Demonstration at Creech Air Base in Utah

Ann Wright posted these photos of a Code Pink Demonstration.

From Ann Wright: "Some fascinating comments from local residents about our protests at Creech drone base- not all negative!!!!

"At the Oasis Bar, the only bar in town, a resident said he didn't believe protesters would effect any change at the base level, but that he shared a concern about civilian casualties from drone strikes.

“'We do worry,' he said of the base's Reapers and Predators, the two types of drones flown from Creech. 'It was a lot better when it was a Thunderbird (flying).'

"He added that if authorities arrested protesters, they should also prosecute those responsible for civilian deaths. (Yes!!! Ann's comment)

"But even as he identified common ground with some of the protesters, he recognized the economic benefits of having the base there.

"Some Indian Springs residents said protesters should direct their message to decision-makers instead of urging drone operators to disobey commands.

"Another resident said the town had become accustomed to protests but felt they created tension among residents and lowered the morale of drone operators, which she felt was unfair because the pilots merely follow orders."

DANIEL ROTHBERG / LAS VEGAS SUN

Ruben Beltran of Indian Springs waves a peace sign during a protest Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, at Creech Air Force Base. Beltran said most Indian Springs residents dislike activists because the base hires civilians from town.

By Daniel Rothberg (contact)

Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015 | 2 a.m.

DANIEL ROTHBERG / LAS VEGAS SUN

Indian Springs resident Ruben Beltran holds a poster Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, during a protest session to highlight the environmental effects of war. Beltran was across the highway from Creech Air Force Base as part of a weeklong anti-drone protest.

INDIAN SPRINGS — Ruben Beltran pointed across U.S. 95 to his neighbor, a man sitting on a motorcycle inside the fenced boundary of Creech Air Force Base.

Beltran and the man on the motorcycle know each other, like a good many other residents of this community of about 1,000 people. But they don't know each other in the warm small-town way captured in Norman Rockwell paintings.

“That guy, he hates me," Beltran said.

What divides Beltran and his neighbor is something that also has created fault lines among Americans well beyond Indian Springs. It's drone warfare. Beltran is an outspoken anti-drone activist, an anomaly for a resident of Indian Springs. On Monday afternoon, he was standing at a weeklong anti-drone protest directed at the pilots and civilian staff who commute every day to Creech, one of the military’s hubs for flying drones.

“They don't like people like us here because a lot of people work at the base," he said.

In fact, Beltran said that the town’s connection to the base runs so deep that some of his neighbors who work at the base no longer talk to him because of his activism.

While the installation has been in this small town for several decades, its purpose has shifted over the years, from being a practice site of the Thunderbirds precision flight team to being the base of operations for drones used for 24/7 surveillance or strikes overseas.

DANIEL ROTHBERG / LAS VEGAS SUN

An anti-drone activist calls for an end to targeted drone strikes in front of Creech Air Force Base Monday morning, Oct. 26, 2015.

As a result, the town has been a magnet for anti-war protesters like Beltran. This week, Code Pink, the grass-roots group known for disrupting congressional hearings and political speeches, is expected to protest on the highway by Creech twice a day until Friday. With the town in the spotlight, many residents said they had a dim view of the activists.

Several residents said they supported the base, which provides jobs to the community. And even those who are more sympathetic with an anti-drone sentiment believe protesting at the base is futile in affecting change and see the importance of having the base.

“They feed so many families,” said a resident who used to work as a civilian at Creech.

Accordingly, conversations with residents reveal how sensitive the topic of Creech is in the town. Residents were not willing to be identified because some worked at the base, had plans to apply for a job there or believed speaking about the base could harm their businesses.

Indian Springs, an unincorporated town in Clark County, has always had strong ties to the military. Besides being the home of Creech, it’s adjacent to a 2.9 million-acre test range and is 45 miles away from the Nevada National Security Site. As such, the military has served as one of the town’s principal employers and is integral to keeping the economy afloat.

