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May 12, 2022 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Abolitionists Convicted in German Courts

Nukewatch Quarterly Spring 2022
By John LaForge

In recent court cases in Germany, several nuclear weapons abolitionists charged with trespassing, etc. at the nuclear-armed Büchel air force base have presented a defense of “crime prevention.” The defense is based in large part on the analysis of nuclear weapons presented by Professor Francis A. Boyle in his book, The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence (Clarity Press 2002).

In a nutshell, the argument is that because the air base’s plans and preparations for attacks with the weapons (known as nuclear deterrence) amount to a criminal conspiracy to commit atrocities with indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction, nonviolent offenses committed in order to prevent that crime are excusable.

German courts that have heard protest cases stemming from the civil resistance to oust the U.S. weapons from Germany have ruled that the defense is not applicable. The judges have refused to hear expert witness testimony that could substantiate the defense, so the argument has gone unexamined by them. The local court nearest the base, in Cochem, the regional or appeal court in Koblenz, and the Constitutional Court (Germany’s highest) in Karlsruhe have all ruled that the stationing of U.S. nuclear weapons in Germany (and their threatened use) is “legalized” by various, mostly secret “nuclear sharing agreements” between Berlin and Washington, DC. These court rulings ignore the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons which explicitly prohibits nuclear weapons from being transferred from one country to another, and raise appeal issues that have been argued in several cases.

Marion Küpker and Stefanie Augustine both of Germany have appealed their trespass convictions to the European Court of Human Rights. Sometimes called the “Strasbourg court” after its location in France, the ECHR is the high court of the Council of Europe and it interprets the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECHR has not yet ruled on whether to hear this appeal.

If the ECHR in Strasbourg decides not to consider the appeal by Marion and Stefanie, several other similarly situated defendants, including Susan Crane of Redwood City, California and me, also intend to appeal to the ECHR.

Susan is scheduled for an appeal hearing at Regional Court in Koblenz this May 31, where she will contest  several trespass convictions that have been consolidated into one case. The trespass charges against Susan and me stem from nonviolent “go-in” actions taken at the Büchel air base over the last few years.

An appeal hearing for me in Koblenz last December 9, resulted in conviction after the court refused to hear expert witness testimony regarding international law and the criminal status of U.S. nuclear weapons and war policy in Germany.

Defense attorney Anna Busl of Bonn presented detailed motions to the court explaining the need for the experts I wanted to call. But the judge ruled that there was no need to hear from the witnesses. An appeal brief contesting this conviction will be filed with the Constitutional Court by April 24.

Filed Under: Direct Action, Newsletter Archives, Quarterly Newsletter, US Bombs Out of Germany

April 30, 2022 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Reducing Tensions, Building Trust, De-escalating

German warplanes routinely practice attacking Russia using US hydrogen bombs, like this new B61 model 12, set to replace the B61s now in Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands and Turkey.

By John LaForge

The United States could immediately take direct actions that would de-escalate the over-arching nuclear threat that haunts Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine. A few such actions would demonstrate good will and indicate a real intention to reduce tensions in the crisis which seems every day to grow more dangerous.

 

1. U.S. hydrogen bombs stationed in Europe could be withdrawn and their planned replacement cancelled.

The United States and Germany are formal states parties to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT). Articles I and II of the NPT flatly prohibit the transfer of nuclear weapons from one states party to another. Any fourth grader can understand that the NATO practice of “nuclear sharing” with Germany, Italy, Belgium, The Netherlands, and Turkey — which together have over 100 U.S. nuclear weapons — is an open violation of the clear, unambiguous, unequivocal and binding prohibitions of the NPT.

The United States stations an estimated 20 of its B61-3 and B61-4 thermonuclear gravity bombs at the German Air Force Base Büchel, 80 miles southeast of Cologne. These B61 H-bombs at Büchel are identified as “intermediate-yield strategic and tactical thermonuclear” bombs, and “the primary thermonuclear gravity bomb in the U.S.” according to the NuclearWeaponArchive.org.

Calling these weapons “intermediate” or “tactical” is shocking disinformation. The maximum yield of the B61-3 is 170 kilotons, and the maximum B61-4 yield is 50 kilotons, as reported by the Bulletin of the atomic Scientists. These H-bombs respectively produce over 11 times and 3 times the explosive blast, mass fire, and radiation of the 15-kiloton Hiroshima bomb that killed 140,000 people. (For background, see Lynn Eden’s “Whole World on Fire,” or Howard Zinn’s “The Bomb.”

The effects of detonating B61-3 or B61-4 bombs would inevitably be catastrophic mass destruction involving disproportionate, indiscriminate and long-lasting devastation. Plans to replace the current B61 with a new “model 12” could be cancelled now, and constitute a real ratcheting down of tensions in Europe.

