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May 2, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

U.S. Activist to German Prison for Protesting Büchel Nukes

John LaForge enters Billwerder Prison in Hamburg on Jan. 10 to serve 50 days for his actions aimed at removing U.S. nuclear weapons from Germany.

Amidst heightened nuclear tension between NATO and Russia in Europe, U.S. peace activist John LaForge entered a German prison on January 10, 2023, to serve jail time there for protests against U.S. nuclear weapons stockpiled at Germany’s Büchel Air Force Base, 80 miles southeast of Cologne. LaForge entered JVA Billwerder in Hamburg as the first American ever imprisoned for a nuclear weapons protest in Germany.

The 66-year-old Minnesota native and co-director of Nukewatch, was convicted of trespass in Cochem District Court for joining in two “go-in” actions at the German airbase in 2018. One of the actions involved entering the base and climbing atop a bunker that likely housed some of the roughly twenty U.S. B61 thermonuclear gravity bombs stationed there.

Germany’s Regional Court in Koblenz affirmed his conviction and lowered the penalty from €1,500 to €600 ($619) or 50 “daily rates” – 50 days incarceration. LaForge refused to pay and appealed the convictions to Germany’s Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, the country’s highest. In the appeal, LaForge argues the District Court in Cochem and the Regional Court in Koblenz erred by refusing to consider his defense of “crime prevention,” thereby violating his right to present a defense. Before entering prison, LaForge said: “U.S. and German air force plans and preparations, currently ongoing, to use the nuclear weapons stationed here in Germany are a criminal conspiracy to commit massacres with radiation and firestorms. The court authorities in this case have prosecuted the wrong suspects.”

Both courts ruled against hearing from expert witnesses who had volunteered to explain the international treaties that prohibit any planning for mass destruction. In addition, the appeal argues, Germany’s stationing of the U.S. nuclear weapons is a violation of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which explicitly forbids any transfer of nuclear weapons between countries that are parties to the treaty, including both the U.S. and Germany.

— Press release reprinted from The Nuclear Resister editors Felice and Jack Cohen-Joppa

Filed Under: B61 Bombs in Europe, Direct Action, Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Weapons, Office News, Quarterly Newsletter, US Bombs Out of Germany

April 24, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Treaty Law ‘Enforcer’ Endures Prison, While U.S. Nuclear Bombs in Europe Give Putin an Idea

Dennis DuVall, pictured at the main gate to the nuclear NATO base Büchel in Germany, began a 60-day prison sentence in Germany on 23 March.

By John LaForge

You have to hand it to Dennis DuVall. At age 81, he’s on the cutting edge of the hottest of political and military issues — nuclear weapons — and has put life and limb on the right side of history.

On March 23, DuVall began a 60-day prison sentence in Germany for refusing to pay fines for nonviolent interference with the lawless stationing of U.S. hydrogen bombs in Deutschland, at the Büchel air base. (U.S. H-bombs are also ‘forward deployed’ in Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Turkey.)

DuVall recently wrote a ‘Büchel Manifesto’ where he says: ‘Nonviolent direct actions at Büchel NATO base … intended to stop, prevent, or disrupt German Tornado pilots of the 33rd Fighter-Bomber Wing and the U.S. Air Force’s 702nd Munitions Support Squadron from training to drop B61 thermonuclear bombs on targets in Russia.’

Now, with renewed alarm over the nuclear threats due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, DuVall is shining a spotlight on the risk escalation posed by the United States and NATO. It’s not just Russia that’s ratcheted up the chances of nuclear weapons’ use. It was blundering German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock who blurted out Jan. 24 in Strasbourg, France, ‘We are fighting a war against Russia …’

Two days after DuVall entered Bautzen prison, east of Dresden, Russia’s Vladimir Putin announced plans to station Russian nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus, causing a loud if hypocritical reaction from the U.S. and NATO. Overnight, the imprisonment of a long-time Veteran for Peace and Air Force veteran of the U.S. war in Vietnam looked like a bellwether for a long-overdue debate on U.S. nukes stationed in Europe, because Putin said his March 25 announcement was a tit-for-tat.

According to Newsweek, ‘“… the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries,” said Putin.’ Then, after French President Macron declared, ‘In no case can nuclear weapons be deployed outside the territory of nuclear power, especially in Europe,’ the Russian Foreign Ministry asked with a smirk: ‘Is Paris’ demand “not to deploy nuclear weapons on foreign territory” addressed to Washington?’ according to Hindustan Times. In a related rejoinder, “Putin said he made this decision because the United Kingdom agreed to provide Ukraine with armor-piercing rounds that contain depleted uranium,” Foreign Policy reported March 27.

German’s branch of International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms joined the debate March 29 noting in a press release, “Nuclear sharing violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the human right to life.”

Andrea Sasse of the German foreign ministry described Russian but not NATO’s nuclear sharing as “irresponsible”, “escalatory”, and “another attempt at nuclear intimidation”, the Guardian reported March 27. Germany’s hypocrisy is rich. Just last August, its UN Ambassador Thomas Göbel declared to the General Assembly in writing: “NATO’s nuclear sharing arrangements, which include U.S. nuclear weapons forward-deployed in Europe and Dual-Capable Aircraft provided by a number of European Allies, continue to be, fully consistent and compliant with the NPT.”

