Baltimore Nonviolence
Center, 325 E. 25th Street, Baltimore, MD 21218
Charges Dismissed for
Roman Catholic Womanpriest and Others Who Sat In Rep. Steny Hoyer’s Office to
Demand He Speak Out Against U.S. Involvement in Yemen
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 27,
2018
Contacts: Max Obuszewski 727-256-5789 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast.net or Janice Sevre-Duszynska at 859-684-4247
Contacts: Max Obuszewski 727-256-5789 or mobuszewski2001 at Comcast.net or Janice Sevre-Duszynska at 859-684-4247
WHO: Members of the Baltimore
Nonviolence Center, Chesapeake Physicians for Social Responsibility and other
groups began a campaign to lobby Maryland legislators about military spending,
nuclear weapons and U.S. involvement in the disastrous assault on the people of
Yemen. As part of this project, lobby visits were organized with the staff of
Senators Ben Cardin and Chris Van Hollen and Representatives John Sarbanes,
Elijah Cummings and Dutch Ruppersberger. However, when Max Obuszewski
tried to get an appointment with Rep. Steny Hoyer’s aide, he was rebuffed.
The failure to
obtain contact information from Hoyer’s office was brought to the attention of
the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance [NCNR]. It was decided
then to organize a visit on January 11, 2018 to Rep. Hoyer’s office in the
Longworth House Office Building. Approximately 20 citizen activists visited the
office that day.
WHAT: On that day, unfortunately, when a request
was made to obtain contact information for the foreign policy staff person, a
Hoyer staffer would not provide any information. Many of the citizen
activists then stayed in the office from 3:30 to about 7 PM waiting for an
answer from Hoyer’s staff. Around 6 PM, Paul [no last name] gave
Obuszewski a piece of paper with the phone number and email address of Daniel
Silverberg, Hoyer’s foreign policy aide. However, the sit-in continued as
there was no assurance that an actual meeting would take place. It was just a
piece of paper, and not a confirmation that Silverberg would meet with the
group. Seven of the activists, Janice Sevre-Duszynska, Richard Ochs and Malachy
Kilbride, Baltimore, Joy First and Phil Runkel, Wisconsin, Alice Sutter, New
York City, and Kathy Kelly, Chicago, were arrested and charged with “Unlawful
Entry.” Kelly and Ochs would later plead guilty.
The group hoped to appeal to Rep. Steny Hoyer, as Minority
Whip of the House of Representatives, that he must speak out against Saudi
Arabian war crimes, must condemn any further arms sales to the Desert Kingdom
and help bring to a vote House Concurrent Resolution 81 [https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/81]. This resolution’s title is "Directing the President
pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution to remove United States Armed
Forces from unauthorized hostilities in the Republic of Yemen."
The five defendants then began
to prepare for a jury trial in Superior Court of the District of Columbia on
October 2. They were prepared to indicate that Hoyer, the Minority Whip,
was unresponsive to constituents with regards to having staff meet with
them. Also the defendants were very concerned about Hoyer’s role in
supporting the sale of weapons to Saudi Arabia and its assault on the people of
Yemen. Of course, the attack on Yemen has created a humanitarian
disaster, which includes the death of civilians, destruction of the
infrastructure, a cholera epidemic and famine. However, Mark Goldstone,
and attorney advisor to the Yemen Five, received information that the
government decided to dismiss the charges against the five defendants.
WHEN
and WHERE: September 26, 2018/Superior Court of D.C., 500 Indiana Ave NW,
Washington, DC 20001
WHY: The
defendants can only speculate as to why the government dismissed the
charges. Did Rep. Hoyer decide that this case should not proceed? An
answer will probably be never known.
In January and in August, concerned citizens including
Sevre-Duszynska, an ordained Roman Catholic womanpriest and a member of the
Baltimore Nonviolence Center, attended two meetings with Daniel Silverberg, the
first in January and the second in August. Silverberg, at the first
meeting, admitted that he agreed to meet because people were arrested in
Hoyer’s office. In the second meeting, he indicated that Rep. Hoyer was
quite concerned with the situation in Yemen and was working behind the scenes
to mitigate the situation there. He indicated the only real solution was
to end the hostilities in Yemen.
The government decided to dismiss the charges on September 26. According to
a Common Dreams article which appeared on September 26, “'Glimmer of Hope'
for Yemen as Khanna Invokes War Powers Act to End US Support for Saudi-Led
Slaughter of Civilians,” there was this information: “Breaking! @RepRoKhanna has
just introduced legislation invoking the War Powers Act and directing the Trump
administration to pull US troops from the civil war in #Yemen. It is time for our
unconscionable participation in this war to end. https://theintercept.com/2018/09/26/yemen-us-military-house-resolution/ …
1:06 PM - Sep 26,
2018.” It follows that “The resolution (pdf)
‘directs the president to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities in
the Republic of Yemen, except United States Armed Forces engaged in operations
authorized under the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force...not later
than 30 days after the date of the adoption of this concurrent resolution
unless and until a declaration of war or specific authorization for such use of
United States Armed Forces has been enacted into law."
The article closed
with a list--“The resolution's other co-sponsors—which include the ranking
members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee as well as the Rules
Committee—are: Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Jim McGovern
(D-Mass.), Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Jan Schakowsky
(D-Ill.), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Michael Capuano
(D-Mass.), Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.),
Beto O'Rourke (D-Texas), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Joe Kennedy (D-Mass.), Joe
Courtney (D-Conn.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), Walter Jones (R-N.C.), Debbie Dingell
(D-Mich.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), and Earl
Blumenauer (D-Ore.).” It was remarkable to see Rep. Hoyer’s name on the
list.
One can
speculate that the courage of those who sat-in the Minority Whip’s office
combined with the zeal of those who attended the two meetings with Silverberg
may have played a role in convincing Hoyer to do the right thing about U.S.
forces aiding Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirate in the destruction
of Yemen. Those citizen activists felt they had a responsibility as U.S.
citizens to speak out against our government’s involvement in this vicious war
against the people of Yemen. On January 11, the delegation demanded that
Rep. Hoyer, in good conscience, speak out about U.S. support for the
destruction of Yemen. And remarkably, they may have succeeded.
######
"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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