Activists from Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, in Poulsbo, carried signs and banners Saturday to the front gate of Bangor Naval base, the West Coast home port for the U.S. nuclear submarine fleet.

Bernie Meyer, Tacoma, was accosted and handcuffed by Naval military personnel, after crossing the blue line onto Naval Base Bangor. Meyer, 75, began reciting Julia Ward Howe’s Mothers Day Proclamation in honor of his mother, before being escorted to a military van for processing.

Two protestors were cited by Washington State Patrol for “Pedestrian in the roadway.” Bert Sacks and Mona Lee, both of Seattle, carried a banner into NW Luoto Road, which leads to Bangor’s main gate.

The actions were part of a day-long rally to bring attention to Bangor’s nuclear arsenal. Rosalie Riegle, author of ‘Doing Time for Peace” and “Crossing the Line,” gave a talk to the 50 people who gathered at Ground Zero Center, a mile north of the main gate. “Speak Truth to Power” was the theme, and included a letter writing campaign, nonviolence training, and education about the Trident nuclear weapons system and the Bangor submarine base.

Bangor, 20 miles west of Seattle, contains the largest concentration of operational nuclear weapons in the US arsenal. Each of the eight Trident submarines based at Bangor carries up to 24 Trident II (D-5) missiles, each capable of being armed with as many as eight independently targetable thermonuclear warheads. Each nuclear warhead has an explosive force of between 100 and 475 kilotons (up to 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb). If Kitsap County were to secede from the U.S., it would be the third largest nuclear force in the world.

Ground Zero, founded in 1977, participates in three nonviolent protests a year – on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, near Mother’s Day, and in August to commemorate the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In January, protesters were able to block Bangor’s front gate for more than a half hour. On Saturday, however, Washington State Patrol was waiting at the gate waiting for protesters, who regularly give law enforcement advance notice of planned actions.

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Photos attached. Photo Credit: Larry Kerschner, IMG2050: Bernie Meyer (on the ground) begin arrested by Naval security officer. IMG1988: Retired Navy Captain, and former nuclear submarine commander, Tom Rogers (in orange safety vest) acting as Peacekeeper, leading protesters in the walk from Ground Zero Center to the Bangor Main Gate. High resolution versions available.

Contacts: Connie Mears, caretaker@gzcenter.org, 360-930-8697

Leonard Eiger, subversivepeacemaking@gmail.com, 425-445-2190

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action www.gzcenter.org

Mother’s Day weekend at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, with the theme “Speak Truth to Power,” will focus on the power of words combined with action to affect change.

On May 11, we will gather at Ground Zero at 10 a.m. and hear poetry readings on peace, nonviolence and war, including the Mother’s Day Proclamation by Julia Ward Howe, who initiated the first Mother’s Day as a call for Peace. We’ll get training in nonviolence; hear author Rosalie Riegle speak about her book, “Doing Time For Peace;” hold an action at the gates of Bangor Naval Base, the West Coast home port of the world’s largest arsenal of nuclear weapons; and return for a community dinner and a documentary.

May 11 Schedule

For an article on the NEPA lawsuit, see http://crosscut.com/2013/03/12/environment/113305/multi-million-dollar-military-expense-not-budget-t/

Here is a radio story on the 2nd Explosives Handling Wharf.  Martha Baskin did the story.

See http://greenacreradio.blogspot.com or http://greenacreradio.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-5-2013-multi-million-dollar.html

Silverdale, Washington, March 4, 2013 — Twenty peace activists from around the United States were arrested as a result of their nonviolent protest against nuclear weapons at a U.S. Naval base.

Members of the Pacific Life Community gathered at the Main Gate to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor early Monday morning in resistance to the continued deployment of the Trident nuclear weapons system and the associated threat of use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. government.

The Bangor Trident base is home port to eight of the nation’s 14 Ohio class nuclear ballistic missile submarines and also home to the Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific, where the Navy stores thermonuclear warheads for deployment on its submarines.  Bangor represents the largest operational concentration of nuclear weapons in the U.S. arsenal.

While maintaining a peaceful vigil along the roadway, six of the resisters entered the roadway with a banner, which they stretched across the entrance lanes in symbolic closure of the base. The banner quoted Martin Luther King Jr.: “When scientific power outruns spiritual power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.”  The protesters also knelt in prayer.

Washington State Patrol officers ordered the protesters to leave the roadway. All six protesters complied with the officers and were escorted to the median where they were briefly detained and issued citations for “Walking on roadway where prohibited.”

