Photo by Cristiane Danowski
from Nukewatch
U.S. Activist Ends 7.5-Month Prison Term in Germany;
Jailed for Protests Against U.S. “Nuclear Sharing”
by John LaForge
Susan Crane of Redwood City, California was released from prison in Koblenz, Germany on Friday, January 17, 2025, after spending 7.5 months incarcerated for trespass convictions and refusing to pay fines stemming from a string of nonviolent protests against U.S. nuclear weapons stationed at the Büchel air force base, southeast of Cologne.
On June 4, 2024, Crane began serving a 230-day sentence at the Wöllstein-Rohrbach prison in Rhineland-Palatinate, the longest term yet imposed in the decades-long campaign of protests against the American-made free-fall, gravity bombs known as B61s at the base. Dutch peace activist Susan van der Hijden from Amsterdam served 115-days along with Crane for similar convictions. After ten days at Wöllstein, the two were transferred to the Offener Vollzug or the “open prison” in Koblenz, a less severe system that permits daytime work release. Crane was welcomed by the Martin Luther Evangelical Church community of Koblenz and did light work around the church grounds for many weeks.
Crane, 81, a life-long peace activist who has endured lengthy prison sentences in the United States for anti-war actions, was convicted of several trespass charges in Germany after joining six “go-in” demonstrations at Büchel. During the actions on the German base, Crane and others warned personnel that stationing the U.S. nuclear weapons there, and NATO’s ongoing threat to use them known quaintly as “nuclear sharing,” are both unlawful. Tornado fighter jet pilots of the German air force’s 33rdTactical Air Wing at Büchel routinely train to drop the U.S. H-bombs on targets in Russia [1], most recently in operation “Steadfast Defender 24” [2] — provocatively staged in the midst of NATO-armed war in Ukraine.
In one action, Crane and others unfurled a banner that read, “Büchel Air Base is a Crime Scene.” According to legal scholars, the transfer of nuclear weapons from the U.S. to Germany violates the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) which explicitly forbids any “transfer to any recipient whatsoever [of] nuclear weapons.” [3] According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the U.S. hydrogen bombs at Büchel are the 170-kiloton B61-3, and the 50-kiloton B61-4.[4] The U.S. atomic bomb that incinerated Hiroshima in 1945 was a 15-kiloton device.
Crane said in a statement before entering prison, “I thought the German courts would listen to the reasons we went onto the base, and understand that our peaceful actions were justified as acts of crime prevention. But international law was not respected or enforced.”
Photo by Mathias Tretschog
Crane, who has two adult children and four grandchildren, has devoted her life in California to serving the poor and homeless as a member of the of Redwood City Catholic Worker community. In a statement last March Crane said, “I see people living in camps, living in cars, and I see working people who don’t have enough income for basic needs like rent, food, or medical care. Then, I think of the money wasted on war-making by the U.S. and NATO nations, and that 3% of the U.S. military budget alone could end starvation around the world.”
At least 29 Germans, as well as two other U.S. citizens and two Dutch nationals have been jailed in Germany for related protest actions against the U.S. nuclear weapons. [5] Crane is the first U.S. women to be imprisoned in Germany in the campaign. Brian Terrell of Maloy, Iowa, was recently ordered by the court in Koblenz, Germany to report to the Wittlich prison on February 26, 2025 to serve a 15-day sentence for a related go-in action in July 2019.
