SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
plowshares
US Bows Out After Plowshares Conviction is Vacated: Appeals Court Ill-Informed on Nuclear Overkill
Aug 23, 2015
The 2012 Transform Now Plowshares anti-nuclear action made the "Fort Knox" of weapons-grade uranium look like "F Troop." Three senior peace activists got through four chain-link fences and past multiple "lethal force" zones before stringing banners, spray-painting slogans, and pouring blood on the Highly-Enriched Uranium Materials Facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee - all without being noticed by guards.
The guard who finally spotted the three activists - Sr. Megan Rice, 85, of New York City, Greg Boertje-Obed, 60, of Duluth, and Michael Walli, 66, of Washington, D.C. - testified that he knew a peace protest when he saw one. He had watched many of them while on duty at Rocky Flats, the former plutonium warhead factory near Denver, Colorado. That's why he shrugged off official protocol and didn't draw his gun on Greg, Megan, and Michael that night.
Yet the trial judge, the prosecutor, government witnesses, and the Knoxville, Tennessee, jury decided to transform symbolic peace protest into "sabotage" - the "intentional and willful" injuring of "national defense." The trial judge, Amul Thapar - after first forbidding any expert defense evidence or testimony regarding the outlaw status of nuclear weapons production - played his part and waited for the inevitable default convictions (on sabotage and damage to property), then ordered senior citizens jailed pending sentencing because, he said, the technical terms of the charge fit the definition of a "federal crime of terrorism." Commentators howled at the idea of equating sloganeering and spray painting with bomb building, but the religious pacifists were taken away in cuffs and ankle chains - just like any dissident in China, Iran or North Korea.
Finally, after three years of legal wrangling and 24 months in jail and prison, a successful appeal decision has hinted at what a kangaroo Kabuki dance the trial was. Last May, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, voting two-to-one, threw out the "sabotage" convictions, declaring, "No rational jury could find that the defendants had that intent [sabotage] when they cut the fences... Nor could a rational jury find that the defendants had that intent when they engaged in the protest activities outside." U.S. Circuit Judge Raymond Kethledge, writing for the majority, said, "It takes more than bad publicity to injure the national defense."
The Justice Department could have challenged the Appeals Court decision with an appeal to all 23 judges of the 6th Circuit, but on June 22 the government threw in the towel. Re-sentencing on the damage charge is set for Sept. 15, but no more prison time is expected after the Appeals Court wrote that the two years already served by Greg, Megan and Michael is "substantially" more than federal guidelines require.
Blind Spot Taints Appeals Court Decision
The Appeals Court made one grossly ill-informed distinction between the case at issue and two previous Plowshares actions. In symbolic protests against Minuteman III nuclear missile silos, the "Silo Pruning Hooks" (Carl Kabat, Helen Woodson, Paul Kabat, and Larry Cloud Morgan) damaged a concrete silo lid in Missouri in 1985; and the "Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares" (Sisters Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert, and Jackie Hudson) did symbolic damage to a silo in Colorado in 2002.
The Appeals Court claimed that, unlike actions taken at weapons manufacturing sites, protests against bunkers with armed nuclear weapons on alert like Minuteman missiles should be characterized as "sabotage" because "even a brief disruption of operations would have grievously impaired the nation's ability to attack and defend. (Imagine, for example, if Soviet [sic] infiltrators had similarly disrupted the facilities' operations in the minutes before a Soviet first strike.)"
This hypothetical scenario by the Appeals Court betrays a profound ignorance of the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, its diversity, and its destructive capacity. The United States had 450 Minuteman III missiles, not just one, ready to launch.
Further, in addition to dozens of nuclear-armed B-52 and B-2 bombers, the Navy has 14 Trident submarines, each armed with 24 missiles. Each submarine carries five to eight nuclear warheads that can fly 6,000 miles. If only four of these submarines are simultaneously on patrol, their 480-768 warheads could incinerate every major city on Earth, not merely those in "Soviet" territory.
