NSA Role in Drone Attacks Protested at Fort Meade Headquarters

Three members of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR) were arrested at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, Maryland when they obstructed a roadway outside the base’s gates and refused to leave.  About twenty protestors in all staged a theatrical “die-in” and read the names of one hundred children they claim have been killed in U.S. drone attacks. They called for an end to the targeted killing program carried out by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, saying that the NSA plays a significant role in providing illegally obtained and sometimes faulty information to the CIA and U.S. military.

Documents released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and testimony of former Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) officers reveal that U.S. forces rely on metadata from NSA surveillance to help identify targets for drone attacks. Metadata however only identifies the SIM card of a cellphone. A drone locating a target based on NSA metadata intel therefore is destroying a cellphone no matter who is holding it or is nearby.

In a statement, the NCNR said, “The NSA plays an integral role in providing information, including faulty data as reported by leading award-winning journalists, to the Central Intelligence Agency and US Military which in turn carry out the drone strikes. US militarism including the illegal drone program is responsible for violations of international law and is going unchecked by the US Congress. We must hold the US and NSA accountable for the illegal and immoral drone program.”

Last year President Obama stated that “before any strike is taken, there must be near-certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured.”