Text Fwd: Five People Arrested on Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor - Disarm Now Plowshares

Text Fwd from Frank Cordaro(frank.cordaro@gmail.com) and Felice & Jack Cohen-Joppa(nukeresister@igc.org)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Felice & Jack Cohen-Joppa <nukeresister@igc.org>
Date: Mon, Nov 2, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2009

Contacts :
Jackie Hudson- 360-286-9036 or jackiehudson123@Yahoo.com
Sue Ablao - 360-286-9157 or sablao1@yahoo.com

Five People Arrested on Naval Base Kitsap- Bangor
The "Disarm Now Trident Plowshares Action"

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,

All five 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. They
entered thru the perimeter fence, made their way to the Strategic
Weapons Facility - Pacific ( SWFPAC) where they were able to cut
through the first chainlink fence surrounding SWFPAC, walked to and
cut the next double layered fence, which was both chain link and
barbed wire, onto the grounds of SWFPAC. As they walked onto the
grounds, they held a banner saying ŠŠ "Disarm Now Plowshares :
Trident: Illegal + Immoral", left a trail of blood and hammered on
the roadway (Trigger Ave. and Sturgeon) that are essential to the
working of the Trident weapons system, hammered on the fences around
SWFPAC and scattered sunflower seeds throughout the base. They were
then thrown to the ground face down, handcuffed and hooded and held
there for 4 hours on the wet, cold ground. They were taken, hooded,
and carried out through the very holes in the fence that they had
made, for questioning by Base security, FBI and NCIS. They refused to
give any information except their names, and were cited as of now, for
trespass and destruction of government property, given a ban and bar
letter 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 is a blasphemy against the
Creator of life, imaged in each human being. "

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, ³God
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 from 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.) 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.

xxx

Statement of the DISARM NOW PLOWSHARES

"I will purify you from the taint of all your idols. I will give you
a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart
of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my
Spirit within you and make you conform to my statutes." Ez. 36:25-27

We walk into the heart of darkness, the Naval Submarine Base
Kitsap-Bangor, housing and deploying over 2,000 nuclear warheads for
Trident submarines. By their very existence they are endangering the
environment, threatening the indiscriminate destruction of life on
earth, and depriving the hungry, homeless, and jobless of billions of
dollars that could supply human needs throughout the world.

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 is a
blasphemy against the Creator of life, imaged in each human being.

We are called by Isaiah to take seriously our own responsibility to
act as citizens of the nation that subjected the civilians of
Hiroshima and Nagasaki to the hell of nuclear bombing and its deadly
consequences. The United States continues to research and develop
even more inhumane weapons of mass destruction.

We are called by Ezekiel to transform our own hearts and to invite all
those whose hearts are hardened by blindness, fear, and mistrust of
the ³other² to allow theirs to be transformed into "hearts of flesh:"
disarmed, compassionate, and generous.

We bring carpenters' hammers to symbolically transform these weapons
of death into material useful for homes and factories. On this day of
remembrance, All Souls Day, we bring our own blood in solidarity with
the victims of war, who are invisible to those who target them. We
bring sunflower seeds to plant the hope of new life in this violated
earth. We intend to beat swords into plowshares as one step up the
holy mountain where all nations can unite in peace.

At the beginning of the International Decade of Disarmament, we join
with the survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the 2020 Vision
Campaign to abolish all nuclear weapons by that year at the latest.
Nuclear weapons can never be guardians, defenders, or upholders of
peace. They are sheathed in stainless steel and metal coverings that
conceal the evil incarnate lying within. They are filled with
death-dealing agents that tear apart humans and leave survivors
scarred for life. They leave no place for human care for the
thousands who suffer and die in agony. Nuclear weapons are a lie.
Their ³protection² is an illusion. They must be abolished.

"God will judge between the nations and will settle disputes for many
peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears
into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor
will they train for war anymore.² Isaiah 2:4

Washington State
November 2, 2009

Steve Kelly, S.J.
Lynne Greenwald
Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
Susan Crane
Bill Bichsel, S.J.


xxx

November 2, 2009
Hand Delivery
Captain Mark Olsen
Commander US Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor
120 South Dewey St
Bremerton, WA 98314

YOU have been involved in the housing, deployment and threatened use
of immoral and illegal nuclear weapons on Naval Base Kitsap/Bangor.
These weapons and their delivery systems include Trident submarines,
Trident II D-5 missiles, and W-88 and W-76 nuclear warheads. These
weapons, and their delivery systems, threaten the destruction of other
nations and people and as such constitute violation of International
Law and of Ruling of the International Tribunal of Justice of 1996.