But the drone missions have brought new attention to the town. Code Pink members have traveled to Creech since 2009 to call for an end to drone strikes, which in their view have been responsible for more civilian deaths than the government has acknowledged and have helped galvanize the nation's enemies. Other groups have come as well. Dozens of peace activists were arrested in March for trespassing and blocking the base.

DANIEL ROTHBERG / LAS VEGAS SUN

Anti-drone activists with the group Code Pink hold signs for cars turning into Creech Air Force Base Monday morning, Oct. 26, 2015.

Some residents said the protests had become business as usual. Asked about Code Pink’s peaceful 15-person rally Monday morning, a former employee of the town’s shuttered casino responded in an unsurprised tone: “There’s another protest?”

At times, though, several residents said the protesters had triggered a backlash. Residents have been known to stage counterprotests at Creech. One resident, who works full-time at the base as a civilian contractor and whose father worked at the Nevada National Security Site, said the counterprotesters felt the activists shed a negative light on the town, a sentiment echoed by several other residents.

“I used to flip them off every time I passed,” said the former Creech contractor. “They’re not always peaceful.”

She said the town had become accustomed to protests but felt they created tension among residents and lowered the morale of drone operators, which she felt was unfair because the pilots merely follow orders.

On Monday, protesters arrived at 6 a.m. so they could catch the attention of pilots on their commute. Some Indian Springs residents said protesters should direct their message to decision-makers instead of urging drone operators to disobey commands.

At the Oasis Bar, the only bar in town, a resident said he didn't believe protesters would effect any change at the base level, but that he shared a concern about civilian casualties from drone strikes.

“We do worry,” he said of the base's Reapers and Predators, the two types of drones flown from Creech. “It was a lot better when it was a Thunderbird (flying).”

He added that if authorities arrested protesters, they should also prosecute those responsible for civilian deaths. But even as he identified common ground with some of the protesters, he recognized the economic benefits of having the base there.

He said he might even apply for a job there.

