Nuremberg Trials Nuremberg Trials: looking down on the defendants' dock. Ca. 194
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In this age of instant world wide personal communication, once calls for prosecution of government officials ordering murderous attacks in vulnerable nations begin they will spread and sweep the world.
Former Veterans For Peace President Elliot Adams wrote an indictment of the military and workers of Hancock NY Drone Air Force Base. It was read by three women from The Upstate Coalition to Ground the Drones, who were able to reach the air bases entrance gate, a few days ago. Elliot Adams had been arrested with others while marching toward the base.
To the Service Members of Hancock Air Base,
Each one of you, when you joined the United States Armed Forces or police, publicly promised to uphold the United States Constitution. We ... call your attention to Article VI of the Constitution, which states
in the supremacy clause, that, without exception, treaties shall be the supreme Law of the Land.
One Treaty duly ratified by the US is the United Nations Charter. It was agreed to by a vote of 89 to 2 in the US Senate, and signed by the President, in 1945. It remains in effect today. As such, it is the supreme law of the land.
The preamble of the UN Charter states that 'all nations shall refrain from the use of force against an another nation.'
This Treaty applies both collectively and individually to all members of the US armed forces, who have sworn to uphold the Constitution, which includes Article VI. Under the UN Charter and long established international laws, anyone - citizen, military, politician, or judge, - that knowingly engages in illegal use of force against another nation is committing a war crime.
Under the Uniform Code of Military Justice of the U.S., you are required to disobey any clearly unlawful order from a superior.
We charge that the Air National Guard of the United States of America, headquartered at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base, home of the 174th Fighter Wing of the Air National Guard, under the command of 174th Fighter Wing Commander Colonel Greg Semmel, is maintaining and deploying the MQ-9 Reaper robotic aircraft.
Extrajudicial targeted killings such as the U.S. carries out by unmanned aircraft drones are intentional, premeditated, and deliberate use of lethal force in violation of US and international human rights law.
It is a matter of public record that the US has used drones for targeted killings in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen, and Pakistan, with no rigorous criteria for deciding which people are targeted for killing, no procedural safeguards to ensure the legality and accuracy of the killings, and no mechanisms of accountability.
The drone attacks either originating at this base or supported here are a deliberate illegal use of force against another nation, and as such are a felonious violation of Article VI of the US Constitution.
By giving material support to the drone program, you as individuals are violating the Constitution, dishonoring your oath, and committing war crimes.
We charge the chain of command, from President Barack Obama, to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, to Commander Colonel Greg Semmel, to every drone crew, to every service member supporting or defending these illegal actions, with the following crimes: extrajudicial killings, violation of due process, wars of aggression, violation of national sovereignty, and the killing of innocent civilians.
We demand that they immediately stop these crimes, and be accountable to the people of the United States and Afghanistan, ...
Nuremberg Principles l -- Vll, and by Conscience, to refuse to participate in these crimes, to denounce them and to resist them nonviolently.
As citizens of this nation, which maintains over 700 military bases around the globe, and the largest, most deadly military arsenal in the world, we believe these words of Martin Luther King still hold true, " the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government." There is hope for a better world when WE THE PEOPLE hold our government accountable to the laws and treaties that govern the use of lethal force and war.
Let all accused in this indictment understand that our words are spoken nonviolently. All are invited to stop the use of drones and refuse to participate in illegal warfare.
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