[Vision2020] 31 Protesters Arrested at Drone Base in Syracuse

[Ted Moffett]

Date: Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:26:42 -0400
From: dcinstitute at igc.org
To: institute at igc.org
Subject: 31 Protesters Arrested at Drone Base in Syracuse

Institute for Public Accuracy
980 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 * http://www.accuracy.org *ipa at accuracy.org
_________________________________________________

          Monday, April 29, 2013

          31 Protesters Arrested at Drone Base in Syracuse
*
The Syracuse Post-Standard* reports (see
video)<http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/30_drone_protestors_arrested_a.html>:
"About 30 people were arrested outside the Hancock Field Air National Guard
Base [Sunday] afternoon during a protest against the use of unmanned aerial
drones.

"The arrests came at the end of a series of workshops and rallies held in
Syracuse this weekend and organized by the Upstate Coalition to Ground the
Drones and End the Wars.

"[The] rally attracted more than 250 people who ... marched in a funeral
like process to the gates of the base, home to the 174th Attack Wing of the
New York Air National Guard. The unit operates unmanned, armed drones
thousands of miles away. The drones are used for intelligence gathering and
bombing ground targets." Also see pictures of the protests from the *
Post-Standard*<http://photos.syracuse.com/post-standard/2013/04/anti-drone_protests_at_the_ny_28.html>
.

CAROL BAUM, carol at peacecouncil.net
    Baum is with Syracuse Peace Council <http://www.peacecouncil.net/>. She
is currently available for a limited number of interviews as she is working
on obtaining the release of detained protesters who agree to post bail,
which Baum notes, runs as high as $3,500. The group released a statement:
"People who participated in the demonstration, including some who were
arrested, came from all over the country to raise an outcry against the
proliferation of drone strikes abroad." The group stated that drone strikes
violate both U.S. and international law.

    The statement continued: "Demonstrators also object to the
militarization of the police and the growing domestic use of drones. The
protesters raised the issue that drone use globally makes Americans unsafe
because of the blowback effect."

JOHN HAMILTON, yes2yay at yahoo.com
    A member of Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the
Wars<http://upstatedroneaction.org/>,
Hamilton said today: "Drones are being used to do extra-judicial killings.
They're outside the law. It's like lynching. It's saying the law is too
good for these people. Now, most of us are horrified at our country's
history of lynching, but this is what we're doing. Except, it's worse since
so many of the victims of drone strikes are children and other civilians.
That's why we held up pictures of children and other civilians killed by
U.S. drone attacks in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and other countries."

Last week, Congress had the first hearings on drones. The Obama
administration refused to send a representative. One of those who testified
was Farea Al-Muslimi, whose village in Yemen was recently struck by a U.S.
drone strike. See video <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tt3JN7Ak9c>.

Additional background: "Living Under Drones<http://www.livingunderdrones.org/>"
report, written by academics at NYU and Stanford.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

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Vision2020 Post: Ted Moffett
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