Citation:
Know all ye by these presents that Aaron Bushnell is hereby awarded the Corner-Brightener
Candlestick, presented by Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence, on this Second
Day of November, 2024, in Washington, D.C.
Senior Airman (SRA) Bushnell became a martyr when he walked up to the Israeli embassy in
Washington, D.C., on February 25, 2024, while live-streaming himself as he approached. He then
self-immolated in the most extreme form of protest against what Israel is doing to Palestinians.
He was 25 years old and had been on active duty since May 2020, according to the service.
He had stated as he approached the embassy:
“My name is Aaron Bushnell, and I am an active-duty member of the United States Air Force. I
will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest but,
compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizer, it’s
not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
-Aaron Bushnell’s final message
In an earlier on-line post, later identified as from SRA Bushnell, he’d written: “I have been
complicit in the violent domination of the world and I will never get the blood off my hands.”
In advance of this act, Aaron Bushnell posted this message on his Facebook page:
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, “What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim
Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?”
It is to be deplored that such despair overwhelms a person of conscience as Aaron was. But it
must be seen as he being an additional victim of the “violent domination of the world,” now in
the form of an ongoing genocide by Israel, with bi-partisan U.S. complicity.
SRA Bushnell is the 21st awardee of the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. His
distinguished colleagues include Daniel Ellsberg, Julian Assange and Craig Murray, who have
all paid heavy prices for truth-telling. But Senior Airman Aaron Bushnell paid the highest price,
a price we wish no one to pay. But in endless U.S. wars for the purpose of the “violent
domination of the world,” it is inevitable that service-members of conscience will feel the
righteous despair that Aaron Bushnell wrote of: “I will never get the blood off my hands.”
Aaron didn’t commit suicide. He was murdered, by those directing the “violent domination of
the world,” for which he took the most extreme measure to avoid complicity for, and in
protest against!
Related Articles
Invitation to 2024 Sam Adams Award Ceremony on Nov. 2 in Washington D.C.
All are invited to the 21st annual Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence Award ceremony to be given in memoriam to Aaron Bushnell, in recognition of his remarkable action in taking his own life to alert the world to the terrible crime of the US-Israeli genocide of Gaza, which has now spread to the West Bank and Lebanon.
It is hoped that US and UN officials who have spoken out and/or resigned/retired as a result of their opposition to and the deceit surrounding the ongoing genocide of Palestinians will attend as our honored guests.
Our Sam Adams award ceremony and reception is scheduled to be held from 7-9 pm on Saturday evening, November 2, at the Busboys and Poets Restaurant event rooms, 450 K St. NW, Washington D.C.
The event is sponsored by the Eisenhower Media Network.
Make your reservation at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/sam-adams-award-ceremonyreception-honoring-aaron-bushnell-in-memoriam-tickets-1047960426847?aff=oddtdtcreator and more info at: https://www.busboysandpoets.com/events/th-evt-43719520/
The award ceremony will be livestreamed at:
https://www.facebook.com/N2Sreports
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbBm6SZ235HFxwVKC7Po5IA and
US Soldier Who Burned Himself to Death Over Gaza Wins Sam Adams Associates Award for Integrity in Intelligence
In presenting its 2024 award, the Sam Adams Associates says it salutes Aaron Bushnell’s courage in performing a vital public service at the greatest cost — martyrdom — for truth-telling. (published in Consortiumnews on Sept 19, 2024)
Vigil on Feb. 27, 2024, outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington for Aaron Bushnell, a U.S. airman who self-immolated to protest the Israeli genocide in Gaza. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
A notice from the Sam Adams Associates:
The Sam Adams Associates are pleased to announce United States Air Force Senior Airman Aaron Bushnell as the recipient of the 2024 Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence.
Bushnell was a cyber defense operations specialist with the 531st Intelligence Squadron at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland. He was assigned to the 70th Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Wing at Fort Meade in Maryland.
Senior Airman (SRA) Bushnell martyred himself when he walked up to the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 25, 2024, while streaming himself as he approached, and then self-immolated in protest of what Israel is doing to Palestinians, the most extreme form of protest. He was 25 years old and had been on active duty since May 2020, according to the service.
