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Find Baby Jesus in the Rubble

On Sunday, December 17th, 2023 a Nativity scene will be set in front of the Syracuse Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception before the 9:45 AM Mass for people to view and comment on; it suggests that Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus would likely be incinerated if being under Roman occupation, Herod had killer drones. Syracuse has one of a growing number of killer drone bases in the United States.

The churches in the city of Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, are canceling the celebration of Christmas because their fellow Palestinians in Gaza are being slaughtered by Israel aided by United States approval and assistance. Many American Christian churches are silent about the ongoing genocide inflicted by Israel and are not promoting the nonviolent message of Jesus. More than 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza; thousands more remain uncounted under the rubble caused by Israeli terror from planes, tanks, howitzer 155mm shells, and other weapons of mass destruction. Since Oct. 7th, 50,897 people have been injured. We deplore US Senator Schumer who has given total cooperation to the Israeli slaughter of Gazans and led the US Senate to refuse to support a permanent ceasefire.

This Christmas, we applaud and join Pope Francis in his renewed call for an immediate permanent humanitarian ceasefire, and we call for an end to the occupation.  Palestinians need to be free from the ongoing unequal apartheid system of control and given full autonomy, and respect for their human rights with dignity.  We call for an end to the genocide. We pray that Christians will return to the true meaning of Christ’s birth, the proclaimed Prince of Peace. Join in our demand to end sending weapons and funding to Israel.

This is a local issue in Syracuse, protested since 2009; as Hancock Drone Airbase, one of the largest training and maintenance centers for drone assassinations, kills civilians abroad just as Israeli drones are used in Gaza. In attendance are members of Pax Christi Upstate NY, Upstate Drone Action, Ithaca Catholic Workers, Friends of Ben Salmon, Syracuse Peace Council, and many people of conscience who want the slaughter to end.

Ceasefire Now!

Directions to Syracuse Cathedral, 259 E Onondaga St, Syracuse, NY 13202

(https://www.google.com/maps/search/259+E%C2%A0+Onondaga+St,+Syracuse,+NY+13202?entry=gmail&source=g)

The Call of the Churches in Bethlehem to Cancel Christmas Celebrations and Find Baby Jesus in the Rubble: https://youtu.be/22curZplBl0?si=mLIIDunSuDa_QxLO

https://www.yahoo.com/news/110-freeway-reopens-cease-fire-201246388.html

Contact: Ann Tiffany, anntiffany6235@gmail.com  315-478-4571

Mary Anne Grady Flores, gradyflores08@gmail.com 607-280-8797

*Featured Image: A Lutheran church in Bethlehem has a Christmas Nativity centered on the war and suffering in Gaza.A Lutheran church in Bethlehem has a Christmas Nativity centered on the war and suffering in Gaza.




Rally for Peace: Shut Down General Dynamics – No More Weapons for Israel

According to event organizer Jack Gilroy, a group of over 100 people protested outside General Dynamics in a cold rain in Scranton, PA, Joe Biden’s home town.  This factory manufactures ammunition required by both Israel and Ukraine to keep the U.S. backed slaughterhouse in business.  Sponsors for this action include:  Ban Killer Drones, The Merchants of Death Tribunal, Broome County Peace Action,  Broome County Veterans For Peace and Upstate Drone Action.

The event was given positive coverage by WVIA News in Scranton, which published a great slideshow on their website.

Veterans for Peace Director Mike Fermer lays in front of the gate to the Scranton Army Ammunition Plant. Src: WVAI

The Press Release is below:

Following talks with Blinken, Israel has resumed bombing of Gaza, including the south, where Israel told Palestinian civilians to go in what UNICEF spokesperson James Elder is calling “a war on children.” An Israeli spokesperson states its forces are unleashing “the mother of all thumpings” on Gaza. The Israeli +972 Magazine published the piece “A mass assassination factory’: Inside Israel’s calculated bombing of Gaza.” See Al Jazeera live stream and X/Twitter list. There have been major protests around the world, from South Africa to Denmark to Jordan.

This weekend, a coalition of groups protested in Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Penn.

Video by Vera Scroggins.

The protests centered around a General Dynamics facility which the coalition states “makes 155 mm shells which have been used by Israeli artillery to bomb Gaza where over 15,000 people have been killed with 75 percent being children and women. The geographic area of Gaza is just one-third the size of Lackawanna County [where Scranton is located]. Israel has dropped 25,000 tons of explosives on tiny Gaza — equal to the explosive force of two nuclear bombs. … The Biden administration ordered 57,000 155 mm shells to be delivered to Israel.”

The groups include Northeast Pennsylvania for Palestine, Veterans for Peace and Democratic Socialists of America. The coalition states: “Genocide Joe is attempting to remove all restrictions currently in place on Israel’s access to U.S. stockpiles in the region as a way of sidestepping congressional approval. The killing must stop.”

Video by John Amidon:

The coalition cites the “Leahy Law that prohibits sending weapons to known human rights violators” and vows to block the main gate of General Dynamics facility.

“Josh Paul, a former senior State Department official overseeing arms sales who resigned in protest last month, said that Israel is in violation of international law. ‘Israel is committing war crimes in its actions in Gaza right now,’ he said. ‘And it’s not just my opinion. I’ve actually heard from officials across government, including elected officials at a very senior level, who share that opinion but aren’t willing to say it in public.’

“Hospitals had become refuge for many, and they have been bombed, along with actual refugee camps. Even during this ‘humanitarian pause’ Gazans who have attempted to return home in the North have been fired on by the Israeli Forces. “While we are pleased to see the reunification of families … we must remember the Israeli government has vowed that they will continue their campaign of carnage after the temporary ‘humanitarian pause.’

