Killer Drone Base Blockaded To Oppose Remote-Controlled Killing of Humans

It's fashionable to say that there is no longer a peace movement in the U.S.  But it isn't true.

What is true: corporate media entirely ignore the direct actions, conferences, marches, and publications of the peace movement.

Here's my reporting on the most recent actions in a decade plus of vigorous resistance against flying killer robots deployed by the U.S. Weaponized drones have killed thousands of civilians in numerous countries during the U.S./NATO 'War on Terror". Now, reports that Russia is using Iranian drones in Ukraine has led to the U.S. calling for (even more) sanctions on Iran. Like kicking them out of the World Cup? I guess when you have no shame, hypocrisy doesn't even register.

Two Grandmothers & a 3rd Female Arrested at Creech Assassin Drone Base North of Las Vegas

Killer Drone Base Blockaded to Oppose Remote-Controlled Killing of Humans

LAS VEGAS, NV – Anti-drone activists, here for a weeklong protest at a U.S. assassin drone base just north of Las Vegas, increased their resistance on Wednesday, October 19, with a peaceful nonviolent blockade of the entrance road into Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, NV that lasted nearly two hours – three protestors were arrested.

Dozens, maybe hundreds, of vehicles were stalled on the highway trying to enter the base. Protestors hope to motivate Air Force personnel involved in the US drone program to follow their conscience and no longer participate.  

Protesters held life-sized cardboard cut-outs of 4 of the 7 children from the Ahmadi family who were killed by a US drone attack in Kabul in August 2021, and held two signs that read:  “A Call To Conscience” and “Can You See, You Are Murdering Me.” 

 

Two grandmothers and a third elder female were arrested, detained for over 30 minutes, and ultimately cited and released.

Thousands of unarmed civilians have been killed in U.S. drone strikes according to independent investigative NGOs, including hundreds of children.  

“Assassination is illegal by both International and national laws,” said Toby Blome, one of the organizers.  "By carrying these cardboard figures with the names and ages of some of the children killed (Ayat, age 2; Sumiya, age 2; Benyamin age 3, Armin, age 4,) it is our hope to memorialize and humanize the drone victims and to emphasize the tragic side of the  secret, US drone program that should never have been developed.”  

Participants in the weeklong protest are calling for a worldwide international ban of all armed and militarized drones.

Anti-war cable TV spots on CNN and MSNBC, produced by BanKillerDrones.org, and featuring voice-over by actor Martin Sheen, have been airing, including this weekend, Oct. 15 and 16 in President Biden’s weekend hometown, Wilmington, DE. The commercials, as well as counseling resources for drone operators, may be found at  https://bankillerdrones.org.

Protestors charge militarized drones are rapidly proliferating around the globe, with dozens of countries now possessing their own armed drones, unmanned planes that, controlled from afar, are used to remotely fire their deadly missiles against "suspected targets."  

Through prolonged protests, activists, from as far away as New York, California, and Hawaii, intend to communicate their grievances to the Pentagon and federal government about the alarming issues that assassin drones raise, including high civilian death rates, violations of international laws, moral injury to drone operators, and the rapidly increasing destabilization of international relations. 

Participants will show the current conflict in Ukraine, with Iranian-made drones used by Russia competing with Turkish-made drones used by Ukraine, as a perfect example of the worsening global instability that is created by these militarized drones.  

Protestors are seeking an international ban to prohibit killer drones worldwide. “Overwhelming evidence supports that weaponized drones do not make us safer, but instead they create more enemies abroad by terrorizing communities and killing innumerable innocent bystanders,  ultimately helping to recruit individuals into radicalized militant organizations,” argues Toby Blomé, one of the organizers of the bi-annual extended protest called “Shut Down Creech."

Members of Shut Down Creech are part of a network of anti-Drone groups collaborating under the umbrella organization, Ban Killer Drones, working to ban the use of armed drones globally.  Throughout the week,  other U.S. anti-drone groups held simultaneous protests at U.S. drone control bases in Pennsylvania, Iowa, New York and Arizona, and elsewhere in solidarity with Shut Down Creech week, and as a united front calling to halt the use of armed drones.