2. The U.S. can discontinue its nuclear attack courses underway at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

The U.S. studies and plans nuclear weapon attacks at classrooms of its Defense Nuclear Weapons School (DNWS), and the one branch school outside the U.S. is at Ramstein in Germany, the largest U.S. military base outside the country, headquarters of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe, and NATO Allied Air Command. Outlines of nuclear attack coursework can be read on the DNWS website, which boldly declares the school: “is responsible for delivering, sustaining and supporting air-delivered nuclear weapon systems for our warfighters …every day.”

One class outlined on the DNWS website is for “Theater Nuclear Operations,” described as “a 4.5-day course that provides training for planners, support staff, targeteers, and staff nuclear planners for joint operations and targeting. The course provides an overview of nuclear weapon design, capabilities, and effects as well as U.S. nuclear policy, and joint nuclear doctrine…. Objectives: … Understand the U.S. nuclear planning and execution process…; Understand the targeting effects of nuclear weapon employment….”

Dispensing with this nuclear attack planning school would reduce tensions and help eliminate Russia’s dread of the U.S./NATO nuclear posture.

3. NATO can suspend its provocative military exercises.

Attacks with U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe are regularly simulated or “rehearsed,” as is often reported. Recent headlines noted: “German Air Force training for nuclear war as part of NATO” (Kazakh Telegraph Agency 2020), “Secret nuclear weapons exercise ‘Steadfast Noon” (German Armed Forces Journal 2019), “NATO nuclear weapons exercise unusually open” (2017), and “NATO nuclear weapons exercise Steadfast Noon in Büchel” (2015).

Giant NATO war games routinely zero in on Russia. In 2018, there was “Trident Juncture” with 50,000 troops in Norway, and “Atlantic Resolve” was conducted in Eastern Europe. In 2016, some 16,000 troops gathered in Norway for “Cold Response,” and in “Anaconda 2016” another 31,000 troops from 24 countries were again in motion across Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. In 2015, there was “Atlantic Resolve,” “Dragoon Ride,” and “Spring Storm,” all conducted across Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. In 2014, the routine “Cold Response” game in Norway involved 16,000 troops, and “Atlantic Resolve” took place in Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland.

Beyond the annual “Steadfast Noon” simulations, complex, multinational NATO exercises in Eastern European countries just recently ballooned in number. In 2019, there was a single big exercise called “Atlantic Resolve.” In 2020 there were five. In 2021 the number leaped to eleven, and NATO that year made plans for a total of 95 exercises. Individual NATO states had plans for another 220 of their own war games. Nothing justifies Putin’s naked aggression, but the marked increase in NATO war practices would even make the Dali Lama defensive.

4. The U.S. and NATO could end their nuclear weapon “first-use” policy.

The public policy of readiness to initiate attack with nuclear weapons — not as a deterrent against being attacked with nuclear weapons, but its exact opposite — is at the heart of both U.S. and NATO “nuclear posture.” This perpetual threat to start nuclear attacks during a conventional conflict, especially in the context of routine NATO nuclear war exercises, is unnecessarily destabilizing and reckless. In view of the enormously overwhelming power of U.S. and NATO conventional military forces, the nuclear option is grossly redundant and militarily useless.

After he retired, Paul Nitze, a former Navy Secretary and personal advisor to President Ron Reagan, wrote “A Threat Mostly to Ourselves” where he observed: “In view of the fact that we can achieve our objectives with conventional weapons, there is no purpose to be gained through the use of our nuclear arsenal.”

Now that the U.S. public as a whole has been transformed into one big anti-war group, it should recognize that it can influence our own government but not Russia’s. Our demands for negotiation, cease-fire, de-escalation and a peace agreement need to be directed in a way that has some chance of success. ###

Published at CounterPunch, APRIL 29, 2022

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

January 23, 2022 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Calif. Peace Activist Convicted in Germany for Protests Against U.S. Nuclear Weapons

A long-time U.S. peace activist was found guilty of four counts of trespassing January 17 in Cochem, Germany, charges that stemmed from multiple protests against the stationing of U.S. nuclear weapons at Germany’s Büchel Air Force Base* in the west-central state of Rhineland-Pfalz.

Susan Crane, a member of the Redwood City, California Catholic Worker House and a Plowshares disarmament activist, was tried by District Judge Alexander Fleckenstein who imposed a fine of 1,000 Euros or 200 days in jail. The sentence was heavier than in recent related protest cases, the judge explained, because Crane showed no remorse for joining several “go-in” actions involving entry into the base.

In her testimony, Crane said in part, “The four actions I was part of in 2019 were an attempt to stop an ongoing crime: the criminal planning and preparation of attacks with US nuclear weapons at Büchel air base. This unlawful planning and preparation is criminal under international humanitarian laws, treaties and agreements because it violates the Hague Conventions, the Geneva Conventions, the Nuremberg Principles, and the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which Germany and the United States are obligated to uphold under federal constitutions.”