“We in no uncertain terms condemn Rep. Matt Cartwright, Sen. Bob Casey, and Sen. Fetterman for providing rhetorical cover for the genocide of Palestinians. We condemn President Biden, who could stop this genocide with a phone call and who has been a vehement supporter of the brutal Israeli occupation his entire political career.”

Speakers at the rally at noon on Sunday included:

Mike Ferner, Director of Veterans for Peace USANick Mottern, National Board of Directors of VFP

Ariel Gold, Director of Fellowship of Reconciliation Jamie Santiago, University of Scranton studentJulia Stanley, Binghamton NY Peace and Justice advocateLori Watson, Scranton Peace and Justice advocateJack Gilroy, Pax Christi USA/VFP

*Featured Image: Protesters outside General Dynamics in Scranton, protesting US weapons sales to Ukraine and Israel which result in tens of thousands of pointless deaths while US corporations receive billions of $$. src ~Vera Scroggins Video above.


For more information about the activities of US weapons manufacturers,  check out the Merchants of Death Tribunal.  It has already begun with an introductory session on November 5, followed by new sessions released on zoom every Sunday night at 8pm.  The schedule can be found on merchantsofdeath.org and the video presentations from each session are on Rumble.




A Quick Journey Through the April 21 Theater of Resistance

Subpeona for Senator Schumer

Subpeona for Senator Gillibrand
d

Fat Cat Banker Introduces Medea

Medea Benjamin Clip

Diane Sare clip

Subpoena for JP Morgan Chase

Procession to The Chancellery of the Diocese of Syracuse

Subpeona for Bishop Lucia

Subpoena for Base Commander

Hancock: Ed Kinane

Hancock: Chuck Kline

Hancock: Rose McPartland




Messing with the Merchants of Death in Syracuse, New York

by Jack Gilroy, published in Veterans For Peace Newsletter | Spring 2023 25

An Earth Day celebration mocking the clever fools of the war machine produced a lot of grim fun in Syracuse, New York, on Friday, April 21. A coalition of peace groups including Upstate Drone Action, Veterans For Peace Chapter 90, Peace Action, UpState PaxChristi, and Ithaca Catholic Worker had already issued subpoenas to six merchants of death and their enablers in the Syracuse community to testify at the November 2023 Merchants of Death Tribunal. Now it was time to hear from the war enablers themselves.

Speaking outside the federal building offices of Senators Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand, Senator Schumer, the majority leader of the U.S. Senate (played by Jack Gilroy) said: “Just imagine if we followed JFK’s call for disarmament and friendly relations with the Russians 60 years ago…? We wouldn’t be the leaders we are now in weapons production and… [kicking] ass around the world. Sure, we usually get our own asses kicked, but hey! A lot of people get rich in the process—it’s a capitalist country, no?” Our sign illustrated his point: “Chuck Schumer Takes More $$ from the Merchants of Death than any other U.S. politician.”

LEFT: Jack Gilroy plays Chuck Schumer in a political skit out in front of the New York Senator’s Syracuse office building. RIGHT: JP Morgan (Todd Sadler) and fellow Fat Cats cheer on the politicians. Photos: John Amidon

Binghamton actress Judy McMahon, playing Senator Gillibrand, told how lucky she was to marry a Brit whose family pretty much controlled BAE (formerly British Aeronautical Engineering), now one of the top ten merchants of death. Sen Gillibrand told how she received a half million dollars from her Brit relatives to help her become a Senator who sits on the  Armed Services Committee and enjoys not only voting for the military budget each year but increasing it. “My aides tell me that millions struggle to have food stamps, but I say guns over butter. Let them make cake! We need more tanks and planes. How will we very be able to blow our enemies to smithereens if we don’t spend a trillion dollars to upgrade our nuclear weapons system? Some say we should spend some of those needed nuke  dollars to pay for mental help needs. How crazy is that?

Colonel Glorious Guano (played by Kirsten Whistle), the new commander of the 174th Attack Wing of the N.Y. State National Guard, told the crowd, “We sit on our asses as we decide who lives and dies in faraway places… We’re the U.S. Chair Force! We miss finding targets in Afghanistan, but thankfully we have a president who has given us new opportunities to hone our killing skills with his after-Afghanistan policy, Beyond the Horizon, keeping us busy right here in Syracuse doing assassinations without worrying about church leaders or other ‘moralists’ interfering with our ability to keep our boy’s and girls’ boots off the ground.”

Diane Sare gave a brilliant talk on the messed-up U.S. Intelligence system now desperate to find new draconian ways to arrest and imprison people who speak out in opposition to wars concocted in secret by privileged captains of industry.

Medea Benjamin, our USA Activism for Justice Rock Star, played her usual captivating self, and pantomimed distributing dollars to Schumer and Gillibrand for real needs.

Diane Sare played “We’re In The Money” on her trombone, as the crowd of Fat Cats and sign carriers followed the band to nearby Chase Bank, where JP Morgan (Todd Sadler in top hat) did a spoof at the bank that included reading a subpoena that he ordered taken to the CEO of JP Morgan Chase.

Actors playing Bishop Lucia of Syracuse and Pope Francis (barely visible in the rear of this photo) joined in the walk to the Syracuse Diocese headquarters led by trombonist Diane Sare playing “When the Saints Go Marching In.” Photo: Michelle Erin

On the chancery steps of Syracuse Diocese headquarters, Pope Francis congratulated Bishop Lucia for his initiative in bringing about an apology from the Vatican for 500 years of domination of aboriginal people in the Western Hemisphere, The Doctrine of Discovery. Then the Pope admonished the Bishop for his silence abut the assassination drone base near his office, and for not speaking up forcefully to condemn environmental damages caused by the Merchant of Death, Lockheed Martin, in his own diocese.

