Anti-War Nuns Sentenced to 2 1/2 Years

[bloom]

"By JUDITH KOHLER
Associated Press Writer


DENVER (AP) -- Calling them "dangerously irresponsible," a federal judge sentenced three nuns to at least 2 1/2 years in prison Friday for vandalizing a nuclear missile silo during an anti-war protest last fall.

Despite his strong words, U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn gave the women less than the six-year minimum called for under sentencing guidelines.

Jackie Hudson was sentenced to 2 1/2 years, Carol Gilbert to two years, nine months, and Ardeth Platte to three years, five months.

"We're satisfied," prosecutor Robert Brown said.


http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NUNS_MISSILE_SILO?SITE=OHCIN&SECTION=HOME

[Heddi]

1. FUCKING OUTRAGEOUS AND UNACCEPTABLE

3 old ladies snipped their way into a VERY undersecured nuclear facility. They banged on a silo with a hammer.

They harmed no one and caused minimal damage.

They go to jail for 3.5, 2.5 and 2.75 years respectively.

BUT---murderous, lying thugs in our white house have killed, maimed, raped, and pillaged. They are hell-bent on destroying an entire culture of one country, and they get NOTHING. NOTHING>

KEn Lay is living it up in the bahamas while his employees are left with nothing.

WE have people living on the streets because they have no jobs. They are losing their homes and their lives and their families.

Yet a judge calls these women "Dangerously Irresponsible"?????

I've got to get out of this country

[benfranklin1776]

11. It is outrageous and damn nauseating....

......just goes to show you how low down the moral/legal/ethical totem pole this country has slid. Talk about living in an upside down moral universe. Peaceful nonviolent protestors, follwing a higer spiritual calling seeking only to end the insane maniacal desire of a few to incinerate the human race are imprisoned as "harmful criminals" while those who pillage the environment, screw their workers and enslave children in the third world to make their products are lauded on the covers of magazines and on televison shows as icons of society. And of course a President who thinks that war and slaughter and death is a game which "feels good" is worshiped as a hero by some. UH HUH Somewhere Kafka is laughing. However please don't leave we need all the sane rational people here we can get!!!!!

[kubi]

34. FYI

Just letting you know how the security works. You have a launch control facility. Around the launch control facility you have several silos. In the launch control facility you have your two "key turners" and a squad of Air Force cops that monitor the alarms for the launch control facility and the outlaying silos. If an alarm goes off an ART (alarm response force) will go out to investigate, if an intrusion is detected a SRT (security response team) will be dispatched for backup. I think the punishment the three nuns recieved is to harsh, I always thought it was kind of stupid to cut through a fence that has signs posted with deadly force authorized.

[Tinoire]

2. I hang my head in SHAME for my country!

Please write to:

Carol Gilbert
Jackie Hudson
Ardeth Platte
Clear Creek County Jail
P.O. Box 518,
Georgetown,
CO 80444



Catholic nuns Ardeth Platte, left, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson were arrested at gunpoint Oct. 6 after they used bolt cutters to enter a fenced Minuteman missile site. (Photo: Bill Sulzman)

Tie in with this thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=77891&mesg_id=77891&listing_type=search#77891

Fifty-five years to the day after the first atomic blast that flattened the city of Hiroshima, Japan, two more nonviolent activists were arrested at Minuteman Missile Silo N-7 in Weld County, Colorado after peacefully assembling on the site. Fr. Carl Kabat O.M.I., 66, of Belleville, Illinois, a longtime nuclear resister who has spent more than 14 years in prison for his previous protest actions, was inside the fence in a clown suit, and Bill Sulzman, 62, whose work with the Colorado Springs-based Citizens for Peace in Space has been regularly reported by Nebraskans for Peace, stood outside the fence with a sign calling for the abolition of nuclear weapons. The 9:00 a.m. protest was timed to commemorate a Plowshares action at the same missile site exactly two years before by activists Daniel Sicken and Sachio Ko Yin, both of whom remain in federal prison completing their sentences.

