Interfaith Conference on Drone Warfare: Session 2 - Legal and Policy Issues

 

Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ
January 23 - 25, 2015

Session 2 began with a trailer from the film "Unmanned: America’s Drone War"

Domestic and International Law:

What current laws if any, both domestic and international, govern the use of drones? Are these laws being applied and obeyed? Is there a need for stronger enforcement mechanisms for existing standards? Much of 20th Century international law centers on the responsibilities of the nation state. How do these standards apply to private contractors, militant groups and other non-state actors who have not agreed to these standards? Is there a need for new legal standards about the production and use of lethal drones?

The Legal Questions about the U.S. Use Drones:

Authorization: What is the specific authorization for the Administration’s use of drones? If it is the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF), adopted by Congress in September 2001 that provides blanket authority for the use of “all necessary and appropriate force” against those responsible for the 9/11 attacks and affiliated forces, should that authorization be repealed or amended to be more limited or specific? Is there any other existing authorization that is applicable? Should the U.S. Congress have a greater role in the authorization and oversight of lethal drones and targeted killings?

Transparency and Accountability: What are the moral implications of the Administration’s lack of clarity about the legal justification for the use of drone warfare? Should the Administration be required to fully document the basis for and conduct of each lethal drone strike and make that available to Congress? To the public?

Introduction:

Rev. Robert Moore, Executive Director, Peace Action Education Fund

Moderator:

Jim Winkler, General Secretary, National Council of Churches

Speakers:

Peter Lumsdaine, Founder, Alliance to Resist Robotic Warfare & Society
Gabor Rona, Visiting Professor of Law, Cardozo Law School
Elizabeth Beavers, Legislative Associate, Friends Committee on National Legislation
Wendy Patten, Senior Policy Analyst, Open Society Policy Center, Washington, DC

Production costs for this series of videos are partially underwritten by Coalition for Peace Action and by Broome County Peace Action.

Interfaith Conference on Drone Warfare: Session 1 - Basic Facts About Drones

Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ
January 23 - 25, 2015

Statement from the Conference Organizers:

U.S. drone strikes continue in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Iraq and Syria. On the weekend of January 23 - 25, people of faith from across the nation, many representing denominations, faith groups and religious organizations, will come to Princeton Theological Seminary to address the issue of drone warfare.

Those attending will accomplish three tasks:

1. Clarify the nature of lethal drones. Policy recommendations will be made by the conference to the U.S. government. Speakers with expertise in military strategy, international law, U.S. law, and national security will make presentations followed by discussion by all participants.

2. Apply our various traditions to our understanding of drone warfare to more fully understand this issue. People of all faiths are invited to participate.

3. Recommendations will be developed for how the religious community will address this issue.

Session One: Why This Conference, and the Basic Facts about Drones

Introduction: Rev. Richard Killmer, Project Director, Interfaith Conference On Drone Warfare

Moderator: Rabbi Charles M. Feinberg, Adas Israel Congregation, Washington, DC

The Most Reverend Richard E. Pates, Roman Catholic Bishop of Des Moines, Iowa

Jeremy Waldren, University Professor, New York University School of Law

Introduction: Rev. Robert Moore, Executive Director, Peace Action Education

Dr. Rush Holt, CEO, American Assoc. for the Advancement of Science,
Former US Representative for New Jersey's 12th Congressional District

Dr. Maryann Cusimano-Love, Associate Professor of International Relations of The Catholic University of America

Interfaith Worship

Imam Sohaib Sultan, Muslim Chaplain, Princeton University

Rev. Sandy Strauss, Pennsylvania Council of Churches

Production costs for this series of videos are partially underwritten by Coalition for Peace Action and by Broome County Peace Action.

DEC Public Hearing on the Proposed Constitution Pipeline

 

East Middle School, Binghamton, NY
January 12, 2015

Summary of the Arguments Tendered in Favor of the Proposed Pipeline:

1. "I need a job."

 

While I sympathize with this, a transition to renewables would provide many times the number of good, permanent jobs as compared to this or any fossil fool pipeline. And when you get home from work, you'd still have a livable planet.

2. "There will be widespread benefits to the economy."

Again, nothing compared to the benefits of a transition to renewable energy, which will have the added benefit of avoiding the substantial downsides of fossil fuel extraction and use.

3. "The gas will be cheap."

We should not be providing economic incentives to waste energy and to produce more greenhouse gasses. The earth simply cannot afford this.

4. "In the old days we used to just toss oil and chemicals onto the ground and into the water. It didn't hurt us then and it won't hurt us now."

 

No clue as to the fact that cancer and other degenerative diseases are epidemic, and maybe this has something to do with it.

5. "We've been raping and pillaging the planet since ancient times. Why stop now?"

No comment.

6. "The regulatory agencies will protect you."

 

Hahahahahahahahahahahaha.
 

From the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation:

Public Comments Sought On Draft State Permit Applications For Proposed Construction Of The Interstate Constitution Pipeline

Public Comments Will Be Accepted From Dec. 24, 2014 through Jan. 30, 2015

The public is invited to comment on permit applications the State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) received for the proposed, federally regulated Constitution Pipeline and an upgrade to the Iroquois Wright Compressor station in Schoharie County that is part of the project. The Constitution Pipeline is a proposed interstate natural gas pipeline that would traverse though Broome, Chenango, Delaware and Schoharie counties.
 

