Easter Update - Faith Based Resistance in U.S.A.

national | miscellaneous | news report Monday April 21, 2003 21:00 by Ciaron O'Reilly - Dublin Catholic Worker 'Pit-Stop Ploughshares'

Jonah House is a resistance community based in Baltimore. It was founded by Liz McAlister & the late Phil Berrigan in 1975 out of the expperiences of the draft board raid movement of the ant-Vietnam period. It pretty much gave rise to the plowshares movement in 1980 and has nourished many plowshares communities. Bill Frankel-Streit was arrested with me on the eve of the last Gulf War disarming a B-52 Bomber in upstate New York - it was put oout of action for the length of the Gulf War. We all received a year in prison. Bill is back in jail for resisting this war. The 3 Dominican nuns have recently been found guilty of sabotage for a weapons inspection and a disarmament action on an ICBM missile silo in Colarado. Every Easter Jonah House and Catholic Worker comunities gather in D.C. to carry oput nonvioelnet resistance at the White House,

The community at Jonah House greets you with all the blessings of this
Easter season. Our reflection on Matthew's account of Easter yesterday was
more up to date than today's newspapers. The same lies, coniving,
suppression of truth and exercise of domination. And the redemption is in
the love of friends and their/our support of one another and their/our
insistence on speaking truth to power. We can say "Alleluia!" in spite of,
if not because of, those Spirit filled people in jail, on trial, on the
streets, gathering in circles of love and friendship and support.

Bear with us, please. We've been away from the technology for some
days (Faith and Resistance Retreat in Washington D.C.) and want to share a
few updates with you.

1. Bill Frankel-Streit, serving 6 months for labeling the bloody
Pentagon on the Feast of the Innocents, was moved from Warsaw VA jail to
Philadelphia. His present address is
William Streit #03809-052
Federal Detention Center
PO Box 560
Philadelphia, PA 19105
Please know that Bill anticipates being there for a short time (roughly two
weeks). He is designated to serve the remaining 4+ months in Fort Dix, NJ.
He would welcome hearing from you. Steve Woolford and Steve Baggarly are
still in Warsaw, alas!