<snip>

Carl Kabat: "We are fools and clowns for God and humanity’s sake. We bring bread and wine and a hammer as symbols of life in this damnable place of death. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gay killed more than 100,000 people. If we calculate what 147 bombs–each 20 times as powerful as that original bomb–could do, we come up with a number of dead approaching a billion people. All this just from the small portion of the nuclear arsenal housed in Colorado!"

Bill Sulzman: "I have chosen to hold a banner and risk arrest at silo N-7 today to express my personal outrage and opposition to Colorado’s 49 Minuteman III missiles, each with three hideous nuclear bombs attached. I reached my final decision to act today during my recent visit to the Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany. When evil reaches a certain level and one is aware of it, it is impossible to be an innocent bystander.


http://www.nebraskansforpeace.org/2000/s00/foolsandclowns.html

[DUreader]

3. WOW A half hour later and no 'centrists' saying they got off EASY?

I'm shocked.

Where are the law and order Shock troopers tonight?

[Heddi]

5. They'll be here soon

--I'm sure it won't be too long before we see someone calling them "Scum of the earth vermin" who should be put to death (to save the lives of further victims..er...missle silos) :eyes:

[Tinoire]

6. Think they took too much a beating in the last thread

That was a shameful, disgraceful display. Thank you for calling them on it!

[Tinoire]

4. From the scene of the crime

[Heddi]

8. why is no big deal being made

about lax security at this missle silo?

If we were TRULY in times of "heightened alert", don't you think there would be armed sentries and surveillance planes to keep anyone from coming within walking distance, much less HAMMERING DISTANCE of these Weapons of Mass Destruction Homeland Security.

And look at the damage they did to that silo! Why, you'd never guess it was made out of concrete and lead and major shit like that, would you? It's barely recognizable!

Those demon women should burn in hell for their satanic actions. I bet they were reading the Koran when they did that </sarcasm>

[Tinoire]

14. Definitely Satanic women! Liberals with a conscience!

Didn't anyone tell them the WMDs are in Iraq?
Didn't anyone tell them the WMDs are in Iraq Syria?
Didn't anyone tell them the WMDs are in Iraq Syria Iran?
Didn't anyone tell them the WMDs are in Iraq Syria Iran Lebanon?
Didn't anyone tell them the WMDs are in Iraq Syria Iran Lebanon Saudi Arabia?
Didn't anyone tell them the WMDs are in Iraq Syria Iran Lebanon Saudi Arabia right here in River City?

Whoops, I guess they knew that part...



Here's another activist who's rotting in jail and I don't mean to hijack this thread but I don't think the nuns would mind him sharing a little thread space with them.

Mordechai Vanunu is in Ashkelon Prison in Israel, serving an 18-year sentence for informing the public about Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. Following his revelations about Israel's nuclear weapons to a British newspaper, he was lured from Britain to Rome, where he was abducted by Israeli agents. The hand in the above
logo signifies the means by which Vanunu pressed his palm to the window of a police van in Jerusalem, on Sep 30 1986, to inform the world of his kidnapping.

Until Mar 12 1998, he was held in solitary confinement. This is the longest known stretch in solitary confinement to be endured by anyone. Within the past year, the campaign for his release has
intensified worldwide.

Two years ago, 13 U.S. House of Representatives members appealed for his release. Now that number has swelled to 36.

Vanunu Nominated for 2003 Nobel Peace Prize
They nominate "nuclear technician and Honorary Doctor at University of Tromsoe, Mordechai Vanunu, still in prison in Israel, referring to his unselfish, deeply loyal to his nation, act of conscience and that a prize to Vanunu will emphasize the responsibility of the individual to prevent war and armaments".

-Fredrik S. Heffermehl, Oslo, 29. Jan. 2003

---------------------
Senator Wellstone Asks President to Intercede

Sen. Paul Wellstone, the Minnesota Democrat who represents the adoptive parents of Mordechai Vanunu, has added his voice to Congressional calls for release of the imprisoned whistle-blower.

In a July 21 letter he asked President Clinton to ask the newly installed Israeli government of Ehud Barak to "review Mr. Vanunu's case on humanitarian grounds, as I believe that this case may involve international human rights issues that transcend national boundaries and that these issues should be considered in reviewing Mr. Vanunu's case."

