The Nuclear Resister networks the anti-nuclear and anti-war resistance movement while acting as a clearinghouse for information about contemporary nonviolent resistance to war and the nuclear threat. Our emphasis is on support for the women and men jailed for these actions. This website is the online companion to the quarterly Nuclear Resister newsletter, a more comprehensive chronicle.
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Photo by Jane Stoever, of Brian Terrell after his Memorial Day arrest (and resulting marks left by the handcuffs) at the Kansas City nuclear weapons plant
“If There Are Enough Shovels to Go Around”
Surviving the Nuclear Threat
by Brian Terrell
“Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top. . . . It’s the dirt that does it. . . . . If there are enough shovels to go around, everybody’s going to make it.” This bit of cheery advice was offered by Thomas K. (“T.K.”) Jones, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Strategic and Theater Nuclear Forces in a 1982 interview with Robert Scheer of The Los Angeles Times. Jones’ assurance that a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union could be survived with a little sweat and ingenuity, allowing for two to four years recovery time, reflected the optimism of his boss, President Ronald Reagan, before Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev talked some sense into him.
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Photo of Br. Louis Rodemann, by Bennette Reed-Dibben
Memorial Day event: ‘We spoke truth, we cried, we witnessed, we rejoiced’
by Kristin Scheer
This Memorial Day was the first time I was able to join PeaceWorks-KC at the National Security Campus, where non-nuclear parts are made for nuclear weapons. It was our 10th annual event there. I was moved by the experience.
Jim Hannah was brilliant in reframing the facility we were about to see. In an oversized frame, he hung a flag naming the National Security Campus as it is. The very word campus, he said, conjured notions of a peaceful setting with trees and natural beauty, devoted to our nation’s security. But he contrasted that with the dangerous activity that was truly being manufactured there: the potential for planetary omnicide, he said, that leaves none of us feeling safe. Truly, they are manufacturing terror.
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Daniel Hale – Copepink photo
Click HERE to sign the petition – Judge O’Grady, No Prison Time for Daniel Hale
from The Intercept
Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Jailed Ahead of Sentencing
It’s unclear precisely why Hale was arrested, and court documents show that his lawyers objected.
By Alex Emmons
May 5, 2021, 6:32 p.m.
Daniel Hale, a former Air Force intelligence analyst who pleaded guilty to sharing classified documents about drone strikes with a reporter, has been arrested ahead of his sentencing in July.
In March, Hale pleaded guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act, and he faces up to 10 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July, but a federal judge has ordered him incarcerated until then for violating the terms of his pretrial release, according to court records.
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photo by Glen Milner
from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
Thirty people were present on May 8th (the day before Mother’s Day), at the demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base. At around 2 p.m., the five demonstrators entered the highway carrying two large banners stating, “Congress wants $1 trillion for nukes – What will be left for our children?” and “Trident Threatens All Life on Earth” and blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate of Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor for over 20 minutes. They were removed from the highway.
All five demonstrators were cited for violating RCW 46.61.250, Pedestrians on roadways, and released at the scene. Those cited by the Washington State Patrol: Brenda McMillan and Caroline Wildflower of Port Townsend; Sue Ablao of Bremerton; Elizabeth Murray of Poulsbo; and Michael “Firefly” Siptroth of Belfair.
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XR photo
Early in the morning of April 30, members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) Scotland, with support from nuclear disarmament activists from Trident Ploughshares, set up a blockade at the north gate of the Faslane Trident submarine base in Scotland.
Three women locked onto three planters they had placed in the road, which contained plants and flowers and were painted with the words “Safe”, “Green”, and “Future”. With their action, they were demanding a future safe from the “threat of nuclear weapons and environmental destruction”, making the connections between the climate and ecological crisis and militarism.
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The week before his scheduled April 5 trial, Air Force veteran and former intelligence analyst Daniel Hale changed his plea to guilty on one count of violating the Espionage Act when he illegally obtained classified “national defense information” and give it to a reporter widely acknowledged to be Jeremy Scahill, co-founder of The Intercept.» Read more…
Fr. Steve Kelly in front of Tacoma federal courthouse after being sentenced to time served. Photo by Dennis Apel
On April 13, in a brief, COVID-hybrid hearing in federal court in Tacoma, Washington, Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J. was sentenced to time served for violating conditions of his supervised release for a 2017 trespass conviction at the Kitsap-Bangor Trident nuclear submarine base. As of today, he had served the maximum six-month prison sentence for the original charge, and he was unconditionally released from custody.
Fr. Kelly appeared in person with his attorney Blake Kremer in the courtroom of federal Magistrate Judge David Christel, with the U.S. attorney and probation officer joining via video link. Supporters were able to listen in by phone using a number provided by the court for the public.
By the time of Fr. Kelly’s arrest in April, 2018 at the Navy’s other Trident base at Kings Bay, Georgia (the Kings Bay Plowshares action), a bench warrant had already been issued for his arrest for violating the terms of his supervised release by not reporting to the federal probation office in Washington state. Entry onto another military installation and the ensuing federal charges were additional violations addressed at today’s hearing.
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Luz and Mark
Mark Colville, the last of the seven Kings Bay Plowshares defendants to be sentenced, learned the court’s judgement on April 9. Notwithstanding his “somewhat troubling” record of convictions for disarmament actions, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood sentenced the 59-year-old Catholic Worker to 21 months in prison, the low end of the recommended range of 21-27 months.
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by Felice Cohen-Joppa
On March 30, the day Fr. Steve Kelly, S.J. arrived at FDC SeaTac after three and a half months of transport from the county jail in Brunswick, Georgia, his Tacoma, WA attorney Blake Kremer was given less than a 24 hour notice that Steve was to have a preliminary court hearing on Wednesday, March 31.
Last summer, Steve postponed his Kings Bay Plowshares sentencing in Georgia until he could appear in person in the courtroom, as is his right and something that is important to him (due to COVID, court was taking place virtually, by secure video). And after three and a half months in transport, he arrived in the Western District of Washington only to learn that the Tacoma federal court is currently only doing virtual hearings by video. Because of Steve’s intention to appear in person, he waived his appearance and was represented by his attorney.
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Jack & Felice Cohen-Joppa
December 2020
Dear friends,
As John Lennon sings in his song Beautiful Boy: “Life is what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.” We think that pretty well sums up a lot of 2020! It certainly describes the whirlwind of recent months for us…
The new issue of the Nuclear Resister newsletter (12 pages instead of 8) should arrive in your mail during the first week of the new year — later than we hoped for. This fall our long-time newsletter printer closed up shop, another business casualty of the COVID pandemic. We finally found a new printer in Phoenix, but the holiday-schedule press time was booked until the very end of the year.
We write now with deep gratitude for the support that has kept the important work of the Nuclear Resister going for 40 years. Thank you! We have been concerned about the Nuclear Resister’s credit union account during the difficult times we all find ourselves in, and know that it might be a challenging time for some people to make donations. But we need to ask you as 2020 draws to a close, if you are able, to make a contribution now to help ensure that the work of the Nuclear Resister continues through 2021.
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