Former U.S. Air Force drone technician and whistleblower Cian Westmoreland is still speaking to the world community about the pressing need to disarm drones, and he needs your help.
He has just been to Australia and Italy, generating amazingly substantive and honest media about the U.S. drone program in both. This reporting criticizes the use for drone warfare of the secretive signals intelligence sites in Alice Springs Australia called Pine Gap and Naval Air Station Sigonella in Italy. Cian draws attention to the responsibility of nations to resist drone strikes that violate international laws.
“Drones are completely network-dependent platforms, with responsibilities for strikes distributed between many individuals across specializations, agencies, companies, and nation-states,” Cian says.
“Most recently, Donald Trump has demanded authorization for the CIA to do their own strikes, which removes yet another layer of accountability. It is not only a legal question, but an existential question as well. The sensors in drones are proliferating under the guise of ‘smart city’ technology, and finding their way into the fabric of our daily lives.
“Automation is an incremental process by which tasks that are performed by people are replaced by algorithms with their own built-in biases. Fully automated weapons systems already exist, and are estimated to find their way onto the battlefield in less than three years.“
Cian has been traveling the world challenging the current and future uses of this technology for nearly two years at a financial detriment to himself. Your donations have been extremely helpful in getting him from point A to point B, and through his work at Standing Rock, in Australia, and in Italy.
Half of your assistance will go directly toward helping him repair the van that he currently lives in. To fix the fuel line and the suspension will cost roughly $3,000. The other half of your donation supports the RootsAction Education Fund’s ongoing efforts against drone warfare.
Anything helps. Thank you all for your continued support.
