15-05-2013, 08:16 AM
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(Article changed on May 13, 2013 at 18:10)
![[Image: prayer-outside-courtroom-jpg_48728_20130513-67.jpg]](http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/prayer-outside-courtroom-jpg_48728_20130513-67.jpg)
Defendants and Supporters prepare to enter courtroom by Clare Hanrahan
"We'rehere fighting every day," Shelly Wascom, a longtime organizer with the OakRidge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) said as people from fifteen states, andas far away as Arizona and Vermont, gathered at the First Presbyterian Churchin Knoxville in support of the Transform Now! Plowshares. Sister Megan Rice, 83, Michael Walli 64, and GregBoertje-Obed, 57, faced felony charges of injuring the national defense anddamaging government property for their protest inside the Y-12 nuclear weapons complexin Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In the pre-dawn hours of July 28, 2012, unarmed,undetected and undeterred, the three elders walked on to the Y-12 bomb plant ina symbolic act of nonviolent resistance to the continued production of nuclearweapons. In the tradition of the Christian Plowshares movement, they carriedhammers, blood, Bibles, and bread as they inched their way down a wooded slopeinside the perimeter fence of the bomb plant. Carrying white roses and wieldingyellow and red-handled bolt cutters, they cut through three more fences, defeatingthe so-called "perimeter intrusion detectionand assessment system." In a zone postedwith the warning that "deadly force is authorized," they lit candles, unfurled banners,scattered leaflets, poured the frozen blood of a deceased Plowshares activist,painted "Biblical graffiti," and hammered on a corner of the concrete guardtower.
In courtroom testimony, Sr. Megan Rice said she felt led by the Holy Spirit, andwas "more and more surprised" to find herself reaching the highly enricheduranium materials facility, HEUMF., where they spray-painted on the bunker's northwest corner, "WoeUnto the Empire of Blood." The HEUMF storesas much as 400 tons of the radioactive material, shipped from throughout theU.S. and the world, to a facility referred to several times in the courtroom as"the Fort Knox of uranium." No one wasthere to greet them, despite a security apparatus costing as much as $150million dollars a year.
InKnoxville on May 8, after two days of argument and testimony and with just 21/2 hours of deliberation, the federaljury of nine men and three women found the three seniors guilty of bothcharges: damaging government property over $1,000, and injuring the nationaldefense, a sabotage charge levied by the prosecution after the defendantsrefused a plea agreement on a trespass charge and asserted their right to atrial.
The real damage, as testimonywould later reveal, was to the credibilityof the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Y-12 and the U.S.government. "A Normalization of Deviation from the Optimum," is how SteveErhart, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration's ProductionOffice, characterized the security at the Y-12 bomb plant at the time of the Transform Now Plowshares action.
After theguilty verdict, and at the request of the prosecution, the three defendants wereimmediately taken to the Knox County Sheriff's Detention Facility for the night.
According to reports from supporterswho found a seat in the small courtroom on May 8, a frustrated District Judge Amur Thaparasked the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney MelissaKirby and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore, "Don'tyou find it a little troubling that Congress would write a law that wouldn'tlet me distinguish between peace activists and terrorists?" According to the law, the conviction of "injuringthe national defense," is a sabotage charge and considered violent, thusmandating incarceration prior to sentencing.
The defendants were returned to the courtroom in shacklesand tan prison garb May 9 and again on May 10 as defense attorneys Bill Quigley,of New Orleans, and Knoxville based Chris Irwin, and Francis Lloyd, Jr. discussed case law with the Judge and prosecutors, arguing that the prosecution had not produced evidence of sabotage norhad they proved the "intent" of the three defendants was to injure,interfere or obstruct the national defense.
On May 10, according toKnoxville News Sentinel reporter Frank Munger, writing on his Atomic CityUnderground blog, the judge ruled that "defendants will be held untilsentencing," scheduled for September 23, 2013. They each face a maximum of 30 years.