In his ruling, Judge Fleckenstein said that international laws regarding nuclear weapons didn’t apply in his court, and instead focused on the cost of nuts and bolts used to repair openings in the chain link fence. Frits ter Kuile of the Amsterdam Catholic Worker who attended the trial was alarmed by the focus of the Court, saying, “Susan was talking from the heart about the big picture of lawful responsibility, and the death of the planet, and the judge talked about 30-cent bolts.”

In a written declaration submitted on behalf of Crane, legal scholar Anabel Dwyer of Ann Arbor, Michigan wrote that Crane, “correctly asserts that the charges should be withdrawn” because “all citizens … have a duty to nonviolently or symbolically resist complicity with the violations of the intransgressible principles of international customary law that the ongoing threatened use of those nuclear bombs constitute.” Crane’s attorney Milan Martin of Frankfurt urged the judge to allow the declaration into evidence, explaining that the principle of “competing harms” excuses minor offenses done in order to prevent greater crimes. Because Crane’s actions were nonviolent attempts at crime prevention, she must be acquitted, Martin said. The judge ruled that the declaration could not be submitted as evidence. Crane said she would appeal the conviction, “in hope that the higher court would consider the international humanitarian law which holds the US weapons illegal.”

In September 2021, Crane was in the same courtroom and was convicted of two similar charges and sentenced to a fine or 50 days in jail. Crane was a part of delegations of US peace activists to Germany organized by Nukewatch in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2021.

The Büchel air base maintains at least 20 U.S. hydrogen bombs known as B61-3s and B61-4s, which are managed there by the U.S. Air Force’s 702nd Munitions Support Squadron. German Tornado fighter jet pilots train to overfly Poland and attack Russia, a mere 1,000 miles to the east, using the US bombs. The US B61s are also stationed in The Netherlands, Belgium, Italy and Turkey, all in range of the Russian Federation using the Tornado jets that fly up to 1,490 mph.

Disarmament activists have focused on the Büchel base for 25 years demanding the ouster of the U.S. nuclear weapons and a cancellation of plans to replace today’s bombs with the new “B61-12,” now under production in the United States.

Since 1997, when the group Nonviolent Action to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (GAAA, www.gaaa.org) began a campaign of civil resistance in Büchel, at least 97 activists have been charges with “crimes” following nonviolent go-in actions.

*De Morgen [Antwerp], July 16, 2019 (https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/eindelijk-zwart-op-wit-er-liggen-amerikaanse-kernwapens-in-belgie~b051dc18/)

Filed Under: Direct Action, Nuclear Weapons, US Bombs Out of Germany

December 26, 2021 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

US and NATO Nuclear Lunacy Still Raving

DECEMBER 24, 2021

US and NATO Nuclear Lunacy Still Raving

BY JOHN LAFORGE

While Civil Society and a global movement work steadfastly across dozens of fields for the abolition of nuclear weapons, planning, preparations, and rehearsals for attacks using deployed H-bombs and nuclear missiles are routine in the US military and NATO.  Two years ago, the US Joint Chief of Staff published online, then quickly deleted, its thermonuclear mass destruction plan titled “Nuclear Operations, Joint Publication 3-72.”

Before the Joint Chiefs took it down, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists managed to preserve a copy.  The manual relies on abstractions and euphemism to depict the unthinkable.  It says, “The employment of nuclear weapons could have a significant influence on ground operations.”  Of course “employment” means detonation, and “significant influence” means searing fireballs, vaporized victims, blast and shock-wave devastation, demolished hospitals and schools, vast firestorms, and permanent radioactive contamination of water, soil, and the food chain.

The manual explains that nuclear attacks create “conditions” without describing them.  It says, “Using nuclear weapons could create conditions for decisive results and the restoration of strategic stability.”  Then, as if US presidents had never said, “Nuclear war cannot be won and must never be fought,” the report pretends it can and should.  “[T]he use of a nuclear weapon will…create conditions that affect how commanders will prevail in conflict.”

US nuclear war practice takes place routinely with allied European militaries.  “Steadfast Noon” is NATO’s code name for its annual nuclear attack practice, and Hans Kristensen reports for the Federation of American Scientists that, “This is the exercise that practices NATO’s nuclear strike mission with the B61 … nuclear bombs the US deploys in Europe.”  Jan Merička wrote in European Security Journal News Oct. 19, 2017, that Steadfast Noon is designed “to simulate nuclear strikes…and was conducted from the Kleine Brogel Air Base in Belgium and Büchel Air Base in Germany, where US B61 thermonuclear bombs with the force of up to 340 kilotons of TNT are stored.”  (FYI: Hiroshima was incinerated with a 15 kiloton US bomb.)

