For more information, contact WESPAC Board member Geoff Smith at 914.323.8945
Drones are big business. They promise War Lite, Precision Death for political and military adversaries, and massive intelligence gathering everywhere. Activists for Peace, Immigrants Rights, International Solidarity and Human Rights Monitoring are directing attention to the impact of this new technology. Military drone technology is now being applied to police surveillance and private, commercial information gathering.
If you have concerns for international policy and conflict resolution abroad or privacy and civil rights here at home, you will want to know more about drones — their capability, their present and future use, and the legal principles that govern their use.
The National 2012 Ground the Military Drones Tour will cover the Congressional Districts of Members of Congress who belong to the Unmanned Vehicle Caucus in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio and California. These Districts are also home to companies engaged in manufacturing and assembly of military drones. The Tour will present demonstrations and teach-ins to raise public awareness about the impact of the use of drones.
The Ground the Military Drones Tour is speaking out on all these issues
in White Plains, NY, on March 12, 2012, at 7PM at the Mapleton Conference Center in Good Counsel located at 52 North Broadway in White Plains, NY. Long-time anti-war activist Nick Mottern has constructed replica drones, videos and other exhibits that demonstrate the use of military drones. He will give us a history of use and what future capability is in the works. Nick examines the growing drone industry’s resistance to civil liberties objections in a multi-million dollar PR campaign.
Former Director of the NYC Military Law Task Force, Attorney Geoff Smith will discuss the legal constraints on the use of drones, examining principles of international law and conventions, Laws of War, Humanitarian Law and the criminal laws of the US and the site countries where drones are engaged. Are drones so accurate in targeting individuals not in the theater of battle, not posing a military role or threat, that they should be treated as extrajudicial executions with criminal law culpability? Have the legislative and judicial branches of government been taken out of the picture in modern war making?
WESPAC Researcher Enrique Lopez will present a case study of the use of drones by Israel. We will have up to date reports from Iran and Pakistan on the use of military drones as well as the work of European organizations critical of the use of militarized drones.
