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A Review of Ongoing Campaigns...
Project ELF
The 2003 16th annual Mother's Day gathering at the Navy's submarine transmitter system, Project ELF, resulted in ten arrests for trespass on May 10. Bonnie Urfer pled guilty in September and served 30 days in jail due to prior convictions. She told Federal Magistrate Stephen Crocker "I'm guilty of much more than you can ever imagine. I think we all are.... I live and participate in a culture that's killing its people..." The other nine were convicted at an October trial. Eight were fined $150, and in February 2004, Michelle Naar-Obed began serving a 30-day jail sentence due to prior felony peacemaking convictions.
An attempted citizens inspection of Project E.L.F. on August 9, 2003, the 58th anniversary of the U.S. atomic attack on the Japanese city of Nagasaki, ended with the arrest of twelve people for trespass. Two refused to give their names until morning, earning an additional charge for obstructing an officer plus an overnight in jail.
Ten of the defendants were convicted at December and February trials in Madison and were fined $150; two had their cases transferred to Florida, where they pled guilty and paid a $150 fine. Four who refused to pay were resentenced March 29 to 30 days in jail. Greg Boertje-Obed (Michelle's husband) told Magistrate Crocker he could not turn himself in later, so he was taken into custody in court. Anthony O'Leary, Kathy Kelly and Fr. Jerry Zawada each had the 30 days added to a prison term imposed for arrest in November, 2003 at Fort Benning and the School of the Americas.
On Mother's Day 2004, Elizabeth McAlister of Jonah House was the featured speaker at a rally where over 130 people traveled to the ELF transmitter site, deep in the Chemquamegon National Forest. Eight people were cited for trespass and released pending arraignment July 13.
Nukewatch, the Wisconsin-based grassroots anti-nuclear organization, organizes protest and nonviolent resistance at the gigantic low-frequency transmitter and its miles of overhead antenna in the north woods of Wisconsin. A companion transmitter is located n Michigan's Upper Peninsula. The Navy uses Project ELF to communicate through the earth's mantle to call Fast Attack and Trident submarines up from undetectable depths to receive orders for firing cruise or nuclear missiles. Over 600 trespass citations have been issued to Project ELF protesters at the site since the end of the cold war.
Congratulations to Nukewatch as they celebrate their 25th anniversary!
For more information, contact Nukewatch, POB 649, Luck, WI 54853, (715)472-4185, web: www.nukewatch.com, email: nukewatch@lakeland.ws