You are hereby notified that effective upon receipt of this letter
that the disarmament of all nuclear weapons at Naval Base
Kitsap/Bangor is to begin immediately and continue until all nuclear
weapons are disarmed and removed.

You are further informed that delay or failure to begin disarmament
will lead to the prosecution before the International Tribunal of
Justice of all naval and civilian personnel responsible for the delay.

This barment letter is issued for the protection and security of
people, animals, and all creation of our world.

Any compelling reason for naval or civilian exemption from prosecution
by the International Tribunal can be entered with the secretariat of
the International Tribunal.

(Address; International Tribunal, International Court of Justice, The
Hague, Netherlands)

Steve Kelly, S.J.
Lynne Greenwald
Anne Montgomery, RSCJ
Susan Crane
Bill Bichsel, S.J.

xxx

Disarm Now Plowshares Bios:

Steve Kelly, S.J. During his religious formation in our inner cities,
in Sudan, Africa, as well as refugee work in Central America following
ordination, he encountered the messiah, Jesus incarnate in the poor.
At the same time, the relevance of Jesus as a real shepherd inserting
himself between the danger of wolf or thief and the flock in his care
inspired this Jesuit to try to imitate Jesus. His current
collaboration with Catholic Workers and the Pacific Life Community
confirms the analysis that the nukes represent, just in their making,
a contemporary larceny from the poor, while the wolf, the imminent
danger of their use, demands the embodiment of Isaiah 2:4. Will that
hammering wake us, those professing faith in a loving God, from our
idolatrous slumbers?

Lynne Greenwald is the mother of three children and has worked
professionally as a Registered Nurse, Family Therapist and Social
Worker for nearly 40 years. She has also been actively involved in
the Nonviolent Peace Movement since the mid-1970s. Lynne moved to
Kitsap County in Washington State 26 years ago to join Ground Zero
Center for Nonviolent Action and to become a neighbor to families
involved with the Trident Base and other facilities in this
predominately military community. "While the existence of Trident is
obvious, the truth of Trident's nuclear threats and illegality remains
hidden. My action of conversion today is one committed out of love
for all life."

Anne Montgomery is an eighty-three year old Religious of the Sacred
Heart and former teacher in high schools and programs for dropouts and
learning disabled children. As a member of the Gulf Peace Team in
1991 and of Christian Peacemaker Teams from 1995 to 2009 she served in
Iraq and Palestine. Since 1980 she has been active in the Plowshares
movement and other forms of civil resistance to U.S. militarism,
especially nuclear weapons. Since 2005 she has also participated in
Witness Against Torture and the Free Gaza boat trip to open the port
of Gaza. She acts now to support all efforts to convert weapons of
death into resources for human life, especially for the most neglected
and oppressed of the threatened earth.

Susan Crane is the mother of two sons, and has taught at a school for
marginalized youth in California. More recently she has lived at
Jonah House, a nonviolent community in Baltimore, which speaks out
against all warmaking, and specifically nuclear weapons. Aware that we
take better care of nuclear weapons than of our nation's children, and
that we spend more than half of every federal tax dollar on warmaking
rather than human needs, she acts to transform these weapons of mass
destruction to life- giving materials.

ill Bichsel, a Tacoma native, entered the Jesuit Order in 1946 and
after studies and teaching was ordained a Jesuit in 1959. He has
served in parishes, taught in high schools, and was Dean of Students
at Gonzaga from 1963-1966. In 1969 he returned to Tacoma where he
served at St. Leo's Parish for over 7 years and then co-founded the
Tacoma Catholic Worker (Guadalupe House) which offers hospitality and
transitional housing to the homeless. The Guadalupe Community lives in
the nonviolent tradition of Dorothy Day, the Catholic Worker
foundress. Bichsel still resides and serves at the Tacoma Catholic
Worker-one mile from where he was born and raised. He has served jail
and prison terms many times for his resistance to the violence of the
Trident nuclear weapon system and the violence of the S.O.A. training
at Ft. Benning, GA. He believes that unless we, the American people,
actively work to abolish nuclear weapons we as a people will continue
to threaten destruction to the global community and continue to
deprive the poor of the world of resources necessary for life.

xxx

Fact Sheet: Trident Submarine & Missile System:

Trident submarines serve as the sea based nuclear launch system of the
Air, Land, and Sea Nuclear Triad supported by the US government. The
U.S. currently has 14 nuclear-powered Trident ballistic-missile (SSBN)
submarines. Trident submarines are 560 feet in length, or nearly two
football fields. Each submarine can carry 24 submarine-launched
ballistic missiles (SLBMs) designated Trident D5 and each missile can
carry up to eight 100 kiloton nuclear warheads (about 30 times the
explosive force as the Hiroshima bomb).