The U.S. has never held high-ranking military officers accountable when U.S. drone attacks have caused the killing of innocent lives, like the August 2021 US drone attack in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed seven members of the Ahmadi family, including children. Instead, drone whistleblower Daniel Hale is currently serving the 2nd year of his 45 month sentence for leaking military documents that exposed drone war crimes, and the resulting high civilian death toll.

"When whistleblowers are imprisoned, and war criminals are protected then we have a truly failing democracy,” said Blomé.

As a complementary event to Shut Down Creech week, the sneak preview of new drone documentary Battles beyond the Horizon  was shown Thursday night at University of Nevada, Las Vegas.  A post-film panel discussion included Shut Down Creech activists, including retired U.S. Army Colonel and former U.S. Diplomat, Ann Wright, now turned full-time peace activist.

Activist Vera Anderson, from Las Vegas, now a graduate student in New York, states it simply and directly, “All human beings have the right to life!”  

An open letter to the commander of the base Col. Schmidt and to President Biden was hand delivered to base personnel in an effort to call for an immediate ceasing of all drone attacks, and calling for an international ban by all nations.

“People need to realize that not only are a lot of civilians being killed, the drones are terrorizing entire communities by their mere presence in the sky,” said Fred Bialy, a retired emergency room physician participating in the week of protest.  "Weaponized drones are steadily proliferating around the globe…they should be banned completely,” he added.
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FMI

Toby Blomé 510-501.5412, Virginia Hauflaire 602-403-7576

Weaponized Drones Are The Real Threat To Security Say Protesters At Creech AFB In Nevada

Afghans inspect damage of Ahmadi family house after U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021. (AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi) Source: Military.com

Amid the chaotic and embarassing retreat from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan came a drone strike on the Ahmadi family whose aid worker dad was transporting water in his car with little children aboard. "The Pentagon admitted Friday an airstrike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 29 killed 10 civilians, including seven children, but not any terrorist planners as officials first claimed," according to Military.com.

Now it is even more urgent to demand the use of flying killer robots be banned. A large group of dedicated activists return each year to the Nevada desert where U.S. drone operators sit in trailers and decide to kill entire families without enough information to evaluate whether or not those targeted actually pose a threat to security. 

Weaponized drones are the real threat to security.

Here's the organizers' press release with detailed information on the week long protest.

2019: People protest against drone warfare at the entrance to Creech Air Force Base. Six people were detained and charged with misdemeanors during the week-long event, which is held several times a year. (John Locher/AP) Source: AirForceTimes.com

PROTESTORS FROM 12 STATES CONVERGE AT CREECH AFB FOR WEEK OF PROTEST TO DEMAND AN END TO REMOTE DRONE KILLING, AND BAN ON KILLER DRONES 

Kabul Killing of Afghan family, including 3 adults and 7 children, by U.S. Drone Last Month will be Memorialized

LAS VEGAS/CREECH AFB, NV – Anti-war/anti-drone demonstrators from the East and West coasts announced they are converging here Sept. 26-Oct. 2 to hold daily protests – which will include efforts to interrupt "business as usual"  – at the U.S. Drone Base at Creech Air Force Base, an hour north of Las Vegas, Nevada. 

U.S. anti-drone activists across the country will be holding solidarity protests at drone bases and in communities across the country during the same week, to amplify their common call for a ban on killer drones.  Contact Nick Mottern for more info:  (914) 806-6179.

In the aftermath of the horrific “mistake” from a U.S. drone attack on a civilian family in Kabul last month, that left three adults and seven young children dead, protesters are demanding that the U.S. cease its secret remote assassination program that they say is illegal and immoral. 

Vigils every morning and afternoon during commute hours will take place with varied themes each day. See schedule below. Nonviolent interruptions of flow of traffic into the base are planned during the week to oppose the inherent abuse, illegality and injustice of the U.S. targeted remote assassination program.  Rejecting the very nature of U.S. extrajudicial killings that has led to the death of thousands of civilians, protesters demand an immediate ban on all killer drones. 

Many military veterans, now members of Veterans for Peace, will be joining, including post-911 veterans. The event is co-sponsored by CODEPINK, Veterans for Peace and Ban Killer Drones.

