Creech 14 guilty in drone case

Last year I went to a meeting at MCC in which the use of drones in Afghanistan was discussed. Drones are unmanned aircraft capable to dropping bombs, and some of them are guided by controllers in Nevada (about 35 miles northwest of Las Vegas) and about 7,000 miles away from the targets.

Just recently I watched a videos of drone controllers in the U.S., receiving commands and authorization for a strike. Sitting there in their "civies" (civilian attire), a fairly young man and young woman (apparently, a required two-person team) repeated and confirmed a firing sequence and dropped bombs on a designated target, then confirming the hit and damage.

A post-verdict statement to the judge included, "An airman at Creech wrote, 'I am 7,000 miles away from the killing….I am 18 inches away from the killing.'   He was referring to his proximity to seeing human beings dismembered on the video screen."

On April 9, 2009, 14 activists went to Creech AFB to protest. Yesterday they were convicted of misdemeanor trespassing. According to one newspaper article, the "Creech 14" were given credit for time-served and were allowed to go free from the courtroom.