A Painful Silence from New York's Progressive Congressmen on Drone Killings

A bill currently pending in Congress would require the administration to come clean about the killings it is carrying out with drones around the world.

The bill -- the HR 4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act  -- stems from a letter issued by the leaders of the Progressive Caucus several months ago.  The bill is authored by Rep. Adam Schiff, of California, and to date, ten (10) other progressive representatives have stepped up to co-sponsor the bill.

But some members of Congress have been slow to get on board. Notably absent are the members of the Progressive Caucus from New York State:

NY07 - Nydia Velázquez @NydiaVelazquez

NY08 - Hakeem Jeffries @RepJeffries

NY09 - Yvette Clarke @YvetteClarke

NY10 - Jerrold Nadler @RepJerryNadler

NY12 - Carolyn Maloney @RepMaloney

NY13 - Charles Rangel @cbrangel

NY15 - José Serrano @RepJoseSerrano

NY25 - Louise Slaughter @louiseslaughter

This is mystifying in part because several of these same members of Congress (Clarke, Nadler, Rangel) were signatories to one of the first letters to the President demanding answers about the drone killing program, back in May, 2012.

Most notably M.I.A. is Rep. Nadler: watch Rep. Nadler on drones during a February, 2013, committee hearing. Why hasn't he become a co-sponsor of the bill?

To compound the mystery, while New York's congressional delegation sits in silence, ordinary citizens of New York have have been engaged in a sustained struggle to publicize the truth about the drone killings, bring about their cessation, and bring the killers to justice.

Particularly painful is the fact that the government is putting on a series of show trials to quash dissent by citizen activists in New York State, pitting itself against their First Amendment rights, at the very moment that the people's elected representatives are abdicating their responsibility to speak out and take action.

So: who -- really -- is doing the work of the people in New York State?

 

Write or call your member of Congress today:

Make the U.S. Come Clean on Drone Killings

Related posts

The trials of citizen activists in Upstate New York are part of a government plan to put a chill, once and for all, on citizens' exercise of Constitutional rights.  The citizens rely on Bill of Rights protections, Constitutional provisions about civilian control over the military, and the international treaties covering conduct of war and human rights, to which the United States is a party. The position of the government is that no dissent will be tolerated, and that the severity of the penalties for expression will be rapidly escalated, until the point where dissent is cut off entirely.

(See The Hancock Show Trials: Quashing Dissent Against America's Criminal Drone Killing Program )

The show trials in New York State stem from protests that occurred at the end of April, 2013.

(See April Days of Action Against Drones Culminates with a conference in SYRACUSE and a massive demonstration at Hancock AFB- 31 arrested )

There are now TEN (10) additional co-sponsors on  HR 4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act.

(See SUPPORT the "Come Clean on Drone Killings" Act (Schiff/Jones HR 4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act) )

New York State's 21st Congressional District: Living Under Drones?

by Joe Scarry

So here's an interesting question: the Federal Aviation Administration recently designated Griffiss International Airport near Rome, NY, as the hub of one of the first six designated drone testing locations in the country, in New York State.

Griffiss is located NW of Utica, near the southern edge of
New York State's 21st congressional district.

But where, exactly, are they going to be flying those drones?

If I lived in the northeast corner of New York State, I would be very concerned that I will soon be "living under drones."

You see, it takes a lot of space to test drones.  In fact, the military has grabbed so much of the states of New Mexico and Colorado for their test site that activists there have begun calling it "the Pentagon's 51st state."

Which is not to say that drone testing and training leaves people alone.  An infamous profile of drone training in New Mexico, published in The New York Times, shows just how "hands off" these activities are:

When I visited the base earlier this year with a small group of reporters, we were taken into a command post where a large flat-screen television was broadcasting a video feed from a drone flying overhead. It took a few seconds to figure out exactly what we were looking at. A white S.U.V. traveling along a highway adjacent to the base came into the cross hairs in the center of the screen and was tracked as it headed south along the desert road. When the S.U.V. drove out of the picture, the drone began following another car. 

“Wait, you guys practice tracking enemies by using civilian cars?” a reporter asked. One Air Force officer responded that this was only a training mission, and then the group was quickly hustled out of the room.

(See "The Drone Zone" by Mark Mazzetti, New York Times, July 6, 2012.)

And the new test site is not all. The district also lies a short distance from the site of Hancock Air Force base near Syracuse -- one of the main drone warfare operating centers in the U.S. and the site of ongoing protests by the large and growing community of antiwar activists in that area.

Hmmm ... drone base ... drone test site ... lots of space to test drones .... Will New York's 16,000 square mile 21st congressional district soon be claiming the state's motto -- "Excelsior!" (upward) -- for its exclusive use?

Excelsior!

A lot of candidates and party operatives are eying the 21st and pinning their political hopes on it.  If the people of the 21st want to stop the drones, now's the time.

In recent days, the state GOP has designated its chosen candidate to run for the House seat in the 21st district. Will Elise Stefanik put her foot down about drones over the skies of the 21st?

Or perhaps that task will fall to the GOP "rebel," Joe Gilbert, who says he will continue to run against Stefanik. says he expected the endorsement of Stefanik by the region’s GOP chairs.

“My campaign is rooted in our founding principles. It is the individual freedom, the individual political sovereignty where we the people are the masters of government, not the other way around. My guiding principle is the Constitution. My guiding principle is the Bill of Rights. Government exists to protect the individual rights of its citizens. And if I feel it is not doing that any longer, then I am going to stand up very strongly and say no. My mission all along has been to bring my message to the people and to the voters and that’s what I’m going to do.”

And there is no news yet who will run on the Democratic ticket. The seat in the 21st is expected to be heavily contested: the incumbent, Democrat Bill Owens, is retiring, and the seat has traditionally been held by a Republican. Moreover, due to redistricting the borders of the district are different than in recent years.

The primary in New York State is expected to be held June 24. 

Related posts


There will be elections for 435 House seats in 2014. In at least some of those races, U.S. surveillance, secrecy, and assassinations will be an issue.

Herewith an Insider's Guide to the 7 S's (surveillance, secrecy, and assassinations) in the 2014 Midterms.

(See Will the 2014 Midterms be a Referendum on Obama's Surveillance, Secrecy, and Assassinations? )

April 2013 -- Following the Convergence to Action, a weekend of workshops, panels, and organizing meetings in Syracuse headed by the Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, nearly 300 activists came out to Hancock AFB on Sunday in a massive demonstration that helped to cap the nationwide April Days of Action Against Drones, which included events all throughout the state.

(See April Days of Action Against Drones Culminates with a conference in SYRACUSE and a massive demonstration at Hancock AFB- 31 arrested)

Events throughout New England were part of the April Days of Action Against Drones in 2013.

(See Boston, Maine, NH events during April Days of Action Against Drones)