Even the Air Force knows its overkill capacity. A computer glitch at Wyoming's FE Warren Air Force Base in October 2010 took 50 Minuteman missiles offline. Yet, according to Lt. Gen. Dirk Jameson, Deputy Commander in Chief of Strategic Command, the shutdown had "no real bearing on the capabilities of our nuclear forces." Lt. Col. John Thomas, a spokesman for the Air Force's Global Strike Command, said at the time, "The wartime capability of that squadron [of missiles] was never significantly affected." The Appeals Court is also ignorant of the fact that dozens of Minuteman missiles are regularly "disrupted" for repairs or upgrades without any slacking of U.S. nuclear war readiness.
The Appeals Court cited the testimony of an Air Force Lt. Col. who said, regarding missile protests, that "it would be unwise to launch the missile in those circumstances." And thousands of higher authorities have gone further and said it would be unwise to launch nuclear attacks under any circumstances. In what should stand as the last word on the subject, former Reagan Presidential Adviser and Cold War anti-Soviet hawk Paul Nitze wrote in 1999, "I can think of no circumstances under which it would be wise for the United States to use nuclear weapons, even in retaliation for their prior use against the U.S. ..." This from arguably the most hawkish of US officials in the Cold War.
Keep ReadingShow Less
A Valentine's Day Tribute: The Things They Do for Love
Feb 14, 2008
Americans are largely unaware of the vastness and lethality of U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiles, say Sisters Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson, the three nuns who did time in federal prison for breaking into the N-8 Minuteman missile site in October 2002.
Now that the sisters are all back from prison, they spent some time with me to explain how their religious commitment and civic duty led them to become activists for nuclear disarmament.
In 1978 after Sisters Ardeth and Carol first heard Helen Caldicott's message on the dangers of nuclear weapons, they decided to work for the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign in Michigan, their home state. At the time, Michigan held the sixth largest cache of nuclear weapons in the country. The two sisters helped to organize a statewide ballot initiative for the Freeze in 1982, which passed at 56 percent.
They continued to work to free Michigan of all nuclear weapons until the Defense Closure and Realignment Commission (BRAC) inactivated the Wurtsmith Air Force Base near Oscoda in 1993 and the K. I. Sawyer Air Force Base near Marquette in 1995.
Continuing to feel the intensity of their call to eliminate nuclear weapons, Sisters Carol and Ardeth then joined Jonah House in Baltimore and became members of Plowshares. The worldwide peace organization spotlights the dangers of militarism and weapons of mass destruction through symbolic acts like their blood-spilling on the N-8 missile site.
Sister Jackie began her activism against nuclear weapons after being inspired by Sister Marjorie Tuite (1922-86) who talked about the "burden of knowledge" that doesn't allow a person to know what's going on in the world and not do anything about it. This burden calls for a "revolutionary integrity" that challenges one's morality and calls for a continued commitment of the gospel's message of "doing justice."
"You can educate others and you can act," said Sister Jackie, 73, who served 30 months at the Victorville Federal Prison Adelanto, Ca. "This is not always easy because there are consequences. However, when the consequences come, there is something that happens within that is deepened."
Sister Jackie dedicated herself to the Ground Zero Center in Bremerton, Wash. near Seattle where she has lived since 1993. The center is located adjacent to the Trident submarine base where 2,000 nuclear warheads are stored. Peace activists regularly protest at the base and advocate its closing.
In 1996 the U.S. military stepped up its strategic capacity with Vision 2020, a plan to exploit and dominate outer space by linking all land, sea and air bases.
"Most people have no clue about Vision 2020," said Sister Carol, 59, who spent 33 months at women's prison at Alderson, W. Va. "Such a plan, if enacted, would lead to the utter devastation of the planet. So in 2000 we rang a bell saying that this was happening in our country and we must stop it."
The sisters' action against Vision 2020 occurred at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs, Co. where they poured their blood on a communications satellite and hammered a grounded fighter jet prior during an air show exhibit there. They did this because both presidential candidates that year had endorsed Vision 2020. The sisters were subsequently released without punishment.