"It is very humbling to be in touch with folks likethis who put so much on the line for what they believe," said Knoxvilleresident and longtime OREPA supporter Todd Shelton. He credited hisconservative parents' teaching of "fairness and justice" for his support of theTransform Now Plowshares trio.
Atomic Appalachia
Among the close to 200 supporterspresent throughout the trial, fifteen people traveled over the mountains ofAtomic Appalachia from Asheville, N.C., following a National War Tax Resistanceconference. Asheville is at the nuclear crossroads for radioactive materialstransport. Another carload came from the Jonesborough and Erwin, Tennessee,where AeroJet Ordnance produces "depleted" uranium bullets and Nuclear FuelServices processes highly enriched uranium fuel for the Trident first strikesubmarines.
Linda Cataldo Modica, an environmentalactivist from Jonesborough, Tenn., who organizes with the Erwin Citizens Awareness Network and educates about the extensive uranium contamination in the area, said she "came to support sister and hercolleagues in our effort to halt nuclear weapons production." Linda works with others in the region, including the New South Network of War Resisters and Appalachian Peace Education Center on the Atomic Appalachia Project to support andnetwork residents threatened by the nuclearmilitary and industrial facilities in the Southern Appalachian area.
OREPA member Bill Myers showed wenew arrivals where we could bed down for the night on the First Presbyterianchurch floor. OREPAorganizer Rev. Eric Johnson of Maryville said he had approached the church pastor."We have a need," Johnson told him. "We kept engaging them," he said, and they agreed tohelp. As we spoke, folk musician Charlie King was singing, Somosel barco, somos el mar. Rev. Johnson similed, "I sailin you, you sail in me." The cooperation of many in the Knoxville area and the "renewal offriendship with the First Presbyterian Church," provided critical support throughoutthe trial.Others on hand were Bro. Utsumi and Sr. Denise, from The Great Smokey Mountains Peace Pagoda, who have been a presence at the gates of Y-12 for decades. They prepared some of the welcome meals offered to activists gathered at the church.
![[Image: utsumi-denise-pre-trial-walk-jpg_48728_20130513-575.jpg]](http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploadnic/utsumi-denise-pre-trial-walk-jpg_48728_20130513-575.jpg)
Buddhists lead procession to courtroom by Clare Hanrahan
Since1988, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has been building relationshipseducating and organizing non-violent direct action protests at the Y-12 Complexin an effort to close down the nuclear weapons plant. The group has maintainedthirteen years of uninterrupted Sunday vigils on a grassy field outside thegate. The previous Sunday the group stood in pouring rain confined to a swampyroadside across from the Y-12 gate, according to OREPA supporter Lee Session.
Knoxville resident Larry Coleman who had been arrested April 6 as he steppedoff the curb during a peace walk to the Y-12, was arrested again by police who arrived at the Sunday vigil withhis photograph in hand. "He thought thatprevious charges had been dismissed," Session said. "The police have never been this ugly to usbefore."
"I think thefact that there have been people out at Y-12 every week for years is powerful,and drew the action here to the most significant nuclear weapons site in thenation." Felice Cohen-Joppa, of Tucson, an editor of The Nuclear Resister, a publication chronicling decades of nonviolentnuclear protest. "The action has not only made dissent at Oak Ridge more difficult, but it has energized the efforts...Whatever the outcome, the action was right and necessary."
With over 200arrests at Oak Ridge over the years, many have served prison and jail time as aresult of peaceful protest when activists either crossed over the boundaryfence or blocked the entrance road to the bomb plant. The July, 2012 action wasthe first time that Sister Megan, a member of the Holy Child Jesus order ofteachers, had been to Oak Ridge, and the first Plowshares action inside thenuclear weapons complex. "My regret was I waited 70years," Sr. Megan later testified.
"It is invigorating to see peoplefrom so far away," Shelly Wascom said. "People who have never been here beforenow know what is happening." Shelly was tasked with coordinating hospitality andtransportation for the scores of out of town supporters. Lisa McLeod, a puppetista and longtime OREPAorganizer, speaking in front of the courthouse added, "It's another step towardthe transformation that has to happen. It's been a huge gift and chance for people to have conversations inthis community that have not happenedbefore."
