January 2015
IN THIS E-BULLETIN
VILLAGERS & SUPPORTERS ON JEJU ISLAND ARRESTED, INJURED DURING CRACKDOWN & DEMOLITION OF PROTEST SITE
ONE PEACE ACTIVIST GETS $5,000 FINE, ANOTHER GETS FIVE MONTHS PROBATION FOR ENTERING FT. BENNING
SECURITY BREACH BY PROTESTERS AT UK DRONE BASE, FOUR ARRESTED
KATHY KELLY BEGINS 3 MONTH SENTENCE FOR DRONE PROTEST
TEN NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT ACTIVISTS ARRESTED FOR BLOCKING TRAFFIC AT TRIDENT NAVAL BASE
FIVE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED BLOCKING ENTRANCE OF WORLD’S #1 WAR PROFITEER
LEAFLETTER HANDCUFFED AT LIVERMORE LAB PROTEST
TWO ARRESTS DURING TORTURE PROTEST AT CHENEY’S HOUSE
21 WITNESS AGAINST TORTURE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED
NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROTESTER FOUND “NOT GUILTY” OF TRESPASS
28-YEAR CRIME SPREES OF A PEACENIK & A COLONEL
PLEASE SUPPORT IMPRISONED ANTI-NUCLEAR AND ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS – THE NUCLEAR RESISTER NEEDS YOU!
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Villagers & supporters on Jeju Island arrested, injured during crackdown & demolition of protest site
An intense day-long confrontation with authorities took place in Gangjeong Village on Jeju Island, S. Korea on Saturday, January 31, with villagers and supporters gathered to protect a sit-in tent from government-ordered demolition. The protest tent had been erected in October outside of the construction site for military housing in the middle of the village, in order to support blockades of construction vehicles.
Before dawn, 1,000 police, Navy and private security guards arrived and closed off the village. They entered the protest area in several aggressive waves throughout the day to forcefully carry people away, often dragging them out one at a time. During the massive crackdown, some people were taken to the hospital due to injuries. There were 24 arrests throughout the day, including the mayor, vice-mayor, priests and nuns.
Read more here.
One peace activist gets $5,000 fine, another gets five months probation for entering Fr. Benning
On January 29, Eve Tetaz and Nashua Chantal stood trial before U.S. District Judge Stephen Hyles in Columbus, Georgia. The two had crossed onto Ft. Benning during the annual demonstration to close the School of the Americas (SOA). The prosecution asked for a 6 month prison sentence for the pair, which many SOA protesters have received in past years.
Tetaz, who pled not guilty, received a $5,000 fine. Chantal pled guilty and was sentenced to 5 years of probation. Tetaz said to the judge, “Torture is not a political tool. My own President asks ‘Is this who we are?’. All of us would like to say no, but if the School of the Americas is kept open, then I am afraid the answer is yes. This is who we are.”
Read more here.
Security breach by protesters at UK drone base, four arrested
On January 5, four protesters were arrested inside RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire protesting the continuing use of armed drones. The protesters cut through the fence creating a “New Year gateway for peace” at the base and made their way towards the Reaper Ground Control Station from which RAF pilots are remotely operating armed drones over Iraq. They carried banners as well as reports of civilian casualties arising from recent UK, NATO and coalition airstrikes in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Read more here.
Kathy Kelly begins 3 month sentence for drone protest
Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, turned herself in to the federal prison camp in Lexington, Kentucky on Friday, January 23. She will serve a three-month sentence for her June 1, 2014 protest of drone killings at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.
Kelly asserts that drone warfare jeopardizes the security of ordinary people and that the U.S. Constitution protects her right to assemble peaceably for redress of grievance. She was arrested when she went with Georgia Walker and other activists to the gates of Whiteman Air Force Base to deliver a loaf of bread and a letter to the commander of the base, which operates drones over Afghanistan.
Read more here.
Ten nuclear disarmament activists arrested for blocking traffic at Trident naval base
On January 17, activists from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action blocked the main gate and staged a mock funeral to “mourn the death of the earth after nuclear annihilation” at the Navy’s West Coast Trident nuclear submarine base. Ten men and women were removed from the roadway by State Patrol and arrested. The vigil and act of civil resistance to nuclear weapons was held in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s life and legacy.
Read more here.
Five activists arrested blocking entrance of world’s #1 war profiteer
On January 17, peace activists stood in front of the Lockheed Martin complex in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania holding signs that read “Lives Matter, Damn Their War Profits”. They listened to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s sermons and speeches before five people blocked the main driveway entrance. The five were cited for disorderly conduct by the Upper Merion police and released.
Read more here.
Leafletter handcuffed at Livermore Lab protest
On January 6, when vigilers at Livermore nuclear weapons lab in California began to hand out leaflets drawing attention to the “Bad Idea: Plutonium in the NIF”, lab security personnel, backed by the Alameda County Sheriffs Department, opted to close the East Gate and turn away the steady stream of lab employees coming in to work. Police accosted three leafletters on the road just outside the gatehouse. Marcus Page-Collogne and Fr. Louis Vitale were escorted back across the boundary line, while Chelsea Collogne was handcuffed, threatened with prosecution, and then released a short time later without charge.
Read more here.
Two arrests during torture protest at Cheney’s house
On Saturday, January 10, Witness Against Torture and Code Pink marked the 14th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Prison with a torture protest on Dick Cheney’s lawn. Police claimed that two of the protesters didn’t leave when asked. They arrested Tighe Barry and Eve Tetaz on trespassing charges.
Read more here.
21 Witness Against Torture activists arrested
Witness Against Torture held one action at two locations on January 12 in Washington, D.C. condemning domestic racism and the violation of human rights in the War on Terror.
Inside the United States Senate chamber at 2:30 p.m., eleven demonstrators interrupted Senate proceedings to call for prosecutions of those who committed torture, as detailed in the U.S. Senate report on CIA interrogations. Chanting “Torture, It’s Official, Prosecute Now!” the protestors addressed the Senate before being arrested by Capitol Police. In the Senate Visitors Center, another group held banners with such slogans as “Accountability for Police Murder, Accountability for Torture.” Ten were arrested in the Visitors Center.
Read more here.
Nuclear weapons protester found “not guilty” of trespass
After a 90 minute trial on January 16 at the Kansas City, Missouri Municipal Court, Judge Elena Franco found that the City had failed to prove that Henry Stoever had the “mens rea” (guilty intent, criminal mind) for conviction of trespass. Judge Franco also found that the City witness had failed to prove where the property line was located at the new Honeywell nuclear weapons production, procurement and assembly plant in southern Kansas City, Missouri. This plant makes, procures and assembles 85% of the non-nuclear parts of a nuclear weapon.
Read more here.
28-year crime spree of a peacenik & a colonel
by John LaForge
A former Army Brigadier General was busted two ranks and fined $20,000 this year after being charged with sexual assault of an Army Captain — a subordinate he reportedly threatened to kill if she revealed their affair. Jeffrey A. Sinclair’s multiple convictions should have gotten him thrown out of the military, sent to prison and registered as a sexual predator, but the judge in the case, Col. James L. Pohl, allowed him to retire as a Lt. Col. with full benefits and a $105,000 pension. Sinclair, 51, spent 28 years in the Army.
Meanwhile Nukewatch just celebrated the retirement of peace activist Bonnie Urfer, 62, who has stopped answering the Nukewatch phone after co-directing here for 28 years.
Read more here.
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