"Nuclear weapons are the taproot of all violence," said Sister Ardeth, 71, who served 41 months in the Danbury Federal Correction Institution in Connecticut. "Because we have these weapons of mass destruction and see ourselves as the remaining superpower nation, we proceed to intervene in other nations, claim other's resources, and set up our military bases in their countries."
She cited our war in Afghanistan, where we wanted to build an oil pipeline, and in Iraq, where we wanted their oil.
"The U.S. is obliged to abide by the non-proliferation treaty, to dismantle all of these weapons, in order to gain partnership with others and begin to work together," said Sister Ardeth. "This is for our future survival, the survival of all people, of creation and the planet, herself."
Sister Ardeth noted that since 1945 the United States has spent $20 trillion on military weapons. Meanwhile, millions of people in America and throughout the world are poor, sick and hungry because they lack even a fraction of such resources.
"When I learned about how poverty and racism work from the people who experience them, I saw that these things injure Mother Earth, too," she said. "And I thank God in understanding the connection of all these violences. I thank God for the consciousness to say no to war and all violence."
The sisters consider their action at the N-8 to be their citizen duty aimed at exposing the truth about weapons of mass destruction and the country's unmitigated and bipartisan support for them.
They didn't expect to go to prison nor did they think their sentences would be so severe, however, given heightened 9/11 security concerns, the prosecutor's case against the nuns was probably used a deterrent to others who might want to plan future "symbolic" demonstrations.
Nevertheless, the sisters regard their prison time as "sacred time" not only because they "sacrificed" themselves for the cause of justice and nonviolence, but because their case received a lot more publicity than it might have. Their aim was to attract attention to the dangers of our country's WMD as we were marching toward war over Iraq's WMD.
The sisters recognize that not everyone can or is willing to go to prison as they did. As nuns they have the freedom to engage in public protest and to serve time in prison without disrupting family life.
"How could we not?" said Sister Carol without hesitation.
Actually, going to prison gave them the opportunity to "wash our hands of our complicity" with the military industrial complex.
Although the sisters' religious status (and earning capacity) does not require them to pay income taxes, they do pay sales taxes on consumer goods and services. In other words, it is nearly impossible for them or any American citizen to avoid supporting the country's war machine simply because everyone pays some kind of federal tax.
One might wonder if the sisters regard their effort and their prison time as worth it, especially as the Iraq War is nearing its fifth year and the president has been rattling sabers with Iran.
"We decided that our work is to end the war, to dismantle all WMDs, to stop all killing," said Sister Ardeth. "At every Mass, in every prayer, we ask for this. It is programmed into us."
"I don't ever want a child to say that we did nothing," said Sister Carol.
"I have a strong belief in life and love and lived to the best of my ability to practice those beliefs," said Sister Jackie.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Nukes and Nuns
Oct 28, 2007
I first met Sisters Carol Gilbert and Ardeth Platte at a gathering for young nuns in March 1980. Their task was to help us understand the ways in which the Gospels called us to work for justice in our communities and our world.
Carol and Ardeth were two of the three nuns who were convicted and imprisoned in July 2003 for breaking into the N-8 Minuteman III nuclear missile site in Colorado and symbolically spilling their blood on it. A Denver federal court sentenced them to 30 and 41 months, respectively.
Back then I didn't care much for their message. It contradicted my own uncomplicated understanding of the world and questioned the purposes and practices of the U.S. government. What they said seemed convoluted, overwhelmingly, and just plain nutty.
The next time I saw the sisters was 27 years later. They had come to my town to give a presentation about their arduous trial.
The nuns' protest at the missile site was not an off-the-cuff act. They are members of Plowshares, a worldwide peace organization that calls attention to the dangers of militarism and seeks the dismantling of all nuclear weapons. The sisters' hammers and wire cutters served as symbols of disarmament and referred to Isaiah 2:4 which reads: "They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks." This time I found the nuns truly inspiring and courageous.
So what had transpired to me during those 27 years that caused me to change my outlook toward these nuns-and indeed the social justice movement? Quite simply, I witnessed people's struggle for truth and justice.
