Category Archives: Geen categorie

Sixth circuit orders immediate release of Michael, Megan and Greg

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Wonderful news for Greg, Michael and Megan, for peace and justice!

Transform Now Plowshares

In an amazing turn of events, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals this evening ordered the immediate release of Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed, the Transform Now Plowshares activists who were serving time in federal prison for their action at the Y12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, TN to protest plans for a new multibillion dollar nuclear bomb plant there.

Things unfolded rapidly this afternoon.

At 4:00pm word came from Bill Quigley, attorney for MGM, that the government had filed a notice that it would not oppose the release of Greg, Michael and Megan pending resentencing. The government’s notice was interesting—it included notice to the court that, when resentencing did happen, the government would not be seeking terms of imprisonment greater than the time already served. But, the prosecutor said, the court could not release the defendants unless it determined their were “extraordinary circumstances.” The government’s brief…

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Transform Now Plowshares Appeal Heard in Cincinnati

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Transform Now Plowshares

March 12, 1930, Ahmedabad, India. Mahatma Gandhi and a company of nonviolent satyagrahi set out from the Sabarmati ashram and began his march to Dandi where, twenty-four days later, he would make hold in his hands salt made from the ocean water and declare, “Here I ruin the British empire.”

It was an audacious faith in the power of nonviolence that carried Gandhi on that walk, and that powered him for another seventeen years before the miracle was realized and India was freed from British colonial rule.

Eighty-four years later, to the day, the power of nonviolence entered into the Potter Stewart federal courthouse in Cincinnati, Ohio, where three men sat in black robes to hear arguments challenging the sabotage convictions of Gregory Boertje-Obed, Megan Rice and Michael Walli in the Transform Now Plowshares action. Appellate arguments usually echo in a courtroom empty but for judges, a clerk and the…

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#SHUTDOWNCREECH Pink

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SHUT DOWN CREECH!
Mass Mobilization to Stop Drone Wars!
A Convergence For Peace in the Nevada Desert
Join us March 4-6, 2015 at Creech Air Force Base, Indian Springs, Nevada, for a national mobilization of nonviolent resistance to shut down killer drone operations in Afghanistan, Pakistan,Yemen, Somalia, and everywhere. Sponsored by CODEPINK: Women for Peace, Nevada Desert Experience , Veterans For Peace, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, and Voices for Creative Nonviolence. CODEPINK will also hold vigils daily on March 2nd and 3rd, prior to the official beginning of this Creech Convergence For Peace, and welcomes everyone to join them.

In 2005, Creech Air Force Base secretly became the first U.S. base in the country to carry out illegal, remotely controlled assassinations using the MQ-1 Predator drones, and in 2006, the more advanced Reaper drones were added to its arsenal. Creech drone personnel sit behind computers in the desert north of Las Vegas and kill “suspects” thousands of miles away. Recent independent research indicates that the identity of only one out of 28 victims of U.S. drone strikes is known beforehand. Though officials deny it, the majority of those killed by drones are civilians. In 2014, it was leaked that the CIA’s criminal drone assassination program, officially a separate operation from the Air Force’s, has been piloted all along by Creech’s super-secret Squadron 17.

Since 2009 dozens of activists have been arrested for allegedly trespassing at Creech, in attempts to stop the indiscriminate killing and burning of innocent people by drones. At the trial of the “Creech 14,” the first Americans prosecuted for trespass at a drone base, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark testified that “to have a baby burn to death because of a ‘no trespass’ sign would be poor public policy, to put it mildly.” In a time of burning children, the “no trespass” signs attached to the fences that protect the crimes perpetrated with drones are not legitimate, and they do not command our obedience. After all, it is the U.S. military that is guilty of lethal trespassing.

The US drone program is rapidly proliferating as air bases are being converted to drone bases across the U.S. and abroad, but Creech remains the primary air base in U.S. state-sponsored global terrorism. Creech is where the killer drone program started–it is where we shall end it.