At Creech, U.S. Air Force personnel, coordinating with C.I.A. officials, are, regularly and secretly, killing people remotely using unmanned armed drone planes, primarily the MQ-9 Reaper drones.  

Thousands of civilians have been killed and injured, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and elsewhere, since 2001, by U.S. drone strikes, according to independent investigative journalism.    

Over the last 20 years, the use of  armed drones have led to deadly atrocities that have included strikes on wedding parties, funerals, schools, mosques, homes, farm laborers  and in January, 2020, included direct hits on high level foreign military and government officials from Iran and Iraq.  

These drone massacres have, at times, resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians with a single drone attack. To date not a single U.S. official has ever been held accountable for these ongoing atrocities – Yet, drone whistleblower, Daniel Hale, who leaked documents revealing the high rate of civilian casualties from U.S. drone strikes, is currently serving 45 months in prison.

“U.S. officials and military leaders exhibit total disregard for the value of human lives in the countries targeted under the so-called War on Terror,” said Toby Blomé, one of the organizers of the week long protest. “Over and over again, innocent lives are being purposefully sacrificed in drone strikes, in order for the U.S. to continue its 'counter-terrorism campaign,’” said Blomé.

“The Ahmadi family drone massacre that occurred in Kabul last month is not an example of accidental mis-judgement. It is an example of an ongoing reckless pattern of abuse whereby the U.S. assumes the right to kill a person on suspicion alone, just in case that person may be a threat, while also sacrificing everyone else who happens to be in the area,” Blomé added.

Organizers say that the only reason the truth about this recent drone tragedy was exposed is because it took place in Kabul, where investigative journalists were available to scrutinize the event. For 2 weeks after the incident U.S. military had insisted that they killed an ISIS affiliate. The evidence proved otherwise. Most drone strikes are underreported and not investigated because they occur in remote rural areas, far from international media.  

Participants of the week-long protest are calling for a complete ban on killer drones, an immediate end to the targeted killing program, and full accountability for the innocents killed, including reparations to the surviving victims of U.S. drone strikes, past and present.

“Given the murder of 10 innocent people in Kabul, including seven children, we know that the U.S. drone program is a disaster,” said organizer Eleanor Levine. “It makes enemies and it has to end now.”

Demonstrators are also calling for the immediate release of Daniel Hale  the drone whistleblower who exposed the criminality of the drone program. The documents leaked by Hale revealed that in many cases, up to 90% of those killed by U.S. drones were not the intended target. Demanding a pivotal shift toward justice, Shut Down Creech participants declare:  "Arrest the war criminals, not the truth-tellers.”

Mon, Sept 27, 6:30-8:30 a.m.  DRONE FUNERAL PROCESSION:  Dressed in black with white “death masks,” activists will process down the highway, in a solemn death march, carrying small coffins with the names of the countries that have been the primary targets of ongoing U.S. drone attacks that have led to high civilian casualties.  (Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan and Libya)

Mon, Sept 27, 3:30-5:30 p.m. "DRONE ATTACKS ARE…”  Participants will hold large bold signs with varied descriptive words to demonstrate the failure of the U.S. Drone Program:   ILLEGAL, RACIST, IMMORAL, BARBARIC, CRUEL, FUTILE, WRONG, DISGRACEFUL, etc.

Tues, Sept.28 , 6:30 - 8:30 a.m. THE DRONE MASSACRE MEMORIAL:  A long series of banners will be stretched along the highway, each one highlighting details of past U.S. drone massacres, including strikes that have hit wedding parties, funerals, schools, farm laborers and mosques.  Statistics on civilian deaths are included on each banner. This time, the horrific tragedy of the Ahmadi family killed in a Kabul neighborhood will be added to the historical record.

Tues, Sept 28, 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.  THE WAR IS A LIE;  To demonstrate the concept that the "first casualty in war is the truth,” a series of signs will convey examples: Presidents Lie, Congress Lies, Generals Lie, CIA lies, etc.  The messages will conclude with banners calling on more critical thinking:  Question Authority; Resist the Lies They Tell...Resist the Wars They Sell;  Truth-teller and Drone Whistleblower, Daniel Hale, will be featured:  "FREE DANIEL HALE.”

