Nuclear Resister E-bulletin July/August 2019

July/August 2019

IN THIS E-BULLETIN

FEDERAL JUDGE RULES AGAINST KINGS BAY PLOWSHARES RFRA MOTION, SETS OCTOBER 21 TRIAL DATE     

FRANCE JAILS NUCLEAR DUMP OPPONENT AFTER RE-OCCUPATION OF DUMP SITE

MULTIPLE ACTIONS AT GERMANY’S BUCHEL AIR BASE  

FIVE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN JULY AT SCOTLAND’S TRIDENT NUCLEAR SUB BASE

FR. CARL KABAT AND BYRON CLEMENS ARRESTED AT KANSAS CITY NUKE PLANT ON JULY 4TH   

NUCLEAR RESISTERS ARRESTED IN HIROSHIMA & NAGASAKI REMEMBRANCE ACTIONS at Livermore Nuclear Weapons lab, Lockheed Martin, Drone Command Center, Faslane (Scotland) and Bangor (U.S.) Trident bases

CHELSEA MANNING WILL REMAIN CONFINED FOR ANOTHER YEAR; STEEP DAILY FINES CONTINUE

NUCLEAR AND WAR RESISTER FRANCES CROWE, AGE 100, DIES – PRESENTE!      

PLEASE SUPPORT IMPRISONED ANTI-NUCLEAR AND ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS – THE NUCLEAR RESISTER NEEDS YOU!

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Federal judge rules against Kings Bay Plowshares RFRA motion, sets October 21 trial date

On August 26, U.S. District Judge Lisa Godbey Wood denied all the Kings Bay Plowshares pre-trial motions, including the one re: the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. The following day, the judge set the trial date for the seven Catholic nuclear disarmament activists. The jury trial will start at 9 a.m. on October 21 at the federal courthouse in Brunswick, Georgia.

Although the judge found the Plowshares did establish a prima facie case under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act because they were sincerely religiously motivated to challenge the nuclear weapons at the Naval Base, she ruled that the government had a compelling interest in keeping unauthorized people out of the base and the prosecution of the Plowshares activists was the least restrictive means of protecting the safety of the base. The Plowshares argued that the government bringing multiple duplicative charges threatening 25 years in prison is far from the least restrictive option to keep unauthorized people out of the base.        
  
Read more here.

France jails nuclear dump opponent after re-occupation of dump site 

On July 18, opponents of a planned underground nuclear waste dump in northeast France announced that they had moved on the ground as well as into the trees of the targeted forest to reaffirm their opposition to the waste burial project, to nuclear power and to the industrial, colonial, military world that goes with it. Their presence initially routed police from the contested site. But by late afternoon, police had regrouped, fired tear gas into the forest and launched a helicopter for surveillance. At the end of the day, barricades erected by dump opponents were breached. While two people were arrested on the ground, by nightfall several tree-sitters remained above the fray.

The next morning, July 19, police and firefighters arrived with equipment to begin the eviction of activists occupying at least four platforms in the trees. By the morning of July 20, all of the occupiers had been evicted from the trees. Between police actions in the villages and in the woods, eight people were briefly detained for identification checks, eight others were taken into custody and later released, after being questioned and charged with criminal conspiracy. One person previously barred from the territory, Kevin Fluchs, was arrested and sent to jail for four months for violating this court order.    
 
Read more here.

Multiple actions at Germany’s Büchel Air Base

Eleven international nuclear disarmament activists entered Germany’s Büchel Air Base early on the morning of July 10 to deliver a self-named Treaty Enforcement Order declaring that the sharing of U.S. nuclear weapons at the base is a “criminal conspiracy to commit war crimes.” Upon entering the base’s main gate with a printed “cease and desist order,” they insisted on seeing the base commander to deliver the order in person. The group included people from Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. All eleven were detained by military and civilian authorities and were released after providing identification.

