PEP Talk

Saudi Arabia remains one of the nations with the worst human rights records in the world.

The death penalty, which is often carried out by beheading, is the punishment for many crimes, including sorcery and blasphemy.  Even juveniles have been executed when convicted of these crimes.  The trials preceding executions are often unfair—defendants can be tried with little or no legal representation.  When Capital Punishment is not administered, Corporal Punishment often is.  Flogging is a mandatory sentence for some convictions in Saudi Arabia.

Severe discrimination against women and girls continues in Saudi Arabia. Adequate protections against violence, including domestic violence, do not exist for Saudi women.  Women remain unequal under family law, are denied equal employment opportunities, and are banned from driving or traveling alone.

In December of 2011, the Obama administration announced an agreement to sell, to Saudi Arabia, 84 new F-15SA jets, manufactured by Boeing, and to provide upgrades to 70 F-15s already in the Saudi fleet. The Royal Saudi Air Force will also get help with training, logistics and maintenance.  The price tag?  Thirty billion dollars.

In November of 2011, Sikorsky Aerospace Services announced that the Saudi’s fleet of U.S. manufactured UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters will be upgraded to the UH-60L configuration.

Our A-to-L conversion program for the UH-60A Black Hawk helicopters provides the Saudi Land Forces with a cost-effective option to extend the service life of their fleets while permitting better integration with newer Black Hawk helicopter models,” says David Adler, president of Sikorsky Aerospace Services, on Sikorsky’s website.

As has happened in Egypt, Libya, and Syria, the people of Saudi Arabia will, one day, rise up against their repressive government. And when they do, from where will the weapons have originated that will be turned against the Saudi civilians?  Black Hawks and F-15s will make excellent weapons to be used in the name of “National Security”.

Abbe Sudvarg, PEP Board Chair

As a member of the St. Louis Instead of War Coalition, I was able to attend the Code Pink International Drone Summit, April 28-29. The summit brought together a wide range of activists and organizers to discuss U.S. policies, or the lack thereof, towards drones. The collection of speakers on the program was incredible. I was in a star-studded room full of activists and organizers whose work I admired. The line-up in the program included Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin, award winning journalist Jeremy Scahill, and human rights activist and lawyer Shazad Akbar (most recognizable for his work on behalf of drone strike victims in Pakistan).

Before coming to this conference, I had a very basic working knowledge of drones and I left with a deeper understanding of the need to do education around the issue of drone usage.

I loved that there was a wide range of opinions in the room. There was no general consensus that drones were inherently bad or inherently good, instead, we focused on the lack of transparency and accountability with drone usage.

The Obama administration has been using drone warfare both with a lack of transparency and accountability, killing people without granting them due process to a trial; assassination by association. But then again, they are terrorists. Or are they? In a report done by the New America Foundation, it is cited that the U.S. has launched 297 drone strikes which resulted in 1800 deaths. Of that1800; it is estimated that three to four hundred were not combatants. As unmanned indiscriminate killing machines, drones are unable to make the distinction between who is a threat and who is not, making them horribly ineffective on this “war on terror.” Such callous disregard for human life is weaponized drones biggest offense, but not the only one.

Drone Summit Attendees in front of Supreme Court

Drones are also a violation of global privacy. Just think, would the U.S. ever let another country fly surveillance or weaponized aircraft in our airspace? Hell no. And global privacy isn’t the only concern. Domestic use of surveillance drones is jeopardizing us here on our own soil. Local police departments are already using drones as a means of surveillance and since there are no policies in place to regulate this usage, we are in danger of having our every move recorded by authorities. It’s like an Orwellian nightmare; I can imagine it now, unmanned surveillance vehicles flying in every back yard, Big Brother looming in the skies.

Perhaps a little more tangible and immediate than imagining a dystopian society, is the obvious fact that domestic drones will be used to increase the already high (and ineffective) level of surveillance in low-income communities of color. As an anti-war organizer, I see this as an opportunity to reach out to and to address the concerns of these communities that have become seemingly absent from the anti-war movement in the age of Obama. There’s much organizing work that needs to be done around drones. I’m glad I was able to participate in Code Pink’s Summit and gain the knowledge to move forward on this issue.

Medea Benjamin will be in St. Louis promoting her book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control in June.

Tila Neguse