LEFT: Jack Gilroy plays Chuck Schumer in a political skit out in front of the New York Senator’s Syracuse office building. RIGHT: JP Morgan(Todd Sadler) and fellow Fat Cats c




Press Release and Schedule for Delivering Merchants of Death Subpoenas, April 21, 2023

Press Release: For Immediate Release

Contact: Jack Gilroy 607-321-8537 jgilroy1955@gmail.com
                Mary Anne Grady Flores 607-280-8797 gradyflores08@gmail.com

Join us! Guest Speaker: Medea Benjamin of Code Pink

Friday! April 21st, EARTH DAY Actions in Syracuse sponsored by UpstateDroneAction.

SUBPOENAS WILL BE DELIVERED TO MERCHANTS OF DEATH (e.g. LOCKHEED) and their allies, calling them to give account at the November Merchants of Death Tribunal for making huge profits from war while causing the suffering of millions of victims and severe destruction to the earth and all her creatures. The Earth and her people cry out for relief. No More Weapons for War! Lockheed is the world’s largest weapons dealer and profiteer. Their CEO is on the NATO board. All countries who sign on must spend 5% of their GDP buying Lockheed weapons and parts. According to Vets for Peace, the US military has the largest institutional output of greenhouse gases, more than 145 countries combined, supplying 800 US bases around the world, sending rockets to put satellites to conduct all our wars and surveillance. Lockheed feeds the beast of war. We go to the gates of Lockheed, Merchant of Death to say Peace is the Way. “We used to make weapons for war! Now we make wars for weapons!”

TIMING:  

  • (Part 1) @ 12 noon -1:30 pm (1 1/2 hrs)
  • BREAK & LUNCH 1:45 – 3 pm (1 1/4 hr)
  • (Part 2) @ 3:15 – 4:30 pm  (1 1/4 hr.)

Part 1 Downtown: 

Guest Speakers:

    Medea Benjamin, Diane Sare

(Street Theatre & Delivery of Subpoenas to allies of Merchants of Death)

Special Appearances:
    Drummers, Trumpeters, Fat Cats in Top Hats, Senators & the Pope! 
1st Stop: 12 noon @ Federal Bldg,

Sen. Schumer & Gillibrand’s Offices.
        (Senator allies of Pentagon contractor, Lockheed).
– 100 S Clinton St, Syracuse, NY 13261  (park across from Fed. Bldg)

—————  then walk 2 blocks

2nd Stop: 12:30 pm  Chase Bank 

   (Major investor in Merchants of Death, weapons contractors).
– 110 W. Fayette St. (near Washinton St.) address correction confirmed by Ann Tiffany.

—————   then walk 5 or 6 blocks

3rd Stop -1 pm  Syracuse Diocese Office

          (Calling Catholic Bishop Lucia to not be silent on issues of war-making & drone killing.)
– 240 E Onondaga St, Syracuse, NY 13202

BREAK & LUNCH 1:45 – 3 pm

    (Tuna & Egg Salad, Rum Cake, & any goodies you bring)
Ed Kinane & Ann Tiffany’s Home
– 340 Midland Ave, Syracuse, NY 13202
—————   14 minutes or 7.4 miles to Lockheed from Ed & Ann’s house

Part 2 – The Immediate Perpetrators

4th Stop – 3:15 -3:45 pm (1/2 hr.)  Lockheed Martin
      (World’s Largest Weapons Dealer & Profiteer)
– 497 Electronics Pkwy, Liverpool, NY 13088

—————   then drive 15- 20 mins to Hancock Base

5th Stop – 4 – 4:30 pm (1/2 hr.) Hancock Drone Assassination Base

– 6001 E Molloy Rd, Syracuse, NY 13211

Map with Directions from Ann & Ed’s house to Lockheed.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/kBMYG58DYezttQ318?g_st=ig

**  Questions? Contacts are above.



Earth Day Action – Expose the Crimes of the Merchants of Death

Planned Actions in Syracuse, NY 

In Syracuse, NY, USA, peace and justice groups will bond in solidarity to commemorate Earth Day, the day before, April 21st from 12 noon to 4 PM. We’ll expose the crimes of the war machine focusing on political, financial, church, industry, and military. The war machine enablers will be exposed at five locations:

 

Medea Benjamin an Diane Sare will be joining us.  We hope that you will as well.

1) Starting outside the local offices of Senator Schumer and Senator Gillibrand, we will spoof the crimes of both Schumer, who takes more weapons makers’ blood money than any other US politician, and Gillibrand , who sits on the Senate Defense (sic) Committee and like Schumer, votes every year to increase the US military budget. We will deliver people’s subpoenas to both, calling upon them to testify at our November 10-13 Merchants of Death Tribunal.

2) Two blocks away in downtown Syracuse at one of the many JP Morgan Chase banks, we’ll do Fat Cats parodies outside and deliver the subpoena to the bank manager, Ms Lynn Nunez.

3) Processing with music, we’ll stand before the headquarters of the Diocese of Syracuse and deliver a subpoena to the local Roman Catholic Bishop Douglas Lucia, calling upon him to break his silence and testify in our Merchants of Death Tribunal to the war crimes happening in his diocese. These include, just hiking distance from his office, the activities of the Hancock Killer Drone base, home of the NY National Guard’s 174th Attack Wing.

4) We will then caravan just 15 minutes to one of Lockheed Martin’s war factories near Syracuse. Lockheed Martin is the king of the Merchants of Death. No other war corporation makes so much profit spreading mayhem around the Earth as Lockheed Martin. We won’t be allowed inside their gates but will attach a subpoena to their compound fence. Last fall, Brad Wolf, the mainstay organizer of merchantsofdeath.org, and others including Ret. Army Colonel Ann Wright, delivered a subpoena to the headquarters of Lockheed Martin’s national headquarters in Bethesda, Maryland.