Meanwhile, another fourteen protesters walked onto the roadway carrying banners and signs calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons.  All crossed the blue line onto the base and knelt in prayer.  Naval security personnel arrested the protesters and drove them to a facility on the base for processing.  They were cited under Section 1382 of Title 18 prohibiting trespassing on military bases, and released a short time later.

The resisters carried a letter addressed to the Bangor base commander.  It stated that the “Trident II D-5 missiles with their W76 or W88 [thermonuclear] warheads are illegal under international law and hence are also illegal per the Constitution of the United States.” Naval security personnel declined to accept the letters. 

Those cited for Federal trespassing were Louis Vitale, OFM, Oakland, CA;  Rodney Herold, Seattle, WA; Ted Bracknan. Puyallup, WA; Tensie Hernandez, Santa Maria, CA; Betsy (Frances Elizabeth) Lamb, Bend, OR; Ann E. Havill, Bend, OR; Denny Moore, Bainbridge Island, WA; Bill Bichsel, SJ, Tacoma, WA; James G. Haber, San Francisco, CA; Ed Ehmke, Menlo Park, CA; Mary Jane Parrine, Menlo Park, CA; Jerry Zawada, OFM, Milwaukee, WI; Felice Cohen-Joppa, Tucson, AZ and Susan Crane, Redwood City, CA.

Cited by State Patrol were Tom Karlin, Tacoma, WA; Clancy Dunigan, Langley, WA; George Rodkey, Tacoma, WA; Marcus Page-Collonge, Albequerque, NM; Leonard Eiger, North Bend, WA and Cliff Kirchmer, Tacoma, WA.

The vigil and nonviolent direct action brought to a close this year’s Pacific Life Community (PLC) Faith and Resistance Retreat held near Tacoma, Washington.  The PLC is dedicated to abolishing nuclear weapons and war-making through nonviolent direct action. The annual event is held each year on the weekend around the anniversary of Castle Bravo, the most powerful nuclear device ever detonated by the U.S. 

Fallout from Castle Bravo contaminated a large portion of the Marshall Islands, and poisoned island residents as well as the crew of the Daigo Fukuryu Maru, a Japanese fishing vessel.  It also generated international concern about atmospheric testing.  The U.S. still occupies part of the Marshall Islands in its continued testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

This year’s Faith and Resistance Retreat was hosted by the Tacoma Catholic Worker community.  The event brought together people from around the Western U.S. Catholic Workers came from San Jose, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Half Moon Bay, CA; Las Vegas, NV; Guadalupe, CA; Sheep Ranch, CA and Redwood City, CA. 

Fr. Bill Bichsel, of the Tacoma Catholic Worker community and 2012 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize laureate, commented on the significance of the Pacific Life Community’s work.  “We refuse to accept nuclear weapons as our security.  We owe it to our children and grandchildren to create a nonviolent world.  We are the future and the kingdom that we have been waiting for.”

Also represented at the retreat were Nevada Desert Experience, The Nuclear Resister and Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action. Ground Zero, a community in resistance to nuclear weapons, particularly Trident, hosted this morning’s vigil and action at Bangor.

The U.S. Navy is building a Second Explosives Handling Wharf at the Bangor Trident base, and is engaged in research and development to build twelve new ballistic missile submarines designed to replace the existing Trident submarines.  Estimated cost to build the twelve submarines is almost $100 billion. Rear Admiral Joseph Tofalo, commander, submarine Group 10, Kings Bay, Georgia has stated that “A single Trident submarine is the sixth nuclear nation in the world all by itself.” 

Full text of letter to base commander follows.

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March 4, 2013

Dear Captain Pete Dawson, Commander, Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor:

We are members of the Pacific Life Community, a network of people from the western United States working for the abolition of nuclear weapons. We come today, near the anniversary of the March 1, 1954 Bravo hydrogen bomb test in the Bikini Atoll, in memory of the people of Rongelap who died from radiation poisoning as a result of fallout from that test. We stand with their survivors who do not trust the assurances of the United States government that it is safe for them to return there, even now. Any pressure on the former residents of Rongelap to return must stop now.

Trident II D-5 missiles with their W76 or W88 warheads are illegal under international law and hence are also illegal per the Constitution of the United States. It is a violation of the Nuremberg Principles to threaten destruction of a city, and it is a violation of the Geneva Conventions to threaten use of weapons of indiscriminate power. The July, 1996 International Court of Justice ruling was clear; nuclear weapons are not consistent with international humanitarian law.

