JOIN US CALLING OUT THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY!
STOP THE ARMED DRONE WARS!
HOLD THE WAR CRIMINALS ACCOUNTABLE!
COME OUT SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2014 at 1 PM
TO THE NSA HEADQUARTERS in FORT MEADE, MARYLAND
Just the other day yet another US drone strike took place in Yemen killing dozens of "suspected terrorists" we are told. However, due to the US Government’s lies, both the Obama and Bush Administrations, keeping us in perpetual war, we cannot take these official statements on face value. We know that innocent civilians including children have been killed by US drone strikes and other acts of violence. The NSA plays an integral role in providing information, including faulty data as reported by leading award-winning journalists, to the Central Intelligence Agency and US Military which in turn carry out the drone strikes. US militarism including the illegal drone program is responsible for violations of international law and is going unchecked by the US Congress. We must hold the US and NSA accountable for the illegal and immoral drone program.
The US/NSA is spying on US citizens, our friends around the world, foreign leaders, while waging extra-judicial killing and war crimes in countries like Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq. (We know this thanks to revelations by courageous whistle-blowers like Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden.)
We must speak out FOR the voiceless victims and AGAINST the US aerial assassination program, the death squads of the skies, and unbridled US military aggression.
"I believe in the principle declared at Nuremberg in 1945: "Individuals have international duties which transcend the national obligations of obedience. Therefore individual citizens have the duty to violate domestic laws to prevent crimes against peace and humanity from occurring."
-- Edward Snowden
TIME AND DATE: 1 PM, SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2014
LOCATION: NATIONAL SECURITY HEADQUARTERS, FORT MEADE, MARYLAND
DIRECTIONS: From I-95 take Route 32 towards Fort Meade, enter on Canine Road, bear to the left and park in the visitor’s parking lot and wait.
Contact for affinity groups: joyfirst5@gmail.com
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To sign on to the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR] letter below, please contact mobuszewski at verizon.net
Vice Admiral Michael S. Rogers
Director, National Security Agency
Chief, Central Security Service
National Security Agency
Fort George G. Meade, MD 20755
Dear Admiral Rogers:
As members of peace and justice groups with grave concern for the National Security Agency’s role in the invasions of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan and Yemen, we are writing to request a meeting. We are deeply concerned about our government’s use of unmanned aerial vehicles, also known as drones, to assassinate people in the countries listed above. As you know the NSA is involved in this assassination program by providing potential targets for the president's "kill list."
We are aware that the NSA is open 24 hours a day,7 days a week. Therefore, we are suggesting a meeting at the NSA on Saturday, May 3, 2014. We are confident that someone in a policy-making capacity will be available to meet with us and to arrange a subsequent meeting due to the important nature of our concern.
At the meeting, National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance representatives will urge you to support an end to this assassination program which we believe to be illegal. Please confirm that a meeting can take place on May 3.
In 2011 in Yemen, CIA drone attacks were used to kill, first, Anwar Al-Awlaki and weeks later his son. They were U.S. citizens, who were never charged, brought to trial, or convicted of any crime. In fact, four other U.S. citizens have been assassinated by killer drone strikes without any pretense of due process.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights brought a lawsuit in US federal court against the Obama Administration regarding the assassination of Al-Awlaki. The suit was lost on procedural grounds; however, the judge in the case stated "Can the executive order the assassination of a US citizen without first affording him any form of judicial process whatsoever, based on the mere assertion that he is a dangerous member of a terrorist organization?"
The killer drone strikes only promote more terrorism directed at the US. This point was made by Malala Yousafzai when she met with President Obama and his family. On Oct. 11, 2013 Philip Rucker of THE WASHINGTON POST wrote this: “Yousafzai said she was honored to meet Obama and that she raised concerns with him about the administration's use of drones, saying they are ‘fueling terrorism.’”
We are also disturbed by the lack of transparency and oversight by congress. In spite of assurances from President Obama that the victims of drone strikes are surgical targets, it has been reported that hundreds of victims who are innocent of crimes against the US have been killed including civilian men, women, and children. These people have names and families who love them.
According to a report, “US: Reassess Targeted Killings in Yemen,” released on October 21, 2013 by Human Rights Watch “United States targeted airstrikes against alleged terrorists in Yemen have killed civilians in violation of international law." The report added that the strikes are creating a public backlash that undermines US efforts against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
We hope that you will take our concerns seriously, as it is our position that killer drone strikes are wrong on many levels: the illegality and immorality of assassinations, the violation of international law and the constitutional protection of due process, the targeting of civilian populations, and the disregard of sovereignty. We have great concern for people caught up in conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Pakistan, the Philippines, Somalia and Yemen. We believe the US killer drone program must be brought to an end immediately.
Please respond to our request to meet and to discuss your role in terminating the National Security Agency's role in this assassination program. This is an opportunity to consider our proposal of reconciliation and diplomacy rather than pernicious killer drone strikes. A U.S. policy of endless wars must be placed in the dustbin of history. We look forward to your response.
In peace,
Max Obuszewski
On behalf of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance
First
Reps. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-AZ) and Keith Ellison (D-MN) called the U.S.
on the carpet for dodging the call from the international community to
come clean about its drone killings. Then Reps. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and
Walter Jones (R-NC) submitted a bill calling for drone transparency. So
... are we finally going to get the truth?
"The NSA plays an important role in the drone program, providing intelligence to the agencies in charge of executing the attacks; information that is not necessarily correct." The coordinates provided by the NSA for a May 3rd drone attack must have been particularly inaccurate, unless the agency intended for the fatal drone strike to target the civilians gathered just outside its doorstep.
