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John’s Jail Updates – RELEASED!

John LaForge at an anti-war rally during work release 3 days before his final release from prison for nuclear weapons actions in Germany.

Nukewatch’s John LaForge was released from Glasmoor Prison in Hamburg, Germany on February 28, 2023 as planned after completing his 50-day sentence for his part in actions aimed at removing US nuclear weapons from Germany. Learn more about the campaign to remove US nuclear weapons from Germany HERE.

Read John’s letter after being released HERE.

John LaForge entering Billwerder prison in Germany on January 10, 2023 (Photo by Marion Küpker)
Read John’s first letter from jail January 15.
February 22, 2023

John was able to celebrate his birthday in prison, with a balloon and all. He shared herring with his cellmates and received many birthday wishes in the mail which were much appreciated.

February 14, 2023

John is doing well. He has 2 weeks left of incarceration. You can still send mail since it has only been taking 7-8 days to reach him from the U.S., especially since his birthday will be coming up February 22.  He is still being released on weekends making it all more tolerable.


January 30, 2023

Today the German group Nonviolent Action Abolish Nuclear Weapons sent an open letter to the German Constitutional Court (signed by 77 people) to demand the acceptance of John’s constitutional complaint to review the illegality under international law of the US nuclear bombs stationed in Germany.

Read the press release.

Read the letter of support from retired judge Bernd Hahnfeld, board member of the International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms


January 28, 2023

John emailed the Nukewatch office during his first full 32-hour ‘work release’ day outside the Glasmoor prison camp. He went to the Cotton Club for a wonderful Jazz concert with friends.

He wrote to make sure we were doing our work spell-checking and proofreading. He mentioned that a friend had recently come across a letter he had written February 14, 1983, from solitary confinement in Leavenworth Federal Correctional Institution! He wrote, “after 40 years of this, I don’t have anything to prove any more. It’s like my friend Jeff always says: ‘You have to start young if you’re going to stick it out.'”

John is able to make daily phone calls out within Germany, so we know he is doing well. From now on every weekend John will be allowed to leave every Friday at 3pm and has to be back in prison on Sunday afternoon. His release date is February 28 so you still have time to write him a letter at the address above.

 

January 24, 2023

At the Nukewatch office we received a poem for John from Sharon Cody a Nukewatch supporter.

I hope you like this little spoof-
A tribute to my favorite goof:
Enjoy your 50-day vacation
But keep alive your dedication
To the cause we both desire-
That Earth avoids a full-on fire
Caused by dropping bombs galore,
Thus ending life forevermore.

January 22, 2023

Hooray! John LaForge was given an unexpected 10-hour furlough today from the JVA Glasmoor Prison and was able to participate in the Nuclear Ban Treaty festivities at the Hamburg City Hall.

Out of Jail for a Day Celebrating the 2nd Anniversary of the Nuclear Ban Treaty!
Photo by Hinrich Schultze

January 21, 2023

John welcomed his first visitors in prison today, his wife Marion Küpker (also spokewoman for the campaign “Büchel is everywhere! Nuclear-weapons free now!”) and brother-in-law Gerrit Küpker, where they found him in good condition. He will sit in the prison a little over one month longer. He is happily receiving about 15 letters each day and looks forward to receiving more mail.

A voice recording of John was played at the European Regional Meeting of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (watch for a future upload of the video). In the recording he praised the passing of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons(TPNW) and condemned the international law breaking by the United States and Germany in their nuclear-sharing agreement that violates the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the Nuremburg Principles, and the TPNW.

January 18, 2023

John already received very early mailings from Canada and the US. He is in good condition and shares a cell with two men at the new prison where he has a shower room that is always available. They also have their own refrigerator and can make their own tea and coffee throughout the day. His nickname in prison is “Greenpeace.”

January 17, 2023

Today John was moved to a halfway prison “Glasmoor.” His new address is: John LaForge, JVA Glasmoor, Am Glasmoor 99, 22852 Norderstedt, Germany. He will also receive the mail going to the former prison, but this always takes extra time.

He was able to make a phone call out today. In this new prison he finally received all his books and vitamin and mineral supplements that he took in with his personal luggage.

January 10, 2023

A vigil with 24 people accompanied John to prison today. He was also allowed to call out of the prison a few hours after entering to say he was fine and that he will be sent in a halfway prison next week, which is in northern Hamburg and much nicer: big garden and free movement in the garden until midnight…

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American Activist Enters German Prison for Protesting U.S. Nuclear Weapons Based There

Right before John enters the prison (Photo by Marion Küpker)

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.

24 people attended a vigil outside prison before John began his sentence (Photo by Marion Küpker)
The 66-year-old Minnesota native and co-director of Nukewatch, the Wisconsin-based advocacy and action group, 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 approximately 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”, which translates to 50 days incarceration. LaForge has refused to pay* and has appealed the convictions to Germany’s Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, the country’s highest, which has not yet ruled in the case.
John speaks outside of the prison before the start of his sentence (Photo by Marion Küpker)

In the appeal, LaForge argues that both 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.

Prison address

(note that it takes two weeks for mail to arrive from the U.S.)