Wed, Sept 29, 6:30 - 8:30 a.m.   GO BACK, WRONG WAY!  A nonviolent, peaceful action will be planned to “interrupt business as usual” and to resist the illegal and immoral activity that takes place at Creech Killer Drone Base.  Details will be available later in the week.  NO MORE DEATHS! Other nonviolent acts of resistance may be planned at other times during the week.

Wed, Sept 29, 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.  ALTERNATIVES TO WAR;  A series of signs will offer alternatives to the military working at Creech AFB:  Doctors NOT Drones, Bread NOT Bombs, Housing NOT Hellfire Missiles, Peace Jobs NOT War Jobs, etc.

Thurs. Sept 30, 6:30 - 8:30 a.m.  “CREECHERS FOR THE PLANET”;  In a playful approach to connect the very serious global problems of climate crisis and environmental devastation with militarism, participants will dress in their favorite “Creecher Costumes” (Creature Costumes) and/or hold large animal puppets, while holding educational signs "connecting the dots”:  U.S. Military #1 Polluter, War is Toxic, End War for Climate Justice, U.S. Military = #1 User of FOSSIL FUEL, War in NOT Green:  PROTECT EARTH, etc.

Thurs. Sept 30, 3:30 - 5:30 p.m.  TBD:  Creech AFB may or may not have a vigil.  Stay tuned for updates.  A Las Vegas Anti-drone Street Theater Action planned at the Fremont Street Pedestrian Mall (4:00 - 6:00pm) in Las Vegas.  Details to come later. 

Fri. Oct. 1, 6:30 - 8:30 a.m.  FLY A KITE, NOT A DRONE;  In a colorful display of beautiful kites in the sky, participants will hold their final demonstration of the week, focusing on the positive benefits of alternatives to war, where all sides win.  The central large banner:  DIPLOMACY NOT DRONES!  The vigil will also honor the Afghan People, who have been forced to live under the terror of U.S. drones for 20 years, with immeasurable human losses.  The U.S. has “officially withdrawn” it’s troops and closed it’s bases in Afghanistan, the most droned country on earth; however, the drone strikes are expected to continue under Biden’s unspecified “Over the Horizon” policy.  Another large banner will declare:   STOP DRONING AFGHANISTAN:  20 YEARS ENOUGH!

Contact:  
Toby Blomé, 510.501.5412;  toby4peace@sonic.net
Eleanor Levine, 510-290-7071;  eastbaycodepink@gmail.com

For more details:   www.ShutDownCreech

Calling Out Civilian Deaths By Drone Under Yet Another Democratic Party Warmonger

Screenshot from video of protest blocking the road at Creech AFB on April 5. 

Group chanting, "Arrest Col. Jones, the war criminal, not Daniel Hale, the whistleblower!"  

Posted by Toby Blomé at https://shutdowncreech.blogspot.com

Today I am reposting a press release from the dedicated drone resistance that converges annually at Creech Air Base in Nevada. 

These people of conscience work tirelessly to shine a light into the dark crime of U.S. relentless bombing of civilians with each successive administration in Washington DC, whether Democrat or Republican. 

Many of them will risk arrest to bring attention to these atrocities.

April 2, 2021
Contact: Toby Blomé, 510.501.5412 Maggie Huntington.602.459.5257
For more details: https://shutdowncreech.blogspot.com

ANTI-DRONE PROTESTORS FROM AROUND U.S. CONVERGE THIS WEEK TO CONDEMN KILLING BY CREECH AFB DRONES

LAS VEGAS/CREECH AFB, NV – Anti-war/anti-drone demonstrators from the East and West coasts announced they are converging here April 4-10 to hold daily protests – which may lead to arrests – at the U.S. Drone Base at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada.

Many military veterans, now members of Veterans for Peace, will be joining. The event is co-sponsored by CODEPINK and Veterans for Peace.

At Creech, U.S. Air Force personnel, coordinating with C.I.A. officials, are, regularly and secretly, killing people remotely using unmanned armed drone planes, primarily the MQ-9 Reaper drones. 

Thousands of civilians have been killed and injured, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and elsewhere, since 2001, according to the activists.

