Ground the Drones

Details
Drone Book
Other Resources
Videos
Shut Down Creech Mission
Nonviolence Guidelines
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Issue Details

Join Our Mass Mobilization to Stop the Drone Wars

Join CODEPINK's campaign of non-violent action to Ground Killer Drones, end U.S. militarism and perpetual war. We demand that the U.S. government stop the indiscriminate killing, injury, and trauma to civilians in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, and Libya caused by drones and endless wars and to start the rebuilding of hospitals, schools, towns and people’s lives. Killer drones do not make us safer, nor will they bring peace!

Twice a year CODEPINK has a national gathering at Creech AFB in an effort to Shut Down Creech, where over 900 drone pilots operate killer drones. CODEPINK Bay Area also demonstrates monthly with Occupy Beale AFB in Northern California, in an effort to interrupt business as usual. Periodically CODEPINK Germany marches at Ramstein and CODEPINK Japan demonstrated against U.S. militarism at U.S. bases in Japan. Since 2009 CODEPINK, along with dozens of protesters, have been arrested at drone bases worldwide. This year, we hope to double the number of protestors and invite you to join us in demonstrating against killer drones at Creech AFB!

For inspiration, check out our 2019 actions
For more information on housing, meals, and transportation visit: ShutDownCreech.blogspot
Register to join us here: SDC2019 Registration Form
Join our Facebook page for updates
Follow us on Twitter @ShutDownCreech
Contacts: Toby Blomé ratherbenyckeling@comcast.net | Eleanor Levine eastbaycodepink@gmail.com

Support Our Campaign to Stop Killer Drones!

Learn More and Get the Book

The drone era of perpetual war began in 2001 with the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. In 2003 the U.S. invaded Iraq for a second time causing millions of causalities, creating millions of refugees and civil war. CODEPINK, drone whistle-blowers and independent researchers all dispute the government’s claim that the use of drones is a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the U.S. safer by enabling “targeted killing” of terrorists, with minimal downsides or collateral damage. This argument is a cover-up in the face of facts. As reported by The Intercept, during one 5-month period in Afghanistan, nearly 90% of those killed by U.S. drones strikes were NOT the intended target. There is huge collateral impact; thousands of non-combatants, even American citizens, have been killed in covert drone missions along with the destruction of hospitals, schools, mosques infrastructure, towns and cities.

Many peace & justice groups, including Nevada Desert Experience, Veterans for Peace, Voices for Creative Non-Violence co-sponsor Shut Down Creech with CODEPINK and are calling for the U.S. government to conduct a fundamental re-evaluation and halt of all targeted killing practices. We know that drone attacks cause suffering and that suffering is being turned into hatred and backlash against the U.S. and its western allies.

Watch Our Latest Interview

Watch the Documentary: National Bird (Available on Netflix)

Support Our Peace Partners: Read and Sign Enough!

Don't forget to join us in wearing the Borderfree Blue Scarf to remind ourselves that all human beings live under the same blue sky.

Other Resources

Below is a list of resources and actions you can use to educate your community about lethal and surveillance drones.

Websites

The Bureau of Investigative Journalism has been investigating the US secret wars in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia. Find data and articles on their website.
Know Drones provides drone replicas and educational materials to support citizen action to achieve an international ban on weaponized drones and surveillance drones.
Voices for Creative Nonviolence offers a number of drone warfare awareness and resistance resources including pamphlets and a guide to organizing a mock drone attack action.
The Local Civil Rights Restoration (LCRR) campaign protects the fundamental rights and liberties of law-abiding Americans to be free of arbitrary monitoring and surveillance.

Social Media

Books, Films and Plays

Order your copy of Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. Invite Medea Benjamin to your community for a book event by contacting Alli McCracken at alli@codepink.org. Request your library include the book in its catalog.

Reports

A Drone Field Guide
Alexandra Gibb and Cameron Tulk (Canadian International Council) 5/31/12
This report compiles information on the broad spectrum of current and future drone designs and capabilities.
Drone Wars Briefing: Examining the Threat of Unmanned Warfare
Chris Cole (Drone Wars UK) 1/1/12
This briefing explores some of the key issues arising from the growing use of armed unmanned drones. Examining current UK and US military drone operations, as well as looking at future developments and legal issues, the fully-referenced briefing will be of use to both those new to the issue as well as those with a long-term interest.
Protecting Privacy From Aerial Surveillance: Recommendations for Government Use of Drone Aircraft
Jay Stanley and Catherine Crump (ACLU) 12/15/11
This report outlines a set of protections that would help protect Americans’ privacy in the coming world of domestic drones. The report recommends that drones should not be deployed unless there are grounds to believe that they will collect evidence on a specific crime.

Presentations

Drones and Voiceless Victims
Presentation by Shahzad Akbar at April 28, 2012 Drone Summit: Killing and Spying by Remote Control
Bugsplat: Drones and an Illegal and Counterproductive “War on Terror”
Presentation by Clive Stafford Smith at April 28, 2012 Drone Summit: Killing and Spying by Remote Control
US Reporting of Civilian Drone Strike Casualties
Presentation by Chris Woods at April 28, 2012 Drone Summit: Killing and Spying by Remote Control

“The Drone Papers”

Leaked military documents revealing the truth behind the covert U.S Drone Program, the “Kill Chain” of Command, and military data documenting the high civilian casualty rates that top government and Pentagon officials have been publicly denying.

