Nuclear Resister

Vote with Your Feet

In cities and towns across the country, post-election rallies and marches raised the anti-war voice that was all but missing from the corporate parties' campaign. Independent media surveys reported hundreds of demonstrations, including ones in all of the major cities across the country. Most had been planned for weeks no matter who won, and were loosely coordinated by a few national anti-war networks and voting rights advocates. The protests began on Election Day, with most on November 3. Som...

The Inside Line; From Des Moines; in Prison for Peace: Consequences, Opportunities and Blessings

Some have claimed that I get arrested so I can go to jail. I don't. Jail is hard, and it is intended to be. My jail time is a consequence of being a peacemaker. It is a by-product of speaking my truth about war. Going to jail is no more a goal for me than getting crucified was a goal of Jesus'. It is a consequence that I accept and embrace. It is also a blessing and an opportunity. I am writing not to complain about the consequence of my actions, but to describe my opportunities and share my ...

Laro Nicol Surrenders at Fci Tucson

Following a December 1 send-off breakfast with friends, family and activists (including your editors) at the Pima Friends Meeting House in Tucson, Phoenix anti-war activist [Laro Nicol] turned himself in to serve a two year sentence for weapons and explosives charges. Nicol's prosecution was one of political convenience, and the result of no overt acts on his part. Rather it resulted from statements of a police informant who met the Phoenix Copwatch activist as he worked for police accountabi...

Vieques Updates

Letters of support should be sent to Jose Velez Acosta, 23883-069, USP, POB 1033, Coleman, Florida 33521-1033; [Jose Perez Gonzalez], 21519-069, and Jorge Cruz Hernandez 26318-069, (both at) Edgefield FCI, PO Box 725, Edgefield, SC 29824; Jose Montanez Sanes, 26317-069, MDC Guaynabo, PO Box 2147, San Juan, PR 00922-2147.

Minnesota Juries Hear International Law, Deliver Not Guilty Verdicts

The trial focused on the provision in the Minnesota trespass law which provides for a"claim of right" to be present where otherwise one might be trespassing. The defendants successfully argued that it was reasonable for them to be on the property of this weapons manufacturer because of treaties signed by the United States. Quoting Article VI of the U.S. Constitution where International Treaties signed by our government are identified as the supreme law of the land, the defendants then offered...

Resisting the Slaughter of Innocents

Twice in as many days, members of the community breached security at two of the most heavily guarded buildings in the country during nonviolent anti-war protests. Early on December 28, about 75 people gathered outside the Pentagon Metro station to protest the continuing slaughter of innocents in Iraq. While 17 activists blocked the entrance, a banner appeared over the side of the Pentagon roof: "Bring the Troops Home Now." As supporters who'd been pushed behind metal barricades encouraged emp...

Update Files

PROJECT ELF: Federal Magistrate Stephen Crocker has likely seen the last of a stream of defendants arrested in northern Wisconsin at the Navy's now-closed bell-ringer for nuclear submarine attacks. Six people arrested last May were found guilty in Crocker's Madison courtroom November 4, but he did not sentence them. "The ELF battle is over. You're not coming back and there's no reason to fine you. It doesn't matter anymore." Michael Walli, who, convicted of trespass in 2002 at Project Elf had...

International Notes; Yuri Bandazhevsky Isolated and Ill

Letters of support should be addressed to Yuri Bandazhevsky; Ul.Shugaeva, 3-1, kv.454; 220141 Minsk; Belarus. Since 2001, a small international committee has provided a modest monthly stipend to support Yuri Bandazhevsky, and for his family to visit him at the relegation camp. This group also raised funds for the surgery, and needs contributions for physical therapy and other medical care that the state will not provide for prisoners at these camps. Contributions can be made payable to 'Enfan...

Vanunu Arrested, Computer Seized

On November 11, in the shadow of the media attention that followed the death of Yasser Arafat, more than two dozen armed Israeli police stormed the grounds of St. George's Cathedral in East Jerusalem, where Vanunu has lived in sanctuary since leaving prison. His room was searched and many items were seized, including computers and cell phones. Vanunu offered no resistance as he was taken into custody for extensive questioning about the many broadcast, print, and internet interviews he has fre...

