The other weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to go to the School of the America Watch (SOAW) in Columbus, GA with Nancy Mancias. It was an absolutely amazing weekend, and if possible, I definitely plan to go again next year!

The weekend started in Lumpkin, GA for a rally and march to the Stewart Detention Center. Stewart Detention Center is actually the largest, for profit immigrant holding center in the country. Here we gathered and listened to speeches and music about discrimination faced by the Latino community in regards to immigration law. We heard from a man who actually used to work at the detention center. He described the abuse and corruption committed by the detention center and by ICE.

The rest of the weekend was in Columbus at the Columbus Conference Center. There were a variety of workshops held covering a wide range of topics. The first workshop we went to was about war criminal accountability where we were shown videos on torture committed by the US. After that we went to a very informative workshop on improving research skills. The highlight of Friday night was at 9:30, when members of the Creech 14, including Brian Terrell, put on a short play based off of their trial.

Saturday was filled with more interesting workshops as well. In the morning there was a rally going on outside the gates of Fort Benning. There was great music playing, people giving speeches, a performance with puppetistas, and so much more.

And Saturday was our big day! At 9:30 that night, Nancy and I, along with Brian Terrell and Father Louis gave a workshop called “Stop drone strikes: resisting remote control sanitized death.” We had a pretty good turn out with a significant amount of women. Martin Sheen was even in the audience for part of our workshop!

Besides our workshop, the Sunday rally outside of Fort Benning was the most exciting part of my weekend. There was a moving vigil held for innocent people who have passed away from violence. Those on stage would sing the names of the deceased, while participants would carry white crosses and place them in front of Fort Benning’s gate.

After the vigil was over, a large group of people sat quietly outside the gate. It was an emotional site, with many people crying. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, a woman walked up to the gates! She was going to cross over in an act of civil disobedience. Someone brought her a ladder and a little piece of carpet to protect her from the barbed wire at top. As she climbed up, everyone was cheering for her in solidarity. She reached the top, tossed her heels over the fence, and hopped over. Once on the other side, she was arrested. Watching this woman was inspiring for me. And it got the crowd really excited. All of us began singing, chanting, and dancing in unison. I really felt connected to a group of people that I had never met before. It was really amazing to see and experience.

This was the end of our trip and we headed back to Atlanta to catch our flight back to San Francisco. It was really a great weekend. I met and talked to so many interesting people. Nancy and I even tried soul food for the first time, so delicious! This was definitely a weekend I will never forget!

By Nancy Mancias

U.S. drone warfare is the topic of an upcoming dark comedy for FX, focusing on drone pilots in Nevada who commute to war and “bomb the hell out of the Middle East”. Although the description doesn’t specifically name the air base, one can only assume the project is centered on Creech Air Force Base in Indian Springs, Nevada where pilots commute from Las Vegas. With the series appropriately titled Drones, the producers will find there’s a lot of darkness to the issue than comedy.

Reports indicate drone pilots are suffering from alarming levels of combat related stress. Creech AFB has counselors and chaplains on hand to support the mental strain of pilots transitioning from video game combat to civilian life. LA Times reporter David Zucchino writes, “The psychological challenges are unique: Pilots say that despite the distance, the video feed gives them a more intimate feel for the ground than they would have from a speeding warplane. Some say they would prefer to be in Afghanistan or Iraq to avoid the daily adjustment from the soccer field to the battlefield.”

An extremely dark moment in piloting drones took place when the American military released a report confessing the deaths of 23 Afghan civilians killed by a U.S. drone strike operated by pilots based at Creech AFB. The strike took place the morning of Feb. 21, 2010 in southern Afghanistan. The drone operators tracked a number of civilian vehicles for three and a half hours, reportedly only seeing military-age men through the real time video feed, though analysts sent computer messages to the operators that children were present. The Air Force personnel responsible for the deadly drone strike were given a reprimand.

Standing along the highway while drone pilots are driving into Creech AFB are anti-drone demonstrators with signs and banners condemning the use of drones for assassination. Creech AFB at one point was the epicenter of drone warfare but with the ever moving industry the expansion of drone bases continues to grow. Alternet.org reports that there is an estimate of 60 bases across the globe engaging in U.S drone missions. In a U.S. Air Force report, there are close to a hundred current and future unmanned aerial sites.

As A.V. Club reporter Sean O’Neal writes about the dark comedy Drones, “it might garner only several thousand protests.” If so, let’s only hope the protests will change public and political opinion and halt the U.S. from waging a Terminator-type assassin war.

Headlines fill the news about U.S. expansion of secret drone bases in Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and beyond, but little is mentioned about the military land grab for expansion in southern Colorado, northern New Mexico. Labeled by the Not 1 More Acre campaign as the “largest Joint Forces Future Combat Systems training site in the world”, the Army has its eye set on seizing generational ranch land for unmanned aerial development, low altitude flights and robotic weaponry testing.

