http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/northern_ireland/foyle_and_west/10241052.stm
June 4, 2010
Nine acquitted at Raytheon trial
Nine women have been acquitted of breaking into an arms manufacturing company to cause criminal damage.
The women were part of a group who protested at the Raytheon offices in Londonderry [sic] in January 2009.
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(From the Nuclear Resister #157, June 1, 2010)
February 25, 2010
How Can I Cope?
Many people who write me – friends and supporters – ask about harsh treatment and brutality. I do not deny that in many prisons and jails these conditions do exist. One can even raise the charge of torture. In regards to myself I have not experienced such conditions. Hardships, yes, but not brutality or violence.
The hardships begin with the loss of freedom. I remember during my first incarceration, after having made pastoral visits in jail to prisoners, it was a shock as I realized the cell doors were closed and locked on me.
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IRAQ-BORN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN JAILED FOR CHARITY GIVEN TO PEOPLE OF IRAQ IN VIOLATION OF U.S. EMBARGO
U.S. and U.K.-inspired UN sanctions initiated against Iraq in 1991 were the most severe in human history, and resulted in the premature deaths of well over a million Iraqi people. Dr. Rafil Dhafir of Syracuse, New York, founded the charity Help the Needy in direct response to this humanitarian catastrophe. For 13 years he worked openly to help publicize the plight of the Iraqi people and to raise funds to help them. According to the government, Dr. Dhafir donated $1.4 million of his own money over the years. However, in the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. government targeted for prosecution many prominent Muslims across the country, particularly those associated with Muslim charity. Arrested on February 26, 2003, Dr. Dhafir was held without bail for 31 months and then sentenced to 22 years in prison.
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Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu began serving a three month prison sentence on May 23. Details here. He wrote on his website “WHILE I AM IN PRISON, I DON’T WANT TO GET ANY LETTERS OR ANY MAIL. FROM ANY ONE.“ Before turning himself in, Vanunu made a public statement decrying the failure of governments, the media, and religion to protect his freedom,
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James Richard Sauder, who served time in prison following a series of prayerful protests in the early 1980s at missile silos in Arkansas and Missouri and Navy bases in Virginia and Georgia, was arrested again April 15, 2010, inside a nuclear missile silo near Parshall, North Dakota. He has been jailed since his arrest and faces a federal court bench trial for criminal trespass, probably in late summer.
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From Amnesty International
Israeli government urged not to jail nuclear whistleblower again
12 May 2010
AI Index: PRE01/154/2010
Amnesty International today urged the Israeli government not to imprison nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, who is facing a return to jail within days.
The Israeli Supreme Court ruled on 11 May that Vanunu, who served 18 years in prison for revealing information about Israel’s nuclear programme, must serve a further three months for meeting a foreign national, a violation of the restrictions imposed on him by the military since his release.
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by Tom Keough – May 4, 2010
by Ed Hedemann
NEW YORK — May 3, 2010. To bring a stronger cry against the threats from nuclear weapons at this time of the UN Special Session on Disarmament there was a protest inside of the main lobby of Grand Central Station during Monday’s rush hour.
The action was organized by the War Resisters League and their friends from the Catholic Peace Fellowship, The Catholic Worker and others. Protesters carried death heads with the names of the deadly nuclear weapons states, the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea.
Several dozen people held a moving picket line from 8 to 10 a.m. At 9 another group of activists displayed banners from the balcony. One set of banners said “Nuclear Weapons = Terrorism.” Another set said “Less Talk, Disarm.” Police quickly grabbed the banners and took them away,
arresting five activists.
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http://www.ofog.org/avrusta-campaign-disarming-swedish-weapons-export It is not every day the Svea Court of Appeal, the country’s oldest still functioning court, deals with a case on the Swedish weapons export. On the 21st of April it did. Anna Andersson and Martin Smedjeback disarmed fourteen bazookas at Saab Bofors Dynamics weapons factory in Eskilstuna. The two activists were sentenced to […]
by Steve Clemens My trials were 7 months apart, almost to the day. One was in neighboring Ramsey County, the other in my home county of Hennepin. Both were for the same charge: criminal trespass and both ended with a somewhat similar sentence: continuance towards dismissal with conditions. In Ramsey County it was “no same […]
from Kimber Heinz, War Resisters League Hi all, We’re only one week away from the May 3rd direct action for nuclear disarmament at Grand Central Station! Below you’ll find the most up-to-date version of the scenario and you can find information at http://www.warresisters.org/node/960 about the War Resister’s League’s presence throughout the weekend at the international […]