One hundred and fifty people gathered at an Ash Wednesday event organised by Pax Christi and the London Catholic Worker in repentance and resistance to British nuclear weapons. The group proceeded to the M.O.D. building on White Hall, as activists broke off to mark the building that controls British nuclear weapons. Seven Catholic Workers, a Quaker, a doctor and a priest were detained and searched.
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[CALL YOUR GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVE: DISMISS ALL THE CHARGES AGAINST BRADLEY MANNING]
No date set for WikiLeaks suspect’s trial but Manning’s lawyer says he would object to any delay in the trial beyond June
Bradley Manning, the American soldier accused of being the source of the biggest leak of US state secrets in history, was on Thursday formally charged with aiding the enemy, during the first day of his court martial. If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of life in military custody with no chance of parole.
Manning, 24, deferred his plea to the 22 charges against him, and deferred a decision over whether he wanted a military judge or a jury to hear his case. A plea can be deferred right up until the beginning of his military trial, which is unlikely to take place before August.
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Shut It Down! group photo by Marcia Gagliardi
Lending heart to the campaign to end nuclear power forever, the nine women of the Shut It Down Affinity Group brought a Shut It Down Valentine on Monday to the headquarters of Entergy Corporation, which operates the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
Each wearing a Shut It Down Valentine for Entergy, the death-masked women processed for about twenty minutes in a silent circle in Entergy’s driveway. Every several seconds, one of the women struck a small gong to signify the death knell for Entergy, the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, and nuclear power everywhere.
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Friends,
At 10:15 a.m. on February 9, William “Bix” Bichsel, SJ was released from SeaTac Federal Detention Center. According to Theresa Power-Drutis, Bix’s first request was to “head over the bridge to Bangor.” His second request was a latte. His chauffeurs went for the second request. With all the milk he consumed during his liquids-only fasts while in solitary he seems to have rediscovered a desire for dairy products.
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Dr. Rafil Dhafir
Update from Katherine Hughes, For the Dr. Dhafir Support Committee.
On Friday, February 3rd, in Syracuse, New York, U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue resentenced Dr. Rafil Dhafir to 22 years in prison, in large part because he is unrepentant about sending food and medicine to starving Iraqi civilians in violation of International Economic Emergency Powers Act (IEEPA). According to UN estimates, between 1 and 1.5 million Iraqi civilians died as a direct result of the U.S. and U.K.-sponsored UN sanctions against Iraq. Dr. Dhafir made the correct moral choice and undertook the obligation imposed on all American citizens by Nuremberg Principle IV, to reduce the genocidal consequences of sanctions, by open assistance of food and medicine to Iraqi children and adults via his Charity Help the Needy for 13 years.
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report from Art Laffin, Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, Washington, D.C.
Focusing on the theme: LET ALL THE WORLD’S CHILDREN LIVE–REMEMBER THE MASSACRED CHILDREN AND CREATE THE BELOVED COMMUNITY IN A DISARMED WORLD, over 60 people from the Atlantic and Southern Life Communities, and the New Jerusalem Community in Philadelphia, gathered in Washington, D.C. from December 27-30 for the annual Holy Innocents Faith and Resistance retreat. The retreat included a moving ritual on the theme of the retreat, several compelling panels with parents and children reflecting on their experience living in Catholic Worker and resistance communities, prayerful reflection and liturgy, three nonviolent actions, and a spirited talent show.
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As they participated in a walking meditation in the Entergy Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant driveway to mourn cancer deaths caused by radioactive emissions, fourteen women of the Shut It Down Affinity Group were arrested Wednesday, January 18 by Vernon police and Vermont state police when they refused to move.
All were transported to and booked at the Vernon police station where Chief Mary-Beth Hebert coordinated collection of data for later charges. At the power plant, Chief Hebert told the women they would be charged with unlawful trespass, but no citations were issued during the bookings and no arraignment dates were provided.
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photo by Leonard Eiger
On January 14, 2012, activists from a local peace group blocked entry to the main gate at the Navy’s West coast Trident nuclear submarine base for nearly a half hour in an act of civil resistance to nuclear weapons.
Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action held a peaceful vigil and nonviolent direct action at the main gate to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington. The group protested the U.S. government’s continued deployment of the Trident nuclear weapons system. Its continued reliance on nuclear weapons as an instrument of foreign policy is in contravention of both U.S. and international laws.
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MESSAGE TO OBAMA: NO GUANTANAMO, NO BAGRAM, NO NDAA!!
Thirty-seven members of Witness Against Torture were arrested in front of the White House on Thursday, January 12 around 3 p.m. Dressed in the iconic Guantanamo orange jumpsuits and black hoods, and accompanied by a cage representing indefinite detention, the activists were warned to clear the sidewalk by National Park Police or risk arrest. After occupying the sidewalk for more than three hours, they were arrested one by one.
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Fr. William “Bix” Bichsel, SJ began a 3 month prison sentence at the SeaTac Federal Prison on November 10. The sentence resulted from an action at the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee on July 5, 2010.
On January 10, Bix left SeaTac, and headed to a federal transition house in Tacoma, Washington for the last month of his sentence.
That evening, friends who are Buddhist monks with the Nipponzan Myohoji Order on Bainbridge Island, were part of a group who were walking and drumming on their way to attend a Martin Luther King, Jr. Day vigil and action at the Trident nuclear sub base in Bangor. Senji Kanaeda and Gilberto Perez decided to make a small detour to drum and pray in front of the house where Bix was now residing.
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