The military acquisition would take up 94,000 square miles of mostly private property, displacing thousands of Coloradans, yet the civilian airspace for a robotic flight zone is a whole nother grab bag. The flight zone would reach across state lines, across sovereign indigenous nations, across national parks, going as far north as Aspen, Colorado to as far south as Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Air Force Special Operations have launched a civilian campaign, staging public forums in areas most impacted by the airspace takeover. Military personnel are laying out a proposal and even drafting their own environmental plan where fate will be decided in Washington D.C., but opposition to the Air Force’s ambitious acquisition has swelled.

Devon Jackson with the New Mexico Independent writes about the Air Force’s public turnout, “As has been the case at other meetings held over the past year, more opponents than supporters showed up.” This could be partly due to the strategic efforts of ranchers and activists associated with the Not 1 More Acre campaign. With a passion in her voice, campaigner Jean Aguerre charges on to her next move in specifically reaching out to “non-affiliated women voters” to show up to the public forums. Somehow Aguerre and the team at Not 1 More Acre have managed to outsmart the military, having an impressive list of successes to show for it.

Courtesy of Not 1 More Acre! website

• In 2007, Not 1 More Acre! fostered an overwhelming (383-34) bipartisan Congressional vote to ban funding for any activity related to expansion at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, a ban that Not 1 More Acre! has successfully petitioned Congress to renew each year since.

• In 2009 Not 1 More Acre! won a Federal Court Order under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) enjoining the Army from expanding training at the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site. Not 1 More Acre! provides unrelenting legal defense against violations of the court order to uphold the integrity of laws banishing Transformation from Pinon Canyon.

• In 2011, when the four-year-old funding ban prohibiting military expansion at Pinon Canyon was stolen away from the appropriations bill, Not 1 More Acre! alerted opponents across the nation. Thousands of taxpayers stood up and spoke out demanding restoration of the Congressional funding ban. Their swift and sure action caused the House to restore the funding ban for another year.

• Not 1 More Acre! and Grassland Trust actively engage Freedom of Information Act requests for records that serve the public interest by revealing government’s plans, contracts and activities advancing military takeover of southern Colorado and northern New Mexico including the last intact shortgrass prairie remaining in the American Great Plains.

Time has long passed to gain success over military encroachment in Indian Springs, Nevada, home of Creech Air Force Base. Situated on a beautiful desert landscape, built in the early 1940s for gunnery training, the base has become part of a rapidly growing movement of drone bases sprouting up across the nation. Yet with alternative strategies, campaigners with the Nevada Desert Experience host continuous demonstrations outside the base. Jim Haber, coordinator with the campaign, told an audience at the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, Michigan “we are trying to stop a runaway train”.

Indeed, with the drone industry moving at lightning speed and the Department of Defense ready to divvy out taxpayers cash to contractors, Nevada Desert Experience and other organizations ready themselves to challenge the front lines of Creech Air Force Base. At a recent gathering of Catholic Workers, 18 activists were arrested for blocking the entrances to the air base.

While grassroots organizations are obstructing the military takeover of southern Colorado, northern New Mexico ranch land and obstructing the entrance to a major drone base, one wonders how communities in Africa, Middle East, Central Asia and beyond are dealing with the land and air encroachment for U.S. drone warfare. Even though the media focuses on drone base expansion aboard, the struggles on the ground in those communities could be similar as those in the U.S.

While speaking at the Aspen Security Forum, the former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair called for an end to U.S. drone strikes. He also mentioned that the U.S. over spends billions on security and intelligence. Blair was confirmed in early January 2009 as Director of National Intelligence but was fired by President Obama in May 2010.

Activists in Canada are gearing up for a visit by former President George W. Bush working on efforts to have the former president arrested. Activists who made attempted citizens’ arrests will be in action as well as lawyers who are working on the legal angle.

The Chilcot inquiry keeps moving forward in its questioning of former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s decision to invade the country of Iraq. This fall, the inquiry is expected to be published and is set to challenge Blair’s evidence of Saddam containing weapons of mass destruction.

Touching on issues of Palestine, Afghanistan, Bradley Manning and Iraq, activists in Perth Australia held a lively protest outside a venue where Tony Blair was speaking. Watch as activists the confront local police!

While CODEPINK was making its presence known in Washington, DC, cofounder Medea Benjamin found herself face-to-face with former ambassador to the UN John Bolton. CODEPINK Confronts John Bolton

Bolton helped to launch an illegal war of aggression by disseminating false claims that Iraq was trying to obtain uranium “yellowcake” from Niger through the State Department while he was Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control.