With tongue firmly in cheek, Putin’s announcement used the same falsehood as Amb. Göbel, and claimed that nuclear sharing could be done “without in any way violating our obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.”

The Pentagon’s critique included a veiled reminder of the threat posed by its own H-bombs in Europe: ‘“We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture”, the U.S. Defense Department said in a statement’, Reuters reported March 26. It’s worth recalling that Gen. Tod Wolters, head of U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, testified to the Senate Feb. 25, 2020: “I’m a fan of flexible [nuclear weapons] first-use policy.” This ‘policy’ is the standing threat by the US and NATO to start nuclear attacks not in retaliation, but without first being so attacked.

In his obscure cell in Bautzen, DuVall is doing time for acting as if the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty were the law of the land. He’s a crime fighter for interfering with U.S./NATO’s plans for initiating nuclear attacks. He can take some credit for the fact that the “sharing” of U.S. B61 H-bomb’s, and “strategic” threats to use them, are in the news more than ever before. #######

— John LaForge is a co-director of Nukewatch and co-editor with Arianne Peterson of Nuclear Heartland, Revised: A guide to the 450 land-based missiles of the United States. An edited version of this comment was syndicated by PeaceVoice.org.

 

Filed Under: B61 Bombs in Europe, Direct Action, Nuclear Weapons, US Bombs Out of Germany, War, Weekly Column

March 27, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Second U.S. Citizen Headed to German Prison for Anti-Nuclear Weapons Actions

Dennis DuVall, pictured at the main gate to the nuclear NATO base Büchel in Germany, began a 60-day prison sentence in Germany on 23 March.

By John LaForge, for Peacevoice

While dread of nuclear war between Russia and NATO states over Ukraine have reached new heights, especially in Europe, a second U.S. citizen has been ordered to serve prison time in Germany for protest actions demanding that U.S. nuclear bombs stationed at Germany’s Büchel NATO base, southeast of Cologne, be withdrawn.

Dennis DuVall, 81, member of Veterans for Peace, U.S. Air Force veteran of the war in Vietnam, and veteran anti-nuclear activist, is to report to the federal prison in Bautzen, Germany, 32 miles east of Dresden (JVA Bautzen, Breitscheid Str. 4, 02625 Bautzen, Germany), on Thursday March 23 to begin a 60-day sentence.

On July 15, 2018, DuVall was one of 18 people who clipped through the chain link fence and entered the base in order to — as the group said in a statement — “bring an end to the ongoing criminal conspiracy to unleash uncontrollable and indiscriminate heat, blast, and radiation with every B61 nuclear bomb deployed at Büchel NATO base.”

Charged with trespass and damage to property, DuVall explained to German trial and appeals courts that he has a legal obligation under the Nuremberg Principles to join in nonviolent protests to prevent or halt the planning and preparation for nuclear attacks which is taking place at Büchel. Well-reported exercises like the annual “Steadfast Noon” are often described as nuclear attack rehearsals.

Today, with NATO materially at war in Ukraine, the needless forward-basing of U.S. H-bombs at six European NATO base’s facing Russia has never been more provocative or destabilizing. NATO’s latest “Strategic Concept” (June 2022) reaffirmed its ever-present threat to launch nuclear first-use attacks using U.S., French and British weapons.

In Cochem District Court on May 11, 2020, DuVall was the first U.S. citizen to be convicted in Germany for civil resistance against the ongoing threat to attack Russia with the U.S. nuclear weapons stationed at Büchel, 170-kiloton B61-3, and 50-kiloton B61-4 free-fall hydrogen bombs.

For years, Büchel protest defendants have warned of the base’s threat of nuclear annihilation, and have urged court authorities “to send a message to the German government to remove B61 H-bombs from Büchel NATO base, and return them to the United States for dismantling and disposal.” In trial testimony on May 11, 2020, DuVall reminded the District Court Judge that “the threat of nuclear weapons is a clear and present danger to the European community, and nuclear war is an existential threat to the web of life on our planet.”

In refusing to pay a court-imposed fine, DuVall explained to the public prosecutor in the case that “it is a matter of conscience I share with many other U.S., Dutch, and German Büchel defendants not to pay money to those who willingly protect weapons of mass murder deployed at Büchel NATO base.”

The first U.S. citizen to be jailed in similar protests, yours truly (writer John LaForge), was released February 28 from Glasmoor prison near Hamburg after serving 50 days.

“It is my right and my duty,” says DuVall, “to work toward the abolition of nuclear weapons, and it is the responsibility of the German government to sign and ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, and to ensure the prompt removal of U.S. B61 thermonuclear weapons from Büchel NATO base.”

— John LaForge, syndicated by PeaceVoice, is Co-director of Nukewatch, a peace and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, and is co-editor with Arianne Peterson of Nuclear Heartland, Revised: A Guide to the 450 Land-Based Missiles of the United States.

