About 60 students and peace activists took part in an early morning Good Friday service for peace. Participants in the Atlantic Life Community's annual Holy Week Faith and Resistance retreat, they gathered on a grassy knoll about 200 yards from the west side of the Pentagon. They stood in the form of a cross, some holding banners as they sang hymns and read aloud together the New Testament account of Jesus' crucifixion.

After the readings, four men walked down the slope towards the Pentagon's west wall, now being rebuilt following the September 11 attack. Ed Kinane and Mike Pasquale, both from Syracuse, carried a banner reading "No More Violence". Joined by Bill Frankel-Streit and George Veasey, the four were stopped by waiting police as they stepped out to cross North Rotary Road. They were arrested and charged with failure to apply for a permit for their activity. All were released within a few hours, on orders to return to U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia on June 7.

Kinane observed that, "Like thousands of the recently slaughtered women and children in Afghanistan, Jesus was an innocent civilian killed by an occupying army. For decades the Pentagon has been the largest purveyor of terrorism and violence on our planet."

Pasquale added, "The way to end terrorism is to stop being terrorist."

Joan Gregory and Brandon Passmore, arrested during another peace witness at the Pentagon last December 28, returned to court in March, when charges were dismissed.

For more information, contact Jonah House, 1301 Moreland Ave., Baltimore, MD 21216, disarmnow@erols.com.