Arraignment for Disarm Now Plowshares Activists January 6th

News Release 12/31/2009

 

For immediate release

 

Contacts:

Jackie Hudson or Sue Ablao: 360-930-8697,

jackiehudson123@Yahoo.com,  sablao1@yahoo.com

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action

16159 Clear Creek Road NW Poulsbo, WA 98370

 

Arraignment for Disarm Now Plowshares Activists

 

The arraignment of the Disarm Now Plowshares Five is scheduled for

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 in U.S. District Court, Western District of

Washington, Tacoma, at 8:30am.

 

Bill “Bix” Bischel, S.J., 81, of Tacoma, Washington; Susan Crane, 65,

of Baltimore MD;  Lynne Greenwald, 60, of Bremerton Washington; Steve

Kelly, S.J., 60, of Oakland, CA.; Anne Montgomery RSCJ, 83, of New

York, New York, were arrested on Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. They

entered the Base 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

SWFPAC where they were detained, and after extensive questioning by

base security, FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS),

were cited for trespass and destruction of government property, given

ban and bar letters and released.

 

In a joint statement, the group stated that “The manufacture and

deployment of Trident II missiles, weapons of mass destruction, is

immoral and criminal under International Law and, therefore, under

United States law.  As U.S. citizens we are responsible under the

Nuremberg Principles for this threat of first-strike terrorism hanging

over the community of nations, rich and poor.  Moreover, such

planning, preparation, and deployment are a blasphemy against the

Creator of life, imaged in each human being. “

 

Organizational endorsers of a Statement of Support for the Disarm Now

Plowshares include Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, Pax

Christi USA, a number of Catholic Worker communities and Witness for

Peace.  Individual endorsers include Nobel Peace Laureate Maireed

Maguire, Jim Douglass, Frida Berrigan and Martin Sheen.  The support

letter and endorsers can be viewed at

http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com/support-us/.

 

There have been approximately 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 Bangor, just 20 miles west of Seattle,

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 Bangor are approximately 24 percent of the entire

U.S. arsenal.  The Bangor base houses more nuclear warheads than

China, France, Israel, India, North Korea and Pakistan combined.

 

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 Hiroshima bomb) and costs approximately $60 million.  The

D-5 missile can also be armed with the 100 kiloton W-76 warhead.  The

Trident fleet at Bangor deploys both the 455 kiloton W-88 warhead and

the 100 kiloton W-76 warhead.

 

Visit http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com for complete

information, including biographical statements and links to the work

of the Disarm Now Plowshares.

 

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