Monthly Archive for December, 2014

by Art Laffin

On December 29, over 50 people from the Atlantic and Southern Life Communities held a nonviolent witness at the Pentagon to commemorate the feast of the Massacre of the Holy Innocents (the actual feast was on Sunday, December 28). The noon-time witness began with a procession in which participants carried banners and signs from Army Navy Drive to the designated “protest” area located near the Pentagon south metro entrance. The lead banner, carried by young adults, read: “Peace To All Children of the Earth.”

Upon our arrival we encountered a sizable Pentagon police presence who directed everyone to go into the fenced off designated protest area. Ten did not comply and proceeded farther along the building side of the sidewalk holding a large banner that said “Wage Peace–Practice Nonviolence.” I also held a sign which said “Love Your Neighbor Means Don’t Bomb, Occupy and Kill Them!” At first, it appeared the ten of us would be stopped. But surprisingly, we were able to move farther down the sidewalk so that we could face the rest of the community who were directly across from us behind the fence in the police designated protest area.

from the Support Dr. Shakir Hamoodi Facebook community

Dr. Shakir Hamoodi was released from the Federal Prison Camp in Leavenworth, Kansas this week, and transferred to a halfway house in Columbia, Missouri. He will stay there for an undetermined time, then transfer to house arrest (in his home) until the end of his sentence. Although the halfway house is not ideal, this is one step closer to the time he completes his sentence – a sentence he is serving because he paid for food, medicines, clothing, and shelter for his own poor family members who were suffering under the brutal sanctions on Iraq from 1991-2003.   His final release date is April 7, 2015.

You can read background information here.

DECEMBER 27 UPDATE – Dr. Hamoodi is now under house arrest.  Read more here.

Kathy and Georgia after court. Photo by Jane Stoever

Two peace activists sentenced for drone warfare protest at Whiteman Air Force Base

from Voices for Creative Nonviolence

On December 10, Human Rights Day, a federal magistrate found Georgia Walker of Kansas City, Missouri and Kathy Kelly of Chicago, Illinois guilty of criminal trespass to a military installation. On June 1, the women attempted to deliver a loaf of bread and a citizens’ indictment of drone warfare to authorities at Whiteman Air Force Base. Judge Matt Whitworth sentenced Kelly to three months in prison and Walker to one year of supervised probation. Kelly will begin her prison sentence in January.

Mark Colville with his family before sentencing.

Surprise Conditional Discharge for Hancock Drone Resister Mark Colville

Mark Colville, a Catholic Worker from New Haven, Connecticut, was sentenced on December 3 in DeWitt Town Court on 5 charges stemming from a protest at Hancock Air National Guard Base on December 9 of last year, when he and two Yale Divinity School students presented flowers and a People’s Order of Protection for the children of Afghanistan and their families at the guard gate. In a surprise decision, Judge Robert Jokl sentenced Colville to a 1 year Conditional Discharge and $1000 fine. He said that sending Colville to prison would not serve justice, nor would parole serve any good purpose, and he did not issue a permanent Order of Protection.