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) )

Write or Call Your Member of Congress Today: Make the U.S. Come Clean on Drone Killings

For years, New York State has been a center for protesting the immoral and illegal U.S. policy of using drones to carry out targeted killings.

Today, people protesting drones are contacting their representatives to encourage support for H.R.4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act. If passed, the bill will require the Obama administration to come clean about the killings it has carried out using drones -- killings that, up until now, the administration has been able to pretend don't exist.

So now's the time: write or call your member of Congress today. 

To determine what district you live in, go to http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

To see an example of a constituent letter, see An Open Letter to Congressman Mike Quigley on H.R.4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act


New York Congressional Delegation

(Members of the Progressive Caucus are presumed to lean in favor of the bill and are marked Progressive Caucus; members of the Drones Caucus are presumed to lean against the bill and are marked Drones Caucus. As for those who are members of both . . . ?)
 NY01 - Timothy Bishop - (202) 225-3826 email
NY02 - Peter King - 202) 225-7896 email
NY03 - Steve Israel - (202) 225-3335 email
NY04 - Carolyn McCarthy - (202) 225-5516 email
NY05 - Gregory Meeks - (202) 225-3461 email
NY06 - Grace Meng - 202-225-2601 email
NY07 - Nydia Velázquez - (202) 225-2361 email (Progressive Caucus)
NY08 - Hakeem Jeffries - 202-225-5936 email (Progressive Caucus) 
NY09 - Yvette Clarke - (202) 225-6231 email (Progressive Caucus)
NY10 - Jerrold Nadler - 202-225-5635 email  (Progressive Caucus)
NY11 - Michael Grimm - (202) 225-3371 email
NY12 - Carolyn Maloney - 202-225-7944 email (Progressive Caucus)
NY13 - Charles Rangel - (202) 225-4365 email (Progressive Caucus)
NY14 - Joseph Crowley - (202) 225-3965 email
NY15 - José Serrano - (202) 225-4361 email (Progressive Caucus)
NY16 - Eliot Engel - 202) 225-2464 email
NY17 - Nita Lowey - 202-225-6506 email
NY18 - Sean Maloney - 202-225-5441 email
NY19 - Christopher Gibson - 202) 225-5614 email
NY20 - Paul Tonko - (202) 225-5076 email
NY21 - William Owens - (202) 225-4611 email
NY22 - Richard Hanna - 202-225-3665 email  (Drones Caucus)
NY23 - Tom Reed - (202) 225-3161 email
NY24 - Daniel Maffei - 202-225-3701 email
NY25 - Louise Slaughter - (202) 225-3615 email (Progressive Caucus) (Drones Caucus)
NY26 - Brian Higgins - 202-225-3306 email 
NY27 - Chris Collins - 202-225-5265 email

[SEE: hub page for all Resources to SUPPORT the "Come Clean on Drone Killings" Act (Schiff/Jones HR 4372: the Targeted Lethal Force Transparency Act)]

Related posts

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?

(See REAL Progressives Demand that the U.S. Come Clean on Drone Killings)

A 2013 U.N. report makes it clear that the U.S. has to report fully on all its drone attacks.

(See 2014: The Year of Transparency (for U.S. Drone Use)?)

The reason the Administration is hiding truth about drones is that they don't have a satisfactory answer for how decisions about drone strikes are made.  As we have known all along, we need the public to think about how crummy the whole drone program is, and then they will be ready to be on our side. The best way to get them really thinking is to shine a spotlight on the secrecy, evasiveness, and deceit involved in the U.S. drone program.

(See Drone Killings: Come Clean )