Videos

Watch Our Latest Interview

Watch the Documentary: National Bird (Available on Netflix)

Drone Summit 2013

In November of 2013 CODEPINK hosted an International Drone Summit in Washington DC, hosting delegates from Yemen, Afghanistan, England, Germany, and many more!

Jeremy Scahill: Obama's Death Panels

Pakistan Delegation 2012

CODEPINK anti drone rally in Tank, Pakistan from 23rd Studios on Vimeo.

CODEPINK activists travel to Tank, Pakistan, an area just outside the border to South Waziristan. Medea Benjamin addresses a crowd of people inside a tribal compound, demanding an end to US occupation of Afghanistan and the illegal US drone program. The rally, organized by CODEPINK, The Foundation for Fundamental Rights, Reprieve, and PTI, marked the end point of a two day, 10,000 person convoy of protesters starting in Islamabad, Pakistan.

8 October 2012 | Anti Drone Rally in Tribal Area of Pakistan

8 October 2012 | Medea Benjamin interviewed on Al Jazeera about CODEPINK Stop Drones Delegation in Pakistan

8 October 2012 | CNN coverage of CODEPINK delegation to Pakistan</>

6 October 2012 | ‘Code Pink’ Protests Drone Strikes in Pakistan

5 October 2012 | US Peace Activists Challenge Ambassador in Pakistan About Drones

4 October 2012 | CODEPINK activists message on PTI Peace March to Waziristan

3 October 2012 | We Will Not Raise Our Children To Kill Other Mothers’ Children

CNN Coverage of CODEPINK Stop Drones Delegation to Pakistan

Medea Benjamin interview on Al Jazeera

Other CODEPINK Actions

US Peace Activists Challenge Ambassador in Pakistan About Drones from CODEPINK on Vimeo.

Anti-drone protesters from across Pakistan and around the world are gathering in Islamabad this week in preparation for a weekend march into the tribal areas of South Waziristan.

A delegation of 30 US activists and parents of U.S. Army soldiers has arrived in Islamabad, where they plan to join the October 6 and 7th anti-drone march and rally.

During a meeting with Acting US Ambassador to Pakistan Richard Hoagland, Robert Naiman of Just Foreign Policy and members of CODEPINK challenged Hoagland to respond to reports that CIA drone strikes in Pakistan have targeted civilian rescuers, and assertions by international law experts that such targeting is clearly a war crime under international humanitarian law, regardless of whether US drone strikes in Pakistan are otherwise legal.

Medea Benjamin disrupted a talk by Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan spoke at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington DC on April 30, 2012 on the one-year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden. It was the first time a high level member of the Obama Administration spoke at length about the U.S. drone strikes that the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command have been carrying out in Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia.

More information

Pakistani Government Sued by Drone Victims for Complicity in CIA Attacks

Jeremy Scahill: Who approves the Drones?

Shut Down Creech Mission

Whereas, Creech Air Force Base is a key control base for the illegal, covert and inhumane U.S. drone targeted assassination program that has taken innumerable human lives in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and elsewhere, and has caused intolerable harm to persons and communities around the globe.

Whereas, the U.S. Drone program is an extension of the long-standing racist and white supremacist values inherent in U.S. foreign policy since its beginnings, that is driven by corporate greed and motivation for global economic domination, at the expense of the world’s indigenous communities, and in violation of other countries’ right to sovereignty.

Whereas, the proliferation of militarized drones around the world, initially led by the U.S., Britain and Israel, is now expanding at such a frightening rate, that it is creating a more and more unstable global situation, that will “destroy the world as we know it to be in completely new ways.” (Arundhati Roy)

MISSION

We will gather bi-annually at Creech Air Force Base for a week of non-violent, and peaceful resistance to oppose the insanity and cruelty of U.S. drone murder and to refuse to accept the violence that is U.S. global militarization.

Throughout the week we aim to model to Creech military and civilian employees and to local law enforcement what peace looks like, and to educate them and persuade them to come over to the side of peace. “There is no way to peace, peace is the way.” (A.J. Muste) The week will culminate in a day of non-violent civil resistance in which our goal is to peacefully Shut Down “business as usual” at Creech Air Force Base for as long as we possibly can.

Creech is where the killer drone program started—it is where we shall end it.

We must put an end to drone murder, drone surveillance and global militarization.
We must put an end to the desecration of our Mother Earth and all the creatures who inhabit it.
We must put an end to the dehumanization of people’s lives from Ferguson to Palestine, Syria to Somalia, Afghanistan to Yemen, Iraq and beyond.
We must close all foreign U.S. military bases. Money should be prioritized for human needs, not war profiteering.

Nonviolence Guidelines

For Life at Camp Justice and at Creech AFB

*We will gather and act in a manner that reflects the world we choose to create.

*We will be nonviolent in our actions, words & otherwise.

*We will promote an alternative to domination systems by acting with love, respect, openness and compassion towards all we encounter, including counter-protesters, military personnel and police.

*We will carry no weapons, and work towards a world free from violence.

*We will not damage or permanently alter any public, private or military property.

*We will remain calm and aware at all times.

*We will prepare ourselves emotionally, mentally and spiritually before we act and will recognize our opposition is to a system of violence and militarism, not to individuals.

*We will promote the safety of ourselves and others through our actions and interactions.