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Wind Power Surpasses Nuclear Capacity in the US

Nukewatch Quarterly Fall 2019

On Sept. 20, when millions around the world were marching to raise awareness about the climate, a major milestone was passed in the race to replace fossil fuels with renewables. The US now has more wind power, as measured in megawatts (MW) of generating capacity, than nuclear power. From April to July 2019,  the total generating capacity from the country’s 57,000 wind turbines was up to 97,960 MW, according to the American Wind Energy Association. The World Nuclear Association figures show that total generating capacity from the remaining 96 nuclear reactors in the US is now 97,722 MW. That is, 238 MW less than wind! Likewise in Britain, early in 2018, wind farms provided more electricity than the country’s eight nuclear power stations, marking the first time wind has overtaken nuclear over a fiscal quarter, the Guardian reported.

—Timmon Wallis, nuclearban.us; Sept. 20, 2019, The Guardian, May 16, 2018

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Trial of Kings Bay Plowshares 7 Started in Georgia

Illustration by Chrissy Nesbitt of supporters watching a closed-circuit television from a courtroom used for the overflow crowd of supporters during the first day of the trial of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. Little else than pen and paper are allowed in the courthouse.

BRUNSWICK, Georgia — The Kings Bay Plowshares 7 federal court trial got started here, Monday Sept. 21, with the judge reading out the four charges against the seven defendants and then she began the tedious process of jury selection. The defendants in the nuclear weapons protest case are charged with three felonies and misdemeanor trespass for their April 4, 2018 protest conducted on the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.

That day, the seven snuck into the Kings Bay Georgia Navy Trident submarine base and conducted a nonviolent, symbolic disarmament action modeled after roughly 100 previous “Plowshares” actions in the US and Europe. The dramatic actions take their name from the original “Plowshares Eight” of 1980, when eight radical Christian pacifists hammered and poured their blood on nuclear weapons components in a GE plant in Pennsylvania.

With between 75 and 100 supporters and family members crowding the over-flow room equipped with a television view of the proceedings, and vigiling on the sidewalk outside the courthouse, Federal District Judge Lisa Wood slogged methodically through the questioning of the large jury pool. Ostensibly trying to weed out bias and prejudice against the opposing parties in the case, the otherwise boring monotony was broken by a moment of striking revelation.

Judge Wood was explaining the “presumption of innocence” that is granted to defendants in criminal trials. Judge Wood said that the burden of proving guilt “beyond a reasonable doubt” is on the government alone. Then the judge asked, “Does anyone here believe the defendants are guilty?”

An eye-popping nine prospective jurors raised their hands and said “yes.” This caused an audible gasp among the observers in the over-flow TV room. In following up, the judge asked how many had seen or read anything about the case. Seven of the nine had heard of the case, but two thought the defendants were guilty without knowing anything of the case beyond the government’s allegations. It was Vice President Dick Cheney who said “they wouldn’t be suspects if they weren’t guilty.”

Out of about 78 prospective jurors, a total of 24 answered they had worked on the Kings Bay Navy base themselves or had relatives who worked there. None admitted to having a “strong opinion about nuclear weapons,” and none answered that they had “any moral or philosophical opposition to nuclear weapons.”

By late afternoon 12 jurors and 12 alternates were chosen, and opening statements were made by the assistant US District Attorney Carl Kanoke for the government, and by attorney Bill Quigley representing Elizabeth McAlister, and by Clare Grady representing herself. The other five defendants will present their opening statements after the government case has been finished and just before they present their defense case.

Mr. Kanoke said he’d bring several witnesses from the security services who arrested and detained the defendants. He pointed out that two of the protesters wore GoPro video cameras and recorded 75 minutes of their go-in action, and said that the jury would get to watch the video themselves. He said it would be a simple, straightforward case to prove and that they would find all seven guilty.

Mr. Quigley said in his opening that the defendants won’t deny that they did what was on the video tape but that they were enacting their religious faith in Christian nonviolence. Quigley said in part that the seven used hammers to symbolically carry out the Biblical prophecy to “turn swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.” The seven take the Bible and the Commandments very seriously, he said, particularly the rule against killing, while the nuclear weapons present at Kings Bay Naval Base have the explosive force of 3,600 Hiroshima events.  He reminded the jury that a manager of security at the base had said publicly that the defendants threatened no one.

Clare Grady spoke briefly about her work caring for the elderly. Activist Ralph Hutchison reports that “Clare spoke of the responsibility to do justice—‘only you can render a verdict,’ she told the jury. The most important virtue you bring to this is being human. ‘Our actions were not criminal,’ she said. ‘We’re saying we were there and we did this. It was a nonviolent, symbolic act of disarmament. The evidence will show that we acted to uphold the law.’”

The trial continues Tuesday with the prosecution’s case, and is expected to last through Friday.

