FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 19, 2012

Contact: Medea Benjamin, 415-235-6517, medea@codepink.org

CODEPINK Protests Killer Drones and Government Secrecy at DC Appeals Court

Supports ACLU in Case Against CIA's Targeted Killing

When: 8:30am, Thursday, September 20, 2012

Where: U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit

333 Constitution Avenue, Washington DC

WASHINGTON – As the American Civil Liberties Union challenges the CIA's secret drone program in federal appeals court Thursday, CODEPINK will be outside the courthouse with a model drone and banners calling for an end to the CIA's covert drone program, and will stage a die-in to draw attention to the innocent people killed in these drone attacks. They will also stand in solidarity with the ACLU's challenge to the CIA's absurd denial of the existence of the government's targeted killing program and its refusal to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests about the program while officials continue to make public statements about it.

“The American people have the right to know more about a drone program that is responsible for so many deaths and so much anti-American sentiment around the world,” says CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin, author of the book Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control. “In fact, one of the reasons so many people are protesting at US Embassies right now is their outrage at US drone strikes.”

 “The notion that the CIA's targeted killing program is a secret is nothing short of absurd,” said ACLU Deputy Legal Director Jameel Jaffer, who will argue the case before a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit Appeals Court. There is no reason why the government should not be required to respond to requests under the Freedom of Information Act.”

CODEPINK is organizing a trip to Pakistan Oct 3-10 to protest the CIA's drone program that has killed some 3,000 people in the past 8 years in Pakistan alone.