News Release 10/1/2010
For immediate release
Contact:
Leonard Eiger, 425-445-2190, subversivepeacemaking@comcast.net
Disarm Now Plowshares Activists Ready For Their Arraignment
The plowshares activists who entered the
storage depot in
upcoming arraignment.
After waiting for over 10 months the five Disarm Now Plowshares
defendants, who were only recently indicted by a grand jury for their
November 2, 2009 Plowshares action at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor and
Strategic Weapons Facility-Pacific (SWFPAC), are ready to go to court
for their arraignment. They will be arraigned on Friday, October 8,
2010 at 1:30 PM in courtroom F before Judge Karen L. Strombom at the
Sr. Anne Montgomery, 83, of
Bichsel, 82, of
Kelly, 61, of Oakland, California, each face up to ten years in prison
and a $250,000 fine if convicted on the government’s charges of
"conspiracy, trespass, destruction of property on a naval
installation, and depredation of government property." The charges
were handed down by a grand jury in early September 2010, ten months
after their November 2009 Plowshares action.
The defendants entered Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in the early morning
hours of November 2, 2009, All Souls Day, with the intention of
calling attention to the illegality and immorality of the existence of
the Trident weapons system. During the action they held a banner
saying…“Disarm Now Plowshares : Trident: Illegal + Immoral”, left a
trail of blood, hammered on the roadway and fences around Strategic
Weapons Facility – Pacific (SWFPAC) and scattered sunflower seeds
throughout the base. They gained entry to the secure nuclear weapons
storage facility known as Strategic Weapons Facility-Pacific (SWFPAC)
where they were detained, and after extensive questioning by base
security, FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), cited
for trespass and destruction of government property, given ban and bar
letters and released.
Many individuals and organizations have sent messages in support of
the Disarm Now defendants.
Dr. David Hall, past president, Washington state chapter, Physicians
for Social Responsibility, said of the Disarm Now Plowshares action
that, "the challenge of
knowing we Americans can and will obliterate whole cities, literally
millions of innocent lives, if we so choose. Our Trident fleet of
nuclear-armed submarines places every city in the world at risk of
annihilation within 15 to 30 minutes of our designated leaders giving
the command. We must imagine this horror so we can prevent it. People
like Bix, Lynne, Susan, Steve and Ann of the Disarm Now plowshares
group that entered the Trident submarine base on
November showed the courage and moral clarity to put their lives on
the line to break the silence about these weapons of mass destruction.
All of us who cherish life and the possibility of worldwide
cooperative security owe them immense appreciation for their faithful
witness to a future built on love instead of mass murder."
Thomas Rogers, Captain, USN (Retired) issued a strong statement of
support of the Disarm Now Plowshares action saying, "The time for our
country to move away from a national security policy based on nuclear
weapons is long overdue. Nuclear deterrence became obsolete when the
Cold War ended nearly 20 years ago, yet our government continues to
rely on this dangerous, expensive, barbaric strategy. I applaud the
courage and commitment of the Plowshares Activists in bringing
national attention to this most important issue." Rogers, a former
submarine commander, retired in 1998 after a 31 year career. He is
currently active in the anti-nuclear weapons movement with the Ground
Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in
Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu wrote a support letter saying, "We
know that nations need teachers, schools, books, drinking water,
productive farm land, food and shelter. We do not need weapons of
war, and we do not need nuclear weapons which threaten to destroy all
of God's creation." Tutu went on to say that, "If we are to believe
the words of our faith, "to love our enemies", then we must begin to
disarm our nuclear weapons. If we believe that every life is sacred,
that every person is a child of God, then we cannot bomb their
villages and cities with nuclear warheads. The Plowshares movement, a
movement of people who take responsibility for the nuclear weapons of
their country, and who believe that disarmament is the way to abolish
nuclear weapons, is a light in the darkness of the war making around us."
All five Disarm Now defendants are prepared to face the judge and
justify their actions based on both moral and legal reasoning, and
welcome the opportunity to speak on their own behalf during the
arraignment.
Supporters will join the Disarm Now defendants on the day of the
arraignment to walk with them from the
courthouse. They will then hold a vigil and prayer service in front
of the courthouse (located at
the arraignment.
There have been more than 100 Plowshares Nuclear Resistance Actions
worldwide since 1980. Plowshares actions are taken from Isaiah 2:4 in
Old Testament (Hebrew) scripture of the Christian Bible, “God will
judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many people.
And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into
pruning hooks. And nations will not take up swords against nations,
nor will they train for war anymore.”
The Trident submarine base at
is home to the largest single stockpile of nuclear warheads in the
U.S. arsenal, housing more than 2000 nuclear warheads. In November
2006, the Natural Resources Defense Council declared that the 2,364
nuclear warheads at
China, France, Israel, India,
The base has been rebuilt for the deployment of the larger and more
accurate Trident D-5 missile system. Each of the 24 D-5 missiles on a
Trident submarine is capable of carrying eight of the larger 455
kiloton W-88 warheads (each warhead is about 30 times the explosive
force as the
D-5 missile can also be armed with the 100 kiloton W-76 warhead. The
Trident fleet at
the 100 kiloton W-76 warhead.
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Further information on Disarm Now Plowshares, including court updates,
is available at http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com/.
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