[Peace-discuss] Jury Reaches Verdict in Disarm Now Plowshares Trial

[Karen Medina]

So so so cool: >They put up two big banners which said "Disarm Now
Plowshares: Trident Illegal and Immoral," scattered sunflower seeds,
and prayed until they were arrested at dawn.

So so so scary: >Once arrested, the five were cuffed and hooded with
sand bags because the marine in charge testified "when we secure
prisoners anywhere in Iraq or Afghanistan we hood them...so we did it
to them."

Yes. > the right of citizens to try to stop war crimes by their government.

Thanks for sharing Stuart! It was a good article. Bad news, but good press.

> the commander of the ship shoots the missiles, delivers the weapons.  Which, in my opinion, in my knowledge, is contrary to the law of armed conflict which says a commander is responsible for - - is responsible for following the rules and principles of humanitarian law, and for not indiscriminately hurting noncombatants and for not causing undue suffering or environmental damage, and that commanding officer is powerless, and it's an awful feeling.

> The eight Trident nuclear submarines home ported at Naval Base
> Kitsap-Bangor each carry 24 Trident D-5 nuclear missiles. Each missile
> carries up to eight warheads, each one having an explosive yield of up to
> 475 kilotons, over 30 times the destructive force of the weapon dropped on
> Hiroshima.
>
> Additionally, Bangor is home to SWFPAC where nuclear warheads are stored
> ready for deployment.  Located just 20 miles west of Seattle, it is home to
> the largest single stockpile of nuclear warheads in the U.S. arsenal,
> housing more than 2000 nuclear warheads.
>
> According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, the 2,364 nuclear
> warheads at Bangor are approximately 24 percent of the entire U.S. arsenal,
> more than the combined nuclear warheads than China, France, Israel, India,
> North Korea and Pakistan.