To continue maintaining relationships with clients, mercenary contractor Xe, formerly known as Blackwater is moving its headquarters to Virginia. The office opened its doors on Monday on 19th and Kent in Rosslyn. Erik Prince is the former owner of Xe, whose mercenaries are complicit in murders and other misconduct in Iraq in addition to arms smuggling allegations.

In an amazing turn of events, an Army veteran working for a military contractor while in Iraq will be able to move forward in his case against former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The veteran claims he was disappeared, tortured and released with no explanation while in Iraq.

Human right groups in Britain are boycotting an inquiry into the government’s role in the torture and extraordinary rendition program. The groups, some representing former Guantanamo detainees, claim the victims of these torture tactics will not be fully represented in the inquiry.

When the protesters began arriving at 7:30 AM, banners and roses were added to the rent-a-fence. Messages like “Stop Drone Attacks,” and “General Atomics, Your Profits = Civilian Deaths” were placed to greet employees on their way to work.

Within an hour, there were 60+ protesters — mostly local San Diego citizens, but also activists from Nevada, Washington and cities throughout California. A picket line formed directly outside of the gate that the security guards were opening and closing for cars. Chants asking General Atomics to leave the Middle East and calling on President Obama to end the Drone strikes that have increased during his administration filled the air before everyone laid down for a die-in. After chalking the outlines to represent the civilians killed indiscriminately by drone attacks in Pakistan, we packed up and headed to a secondary GA entrance.

There was no chain-link fence the opposite side of the property, so cars came and went freely. A new picket line began, this time getting a great deal of attention from GA security and soon the police began arriving, one car after another. We carried banners, peace flags and model drone planes to make sure our presence was understood by General Atomics employees and any passers-by. Our intent was simple: ask people to think about the company that they work for and hold the management accountable for the killing machines that they manufacture. Profits are not more important than human lives. Consider where the paychecks come from, and at what cost. This is one morning that we made it difficult to get to work, but there are mornings in Pakistan and Afghanistan when people never make it to work at all, or arrive to find buildings and roads destroyed by US attacks. General Atomics has other divisions that do not build instruments of war. Several employees gave us smiles and peace signs as they passed by. It was clear that the Predator and Reaper Drones were not supported by all of GA’s employees.

By 11 AM, there were three protesters sitting in the driveway, preventing any access to the property and creating a back-up of 7 or 8 cars along the road. Security guards turned them away, one by one and began threatening arrest. They rest of us continued chanting and marching around them, bringing them water and whatever else they needed. The police attempted to negotiate with them, but they all wanted the same thing: General Atomics to agree to stop making Drones. Since the police couldn’t deliver that, we asked that they contact the CEO, James Neal Blue, so that we could have the meeting we had requested weeks ago. The police couldn’t do that either. So the sit-in continued.

We are not asking for the impossible — just to stop building the drones that kill civilians abroad and endanger US civilians domestically. Stop building the drones that fuel the war and cause suffering and hate. Concentrate on the rapid transit technology and the other peaceful General Atomics programs. Help communities by employing more people with the green jobs that will create a safe and sustainable future.

Profiting off of war, occupation and murder — and by extension, prolonging the violence — must not be tolerated. We are violating international laws by attacking countries like Pakistan, who did not attack or threaten the United States. We are violating US law since Congress did not authorize these attacks and in fact, the US government continues to avoid responsibility for them while the CIA oversees the Drone strikes.

After over an hour of preventing access to the GA headquarters and more than four hours of disrupting business as usual, CODEPINK, San Diego Peace Resource Center, and our coalition of activists packed up. We waved goodbye to the security guards and police, and promised to return.

General Atomics manufactures the Predator and Reaper Drones, the only armed UAV’s made in the US. Though touted as high-tech and life-saving precision weapons, at least 30% of the deaths caused by drone strikes are civilians, with some human rights groups estimating even higher numbers. All the while costing US taxpayers $4 million to $12 million for each plane during a time when domestic needs are desperately under-funded.

Another issue that CODEPINK takes with the use of drones – specifically in the Afghanistan/Pakistan border region – is that they are known to cause more deaths than they prevent, since the terror they cause fuel anti-American sentiment and help extremists groups to recruit combatants. During interrogation of the suspect in the failed NY Times Square bomb plot, it was revealed that drone strikes motivated his attempted attack on US civilians. Intelligence officials even admit to this threat, according to a NY Times article on May 5th. “{…} the attack in December on a C.I.A. base in Afghanistan, and now possibly the failed S.U.V. attack in Manhattan, are reminders that the drones’ very success may be provoking a costly response.”

CODEPINK and San Diego’s Peace Resource Center agree that the price of the drone attacks is too high, both in taxpayer dollars and human lives.