September 2014
IN THIS E-BULLETIN
CAMPAIGN NONVIOLENCE ACTION ARRESTS ACROSS THE U.S.
ANOTHER NY DRONE PROTESTER GOES TO JAIL
ARMY REFUSER SARA BEINING ARRESTED AND JAILED
SCOTTISH TRIDENT NUCLEAR WEAPONS BASE BLOCKADED IN POST-REFERENDUM PROTEST
FAIRNESS AND JUSTICE? POST-9/11 MUSLIM CHARITY PROSECUTION (About the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir)
BUY A SUB! HELP SUPPORT PEACE PRISONERS
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Campaign Nonviolence action arrests across the U.S.
BEALE AIR FORCE BASE
Eleven people, including clergy and veterans, were arrested during two days of peace demonstrations at Beale Air Force Base in California, site of the surveillance drone Global Hawk, which performs reconnaissance for armed drones. The demonstrations at Beale on September 29 and 30 were coordinated with Campaign Nonviolence, a national campaign calling for an end to war, poverty, and climate change. Over 250 nonviolent actions have been carried out in coordination with Campaign Nonviolence in the past week alone.
Read more here.
CREECH AIR FORCE BASE
On the morning of September 22, four people were arrested at Creech Air Force Base at the end of a 30 minute meditation for peace. Twenty peace and justice advocates were praying for nonviolence and social justice. Evy Hubb, Dennis DuVall, Susan Dillon and Kelley Kolberg were given citations from Clark County, charged with blocking a roadway and given a November 3 arraignment date before being released across U.S. Highway 95. Creech Air Force Base is the command center for U.S. remotely piloted aircraft (“drone”) warfare.
Read more here.
NEVADA NUCLEAR TEST SITE
On Sunday morning, September 21 – the U.N.’s International Day of Peace – after an interfaith liturgy at ten o’clock a.m., 6 men and 4 women were arrested at the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS), which is 65 miles from Las Vegas. Prayer-activists continue to visit the NNSS (formerly called the Nevada Test Site) annually in order to work on a spiritual level for the end of ongoing nuclear violence at this solitary U.S. nuclear weapons proving ground and site of weekly low-level nuclear waste dumping. Since 1997, subcritical nuclear weapons testing has occurred regularly at the NNSS.
Read more here.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Fr. John Dear, David Barrows, Alice Sutter, Lorna VanderZamden and JoAnne Lingle were arrested at the White House on September 23 when they attempted to deliver a letter to President Obama calling for concrete policy shifts and an end to the new air strikes. Officials at the White House gate refused to take their document. The group then dramatized the impact of the new bombing in the Middle East by engaging in a “die-in” in the White House driveway and refusing to move from the area in a spirit of peaceful and determined resistance. They were then arrested, taken into custody, transported to a nearby police station, and released a couple of hours later, charged with “incommoding.”
Read more here.
Another NY drone protester goes to jail
New York peace activist Jack Gilroy, 79 years old, was sentenced by Judge Jokl to three months incarceration, three years probation and a $1,000 fine, for protesting at Hancock drone base. He was taken directly to jail. He said to the judge before he was sentenced, “It’s time for our justice system to identify the real criminals… not those who carry the message to stop the killing to the gates of Hancock Air Base.”
Read more here.
Army refuser Sara Beining arrested and jailed
A single mother and Iraq war veteran is in jail in Colorado Springs. Sara Beining went AWOL a second time last summer after a nearly year-long delay in resolving the original charge that resulted when she left her unit at Ft. Hood in January, 2007.
Read more here.
Scottish Trident nuclear weapons base blockaded in post-referendum protest
On the morning of September 22, four days after the historic referendum for Scottish independence, activists with Trident Ploughshares and Faslane Peace Camp partially blocked the north gate to Faslane Naval Base, homeport of the U.K. Trident nuclear weapons system, sending a strong message that the overwhelming desire of Scotland to be rid of nuclear weapons must be honoured. Jane Tallents, Brian Larkin, Mary Millington, Jean Oliver and Brian Quail were arrested after locking on to each other while displaying banners that read “Scrap Trident” and “Scotland YES Trident NO”.
Read more here.
Fairness and Justice? Post-9/11 Muslim Charity Prosecution (About the case of Dr. Rafil Dhafir)
by Katherine Hughes, Truthout, Op-Ed
My passion for the protection of civil liberties was sparked at the age of 14 when I saw a documentary on the Allies’ liberation of Bergen-Belsen. For the past 40 years, in an effort to understand how something like that could happen, I’ve been reading first-hand accounts of 1930s and 1940s Europe and the former Soviet Union. Over the last 25 years I began noticing similar circumstances in both Europe and the United States: wars creating millions of refugees, financial crises, erosions of workers’ rights and sharpening income inequality, along with national and individual poverty and debt, a xenophobic and racist climate, and attacks on civil liberties, including freedom of speech.
My alarm grew as I witnessed the post-9/11 demonization of Muslims. I have always known that if anything like this happened in my lifetime, not only did I not want any part of it; I did not want to be a bystander. It was for this reason that I decided to attend the trial of Rafil Dhafir, a respected oncologist from upstate New York. I knew virtually nothing about Dhafir before attending almost all of the 17-week trial in 2004. I took copious notes during the proceedings. Because of the injustice I witnessed, I’ve spent the last 10 years trying to let others know about the case: I started a website and have published articles and given interviews. I’m currently working on a documentary.
Read more here.
Buy a sub! Support peace prisoners
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