5) A short drive from Lockheed Martin will take us to the 174th Attack Wing of the NYS National Guard which once bragged that Afghanistan was their prime target. We don’t know what unfortunate foreign people are their target now but we do know that their MQ9 Reaper drones are armed with Hellfire Missiles (made by Lockheed Martin in Orlando, Fl ) and Paveway bombs (made in a Lockheed factory in Archbald, Pa).

Dayshift workers at the East Malloy Rd Syracuse killer drone base will be finishing their day’s work when we greet them with our banners and signs. At the front gate, we’ll attempt to deliver a subpoena to the base commander, Col. William “Rhino” McCrick III. We don’t expect to be arrested this time but over the past 13 years of protest scores of us have been arrested, usually charged with trespass and disorderly conduct. And a bunch of us have done time in the local Jamesville Penitentiary for our scrupulously nonviolent civil resistance to Reaper drone terror. Sometimes we die-in or do colorful street theatre blocking the main gate (see video footage at upstatedroneaction.org). Hundreds of arrests have occurred and many of us have been jailed for nonviolent resistance to drone terrorism.

Originally published on Veterans for Peace, March 09, 2023

This Earth Day weekend a coalition of peace and justice groups are taking action to expose the merchants of death and their enablers by delivering subpoenas to each merchant/enabler with a demand they testify at the worldwide Merchants of Death Tribunal. The Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal (November 10-13, 2023) will hold accountable — through testimony of witnesses — U.S. weapons manufacturers who knowingly produce and sell products which attack and kill not only combatants but non-combatants as well. These manufacturers may have committed Crimes Against Humanity as well as violated U.S. Federal criminal laws. The Tribunal will hear the evidence and render a verdict.

Peace and justice groups are encouraged to take action in their local communities on Friday, April 21st (Friday is the better media day and more offices are open). Each peace and justice organization nationwide can decide what to do to highlight the crimes of the war merchants and their enablers.

Organized by Up State Drone Action, VFP Chapter 90, Pax Christi Upstate NY, and Peace Action of New York

Action Ideas (From the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal Website)

  • Call press conferences outside of your US Senate offices and/or US House of Representatives offices when delivering a subpoena to these congressional representatives.
  • Download corporate subpoenas from the Merchants of Death website and deliver to the four corporate war-maker Merchants of Death under indictment by the Tribunal that have offices in your area (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Atomics).
  • Issue subpoenas to Church leaders who may be complicit by their silence or outright support of the merchants of death.
  • Issue subpoenas to major banks or investment firms with major holdings in the war industry (e.g. Raytheon, Boeing, etc).
  • Go to military bases and issue them subpoenas to testify along with all the others in the US Murder Inc. system.
  • Read more here!

 




Dan’s messages to Weapons Manufacturers




Peace and Social Justice Groups Call for Diversion of Military Spending to Human Needs in the U.S.

by Scott Willis, published on WAER, March 3, 2022
(Press clippings from a sibling group with much overlap)

Activists protest war and military spending in front of the federal building.

About a dozen activists from religious, peace, and justice groups marked the occasion of the Christian holy day of Ash Wednesday to promote diplomacy and non-violence between Russia and Ukraine.   They also called for the diversion of military spending to address housing, hunger, and education needs in the U.S.

The gathering greeted parishioners attending Ash Wednesday services at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, then moved to the federal building, where they burned contracts of various weapons manufacturers…

“…General Electric Company, contract with the U.S. government $4.4 billion. We hereby burn this contract and divert funds for housing for all Americans.”

Jack Gilroy is events coordinator for local chapter Pax Christi Upstate, which supports the need to proclaim the non-violence teachings of Christ. He’s also with Peace Action and Veterans for Peace in the Southern Tier.

“We’re trying to bring attention not only to the federal government that this is an unbelievable waste, but also to the churches who we believe have a strong reason to take a moral and ethical stance. And, we’re not hearing that from them,”

Gilroy said.

“I’ve seen a fair number of people in the streets here in Syracuse who are homeless, yet we’re spending money on hellfire missiles made by Lockheed Martin, which receives $79 billion every year from the federal government.”

Lockheed Martin has a presence here, of course, with a facility in Salina. The activists gathered at the federal building to urge Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to transform what they call the use of funds for killing to funds for living, such as the environment, health care, education, and addressing poverty and disease. John Amidon says studies show how the U.S. is perpetuating a war mentality with its more than $700 billion dollar budget.

“The United States is involved, in one way or another, 85 conflicts right now in the world. Sometimes it’s as advisors. Sometimes it’s training troops. Sometimes it’s supplying arms. But we are fueling conflicts all over the world in one fashion or another,”

Amidon said.

Protestors gather outide the Federal Building in Syracuse NY protesting the United States Military Industrial Complex. Mar. 2, 2022, Syracuse, NY. (Photo by Max Mimaroglu)

Jack Gilroy says that includes the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“We are here for sure to recognize the terrible leadership of Vladimir Putin. But we’re also here to remind people that if we had spent much of our funds that we spent on weapon making for diplomacy and improving conditions in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, etc., then we wouldn’t be here today with a crazed individual who has us on the precipice of possible atomic use.”

The activists also denounced the ongoing use of military drones, which they say has cost innocent lives in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq.

*Featured Image: Protestors gather outide the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Syracuse NY protesting the United States Military Industrial Complex. Mar. 2, 2022, Syracuse, NY. (Photo by Max Mimaroglu)


Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.




Military Spy Drones: How Domestic U.S. Drone Integration is Propelling Next Wave of Killer Drone Proliferation

by Barry Summers, published on Covert Action Magazine, January 21, 2022

“Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we’re looking at, and we can see everything.” [Source: wired.com]

Drones, or Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), were developed for war. The idea was first conceived in World War I and they were first adopted for surveillance purposes at the end of World War II and in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. Then military drones like the Predator became armed during the “Global War on Terror.”

