The Nuclear Resister

Liz McAlister and Erica Brock

Order of Protection Delivered for the Children of the World

On July 23, eight Atlantic Life Community activists joined with Upstate Drone Action at the main gate of Hancock Air Base in Syracuse, New York. Hancock is the home of the 174th Attack Wing of the New York State Air National Guard. The 174th Attack Wing pilots weaponized MQ9 Reaper drones over Afghanistan – killing and terrorizing an uncountable number of civilians.

The eight delivered a People’s War Crimes Indictment to the Hancock chain of command by affixing it to the fence after it was refused by base personnel. Also delivered was an Order of Protection on behalf of the children of the world who are subject to U.S. drone surveillance and attack.

UPDATE: GRADY FLORES RELEASED ON APPEAL ON JULY 17 (scroll below for details)

Base’s Order of Protection Begs Judgement

On July 10, Mary Anne Grady Flores, grandmother of three, was sentenced to one year in prison for being found guilty of violating an order of protection. A packed courtroom of over 100 supporters was stunned as she was led away, and vowed to continue the resistance.

These orders of protection, typically used in domestic violence situations or to protect a victim or witness to a crime, have been issued to people participating in nonviolent resistance actions at Hancock Air Base since late 2012. The base, near Syracuse, New York, pilots unmanned Reaper drones over Afghanistan, and trains drone pilots, sensor operators and maintenance technicians. The orders had been issued to “protect” Colonel Earl Evans, Hancock’s mission support commander, who wanted to keep protesters “out of his driveway.”

Priests, nuns and local residents form a human chain and refuse to leave the protest camp blocking the construction site of electronic transmission tower No. 129, June 11. (By Kim Bong-gyu, Hankyoreh staff photographer)

KEPCO says construction of power towers back on track

from The Korea Times  by Kim Se-jeong

Police on Wednesday (june 11) forcibly removed sit-in camps where some residents of Miryang, South Gyeongsang Province, have been protesting for years against a power transmission tower project.

The action prompted a violent clash with the protesters. Witnesses said 19 people sustained injuries during the clash. Fourteen were taken to a local hospital.

For the past few years, hundreds of villagers have set up makeshift houses on the tops of mountains in Milyang to stop the construction of high-voltage transmission towers by the state-run Korea Electric Power Corp., or KEPCO.

photo by Shane Franklin

by Jane Stoever and Ann Suellentrop

PeaceWorks – Kansas City held 4 actions over the May 31-June 1 weekend. On Saturday morning, May 31, we held two rallies in Leavenworth, Kansas. At one rally, we sought pardon for Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. She’s begun serving 35 years there for revealing U.S. war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan. The second rally, two miles up the road at the Federal Penitentiary, called for pardon for Greg Boertje-Obed, now serving about 5 years in the pen for the Y-12 Transform Now Plowshares action against nuclear weapons at the uranium processing site in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

Saturday afternoon we went to the old Kansas City Plant for making parts for nuclear weapons, to demand comprehensive cleanup of about 900 known toxins there. The contaminants have poisoned workers at the Kansas City Plant and other federal agencies at the Bannister Federal Complex.

by Kathy Kelly

[Followed by an article by Dr. Hakim]

May 24, 2014

Jeju Island, South Korea – For the past two weeks, I’ve been in the Republic of Korea (ROK), as a guest of peace activists living in Gangjeong Village on ROK’s Jeju Island. Gangjeong is one of the ROK’s smallest villages, yet activists here, in their struggle against the construction of a massive naval base, have inspired people around the world.

Since 2007, activists have risked arrests, imprisonment, heavy fines and wildly excessive use of police force to resist the desecration caused as mega-corporations like Samsung and Daelim build a base to accommodate U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines for their missions throughout Asia. The base fits the regional needs of the U.S. for a maritime military outpost that would enable it to continue developing its Asia Pivot strategy, gradually building towards and in the process provoking superpower conflict with China.