The seven Kings Bay Plowshares defendants are Elizabeth McAlister, 79, of Jonah House, Baltimore; Fr. Steve Kelly, 69, of the Bay Area, California; Carmen Trotta, 55, of the New York Catholic Worker; Clare Grady, 59, of the Ithaca Catholic Worker; Martha Hennessy, 62, of the New York Catholic Worker; Mark Colville, 55, of the Amistad Catholic Worker, New Haven, Connecticut; and Patrick O’Neill, 61, of the Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker, Garner, North Carolina.

– John LaForge, for Nukewatch

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Peace Activists Cut into Nuclear Weapons Base, Foiling Increased Security

International peace activists cut through new “security” fencing meant to keep nuclear weapons under control.

BÜCHEL, Germany — Calling themselves “Treaty Enforcement Action,” four peace activists (from the United States, Germany, Great Britain, and the Netherlands) cut through two perimeter fences and quickly entered the Büchel Air Base here around 4 p.m. July 10, 2019, carrying banners declaring the US and German Air Force’s planned use of nuclear weapons here makes the base a “crime scene.” While posing for photographs, the four were detained by air base security personnel, and later taken to jail in Koblenz and held overnight. All eight were released early Thursday.

Outside the high-security base, four others from the group posted “Crime Scene” notices on the outer fence and along a perimeter bike path. All eight activists were detained by security personnel and found in violation of a “Stay Away Order” issued earlier the same day. For violating that order, the eight were taken into custody, brought to Cochem for a court hearing, and transferred to jail in Koblenz.

The earlier “go-in” Wednesday at the Air Base saw 11 activists walk through the air base’s main gate and try to serve officials there with a self-styled “Treaty Enforcement Order.” The reference is to the international treaties on prohibition of nuclear weapons (2017), on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons (1970), and Geneva Conventions which prohibit mass destruction.

The protesters’ order called for the immediate removal of US B61 nuclear bombs from the base, and their prompt return to the United States for dismantlement. The base is the site of the US 702nd Munitions Support Squadron which controls a “Priority Level 1” stockpile of twenty B61 thermo nuclear bombs.

“The nuclear weapons must be removed, not just because they are unlawful, but because of the poor security at the base,” said Marion Küpker, spokesperson for the 68-member German-wide campaign Büchel is Everywhere! Nuclear Weapons-Free Now! “Members of the military and civil police declared several times that nonviolent go-in actions would now be impossible. Soldiers, a new private security company, and civil police are working together closely this year to guard the base, but they failed,” Küpker said, “even after months of publicity announcing that protesters would defy the newly increased base security this July.”

On April 30 this year, a group of 11 peace activists was the first to foil the base’s new fence, when they cut and dug under the wire and steel barrier to gain entry.

“Crime” reads the sign of the “Treaty Enforcement Action” activist who entered the Buechel nuclear weapons base on July 10, 2019.

This year marks the 3rd time in three years that a delegation of US peace activists has joined Europeans and others in nonviolent actions against the US nuclear weapons. The German group Nonviolent Action for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (GAAA) convenes “International Action Week”, and invites peace groups to conduct nonviolent actions highlighting three goals: 1) permanent ouster of the unlawful US nuclear weapons; 2) cancellation of plans to replace today’s B61s with new nuclear bombs; and 3) ratification by Germany of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

The banner of Susan Crane and Magriet Bos of the Treaty Enforcment Action activists explains why they have entered the Buechel Air Force Base.

John LaForge, of the US peace group Nukewatch [www.nukewatchinfo.org] and coordinator of the US delegation, said, “There have been hundreds of accidents with nuclear weapons [see the website www.atomkriegausversehen.de(Belgium)], which show that deterrence is an illusion. And, with amateurs like us getting on base, that it’s impossible to keep the weapons themselves secure.”

Four international peace activists reached far beyond the two security gates surrounding Buechel Air Force Base where US nuclear weapons are housed.

Wednesday’s daring go-ins follow actions in 2017 and 2018 in which 60 protesters got inside the base, occupying the Air Force’s runway and even three different Protected Aircraft Shelters where the nuclear weapons can be stored. Since then, the military constructed its new perimeter fence.

The eight who were jailed are: Susan Crane, 75, of California; Ralph Hutchinson, 62, of Tennessee; Andrew Lanier, 26, of California; Magriet Bos, 32, of The Netherlands; Dennis DuVall, 77, of Arizona; Richard Barnard, 45, of the UK; Dietrich Gerstner, 54 of Germany; and Susan van der Hijden, 49, of The Netherlands.

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Nuclear Weapons Are Illegal – Büchel Is a Crime Scene

For decades, the United States military has deployed its nuclear weapons on German soil. Here in Büchel, the 702nd Munitions Support Squadron is responsible for the deployment and threatened use of its “Priority Level One” stockpile of B61 gravity bombs.

We come from the United States and many other countries to the Büchel Air Base on this 10th of July 2019 to bring a halt to the ongoing criminal conspiracy to commit war crimes using these weapons of mass destruction.