2. Ardeth, Carol and Jackie remain in Clear Creek County Jail. Their
sentencing is scheduled for July 25 - each at a different time of the day.
We can brief you on that later. Jackie's guidelines have her at 5 - 6 years
in prison. Ardeth and Carol's guidelines are 7 - 8 years. There is no
expectation that the judge will engage in downward departure. We will be
asking (and they are asking) that letters be sent to the judge via the
probation and parole officer who is doing their pre-sentencing report. We do
not yet have the basic information needed for the letters. What follows here
is from Anabel Dwyer - content on the motions filed post trial.
According to President Bush, "Evil tyrants threaten and use
weapons of mass destruction and ignore international law." Three,
increasingly famous, Dominican Sisters Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson and
Ardeth Platte agreed. They acted to non-violently inspect unacceptable
tyrannical behavior by the U.S. here at home. They prayerfully poured their
blood in the form of crosses on the cement missile cover of a first-strike
300 kiloton nuclear weapon on high-alert. They lowered 32 feet of perimeter
fence to non-violently expose on-going U.S. attempts and threats to commit
war crimes and genocide with the Minuteman III, N-8.
The Nuns filed motions showing that all the evidence at
their trial, clear errors in the jury instructions, prosecutorial misconduct
and jury tainting require either a Judgment of Acquittal, a New Trial or a
Judgment for a Mistrial. The measure of the rule of law in this "free and
democratic" country is at stake and the prosecutor has not "won" even by his
and the court's interpretation of the rules. The Court's Judgment of
Acquittal in the Nuns case could settle this matter reasonably based on the
sworn testimony at trial. Even the Government's Sentencing Statement of
Facts, also filed today, shows no evidence of sabotage or felony
depredation.
At the trial in Denver Federal District court early this
month, the Prosecutor's Air Force witnesses testified that the Nuns did not
injure, interfere with or obstruct the national defense. The Air Force was
always prepared, ready, and intending on a moment's notice to unleash the
300 kiloton nuclear weapon; the Minuteman III missile's "mission" according
to the Court's own unlimited definition of "national defense." No sabotage
occurred so the Prosecutor transformed sabotage into simple "destruction of
[any] national-defense materials." But the fence is not still
national-defense under the sabotage statute.
Thus the felony depredation of property crime alleged was no
different from the sabotage charge. The prosecutor brought a sabotage charge
apparently to make a felony out of the non-violent symbolic acts of the
Sisters. The Nuns caused no "damage" that could reasonably reach $1000. The
Sisters blood that they poured in the form of crosses on the cement missile
cover and the tracks did no damage or injury to the silo cover or tracks.
The Air Force personnel testified that they are paid a salary in part to
routinely clean the silo site of debris. The part of the fence that the Air
Force replaced, after the Sisters carefully lowered 32 feet for public
exposure, was already in stock. It was quickly repaired by regular Air Force
employees whose job involves repairing perimeter fences. So why the obvious
injustice of seeking 5 to 8 year prison sentences for three Sisters'
straight-forward good-faith act of civil resistance? Why such viciousness
against Nuns who objectively intended to expose in a well-measured manner,
what they knew to be a grossly illegal and criminal threat or attempt to use
a horrific weapon of mass destruction?
These women do indeed have extraordinary courage and
research abilities of the sort it takes to face the intended and horrific
effects of the Minuteman III, N-8. They realized that any threat or use of
such a weapon is grossly immoral and politically, economically and
environmentally suicidal. And they also knew that US and international law
absolutely prohibit any threat or use of such a weapon. "Threat or use of
this weapon of mass destruction is just as illegal and criminal by the U.S.
as by anyone else. Complete nuclear disarmament is a legal, treaty-based
obligation of the US and all countries and can only reasonably occur
non-violently one weapon at a time," said Ardeth Platte.
If acquittal is not granted, a new trial or mistrial must
occur.
a) Our Constitution requires presumption of innocence of
defendants not presumption of innocence of the threat or use of the
Minuteman III, N-8. Yet, the Court prohibited any defense argument and thus
made crimes which require proof beyond a reasonable doubt of specific
criminal intent into strict liability crimes.
b) While the Court prohibited political arguments in his
court of law, the Prosecutor argued his political conclusion that our
nuclear weapons are good and necessary based on evidence not brought. Then
the Court instructed the jury to ignore any of the Nuns' evidence that any
threat or use of the Minuteman III, N-8 is illegal and criminal under
binding US and international law.
c) Under our Constitution, the Courts say what the law is,
but they cannot ignore or misconstrue directly relevant and binding law, the
laws prohibiting attempts, threats and conspiracy to commit war crimes and
genocide.
d) Undisputed facts of the Minuteman III, N-8, that the jury
was not permitted to consider, clearly show that the heat, blast and
radiation is 20 times the Hiroshima bomb, any threat or use is, ipso facto,
a war crime or genocide as defined in the U.S. criminal code. Further facts
show that the US now intends and is prepared to use this weapon in
pre-emptive attack against a range of "rogue states" in violation of
numerous treaties of the United States. Obligations for nuclear disarmament
and prohibitions against threat or commission of war crimes and genocide are
not as the prosecutor claims "rejected philosophy of self-proclaimed
international law gurus" or as the court claims of "principal mavens." If
our courts no longer have to take cognizance of the United States criminal
code, the Constitution, the United Nations Charter and the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty and the rules and principles of humanitarian law,
the peremptory and well defined laws of war, then we are ! no longer a
nation of laws.
e) The Prosecutor and Court relied on their hidden experts'
conclusions regarding the content and application of the laws of war in this
case but Defendants were deprived of their Sixth Amendment right to be
confronted with the witnesses against them.
f) The Nuns exposed a weapon of mass destruction whose use
or threat blatantly ignores both international and US law. Then the Nuns,
messengers of bad tidings, were arrested for felonies whose property element
is a weapon of mass destruction. The Prosecutor brings criminal charges and
then the court agrees that the Defendants have no standing to raise the
directly relevant law? Come on folks, you really can't believe that the US
can do no wrong and that we as free citizens may or can do nothing about it
anyway?
g) The Nuns intended to point out and expose in a highly
measured and non-violent way, clear violations of our own binding law by the
US. This may be shocking to some people but in our democracy it is most
certainly not a felony.
So acquittal is clearly the reasonable way to deal with this
dispute. Otherwise a new trial is essential and this time the charges should
be clear. Are the Nuns charged with "insulting the government," trespass,
vandalism or political protest? These are the charges the government and the
court addressed and attempted to prove. Might does not make right under our
legal system. The law is what we the people have agreed it is and at least
on October 6, 2002, we did not agree that US and international law permitted
anyone, including us, any threat or use of a hideous and indiscriminate
weapon like the Minuteman III, N-8.

4. Our faith and resistance retreat was a powerful gift in which
peacemakers came together to witness in these so difficult times.
On Holy Thursday we were at the Marriott Hotel in D.C. because the
US Naval Associaton was holding its annual Arms Bazaar there. Buying and
selling of weapons of mass destruction as well as weapons of more limited
destruction - all of them Hi Tech. Our presence was so unwelcome no one was
allowed into the hotel once we were there.
On Good Friday we went to the Pentagon. 16 risked arrest at the East
Entrance though the police took only 8 of us. Naed Smith from the Harrisburg
Catholic Worker used the symbol of blood; others enacted a die in or knelt
in prayer. The whole group was able to stay and sing and even hold banners
which is a departure from what we've experienced at the Pentagon for two
years now.
On Holy Saturday we went to the home of Donald Rumsfeld and held a
procession with the El Salvador cross, a coffin, the 4 mourning mothers with
their dead babies. Five people remained in front of Rumsfeld's house holding
photos of Iraqi people while the body of the group processed four times up
and down the street (joined by some of Rumsfeld's neighbors). Our theme was
Iraqi dead count; count the Iraqi dead. We ended our presence with a
powerful liturgy in front of the house.
In the course of the 4 days, we heard from Coleman McCarthy, Scott
Wright and Mairaid Maguire and had a circle of sharing of experiences at the
nuns' trial in Colorado (11 of us were present for the trial and shared
impressions and experiences and emotions). All of us felt the solidarity and
love and support of the whole circle. It was a grace-filled time.

5. Trial tomorrow in D.C. for folks arrested at Lafayette Park on
January 19 (also in NYC for those arrested at the US Mission to the UN).

Love from us all - Susan, Liz, Gary, Osvaldo, Laurel, Steve, Kate, Frida and
Ian (with us for Easter), Jerry and Molly (with us for a week to 2 weeks)