Archive for the 'Blog' Category

Page 14 of 96

8 people cited at Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, Washington, marking the 76th anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombings

Posted on August 10, 2021

photo by Hieu Nguyen

from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

Thirty-one people were present on Monday, August 9 at a demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base in Silverdale, Washington. The demonstration, organized by the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, was at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor Main Gate during morning rush hour traffic.

At around 7:15 a.m., after peacekeepers entered the roadway and safely stopped traffic, eight demonstrators set themselves and their banners on the roadway blocking entry into the Main Gate. 

Mack Johnson, Silverdale; George Rodkey, Tacoma; and Denny Duffell, Seattle carried a banner reading “Hiroshima Nagasaki Never Again.” Michael Siptroth, Belfair; Mark Sisk, Seattle; and Gilberto Perez, Bainbridge Island carried a banner reading “Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons/ Nuclear Weapons are Illegal/ Get them out of Kitsap County.” Sean Foley, Belfair; and James Manista, Olympia held a banner reading “Nuclear Weapons are: Immoral to use, Immoral to have, immoral to make.

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Thirty-seven arrests disrupting Australia’s Land Forces weapons expo

Posted on July 30, 2021

Photo from disruptlandforces.org

From late May into June, the seven-day Festival of Resistance outside the Brisbane (Australia) Convention Center was an organizing cauldron. More than 300 participants cooked up public education events and a smorgasbord of nonviolent direct actions to confront Land Forces 2021, the largest international weapons exposition in the Southern Hemisphere.

Over the previous year, community organizing in anticipation of the arms bazaar was led by Wage Peace, a group dedicated to “disturbing war and militarism in Australia.” Organizers brought many diverse constituencies from radical youth, Quaker grannies, Aboriginal leaders, refugees, veterans and more into the action planning. During the six months leading up to the events, protests were held at several Brisbane area weapons manufacturers.

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Three activists arrested during nonviolent action at Büchel nuclear weapons base 

Posted on July 28, 2021

Photo by Dietrich Gerstner

Stop the next disaster before it happens – abolish nuclear weapons!

On Monday, July 19, six peace activists from the U.S., the Netherlands and Germany began a nonviolent action at 11 a.m. under the motto “Stop the next catastrophe: No Nukes! Stop the next catastrophe – Abolish nuclear weapons!”. They began to dig a tunnel with the goal of reaching the runway of the Büchel air base in order to stop flight operations. They were accompanied by several supporters with banners, who reinforced their action with songs and short speeches.

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Forty-five months in prison for drone war whistleblower Daniel Hale

Posted on July 27, 2021

Daniel Hale – Codepink photo

On July 27, Daniel Hale was sentenced to 45 months in prison, having pled guilty in April to one count of violating the Espionage Act.

The 33-year-old Air Force veteran first spoke out publicly against drone warfare in 2013, and later shared government documents that blew the whistle on secret watchlists, targeted drone killings, and other abuses in the “War on Terror.” The information Hale shared revealed gross human rights violations in the preparation of target lists for deadly attacks where 90% of the people killed were not the intended targets. In 2014, his home was raided by the FBI. Documents and electronic devices were seized, but he was not arrested until May, 2019. He was charged with five counts of violating the Espionage Act. Hale changed his plea last March, days before his scheduled trial.

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Why Daniel Hale Deserves Gratitude, Not Prison, by Kathy Kelly

Posted on July 6, 2021

Photo by Nick Mottern. An image of Daniel Hale is projected on a D.C. building on June 26, 2021.

The whistleblower acted on behalf of the public’s right to know what is being done in its name.

by Kathy Kelly

July 6, 2021

“Pardon Daniel Hale.” 

These words hung in the air on a recent Saturday evening, projected onto several Washington, D.C. buildings, above the face of a courageous whistleblower facing ten years in prison.

The artists aimed to inform the U.S. public about Daniel E. Hale, a former Air Force analyst who blew the whistle on the consequences of drone warfare. Hale will appear for sentencing before Judge Liam O’Grady on July 27th.