He had stated as he approached the embassy:
“My name is Aaron Bushnell, and I am an active duty member of the United States Air Force. I will no longer be complicit in genocide. I’m about to engage in an extreme act of protest but, compared to what people have been experiencing in Palestine at the hands of their colonizers, it’s not extreme at all. This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal.”
In an earlier on-line post, later identified as from SRA Bushnell, he’d written: “I have been complicit in the violent domination of the world and I will never get the blood off my hands.”
In advance of his burning, Bushnell posted this message on his Facebook page:
“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide? The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”
As he was consumed by flames, SRA Bushnell’s last words were, “Free Palestine,” said repeatedly.
This was not an act of suicide, as some would have us believe, though SRA Bushnell acted out of despair of any other means of protest having an effect in stopping Israeli genocide and U.S. complicity in that. He obviously suffered the moral injury that so many U.S. service members suffer from when they come to realize their role in, as SRA Bushnell put it: “I have been complicit in the violent domination of the world and I will never get the blood off my hands.”
Feb. 26, 2024: A vigil in Washington for Aaron Bushnell, the active-duty member of the U.S. Air Force who self-immolated outside the Israel embassy to avoid being complicit in genocide. (Elvert Barnes, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
But in SRA Bushnell’s case, his actions made him a “Whistleblower,” in the finest tradition of many of the other Sam Adams Awardees, in that he was acting in opposition to what the Israeli Defense Forces and the Israeli government describe as “Cognitive Warfare.”
Or the “Battle for Consciousness,” of the world’s population, which accompanies Israel’s illegal treatment of the Palestinians being held under illegal military occupation, in denial of that illegality. Here is how it is described in an Israeli book on that “Battle for Consciousness,” or “Public Diplomacy”:
“The IDF speaks about consciousness: ‘The strategy of limited conflict is to win a decision of ‘consciousness in the society with the help of military means. The battle is for the society’s consciousness and for national resilience. Decision is achieved through maneuvering to raise doubts and generate a sense of persistent uncertainty.’”
Senior Airman Bushnell seriously upset the preferred narrative in Israel’s so-called “Public Diplomacy,” or more correctly, “Cognitive Warfare” as the “Battle for Consciousness.”
In that, in his opposition to genocide, SRA Bushnell was acting in the finest tradition of past U.S. heroes who took it upon themselves to undertake missions knowing the only possible outcome was certain death, in sacrificing their life for a noble purpose.
That’s not “suicide.” It’s martyrdom, in the spirit of the most exalted people in history.
Perhaps inspired by Sr. Airman Bushnell, numerous other government employees have sacrificed their careers in protest of Israel’s genocide and U.S. complicity in that. We honor all of them too, with this Award, though presented in Aaron Bushnell’s name.
The Sam Adams Associates wish to salute the courage of Aaron Bushnell in performing a vital public service at the greatest cost — martyrdom — for truth-telling.
We urge an end to U.S. complicity in the ongoing Israeli genocide taking place before the world’s eyes, and legal accountability for all engaged in that genocide, Israeli and American. To that end, the public’s right to know about their government’s wrongful actions — including the adverse consequences of policies carried out in their name — must be respected and preserved.
SRA Bushnell is the 21st awardee of the Sam Adams Award for Integrity in Intelligence. His distinguished colleagues include Daniel Ellsberg, Julian Assange and Craig Murray, who have all paid heavy prices for truth-telling.
But Senior Airman Aaron Bushnell voluntarily paid the highest price, a price we wish no one to pay. But in endless U.S. wars “in the violent domination of the world,” we must expect our service members to feel the righteous despair that Aaron Bushnell wrote of: “I will never get the blood off my hands.”
Other fellow Sam Adams Award alumnae include NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake; F.B.I. 9-11 whistleblower Coleen Rowley; and GCHQ whistleblower Katharine Gun, whose story was recounted in the film Official Secrets.
Sam Adams was a C.I.A. whistleblower who exposed the U.S. official lie about the strength of Viet Cong forces.
The full roster of Sam Adams awardees is available at samadamsaward.ch.
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