January/February/March 2019 IN THIS E-BULLETIN TWO U.S. VETERANS FOR PEACE RELEASED AFTER 12 DAYS IN IRISH PRISON AFTER PEACE ACTION AT SHANNON AIRPORT CHELSEA MANNING BACK IN PRISON AFTER REFUSING TO COOPERATE WITH A GRAND JURY INVESTIGATING WIKILEAKS MEMBERS OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AMONG 16 ARRESTED AT BELGIAN AIR BASE WHERE U.S. NUCLEAR […]
Monthly Archive for March, 2019
March, 2019 Dear Friends, Greetings and hugs all around! With a grateful heart I commend all who continue to make the sacrifices necessary to keep our doors at the Amistad Catholic Worker open, the kitchen warm, and the table set, especially during these harsh months and under the added strain of my extended absence. For […]
Basel Burgan has been released on bail after seven days in detention by Jordanian authorities. Basel became the focus of concern in Jordan when he was put into administrative detention on Tuesday, March 19. He was detained and then arrested that day during a meeting where he and his lawyer had voluntarily gone in for questioning with the state prosecutor after being summoned. The case against him is rooted in Jordan’s Cyber Crimes Law. Essentially, he is alleged to have “spread false information that leads to concern and affects a public institution,” according to Article 75 of the Communications Law, and Article 15 of the Cyber Crimes Law.
Basel Burgan posted a statement on Facebook in January 2019 where he called into question the safety of the construction that houses a test nuclear reactor inside the Jordan University of Science and Technology and he referenced a report that had been leaked and published by a former employee and expert of the Nuclear Commission residing in the United States. This was the cause of his recent detention.
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photo by Ryna-Ria Ignacio
from the Des Moines Catholic Worker
Veterans for Peace and Catholic Workers from across the Midwest converged on the Iowa Air National Guard Drone Command Center in Des Moines on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day at 1 p.m. Eight activists were later arrested for blocking the entrance.
The Midwest Catholic Workers – a loose collection of dozens of autonomous communities spread out in urban shelters, soup kitchens and rural farmsteads across the region – were holding their annual “Faith and Resistance Retreat” March 15-17 in Des Moines. This year’s focus was the two year Des Moines Catholic Worker and Veterans for Peace “Close the Des Moines Drone Command Center” campaign.
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photo by Len Tsou
For the third time in nine years, the Pacific Life Community (PLC) met in Menlo Park, California for their annual gathering, each time concluding with a blockade of the main gate at the nearby Lockheed Martin factory in Sunnyvale that produces the intercontinental ballistic missiles for launching nuclear weapons from both U.S. and British Trident submarines.
On Monday, March 18, about 50 people from the Pacific Life Community were joined outside the Lockheed Martin gate by members of Code Pink and the Musicians Action Group, a marching ensemble of percussion and horns who enlivened the crowd of activists with rollicking renditions of Down by the Riverside and other peace and labor rights songs. A large banner made for the last PLC blockade at Lockheed Martin – four feet tall and long enough to block four lanes of traffic – was rolled out and carried around the intersection with a bold-lettered message for the auto and rail commuters passing by: Lockheed Weapons Terrorize the World.
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Photo by Ellen Davidson
from Veterans for Peace
Two U.S. Veterans For Peace were refused bail at Ennis District Court
Charged with Trespass and Causing Criminal Damage at Shannon Airport
A group of seven U.S. Veterans for Peace took part in a protest against U.S. Military Base at Shannon Airport on Sunday, March 17th.
WHY? Shannon used for refueling troop planes bound for Middle East wars in which up to one million [1,000,000] children have died since 1991.
MARCH 29 UPDATE: At a preliminary hearing on March 28, Ken Mayers and Tarak Kauff were granted bail and after 12 days in Limerick Prison, released on March 29 pending trial. Their passports were taken and they were ordered to stay away from airports. The men may not be able to leave Ireland before their trial.
Two U.S. veterans were arrested at Shannon Airport on March 17 for entering the airfield to inspect and investigate an OMNI Air International plane on contract to the U.S. military. The two, Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers, were refused bail at Ennis District Court on March 18. (See below for support actions.)
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from BBCChelsea Manning: Wikileaks source jailed for refusing to testify
Former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning has been jailed for refusing to testify before an investigation into Wikileaks.
A Virginia judge ordered her taken into custody until the grand jury’s work is finished or she decides to testify.
Manning said she shared everything she knows during her court-martial.
Manning was found guilty in 2013 of charges including espionage for leaking secret military files to Wikileaks, but her sentence was commuted.
Manning, 31, told US District Judge Claude Hilton that she would “accept whatever you bring upon me”, but would not testify, the Associated Press reported.
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Photo by Janie Kesselman
Report Back: Occupy Beale AFB
February 28 – March 1, 2019
by Toby Blomé
“STANDING WITH VENEZUELA at Beale Drone Base!”
2 Activists Arrested While Trespassing onto Beale AFB
On Thursday, February 28 and Friday, March 1, fed up with 17 years of endless wars, we were determined to bring our strong messages of solidarity with the people of Venezuela to one of the most important U.S. drone bases, Beale Air Force Base, home of the Global Hawk Drone and U2 spy plane, in Marysville, California.
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