"We wanted to bring healing and love and compassion for the people condemned to work at this very dangerous facility," Sr.Megan Rice said. "Let'sstop pouring our billions into false, impossible security."
Jeff Theodore, assistant U.S.attorney, told jurors in closing arguments "When you interfere with Y-12,you are interfering with the national defense."
Steve Erhart, manager of theNational Nuclear Security complex at Y-12 testified that Y-12 historically hasreceived and stored nuclear materials recovered from vulnerable sites aroundthe globe. It will be hard to explain how protesters penetrated the plant'sdetection-and-assessment system to countries looking to give up their nuclearmaterials because of their own security concerns, he said.
Deputy General Manager of Security Operations at Y-12, former Brigadier General Rodney Johnson, hired August 1 to "assist with recovery operations," spoke of the "full spectrum of security," at the bomb plant. Knoxville social worker Eldora Fitzsimmons is not convinced. "I'm horrified that we are not safer. I still don't feel safe."
"Clearly we were led by the Spirit in and around us," Sr. Megan testified. "We needed to bring the truth...nuclear weapons are war crimes."
"They were thethermometer," Defense Attorney Bill Quiqley said. "They didn't cause the fever;they exposed it. Don't blame the thermometer."
Quigley said there was abundantevidence, including testimony by Erhart, that security at Y-12 is significantlybetter now than it was before the July 28, 2012 security breach.
"The shortcomings in securityat one of the most dangerous places on the planet have embarrassed a lot ofpeople," said Defense Attorney Francis Lloyd, Jr. who represented SisterMegan Rice. "You're looking atthree scapegoats behind me."
A petition to Pardon the Transform Now Plowshares is here.
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"Woe Unto the Empire of Blood" -- Transform Now Plowshares Convicted and Jailed
By clare hanrahan5/13/2013 at 13:16:21 [/TD]
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[URL="http://www.opednews.com/author/author48728.html"]![[Image: clare-dogwoods-cropped-20100709-128.jpg]](http://www.opednews.com/populum/uploaded/clare-dogwoods-cropped-20100709-128.jpg)
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(Article changed on May 13, 2013 at 18:10)
Defendants and Supporters prepare to enter courtroom by Clare Hanrahan
"We'rehere fighting every day," Shelly Wascom, a longtime organizer with the OakRidge Environmental Peace Alliance (OREPA) said as people from fifteen states, andas far away as Arizona and Vermont, gathered at the First Presbyterian Churchin Knoxville in support of the Transform Now! Plowshares. Sister Megan Rice, 83, Michael Walli 64, and GregBoertje-Obed, 57, faced felony charges of injuring the national defense anddamaging government property for their protest inside the Y-12 nuclear weapons complexin Oak Ridge, Tennessee. In the pre-dawn hours of July 28, 2012, unarmed,undetected and undeterred, the three elders walked on to the Y-12 bomb plant ina symbolic act of nonviolent resistance to the continued production of nuclearweapons. In the tradition of the Christian Plowshares movement, they carriedhammers, blood, Bibles, and bread as they inched their way down a wooded slopeinside the perimeter fence of the bomb plant. Carrying white roses and wieldingyellow and red-handled bolt cutters, they cut through three more fences, defeatingthe so-called "perimeter intrusion detectionand assessment system." In a zone postedwith the warning that "deadly force is authorized," they lit candles, unfurled banners,scattered leaflets, poured the frozen blood of a deceased Plowshares activist,painted "Biblical graffiti," and hammered on a corner of the concrete guardtower.
In courtroom testimony, Sr. Megan Rice said she felt led by the Holy Spirit, andwas "more and more surprised" to find herself reaching the highly enricheduranium materials facility, HEUMF., where they spray-painted on the bunker's northwest corner, "WoeUnto the Empire of Blood." The HEUMF storesas much as 400 tons of the radioactive material, shipped from throughout theU.S. and the world, to a facility referred to several times in the courtroom as"the Fort Knox of uranium." No one wasthere to greet them, despite a security apparatus costing as much as $150million dollars a year.