Women Organizing for Peace in the Philippines

Speech delivered as a part of Women Cross the DMZ events at the Women's Peace Symposium on May 26, 2015, in Seoul, Korea.
	Lisa Maza speaking at Women Cross the DMZ walk in Pyongyang, North Korea with 7,000 North Korean women, Niana Liu ,
	Greetings of peace to all especially to the  courageous and joyous women who are gathered here today calling for Peace and Reunification of Korea! Let me also convey to you the warm wishes of solidarity from GABRIELA Philippines and the International Women's Alliance (IWA), a global alliance of grassroots women's organizations.     I am honored to speak before you today to share the experiences of Filipino women in organizing for peace in my country. I have been with the parliament of the state as representative of the Gabriela Women’s Party to the Philippine Congress for nine years and in the parliament of the streets as a feminist activist of the GABRIELA Women’s Coalition for half my lifetime. I will talk about the work of peace building of my organization, GABRIELA. Having been colonized by Spain for 300 years, by the US for more than 40 years and occupied by Japan during WWII, the Filipino people have a long history of struggle for peace that is inextricably linked to the struggle for national sovereignty, social justice and genuine freedom.  The Filipino women were at the forefront of these struggles and played important and leading roles. Despite formal independence in 1946, our country remains a neo-colony of the US. The US still dominates our economic, political, and socio-cultural life. One of the most telling manifestations of such control was the US occupation for almost a century of our prime lands to maintain its military facilities including two of its largest military bases outside its territory - the Subic Bay Naval base and the Clark Air base.  These bases served as springboard for US interventionist war in Korea, Vietnam and the Middle East. The sites of these US bases became haven for the 'rest and recreation' industry where women and children's bodies were sold in prostitution for a price of a hamburger; where women were viewed as mere sex objects and the culture of violence against women pervaded; and where thousands of Amer-Asian children were left impoverished and abandoned by their American fathers.     In addition to these social costs, the US has not owned up responsibility for cleaning up the toxic wastes left after the bases were removed in 1991 and for the health hazards these wastes continue to pose to the people in the community. And like in the camp towns in South Korea, innumerable cases of crimes  including murder, rape and sexual abuse were committed with impunity by US troops with many of these cases not even reaching the courts.       These compelling realities are the very reasons why we oppose the presence of US military bases and troops in the Philippines and beyond. We believe that there can never be long and lasting peace as long as we are under the control of the US or any other foreign power. And we cannot have a free and sovereign state with the presence of foreign troops on our land. The women brought into the anti-bases argument the discourse on the social costs of the bases and why the removal of the US bases and troops is important for women.  GABRIELA, the biggest progressive alliance of women’s organizations in the Philippines which was organized in 1984 at the height of the anti-Marcos dictatorship movement brought the issue of prostitution of women around the base areas and the puppetry of the dictator to US interests. Marcos was deposed in a people power that became a model to the world. The Philippines subsequently passed the 1987 Constitution with clear provisions against the presence of foreign troops, bases and nuclear weapons on our soil.     The historic Senate rejection of a new treaty that would extend the Military Bases Agreement with the United States beyond 1991 was another victory for women.  Leading up to the Senate vote, women conducted massive information campaigns, held pickets, demonstrations, caravans, die-ins, lobby work and networking both locally and internationally to pressure the government to reject the treaty. The efforts of the women and the broad anti-bases movement finally led to the termination of the bases agreement.       But our struggle continues. In flagrant violation of our Constitution, the US in collusion with the Philippine government was able to reassert its military presence through the Visiting Forces Agreement of 1998 and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement of 2014, agreements that are more dangerous than the previous agreement they replaced. These agreements allow the US military free and unhampered use of virtually the entire Philippines for its basing needs and for rapid forward deployment of its forces as part of the US pivot to Asia policy. This heightening US military presence is also happening here in South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Australia among others.     Filipino women at the grassroots - the rural and indigenous women, workers, youth and students, housewives, professionals, religious and other sectors continue to organize. The women are aware that massive poverty and hunger and the marginalization, discrimination and violence against women are intensified by the policies of imperialist globalization which is carried out, propped up and sustained by militarization and war.     Furthermore, the policy of militarization and war diverts the much needed funds and resources that could have been used to create jobs for the 10 million unemployed and underemployed; to build homes for the 22 million homeless; to build school buildings, day care centers for children and crisis centers for women, and hospitals and health clinics in remote villages; to provide free education, health and reproductive care and other social services for the poor; and to develop our agriculture and industry.     We build long and lasting peace that is based on social justice and where women participate in the process and not the peace based on silencing the poor and powerless that militarist and war \mongers do.   In conclusion, let me take this opportunity to convey the Filipino women's solidarity with the women of Korea. Our fathers and brothers were also sent to fight the Korean War and our grandmothers and mothers were also victims and survivors as comfort women during the Japanese occupation.  We share this memory of war and women's exploitation, oppression and abuse. But today we also affirm our collective memory of struggle against all these as we persist and continue to work for peace in both our countries, in our Asian region and the world. Liza Maza is a  former Congresswoman representing Gabriela Women’s Party to the Philippine House of Representatives, and Chairperson of the International Women’s Alliance (IWA). She has been a key part of  GABRIELA’s Purple Rose Campaign, a global campaign to end sex trafficking in Filipino women and children.

Diane Wilson, Gulf Coast Fisherwoman and Co-founder Code Pink

Ynestra King, Lucila Silva, Amy Swerdlow, Yvette Christiansë and Nancy Kricorian (Presentations from Speaking Truth to Power)

Obama's Greeter Wears Grace's Quote!

From Jodie Evans, via Huffington Post
Last week, a long-term CODEPINK supporter phoned to invite me to dinner with Obama. She said, "You went to a war zone to learn what the women of Afghanistan want to say to Obama -- I want to make sure he gets the message." She told me she spent $30,000 for two tickets to Obama's DNC fundraiser in San Francisco, and would gift one to me. After waiting for eight years to speak with the president of the United States about the wrongful invasion of Afghanistan, I jumped at the opportunity.