In the aftermath of the recent and tragic U.S. massacres by lone gunmen in Georgia and Boulder, activists will hold daily two hour vigils between 6:30-8:30 a.m. and 3:30-5:30 p.m., during commute hours to underline the connection between mass violence at home and the "normalized" mass violence of the U.S. covert drone program and U.S. military.

Over the last 20 years, U.S. armed drones have been used to commit horrible atrocities that have included strikes on wedding parties, funerals, schools, mosques, homes, farm laborers, and in January, 2020, included direct hits on high level foreign military and government officials from Iran and Iraq.

"A man walks past a graffiti, denouncing strikes by U.S. drones in Yemen, painted on a wall in Sanaa November 13, 2014"KHALED ABDULLAH/REUTERS

These drone massacres have, at times, resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians with a single drone attack. Not a single U.S. official has ever been held accountable for these ongoing atrocities, 

yet, an important drone whistleblower, Daniel Hale, who leaked truths about these atrocities faces potentially harsh sentencing later this July.

The daily vigils will include different themes each time, but two notable ones include:

Mon, April 5, 3:30-4:30 p.m. "WE STAND WITH Drone Whistleblower DANIEL HALE." On Wednesday, March 31, Daniel Hale pled guilty to being the informant who anonymously leaked classified military documents to an online media publisher, The Intercept, that revealed secret military statistics documenting civilian casualties under the covert U.S. targeted drone assassination program. (See The Drone Papers, 2015).

As a U.S. citizen and USAF analyst, Daniel acted out of conscience to reveal the truth about these serious war crimes that he felt the public had a right to know. Protesters will stand in support of Daniel's courageous act and demand that the real criminals be prosecuted, including the commanders of killer drone bases like Creech AFB, not the whistleblowers, who reveal the atrocities. Some of the messages will include: "Free Daniel Hale, Exposing war crimes is not a crime" "Prosecute the War Criminals not the Truth-tellers"

Tues, April 6, 6:30 - 8:30 a.m. THE DRONE MASSACRE MEMORIAL: Activists, will display a long series of banners, stretched along the highway, each highlighting details of past U.S. drone massacres, including statistics on civilian deaths.

"It is our hope," said Toby Blomé, one of the organizers, "that the military personnel that drive into the base everyday will reflect deeply about their role in this criminal activity that causes innumerable deaths and untold suffering around the globe, and that just maybe some of them will make the difficult but ethical choice to not participate.

"Militarized drones are expanding at an unbelievable rate, replacing conventional warfare, without any meaningful public debate. It is therefore the obligation of the military personnel to embrace their own individual responsibilities."

-END-

A pre-pandemic crowd of protestors at Creech in April, 2016.

What Happens Near Vegas Doesn't Stay Near Vegas, As Drones Fly And Children Die

"Shut down Creech" action in Fall, 2018 shows the many countries where taxpayers in the U.S. fund flying killer robots that kill many innocent civilians.

Organizers for peace in the desert near Las Vegas are sharing this troubling video with a military commander glorifying and justifying the murders conducted from Creech Air Base in Nevada.

White keyboard warriors killing brown children without much risk to the themselves. Very brave.

Despite what this career military man thinks, "Hunters" do not deliver justice. How could burning up children in their beds at night, or celebrants at a wedding, or people grieving at a funeral, be justice?

Justice involves the rule of law, impartial courts, the ability to confront one's accuser and to respond to the charges against you. 

"We've decided you're collateral damage in an area we seek to control with drones flown from a safety zone thousands of miles away," is not anything resembling justice, and it's a big fat lie to suggest that it is.

The fact is that drone operators have been found to suffer from PTSD and moral injury, and their wives and families suffer when they do. 

Lining up the wives and lecturing them about how their warriors need their support so they can go on being killing machines was enough to make me gag. 

Consider joining peace workers for an action outside the gates of Creech AFB. They are a well-organized group who know how to support one another in a desert protest under harsh conditions. Here is the latest message I received from them.

U.S. drone murdering continues to expand.

3 WEEKS TO SHUT DOWN CREECH, SPRING 2019

March 30-April 5.  

Details Here!    Register Here!

