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) )