It is obvious that nuclear weapons are stored at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor. Please inform us if we’re wrong. We have a responsibility as citizens to be informed enough to weigh in on military and foreign policy issues. Local governments and residents have a need to plan for public safety given the surety that one of the largest collections of nuclear weapons in the world is only 20 miles from Seattle and Tacoma and its 1 million residents.

We want to stop the continued pollution and radioactive contamination from the ongoing nuclear weapons stockpile. The problem of uranium leaks at Hanford cannot be divorced from the problem of nuclear weapons on Trident submarines that threaten nuclear war on every nation and person in the world. Nuclear weapons are killing people now.

We need and deserve a response. We’re waiting.

Sincerely,

cc: Commander-in-Chief Barack Obama, United States Armed Forces

cc: Rear Admiral Dietrich H. Kuhlmann III, Commander, Submarine Group 9

The annual Pacific Life Community Faith & Resistance Retreat is being held at the All Saints Camp in Gig Harbor from March 1st through March 4th.

The Pacific Life Community (PLC) is dedicated to ending nuclear weapons and war-making through nonviolent direct action. Those engaged with PLC come from Catholic Worker houses as well as other of organizations directly involved in abolishing nuclear weapons.

The retreat is an opportunity for members to share in the work of the previous year and to plan for the work ahead. In addition to the retreat, the group has planned a free, public event at the University of Puget Sound (UPS) on Saturday, March 2nd as well as a vigil and nonviolent direct action at the U.S. Navy’s Bangor Trident nuclear submarine base in Silverdale, Washington on Monday, March 4th.

“A Nonviolent Future Without Nuclear Weapons?” is the theme for the Saturday event at UPS. Beginning at 7:00 PM at Kilworth Chapel the event offers speakers, music and an opportunity for discussion about the public’s role in abolishing nuclear weapons.

Master of ceromonies Felice Cohen-Joppa has published The Nuclear Resister, a publication dedicated to supporting imprisoned anti-nuclear and anti-war activists, for 30 years.

Other presenters include Michael Honey, Professor of Labor and Ethnic Studies and American History at University of Washington, Tacoma. Honey’s rich, personal history includes southern civil rights and civil liberties organizing from 1970-1976. His most recent book is Going Down the Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign.

Two of the evening’s speakers are with Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action in Poulsbo, Washington. Tom Rogers is a retired US Navy Captain. A career submariner, he commanded a nuclear attack submarine during the Cold War.  Elizabeth Murray is an ex-CIA analyst and former Deputy National Intelligence Officer for the Near East at the National Intelligence Council, and served for 27 years with the agency.  Ground Zero Center, located adjacent to the Bangor ballistic missile submarine base, works for the abolition of nuclear weapons with a primary focus on resisting Trident.

Father William “Bix” Bichsel, who will also speak on Saturday evening, lives and works at the Tacoma Catholic Worker and is a member of the Disarm Now Plowshares, a group of activists who entered the nuclear weapons storage bunker area of the Strategic Weapons Facility, Pacific in 2009 to make a plea for the U.S. government to meet its obligations to work with other nations toward global nuclear disarmament. He also received the 2012 Greater Tacoma Peace Prize. Bichsel recently returned from Europe where he attended the Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies and met with many anti-nuclear activists in an effort to work together in efforts to abolish nuclear weapons.

The weekend finishes with an early morning vigil and nonviolent direct action at one of the entrance gates to Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, the largest operational concentration of nuclear weapons in the United States and home port of eight of the nations 14 Trident (OHIO Class) ballistic missile submarines. The action is intended as a symbolic closing of the base and its conversion to peaceful, sustainable jobs. Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action is hosting the PLC’s vigil and action at Bangor.

More information on the the weekend is available at the Pacific Life Community Blog: http://pacificlifecommunity.wordpress.com/.
–

Leonard Eiger

Puget Sound Nuclear Weapon Free Zone (Coordinator) www.psnukefree.org

Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action (Media & Outreach) www.gzcenter.org

Disarm Now Plowshares (Media & Outreach) http://disarmnowplowshares.wordpress.com

Email:subversivepeacemaking@gmail.com

Blog:http://theloosenukes.blogspot.com/

Blog:http://nuclearabolitionist.blogspot.com

Blog:http://subversivepeacemaking.blogspot.com

Admiral Jonathan Greenert has offered a broader list of drastic remedies if Congress does not pass legislation by March 1 to avert an estimated $4.6 billion shortfall in the Navy’s $39.4 billion operations budget.  These plans include canceling most maintenance at private shipyards, as well as all aircraft work at maintenance depots, from April to September.