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“If There Are Enough Shovels to Go Around” – Surviving the Nuclear Threat

Posted on June 3, 2021

Photo by Jane Stoever, of Brian Terrell after his Memorial Day arrest (and resulting marks left by the handcuffs) at the Kansas City nuclear weapons plant

“If There Are Enough Shovels to Go Around”

Surviving the Nuclear Threat

by Brian Terrell

“Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top. . . . It’s the dirt that does it. . . . . If there are enough shovels to go around, everybody’s going to make it.” This bit of cheery advice was offered by Thomas K. (“T.K.”) Jones, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering, Strategic and Theater Nuclear Forces in a 1982 interview with Robert Scheer of The Los Angeles Times. Jones’ assurance that a nuclear exchange with the Soviet Union could be survived with a little sweat and ingenuity, allowing for two to four years recovery time, reflected the optimism of his boss, President Ronald Reagan, before Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev talked some sense into him.

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Five men arrested at Kansas City nuclear weapons plant protest

Posted on June 3, 2021

Photo of Br. Louis Rodemann, by Bennette Reed-Dibben

from PeaceWorks Kansas City

Memorial Day event: ‘We spoke truth, we cried, we witnessed, we rejoiced’

by Kristin Scheer

This Memorial Day was the first time I was able to join PeaceWorks-KC at the National Security Campus, where non-nuclear parts are made for nuclear weapons. It was our 10th annual event there. I was moved by the experience.

Jim Hannah was brilliant in reframing the facility we were about to see. In an oversized frame, he hung a flag naming the National Security Campus as it is. The very word campus, he said, conjured notions of a peaceful setting with trees and natural beauty, devoted to our nation’s security. But he contrasted that with the dangerous activity that was truly being manufactured there: the potential for planetary omnicide, he said, that leaves none of us feeling safe. Truly, they are manufacturing terror.

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Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Jailed Ahead of Sentencing

Posted on May 14, 2021

Daniel Hale – Copepink photo

Click HERE to sign the petition – Judge O’Grady, No Prison Time for Daniel Hale

from The Intercept

Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Jailed Ahead of Sentencing

It’s unclear precisely why Hale was arrested, and court documents show that his lawyers objected.

By Alex Emmons

May 5, 2021, 6:32 p.m.

Daniel Hale, a former Air Force intelligence analyst who pleaded guilty to sharing classified documents about drone strikes with a reporter, has been arrested ahead of his sentencing in July.

In March, Hale pleaded guilty to one charge under the Espionage Act, and he faces up to 10 years in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced in July, but a federal judge has ordered him incarcerated until then for violating the terms of his pretrial release, according to court records. 

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Five people cited in Mother’s Day demonstration at Trident nuclear submarine base at Bangor, WA

Posted on May 12, 2021

photo by Glen Milner

from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

Thirty people were present on May 8th (the day before Mother’s Day), at the demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor submarine base.  At around 2 p.m., the five demonstrators entered the highway carrying two large banners stating, “Congress wants $1 trillion for nukes – What will be left for our children?” and “Trident Threatens All Life on Earth” and blocked all incoming traffic at the Main Gate of Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor for over 20 minutes.  They were removed from the highway.

All five demonstrators were cited for violating RCW 46.61.250, Pedestrians on roadways, and released at the scene. Those cited by the Washington State Patrol: Brenda McMillan and Caroline Wildflower of Port Townsend; Sue Ablao of Bremerton; Elizabeth Murray of Poulsbo; and Michael “Firefly” Siptroth of Belfair.

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Women blockade Faslane Trident base for 11 hours, link militarism and climate crisis

Posted on May 12, 2021

XR photo

Early in the morning of April 30, members of Extinction Rebellion (XR) Scotland, with support from nuclear disarmament activists from Trident Ploughshares, set up a blockade at the north gate of the Faslane Trident submarine base in Scotland.

Three women locked onto three planters they had placed in the road, which contained plants and flowers and were painted with the words “Safe”, “Green”, and “Future”. With their action, they were demanding a future safe from the “threat of nuclear weapons and environmental destruction”, making the connections between the climate and ecological crisis and militarism.

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