JVA Glasmoor

Am Glasmoor 99

22852 Norderstedt

Germany

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2022 Summer of Anti-Nuclear Revival

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2022
By Kelly Lundeen

As you are reading your Nukewatch Quarterly, Joe Biden may be reading his daily Delaware News Journal noticing the ad with the statement (below), “The Existential Threat of Nuclear Weapons and the Treaty on The Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons” (TPNW). The Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative, of which Nukewatch is a member, placed the ad and is working to raise awareness of the nuclear ban treaty by calling on U.S. media to recognize the existence of the Treaty and to include it in news coverage regarding the nuclear threat and solutions. If your organization hasn’t signed onto this statement, visit <nuclearbantreaty.org> to do so.

This summer is set to be one of anti-nuclear actions with the commemoration of the 1982 million-person nuclear-abolition march, the first Meeting of States Parties (MSP) about the TPNW, both in June, and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Review Conference in August. The latter two meetings have been postponed due to coronavirus restrictions but are now scheduled within two months of each other. In the lead-up to these events, the Nuclear Ban Treaty Collaborative has coordinated a nationwide media event to release the statement on June 7, as groups around the country call on news outlets to boost coverage of the TPNW. June 12 marks the 40th anniversary of the largest peace demonstration in U.S. history in 1982, the nuclear disarmament protest that contributed to the end of the cold war — when more than a million people gathered in New York City. A New York-based live-stream by RootsAction.org will serve as a catalyst for grassroots organizing to remember our history and re-imagine our future.

You can get involved by organizing a local event to align with the MSP to the TPNW, which takes place in Vienna, Austria June 21-23 with 60 nations meeting to discuss universalizing the Treaty, assistance to survivors of nuclear weapons use and testing, and environmental remediation of contaminated areas — issues that have never before been addressed by an international treaty.

Nukewatch’s John LaForge will attend the MSP and report “live-stream” from Vienna. Look for the date and time to be determined, sign your organization onto the statement, and watch for action alerts to commemorate the Trinity bomb test, and the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings at nuclearbantreaty.org.

 

The Existential Threat of Nuclear Weapons & the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons

Please join hundreds of other groups, and sign on to this Statement here: <nuclearbantreaty.org>

The power to initiate a global apocalypse lies in the hands of the leaders of nine nations.

As 122 nations of the world indicated when they adopted the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons in July, 2017, this is unacceptable.

As concerns about the threat of nuclear weapons re-enter the public consciousness, it is important to know that humankind is not without an answer to the nuclear threat. The Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which entered into force on January 22, 2021, provides a clear pathway to the elimination of the nuclear threat.

We call on all nuclear-armed states to take immediate steps to:

• Engage the Treaty on the Prohibition of
Nuclear Weapons;
• Attend the First Meeting of States Parties;
• Sign, ratify, and implement the Treaty.

We also call on the U.S. media to recognize the existence of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons and to include the Treaty in discussions, articles, and editorials regarding the nuclear threat and methods available to address it.

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New Office in Justice Dept. to Fight Environmental Racism

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2022
Julia Kane, Grist
https://www.justice.gov/oej

The Biden administration on May 5th unveiled a new government office for communities that have been targeted and plagued by polluters for decades.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is launching its first-ever Office of Environmental Justice, which, along with other federal agencies, will bring cases against polluters, prioritizing the communities most affected by environmental harm.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a press conference, “Communities of color, Indigenous communities, and low-income communities often bear the brunt of the harm caused by environmental crime, pollution, and climate change.”

The new environmental justice office commits the DOJ to fighting these problems by “vigorously and transparently working to secure environmental justice … in communication with the communities most affected by the underlying violations of federal law,” Garland said.

The Office of Environmental Justice will be led by Cynthia Ferguson, an attorney in the department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division.

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan noted the return of “supplemental environmental projects” as a law enforcement mechanism the Trump administration had banned. The projects allow convicted polluters to fund local anti-pollution initiatives as part of penalties for breaking environmental laws. Regan said the projects were “a tool to secure tangible public health benefits for communities harmed” by illegal pollution.

Jane English, the NAACP’s environmental and climate justice program manager, welcomed the news writing: “As climate change worsens, it is imperative that our leaders produce real, tangible solutions to protect Black and frontline communities and correct existing and past harms, all while initiating direct law enforcement corrective responses to egregious harms and environmental injustices.”

 

–Grist, May 6, 2022; U.S. Department of Justice original document

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Zero-Emission Canada Possible

Nukewatch Quarterly Summer 2022
By John LaForge
David Suzuki Foundation Study

Canada can achieve 100% carbon-emission-free electricity production by 2035 by urgently promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency, smarter transmission, and by avoiding the cost, pollution, and delays of nuclear power, fossil gas, carbon capture, and carbon offsets. So says the David Suzuki Foundation in a new study. The report details an overhaul of Canada’s electricity sector and identifies vast potential to expand wind and solar capacity, sources cited by the International Energy Agency as “the cheapest sources of new electricity generation in history.” Energy transition pioneer Amory Lovins told the Guardian, “far better to deploy fast, inexpensive, and sure technologies like wind or solar than one that is slow to build, speculative, and very costly. Anything else makes climate change worse than it needs to be.”

— The Energy Mix online, May 27, 2020; the Guardian, Mar 26, 2022

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