The community at Jonah House greets you with all the blessings of this Easter season. Our reflection on Matthew's account of Easter yesterday was more up to date than today's newspapers. The same lies, coniving, suppression of truth and exercise of domination. And the redemption is in the love of friends and their/our support of one another and their/our insistence on speaking truth to power. We can say "Alleluia!" in spite of, if not because of, those Spirit filled people in jail, on trial, on the streets, gathering in circles of love and friendship and support. Bear with us, please. We've been away from the technology for some days (Faith and Resistance Retreat in Washington D.C.) and want to share a few updates with you. 1. Bill Frankel-Streit, serving 6 months for labeling the bloody Pentagon on the Feast of the Innocents, was moved from Warsaw VA jail to Philadelphia. His present address is William Streit #03809-052 Federal Detention Center PO Box 560 Philadelphia, PA 19105 Please know that Bill anticipates being there for a short time (roughly two weeks). He is designated to serve the remaining 4+ months in Fort Dix, NJ. He would welcome hearing from you. Steve Woolford and Steve Baggarly are still in Warsaw, alas! 2. Ardeth, Carol and Jackie remain in Clear Creek County Jail. Their sentencing is scheduled for July 25 - each at a different time of the day. We can brief you on that later. Jackie's guidelines have her at 5 - 6 years in prison. Ardeth and Carol's guidelines are 7 - 8 years. There is no expectation that the judge will engage in downward departure. We will be asking (and they are asking) that letters be sent to the judge via the probation and parole officer who is doing their pre-sentencing report. We do not yet have the basic information needed for the letters. What follows here is from Anabel Dwyer - content on the motions filed post trial. According to President Bush, "Evil tyrants threaten and use weapons of mass destruction and ignore international law." Three, increasingly famous, Dominican Sisters Carol Gilbert, Jackie Hudson and Ardeth Platte agreed. They acted to non-violently inspect unacceptable tyrannical behavior by the U.S. here at home. They prayerfully poured their blood in the form of crosses on the cement missile cover of a first-strike 300 kiloton nuclear weapon on high-alert. They lowered 32 feet of perimeter fence to non-violently expose on-going U.S. attempts and threats to commit war crimes and genocide with the Minuteman III, N-8. The Nuns filed motions showing that all the evidence at their trial, clear errors in the jury instructions, prosecutorial misconduct and jury tainting require either a Judgment of Acquittal, a New Trial or a Judgment for a Mistrial. The measure of the rule of law in this "free and democratic" country is at stake and the prosecutor has not "won" even by his and the court's interpretation of the rules. The Court's Judgment of Acquittal in the Nuns case could settle this matter reasonably based on the sworn testimony at trial. Even the Government's Sentencing Statement of Facts, also filed today, shows no evidence of sabotage or felony depredation. At the trial in Denver Federal District court early this month, the Prosecutor's Air Force witnesses testified that the Nuns did not injure, interfere with or obstruct the national defense. The Air Force was always prepared, ready, and intending on a moment's notice to unleash the 300 kiloton nuclear weapon; the Minuteman III missile's "mission" according to the Court's own unlimited definition of "national defense." No sabotage occurred so the Prosecutor transformed sabotage into simple "destruction of [any] national-defense materials." But the fence is not still national-defense under the sabotage statute. Thus the felony depredation of property crime alleged was no different from the sabotage charge. The prosecutor brought a sabotage charge apparently to make a felony out of the non-violent symbolic acts of the Sisters. The Nuns caused no "damage" that could reasonably reach $1000. The Sisters blood that they poured in the form of crosses on the cement missile cover and the tracks did no damage or injury to the silo cover or tracks. The Air Force personnel testified that they are paid a salary in part to routinely clean the silo site of debris. The part of the fence that the Air Force replaced, after the Sisters carefully lowered 32 feet for public exposure, was already in stock. It was quickly repaired by regular Air Force employees whose job involves repairing perimeter fences. So why the obvious injustice of seeking 5 to 8 year prison sentences for three Sisters' straight-forward good-faith act of civil resistance? Why such viciousness against Nuns who objectively intended to expose in a well-measured manner, what they knew to be a grossly illegal and criminal threat or attempt to use a horrific weapon of mass destruction? These women do indeed have extraordinary courage and research abilities of the sort it takes to face the intended and horrific effects of the Minuteman III, N-8. They realized that any threat or use of such a weapon is grossly immoral and politically, economically and environmentally suicidal. And they also knew that US and international law absolutely prohibit any threat or use of such a weapon. "Threat or use of this weapon of mass destruction is just as illegal and criminal by the U.S. as by anyone else. Complete nuclear disarmament is a legal, treaty-based obligation of the US and all countries and can only reasonably occur non-violently one weapon at a time," said Ardeth Platte. If acquittal is not granted, a new trial or mistrial must occur. a) Our Constitution requires presumption of innocence of defendants not presumption of innocence of the threat or use of the Minuteman III, N-8. Yet, the Court prohibited any defense argument and thus made crimes which require proof beyond a reasonable doubt of specific criminal intent into strict liability crimes. b) While the Court prohibited political arguments in his court of law, the Prosecutor argued his political conclusion that our nuclear weapons are good and necessary based on evidence not brought. Then the Court instructed the jury to ignore any of the Nuns' evidence that any threat or use of the Minuteman III, N-8 is illegal and criminal under binding US and international law. c) Under our Constitution, the Courts say what the law is, but they cannot ignore or misconstrue directly relevant and binding law, the laws prohibiting attempts, threats and conspiracy to commit war crimes and genocide. d) Undisputed facts of the Minuteman III, N-8, that the jury was not permitted to consider, clearly show that the heat, blast and radiation is 20 times the Hiroshima bomb, any threat or use is, ipso facto, a war crime or genocide as defined in the U.S. criminal code. Further facts show that the US now intends and is prepared to use this weapon in pre-emptive attack against a range of "rogue states" in violation of numerous treaties of the United States. Obligations for nuclear disarmament and prohibitions against threat or commission of war crimes and genocide are not as the prosecutor claims "rejected philosophy of self-proclaimed international law gurus" or as the court claims of "principal mavens." If our courts no longer have to take cognizance of the United States criminal code, the Constitution, the United Nations Charter and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the rules and principles of humanitarian law, the peremptory and well defined laws of war, then we are ! no longer a nation of laws. e) The Prosecutor and Court relied on their hidden experts' conclusions regarding the content and application of the laws of war in this case but Defendants were deprived of their Sixth Amendment right to be confronted with the witnesses against them. f) The Nuns exposed a weapon of mass destruction whose use or threat blatantly ignores both international and US law. Then the Nuns, messengers of bad tidings, were arrested for felonies whose property element is a weapon of mass destruction. The Prosecutor brings criminal charges and then the court agrees that the Defendants have no standing to raise the directly relevant law? Come on folks, you really can't believe that the US can do no wrong and that we as free citizens may or can do nothing about it anyway? g) The Nuns intended to point out and expose in a highly measured and non-violent way, clear violations of our own binding law by the US. This may be shocking to some people but in our democracy it is most certainly not a felony. So acquittal is clearly the reasonable way to deal with this dispute. Otherwise a new trial is essential and this time the charges should be clear. Are the Nuns charged with "insulting the government," trespass, vandalism or political protest? These are the charges the government and the court addressed and attempted to prove. Might does not make right under our legal system. The law is what we the people have agreed it is and at least on October 6, 2002, we did not agree that US and international law permitted anyone, including us, any threat or use of a hideous and indiscriminate weapon like the Minuteman III, N-8. 4. Our faith and resistance retreat was a powerful gift in which peacemakers came together to witness in these so difficult times. On Holy Thursday we were at the Marriott Hotel in D.C. because the US Naval Associaton was holding its annual Arms Bazaar there. Buying and selling of weapons of mass destruction as well as weapons of more limited destruction - all of them Hi Tech. Our presence was so unwelcome no one was allowed into the hotel once we were there. On Good Friday we went to the Pentagon. 16 risked arrest at the East Entrance though the police took only 8 of us. Naed Smith from the Harrisburg Catholic Worker used the symbol of blood; others enacted a die in or knelt in prayer. The whole group was able to stay and sing and even hold banners which is a departure from what we've experienced at the Pentagon for two years now. On Holy Saturday we went to the home of Donald Rumsfeld and held a procession with the El Salvador cross, a coffin, the 4 mourning mothers with their dead babies. Five people remained in front of Rumsfeld's house holding photos of Iraqi people while the body of the group processed four times up and down the street (joined by some of Rumsfeld's neighbors). Our theme was Iraqi dead count; count the Iraqi dead. We ended our presence with a powerful liturgy in front of the house. In the course of the 4 days, we heard from Coleman McCarthy, Scott Wright and Mairaid Maguire and had a circle of sharing of experiences at the nuns' trial in Colorado (11 of us were present for the trial and shared impressions and experiences and emotions). All of us felt the solidarity and love and support of the whole circle. It was a grace-filled time. 5. Trial tomorrow in D.C. for folks arrested at Lafayette Park on January 19 (also in NYC for those arrested at the US Mission to the UN). Love from us all - Susan, Liz, Gary, Osvaldo, Laurel, Steve, Kate, Frida and Ian (with us for Easter), Jerry and Molly (with us for a week to 2 weeks) winmail11.dat