Photo by Guarionex Delgado of arrestees after being released from custody
Sixteen people – including a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, military veterans and clergy members – were arrested early in the morning of April 28 at the main gate to a drone operations center at Beale Air Force Base in California. Several protestors were in tears as the names and ages of children killed by U.S. drones were read aloud.
All were released, and will be arraigned in U.S. Federal Court on misdemeanor trespassing charges.
Among those arrested was Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly from Chicago, who just finished three months in prison for attempting to deliver a loaf of bread and a letter to the base commander of a drone base in Missouri, asking him to stop piloting lethal drone flights over Afghanistan from within the base.
Photo by Guarionex Delgado
Those arrested at Beale Air Force Base also attempted to deliver a letter to Col. Douglas J. Lee, Commander, 9th Reconnaissance Wing, asking him to stop drone killings. Beale Air Force Base provides surveillance drones for U.S. killer drones. Civilians, including hundreds of children, have been killed by U.S. drones, including two – an American and Italian – in a strike made public by President Obama just last week. The letter – which Air Police accepted as they made the arrests – said in part:
“Our purpose in delivering this letter is to urge you and other military and civilian leaders to end your participation in the U.S. drone warfare program and begin to work for peace. Drones have become the preferred weapons to conduct war…but these drone strikes have led to the death of hundreds of innocent civilians in countries where we are not at war, including Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.”
Arrested were:
Michael Kerr
Shirley Osgood
Pamela Osgood
Cathy Webster
Fred Bialy
Brian Terrell
Kathy Kelly
MacGregor Eddy
Barry Binks
Elizabeth Griswold
Sharon Delgado
Mauro DeOliveira
Mahai’a Sol de Oliveira
Christine Nelson
Chris Knudson
Toby Blome
Photo by Guarionex Delgado
The Sacramento chapter of Veterans for Peace, which is active with the Beale demonstrations, recently helped produce the first-ever anti-drone television commercials appearing on CNN and other cable news networks in several cities surrounding U.S. air bases, including Beale Air Force Base. The spots implore military drone operations personnel to not obey an “immoral order” and “refuse to fly.” More information is at KnowDrone.com. The spots can be found http://youtu.be/ESdmex_AA3I and http://youtu.be/rEgPmlhlC7g.
More photos of the action are here.