Referring to concerns about Vanunu's prison treatment expressed by House members and by Clinton himself, Wellstone wrote: "I share these concerns and believe they should figure prominently in any humanitarian reassessment of his case."

<snip>
Wellstone's request went well beyond a letter of March, 1997, when he asked Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to check into Vanunu's prison treatment.

http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/archive/f99wellstone.html

---------------------
House Republican Seeks Investigation

"...Because there are allegations of human rights abuses surrounding Mr. Vanunu's incarceration, including what Amnesty International describes as "cruel, inhumane, and degrading" confinement, I request that you take up this matter with the proper Israeli authorities. Would you ask them to investigate these matters and take appropriate action as deemed necessary?"

-Rep. Tom Campbell, California Republican, in a letter to Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. ((Yeah! That's my rep and we do love him down here- sorry DU)

-----
Monumental Instability

"I have no idea what insanity created the need in Israel for an atomic arsenal that brings monumental destabilization to the Middle East. Your Arab neighbors will never cease their efforts to match your stockpile of nuclear warheads, a weapon you will never be able to use unless the
insanity that created the weapon in your country has the power to deliver it."

-Frank A. Walter, Gold River, California, in a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

-----
A Suggestion

"If Mr. Netanyahu truly believes that Mr. Pollard should be set free because he has suffered enough, then I suggest that before he and the Israeli government pursue Mr. Pollard's release any further, Mr. Netanyahu operate by the standards he proposes for Mr.Pollard. That is, recognize
that Mr. Vanunu has suffered much more and should be released immediately."

-William Bodden, Portland, Oregon, in a letter to Israel's ambassador to the U.S.
-----

I Am Your Spy
by Mordechai Vanunu

I am the clerk, the technician, the mechanic, the driver.
They said, Do this, do that, don't look left or right,
don't read the text. Don't look at the whole machine. You
are only responsible for this one bolt. For this one rubber-stamp.
This is your only concern. Don't bother with what is above you.
Don't try to think for us. Go on, drive. Keep going. On, on.

So they thought, the big ones, the smart ones, the futurologists.
There is nothing to fear. Not to worry.
Everything's ticking just fine.
Our little clerk is a diligent worker. He's a simple mechanic.
He's a little man.
Little men's ears don't hear, their eyes don't see.
We have heads, they don't.

Answer them, said he to himself, said the little man,
the man with a head of his own. Who is in charge? Who knows
where this train is going?
Where is their head? I too have a head.
Why do I see the whole engine,
Why do I see the precipice--
is there a driver on this train?

The clerk driver technician mechanic looked up.
He stepped back and saw -- what a monster.
Can't believe it. Rubbed his eyes and -- yes,
it's there all right. I'm all right. I do see
the monster. I'm part of the system.
I signed this form. Only now I am reading the rest of it.

This bolt is part of a bomb. This bolt is me. How
did I fail to see, and how do the others go on
fitting bolts. Who else knows?
Who has seen? Who has heard? -- The emperor really is naked.
I see him. Why me? It's not for me. It's too big.

Rise and cry out. Rise and tell the people. You can.
I, the bolt, the technician, mechanic? -- Yes, you.
You are the secret agent of the people. You are the eyes of the nation.
Agent-spy, tell us what you've seen. Tell us what the insiders, the clever ones, have hidden from us.
Without you, there is only the precipice. Only catastrophe.

I have no choice. I'm a little man, a citizen, one of the people,
but I'll do what I have to. I've heard the voice of my conscience
and there's nowhere to hide.
The world is small, small for Big Brother.
I'm on your mission. I'm doing my duty. Take it from me.

Come and see for yourselves. Lighten my burden. Stop the train.
Get off the train. The next stop -- nuclear disaster. The next book,
the next machine. No. There is no such thing.

-written from Ashkelon Prison, Israel http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/archive/iamyourspy.html
(with specific request from the Campaign to Free Vanunu to distribute with proper recognition)

----------

Write or E-mail your Senator! Now is the time!

----------------------------------------------------------------------
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP

Write or E-mail your Senator! Now is the time!

Copy and Circulate the Petition! Calling for Vanunu's release Vanunu needs your letters!
One of the best ways to help Mordechai Vanunu is simply to write him a letter. Mail from his supporters is the oxygen he needs to sustain hope.

