The Baltimore Emergency Response Network (BERN), believing it is hypocritical for the U.S. government to demand weapons inspections in Iraq, but be unwilling to allow access to U.S. installations, formed its own Citizen Weapons Inspection Team to search for evidence of research on weapons of mass destruction at the Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) of local Johns Hopkins University.
Wearing “Authorized Citizen Weapons Inspection Team - Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory” badges, seven people entered the administration building on March 1 in an attempt to obtain unfettered access to all areas of weapons research. However, the inspectors were not permitted to meet with APL Director Gary Smith, and were told to leave. Five inspectors who refused were eventually arrested for trespass.
Ellen Barfield, Jen Kipka, and Max Obuszewski were tried and convicted on May 4. All refused to pay a fine and court costs, and were alternately sentenced to jail - ten days each for Barfield and Obuszewski, five days for Kipka. Barfield and Kipka served their time immediately;
Obuszewski did later in May. Codefendant Jeri Crum-Vanlandingham did not appear, having sent the court a letter denouncing APL and indicating she had moved to California. A warrant was issued for her arrest. Inspector Doug Matson is scheduled for trial July 1.
For more information, contact BERN, 311 E. 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218, (410)323-7200; email: mobuszewski@afsc.org
Tucson
The trial of six members of a Citizen’s Weapons Inspection Team occurred in Tucson on Human Rights Day, December 10, 1998. Following a day long trial in a courtroom packed with 50 supporters, City Magistrate Mitchell Eisenberg convicted the six of trespass.
On March 1, 1998, in the midst of U.S. threats to bomb Iraq for blocking U.N. weapons inspectors, the six were blocked by U.S. military authorities from carrying out an independent inspection for weapons of mass and indiscriminate destruction, namely depleted uranium (DU) ammunition.
During the day long trial, Judge Eisenberg listened attentively to the defendants, as they provided the court with a primer on depleted uranium and the suffering it has inflicted on Gulf War veterans and Iraqi civilians. The defendants argued their inspection was justified under international law and by the imminent threat of renewed war.
Base Commander Corley testified that the DU ammunition had never been moved from its bunkers, but said it could be deployed at a moment’s notice on order from the Commander-in-Chief. When considering three key elements of a defense of necessity, Eisenberg found that this testimony satisfied the defendant’s claim that the threat was imminent. He also found a reasonable connection between the action taken and the harm to be averted. But he felt they had reasonable alternatives to the action taken.
The judge praised the defendants’ depth of commitment and then convicted and sentenced each to six months unsupervised probation plus 10 hours community service. Some defendants also received a permanent federal ban and bar letter in the mail.
For more information, contact the Nuclear Resister.
Lawrence, Massaschusetts
Last March, eleven members of a citizen weapons inspection team calling
themselves Raytheon Peacemakers went on trial in Lawrence District Court.
The six were arrested at the Andover plant last October and charged with
trespass when they entered the facility “in search of evidence that components
of weapons of mass destruction are under construction” there.
The group represented themselves and were permitted to present a defense
of necessity during the three-day trial. Their main witness for the
defense was former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who has seen first-hand
the devastation caused in Iraq and Sudan by cruise missiles and other weapons
produced in whole or part by Raytheon. Some of the defendants have
also traveled to Iraq and Bosnia, and gave testimony about the human consequences
of the on-going wars they had themselves observed.
The six person jury returned a guilty verdict after three hours of deliberation on March 10. All were sentenced to one year unsupervised probation, plus $35 witness protection fee or seven hours community service.
For more information, contact Raytheon Peacemakers at (978)249-9400.