July 10, 2014: Syracuse, NY. Anti-drone protester Mary Anne Grady was sent to county jail for a maximum 12 month sentence for violating a temporary "Order of Protection" granted by a County Judge to explicitly to protect the Commander Evans of Hancock Air Force Base, who said he wanted to keep protesters "out of his driveway."

Debra Sweet | July 9, 2014

A hearty "thank you" to Courage to Resist, which just issued a call to "all U.S. military personnel to resist any effort to pursue a new military attack on Iraq via troops, bombs, drones or any other means.  In keeping with our Mission Statement, we affirm that, just as there was never any legitimate reason for the United States to send military forces to Iraq in the past, there is not now any reason for the United States to participate militarily in the affairs of the people of Iraq."

On Wednesday, May 28, about 25 protesters mounted a sunrise anti-drone war witness at the two gates to West Point where family and friends of cadets were entering by the thousands for graduation ceremonies and to hear President Barack Obama’s commencement address.

ALERT: Ominous action taken in the U.S. is a Senate vote this week to authorize Obama to move all the 154 prisoners to prisons in the U.S.

This would allow Obama the claim that he has “closed” Guantanamo, while creating a terrible precedent of holding prisoners indefinitely and without charge, and possibly trying those few they have charged in sham military commission trials, within the U.S. Some of the prisoners' attorneys say that disappearing them into the hellhole of mass incarceration here would make it even harder to get them freed, even though many have already been cleared for release.

On May 2, Condoleezza Rice released a statement that she was bowing out of an invitation she had received to give the commencement speech at Rutgers University on May 18. This is a major victory for students at Rutgers University who had been organizing escalating protests to demand that the university rescind her invitation. Fifty students staged a sit-in outside the Rutgers University president's office, and 100 students had confronted him with sharp questions and chanted their opposition when he appeared publicly a few days later. News of the students' protests spread around the world.

Debra Sweet | April 29, 2014

Sunday I was in Syracuse, NY for a mass protest against drones, and of the outrageous “orders of protection” granted by a local judge against specific protesters, aimed at keeping them away from Hanock Air Force Base, from where drone operations in Afghanistan are piloted. We began at Tucker Missionary Baptist Church with almost 500 as Cornel West spoke about poverty, racism and drones. "How does virtue stand up to brute force?" he asked, quoting WEB Dubois. One way Cornel answered is that we cannot allow the victims of US imperialism to be invisible.

CIA drone strikes over the last few days have taken the lives of “more than 3 dozen militants” according to US and Yemen government statements. They admit to kiling three civilians, and if patterns hold, may be forced to admit that people branded as “militants” may not have been armed combatants, and certainly may not have been part of al Queda, as the U.S. military has alleged.

All found guilty of  disorderly conduct but acquitted of trespassing; Order of Protection extended 2 years; Judge decides to send a message

The Essential Facts:
As I sat in that room, I decided my action would be designed to send a fissure through David Petraeus’ edifice of lies with the intent to reach someone with the truth who desperately needed to hear it like I once did.

In January, just after the Close Guantanamo NOW Tour left the Bay Area, World Can’t Wait gave a workshop about the U.S. drone wars at the Muslim Student Association’s “MSA West” annual conference. The 1,000 plus students there come from campuses up and down the West Coast and further west also.  The conference title this year was “The Islamic State of Mind” and the basis of the conference and its sessions went to that from many different disciplines, but all faith-based.

Yesterday a billboard went up in North Carolina. Not your typical commercial billboard. The placement and the content were unique. The billboard with graphic artwork depicting two kneeling black hooded prisoners practically screams “Close Guantanamo!” at passing motorists. The 28 ft long 12 ft. high behemoth is  placed  4 miles east of I-95 on Hwy 70 in Johnston County, NC.  The Johnston Co. Airport is home to Aero Contractors, notorious CIA torture taxis that delivered “suspects” to Guantanamo and other black sites.