Drone base picketed

Niagara Falls, N.Y. — Activists rallied at the gate of Niagara Falls Air Base on Mothers’ Day, May 12, to oppose plans to operate Predator and Reaper drones from the base. About 50 people from the Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars, including No Drones Niagara and the Western New York Peace Center, braved strong winds and snow to declare their resistance to the U.S. military policy that terrorizes, murders and maims civilians in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen. Speakers included many who had recently been arrested in Syracuse at the Hancock Air Base Reaper drone facility. They also read Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 “Mothers’ Day Proclamation,” a passionate demand for disarmament and peace, and a very long list of the children killed by U.S. drones in Pakistan and Yemen.