To prepare, I spent a few days transcribing conversations from our Afghanistan trip. I also reached out to the CODEPINK community to join the petition that Afghan members of Parliament, human rights activists and NGO leaders we met in Kabul signed:

President Obama: We, the women of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and the United States, implore you to refrain from sending more United States military forces to Afghanistan. We encourage you to work quickly for a political solution in Afghanistan that will lead to a reconciliation process in which women will fully participate and to a withdrawal of foreign military forces. Sending more military forces will only increase the violence and will do further harm to women and children. Instead, these funds should be redirected to improving the health, education and welfare of the Afghan people.
I wasn't sure that I would actually get into the dinner and we were careful to make the package very user and security friendly. It was filled with photos, quotes, thousands of signatures, a copy of Rethink Afghanistan and our 25-minute interview with Afghan MP Dr. Roshanak Wardak from Wardak Province, who is adamant that the U.S. should not send new troops and rather, must leave.

The front of my CODEPINK t-shirt read, "The most recognizable feature of HOPE is ACTION" (a quote from Grace Paley) and the back was stenciled with "End the Afghan Quagmire." This made getting in a bit difficult but our supporter continued to wave the $30,000 receipt as our ticket in. We arrived a few hours before Obama and were able to think through all the potential obstacles to being in the photo line and taking our own footage of the moment. This also gave us the opportunity to deliver the same packet of photos, quotes and signatures to Nancy Pelosi who was generous in her receipt of the message from the women.

The DNC staff was nervous and came over to make sure I knew I couldn't hand anything to the president, asked us to remove our CODEPINK buttons, and I couldn't take photos because there was an official photographer. Luckily the supporter who invited me to join her had a Flip cam to capture the meeting, and we uploaded it to a news truck immediately afterwards. The staff circled us until the last moment and we were pretty surrounded when it came time for me to move forward. I took strength from remembering that outside the hotel was basically surrounded by Bay Area activists clamoring for peace and justice

Expecting less than the minute I was warned I would have, I was in a hurry to say a lot and make that minute count. When it was my turn to meet with President Obama, I began by telling him I had just returned from Afghanistan and had brought back messages from the Afghan women who said they didn't want more troops. I passed along their message that the U.S. is supporting corruption and greed in Karzai: we would be more effective by changing how we operate in Afghanistan rather than adding more soldiers. I handed him the signatures from Americans through our online and paper petitions and from the women in Afghanistan and he told me to pass them on to his staff, which I did. But he did see the pile of signatures, marking the first time since the war began that we have been able to hand-deliver a peace petition to the president. After handing off the packet, I turned to him and said, "The women really want to be at the negotiating table." He responded with what about MY Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and we have a woman ambassador (whose name he failed to recall). I stopped him and said, "No -- the women of Afghanistan." His response was a revelatory, "Oh..." He then gave me a fatherly pat as he told me, "I am not going to be able to fix Afghanistan quickly," and I responded, " You won't be able to fix it at all. Only they can."

Our conversation, however brief, confirmed my fears about the insularity of the discussion about Afghanistan. When you are there, in the midst of everything, seeing the impact of our occupation and listening to the citizens brimming with ideas on fixing their war-ravaged country, you realize it is painfully clear to the people of Afghanistan that their ideas are falling on deaf ears. They are not part of the debate about the future of their country, and, heartbreakingly, they pay the price. So many of the Afghan women and men we met with asked me, incredulously, "Aren't you upset that your taxes have gone to nothing? That we are worse off than before?" The waste, corruption, greed, ineptitude, and our attempts to end violence with violence are deep wounds that Afghans and their country will continue to be forced to bear for decades to come.

One thing I learned from Obama is that he is making the decision about troops, and he is trying to learn as much as he can, and is going to take some time in making this VERY important decision. So, now is the time we who KNOW that more troops is WRONG to speak out, to deliver the message in the media, to the White House and in the streets. If one of the points of decision making is 'how will the voters respond?' he needs to know we won't be happy, nor will history.

Contact Obama today at http://www.codepinkalert.org/afghanistan for more info.

Follow Jodie Evans on Twitter: www.twitter.com/codepinkalert

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jodie-evans/delivering-a-message-to-o_b_326666.html

Israeli Teens Take a Stand against Military Service