We must put an end to this desecration of our Mother Earth and all creatures who inhabit it.

We must put an end to the dehumanization of lives from Ferguson to Palestine to Pakistan.

We must close all foreign U.S. military bases. Money for human needs.

We must put an end to drone warfare, drone surveillance, and global militarization.

We must…SHUT CREECH DOWN!

Sign up on facebook https://www.facebook.com/events/15257… and invite friends!

Outcry as CPS drops trial of anti-drone protesters at last minute

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The prosecution of arms-trade protesters who occupied a British drone engines manufacturer has been dropped at the last minute, after the company refused to hand over evidence about its exports of weaponry to Israel, The Independent can reveal.

The nine demonstrators had been due to go on trial next month for aggravated trespass after they halted production during a sit-in at the Staffordshire factory of UAV Engines Ltd, a subsidiary of the Israeli defence giant Elbit Systems – one of the largest manufacturer of military drones.

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The Nun Behind Bars in Brooklyn

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By: Helen Young Documentary filmmaker and Emmy award winning producer You could call it a homecoming of sorts, but without the welcome home party. After growing up in the shadow of Columbia University in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights, serving the Catholic Church as a biology teacher in Africa for more than 40 years, and a peace activist in Nevada, 84-year-old Sister Megan Rice has landed back in New York City. She’s at the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn. It’s Sunset Park, but without the grass and trees. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Sister Megan in all probability would have served her 35-month prison sentence at Connecticut ‘s Danbury Federal Prison. But female inmates are no longer being housed in that institution. So, Danbury’s loss is Brooklyn’s gain. Sister Megan is one of 78 low security female inmates known as “cadres”. They’re not awaiting trial or transfer. They’ve been convicted and, it appears, will serve their sentences at MDC. Although the prison system classifies this kindly, grandmotherly nun as “low security”, prosecutors described her as a danger to the community during her recent Knoxville trial, and won a conviction for sabotage, which the law defines as a “federal crime of terrorism”. Read more

EDIGER MEMORIAL INTERFAITH CELEBRATION of ACTIVE NONVIOLENCE Las Vegas, Nevada Community Event, September 23, 2012

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For Immediate Release                     September 17, 2012
               
