"The Law is in the Service of Death": Nuclear Weapons Resisters Jailed in Tennessee

"The no trespass law at Y12 is one of a web of laws used to protect Weapons of Mass Destruction...The laws and the courts defend weapons for doomsday. The law is in the service of death. My action at Y12 was to willfully do good in the service of life." 

--Steve Baggarly testifying at Knoxville trial

 The scales of justice were tipped against the defendants long before the trial began," according to a report by the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. Eight of the twelve Y-12 nuclear resisters convicted of federal trespass at the Y-12 nuclear bomb plant in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, are being held in the Blount County Adult Detention Center in Maryville after a three-day trial ending May 11 in Knoxville. The Y-12 facility processes uranium for new hydrogen bombs being built to replace W76 warheads on Trident submarine ballistic missiles

Nuclear Resisters gather prior to Federal trial in Knoxville

Asheville organizers Coleman Smith and Judith Hallock of New South Network of War Resisters, joined with the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and other regional activists in support of defendants who traveled from throughout the U.S.

Judith Hallock, a founding member of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, was one of 23 arrested in July and convicted on state charges for blocking the road into the Y12 facility.

According to a report by John LaForge in Nukewatch, U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Guyton prohibited the defendants from relying on justification defenses, specifically declared irrelevant  their moral, political or religious beliefs, and declared, "Whether the production of nuclear weapons at the Y-12 National Security Complex violates international law is irrelevant to the present case."

Sr. Mary Dennis Lentsch of Washburn, Tenn. at the gates of Y-12 bomb plant.

Conviction on federal charges carries a potential prison sentence of up to one year for those resisters who crossed the barbed wire fence onto federal property at the bomb plant. Prison and jail time is not a new experience for these valiant activists, each with exemplary records of civil resistance to the crime of nuclear weapons production. 

Sr. Jackie Hudson, 76, of Poulsbo, Washington; Sr. Carol Gilbert, 63, and Sr. Ardeth Platte, 75, both of Baltimore, Maryland; Jean Gump, 83, of Bloomingdale, Michigan; Steve Baggarly, 46, of Norfolk, Virginia;  Bonnie Urfer, 59, of Luck, Wisconsin; and Michael Walli, 62, of Duluth, Minnesota.are all being held at the Blount County Adult Detention Center.  The men are reported to be together in one small unit, while the women have been split between two separate units. 

Fr. Bill Bichsel, 82, of Tacoma, Washington who was already serving a three month prison sentence for the Disarm Now Plowshares action, remains at the Knox County Sheriff's Detention Facility, where federal marshals had delivered him in shackles from a prison in Washington state to stand trial in Knoxville.

The other defendents are Beth Rosdatter, 50, of Lexington, Kentucky.; Sr. Mary Dennis Lentsch, 74, of Washburn, Tennessee; Bradford Lyttle, 83, of Chicago, Illinois; and Dennis DuVall, 69, of Prescott, Arizona. (Ill health prevented a 13th defendant, David Corcoran of Chicago, from participating and the court scheduled an August 22 trial.).

Members of the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance and other supporters have begun visiting the prisoners during the one hour per week they are permitted to have visitors, according to a report by the Nuclear Resister, and commissary accounts have been established for all of the defendants. Contributions for that purpose should be sent by check payable to Sue Ablao and note it is for the Y-12 Resisters. Sue¹s address is: Ground Zero Center For
Nonviolent Action, 16159 Clear Creek Road NW, Poulsbo, WA 98370.

The complete postal addresses for the peace prisoners are listed below and can also be found at http://www.nukeresister.org/inside-out/. Individually addressed letters to the activists held in Blount County
may not contain photos, cards, or any enclosures in addition to your letter.  Your letter should be written on standard 8.5 x 11 paper.

To write individually to Bonnie Urfer, Jackie Hudson, Carol Gilbert, Ardeth Platte, Jean Gump, Michael Walli and Steve Baggarly:

(Inmate's Name)
Blount County Adult Detention Center
920 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway
Maryville, TN 37804-5002

To write to Bill (Bix) Bichsel:
William Bichsel, IDN 1155703
Unit 2B
Knox County Sheriff's Detention Facility
5001 Maloneyville Rd
Knoxville, TN 37918



Report by Clare Hanrahan of New South Network of War Resisters

Walking for a Nuclear Free Future: Asheville to Oak Ridge, TN

Pilgrimage for a Nuclear Free Future steps out from Asheville, NC  to join the April 16 Direct Action and march from Bissell Park in Oak Ridge to the gates of the Y-12 bomb plant.

The mountainS of Western North Carolina once again reverberate to the Buddhist drum and the  sounds of the mantra NA MU MYO HO REN GE KYO.  This is the deeply resonate chant of the Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist order as they make their way, step by step,  to the gates of the Y-12 nuclear bomb factory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. A dozen walkers set out from Asheville on April 8 for  the 12th annual pilgrimage to the "Secret City," part of the Manhattan Project where fuel was enriched for the world's first atomic bomb.  I joined them for two days of walking through the greening mountains, rich farmland and blooming meadows. Along the way we found a resting spot on the shady lawn of a man who told us his father had worked at Oak Ridge and had since died from a form of cancer caused by the radiation exposure.  "Ya'll are welcome to rest here as long as you want," he told us.

The rural route to Oak Ridge winds through some of the most beautiful land in the country. Our friends Brother Utsumi and Sister Denise have been walking the highways and byways of the Southeast U.S. for over twenty years, each step a prayer for peace. On this walk every step seemed weighted with grief over the ongoing tragedy in Japan.  Bro. Utsumi's sister and other family members live close to the earthquake and Tsunami disaster area. "We Japanese have a special duty to speak out against the use of nuclear weapons and power," he told me.  His particular focus has been the nuclear bomb plant in Oak Ridge. Brother Utsumi is a Japanese Buddhist monk, and Sr. Denise is an American woman and former journalist who joined the order twenty years ago.  The two are a familiar presence at actions for peace throughout the Southeast.

The Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, TN  is the last full-scale operating nuclear weapons production plant in the United States.  Y12 makes the thermonuclear "secondaries" --the part that turns an atomic bomb into a thermonuclear bomb. A new bomb plant is proposed for Oak Ridge as a "Uranium Processing Facility" to manufacture parts for the thermonuclear warheads, according to the Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance, a grassroots group that has been educating and acting for the abolition of nuclear weapons for close to thirty years.

On Saturday, April 16, an Action for Abolition will draw nuclear resisters from throughout the country to the gates of the proposed $6 billion dollar new bomb plant.  This youth-organized event will begin in Oak Ridge at 1 p.m. at Alvin K. Bisselll Park, corner of Oak Ridge Turnpike and Tulane Avenue and march to the Bear Creek Road entrance to Y12 on Scarboro road in Oak Ridge.  According to the organizers, some people may choose to risk arrest in acts of civil resistance during this action for abolition.  For more information contact organizers at: orep@earthlink.net or call 865-776-5050.  A carpool from Asheville is forming and will leave Earth Fare parking lot in West Asheville at 9:30 a.m. Saturday April 16 and return late that evening.
  
"Nuclear bombs, whether they're used or not, violate everything that is humane. They alter the meaning of life. Why do we tolerate them?"   Arundhati Roy, Author

Photos:  Coleman Smith, Story by Clare Hanrahan 

Sr. Denise & Bro. Utsumi explaining the Peace walk while environmentalist Rusty Sivils listens