Each and every B61 nuclear bomb is designed and intended to unleash uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation. Therefore, any planning, preparation, possession, deployment, threat or use of any variant of the B61 nuclear bombs, as a matter of fact, violates peremptory rules of law including the laws of war, the rules and principles of humanitarian law or the Nuremberg Principles.[1] These weapons are a crime against humanity and the planet itself.

As an act of crime prevention and responsible citizenship, we are here to resist the ongoing unlawful conspiracy by the United States and German Air Forces to commit mass destruction. We are here on behalf of everyone who is unaware of the existential threat that such planning poses to life, liberty, and the planet Earth; who are unaware of the binding legal prohibitions that outlaw planning for nuclear war; or who feel powerless to take effective action against the Büchel Air Base’s criminal war planning.

We act in accordance with common humanitarian law, Treaties governing the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons, and the authoritative opinion of the International Court of Justice, which says: “The Court recognizes…that the use of nuclear weapons could constitute a catastrophe for the environment. The Court also recognizes that the environment is not an abstraction but represents the living space, the quality of life and the very health of human beings, including generations unborn. …The destructive power of nuclear weapons cannot be contained in either space or time. They have the potential to destroy all civilization and the entire ecosystem of the planet.[2]

For these reasons, guided by our conscience, the legal authority of the International Court of Justice, and the moral imperative to act residing in each person recognized by the Nuremberg principles, we call upon the personnel, powers and authorities at Büchel Air Base to take all such steps as are necessary to immediately stand down the US B61 nuclear weapons deployed there and to demand the permanent removal from sovereign German soil of these weapons of mass destruction.

Further, we call for these weapons to be returned to the United States of America from whence they came, to the Pantex facility in Amarillo, Texas, for immediate disassembly, dismantlement, and disposal.

[1] According to Professor of International Law Anabel L. Dwyer, University of Michigan: “The US, Germany and NATO know that each and every B61-3 and B61-4 nuclear bomb is designed and intended to unleash uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast and radiation. The B61-3 is a 170-kiloton nuclear weapon. The B61-4 is a 50-kiloton weapon. Therefore, any planning, preparation, possession, deployment, threat or use of any variant of the B61 nuclear bomb, as a matter fact, violates peremptory rules of law including the laws of war, the rules and principles of humanitarian law or the Nuremberg Principles.”

[2] Legality of the Threat or Use of Nuclear Weapons, Advisory Opinion of 8 July 1996, International Court of Justice, The Hague.

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Activists Bring “Cease and Desist” Order To Nuclear Weapons Base

Eleven international peace activists entered the main gate of the Büchel Air Base southwest of Frankfurt, Germany to deliver a self-named Treaty Enforcement Order declaring that the sharing of US nuclear weapons at the base is a “criminal conspiracy to commit war crimes.”

BUECHEL, Germany — Eleven international peace activists entered the Büchel Air Base southwest of Frankfurt early this morning to deliver a self-named Treaty Enforcement Order declaring that the sharing of US nuclear weapons at the base is a “criminal conspiracy to commit war crimes.”

Upon entering the base’s main gate with a printed “cease and desist order,” insisted on seeing the base commander to deliver the order in person.

“We refuse to be complicit in this crime,” said Brian Terrell of Voices for Creative Nonviolence in Chicago, Illinois. “We call for the nuclear bombs to be returned to the US immediately. The Germans want these nuclear weapons out of Germany, and so do we.”

The group included people from Germany, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States. All eleven were detained by military and civilian authorities and were released after providing identification.

This is the third year in a row that a delegation of US peace activists has joined Europeans and others in protesting the US nuclear weapons at Büchel. The local group Nonviolent Action for Abolition of Nuclear Weapons (GAAA) convenes the International Action Week, demanding permanent ouster of the US nuclear weapons, cancellation of plans to replace today’s B61s with new hydrogen bombs, and Germany’s ratification of the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

“Delivery of the ‘Cease and Desist Order’ is an act of crime prevention,” said John LaForge, of the US peace group Nukewatch and coordinator of the US delegation. “The authorities think the entry is a matter of trespass. But these nuclear bomb threats violate the UN Charter, the Treaty on Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.” he said, adding, “Interrupting government criminality is a duty of responsible citizenship.”

The activists included: (from the United States) Susan Crane, Richard Bishop, Andrew Lanier, Jr., Brian Terrell, Ralph Hutchison, and Dennis DuVall; (from the UK) Richard Barnard; (from The Netherlands) Margriet Bos, and Susan van der Hijden; and (from Germany) Dietrich Gerstner, and Birke Kleinwächter.

Susan van der Hijden of Amsterdam, who is just back from the US where she visited the Kansas City, Kansas site of a factory working on parts of the new replacement bomb, known as the B61-12. “The planning and training to use the US H-bombs that goes on at Büchel cannot be legal, because organizing mass destruction has been a criminal act since the Nuremberg Trials after WWII,” van der Hijden said.

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