InKnoxville on May 8, after two days of argument and testimony and with just 21/2 hours of deliberation, the federaljury of nine men and three women found the three seniors guilty of bothcharges: damaging government property over $1,000, and injuring the nationaldefense, a sabotage charge levied by the prosecution after the defendantsrefused a plea agreement on a trespass charge and asserted their right to atrial.
The real damage, as testimonywould later reveal, was to the credibilityof the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), Y-12 and the U.S.government. "A Normalization of Deviation from the Optimum," is how SteveErhart, manager of the National Nuclear Security Administration's ProductionOffice, characterized the security at the Y-12 bomb plant at the time of the Transform Now Plowshares action.
After theguilty verdict, and at the request of the prosecution, the three defendants wereimmediately taken to the Knox County Sheriff's Detention Facility for the night.
According to reports from supporterswho found a seat in the small courtroom on May 8, a frustrated District Judge Amur Thaparasked the prosecutors, Assistant U.S. Attorney MelissaKirby and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeff Theodore, "Don'tyou find it a little troubling that Congress would write a law that wouldn'tlet me distinguish between peace activists and terrorists?" According to the law, the conviction of "injuringthe national defense," is a sabotage charge and considered violent, thusmandating incarceration prior to sentencing.
The defendants were returned to the courtroom in shacklesand tan prison garb May 9 and again on May 10 as defense attorneys Bill Quigley,of New Orleans, and Knoxville based Chris Irwin, and Francis Lloyd, Jr. discussed case law with the Judge and prosecutors, arguing that the prosecution had not produced evidence of sabotage norhad they proved the "intent" of the three defendants was to injure,interfere or obstruct the national defense.
On May 10, according toKnoxville News Sentinel reporter Frank Munger, writing on his Atomic CityUnderground blog, the judge ruled that "defendants will be held untilsentencing," scheduled for September 23, 2013. They each face a maximum of 30 years.
"It is very humbling to be in touch with folks likethis who put so much on the line for what they believe," said Knoxvilleresident and longtime OREPA supporter Todd Shelton. He credited hisconservative parents' teaching of "fairness and justice" for his support of theTransform Now Plowshares trio.
Atomic Appalachia
Among the close to 200 supporterspresent throughout the trial, fifteen people traveled over the mountains ofAtomic Appalachia from Asheville, N.C., following a National War Tax Resistanceconference. Asheville is at the nuclear crossroads for radioactive materialstransport. Another carload came from the Jonesborough and Erwin, Tennessee,where AeroJet Ordnance produces "depleted" uranium bullets and Nuclear FuelServices processes highly enriched uranium fuel for the Trident first strikesubmarines.
Linda Cataldo Modica, an environmentalactivist from Jonesborough, Tenn., who organizes with the Erwin Citizens Awareness Network and educates about the extensive uranium contamination in the area, said she "came to support sister and hercolleagues in our effort to halt nuclear weapons production." Linda works with others in the region, including the New South Network of War Resisters and Appalachian Peace Education Center on the Atomic Appalachia Project to support andnetwork residents threatened by the nuclearmilitary and industrial facilities in the Southern Appalachian area.
OREPA member Bill Myers showed wenew arrivals where we could bed down for the night on the First Presbyterianchurch floor. OREPAorganizer Rev. Eric Johnson of Maryville said he had approached the church pastor."We have a need," Johnson told him. "We kept engaging them," he said, and they agreed tohelp. As we spoke, folk musician Charlie King was singing, Somosel barco, somos el mar. Rev. Johnson similed, "I sailin you, you sail in me." The cooperation of many in the Knoxville area and the "renewal offriendship with the First Presbyterian Church," provided critical support throughoutthe trial.Others on hand were Bro. Utsumi and Sr. Denise, from The Great Smokey Mountains Peace Pagoda, who have been a presence at the gates of Y-12 for decades. They prepared some of the welcome meals offered to activists gathered at the church.