Filed Under: B61 Bombs in Europe, Direct Action, Nuclear Weapons, US Bombs Out of Germany, Weekly Column

February 1, 2023 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Activists Demand Review of Illegality of US Nuclear Bombs in German Federal Constitutional Court

Open letter to the Federal Constitutional Court: Peace activists demand the acceptance of the constitutional complaint of a US activist to review the illegality under international law of the US nuclear bombs stationed in Germany.

Hamburg, 1.30.2023

U.S. peace activist John LaForge has been in prison since January 10 for his participation in nonviolent civil disobedience actions. LaForge filed a constitutional complaint in the Federal Constitutional Court against the sentence in April last year that is pending. He was convicted for entering the grounds of the NATO airbase “Fliegerhorst Büchel” on July 15, 2018 and on August 6, 2018, damaging the perimeter fence, in order to demonstrate against the deployment of nuclear weapons there. The nuclear weapons are stationed there in violation of international law.

 

In the meantime, activists have filed constitutional complaints 17 times, but all of them have been rejected for consideration (John’s, was finally rejected by the high court in February 2023). “In doing so, the courts should have applied international law here. And that’s why I’m fighting back against this injustice by going to jail,” says John LaForge. Two women, Stefanie Augustin and Marion Küpker, filed complaints with the European Court of Human Rights in November 2021 because of the non-adoption of their complaint. The court’s response is still pending.

 

The retired judge Bernd Hahnfeld, board member of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, writes in his “Statement on the imprisonment of John Michael LaForge and other peace activists” in detail about the errors of judgment of the Regional Court of Koblenz.

 

On January 30 the Open Letter to the Federal Constitutional Court was sent, signed by 77 people in solidarity. With this action, the signatories, who come from the nationwide German peace movement, want to lend more weight to John LaForge’s demand that the Constitutional Court finally ascertain the illegality of the nuclear weapons deployment under international law. Copies of the Open Letter were also sent to those responsible for the storage of U.S. nuclear bombs in Germany (“nuclear sharing”), among others: Federal Chancellor Scholz, Federal Foreign Minister Baerbock, U.S. Ambassador in Berlin Gutmann, Federal Minister of Defense Pistorius, Federal Minister of Justice Buschmann, and Commodore Schneider of the Tactical Air Wing 33 of the German Air Force at Büchel/Südeifel Air Base (nuclear weapons base).

Filed Under: B61 Bombs in Europe, Direct Action, US Bombs Out of Germany

January 22, 2023 by Nukewatch 3 Comments

United States to Hurry Transfer of New Nuclear Bombs to Europe

By John LaForge

The United States has sped up the delivery to European NATO bases of its new thermonuclear bomb called the B61-12, Politico reports.

Citing “a US diplomatic cable and two people familiar with the issue,” the outlet reports that the 50-kiloton B61-12 will be flown to six NATO bases in five NATO states in December 2022, rather than the planned springtime delivery.

The individual sources familiar with the upcoming shipment to Europe, who asked not to be named, “confirmed the accelerated time-frame reported in the diplomatic cable,” Politico noted.

Tom Collina, director of policy at the Ploughshares Fund, told Politico that the accelerated transfer of the newest version of the B61 — which the Air Force says is more accurate than the bombs it will replace — “could be escalatory. We’ll see.”

Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder told Politico in an email that the $10 to $12 billion plan to “swap out older weapons for the upgraded B61-12” has been “underway for years” and “is in no way linked to current events in Ukraine and was not sped up in any way.”

The B61-12 gravity H-bomb will replace two earlier versions, the B61-3s and -4s, about 100 of which are stationed at NATO bases in Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Turkey, Politico confirmed.

B61-12. Photo Credit: Los Alamos National Laboratory

The giant US Air Base at Ramstein, Germany is also involved in the program. Ramstein Air Base operates the only branch of the US Air Force’s Defense Nuclear Weapons School outside the United States. The DNWS trains pilots in planning and preparing attacks with nuclear weapons. Other branches are in New Mexico, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio. A part of the Air Force Nuclear College, the Ramstein-based DNWS is described on its website as being “responsible for delivering, sustaining, and supporting air-delivered nuclear weapon systems for our warfighters … every day,” and, “Programs managed by the directorate include the B61-12 Life Extension Program.”

None of this nuclear attack madness need proceed any further. Oscar Arias proposed last July 19 that as a good-will gesture of de-escalation and trust-building, NATO could — instead of replacing them with more destabilizing bombs — offer to withdraw all its nuclear weapons from NATO bases in Europe in exchange for Russia’s agreeing to begin peace negotiations.

Caitlin Johnstone made the point Oct. 19 in CounterPunch, noting that, “We survived the Cuban Missile Crisis because US President John F. Kennedy secretly acquiesced (Robert Moore wrote “wisely agreed”) to Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s demand that the US remove the Jupiter missiles it had placed in Turkey and Italy, which was what provoked Moscow to move nukes to Cuba in the first place.”

— Sources: German-Foreign-Policy, Oct. 31; Defense Post, Oct. 27; Politico, Oct. 26; and Robert Moore, CounterPunch, Oct. 18, 2022

Filed Under: B61 Bombs in Europe, Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Weapons, Quarterly Newsletter

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