The Trident D5 missile stands 44.6 feet high and originally had a
range of 4,230 nautical miles with a full load of warheads, and up to
6000+ nautical miles with a reduced load of warheads. Upgrades and
Life Extension Programs may have changed some specifications.
Warheads are either Mark-4/W76 or Mark-5/W88.

100: Number of kilotons on ONE Trident W76 warhead
455: Number of kilotons on ONE Trident W88 warhead
345,600: Total number of kilotons deployed on Trident fleet
14: Number of kilotons on atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima
150,000: Number of people killed by the atomic bombing of Hiroshima
1,028 minimum; 4,885 maximum: Number of potential "Hiroshimas" each
Trident is capable of destroying
$66,000,000: Price of ONE Trident II D5 missile
14: Number of nuclear- armed submarines the Navy wants to deploy through 2042
$60,000,000: Cost of health insurance for 60,000 children
$10,000,000,000: Annual cost of providing sanitary water to 2.4
billion people worldwide who now lack it
$59,000,000,000: Cost of building housing for 6000,000 homeless
families in the US
$170,200,000,000 (low estimate): Total cost of the ENTIRE Trident
program through year 2042

Naval Submarine Base Kitsap-Bangor is located 20 miles west of Seattle
on the deep waters of Hood Canal in Washington State. It is the home
to the largest single stockpile of nuclear warheads in the U.S.
arsenal, housing more than 2,000 nuclear warheads. This is
approximately 24% of the entire U.S. arsenal. The Bangor Base
presently houses more nuclear warheads than the countries of England,
France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea combined.

There are eight Tridents based at the Bangor Base; six operate out of
Kings Bay, GA. The Trident submarines at Bangor are likely to be used
first in any nuclear attack, either as an isolated tactical assault on
a specific site, bunker, or weapons location, or in a larger strategic
nuclear attack. The D5 missile is capable of traveling over 1,370
miles in less than 13 minutes, allowing for a US nuclear strike
anywhere on planet earth within 15 minutes.

xxx

LETHAL FORCE
by William J. Bichsel, S.J.

On November 2, 2009, All Souls Day, by the grace of God I choose to
enter the Trident Submarine Base at Bangor Washington. I wish to walk
to the idolatrous place of nuclear weapon bunkers where lethal force
is authorized to guard the hiding places of the most lethal forces in
the world. I wish to walk in solidarity with the poor of our world
who live with lethal force constantly directed against them. My
vulnerability to this lethal force is minimal compared to the lifetime
vulnerability of the condemned of our world. My compelling reason for
entering the Trident Submarine Base is to be present at this Auschwitz
place in order to witness in faith to the transforming power of Jesus'
non-violence and Resurrection which can turn hearts of stone into
hearts of flesh and compassion. At this place of global death and
hopelessness I wish to witness in faith to the life giving and
transforming power of this presence which can expel the demon of
violence from the hearts and minds of people possessed by the need for
nuclear weapons. I believe the life giving power of the Resurrection
can flow over the nuclear death machine and stop its destructive
force.

Compassion can then grow in hearts and minds of people who have been
liberated from the prison of fear and violence.

Millions upon millions of people throughout our world live with lethal
force being directed against them. Our brothers and sisters and
children live in war ravaged places where violence reigns and
starvation, disease, absence of medical resources, absence of shelter
eventually bring death. One hour from our shores in Haiti, where one
in twelve children do not reach the age of five, parents give children
mud cakes made of earth, oil, sugar and salt to diminish the effects
of hunger pains. From the Sudan to Sub Saharan Africa, mothers watch
as their infants and children become emaciated with swollen stomachs
and lifeless eyes then die. All of these lethal forces are authorized.

In the U.S., except for the poor, we have been protected and insulated
from the death sentences under which half of the earth's population
lives. The drive for security has numbed our citizens to accept
nuclear weapons as the ultimate protector of the American way of life.
In effect this choice means the acceptance of the use of nuclear
weapons if the United States considers itself threatened. The people
of the United States accept the deaths of millions of people if a
preempted strike is ordered. Thus the use of lethal force is
authorized.

