Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Ground the Drones: Join the Waddington Peace Camp

yorkshire cnd repost | 24.08.2011 22:26 | Anti-militarism | Terror War | Cambridge | Sheffield

Join us at the new peace camp at RAF Waddington near Lincoln, LN5 9NB from September 3, (anniversary of the start of World War 2)

Take banners, whistles. Be visible, vocal. Make our opposition loud and clear.

“Young military personnel raised on a diet of video games now kill people remotely using joysticks... Far removed from the human consequences of their actions, how will this generation of fighters value the right to life?”

Philip Alston, United Nations Special Rapporteur and Hina Shamsi, New York University

GROUND THE DRONES

Dear friends

I learnt recently that RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire will become the home base for the pilots who control the Reaper Stealth bombers (Drones). I was horrified.

Killing and maiming others for oil it appears, while our ‘pilots’ sit in comfort and safety at their computer consoles, thousands of miles away. Murder by remote control. Whatever next?

Having lived through WWII, I witnessed the destruction of my grandmother’s house, cut in two by a V2 rocket. I feel deeply ashamed that in the 21st century we are bringing in a new generation of murderous technology to blight the future.

We have seen the back of Cruise Missiles, the son of the Nazi V1 flying bombs , now we have their grandson Drones bringing about indiscriminate destruction from the skies. Do we want them? – NO.

Hope to see you at the peace camp on the 3rd. In sisterhood and total defiance.

Helen John

Further Information on Drones (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)

* The US and UK currently deploy armed drones in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Pakistan and Libya.

* The decision to fire missiles from the drones is made thousands of miles away from the conflict zone itself by pilots watching real time images on monitors.

* UK drones are controlled remotely by 39 Squadron currently based at Creech, Nevada and a new squadron is being formed to be based at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. You can watch a CBS news feature on the drones controlled from Creech at:  http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5245555n

* Far from being the accurate weapon that the military claim drones are increasingly responsible for civilian casualties. Official statistics of civilian casualties have not been released by the Ministry of Defence but they recently admitted to killing 4 civilians in a drone attack in Afghanistan in March. Research done by the New America Bureau estimated that around a third of all casualties from drone attacks in Pakistan were civilian.

* Drones are seen as the weapon of the future by the military and both the US and UK are investing heavily in this technology. The UK plan to double their number of Reaper drones by 2013 at the cost of £135 million.

* Plans for fully automated systems (without the need for human decision making) are already in development. “It would only be a small technical step to enable an unmanned aircraft to fire a weapon based solely on its own sensors, and without recourse to higher, human authority” The UK
Approach to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles – Ministry of Defence

* A large exhibition of drones will be on display as part of the Dsei Arms Fair in London on September 13th.

* Drones will also be a focus of “Keep Space for Peace” week from the 1st - 8th October (see www.space4peace.org/)

* For further information on Drones and the campaign against them see:

Drone Wars UK  http://dronewarsuk.wordpress.com/

Fellowship of Reconciliation www.for.org.uk/act/campaign/

Keep Space for Peace www.space4peace.org/

Dominic Linley
Development Worker
Yorkshire CND
01274 730 795
www.yorkshirecnd.org.uk
Twitter - @yorkshirecnd

yorkshire cnd repost
- Homepage: http://www.yorkshirecnd.org.uk

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech