Protest the Drones at Hancock Field:
* Sunday, November 15, from 1:30 – 2:15 pm
* Hancock Air National Guard Base Entrance (park on Moore or Falso, off of E. Molloy Rd)
Join Kathy Kelly and others in a picket at the Air Base entrance, where the drones are stationed. Bring your own sign or use one of ours. And come earlier to ArtRage Gallery (505 Hawley, Syracuse) for:
* Soup at noon (if you’re coming for soup, please let us know)
* Brief talks at 12:45
* Carpooling to base at 1
Kathy Kelly in on a tour of upstate New York to bring attention to the effects of drone attacks. She is especially interested to be in Syracuse, home of the Hancock Air National Guard Base, where drones are stationed. She will share her eyewitness report on the impacts of war in both Gaza and Pakistan, including the effects of drone attacks. She co-coordinates Voices for Creative Nonviolence, a campaign to end U.S. military and economic warfare, and co-founded Voices in the Wilderness, a group which had openly defied economic sanctions from 1996-2003 by bringing medicines to children and families in Iraq.
More Information: Both events are sponsored by the Syracuse Peace Council. Contact Carol at 472-5478, spc@peacecouncil.net or visit www.peacecouncil.net.
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The Drone Programs are Coming to Syracuse
by John D. Brulé
Soon now Syracuse, New York will become an active participant in the everlasting war in Afghanistan. The government has decided to operate Drones out of the 174th Air National Guard base here and some of the local politicians are thrilled that people here in Syracuse will be able to fire missiles and drop bombs in a land thousands of miles away. It’s a matter of jobs. The planes flown by the 174th are F-16’s and they are to be decommissioned. By introducing the drone programs to Syracuse there will be new jobs to replace the current ones.
As we understand it, the current plan includes the provision to provide housing and maintenance for some Drones here at Hancock field. Then the Drones will be flown through civilian airspace to a military airbase in Watertown, NY on a daily basis. The drones flown to Watertown will be controlled from Syracuse and will supply training for operators and pilots.
However, that is only part of the plan. The overall plan includes operating Drones in the war zone and controlling them from the base here in Syracuse. These Drones will be based close to the war zone and personnel near those bases will take the Drones through the take-off and landing phases of flight. Once they are airborne the Syracuse personnel will control them and implement the decisions about where to fly and when to fire weapons and what to shoot at.
Two people here in Syracuse will be involved with each Drone in the war zone. One person will handle the mechanics of flight and the other will process the information being gathered by onboard cameras and other sensors. Of course one can also expect that various other personnel, both CIA and military, will be involved in the decision making process of when, where and who to fire at.
So we join the 21st century of automated warfare. Now the pliers of the weapons of war will be able to have dinner with their families after their grizzly daytime task.