16,000 Rally at Ft. Benning, 12 Headed to Federal Prison

Sunday, the gathering culminated with a vigil and solemn funeral procession to the gates of Fort Benning. Fifteen people were arrested, many negotiating a 10-foot-high barbed-wire fence to enter the base. They took this action despite knowing they likely face three to six months in federal prison. Two minors were released and the others were held overnight while outside the jail, 250 or more people and several large puppets held a spirited and entertaining vigil. The next day, ten arrestees w...

Military Refusers Jailed

"I couldn't see Jesus Christ taking human life," [Joel Klimkewicz] told the Saginaw News from prison. "In my faith, what I believe is that we're all citizens of heaven. Citizens of heaven are of all nations, and I refuse to take a life of a fellow citizen of heaven." At least two more recent refusers have also been told they may be prosecuted. Pablo Paredes opposed the war in Iraq from the start. But in Japan, the enlisted sailor's job had insulated his growing revulsion at war from the bruta...

Three Months for Stratcom Line Crosser

Des Moines Catholic Worker Elton Davis was sentenced November 19 to three months in federal custody. Last August 6-9, Davis was part of a 3-1/2 day vigil at ' Offutt Air Force Base (AFB), the home of the U.S. Strategic Nuclear and Military Space Commands. In a pre-sentencing statement, he described the journey his conscience had taken in the year since he sat vigil at Offutt on Hiroshima Day, 2003, until he stepped across the line on Nagasaki Day, 2004. "As I sat at the gate [last year], a la...

Direct Actions Honor Dr. King

Forty-five people braved the sleet and snow at a demonstration commemorating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the gates of Naval Submarine Base Bangor on January 15th. Demonstrators carried a long banner along the highway entering the Trident submarine base, with these and other words of Dr. King: "When scientific power outruns moral power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men..." The Trident submarine base at Bangor is located 15 miles west of Seattle and is the Pacific...

Woodson Finally Sentenced

Federal Judge Dean Whipple imposed a sentence totaling 51 months in prison. His denunciation of [Helen Woodson]'s character as "freeloading" and "selfish" were countered by the testimony of Rev. Carl Kabat, Woodson's co-defendant in the 1984 Silo Pruning Hooks disarmament action at a Missouri nuclear missile silo.

Phil Berrigan Commemorated with Civil Disobedience

The arrest was the culmination of a silent walk through Manhattan by over fifty people. They began at the Isaiah Wall, by the United Nations at E. 43rd Street and First Avenue, where the words of the biblical prophet Isaiah are carved into stone: "They shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, nation shall not lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore."

New Legal Actions for Leonard Peltier

On June 26, 1975, two FBI agents were killed on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. At the time, supporters of traditional governance on the reservation were under attack from the corrupt, federally-mandated tribal administration, backed by the FBI. On the day of the murders, the Pine Ridge tribal chairman was secretly signing away tribal rights to energy resources in the Black Hills, including uranium. [Leonard Peltier], a supporter of the traditional leadership, was tried and...

Nuns Will Violate Probation If They Go Home After Release

Federal rules require that probation be served in the state where one was convicted. In most cases it is a simple matter to request and receive transfer of probation supervision to another state. However, Washington State - where [Jackie Hudson] has resided since 1993 on mission from their Michigan religious community for the work of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, opposing Trident nuclear submarines - has declared that her refusal to pay restitution is reason enough to refuse t...

Pledge of Resistance

The campaign will also be encouraging and organizing a variety of resistance tactics and strategies in an ongoing nonviolence campaign, including (but not limited to) alternative direct action strategies and the "Hang Up On War" campaign of federal phone tax resistance (see www.nwtrcc.org). The goal is to involve the greatest number of fellow citizens and activists possible in some form of nonviolent resistance against the war, and to focus these energies to build public opposition and bring ...

Europe Rejects the Bomb

"Bombspotting small" actions are preceding the big event. Representatives of participating NGOs entered the Kleine Brogel Air Base to look for the nuclear weapons there on October 11. On November 10, eleven physicians, acting under the motto "prevention is better than cure," blocked the runway at Kleine Brogel to hinder the training of F16s pilots who would drop the bombs. Like thousands cited in the past, the doctors will not be prosecuted lest the legality of basing nuclear weapons in Belgi...