The address:
MORDECHAI VANUNU
ASHKELON PRISON
ASHKELON ISRAEL

More, much more here: http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu/
and here: Mordechai Vanunu -
The world's first nuclear hostage
"I have sacrificed my freedom and risked my life in order to expose the danger of nuclear weapons which threatens this whole region. I acted on behalf of all citizens and all of humanity"
Mordechai Vanunu


Brutally kidnapped...


Silenced...


Incarcerated...

[G_j]

7. Bless Them

their sacrifice is for all of us, may we someday be worthy of it.

[xJlM]

9. Hear, here!

Feeling very unworthy after reading your post. A judge with any sort of sense wouldn't have even thought about a sentence like that.

[saigon68]

21. HE HAS NO SENSE

His master the CHIMPANZEE and CHIMP's handlers are in the process of nominating hundreds more, compassionate and restrained human beings, like the sentencing judge, to more Federal judgeships. </sarcasm>

[ScotTissue]

10. Hmmmm

Besides politically active nuns, what other intruders do we want to let go with a slap on the wrist when they infiltrate our military sites?

I mean, come on.

[maxanne]

15. you're right Scot

let's shoot the nuns and show pictures of them on TV.

:eyes:

[G_j]

17. yep Scottie

prison's too good, off to the Gitmo cages with em.
<sarcasm, of course> bye :hi:

[ChillEB]

24. Good Question...

Another good question: What sentence is the officer in charge of security at that site receiving for so obviously being asleep while on watch?

Was this person charged with a felony, like they should've been? Was s/he even reprimanded for this clear dereliction of duty? Personally, I'm a hell of a lot more concerned with the obvious lack of security at our NUCLEAR WEAPONS sites than I am about some nuns tapping the silo's with a hammer, aren't you? It's one hell of a bizarro world we've got with gw "The buck STARTS here" bush in 'charge', setting the accountability tone for our country. Who cares if somebody ain't keeping an eye on the nation's most lethal WMD, long as the outcome is that some lefty, pinko, America-hating, unpatriotic, anti-war NUN's end up in the slam for a few years!

[Catherine Vincent]

12. This is really sad....

These nuns are actually going to prison? Probation would have been more appropriate for these women. This has got to be from a conservative judge, no doubt.

[benfranklin1776]

13. Of couuuurse!!!! He's a Bush appointee!

If anyone had any doubt about how the Rethugs view the federal judiciary as their personal rubber stamps check out this article in which a group championing opening National Forest land for snowmobiling crows about their favorable chances since Judge Blackburn is a Rethug Judge:

"In the mean time, the case has been assigned to a new (Bush-appointed) judge on the federal bench: Robert E. Blackburn of Lakewood, Colorado. It's good news for OHV interests when one of our cases goes to a Republican-appointed judge, of course. COHVCO is optimistic that Judge Blackburn will look at the facts of the case and realize what COHVCO has been saying all along: there is no need to restrict snowmobiles on Molas Pass, because the Canada lynx does not live there, and a few loud and whiney non-motorized users should not be able to shut us out of our public lands because a couple of bad snow years caused them to invade an area we've used responsibly for years."

www.cohvco.org/news/news.php?item=3

So I say FILIBUSTER the conservative SOB's, ALL OF THEM!

[jeanmarc]

16. Torn over this one....

First off, they posed no real danger when you look at what actually happened. But you still have to look at what they did.

Nuns have no better protection under the law than any one else.

A spiritual reason to break in and do what they did, well I don't accept that at all.

I hate to make a post about this, because this one seems like it mixes politics, religion, 'terr'ism', and even age.

I find the sentence to be outrageous. I also find the Nuns' protest to be outrageous. They are not Bugs Bunny banging on a nuclear warhead with a hammer, which is what someone might conclude when they hear about hammers to a 'missile silo'.

Even with the best intentions, protest or whatever, does anyone deny that they should serve at least some penalty?

[Muddleoftheroad]

18. Not quite enough

But an acceptable sentence as far as I am concerned.

[G_j]

19. what took you so long?

[Muddleoftheroad]

20. I have a life

Besides, nothing about this story that couldn't wait.

I admire the nun's sense of conviction and I admire the judge for his willingness to do what the law requires.

[G_j]

22. yes I feel much safer now

with those scary nuns behind bars and Cheney, Rumsfeld and Ashcroft holding down the fort. I'll be able to sleep in peace tonight.

[Muddleoftheroad]

30. Law requires

Locking the criminals up. As I said I would have preferred more, but at least he did not bow to his touchy-feely side and give them some lame sentence like probation.

On edit: Sorry, I meant for this to be a reply to the post below. My bad.

[G_j]

33. Just exactly what road

was that you are in the middle of?
Are sure you didn't take a right turn at the fork?

[Muddleoftheroad]

35. Law

Horrors, you mean the idea of supporting the law is right wing? You mean the idea that we shouldn't allow people to just roam all over our nuclear facilities is too right wing for you?

[geomon]

29. What the law requires??

"U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn departed from sentencing guidelines Friday in punishing the women. While the maximum term is 30 years, the guidelines call for a six-year minimum term."

If the judge did not do as was required by the law then why not probation?

[theHandpuppet]

32. Chuckling...

You beat me to the punch. I was about to post the same thing. I was wondering when MOTR would show up.

[Forkboy]

27. What a shock

:eyes:

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

23. Yep. In addition Kenneth Lay and Bernie Ebbers are still free.

Isn't America great? So much so under the BFEE

[dArKeR]

25. Judge Robert E. Blackburn contact info.

Judge Robert E. Blackburn
Alfred A. Arraj United States Courthouse A741 / Courtroom 8
[phone]
http://www.co.uscourts.gov/contact_frame.htm
http://www.co.uscourts.gov/dindex.htm

Prosecutor (Executioner) Robert Brown:
[e-mail], [e-mail], [e-mail]
Fax [phone]

[tlb]

26. Oh for heavens sake don't start an email campaign on the judge.

Judges don't handle their own phone calls or mail, either written or electronic. All you are doing here is making life miserable for the clerks and secretaries. They didn't do anything to anyone.

[dArKeR]

31. Ok, I'm sorry, I believe everything you said. NOT!

Delay's calling for someone to bend over and pick up a bar soap.

[SideshowScott]

28. Oh But Pat Robinson can call for the deaths of Supreme Justices and its OK

SIGH..Women makeing a harmless stand for peace gets 2 and a half years and Pat Robonson calls for god ( AKA any nut who thinks pat is right )to KILL members of our highest court and no one but us says squat..My god crazy times we live in....

[kimchi]

36. Obviously, the nuns knew they could be detained.

The CHOSE to make a statement, to do something completely outrageous, to call attention to the situation. These type of people must be silenced, of course.

It worked, we are all talking about it. Most of us are pissed, in a normal, morally outraged way. It just seems ludicrous to lock up nuns for being unruly and dangerous to themselves. They didn't skulk in the compound in the middle of the night, they were publically protesting.

...snip...

They said nothing during the hearing. Earlier, they defiantly told a crowd of 150 supporters outside the courthouse they were not afraid of prison.

"The hope of the world rests on each of our shoulders," Hudson said. "We are doing our part. What about you?"
(end)

[lumpy]

37. Jail time no problem for nuns.

They are used to sacrifice and will accept this as part of the Godly plan and manage to believe there is good to be found in every event. I hope this is widely publicized to raise public conscience. These ladies are to be venerated for their contribution to the cause of peace.

[2cents]

38. Punishment should fit the crime

In these times of real terrorist threat, they should be given an official commendation for HARMLESSLY exposing a serious flaw in homeland defense.

At worst, given a fine for trespassing and a fine to fix the fence.

[indypaul]

39. It is now for certain

the inmates are running the institution. If, according
to the article, this just happened last October. This
must be an example of the "swift justice" brought to us
through the courtesy of Ashcroft's DofJ. Once again,
however, the application of the legal maxim of "innocent
until proven broke" must surely apply to "Kenny Boy" and
his gang of economic thugs who ruined the lives of
thousands and remain untouched by that same legal system.

[sam sarrha]

40. to a Nun, prison is a .........promotion. ...a blessed opportunity

It is like the rabbit telling the fox not to throw him into the briar patch.