Later on July 10, at about 4 p.m., four of the activists cut through the fence to enter the Büchel base. They carried banners declaring that the U.S. and German Air Force’s planned use of nuclear weapons makes the base a “crime scene.” At the same time, four others were outside the high-security base, posting “Crime Scene” notices on the outer fence and along a perimeter bike path. All eight activists were detained by security personnel and found in violation of a “stay away order” issued earlier the same day. For violating that order, the eight were taken into custody, brought to Cochem for a court hearing, and transferred to jail in Koblenz. They were all released early the next day.     

Read more here.

Five activists arrested in July at Scotland’s Trident nuclear sub base 

On July 7, the second anniversary of the day that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted by an overwhelming vote at the United Nations, members of Trident Ploughshares used spray paint to re-decorate the main entrance of Scotland’s Trident nuclear submarine base for peace and blocked the base’s other entrance. They were there to challenge the Faslane base’s legitimacy and highlight the progress that has been made since a huge majority of the world’s states took the ban decision. The Treaty will enter into force once it is ratified by 50 nations; it’s currently been ratified by 25 nations.

The group had time to paint “Banned 7/7/17” and “Nae Nukes Anywhere” on the notice boards and “Scrap” and “Redundant” on the gate to the base. They also covered the roadway with slogans referring to the Ban Treaty. Eventually the MoD police arrived and arrested the three painters, charging them with vandalism. They were taken to Greenock police station and released shortly afterwards. Later Willemien Hoogendoorn and Elaine Graham locked down in the middle of the road, and were arrested and taken to jail. Willemien refused bail conditions, and remained behind bars until trial, when charges were dismissed.   .

Read more here.

Fr. Carl Kabat and Byron Clemens arrested at Kansas City nuke plant on July 4th

As part of an annual “Interdependence Day” witness he began in 2011, Fr. Carl Kabat, OMI returned to Kansas City on July 4 with Byron Clemens to take part in direct action at the Kansas City plant that produces 85% of the non-nuclear components of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. The men entered the Kansas City National Security Campus, a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) facility operated by Honeywell. Undeterred by the heavy rain, they were able to quickly walk into the campus. Once inside, Kabat poured red paint on the main entrance sign “to illuminate the insanity of nuclear weapons from the past, potential in the future and present misguided priorities.” The pair were detained on site for a few hours. Both were charged with trespass, and Kabat also faces a destruction of property charge.

Read more here.

Nuclear resisters arrested at Hiroshima & Nagasaki remembrance actions

LIVERMORE NUCLEAR WEAPONS LAB

Forty-three nuclear disarmament activists were arrested on August 6 while blocking the West Gate of California’s Livermore nuclear weapons laboratory. They were part of a group of over 100 people gathered that morning for the “Designing Armageddon at Livermore Lab” rally and action to commemorate the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 74 years earlier. Daniel Ellsberg, Pentagon Papers whistleblower and author of The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner, spoke at the rally, as did Nobuaki Hanaoka, who was a baby when the atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki on August 9, 1945. Following a march to the West Gate, the group had a Japanese bon dance to call in “the ancestors and the outlining of bodies on pavement to commemorate the vaporized shadows found after the atomic bombings.” Those arrested were cited and released.  

Read more here.

LOCKHEED MARTIN

On August 6, Hiroshima Day, nuclear disarmament activists with the Brandywine Peace Community in Pennsylvania remembered the U.S. atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan with an action at Lockheed Martin in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, an annual witness that began 42 years ago. They quietly gathered with banners and signs. After a song from Tom Mullian, and some words about the U.N. Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, six activists walked up the Lockheed Martin driveway entrance to deliver a Notice of U.N. Treaty Prohibition. They were stopped by Lockheed Martin security and soon arrested by Upper Merion police. The group was cited and released with a charge of harassment. This was the first time that protesters there were charged with harassment instead of the usual disorderly conduct or trespass charges given to hundreds of protesters arrested over the years. 

Read more here.