(article below)
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Notes for reference only:
[1] Reuters, “NATO to hold biggest drills since Cold War with 90,000 troops”, Jan. 18, 2024, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/nato-kick-off-biggest-drills-decades-with-some-90000-troops-2024-01-18/ ; “NATO Holds Secret Nuclear War Exercises in Germany, Ignores Turkey,” Oct. 15, 2020, https://see.news/nato-secret-nuclear-war-exercises-germany-ignores-turkey /; “Stop ‘Steadfast Noon’ Nuclear War Exercise Now!” Oct. 14, 2020; 2019 “Secret nuclear weapons exercise ‘Steadfast Noon”, https://www.bundeswehr-journal.de/2019/geheime-atomwaffenuebung-steadfast-noon/ ; 2017, “NATO nuclear weapons exercise unusually open,” https://www.bundeswehr-journal.de/2019/geheime-atomwaffenuebung-steadfast-noon/
[2] https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/222847.htm ; https://www.defense.gov/Spotlights/Steadfast-Defender-24/
[3] International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms Germany (IALANA), in its submission to the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review, April 5, 2023, p. 3, says in part: “… nuclear sharing together with Germany’s participation … constitute a violation of the spirit and purpose of the NPT.” https://www.ialana.de/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/IALANA_Germany_-_joint_UPR_submission_-_Germany_-_November_2023.pdf
[4] Hans M. Kristensen & Matt Korda, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 76:1, 46-60; https://doi.org/10.1080/00963402.2019.1701286
[5] https://www.dfg-vk-rlp.de/aktuell/prozesse-wegen-aktionen-gegen-atomwaffen/susan-crane
PHOTOS TAKEN OUTSIDE OF KOBLENZ PRISON, GERMANY, JANUARY 17, 2025
Susan Crane and Susan van der Hijden – both free! Photo by Dennis DuVall
Photo by Dennis DuVall
Photo by Christiane Danowski
Photo by Christiane Danowski
Photo by Dennis DuVall
Photo by Dennis DuVall
Photo by Dennis DuVall
Photo by Christiane Danowski
from COUNTERPUNCH
U.S. Anti-War/Anti-Poverty Activist Ends 7.5-Month Prison Term in Germany
by John LaForge
Solitary nonviolent witness appears painfully ineffective in the age of state terrorism and vigilante shooting sprees. Yet Susan Crane of Redwood City, California, who will be released from prison in Koblenz, Germany Friday Jan. 17 after spending 7.5 months incarcerated over protest trespass convictions (and refusing to pay fines), has perhaps influenced thousands of people in Europe and the States with her example. Crane’s prison time stemmed from a string of bold protests against the U.S. nuclear weapons stationed at Germany’s Büchel air force base, southeast of Cologne, a deployment that isn’t even mentionable in mainstream press that can’t tolerate any skepticism over the NATO war in Ukraine.
On June 4, 2024, Crane began serving a 230-day sentence at the Wöllstein-Rohrbach prison, the longest term yet imposed in the decades-long campaign of protests demanding the ouster from Germany of the free-fall, U.S. gravity bombs known as B61s stationed at the base. Dutch peace activist Susan van der Hijden from Amsterdam served 115-days together with Crane for similar convictions. The two spent most of their sentences at an “open prison” that permits daytime work release. The “free time” permitted by the “open” institution allowed Crane to speak to visitors and groups and even present a lecture at the local university.
Crane, 81, is a life-long peace activist who has endured lengthy prison sentences in the United States for disarmament “Plowshares” actions at state-side nuclear weapons sites, and is the first U.S. women to be imprisoned in Germany in the “Büchel is Everywhere” campaign. She was convicted of several trespass charges after joining six “go-in” actions at Büchel. Once on the base, Crane and others warned military personnel that the stationing and support of the U.S. hydrogen bombs there, and the ongoing threat to use them (known quaintly as “nuclear sharing”), are both unlawful. Tornado fighter jet pilots of the German air force’s 33rd Tactical Air Wing at Büchel routinely train to drop the U.S. H-bombs on targets in Russia, most recently in operation “Steadfast Defender 24” — provocatively staged in the midst of NATO-armed war in Ukraine, and a public nuclear threat just as terrifying as any issued from Moscow.
In a few go-in actions, Susan carried a banner charging, “Büchel Air Base is a Crime Scene.” According to legal scholars like the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, the U.S. transfer of nuclear weapons to Germany violates the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) which forbids any “transfer to any recipient whatsoever [of] nuclear weapons.” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists says the U.S. H-bombs at Büchel are the 170-kiloton B61-3, and the 50-kiloton B61-4. The U.S. atomic bomb that incinerated Hiroshima in 1945 was a 15-kiloton device.
Crane wrote in a statement before entering prison last June, “I thought the German courts would listen to the reasons we went onto the base, and understand that our peaceful actions were justified as acts of crime prevention. But international law was not respected or enforced.”
Crane, who has two adult children and four grandchildren, has devoted her life in California to serving the poor and homeless as a member of the of Redwood City Catholic Worker community. In a statement last March Crane wrote, “I see people living in camps, living in cars, and I see working people who don’t have enough income for basic needs like rent, food, or medical care. Then, I think of the money wasted on war-making by the U.S. and NATO nations, and that 3% of the U.S. military budget alone could end starvation around the world.”
Susan’s personalism of individually — and against all odds — addressing overwhelming poverty on one hand, and confronting nuclear madness on the other, confounds the shock-immune public that perks up mostly at news of the latest catastrophe. If instead of today’s atrocity, Susan’s example of both helping and warning, of “comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable” could go “viral”, our future would be brighter.