Across our nation there are vast numbers of U.S. citizens who face
lethal forces directed against them which are not as immediate or
instantaneously murderous as the lethal forces directed against the
3rd world poor. In our capitalistic system there are many who will not
receive the health care, education, employment, appropriate housing
and nutrition needed to live full human lives in this culture. These
forces attack the body, soul and spirit of our citizens which
eventually bring death of the spirit and then the body. This is
especially true of one segment of our population - the mentally-ill,
who live on the streets, under bridges, in door ways, jungle camps or
in jails and prisons. They belong nowhere. They die. These lethal
forces are also authorized.

The continued possession of nuclear weapons by the United States means
that resources that could be used to divert the lethal forces that are
now killing the poor of our world will continue to be used to fuel the
killing machine.

Father Richard McSorley, S.J. has maintained that "the tap root of
violence in our society is the acceptance of nuclear weapons." We must
bend our efforts to make known the Non Proliferation Treaty Review
which will take place on May 2, 2010 at the United Nations. By our
presence we must insist that the NPT Review Committee in the very near
future organize a nuclear weapon global conference of these treaty
nations which will set a firm date for nuclear weapon abolition.

xxx

Some thoughts about going onto Naval Base Kitsap/Bangor
by Susan Crane

All Soul's Day, Nov. 2, 2009
Today in the US more and more people are coming to food pantries,
needing food for their families. The numbers of home foreclosures
increase, leaving families homeless; unemployment increases; and many,
even those with health insurance, can't get their basic health needs
met. Class size increases as teachers are laid off and dropout rates
increase. Many returning vets must struggle for benefits. States are
near bankruptcy, and our infrastructure is falling apart. And day by
day climate change threatens us all.

As a nation, we know all this. We experience it personally, and hear
it on the nightly news. But what we don't hear is that there may be
solutions to these problems. We need to look at where, as a nation, we
are allocating our resources: where do our federal tax dollars go?
Where do our brightest and best scientists find work? Where do our
idealistic and dedicated youth end up? We know that over half of
every federal tax dollar is used for warmaking. And we know that the
American people never have a chance to vote on a bond issue for the
next fighter plane or nuclear weapon. Every dollar that is used for
warmaking, killing or planning to kill other people, is a dollar that
is not used for human needs, or healing the earth.

Here in Washington state, I was thinking about the Trident submarines
which have nuclear warheads on them, and are constantly roaming the
oceans. There are 8 subs homeported here at Naval Base Kitsap/Bangor.
And each of these subs carries 24 Trident II D-5 missiles, and each
of the missiles carries multiple nuclear warheads. Some of the
warheads are 32 times the explosive heat and blast of the bomb the US
dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

The Trident subs are stealthy, and at sea their location is secret.
They can launch nuclear weapons to anywhere in the world in 15
minutes, which is a constant threat to people in other nations. Here
in the US we don't live under a threat like that.

My faith tradition teaches me that we are to love our enemies, to love
one another. Planning to kill others is not an act of
loveŠIndiscriminate killing of whole cites of people, animals and
plants is not an act of love.

Here in the northwest where the Trident subs are homeported, the land
is beautiful; the trees are aromatic; the water is healing. And I
hope that we come to our senses and experience this land we live in,
and realize that we-and people all over the earth-are brothers and
sisters. There is no "us" and "them". As individuals and as a
nation; we all have good in us; we all have a shadow side. We can all
work together if we choose to.

With hope for peace and disarmament, the five us, Steve Kelly, S.J,
Lynne Greenwald, Anne Montgomery, RSCJ, Bill Bichsel, S.J. and
myself, go to Naval Base Kitsap/Bangor on All Soul's Day. We remember
the 150 million people killed by warmaking and related consequences of
war in the last 100 years. It is in solidarity with all who live in
lethal force zones that we enter the lethal force zone on the naval
base.

We bring our own blood to pour on the missiles, nuclear weapons,
trident subs, or perhaps on the railroad tracks that carry the
weapons. We pour our blood to remind us all of the consequences of
warmaking. We bring hammers to enflesh the words of Isaiah to hammer
swords into plowshares. We bring sunflower seeds to sow to begin to
convert the base, and we bring disarmed hearts in hope of a disarmed
world. I go onto the base with the support of all at Jonah House, in
Baltimore, carrying their prayers in my hip pocket.