10 Years of Drone Resistance at Creech Killer Drone Base

Drones are “almost more frightening than nuclear weapons because nuclear weapons are not being used but this kind of targeting is going to destroy the world as we know it to be in completely new ways.”

-Arundhati Roy

Important Articles to Read:

Trump Ends Rule Requiring US to Disclose Number of Civilians Killed by Drone Strikes

The Gray Eagles have been smuggled into Fort Carson with lots of happy talk

We hope you will join us in saying no to this cruel & bloody madness!

Bring friends!

Eleanor, Maggie & Toby

Details Here!    Register Here!

Graffiti in Yemen

USA Wedded To War Is Message Of Activists Arrested Protesting Violence Near Las Vegas

Drones fly, children die and Stop killing for empire seen at Creech Air Base near Las Vegas where flying killer robots known as drones are used to terrorize civilians thousands of miles away. This is a screenshot from a video of peace activist Toby Blome being arrested for blocking access to the base.

It is sadly ironic that bullets raining down on hundreds of concertgoers in Las Vegas happened just miles away from the U.S. military base flying drones to rain down bombs on wedding guests.

This has been going on for years, and so have blockades and other forms of protest at the gates of Creech Air Base. People in the U.S. were terrorized by the events at Mandalay Bay last week, but they mostly turn a blind eye to the terror their government unleashes in their name and at their expense. That terror, for most in the U.S., is invisible.

But it's not invisible to everyone here in the heart of the violent empire. Here's an eyewitness report of the protest at Creech and a link to a Facebook video of the arrests recorded by peace activist Ann Wright:

Two arrested Friday at Creech Drone Base north of Las Vegas in mock wedding and blockade

CREECH AIR BASE, INDIAN SPRINGS, NEVADA -  On the sixteenth anniversary of the war on Afghanistan, two citizens were arrested for challenging the use by the United States of assassin drones, which were first used in Afghanistan in 2001.

The two arrestees were part of a larger group of activists  blocking the main gate to Creech Drone Base. Arrested were long time peace and justice activists Toby Blome of California and JoAnn Lingle of Indiana.  Other activists hailed from California, Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii, and Pakistan. All participated in the enactment of a mock wedding attacked by a killer drone.  U.S. assassin drones have routinely attacked wedding parties in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Yemen. 

Prior to her arrest Toby Blome said, “The killing has to stop.  We are bombing and assassinating people in the poorest countries in the world.”

JoAnn Lingle said, “Being arrested is non-violent resistance to U.S. endless wars.”

As the sound of drones operated by military student pilots at Creech Drone Base was seen and heard overhead, the bride and groom exchanged vows to work for peace and justice.  A sign reading “U.S.A. Wedded to War” was held over the wedding party. 

This is a part of the ten-year campaign at Creech Drone Base, 40 miles north of Las Vegas, to stop the extrajudicial killing of civilians.

Over 100 arrests of peace activists have been made at Creech over these years.

The events at Creech Drone Base are a part of the global mobilization to raise international concern about endless war in violation of the U.S. constitution and international law.  We invite the public the join with activists in local Global Days of Action found at demilitarize.org and at Creech AFB home of the Predator and Reaper killer drones.

Actions at Creech will continue through Wednesday, October 11 with morning and afternoon vigils.
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For more information contact: Eleanor Levine at dreleanorlevine@yahoo.com 510-290-7071

Nevada Judge Frees Drone Protester, Thanks Her For "Passion And Commitment"

Shirley Osgood (in center with peace sign), and supporters (L-R) Robert Majors, Chris Nelson, Nancy Milton,

Barry Binks and Dennis Duvall

I've been spending time on the Americans Who Tell The Truth website doing some research for a project. It's an excellent resource for educators and quite inspiring. Thus I was pleasantly surprised to open my email and find the following personal statement by a citizen who chose to stand up and tell the truth about drone warfare. Perhaps Robert Shetterly will paint Shirley Osgood's portrait one day?

Las Vegas Trial, August 25, 2016

by Shirley Osgood

This is a write-up of what was to be my trial after being arrested on April 1, 2016 for trespassing on federal property at Creech Air Force Base, in protest of drone warfare.