Buddhists lead procession to courtroom by Clare Hanrahan
Since1988, Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance has been building relationshipseducating and organizing non-violent direct action protests at the Y-12 Complexin an effort to close down the nuclear weapons plant. The group has maintainedthirteen years of uninterrupted Sunday vigils on a grassy field outside thegate. The previous Sunday the group stood in pouring rain confined to a swampyroadside across from the Y-12 gate, according to OREPA supporter Lee Session.
Knoxville resident Larry Coleman who had been arrested April 6 as he steppedoff the curb during a peace walk to the Y-12, was arrested again by police who arrived at the Sunday vigil withhis photograph in hand. "He thought thatprevious charges had been dismissed," Session said. "The police have never been this ugly to usbefore."
"I think thefact that there have been people out at Y-12 every week for years is powerful,and drew the action here to the most significant nuclear weapons site in thenation." Felice Cohen-Joppa, of Tucson, an editor of The Nuclear Resister, a publication chronicling decades of nonviolentnuclear protest. "The action has not only made dissent at Oak Ridge more difficult, but it has energized the efforts...Whatever the outcome, the action was right and necessary."
With over 200arrests at Oak Ridge over the years, many have served prison and jail time as aresult of peaceful protest when activists either crossed over the boundaryfence or blocked the entrance road to the bomb plant. The July, 2012 action wasthe first time that Sister Megan, a member of the Holy Child Jesus order ofteachers, had been to Oak Ridge, and the first Plowshares action inside thenuclear weapons complex. "My regret was I waited 70years," Sr. Megan later testified.
"It is invigorating to see peoplefrom so far away," Shelly Wascom said. "People who have never been here beforenow know what is happening." Shelly was tasked with coordinating hospitality andtransportation for the scores of out of town supporters. Lisa McLeod, a puppetista and longtime OREPAorganizer, speaking in front of the courthouse added, "It's another step towardthe transformation that has to happen. It's been a huge gift and chance for people to have conversations inthis community that have not happenedbefore."
"We wanted to bring healing and love and compassion for the people condemned to work at this very dangerous facility," Sr.Megan Rice said. "Let'sstop pouring our billions into false, impossible security."
Jeff Theodore, assistant U.S.attorney, told jurors in closing arguments "When you interfere with Y-12,you are interfering with the national defense."
Steve Erhart, manager of theNational Nuclear Security complex at Y-12 testified that Y-12 historically hasreceived and stored nuclear materials recovered from vulnerable sites aroundthe globe. It will be hard to explain how protesters penetrated the plant'sdetection-and-assessment system to countries looking to give up their nuclearmaterials because of their own security concerns, he said.
Deputy General Manager of Security Operations at Y-12, former Brigadier General Rodney Johnson, hired August 1 to "assist with recovery operations," spoke of the "full spectrum of security," at the bomb plant. Knoxville social worker Eldora Fitzsimmons is not convinced. "I'm horrified that we are not safer. I still don't feel safe."
"Clearly we were led by the Spirit in and around us," Sr. Megan testified. "We needed to bring the truth...nuclear weapons are war crimes."
"They were thethermometer," Defense Attorney Bill Quiqley said. "They didn't cause the fever;they exposed it. Don't blame the thermometer."
Quigley said there was abundantevidence, including testimony by Erhart, that security at Y-12 is significantlybetter now than it was before the July 28, 2012 security breach.
"The shortcomings in securityat one of the most dangerous places on the planet have embarrassed a lot ofpeople," said Defense Attorney Francis Lloyd, Jr. who represented SisterMegan Rice. "You're looking atthree scapegoats behind me."
A petition to Pardon the Transform Now Plowshares is here.
"Let me issue and control a nation's money and I care not who writes the laws. - Mayer Rothschild
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass
"Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience! People are obedient in the face of poverty, starvation, stupidity, war, and cruelty. Our problem is that grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem!" - Howard Zinn
"If there is no struggle there is no progress. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and never will" - Frederick Douglass