Iraqi-American physician and humanitarian Dr. Rafil Dhafir, jailed nearly nine years on charges involving his charity to the people of his native country during the years of economic sanctions between the 1991 and 2003 U.S.-led attacks, has been moved from the notorious Communications Management Unit into general population at the U.S. prison at Terre Haute, […]
This post is updated with links to each day’s report of the Article 32 hearings, through Day 6, December 21
Day 1 – Getting into the Courtroom
7:35 AM
Manning’s pretrial hearing (called the Article 32) began on December 16, 2011 at Fort Meade in Maryland. The weather was chilly and grey, but lightened as the day progressed. Members of the public and media who wished to attend the trial were processed through the main visitors entrance. Fort Meade prepared for an enormous turnout — designating a soccer-field sized parking lot for trial attendees and setting up an overflow spectator theater with video feed from the trial that could hold 100 people.
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Mic check reading of citizens' arrest warrant inside Entergy's office, from left, Frances Crowe, Susan B. Lantz, and Paki Wieland of Northampton, MA; Hattie Nestel of Athol, MA; Nina Swaim of Sharon, VT. Photo courtesy Marcia Gagliardi.
Eleven women of the Shut It Down Affinity Group occupied the offices of Entergy Corporation on Old Ferry Road, Brattleboro, Vermont, on Monday morning, December 12, and attempted to make a citizens’ arrest of the board and officers of Entergy, operator of the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in Vernon.
All the women were arrested for unlawful trespass and directed to appear for arraignment on various January dates in Brattleboro Superior Court, Criminal Division.
Shut-It-Downers cited Entergy for “heedless disregard of public health, public safety, and the right of the citizenry to hear the truth.”
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Holiday Greetings People of Peace,
Oh what a year it’s been! For those of us in the Anti-Nuclear and Anti-War Resistance Movement it has been a year of continued struggle against an ever growing (and out-of-control) Military-Industrial Complex. From drones to nuclear weapons and more, dedicated peacemakers have steadfastly resisted the dominant culture of war.
At places like Fort Benning, Y-12, Kansas City, STRATCOM, Hancock Field, Downing Street and Jeju Island, resisters stood their ground taking a stand for justice and peace. They spoke out against a host of immoral and illegal actions by their governments. And for their actions many were arrested, tried and put in prison.
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Fr. Martin Newell, center, with codefendants Chris Cole and Sr. Susan Clarkson
Fr. Martin Newell of the London Catholic Worker community was sentenced to 24 days imprisonment on Friday 9 December 2011 at Highbury Magistrates Court. Martin was brought before the court for refusing to pay a fine arising from cutting into the Northwood Headquarters/ London
in December 2008. The anti-war direct action was timed for the “Feast of the Holy Innocents” on the Catholic liturgical calender. The feast day follows Christmas and commemorates the massacre of children in a search and destroy mission by King Herod who saw the birth of Christ as a threat to his power.
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The one thing which every jail and prison does more than anything else is counting people. We’re counted five times a day here. Three times we’re returned to our housing units to stand by our bunks and be counted, and they come through twice at night after lights out. We’re counted to the extent that when the announcement came over the intercom last night, “count time, back to your bunks for standing count” that one of the guys said, “Ok fellas, time to go to work”. In Tennessee and Georgia we were counted five or six times each day and always by two guards to ensure accuracy. They take great care lest even one of us be lost.
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A private firm’s plan to dump low-level radioactive waste in their East Midlands landfill met with nonviolent resistance on the morning of December 2. Three days before, Kings Cliffe Waste Watchers, with the backing of 98% of area residents who opposed the plan in a recent referendum, were given leave to appeal a British High Court ruling in favor of operator Augean. But the court refused to grant an order barring the waste until the appeal is concluded. Augean had earlier agreed to wait until the legal dispute was settled, but now said they’d go ahead, and could just dig it up again if the ruling was not in their favor.
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Clare Grady and codefendants at their sentencing in DeWitt Town Court, December 1. Photo © Mike Greenlar / The Post Standard
(From the Nuclear Resister #164, December 5, 2011. For a free copy of the current issue, email your postal address to nukeresister@igc.org.)
After “many a sleepless night”, a town court judge in DeWitt, New York convicted 31 of the Hancock 38 Drone Resisters, and sent four to jail. Judge David Gideon’s verdict and sentencing came in a five-hour night court hearing December 1, after deliberating on their four-day trial held a month earlier in November.
Early in his decision, read from the bench, Gideon stated, “Many issues were raised that were not heretofore contemplated by this Court on a personal level; for which this Court personally acknowledges a new and different understanding, making the decision now before the Court that much more difficult.” After much consideration, he concluded that the defendants were guilty of both “obstructing vehicular or pedestrian traffic” and “refusing to comply with a lawful order of the police to disperse.”
The 38 came to the Air National Guard base at Hancock Field near Syracuse last April to protest the remote piloting from there of armed MQ-9 Reaper drones over Afghanistan.
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(From the Nuclear Resister #164, December 5, 2011. For a free copy of the current issue, email your postal address to nukeresister@igc.org.)
Castor Schottern activists in Germany work together to stop the train carrying nuclear waste by removing gravel ballast from under the rails. (Castor Schottern photo)
The 12th and last of the scheduled rail shipments of German nuclear reactor waste from a reprocessing center in France left the station a day earlier than expected in November. Authorities wanted to get the jump on tens of thousands of nuclear resisters assembling all along the possible routes from La Hague to the geologic grave site at Gorleben, in Germany’s northern Wendland. Despite the head start, this shipment took longer than any other to reach its destination due to the largest such opposition protest ever mounted in France, and the second largest in 35 years of nuclear waste protest in Germany. France’s failure to get German agreement to the expedited shipment also added to a delay at their border.
An echo of the past and inspiration for the present resistance to the shipments came from a prison in Frankfurt, where Franziska Wittig began serving an 80-day sentence October 14 for conviction of assault. She and two others had chained themselves to the tracks in November 2008, stopping the train at the French border for 12 hours. Wittig refused to pay an €800 fine.
Eleven massive Castor canisters on special rail cars made up the train that pulled out of Valognes, France, late on the afternoon of November 23. Already that morning, police using teargas and truncheons
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Thanksgiving Day note from The Global Campaign to Save Jeju Island
Dear friends of Jeju Island,
We have much to give thanks for today. The three remaining political prisoners—Gangjeong Mayor Kang Dong-Kyun, Gangjeong villager and cook for the peace camp Kim Jong-Hwan, and photographer/videographer and peace activist Kim Dong-Won–were all released from prison yesterday.
Thank you for your small acts of resistance and solidarity. In these times of uprising and revolution, we must cherish these small and large victories. It has been a good week. The blast at Gureombi has been temporarily stalled and the prisoners have been freed. We have much to be thankful for, including your friendship and belief that, together, we can indeed stop this naval base.
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