by Jane Stoever
Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence (based in Chicago), was sentenced on December 10 to three months in federal prison for crossing a line on the entry road to Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster, Missouri on June 1. Kelly was opposing all drone warfare, including drones guided by remote control from Whiteman.
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Photo by L. Eiger, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action
Activists from a local peace group blocked the main gate and staged a mock funeral at the Navy’s West Coast Trident nuclear submarine base in an act of civil resistance to nuclear weapons.
Over sixty people participated in Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action’s annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr’s life and legacy on Saturday, January 17, 2015. The event concluded with a vigil and nonviolent direct action at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington.
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Brandywine Peace Community photo
from the Brandywine Peace Community
On Saturday, January 17, people stood in front of the Lockheed Martin complex in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania as the voice of Dr. King echoed over the area behind the King of Prussia Mall with the sound of excepts of his sermons and speeches. There was also bell-tolling, peace songs by Tom Mullian, a litany drawn from Dr. King’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize speech with the response: Lives Matter, Damn Their War Profits…Wage Justice, Wage Peace.
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Drone protester Bonny Mahoney of Syracuse, New York was convicted by Judge David S. Gideon in DeWitt Town Court on January 16 on a single count of trespass stemming from her arrest during a nonviolent protest at Hancock Air National Guard Base on April 28, 2013.
When Mahoney arrived in court on January 15 for her jury trial on charges of obstructing governmental administration (OGA) and 2 counts of disorderly conduct (DisCon), she was arraigned on a new charge (trespass) stemming from the same event where she was arrested 17 months earlier with 30 other protesters. Her reasonable request for some time to modify her preparations was refused.
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photo by Barry Binks
On January 6, the monthly Catholic Worker vigil at the Livermore nuclear weapons lab in California was joined by members of Tri-Valley CAREs, the local nuclear abolitionist group that keeps a critical eye on activity at Livermore.
The particular focus of the January vigil was to oppose the planned use of plutonium in the National Ignition Facility (NIF), a big-budget science project long trumpeted to advance research on fusion energy. But in December, the lab made a sudden announcement that plutonium experiments would begin at NIF in January, bringing the project back to its stealth roots as an advanced nuclear weapons engineering enterprise.
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by Jane Stoever
After a 90 minute trial on January 16, 2015, 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. Early in the trial, Henry had played the video for the judge that showed him and two companions crossing the line.
When Judge Franco declared Henry “not guilty,” the 31 members in the audience burst into applause. Henry shook the hands of Judge Franco, the City Prosecutor, and the complaining witness, and then visited with supporters outside the courtroom, wiping back tears of joy.
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Photo by Justin Norman
From Ferguson to Guantánamo: White Silence Equals State Violence
Demonstrators Interrupt U.S. Senate; Block D.C. Central Cell Block Entrance
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 pm, 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.
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Witness Against Torture and Code Pink mark 14th anniversary of opening of Guantanamo prison with torture protest on Dick Cheney’s lawn
WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Two protesters were arrested at the McLean, Virginia, home of former Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday after 20 demonstrators, some in orange prison jumpsuits, walked onto his property to mark the 14th anniversary of the opening of Guantanamo Bay prison.
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December 10, 2014
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Following Thanksgiving time, and preparing to celebrate the gifting time, I again find a shared response to all our faithful correspondents most appropriate. Once again, especially moved by a passage from Matthew 11, for today, speaking clearly of gifts treasured by prophets everywhere. I quote Jesus’ own in: “Take upon you my yoke (I give you these gifts); I am gentle and humble of heart, and you’ll find rest…” Surely gifts relevant to many in the daily reports of activity stirred by events in Ferguson, Staten Island and Cleveland. Both the nonviolent responses nightly to police brutality, and on Democracy Now! today to Diane Feinstein’s reportage on the long-standing use of torture by the CIA; along with the Nobel Peace Prize committee choosing Malala* at 17 for her activism for education for girls, along with 60-year-old teacher Kailash Satyarthi’s struggle for the rights of children in India as elsewhere. Surely gifts to us all, and to be practiced along with the gentleness and humility they imply if we are able to receive with the truths they expose.
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photo by Chris Cole
Peacemakers open gateway for peace at drone base
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.
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