For many years now, people in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan have had to assume that they were being tracked by a drone they could not see, circling miles over their heads. In the United States, government and corporate surveillance is everywhere. However, other than isolated exceptions like the Predator circling over Minneapolis during the George Floyd protests, military drones have not been allowed to operate in civilian, or “non-segregated,” U.S. airspace. That is about to change.

With very little public notice, the U.S. government started the process of opening U.S. civilian airspace to military drones (otherwise known as “integration”) in 2010. The Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Transportation began drafting a “Plan,” at the direction of Congress, and that Plan was signed into law by Barack Obama in 2012.

The Plan emphasized Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) steps to integrate “civil” (civilian, commercial, hobbyist) drones into the National Airspace System (NAS). But the short section devoted to “public” (government, military) drones served the original purpose—beginning the opening of U.S. skies to routine operation of Predators, Reapers, and other drones. A plan within a Plan.

Since then, it has become clear that there was another plan within this Plan. It involved using the imprimatur of the FAA to push the next generation of U.S.-made surveillance/attack drones onto U.S. allies across the globe—not all of whom were deemed suitable to receive advanced U.S. drones previously. Countries with a history of human rights violations [like Morocco or the United Arab Emirates (UAE)], or perpetual states of conflict with their neighbors (like India or Taiwan) have not been able to acquire the most advanced U.S.-made drones. Those restrictions are now falling away.

One U.S. drone maker was at the center of the effort from the start: General Atomics (GA). Maker of the Predator, and then the Reaper, its newest, most advanced drone is the MQ-9B SkyGuardian.

Originally called the “Ceritifiable Predator B,” GA started developing it in 2012 soon after the Plan was signed into law. As the name implies, it was designed from the ground up with the intention that it be certified to operate in domestic airspace. GA has been aggressively marketing it overseas since 2014, with the presumed certification by the FAA as a major selling point. (How aggressively? GA sued the German government to try to force it to reconsider choosing a competitor’s drone.)

GA funded this project internally, meaning it placed a gigantic bet that its “certifiable” drone would be warmly received by the FAA. If in fact there was prior coordination among the DoD, FAA and General Atomics, it suggests that a U.S. foreign policy initiative, a “Public-Private Partnership,” huge and unpublicized, was woven into this Plan.

Since it began in 2012, the majority of the reporting on the DoD/FAA’s drone integration program has been about the civilian/commercial benefits of small drone integration—package delivery, local law enforcement, infrastructure inspection, etc. But behind the scenes, integrating military drones appeared to be the main purpose. And then, there are the foreign sales.

“The foreign sales aspect of these RPAs is potentially huge.”

U.S. Air Force (USAF) Major General James O. Poss, Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, the senior Intelligence officer for the USAF, was quoted in a 2012 article titled “Military ‘Aggressively Working’ To Ease Drone Sales Abroad.” He stated that “the foreign sales aspect of these RPAs [remotely piloted aircraft] is potentially huge.… A less restrictive export policy for unmanned aircraft is “in the national interest of the United States,” Poss continued. “It’s something we’re aggressively working with both the OSD [Office of the Secretary of Defense] policy folks and the State Department.”

Two months after that article appeared, General Poss retired from the USAF. During his career he had, among other things, shepherded the Reaper drone through its certification in 2005. He was central to expanding the role of drones in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for touting their capabilities, like the new “Gorgon Stare” technology. Gorgon Stare and its successors allowed the USAF to maintain a constant, high-definition video database of a huge area, which could be searched at a later date.

“Gorgon Stare will be looking at a whole city, so there will be no way for the adversary to know what we’re looking at, and we can see everything.”

[Source: cp-techusa.com]

After leaving USAF, Poss was tapped by the FAA to direct research into integrating drones into domestic U.S. airspace. He was almost certainly one of the authors of the Plan.

While the choice of leadership of the FAA UAS Center of Excellence was billed by the FAA as a “rigorous competition,” Poss appeared to have known years in advance that he would be holding this office. In a January 2015 interview just before the choice was announced, he said “We’ve been preparing for this competition for over five years.” So that was, what—2010? From 2010 – 2012, Poss was still at the Pentagon.

The decision to place Poss in this office was likely made by the FAA Assistant Administrator for NextGen, the office that oversees all FAA Centers of Excellence. At the time, that position was held by former USAF Major General Edward L. Bolton, Jr., Director, Space and Cyber Operations. His role is especially interesting as GA was on a path to become a major player in the militarization of space.

Bolton and Poss were two of the dozens of former senior military officers occupying positions at FAA and ancillary organizations involved in drone integration.

General Poss again, from the 2012 article:

[T]here are international lawyers out there that think the various treaties dealing with cruise missiles apply,” such as the Missile Technology Control Regime (MCTR).

The MTCR was embraced by the U.S. in part to keep advanced drone technology from countries which were not solid allies of the U.S. Not that U.S. drone technology is unrepresented abroad. The Reaper drone is a major weapons system of many U.S. allies. (A man named Stephen Luxion was instrumental in providing the MQ-9A Reaper to U.S. allies. His name will come up again.)

Another of those likely Plan authors featured in that 2012 article was DoD official Steven Pennington. For the previous several years, he had been the principal public advocate of opening U.S. airspace to military drones.

“A senior Air Force civil servant put the stakes bluntly: ‘The aviation enterprise is the crown jewel in the U.S. economy by far. It has the greatest number of high value jobs, it has the greatest value that is exported,’ said Steven Pennington, director of ranges, bases and airspace. If the U.S. does not take the lead in the global drone market, he warned, Europe, Asia and others will ‘quickly fill that void.’

“Poss said, ‘The stakes are strategic as well as economic. The military sees foreign military sales of all kinds as a way to build relationships with friendly governments while equipping them with gear that makes it easier to operate alongside U.S forces. Unmanned air vehicles are a particularly important area to be interoperable.’”

