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To get this press release in DOC format click here. Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action 16159 Clear Creek Road NW Poulsbo, WA 98370 Website: www.gzcenter.org E-mail: info@gzcenter.org FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Peace Activists arraigned: Only four of nineteen peace activists to be tried in Kitsap County for demonstration at Trident submarine base Contact: Alice Zillah (360) 357-7705 in Olympia Glen Milner (206) 365-7865 in Seattle
Four Peace Activists to be arraigned in Kitsap County Court, December 8, 2005, for an August 8, 2005 demonstration at the Trident submarine base at Bangor. At this time, 15 of the 19 activists arrested are not being tried. On August 8, 2005, 70 people walked at early dawn from the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action to the demonstration against Trident nuclear weapons at the Bangor base. 19 demonstrators blocked the highway entrance into the base with a long banner that stated, “We Can All Live Without Trident”, for the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan. Incoming traffic was blocked for approximately 40 minutes during peak traffic when Navy personnel and support personnel were arriving for work at the base. The arraignment marks the first charges against nonviolent demonstrators since February 2000. Kitsap County prosecutors have been unable to get convictions against nonviolent activists arrested at Bangor the last three times they have tried them. Juries and judges have found that people arrested at Bangor protests have the legal right to redress grievances under International and US law with nonviolent direct action. In a strange turn of events, the Kitsap County prosecutor has charged only four of the nineteen demonstrators; all four are from Olympia, Washington. The charge is for the failure to disperse, RCW 9A.84.020, in which the failure to disperse when ordered creates a “substantial risk” of injury to persons or to property. The charge is a misdemeanor with a possible penalty of 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine. Alice Zillah, of Olympia, stated, “Kitsap County should charge the Navy instead with failure to disperse. The risk of harm to persons and property brought by nine Trident submarines, each with up to 192 nuclear warheads, is much greater than our blocking the highway into the base.” The four charged and facing a trial in Kitsap County are Alice Zillah, 32, Bryce Brown, 31, Shannon Bushnell, 28, and Patricia Imani, 43, all of Olympia. The fifteen also arrested by Kitsap County Sheriffs, who are not facing charges at this time are: Moona Cancino, 26, of Portland; Joy Goldstein, 70, of Vashon; Roger Thorson, 60, of Carnation; Dan Goldstein, 54, and Liz Rivera Goldstein, 47 of Port Townsend; Fr. Bill Bichsel, 77, of Tacoma; Marion Ward, 66, and Genny Kortes, 65, of Vancouver; and Shirley Morrison, 83, Jean Sundborg, 65, Rev. Anne Hall, 60, David Hall, 59, Mary Hanson, 59, Dorli Rainey, 78, and Glen Milner, 54, of Seattle. It appears that the prosecutors have not yet made a decision as to whether to charge all or some of the remaining 15, and may be waiting to see how the community responds to the trial of the first four. Please see attached Fact Sheet regarding the arraignment of the four activists Fact Sheet
Peace Activists arraigned: Only four of nineteen peace activists to be tried in Kitsap County for demonstration at Trident base
Peace activists involved with the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action have recently endured unwarranted governmental action as part of an ongoing effort to criminalize dissent in the United States. Sister Jackie Hudson, of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, was released after serving 2 ½ years in federal prison on March 4, 2005. Jackie Hudson was convicted in July 2003 for a nonviolent demonstration at a Minuteman III nuclear missile silo site in Colorado on October 6, 2002. She and two other Dominican nuns, Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert, had poured their own blood and hammered on the silo lid. Sister Hudson is still attempting to reach an agreement with authorities over her three-year supervised release period and the restitution demanded. On April 6, 2005, the house belonging to the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action was burned and destroyed. The suspicious fire was never investigated for arson by Kitsap County. The recent fire is similar to the arson fire of a building owned by the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in 1982. Years later, the FBI released documents implicating two Marine twins at the base. U.S. Attorney John McKay has been recently asked to investigate both fires. Also on April 6, 2005, Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action member Glen Milner received notice of a $10,100 fine from the U.S. Coast Guard for a demonstration in Elliott Bay on August 5, 2004 involving U.S. Navy vessels at Seafair. Milner and eleven other activists on three Peace Fleet vessels were protesting against the deployment of radioactive depleted uranium munitions on U.S. Navy vessels and the glorification of weapons of war at the Seattle Seafair festival. Milner is being tried by a single Coast Guard Hearing Officer on December 13, 2005 at 8 am at the Jackson Federal Building, Room 514, 915 Second Ave., in Seattle. The Trident submarines at Bangor are most 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 Bangor-based submarines can launch their weapons in secrecy and operate near Middle East and Asian targets.
Naval Submarine Base Bangor currently has nine nuclear ballistic missile submarines, compared to just five D-5 submarines on the East Coast.
In addition, four older Trident submarines are being refitted to fire Tomahawk cruise missiles. These SSGN submarines can fire all of the cruise missiles on one submarine, 154 cruise missiles, in six minutes. The first SSGN, the USS Ohio, entered Navy service in November 2005. The two crews will then go through about 1 ½ years of training.
In July, 2005 Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Navy announced a $9.2 million contract to develop a new submarine-launched intermediate-range ballistic missile (SLIRBM). The SLIRBM, specifically designed for Trident submarines, will be capable of delivering a 1,000 lb. payload 1,200 miles within 15 minutes of launch. A Tomahawk missile takes about 4 hours to cover the same distance.
Either type of Trident submarine at Bangor, whether to launch D-5 nuclear missiles, cruise missiles or the planned intermediate range ballistic missile, has unbelievable destructive force. The next planned nonviolent direct action at Bangor will be in commemoration of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on January 15, 2006. |