I first learned about this struggle when I visited Nicaragua in 1985 as I stood on the blackened ground of the port of Corinto where several huge oil storage tanks had once sat before they were blown up by the CIA. Ronald Reagan wanted to neutralize the Sandinistas, who were deemed Communists, in order to clear the way for comfortable trade arrangements U.S. corporations had been enjoying under the deposed dictator Somoza.
In 1986 in Lima, Peru, I saw how desperate peasants tried to make a life for themselves after they left their mountain farms, which had been run over by armed insurgents. These people came to the city to sell plastic combs, laundry buckets, and toys. They were part of the city's rapid six-fold increase in population which until the 1980s had been stable for 300 years.
My trip to Cochabama, Bolivia, during the Christmas 1985 was delightful. I stayed with a congenial family who taught me in Spanish language. However, two images stick in my mind from that trip. One is of the poor peasant woman on New Year's Day who was sleeping on the street with her child by her side. Her head poked up for a minute when my companions and I walked near her and then went back down. Sleep often helps to forget hunger. Another woman I saw wore a cracked, light brown, faux leather jacket. The calculator that dangled from a chain on her wrist helped her figure out the exchange of dollars to bolivianos. The Bolivian economy was so inflationary that one dollar would get you one million bolivianos; 750,000 bolivianos would get you a Coke. And speaking of coke, I saw the coca fields. Turns out that the reason the peasants cultivated it was because the world demand for cocaine earned them enough money to feed their families.
As I flew across the ocean to the former Soviet Union on April 26, 1986, little did I know that a nuclear reactor was melting down in a small town called Chernobyl. Little did the people of the Soviet Union know either, especially those who were participating in the festive May Day celebration in Kiev on May 1, just 50 miles from Chernobyl. I witnessed how the Soviet government didn't care enough to tell its people that they were in danger. I also witnessed how the U.S. embassy not only denied me or my fellow travelers any help but refused to acknowledge that there was an emergency.
The Nuclear Weapons Freeze of the 1980s came from Americans' response to the Reagan administration's decision to escalate the country's weapons of mass destruction stockpile. As I helped circulate petitions on the street corners of my city, an old man yelled at me: "You people don't know what you're doing," he said. "We have to keep the U.S. safe with these weapons."
All of a sudden and out of the blue in 1991 we were at war with Iraq in tiny country known as Kuwait, a place where the oil flows. Although the war didn't last but 100 hours and ended in our victory, thousands U.S. soldiers became sick from Gulf War Syndrome. It was later learned that the depleted uranium applied to the tips of our rockets was such a lethal substance that just touching the remains of blasted vehicles affected our soldiers-thousands of them.
In 2002 the United States began the Afghanistan War and in 2003 it launched what would become the Iraq War and Occupation. Both of these military actions were responses to 9/11-yet another means of gaining control of that precious Middle Eastern oil. The U.S. military still uses depleted uranium only the rockets it fires are not confined to the desert. They are being launched in cities where hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians live.
These experiences changed me. I learned not to trust political leaders' motives, especially when they decided to stomp into a country "to save it from evil dictators." I also came to understand that our government cared more about corporate profits than people, including the American people. This was the same message that Sisters Ardeth and Carol had delivered 27 years before and they, together with Sister Jackie Hudson, subsequently put their lives on the line for that message.
Most people have not had the opportunities I did to learn these lessons about social justice. Somehow, those of us who have been enlightened must find ways to share the truth with those who are not exposed to it.
One way to start is to view the new film about the Sisters Ardeth, Carol and Jackie Hudson titled "Conviction" by Brenda Truelson Fox of Boulder, CO. It illustrates the sisters' commitment to disarmament and the price they paid as a result. Former president of the U.S. National Association of Evangelists Ted Haggard and anti-nuclear weapons advocate Helen Caldicott, MD, are featured. Copies of the 43-minute film are available through the website Zero to Sixty Productions: www.ztsp.org.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular