National Know Drones Tour raises drone warfare concerns, kicks off in Brooklyn

NEW YORK, 19 April 2012. The 2012 Know Drones Tour, a public education campaign focusing on legal, ethical, and civil liberties concerns stemming from a surge in drone warfare and drone surveillance, began in Brooklyn, N.Y., with sidewalk displays of large-scale replicas of the MQ-9 Reaper drone and drone replicas measuring eight feet long and with a wingspan of 11 feet.

"The goals of this tour are to end US drone attacks and the US wars; and to achieve an international ban on weaponized drones and drone surveillance," says Nick Mottern, tour director. "The drone replicas are powerful teaching tools."

A forum on 14 April at 3:30 pm at Lafayette Avenue Presbyterian Church, 85 S. Oxford Street, will feature: Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink and author of the forthcoming book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control; Glen Ford, executive editor of the Black Agenda Report; Debra Sweet, director of World Can't Wait; Zohra Ahmed of the Pakistan Solidarity Network; and David Tykulsker of Brooklyn for Peace.

The tour is visiting Brooklyn because Congressman Edolphus Towns D - NY- 10 is a member of the Congressional Unmanned Systems Caucus, also known as the drone caucus, formed to lobby Congress on behalf of the drone industry. Over the course of the year, the tour will visit the home districts of 17 of the 55 members of the drone caucus, traveling to southern New Jersey, Philadelphia, Baltimore, northern Maryland, Ohio, and southern California.

The tour is endorsed by Code Pink, Voices for Creative Non-Violence, United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC), War Resisters League, Occupy Wall Street – Anti-War, World Can't Wait, the International Action Center, Brooklyn For Peace, Peace Action New York, the WESPAC Foundation, Pax Christi –Greensburg, PA, Upstate NY Coalition to Ground the Drones & End the Wars, Veterans for Peace - Chapter #128 (Buffalo, NY), Interfaith Peace Network of Western New York, Western New York Peace Center.

For information on the tour and drones, visit www.knowdrones.com