IN THIS E-BULLETIN
More than three years after the arrest and torturous imprisonment of PFC Bradley (now Chelsea) Manning for revealing thousands of classified State Department cables and war incident reports from Iraq and Afghanistan via WikiLeaks, the 25-year-old army enlistee was convicted of 20 separate offenses at court martial this summer. On August 21, the military judge, Col. Denise Lind, sentenced the former intelligence analyst to serve 35 years in a military prison. Manning’s pay and allowances were forfeited, rank was reduced to Private E-1 and the whistleblower is to be dishonorably discharged. Arrests at Hiroshima & Nagasaki Day actions across the U.S. Read more here. Livermore Labs, California Famed “Pentagon Papers” whistle-blower and anti-nuclear activist Daniel Ellsberg was one of 31 protesters arrested at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on Tuesday as part of a rally commemorating the 68th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Read more here. Pentagon, Washington, D.C. On August 6, about twenty people witnessed outside the Pentagon south metro entrance in the police designated fenced off protest area. Holding banners as well as photos of the victims and devastation of Hiroshima, many also wore sackcloth and ashes, ancient biblical symbols of repentance. Bill Frankel Streit and Art Laffin (both Catholic Workers) and Nancy Gowen (grandmother and peace activist) then proceded to walk out to the sidewalk where many Pentagon employees and military were filing into the building. They knelt in prayer and were arrested when they refused to leave. Read more here. Vermont Yankee, Vermont “Vermont Yankee is more deadly than Hiroshima,” proclaims the banner eight women of the Shut It Down Affinity Group employed to block forty carsful of Entergy Vermont Yankee workers from reporting to their 5 pm shift for more than a half hour on Tuesday before Vernon police transported them from Entergy’s gate after arresting them. Read more here. Vandenberg Air Force Base, California Six people from the Los Angeles Catholic Worker community (including two summer interns) were arrested on August 9, the anniversary of the bombing of Nagasaki, when they carried a large banner reading “Hiroshima – Never Again” into Vandenberg Air Force Base in central California. Mac Loftin, Rebecca Casas, Barbara Robinson, Karan Benton, Jeff Dietrich and Mike Wisniewski were cited for trespassing. Read more here. Bangor Naval Base, Washington by Leonard Eiger, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action On August 11, activists held a peaceful afternoon vigil and nonviolent direct action at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor Main Gate in remembrance of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. People lined the roadside with signs and banners calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. A total of ten people were arrested when they carried banners onto the roadway. All were issued citations for walking on the roadway where prohibited and released at the scene. Read more here. German bomber base shut by blockaders BÜCHEL AIR FORCE BASE, Germany — Over 750 people converged here at the country’s largest air base – although U.S. bases at Spangdahlem and Ramstein are far bigger — to condemn the retention of 20 U.S. nuclear weapons, in open violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and in a show of popular rebellion 150 hearty war resisters blockaded all nine base entrances for 24 hours. It was the first time in 16 years of resistance to the base’s use of U.S. H-bombs by Germany’s Tornado jet bombers that the compound had been completely closed to traffic by a protest. Read more here. Manning supporters arrested On August 28, the Los Angeles Catholic Worker had a solidarity arrest action for Pvt. Chelsea Manning at the downtown federal building. Community members David Omondi, Barbara Robinson and Jeff Dietrich chained and handcuffed themselves together and attempted to block the main entrance. They were arrested and charged with two misdemeanors: Failure to disperse and Blocking an entrance. Read more here. Your letters needed to support activists in prison Please write to judges and officials in support of six imprisoned activists, including two military refusers – Sr. Megan Rice, Greg Boertje-Obed, Michael Walli, Leonard Peltier, Justin Colby and Kimberly Rivera. Invite some friends over and sit down to write letters together, or perhaps you can include it as an activity at your peace group’s next meeting. Read more here Write a note of support to anti-nuclear & anti-war prisoners They’re in there for us; we’re out here for them! Upcoming nonviolent direct actions (click here for list). 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