Because the proposed pipeline and compressor station upgrade are components of an Interstate Natural Gas Transmission project, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) was responsible for conducting an environmental review of the project and has the authority to approve the pipeline route. FERC issued a final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) in October. Additional federal reviews and approvals for the project also are necessary. The FEIS can be viewed at: http://elibrary.FERC.gov/idmws/file_list.asp?accession_num=20141024-4001 
 

DEC maintains the authority to review applications for specific permits and approvals. These include an Air Title V permit for the proposed compressor station upgrade, as well as a Water Quality Certification, a Protection of Waters permit, a Water Withdrawal permit and a Freshwater Wetlands permit for state-protected wetlands and adjacent areas for the pipeline installation.
 

Comments can be submitted to:
 

Stephen M. Tomasik
DEC - Division of Environmental Permits
625 Broadway, 4th Floor
Albany, NY 12233-1750
dec.sm.constitution@dec.ny.gov
 

Copies of the FEIS and DEC permit application documents can be viewed online at: http://www.constitutionpipeline.com/. Printed copies are available at:
 

Information on the Iroquois Wright Compressor Station can viewed at: http://www.iroquois.com/documents/WIP_-_NYSDEC_Air_Permit_Application_7-26-13.pdf.

Speak Out Against Drones!

 

Speak Out Against Weaponized Drones at Hancock Drone Base

 

Beginning 1 p.m. Sunday, October 5, 2014, Upstate Drone Action and the Syracuse Peace Council will do all-of-us-involved street theatre outside the main gate of the Hancock Reaper drone base on East Molloy Road two miles east of Mattydale near Syracuse, NY. All are welcome.

Hancock is the home of the 174th Attack Wing of the NYS National Guard. The Attack Wing remotely controls weaponized Reaper drone robots, killing and terrorizing people in Afghanistan and probably elsewhere.

The event,  part of the world-wide Global Action Day Against the Use of Drones for Surveillance & Killing, is in solidarity with comparable events during this Keep Space for Peace Week in Asia, Europe and throughout the U.S.
 
Among our speakers will Mark Colville, of the Amistad Catholic Worker in New Haven, CT, recently found guilty in the De Witt Town Court on five counts for participating in a nonviolent attempt to deliver a “Peoples’ Order of Protection” to the Hancock chain of command. According to Mark, “That Peoples’ OOP, on behalf of the children of Afghanistan, is a response to the dozens of OOPs imposed on Upstate Drone Action members for exercising at Hancock our First Amendment right of petitioning our government for a redress of grievances. Those OOPs  are Hancock’s heavy-handed device for squashing dissent.”

The Syracuse Peace Council, founded 1936,  is this nation’s oldest independent local grassroots peace and justice organization. Upstate Drone Action, founded 2010, seeks to educate the public, the media and base personnel about the ongoing  Reaper drone war crimes originating at Hancock Air Base.

Resisting Drone Warfare - Rev. Gary Doupe Interviews Jack Gilroy

Interview: Hillcrest, NY, September 27, 2014
Sentencing Statement: Endwell, NY, September 30, 2014
Additional Video: Rally to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, Syracuse, NY, April 28, 2013

Update, October 1, 2014: Jack Gilroy was sentenced to 3 years probation, with the first 90 days to be spent in Onondaga County Jail, in addition to over $1200 in fines and surcharges in connection with his conviction on charges of trespass and obstructing governmental administration.

Press Release, September 30, 2014:

Jack Gilroy, 79, Broome County Peace Action Board member and longtime activist who has Honorable Discharges from both the US Navy and US Army will be sentenced by Judge Robert Jokl on Wednesday, October 1st at 4:30 PM at the DeWitt Court House, 5400 Butternut Drive, East Syracuse, NY 13057-8509.

Gilroy was convicted of trespass and obstructing government administration for his participation in a solemn funeral procession and die-in at Hancock Killer Drone base where missiles and bombs are fired via satellite just sixty miles away from Broome County. The maximum penalty is one year and 15 days in Jamesville Penitentiary.

Gandhian waves of nonviolent resisters to drone warfare by the 174th Attack Wing of the Hancock Air Force National Guard have been ongoing for the past five years. Gilroy's trial was based on his participation in an April 28th 2013 solemn funeral procession and die-in to illustrate the death and destruction of innocent people by drone missiles and bombs fired out of Hancock Air Force Base. Hancock is one of many drone bases around the United States doing assassinations of Muslim suspects in foreign nations.

Gilroy had an opportunity to plead guilty without penalty but noted that “the guilty are not those who carry the message to stop the killing.” He and others who have been arrested at the gates of the 174th Attack Wing all have taken oaths of non-violence. Gilroy and many others believe the United States extrajudicial killing of suspects is not only immoral and illegal but has become the premier recruiting tool for terrorists.


Websites and Books Recommended by Jack Gilroy:

Killer Drone Resources

Living Under Drones
Upstate Drone Action
Know Drones
No Drones Network
Veterans For Peace

Voices for Creative Nonviolence

Pax Christi USA

Drone Wars UK

Code Pink

Let's Try Democracy

Teach Peace Now

Pace e Bene

Friends of Franz Jagerstatter

Center for Christian Nonviolence

 

Four selected books for students and adults:

1) A Peoples History of the United States by Howard Zinn

2) Compassion…Henri J.M. Nouwen

3) Strength Through Peace…Colman McCarthy

4) War is a Lie…..David Swanson

 

This video is underwritten by:

Broome County Peace Action

Broome County Veterans For Peace