Go to http://baltimorenonviolencecenter.blogspot.com/

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs