Plowshares Nun to be Released Thursday after 41 Months Imprisonment & other Anti-War NVDA Updates

by Art - Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House Mon Dec 19, 2005 10:07 Washington DC, USA

Dearest Friends,
Thank you all so much for your heartfelt prayers and loving support for me and other members of Witness Against Torture. It was truly a sacred
experience which brought us all into greater solidarity with the tortured prisoners. As you know we walked 107 kilometers before setting up a vigil
and encampment at the closest point we could possibly get to the prisoners.
After repeated appeals to the White House and the Guantanamo Base commander, we were denied an opportunity to perform a simple work of mercy--to visit the prisoners. On Thursday we ended our three day vigil and fast with a liturgy at the Glorieta Cuban military checkpoint about 20 kilometers from the tortured prisoners we attempted to visit. We give thanks to God for what
we were able to do and pray that God will now guide us in the next steps we
take on behalf of the Guantanamo prisoners.

Fourteen of us who flew via the Domincan Republic landed at Newark Airport last night. We were not given a warm welcome by US agents. To the contrary, we were interrogated by Homeland Security and Customs agents. We had to fill
out a special Cuba form explaining why we went to Cuba without a license and what we did. This information, we were told, will be turned over to the
Office of Foreign Assets Control, a division of the Treasury Dept. which deals with people who travel to Cuba without a governemnt license. OFAC is
the governmnet agency which recently fined Voices in the Wilderness $20,000 for taking medicine and medical supplies to Iraq in violation of US sanctions laws. It remains to be seen what will happen!

As we approach Christmas let us pray for each other that we can make the Word flesh and believe that "nothing is impossible for God!" For the LIGHT
shines in the darkness and the darkness will never overcome it!!!

With all my love and prayers,
Art

______________________________________________________________

by update Mon Dec 19, 2005 13:51

Sean O'Reilly has a hearing date in February for charge of "obstructing a Commonwealth Officer in the course of duty etc".

Adele Goldie, Jim Dwling and Bryan Law have a mention date in January from which a trial date will be set on several Federal fences in relation to their Citizenship Inspection of Pine Gap.

Check link for for photos & background on their resistance action.........................

by update Mon Dec 19, 2005 21:53

http://www.plowsharesactions.org/webpages/SACREDEARTHANDSPACEPLOWSHARES.htm

by Update Wed Dec 21, 2005 08:50

10 peace activists were arrested June '05 blockading "Operation Talisman Sabre", a joint OZ/US military exercise involving 11,000 U.S. troops in Central Queensland, Australia.

4 were found guilty on charges in relation to blockading the Shoalwater Bay base. The decision on 6 who occupied the base conducting a memorial service for those killed in the invasion of Iraq has been reserved.

Photos and background on the nvda see link......


Meanwhile the base itself is being upgraded.....
A HIGH-security explosives factory and munitions-loading wharf is being considered by the Defence Department as it finalises plans for a joint military training facility for Australian and US troops.

In a move likely to fuel speculation the US will eventually use Australia as a military staging post, the Australian Defence Force is eyeing sites in Queensland and the Northern Territory to complement existing facilities at Twofold Bay in NSW.

The "joint combined training centre" was put on the agenda last year and became a key item of discussion at AusMin, the annual bilateral meeting between US and Australian cabinet ministers and officials, held recently in Adelaide, where a memorandum of understanding was signed.

Defence has proposed several infrastructure upgrades for central Queensland's Shoalwater Bay Training Area -- yet to be approved by federal cabinet.

Shoalwater Bay would be the focal point for any exercises conducted through the JCTC, including the next Exercise Talisman-Sabre expected to involve tens of thousands of troops in 2007.

The JCTC will also feature a computer simulation network designed to connect Shoalwater Bay exercises with Bradshaw Training Area and Delamere Air Weapons Range in the Northern Territory and comparable facilities worldwide.

Troops will also test existing weaponry and Defence is examining if Port Alma near Shoalwater Bay might be upgraded to take advantage of the nearby Bajool explosives area to supply the navy with ammunition.

Sites in Darwin are also being examined and a Defence spokesman said facilities at Twofold Bay near Eden -- meant to replace outdated facilities at Point Wilson in Victoria -- would remain operational.

The spokesman said Point Wilson "requires considerable funding to maintain it as a serviceable port for the long-term" and Defence was examining all options for the importation of explosive ordnance.

While any new factory or munitions-loading wharf is unlikely to be operational before Exercise Talisman-Sabre, Defence has confirmed it will make its ammunition facilities available to US forces.

"Foreign forces participating in exercises or activities close to Eden, Darwin or Port Alma can seek Australian authorisation to use the ADF facilities for ammunitioning, if required," the spokesperson said.

Defence has previously assured councils and community groups around Shoalwater Bay the JCTC would not make the area any more of a terrorist target, but has yet to detail its proposed infrastructure upgrades.




Brisbane Anti Bases
043 2563 967
peaceconvergence@yahoo.com.au
www.geocities.com/peaceconvergence

by Justin Morahan - Peace People Wed Dec 21, 2005 09:33

Welcome to the mad world of war, lies, unfreedom, powermongering, injustice where all the worst clichés come true.

But be happy dear sister that they haven't broken your wonderful spirit in Lockupland.

I wish you a happy and serene next phase of your life of witness. Thank you for your action.

by Brian - Catholic Worker Thu Dec 22, 2005 00:53 USA

Friends,

the FBI and the NY Times has outed the
Catholic Worker's "semi-communistic ideology" and lists us as among "extremist special interest groups" whose cells engage in violent or other illegal acts, making them "a serious domestic terrorist threat."
thought you'd like to know.
Brian


New York Times
December 20, 2005
F.B.I. Watched Activist Groups, New Files Show

By ERIC LICHTBLAU
WASHINGTON, Dec. 19 - Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation have conducted numerous surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved, at least indirectly, groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.

F.B.I. officials said Monday that their investigators had no interest in monitoring political or social activities and that any investigations that touched on advocacy groups were driven by evidence of criminal or
violent activity at public protests and in other
settings.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, John Ashcroft, who was then attorney general, loosened restrictions on the F.B.I.'s investigative powers, giving the bureau greater ability to visit and monitor Web sites,
mosques and other public entities in developing terrorism leads. The bureau has used that authority to investigate not only groups with suspected ties to foreign terrorists, but also protest groups suspected
of having links to violent or disruptive activities.

But the documents, coming after the Bush
administration's confirmation that President Bush had authorized some spying without warrants in fighting terrorism, prompted charges from civil rights advocates that the government had improperly blurred the line between terrorism and acts of civil
disobedience and lawful protest.

One F.B.I. document indicates that agents in
Indianapolis planned to conduct surveillance as part of a "Vegan Community Project." Another document talks of the Catholic Workers group's "semi-communistic
ideology." A third indicates the bureau's interest in determining the location of a protest over llama fur planned by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

The documents, provided to The New York Times over the past week, came as part of a series of Freedom of Information Act lawsuits brought by the American Civil
Liberties Union. For more than a year, the A.C.L.U. has been seeking access to information in F.B.I. files on about 150 protest and social groups that it says
may have been improperly monitored.

The F.B.I. had previously turned over a small number of documents on antiwar groups, showing the agency's interest in investigating possible anarchist or
violent links in connection with antiwar protests and demonstrations in advance of the 2004 political conventions. And earlier this month, the A.C.L.U.'s Colorado chapter released similar documents involving,
among other things, people protesting logging practices at a lumber industry gathering in 2002.

The latest batch of documents, parts of which the A.C.L.U. plans to release publicly on Tuesday, totals more than 2,300 pages and centers on references in internal files to a handful of groups, including PETA, the environmental group Greenpeace and the Catholic Workers group, which promotes antipoverty efforts and social causes.

Many of the investigative documents turned over by the bureau are heavily edited, making it difficult or impossible to determine the full context of the references and why the F.B.I. may have been discussing events like a PETA protest. F.B.I. officials say many
of the references may be much more benign than they seem to civil rights advocates, adding that the documents offer an incomplete and sometimes misleading
snapshot of the bureau's activities.

"Just being referenced in an F.B.I. file is not
tantamount to being the subject of an investigation," said John Miller, a spokesman for the bureau.

"The F.B.I. does not target individuals or
organizations for investigation based on their
political beliefs," Mr. Miller said. "Everything we do is carefully promulgated by federal law, Justice Department guidelines and the F.B.I.'s own rules."

A.C.L.U officials said the latest batch of documents released by the F.B.I. indicated the agency's interest in a broader array of activist and protest groups than they had previously thought. In light of other recent
disclosures about domestic surveillance activities by the National Security Agency and military intelligence units, the A.C.L.U. said the documents reflected a pattern of overreaching by the Bush administration.

"It's clear that this administration has engaged every possible agency, from the Pentagon to N.S.A. to the F.B.I., to engage in spying on Americans," said Ann Beeson, associate legal director for the A.C.L.U.

"You look at these documents," Ms. Beeson said, "and you think, wow, we have really returned to the days of J. Edgar Hoover, when you see in F.B.I. files that they're talking about a group like the Catholic Workers league as having a communist ideology."