I arrived at the Las Vegas Airport on Wednesday afternoon, and was met by the amazing Catholic Worker, Robbie Majors, who drove me to my hotel where I continued obsessing over what I was going to do and say at my trial the next morning. Barry and Nancy, Occupy Beale AFB friends, arrived in the evening, and we had vegan dinner at Container Park. I went to bed hoping final inspiration would arrive in the night. Then Chris Nelson, another of my beautiful Occupy Beale AFB support friends, arrived at our room at 2AM after a late flight into Vegas, just to be support.

The four of us met for an early breakfast, and in came Dennis Duval from Prescott, AZ. We all headed down Fremont Street, and arrived at the Justice Court in time for a rally at 8:15. We were met there by Robbie Majors with his sign, “No  One   Wins  an  Arms  Race”.    We  held  our  anti-drone banners, and at about 8:45, Robert, a press guy from Channel 8, arrived to video and interview.

We went up to the 8th floor and entered the courtroom, where a young woman with a Spanish/English interpreter was in process of getting a restraining order against a man. My wonderful support people sat with me and waited for my name to be called.

When called, I stepped forward, and quickly became aware that Judge Ann Zimmerman did not have me down for a trial, but simply to clarify what I was going to do about getting an attorney, since I had signed to release Attorney Chris Grasso. I was not scheduled for a trial at all. I stated that I had flown in expecting a trial, and the Judge said it was her fault it was not scheduled. She sent me to a small room in the back of the courtroom with the public defender, who explained to me that the prosecutor was offering me a “submittal”. She explained that it did not involve making any plea. My choices would be a $250 fine, or 30 hours of community service. If I chose the community service, I would be on probation until its completion. Luckily, Chris and Dennis entered and were allowed to stay at my request. They offered me some good ideas, which resulted in my asking the PD if I could request dismissal,  based  on  “time  served”,  which  was  one day  in  the  Las  Vegas  Jail.    She  said  she  didn’t  think  that  would  be  accepted,  but   she would ask.

We all entered the courtroom, and the PD approached the bench with two men from the Prosecution. After a short chat, I was asked to come up, and was told that the Prosecution agreed to dismiss the charges with only the time served. There  would  be  no  fine,  community  service  or  probation.    And  I  wasn’t  even  told   that  I  had  to  “stay  out  of  trouble”.    I  accepted,  and  asked  if  I  could  make  a  short   statement. The Judge said yes, a couple of minutes.

My statement started with a description of the young boy, Omran Daqneesh, whose home was bombed in Aleppo, Syria. He was shown being placed in an ambulance, alone. He was covered with dust and blood. (The Judge nodded and said,  “Yes,  I  saw  it”). 

I  continued  to  describe  how  he  touched  his  bleeding   forehead, looked at the blood on his hand, and wiped the blood on the ambulance seat. I stated how hard it is to get this picture out of your head, and went on to say that I had other pictures, of drone victims, stuck in my head. I described the young child with the top of his head blown off, surrounded by flowers, and the dead mother whose limp arm was draped around her small young child.

I went on to say that I was left with the choice of doing something, or doing nothing, and proceeded to describe a number of legal things that I had done to try to stop drone warfare. I talked about what was happening at Creech Air Force Base, and my reasons for doing direct action at Creech.

I closed my brief statement with a paragraph by Medea Benjamin, which I found in Marjorie Cohn’s book, Drones and Targeted Killing:

"From Pakistan to Yemen to Gaza, drone warfare snuffs out the lives of innocent civilians with impunity and renders thousands more maimed psychologically, left homeless and without livelihoods. In the name of war on terror, drone warfare terrorizes entire populations and represents one of the greatest travesties of justice in our age."

After listening to my statement, Judge Zimmerman thanked me for my passion and commitment,  and  I  was  free  to  go. We  sang  a  round  of  “Circle  Round  for   Freedom” on  the  steps  of  the  courthouse  before  leaving,  and celebrated on Fremont Street. Feeling grateful to be free and leaving Las Vegas. Hoping that this day may have some small impact on stopping the drones, and bring some peace to the world. 

Detail from the video below of the 2nd Annual "Shut down Creech protest"