Debra Sweet | April 14, 2021
We met Daniel Hale in 2013 at the “drone summit,” a gathering of activists to stop US drone warfare in Washington DC. He was trained and used by the Air Force in the first years of the secret U.S. drone program, courageously spoke out about it, and was charged with violating the Espionage Act by the Trump Justice Department. Biden’s Justice Department was about to try him this month, when he pled guilty to one count of the Act.
CommonDreams reported: “Hale admitted in court to writing an anonymous chapter in Scahill’s 2016 book, The Assassination Complex: Inside the Government’s Secret Drone Warfare Program, which divulged information taken from top-secret documents about drone strike protocols, civilian casualties, and Pentagon officials’ debate about the accuracy of intelligence.”
We urge you to sign this petition circulated by Code Pink demanding that Daniel receive no prison time when he is sentenced on July 13. And do read the statement on Daniel Hale’s pleading from the WhistleBlower & Source Protection Project of ExposeFacts.org.
Daniel’s case involves two important issues: The ongoing, secret, illegitimate use of targeted killing by weaponized drones by the United States, and the criminalizing of people who provide the press with information exposing the actions of the government. Think Dan Ellsberg, Edward Snowden, Chelsea Manning.