Matthew Hoey, founder of the Military Space Transparency Project, said during a discussion on drones Wednesday “we need to get on target” in fighting against unmanned technology.
The Boston branches of United for Justice with Peace and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom sponsored the discussion, “Drones: The New Frontier of Warfare and Spying,” which focused on the fight against unmanned military technologies.
A crowd of 50 people gathered at the Friends Meeting at Cambridge to listen to speakers talk about U.S. military drones, or machines used in warfare that do not require a soldier to be in battle or in danger of the fighting.
Nancy Murray, education director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, talked about the legal connotations of the military using these drones as spying machines and how these actions are toeing the lines of the Fourth Amendment.
Hoey discussed the history of drone development and the different forms that have been developed for air, water and ground vehicles.
As a technological specialist, Hoey said there are benefits of machines taking the place of real soldiers in harmful situations, but unmanned technology is not a positive step in innovation.
“We need to get on target in the fight against unmanned systems,” Hoey said. Bruce Gagnon, a co-founder of the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, said he has seen military development in other countries and the harmful effects it has on the local populations.
Gagnon said the people being harmed are innocent civilians.
Paul Shannon, a member of the American Friends Service Committee, said he and others in attendance at the talk worry about the loss of humanity in the creation of these machines that are operated from a distance.
“Our hope is that we can get a lot of people from a lot of different sectors of the country mobilized against this [issue],” Shannon said.
“We hope we can get people in the police force, people in the government, the churches . . . to see that this direction we’re going in is a real threat to the United States.”
Pat McGuire and Joan Livingston, both of Boston, said they have been involved in efforts to bring peace since the 1960s.
McGuire said she tries to get involved with groups that get the most accomplished in anti-war efforts and praises those who are more actively protesting the use of drones in the war.
She said it is important to realize the relationships between the varying components concerning the military.
“A big issue is being able to connect all the issues that are going on,” McGuire said. “The economy, how it’s related to the military, how the environment is related, how unions are related – and once people see how they all are connected . . . they will see how it doesn’t work with peace.”
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