Poss had been celebrated for his years as a leader of “interoperability” between the U.S. and United Kingdom (UK) airborne intelligence forces. If there is any evidence that the drone integration Plan had an international proliferation agenda within it, this was it.

When Poss left the USAF in late 2012, his senior Intelligence counterpart in the Royal Air Force (RAF), Sir Stephen Hillier, had left his position several months earlier, to oversee UK Ministry of Defense (MoD) military procurement. This would place him at the center of the decision whether to purchase the newest U.S.-made military drone, GAs MQ-9B SkyGuardian, for the UK’s “Protector” initiative. It was one of four career moves for Hillier in ten years, coinciding with steps that would lead to the MQ-9B operating in UK skies. Other steps are explained below.

On the last day of 2013, the FAA announced the winners of the coveted state-level UAS test sites mandated in the 2012 FAA Act, chosen after a supposedly rigorous competition. There was no mention of military activities. However, each site wound up being led by a high-level, recently retired military officer. In one case, North Dakota (ND), it was headed by the state’s active-duty Air National Guard Commander.

DoD official Pennington actually cited ND’s Grand Forks Air Force Base in a 2011 article about the DoD/FAA drone program, months before the legislation was signed into law. He also stated that the funding for these sites would come from the DoD, not FAA. While they would all go on to conduct some civilian, commercial drone integration research, the military leadership, funding and military bases they operated on or next to, signaled what their principal purpose was.

For example, a few years after its founding, it was difficult to see where the FAA’s “Northern Plains UAS Test Site” (NPUASTS), Grand Forks Air Force Base, and the large General Atomics facility next door begin and end. This was where the 2018 MQ-9B SkyGuardian flight over the Atlantic would depart from, on its PR mission to the UK’s Royal Air Force. It was timed to arrive for the Royal International Air Tattoo airshow, where the newest military aircraft are displayed for potential buyers.

DoD official Pennington, cited above, was quoted in February of 2012 that the DoD would be selecting these sites based on their criteria. The fiction that this was anything but a principally military research operation is pretty thin. In any case, the test sites would share in federal research grants disbursed by former Major General James Poss’s FAA UAS Center of Excellence, ASSURE.

By mid-March of 2016, the Unmanned Aircraft Systems Executive Committee (ExCom), created in 2009 to coordinate UAS activities among federal agencies, was expanded. It then included DoD, FAA, NASA, and the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and Interior. When NASA joined in 2010, it understood that the purpose of this coordination was to expedite public (military) UAS access to the NAS. The ExCom was chaired by former Major General Marke “Hoot” Gibson, previously Director of Operations, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations for the USAF. At the time, he was the FAA’s “Senior Adviser on UAS Integration.” A two-star Air Force General would be representing the “civilian” FAA on a joint-agency committee overseeing drone integration.

The FAA also stated explicitly that the focus of the ExCom was DoD’s UAS access into the NAS.” ExCom was originally named the “Joint Department of Defense and Federal Aviation Administration Executive Committee on Conflict and Dispute Resolution,” suggesting a history of conflict and disputes between the DoD and FAA on military drone integration which, according to the 2009 National Defense Authorization Act, posed “a threat to national security.”

At that same time, emails obtained in 2018 by DroneWarsUK revealed extensive coordination between the MoD, GA, USAF, and FAA to persuade skeptical UK civilian air regulators not to block the acquisition of the MQ-9B for the Protector Initiative. One thread of emails had the subject line “Developing the Mechanism for a Technical Support Arrangement to Protector.”

That is when, coincidentally, the USAF committed to opening a “Non-DoD Military Aircraft Office” (NDMAO) at Wright-Patterson AFB. It would be dedicated to providing certification services to U.S. companies producing military aircraft that the U.S. did not currently intend to purchase. These services would be provided to private companies for a fee. The email thread then had the words “[Non-DoD Source]” added to the subject line. MQ-9B SkyGuardian is the NDMAO’s first customer. The UK would eventually pay the bill.

It appears that did the trick. One month later, the UK announced it would buy the MQ-9B. Both James Poss and Stephen Hillier resigned their respective posts within weeks, strongly suggesting that the sale of the MQ-9B to UK was the reason they were in those posts to begin with. Hillier would go on to become Air Chief Marshal, Commander of the Royal Air Force. Poss would found his own UAS consulting company. Edward Bolton had left FAA a month earlier, to become a Vice President at the Aerospace Corporation, the private company that manages the launch and space systems of the USAF and the National Reconnaissance Office.

Poss’s successor at the FAA UAS COE was former USAF Colonel Stephen “Lux” Luxion. His career had two notable high points: He created and ran the first Predator attack unit tasked to the CIA in the “Global War on Terror,” the 17th Reconnaissance Squadron. (While this fact was originally included in his ASSURE bio, it has since been deleted.)

Later, when the Reaper was established as the drone of choice for U.S. allies, Luxion was stationed in Europe overseeing basing decisions for the new drone squadrons. It is an unexpected pedigree for the head of FAA research into integrating drones into civilian U.S. airspace, unless one considers that the goal may have been to place advanced U.S.-made drones into other countries airspace as well.

A few months later, in July of 2016, ExCom member NASA announced its UAS “Systems Integration and Operationalization” (SIO) flight demonstrations. Listed first in the missions of vital importance are “national security and defense.” However, when GA was later announced as one of the participants, the stated purpose of its flight would be to demonstrate potential civilian, commercial uses of large, military-grade drones. GA floated one civilian/commercial use of the MQ-9B on a defense industry news site: local law enforcement. In a surprisingly candid moment, the pro-industry reporter covering it called the idea “dystopian.” GA would eventually land on “infrastructure surveying” as a plausible commercial application of the $100 million, 6-ton, 79-foot wingspan MQ-9B.

