Demonstrators have formed a human chain near a US air base in western Germany to protest against lethal drone strikes.<\/p>\n
The demonstration was organized by the alliance “Stop Ramstein – No Drone War<\/a>“, which says the Ramstein base relays information between operators in the US and unmanned drone aircraft on missions over Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and other places.<\/p>\n Organizers said that 5 to 7 thousand people took part in the chain near the Ramstein Air Base, the principal US Air Force facility in Europe, on a rainy Saturday.<\/p>\n Activists, calling for the base to be closed, described their protest as the biggest ever action against the US base, insisting that public support against the drone issue was growing.<\/p>\n Green MP Tabea R\u00f6ssner warned that US drone attacks were radicalizing people in the Middle East, while peace activist Reiner Braun said, “The chain is not complete but it is a sign! Ramstein needs to be shut down.”<\/p>\n Deutche Welle reported:<\/p>\n Former US drone operator Brandon Bryant first made revelations in “Der Spiegel” magazine in 2013, claiming that Ramstein was a major hub for coordinating Washington’s global drone war,<\/a> which included targets in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Somalia and Yemen.<\/p>\n He later told a German parliamentary committee that all data from the plane went through Ramstein.<\/a> However, the drones were not directly steered from the base, he added.<\/p>\n But the German and US governments have repeatedly downplayed the importance of the facility and have evaded direct questions about its role in the drone program.<\/a><\/p>\n The rallies, which began on Friday, are due to end on Sunday.<\/p>\n Thousands of Germans surround Ramstein Air Base to protest the US’s use of drones https:\/\/t.co\/S649Rqpv1c<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/giR5qFExoG<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Business Insider (@businessinsider) June 11, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n #StoppRamstein<\/a>: Thousands took to the streets in Germany to protest at U.S. Base in Ramstein https:\/\/t.co\/QY8Lfag7Vv<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/U7XeQbdWa3<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Christoph Germann (@newgreatgame) June 11, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n Via Common Dreams<\/a>.\u00a0This piece was reprinted by RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Demonstrators have formed a human chain near a US air base in western Germany to protest against lethal drone strikes. The demonstration was organized by the alliance “Stop Ramstein – No Drone War“, which says the Ramstein base relays information between operators in the US and unmanned drone aircraft on missions over Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":249607,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-249471","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249471"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249471\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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