SHUT DOWN CREECH: Marking 13 Years!
Spring Action: March 26 – April 2
National Mobilization to Nonviolently Resist Killer Drones!
Shut Down Creech, (SDC) co-sponsored by CODEPINK and Veterans For Peace, is a national campaign to “shut down” the criminal U.S. drone terror program.
The 2022 weeklong spring convergence to resist U.S. killer drones in the Nevada desert will be taking place during the week of March 26- April 2, 2022! For more information and to register, please visit the dedicated website: https://shutdowncreech.blogspot.com/
The campaign is a call for coast to coast mobilization for bi-annual week-long resistance in the spring and fall, at Creech Air Force Base, a principal drone control base in Indian Springs, Nevada, an hour north of Las Vegas. Using the powerful tool of nonviolent Gandhian resistance and peaceful protest, we unveil the lies and misinformation, educate, break the silence and put our bodies on the line for the global defenseless living under the daily terror of remotely controlled U.S. militarized drones.
Video sampler of 13 years of Our Drone Resistance, by Denise Hingle (5 min.)
COVID CONCERNS: Shut Down Creech will be an outdoor event only, with sufficient precautions to minimize health risks for all. For details please read our Covid-safe Guidelines. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated people are welcome, as Shut Down Creech recognizes the individual’s right to make mindful health decisions for themselves. We’ve held 3 weeklong SDC events during the pandemic and no one has gotten sick!
Background information from the organizers:
WHY DO WE PROTEST DRONE WARFARE?
We protest drone warfare to stand in solidarity with all people living under the terror of militarized drones and support their right to live under drone-free skies, without U.S. surveillance and drone attacks. We stand in solidarity with the people of Afghanistan, the most droned place on earth, and we stand in solidarity with the people of Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, and all other peoples and nations who have been subjected to or been threatened by the covert, unjust and deadly U.S. Killer Drone Assassination Program.
Thanks to excellent journalism, it has been revealed that there are over 900 drone pilots operating out of Creech Air Force Base. That means that there is a disturbing amount of remote murder on a daily basis happening at Creech alone. A recent military official reported in 2018 that over 80% of all U.S. air strikes involve U.S. drones, either for surveillance and targeting, and/or for direct strikes, and approximately 80% of all drone strikes go UNREPORTED. U.S. Drone attacks occur mostly away from any “battlefield,” killing people as they are eating dinner in their homes, sleeping in their beds, driving their cars on the highway, worshiping in a mosque, attending wedding parties or funerals….living their lives.
The vast majority of victims are unarmed civilians, including women and children, or “unintended targets.” This is unconscionable! We give special thanks to Daniel Hale and all other drone whistleblowers who have taken great risks to expose the criminality and injustice of the U.S. Drone Program. Daniel Hale is currently serving a 45 month sentence in a Federal Prison for acting out of conscience to inform the public. Support Daniel Hale: StandWithDanielHale.org
WHY WE PROTEST AT CREECH:
Since at least 2002, Creech Air Force Base secretly became the first U.S. base in the country to carry out illegal, remotely controlled assassinations using armed drones. Currently the Reaper drones are the primary killer drones controlled from Creech to murder people with “hellfire missiles” in foreign lands, without due process. Creech drone personnel sit behind computers in the desert north of Las Vegas and kill “suspects” thousands of miles away. Most of the victims are “unintended targets” and unarmed civilians. One independent study indicated that the identity of only one out of 28 victims of U.S. drone strikes is known beforehand. Though officials deny it, the majority killed by drones are unknown, and many are civilians who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. THIS MUST STOP! By participating in Shut Down Creech we become a united voice against this insanity and inhumanity. With organized nonviolent action we halt the criminal “business as usual” at Creech AFB for as long as we possibly can. Sign the petition at BanKillerDrones.org
In 2014, it was leaked that the CIA’s drone assassination program was not a separate operation from the Air Force’s, but was instead piloted all along using Creech’s super-secret 17th Attack Squadron. In November 2015, four Air Force drone veterans (3 of whom were based at Creech) wrote a public letter to President Obama, “We came to the realization that the innocent civilians we were killing only fueled the feelings of hatred that ignited terrorism and groups like ISIS, while also serving as a fundamental recruitment tool similar to Guantanamo Bay. This administration and its predecessors have built a drone program that is one of the most devastating driving forces for terrorism and destabilization around the world.”
Since 2009 dozens of anti-drone activists have been arrested for allegedly trespassing at Creech while peacefully interrupting this indiscriminate killing by drones. We will continue our nonviolent resistance until this brutality ceases.
The US drone program is rapidly proliferating, as air bases have converted to drone bases across the U.S. and abroad, but Creech remains a key player in U.S. state-sponsored global terrorism. Creech is where the killer drone program started–it is where we shall end it.
- We must put an end to the desecration of our Mother Earth and all creatures who inhabit it. War is toxic to the planet.
- We must put an end to the dehumanization of lives from Minneapolis to Afghanistan, Ferguson to Syria. Militarized drones are racist tools.
- We must close all foreign U.S. military bases. Money should be prioritized for human needs, not war profiteering and global domination.
- We must put an end to drone murder, drone surveillance and global militarization. If the planet is to survive, we must also abolish all war.