A May 2017 presentation of NASA’s program on drone integration appeared to have the SIO demo flights scheduled for summer 2021 (page 23).

In June 2017, the Trump administration announced its intention to sell the “SeaGuardian” MQ-9B variant to India. For the U.S. to sell the MQ-9B to India would require “decoupling UAS from the MTCR.” A few months later, the Trump administration confirmed that it was “reviewing” the MTCR.

By October 2017, it appears that NASA’s SIO demo flights were moved up one full year to summer 2020 (page 19).

November 2017. General Atomics purchased the U.S. subsidiary of UK-based satellite maker Surrey Satellite Technology. GA is described as “a defense contractor with a growing interest in building military-optimized spacecraft.”

August 2018. NASA announced that General Atomics was one of the three companies selected to participate in its SIO demonstrations.

September 28, 2018. General Atomics Awarded NASA Contract for Commercial Satellite.

January 24, 2019. The UK’s MoD announced they would purchase the “Sense-and-Avoid” systems for their MQ-9B Protector drones, after the original contract omitted that option. The decision came after GA went around MoD and lobbied Parliament directly:

“[F]ailure to make appropriate provisions threatens to undermine Protector’s operational capability…One of the platform’s key design characteristics is provision for the sense-and-avoid capability required to facilitate operations in non-segregated airspace… MoD aspires to integrate such a sense-and-avoid system but it was not funded within the core program.”

August 2019. GA performed a test of the SkyGuardian in civilian U.S. airspace for the benefit of the RAF, U.S. Marine Corps, and Royal Australian Air Force. The USMC was the first U.S. military branch overtly interested in the MQ-9B. GA touted the FAA clearance for the flight, which occurred almost entirely over mountains and desert. A week later, James Poss penned an opinion piece applauding the UK’s purchase of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian, and urging the U.S. and all its allies to do the same, to prepare for a possible war with Iran. He claimed that the MQ-9B “can fly integrated with even civilian manned aircraft,” a statement which two years later, still is not exactly true.

October 7, 2019. GA announced the planned SIO demo flight over San Diego. There are numerous misleading statements in the announcement, such as City of San Diego participation, etc. The principal stated purpose of the demo was infrastructure inspection, although it would be revealed later by the Voice of San Diego (VOSD) that they were still secretly pitching law enforcement uses.

November 28, 2019. Seven weeks after the San Diego SIO announcement, Australia announced it was going to purchase the MQ-9B instead of the cheaper MQ-9A, specifically because “the MQ-9B is able to be certified to fly in civilian airspace,” again, not yet exactly true.

Mav 7, 2020. The UK announced that Sir Stephen Hillier would resign as Air Chief Marshal of the RAF, in order to take over the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), just as it was grappling with whether to allow the MQ-9B to operate in UK airspace in the summer of 2021.

June 1, 2020. VOSD announced its lawsuit against the FAA for documents related to the proposed MQ-9B flight over the City. “We can’t get into details about a military aircraft program,” said the FAA. This, despite the fact that every aspect of the SIO flight stated publicly had been civilian: owner, operator, aircraft certification, airspace, sponsoring agency (NASA), stated purpose, etc.

July 9, 2020. GA informed Forbes that the SIO flight over San Diego was canceled.

July 24, 2020. The Trump administration officially changed how it “interpreted” the MTCR, clearing the way for military drone sales to countries that were previously excluded. New potential buyers of the MQ-9B soon included India, Taiwan, Morocco, and the UAE. Along with the confirmed sales to the UK, Belgium and Australia, it looked like MQ-9B sales would soon exceed $10 billion.

October 26, 2020. The VOSD released FOIA’d emails that showed the deep skepticism that FAA engineers had over the safety claims by GA. The proposed SIO flight over San Diego was eventually canceled, and replaced by a flight over non-populated areas. However, the specific reasons why it did so were redacted. Also, it is clear that FAA personnel were aware that GA would be using this supposed commercial demonstration flight to showcase the MQ-9B to foreign military buyers.

March 26, 2021. Reuters reported that the Biden administration was likely to keep the new MTCR policy.

May 2021. NASA released General Atomics final report on its SIO flight, which GA was required to generate in its SIO contract with NASA. It revealed that the critical safety component for avoiding other aircraft, the “Detect and Avoid” system, failed repeatedly during the flight, just as FAA engineers feared it would.

July 24, 2021. After fighting in court not to reveal the reasons for denying the proposed SIO flight over San Diego, the FAA agreed to answer a few more questions from the VOSD. In response to the question of “Whether General Atomics voluntarily rerouted its flight to the desert, or whether the FAA denied the permit,” its paragraph-long answer could be summarized as: We never denied General Atomics a permit to fly the SkyGuardian over San Diego. We approved its permit to fly, just not over San Diego.

It is also fair to ask if the FAA was keeping the reasons for the San Diego denial under wraps so as to not embarrass GA. GA’s sales pitch to foreign customers was that the MQ-9B could be certified for domestic operations. Rejection by the FAA for a demo flight for which it had been preparing for many years might cause potential customers to think twice before committing to a multi-billion dollar weapons purchase.

July 28, 2021. After delaying the decision for months, the UK’s CAA (now headed by Sir Stephen Hillier, former Air Chief Marshal of the RAF) approved temporary airspace changes that would allow the MQ-9B SkyGuardian to operate in UK civilian airspace during the NATO “Joint Warrior” exercises. Joint Warrior is a major opportunity to demonstrate the MQ-9B to potential allied military customers. This was the exact same drone that was rejected by the FAA for a flight over the City of San Diego one year earlier.

September 8, 2021. In the middle of the Joint Warrior exercises, the MQ-9B appeared to detour to conduct “Contested Urban Environment” exercises over the UK Army’s Imber Range in southern England. It is not clear if it was part of the official CUE2021 exercise. Some 48 hours after the flight, the Chief of the Air Staff of the RAF announced that, when the Protector drone is operational, it will be available for “assisting local authorities.”