From: Nevada Desert Experience.
CONTACT: Jim Haber, Coordinator (702) 646-4814
EDIGER MEMORIAL INTERFAITH CELEBRATION of ACTIVE NONVIOLENCE
Las Vegas, Nevada Community Event, September 23, 2012
(Las Vegas, NV). The Interfaith Council of Southern Nevada is partnering with Nevada Desert Experience and Pace e Bene Nonviolence Service to present a community event – The Ediger Memorial Interfaith Celebration of Active Nonviolence – on Sunday, September 23, from 3:00 to 8:30 p.m. at the Islamic Society of Nevada, 4730 East Desert Inn Road.
The Celebration of Active Nonviolence comes on the heals of the International day of Peace, September 21. Families are welcome and encouraged to attend the free event (donations welcome) which will include a program of powerful panelists, useful exercises, heart-lifting music, stimulating dialogue and a complementary dinner. Childcare available.
About some of the presenters and prayer-offerers:
Vincent Harding, chairperson of the Hope Project; A Center for the Study of Religion and Democratic Renewal, will share the keynote presentation with Nobel Prize nominee Kathy Kelly. Co-founder of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Kelly recently returned from another of many delegations to Afghanistan in coordination with the Afghan Peace Volunteers. Harding was a close friend of the late Martin Luther King, Jr. and is credited with drafting one of King’s most outstanding talks, the April 4, 1967 Riverside Church sermon when he came out publicly against the war in Vietnam.
Mary Litell will share self-care techniques taught by Capacitar International in settings including refugee camps, prisons and schools. Rae Abileah of CODEPINK Women for Peace and Young, Jewish & Proud will talk about what inspires her to be a nonviolent activist today.  Ahmed Younis, Co-Author of the soon-to-be-released book American Blackness: Reflective Thoughts by Men of Faith, will offer reflections on the discussion from the perspective of an up-and-coming Muslim-American . The St. James the Apostle Catholic Church Gospel Choir will stir the audience to song. Prayers for Peace will be offered by representatives of many faiths, including Imam Aslam Abdullah, Bishop Dan Edwards, Pastor Gard Jameson, Rabbi Yocheved Mintz, Fr. Louis Vitale. Priestess Candace Ross, Sikh Teji Malik and Rev. Adolph Kunen.
As an expressive, community-building effort, a “Graffiti Wall for Free Expression” will be available for people to artistically share and blend their philosophies and hopes for a world free of wars, hatred and violence, and how we might create that here. A substantial library of hard to find nonviolence resources will also be on display.
The late Peter Ediger, local poet and peacemaker dedicated his life to the practice of nonviolence in many ways, both personal and political. Ediger’s work in his final months was to organize this event to help the world to begin “celebrating faith, hope and love as alternatives to cynicism, despair and fear” by engaging (all) communities into passionate dialogue of the true meaning of active nonviolence – any creative alternative to either passive inaction or countering violence with more violence.
Jim Haber, who has chaired the celebration’s organizing committee since Ediger’s death in February comments, “Participants will leave the Ediger Celebration with useful tools for helping cope with violence in their lives be it due to war or other abuse. People’s real-life stories will be discussed, of resisting violence without returning it and actually succeeding more than with violence and retaliation. The mass killings in Aurora CO, Milwaukee WI and elsewhere shouldn’t be seen as isolated from the violence and wars our country is engaged in abroad, especially since the U.S. produces more weapons than any other country, is responsible for over half of global arms sales and spends over $2 Billion every day on the military.”
Gard Jameson, lifelong philanthropist, author, scholar and Chair of the Interfaith Counsel of Southern Nevada, shares, “Hopefully we can escalate the quality of our collaborations catalyzed by the tragedy in Libya and the hope of a better world. Our event on the 23rd provides great opportunity for community engagement.”
Vincent Harding offers, “Part of what gives me hope is that wherever I go in this country in the midst of all the temptation to despair, I find women and men and young people and communities working to create an alternative to fear and despair….”
Kathy Kelly warns, “Over the past six decades, U.S. activists have made significant gains in movements for civil rights, women’s rights and labor rights. And yet, we must heed Dwight Eisenhower’s words, spoken three days before he left the oval office:  “Be wary of the unwarranted influence of the military-industrial complex.  Our gathering will help us plan and act with tough minds and tender hearts as we work toward ending the scourge of warfare..
People can get more information or RSVP (appreciated for food preparation and childcare) Please Visit Nevadadesertexperience.org or Interfaithsn.org.  Contact Us at (702) 646-4814 or Visit Us on Facebook – Ediger Celebration of Active Nonviolence.
Peace, Shalom, Pace e Bene!
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Harvey Wasserman: America’s New Nuclear Showdown

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Harvey Wasserman: America’s New Nuclear Showdown (on Counterpunch.org)

As Fukushima continues to leak and smolder, what may be the definitive battle over new nukes in America has begun.

The critical first US House vote on a proposed $36 billion loan guarantee package for reactor construction may come as early as June 2. Green power advocates are already calling and writing the White House and Congress early and often, gearing up for a long, definitive showdown.
Germany and Japan have made their decision—the “Lethal Atom” has no future.

The coffin nail is Fukushima. Substantial radiation still leaks from three or more of its six reactors. Volatile fuel rods are dangerously exposed. Various containment and fuel pool structures are compromised. Heat and radiation still pour into our global eco-systems, with no end in sight.
Thankfully, a global citizens movement helped lower the amount of plutonium-based MOX fuel loaded into Unit Three. Without that, Fukushima’s emissions would be far more lethal.

As it is, fallout continues to be detected across Europe and the United States. Fukushima is now rated on par with Chernobyl, by some estimates the killer of more than a million people.

… Read the rest here!