SHUT DOWN CREECH, Spring Action, April 4-10

FRIDAY FINAL UPDATE: URGENT NEWS ADVISORY
April 9, 2021
Contact:  Toby Blomé, 510.501.5412  Maggie Huntington, 602.459.5257 
For more details:   https://shutdowncreech.blogspot.com   Organized by S.F. Area CODEPINK

Photo:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fSR3PettwAs3XYN_rTL7fWLuq7IrN5Gq/view?usp=sharing
Video: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OHLwy6rSHcdedHqvHGR4WPYoT-gJIFy_?usp=sharing

ANTI-DRONE PROTESTORS ‘FLY A KITE, NOT DRONE’ 
at CREECH AFB DRONE BASE – DELIVER LETTER to BASE 
COMMANDER, CALL HIM GUILTY of WAR CRIMES

LAS VEGAS/CREECH AFB – Anti-drone protesters completed their week of protest Friday with a 3rd day of blockading the entrance into Creech AFB, to oppose and interrupt the remote killing by Reaper drones that takes place daily there.

They delivered a letter to the base commander, stating he’s guilty of war crimes. FULL LETTER AT END OF THIS RELEASE

Activists used a colorful “Fly A KITE NOT A DRONE” theme to leave a positive closure with Creech personnel, hoping to influence at least some of the airmen to join the side of peace, rejecting the violence that takes place regularly at Creech AFB. 

Decorating the highway with bright signs with positive messages, colorful animal kites, and long swirling Chinese ribbons,  2 dozen activists gathered and ultimately entered the roadway to stop business as usual a third morning during the week.  

Morning commute traffic into the base was again jammed up and delayed for an extended period.  Activists hoped that the military who work on the base will be moved by the week of protest and allow their consciences to influence them to reconsider the crimes against humanity that they are participating in.

After the blockade, 2 participants, carrying signs that read, “Prosecute Col. Jones for War Crimes” and “Free Daniel Hale,” walked along the side of the entrance road into the base, to hand deliver a letter for Col. Stephen R. Jones, the Creech top command.  

Col. Jones, as commander of Creech AFB, is ultimately most responsible for the crimes against humanity being committed there, say the activists.  All participants signed the letter, and the police allowed the protesters to deliver the letter to the military, in order to express their grievances.  

The letter holds the commander responsible for the war crimes being committed at Creech, and appeals to the commander to stop participating any further in these crimes. 

Susan Witka, one of the activist present said, “I am here to break the silence of American remotely controlled drone terrorism on families living on the other side of the world; Meanwhile, the U.S. weapons industry reaps an obscene profit from the ever-expanding U.S. drone program. Remote drone attacks are illegal and cowardly.”

Participants honored drone whistleblower, Daniel Hale, former U.S. Air Force drone analyst, throughout the week of protest.  This July Daniel Hale faces up to a 10 year prison sentence for leaking classified military documents about U.S. drone war crimes that the protesters were mobilized this week to condemn.

At Creech,  U.S. Air Force personnel, coordinating with C.I.A. officials, are, regularly and secretly, killing people remotely using unmanned armed drone planes, primarily the MQ-9 Reaper drones.  Thousands of civilians have been killed and injured, in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and elsewhere, since 2001, according to the activists.    

LETTER

From: The ShutDownCreech Family

To: Colonel Stephen R Jones
Creech AFB

Dear Colonel Jones:
As you may know, some of the signs that we have been displaying are calling for your prosecution for war crimes. It is our firm belief that drone strikes, no matter how carefully planned and implemented, will more often than not kill innocent people, including women and children. As such these are war crimes, according to The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948. 

We are aware of the prosecution of Daniel Hale as a whistleblower who leaked classified military documents that revealed the truth about the criminal activity of the US targeted drone assassination program. We are concerned that we live in a society where whistleblowers face criminal charges and harsh sentences and yet officials guilty of committing serious crimes go free.

We have families of our own, and imagine that you do as well. We would like to write to you as a fellow human being to see if we can reach your heart to stop the current atrocities terrorizing families around the world in all of our names.

We have several veterans in the ShutDownCreech family, and they are haunted by what they have done and witnessed in the past, and we are all are concerned that those currently working on the base will, if not now, at least someday come to understand the inhumanity of what they are doing and be tormented by it. 

Colonel Ann Wright is a part of our ‘family,’ and as you may know retired her position in protest of the “Shock and Awe” terrorization of Iraq when it was attacked by the U.S. with false justifications. We are calling on you to search your heart and do the same, to retire in protest, for your own sake, for the sake of your fellow soldiers, and for the sake of innocent people the world over.
Sincerely,

The ShutDownCreech Family