The documents indicate that in some cases, the F.B.I. has used employees, interns and other confidential informants within groups like PETA and Greenpeace to develop leads on potential criminal activity and has downloaded material from the groups' Web sites, in addition to monitoring their protests.

In the case of Greenpeace, which is known for highly publicized acts of civil disobedience like the boarding of cargo ships to unfurl protest banners, the files indicate that the F.B.I. investigated possible
financial ties between its members and militant groups like the Earth Liberation Front and the Animal Liberation Front.

These networks, which have no declared leaders and are only loosely organized, have been described by the F.B.I. in Congressional testimony as "extremist
special interest groups" whose cells engage in violent or other illegal acts, making them "a serious domestic terrorist threat."

In testimony last year, John E. Lewis, deputy
assistant director of the counterterrorism division, said the F.B.I. estimated that in the past 10 years such groups had engaged in more than 1,000 criminal acts causing more than $100 million in damage.

When the F.B.I. investigates evidence of possible violence or criminal disruptions at protests and other events, those investigations are routinely handled by
agents within the bureau's counterterrorism division.

But the groups mentioned in the newly disclosed F.B.I. files questioned both the propriety of characterizing such investigations as related to "terrorism" and the necessity of diverting counterterrorism personnel from more pressing investigations.

"The fact that we're even mentioned in the F.B.I. files in connection with terrorism is really troubling," said Tom Wetterer, general counsel for Greenpeace. "There's no property damage or physical injury caused in our activities, and under any definition of terrorism, we'd take issue with that."

Jeff Kerr, general counsel for PETA, rejected the suggestion in some F.B.I. files that the animal rights group had financial ties to militant groups, and said he, too, was troubled by his group's inclusion in the
files.

"It's shocking and it's outrageous," Mr. Kerr said. "And to me, it's an abuse of power by the F.B.I. when groups like Greenpeace and PETA are basically being punished for their social activism."

by Alice Sat Dec 24, 2005 00:28

THis was the first story on Alice SPrings News and I guess main story in aper for last week.


THE PICTURE THEY DIDN'T WANT YOU TO SEE. Report by ERWIN CHLANDA.
This is the picture they didn't want you to see: Christian activist Adele Goldie, 29, from Brisbane, sitting on the roof of a building reached by breaking into the top secret US-run Pine Gap.
The photo was taken by fellow Christian Jim Dowling, 50, from Brisbane.
The flash from his camera could well have been from a rocket propelled grenade had the "insurgents" been from Al Qaeda instead of the Christians Against All Terrorism.
They take the view that terrorism includes fighting illegal wars and carpet bombing civilians from 40,000 feet, no matter who's doing it.
The Territory taxpayer is footing quite a bit of the bill for the spy base's incompetence in providing rudimentary security for itself: five protesters have been charged in a Territory court.
Most irritatingly, the police media liaison person in Alice Springs, employed to inform the public via the media, was doing a ring-around trying to shut the media up.
She phoned the Alice News and, presumably, other local media, pointing out that under the Defence (Special Undertakings) Act 1952 "a person is guilty of an offence if the person makes a photograph, sketch, plan, model, article, note or other document of, or relating to, an area or anything in an area; or obtains, collects, records, uses, has in his or her possession, publishes or communicates to some other person a photograph, sketch, plan, model, article, note or other document or information relating to, or used in, an area, or relating to anything in an area; and the area is a prohibited area.
"Maximum penalty: Imprisonment for 7 years."
Pine Gap pictures used to be a good little earner for this reporter: as a pilot I used to fly around the base quite a lot, just outside the restricted (now prohibited) airspace, take TV and still pix and sell them to media around the world.
This, I'm guessing, got up the nose of the spy base and they supplied their own images to all media who asked for them, ruining my lucrative trade.
I wonder how many Pine Gap spooks are now doing seven years for communicating "a photograph, sketch, plan, model, article Š" well, see above.
Times may have changed: maybe we should have a book burning or image burning in Todd Mall.
The NT Government may well join in as it's doing a fine job getting nosey reporters on the straight and narrow (see Comment pages 4 and 5).
Another likely participant is the thought police at Uluru. We had a call from them earlier this year asking to submit for their inspection our entire archive of Ayers Rock photographs, so they could tell us which ones we can use and which ones we can't.
We haven't complied with their request.
b

by Update Sat Dec 24, 2005 00:36

http://www.jonahhouse.org/PlatteRelease_photos.htm

by Update Sat Dec 24, 2005 00:38

http://www.jonahhouse.org/PlatteRelease_index.htm

by Jonah Mon Dec 26, 2005 00:27

http://www.jonahhouse.org/F&RDec05_theme.htm

by Update Thu Dec 29, 2005 21:57

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/4562380.stm