September 9, 2021. The RAF announced the creation of the “Protector International Training Centre” at the Waddington RAF base. That would be a MQ-9B pilot training facility for “international partners.”

General Atomics is becoming a major player in military space hardware construction, including winning a DARPA contract to design a nuclear reactor to power spacecraft to the moon.

[Source: spacenews.com]

A Freedom of Information Act request to see the report containing the Plan mandated in the 2010 NDAA was placed with the FAA in the spring of 2021. Nine months later, the FAA has yet to acknowledge receipt of the request.

The Plan appears to be: civilian drone integration is cover for military drone integration is cover for military drone proliferation. Underlying it all is the familiar argument for foreign military sales: If the U.S. does not do it first, others will. For decision-makers, this dovetails neatly with the economic and political rewards, leading to: Drone proliferation is a necessary good.

Apparently, we have no choice but to stay in the lead of the arms race we started. Rinse, repeat.

In the coming years, people in more and more countries (including the U.S. and its allies) will be wondering if a high-tech surveillance/attack platform is circling overhead, making a permanent record of everything they do once they set foot outside their homes. Is this the kind of “freedom” America should be exporting?

 




Public Health Professionals Must Demand an End to the Use of Weaponized Drones

by William Bruno, published on Truthout, January 14, 2022

On January 13, 2017, a family including a husband, wife and three small children scurried from building to building in East Mosul, Iraq. They were seeking refuge as a battle between ISIS (also known as Daesh) and U.S.-backed forces swirled around them. The family was huddled in an abandoned school surrounded by other civilians when a U.S.-operated drone struck and destroyed the structure. The father and one of his sons narrowly escaped with their lives. The tragic fate of his wife and other children would not be confirmed until months later when he watched as their bodies were excavated from the rubble.

This account was just one of several described in a recent publication of Pentagon reports documenting the extensive civilian casualties resulting from U.S. drone and air strikes. As the reporting shows, the considerable toll armed drones reap on civilian populations has largely been obfuscated by the U.S. government. What reporting such as this makes clear, however, is that weaponized drones are becoming a serious threat to public health.

The use of weaponized drones for targeted killings is not new and neither is the government’s lack of transparency. The U.S. government has been steadily increasing lethal covert drone operations since 2008, and almost everything we know about the program comes from whistleblowers and leakers. Specifics around the number of civilians killed and the extensiveness of the program are difficult to ascertain, but stories like the one above demonstrate the disregard for human life that results from the use of weaponized drones.

Like all violations of human rights, the public health community, of which I am a part, has an obligation to condemn the use of weaponized drones and demand an end to these targeted killings. If the goal of the public health sector — which includes health care practitioners, researchers, academics and policy makers — is, as the American Public Health Association’s (APHA) website states, “to prevent people from getting sick or injured,” then surely lending an authoritative voice in opposition to weaponized drones is more than appropriate.

U.S. citizens bear special responsibility. Unlike other causes of death or disability, weaponized drones are built, maintained and funded by our tax dollars. It is our elected officials who put them in action. Our complicity is unacceptable.

The APHA has made impassioned arguments advocating for the prevention of armed conflict from a public health perspective. However, little has been written specifically with regard to drones. This omission is important when one considers how our political leaders — even those often seen as advocates for “peace” — view the use of weaponized drones. For example, the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning former President Barak Obama saw drone strikes as an alternative to the more uncouth, “stupid wars” that he railed against during his campaign. This perspective resulted in a huge expansion of the program under his administration with well over 500 strikes, including one that explicitly targeted and executed a 16-year-old-boy. Political leaders like Obama see drones as an acceptable “middle ground” that allows for the implementation of U.S. force without, at least ostensibly, the traditional collateral of American casualties or civilian deaths.

Drone strike-related deaths are not the only consequence felt by civilians. One researcher explains how children living in a region such as northern Pakistan — with heavy U.S. drone activity — “become hysterical when they hear the characteristic buzz of a drone,” which often circle overhead 24/7. The psychiatric toll this constant threat of violence takes on children is hard to imagine.

Despite the common refrain from U.S. government officials that weaponized drones offer an extremely “precise” method of targeting, the truth is that civilian casualties of weaponized drone attacks are a common occurrence. The indiscriminate nature of weaponized drone attacks is reminiscent of a much older though equally brutal weapon — landmines. Over the past several decades, human rights organizations, academics and activists have worked tirelessly to show the world that landmines maim and kill civilian populations, and therefore, their use should be banned. The public health community has played a pivotal role in this movement by, for example, conducting research which adds evidentiary support for the movement’s claims. The same tact should be taken with weaponized drones. Public health researchers should work with activists and human rights scholars to form a coalition that demands an end to the use of weaponized drones.

Professional societies such as the APHA could provide guidance highlighting the role of public health in ending the use of weaponized drones. This could take the form of a bold policy statement similar to the one APHA released in 2009 regarding public health’s role in the prevention of armed conflict.

With political leaders from both major U.S. parties seeing drones as a convenient workaround to the traditional pitfalls of American use of force, it is imperative that the public health community remind the world that these weapons have tragic consequences. It is our responsibility to lend our voices, research skills and positions of prominence to stop the use of weaponized drones and end the pain and suffering they cause.

*Featured Image:  Emal Ahmadi surveys the damage to his home after a U.S. drone strike killed 10 of his family members in Kabul, Afghanistan, on October 2, 2021. MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES

Copyright © Truthout.  Reprinted with permission.


William Bruno, M.D., is an emergency medicine resident physician at the LAC+USC Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. In addition to working clinically in the emergency department, William has research interests in humanitarian response and the ethics of conducting research in disaster settings. Follow William on Twitter: @williamjbruno.