The Coalition to Stop Project ELF took action in April against Project ELF’s role in helping the U.S. wage war and avoid serious diplomacy.  The ELF site is designed to transmit the order for a first strike nuclear attack and can signal any U.S. attack submarine to launch Tomahawk cruise missiles, such as those targeted on four sovereign nations in the past year.  Thirty-three people gathered at the remote transmitter site on April 18, and five were arrested, including one woman who used a kryptonite bicycle U-lock to secure herself and lock shut the main gate.  Bonnie Urfer was cut loose, then cited for trespass along with Cory Bartholomew, Elizabeth Beattie, Chris Leslie, and Jeff Leys.  Beattie and Leslie were briefly jailed.  All were ordered back to court May 18.

Two days later many resisters returned to the site, after learning an annual inspection by high-ranking Navy officers would be conducted then.  Bonnie Urfer was joined by John LaForge and Rodney Moose in carrying a banner to the facility’s front gate that read “Abolish the Nuclear Navy and Project ELF.”

At the ELF gate the protesters read a statement that said in part, “In view of [the] bombings of protected persons in Yugoslavia, your participation in the operation of Project ELF and the submarine system may implicate you in the commission of war crimes, crimes against peace and crimes against humanity... Please free yourself from culpability by ending your involvement in the nuclear weapons program, the nuclear Navy and Project ELF.”

The three were taken to the Ashland County jail, issued a $181.00 forfeiture citation and released, also pending a court appearance May 18.  No one returned to court to contest the citation on May 18.  Most are unlikely to pay the forfeiture and will have their driving privileges suspended for the next five years.

For more information, contact the Coalition to Stop Project ELF, c/o Nukewatch, POB 649, Luck, WI 54853, (715)472-4185, email: nukewtch@win.bright.net