But the logical plan would be to cut new construction spending and waste.  Examples of wasteful military spending are numerous, but we have one in Hood Canal that many have questioned since it resurfaced in 2008.

The Navy’s second Explosives Handling Wharf is a $715 million boondoggle.  Construction, which involves drilling up to 1,250 pilings over 6.3 acres of water, began on September 27 and is to continue for four years. It should stop now, both to protect Hood Canal’s sensitive environment, and to free up taxpayer money for projects deserving of support.

By the time the wharf is built in 2016, it will no longer be needed because the numbers of nuclear weapons will be greatly reduced by that time.  The Obama administration is considering cuts from the negotiated 1,550 nuclear warheads in the New START accord to 1,000 to 1,100 for the U.S. launch-ready nuclear arsenal. Economic issues make the cuts more likely to happen.

Stop the second Explosives Handling Wharf now, and we will also save:

— up to $15.7 million for projects which admittedly will not repair the environmental damage caused by the wharf, but which are planned “in lieu of” real mitigation;

— the Hood Canal shoreline, which should not be industrialized;

— the safety of the Puget Sound region. The Kitsap Sun has reported that the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board, responsible for all military explosives siting, refused to grant a permit for the project because the site is not safe;

— the cost of two pending lawsuits under the National Environmental Policy Act which should force the Navy to halt the project.

Navy contractors have stated that the second Explosives Handling Wharf at Bangor would create only 100 construction jobs over four years.  That is only one job for every $7.15 million spent on the construction project.  This region deserves a wiser and safer use of this nation’s defense resources.

The Time Magazine article stated that “[Senator Bob] Corker [of Tennessee] voiced concerns about Hagelʼs membership in a group called Ground Zero, which strives to eliminate all nuclear weapons from the earth.” 

Ground Zero, also known as Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, is a small grass-roots organization in Poulsbo, Washington.  Ground Zero is dedicated to the study and practice of nonviolence, and works for the abolition of nuclear weapons through educational outreach and nonviolent direct action.

Hagel is actually a signatory to Global Zero, an international movement for the elimination of all nuclear weapons. Hagel supported the May 2012 Global Zero report that called for deep reductions in the number of U.S. nuclear weapons beyond already planned cuts.

Ground Zero is currently engaged in legal proceedings in Federal Court to stop the construction of an additional Explosives Handling Wharf designed to handle thermonuclear ballistic missiles deployed on Trident (OHIO Class) submarines based at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Silverdale, Washington.

Ground Zero is also questioning the need to build twelve new ballistic missile submarines to replace the current Trident fleet.  The Trident nuclear weapons system was originally designed as a “strategic deterrent” to the Soviet Union’s nuclear capability at the height of the Cold War.  The Navy has not demonstrated any new rationale for this $100 billion project.

Contact: Leonard Eiger, 425-445-2190

              Ground Zero Centerfor Nonviolent Action

              16159  Clear Creek Road NW Poulsbo, WA 98370

              www.gzcenter.org

Nearly fifty people participated in Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action’s annual celebration of the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Saturday, January 19, 2013.

Under the theme “We Are One,” the day focused on Dr. King’s commitment to nonviolence and his opposition to war and nuclear weapons.

The day’s activities included a viewing of a video about King’s 1967 sermon in opposition to the Vietnam war. That followed with a discussion of the sermon’s relevance in the context of today’s unending wars on Iraq and Afghanistan and the effects on the poor and disenfranchised in the US, as well as the entire world. Participants also participated in nonviolence training, education about the Trident nuclear weapons system and the Bangor submarine base, and preparations for the vigil and nonviolent direct action planned for the afternoon at Bangor.

The Trident submarine base at Bangor, just 20 miles from Seattle, contains the largest concentration of operational nuclear weapons in the US arsenal (and possibly the entire world).  Each of the 8 Trident submarines at Bangor carries up to 24 Trident II (D-5) missiles, each capable of being armed with as many as 8 independently targetable thermonuclear warheads.  Each nuclear warhead has an explosive force of between 100 and 475 kilotons (up to 30 times the force of the Hiroshima bomb).

