Drones on Trial: 38 Protesters Face Charges for Disrupting Syracuse Base Used in Overseas Attacks

Democracy Now   November 4, 2011  Includes video.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REw7cYLq45Y&w=560&h=315]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting the CIA has made a series of secret concessions in its drone campaign after military and diplomatic officials complained large strikes were damaging the fragile U.S. relationship with Pakistan. Meanwhile, a trial is underway in Syracuse, New York, of 38 protesters arrested in April at the New York Air National Guard base at Hancock Field.

The defendants were protesting the MQ-9 Reaper drones, which the 174th Fighter Wing of the Guard has remotely flown over Afghanistan from Syracuse since late 2009. “Citizens have a responsibility to take action when they see crimes being committed,” said retired Col. Ann Wright, one of the 38 on trial. “

And this goes back to World War II, when German government officials knew what other parts of the German government were doing in executing six million Jews in Germany and other places.

That they took no action, and yet they were held responsible later through the Nuremberg trials. And that is the theory on which we are acting: That we see that our government is committing crimes by the use of these drones and that we, as citizens, have the responsibility to act.”

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