To illustrate the Pentagon’s ho-hum acceptance of mass destruction, it recently opened in Omaha its new, $1.3 billion Strategic Command headquarters for supervising and targeting the nuclear arsenal, and it named the building after General Curtis LeMay, who, the Omaha World Herald reported, designed and conducted the incendiary bombing of 60 Japanese cities at the end of WWII, bombing that “incinerated entire cities” killing as many as 900,000 civilians.  General LeMay’s motto and that of Strategic Command used to be “Death from Above,” but after the war it was changed to “Peace is Our Profession.”

In Germany, readiness for attacks with nuclear weapons is maintained by the USAF 702nd Munitions Support Squadron, which tends to Germany’s 33rd Fighter-Bomber Wing at Büchel Air Force Base.  Headlines from last October’s bombing “theater” included, and “NATO Holds Secret Nuclear War Exercises in Germany,” “German Air Force training for nuclear war as part of NATO;” from 2017, “NATO nuclear weapons exercise unusually open”; and in 2015, “NATO nuclear weapons exercise Steadfast Noon in Büchel.”

While the uninitiated might be aghast, the US military plans and prepares all year round for nuclear attacks at its far-flung “Defense Nuclear Weapons School” of the Air Force Nuclear College.  According to the school’s website, one branch (of “Armageddon Academy”) is at the Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany, the largest US military base outside the country.  Other branches are in New Mexico, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Oklahoma, and Ohio.  Outlines for this school’s ghoulish courses can been read online.  (The site may have been altered since I first reported on it in last June.)  For example, the school says boastfully that it “is responsible for delivering, sustaining and supporting air-delivered nuclear weapon systems for our warfighters … every day.”

Course outlines on the website include, “Theater Nuclear Operations, a 4.5-day course that provides training for planners, support staff, targeteers, and staff nuclear planners for joint operations and targeting.  The course provides an overview of nuclear weapon design, capabilities, and effects…. Objectives: …Understand the US nuclear planning and execution process; Understand the targeting effects of nuclear weapon employment.”  

Another class is, “Integrated Munitions Effects Assessment … a five-day course that provides students … proficiency in creating target models, developing attack plans using … nuclear weapons….”  Students “will be able to import, edit, and modify target sites”, “Calculate probabilistic attacks against predefined targets; [and] develop attack plans using … nuclear weapons….”

I am of the mind that setting the stage for nuclear attacks is both criminal and insane.  Luckily, millions of people are involved in the newly invigorated movement to rid the world of such madness, via the 2017 Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.  Read it sometime.

John LaForge is a Co-director of Nukewatch, a peace and environmental justice group in Wisconsin, and edits its newsletter.

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

December 19, 2021 by Nukewatch Leave a Comment

Federal Prosecutor Calls Illegality of US Nuclear Bombs in Germany an “Insignificant fact”

Nukewatch Quarterly Winter 2021-2022

On Oct. 12, 2021 Sigrid Eckert-Hoßbach, Jürgen “Hops” Hoßbach, Frits ter Kuile, and Johanna Adickes were on trial in Koblenz, Germany charged with trespassing and damage to a fence during an 18-person go-in protest at the Büchel air base in July 2018. The base is the staging ground for 20 US hydrogen bombs, called B61s, kept ready for German Tornado fighter jets to use in attacks against Russia.

The four nuclear weapons resisters had asked the regional court judge to allow expert witnesses to testify about the status of the nuclear weapons under international treaties, and about the risk of accidental nuclear attacks. The senior public prosecutor in the case objected in writing, claiming that even if the “policy” of stationing US H-bombs in Germany was a violation of international law, the request for experts should be rejected “due to the insignificance of the evidentiary fact.”

In a September 21 filing, the prosecutor wrote, “The fact that … the nuclear weapons policy of the German government is contrary to international law can be assumed to be true.”

This written acknowledgement by a federal prosecutor of the validity of the resisters’ foremost complaint about Germany’s “nuclear sharing” came as a shocking surprise. But the letter went on to claim, without legal analysis, that a justification defense based on international law “cannot be derived from this.”

Expert testimony was excluded from the trial and the four defendants were found guilty.

This Dec. 9, Nukewatch staffer John LaForge will be in the same courtroom on similar charges and has also asked the court to hear expert testimony. Although unlikely to be allowed, Dr. Francis Boyle of the University of Illinois Law School has agreed to testify. He wrote to Nukewatch October 28 that, nuclear weapons resisters have no “criminal intent” — an element the government has to prove. “My testimony will show that planning and preparation of nuclear attacks is ongoing criminal activity under international law. You have no culpability here because you were acting to prevent the ongoing commission of international crimes,” Prof. Boyle wrote.

Filed Under: Direct Action, Newsletter Archives, Nuclear Weapons, Quarterly Newsletter, US Bombs Out of Germany

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