DRONE COMMAND CENTER

The Des Moines Catholic Worker and Veterans for Peace ended their third annual 24/7 Vigil from August 6 – 9 at the Des Moines Cathedral with a rally and direct action on August 9 at the Des Moines Drone Command Center. Twenty people attended the rally, which included a reading of Thomas Merton’s “Original Child Bomb”. After the rally, Ed Bloomer and Frank Cordaro walked down the main drive of the base and blocked the entrance for 20 minutes before police arrived to arrest them. The two men were booked at the Polk County Jail and spent the night in a holding cell with 12 other inmates. In the morning they pled guilty to trespass charges, and were fined $200 plus jail and court costs before being released.  

Read more here.

FASLANE TRIDENT BASE

A 29-year-old woman was arrested on August 6 at the North gate of Faslane Naval Base, home to Trident, Britain’s nuclear arsenal of missiles, warheads and submarines. She was attending a vigil hosted by the Faslane Peace Camp, commemorating the lives lost as a result of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 74 years earlier. Bearing a placard reading “Never Again”, the protester doused herself in red paint, symbolic of the blood of the fallen, before lying in the road in front of the main gate, disrupting traffic as the base underwent its daily shift change. On refusing police requests to move, she was arrested at 4:15 p.m. for obstruction of the highway. She was taken to the Clydebank police station, and later released with five charges (one count of breach of the peace, two counts of vandalism and two counts of the roads act). All charges were dismissed in court on August 28. 

Read more here.

BANGOR TRIDENT BASE

Sixty people were at the Bangor submarine base on August 5th for a flash mob demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons. The demonstration, organized by the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, was in the roadway at the Main Gate of the Trident base during rush hour traffic. At around 6:30 a.m., over thirty flash mob dancers and supporters entered the roadway carrying peace flags and two large banners stating, “We can all live without Trident” and “Abolish Nuclear Weapons.”  While traffic into the base was blocked, dancers performed to a recording of War (What is it good for?) by Edwin Starr.  After the performance, dancers left the roadway and eleven demonstrators remained. The eleven demonstrators were removed from the roadway by the Washington State Patrol and cited with being Pedestrians on roadways.  

About 30 minutes later, and after being cited, five of the eleven demonstrators reentered the roadway carrying a banner with a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., which stated, “When scientific power outruns spiritual power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.”  The five were removed by the Washington State Patrol, cited with failure to disperse and released at the scene.     

Read more here.

Chelsea Manning will remain confined for another year; steep daily fines continue

On Monday, August 5, Judge Anthony Trenga denied Chelsea Manning’s Motion to Reconsider Sanctions imposed after he found her in civil contempt of court for her refusal to give grand jury testimony relating to her 2010 disclosures of classified information. While the judge has authority to sanction Manning in an effort to convince her to comply with his order to testify before the grand jury, he does not have the authority to impose sanctions for punitive purposes. In her motion, Manning argued that the sanctions, including both incarceration and steep daily fines, will never coerce her compliance with the Court’s order, and therefore impermissibly serve only a punitive function.

The Judge has “almost unreviewable discretion” to interpret evidence, such as Manning’s financial records, and to impose — or revoke — sanctions. Thus, despite the fact that Manning is currently deeply in debt, and can not work while incarcerated, Judge Trenga was able to conclude that fines totalling $441,000 fall within the parameters of a “coercive” sanction, and do not intrude into the forbidden realm of the punitive. He also stated his belief that continued confinement may yet exert a coercive impact upon Manning, and asserted that he retains the authority to keep her confined while simultaneously imposing daily fines, a point of law vigorously disputed by Manning’s lawyers. Manning may be confined for another year.

Read more here.

Nuclear and war resister Frances Crowe, age 100, died – Presente!

100 Years of love, persistence, resistance…Frances Crowe, Presente! (March 15, 1919 – August 27, 2019) With gratitude for her life, which has been an example and an inspiration to so many of us near and far, for her activism for a peaceful and nuclear-free future, and so much more. Rest in power – all of us who you have protested with, supported, mentored and encouraged will carry on! 

Read more here.