In the afternoon while the group maintained a peaceful vigil on the roadside outside the base entrance eleven protesters entered the roadway directly in front of the entrance gate.  They carried a banner, which they stretched across the inbound traffic lanes.  It quoted from Martin Luther King Jr.: “When scientific power outruns spiritual power, we end up with guided missiles and misguided men.”  An additional banner that was brought out a few minutes later read, “Abolish Nuclear Weapons.”

Peacekeepers from Ground Zero ensured the safety of all participants throughout the vigil and nonviolent direct action, and communicated with base security personnel as needed.

Traffic into the main gate was re-routed for approximately a half hour until a Washington State Patrol officer arrived and ordered the protestors to leave the roadway.  The protestors then dropped the banners and staged a die-in on the roadway.  As one participant explained, “By doing a die-in, we can illustrate the horrific result of a nuclear weapon.”

Eight of the die-in participants crossed onto the base before dropping to the ground.  Naval security personnel, who had been observing during the vigil and action, immediately moved in to arrest them.  They were taken to a building on the base where they were questioned, processed and released after being issued citations for trespassing.  All will receive summons to appear in Federal court.

Those cited for trespassing were Mary Gleysteen, Kingston, WA; Lynne Greenwald, Tacoma, WA; Rodney Herold, Seattle, WA; Thomas Hodges, Seattle, WA; Constance Mears of Poulsbo, WA; Taylor Niemy, Bremerton, WA; Michael Siptroth, Belfair, WA; and Carlo Voli, Edmonds, WA.

The other three protesters – Gabriel LaValle, Lynnwood, WA; Tom Shea, Snoqualmie, WA; and Alice Zillah, Olympia, WA – remained outside of the base boundary.  All three left the roadway and were not cited.

While the blockade and die-in were in progress, others vigiled along the roadside.  One participant was overheard referring to one of King’s where he said that “Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind” in a direct reference to the need to work together to abolish nuclear weapons from the Earth.

Ground Zero holds three scheduled vigils and actions each year in resistance to Trident and in protest of U.S. nuclear weapons policy.  The group is currently engaged in legal actions in Federal court to halt the Navy’s construction of a Second Explosives Handling Wharf at Bangor.  Ground Zero is also working to de-fund the Navy’s plans for a next generation ballistic missile submarine, estimated to cost $99 billion to build.

For over thirty-three years Ground Zero has engaged in education, training in nonviolence, community building, resistance against Trident and action toward a world without nuclear weapons.

Just this past December monks from the Bainbridge Island Nipponzan
Myohoji Buddhist Temple helped lead a Walk for a Nuclear Free Future
along California’s Central Coast.

Brothers Senji Kanaeda and Gilberto Perez travelled to the Central
Coast to be in solidarity with others, including another monk, a nun
and residents of the Central Coast.

They spent 12 days fasting and walking along the coast near the
troubled San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant.

As Jane Swanson, a spokeswoman for the San Luis Obispo Mothers for
Peace explained it, “Each step is a prayer for the victims of nuclear
contamination around the world, for the safety of all who live and
work near nuclear facilities and for a future on Mother Earth that is
free of nuclear threat.”

Senji and Gilberto dedicate themselves to nonviolence, peace and a
nuclear-free future through daily prayer and frequent peace walks.

They will be leading another peace walk soon in Washington State
leading up to the weekend celebrating the birth of Martin Luther King
Jr.

The Martin Luther King Day Peace Walk for Equality for All and No
Militarism will begin with a gathering in Olympia on January 13th and
arrive at Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action on January 19th.

On that day GZ will hold an all day event at the Center House honoring
Dr. King.  Click here for more information and the full day’s
schedule.  View GZ Calendar listing for event.

You are welcome to join the walk for a few hours, a full day or more.

Click here to see the detailed walk schedule.

For more information on the walk call either Senji Kanaeda at
206-780-6739 or Gilberto Perez at 206-419-7262.

Folks have leafleted twice just this past week using the beautiful
“candle” leaflet, designed by Karol Milner and written by Hannah
Russell.

You are welcome to download the flyer and print some to leaflet as the
spirit moves you.  Grab some friends and/or family, and make an event
of it. Here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BzRG1crlv8YMcTM3WEZGSVlpUWM

As the flyer reminds us, “may each of us be filled with the light they
[candles] bring, and may we reach out to one another in joyful resolve
to live into our hopes each day.”

Peace on Earth and Good Will to All People.