Pit Stop Ploughshares Plan Overnight Vigil at Opening of the Dáil

by Anonymous Fri Sep 26, 2003 17:49

.

by Tim Fri Sep 26, 2003 22:10

I'll be at my brother's wedding.

I reckon you can just condemn Bertie with his own speech at the UN.

--Taoiseach Bertie Ahern tonight condemned the principle of "pre-emptive" military strikes against potentially dangerous regimes.

He told the United Nations General Assembly in New York that the Government was "deeply concerned" by the doctrine. ---

The hypocrite condemned pre-emptive strikes, of course not mentioning that the Irish Government has given substantial assistance in a 'pre-emptive' war that killed perhaps 40,000 people and has left many more in dire conditions.

"More effective than striking pre-emptively, of course, is to pre-empt the risk of conflict through a wide range of steps in the diplomatic, economic, humanitarian and other areas."

...as if he had nothing to do with it. some neck.

good luck on the vigil, keep up the good work.

by Drbinoche Sat Sep 27, 2003 01:04

I would take it that you can accurately back up these huge claims of death. I mean I am not saying 40,000 people didn't die in Iraq, but I would be highly doubtful if it reached that figure and it would also be interesting to see how you compile these numbers. I mean is it any Iraqi that dies while the Occupation force is there or is it any Iraqi that is killed by US/UK forces only. Ican guarantee if it is the last way only then its certainly NOT 40,000 dead. Not even possible, not without systematic carpet bombing. Lets give some links that are independent and unbiased with regards to the actual number of people killed in Iraq.

I also dislike the fact that Ciaran O Reilly cannot seem to shut his mouth about the Religious aspect of his 'Crusade' I see no reason what so ever why his religion or his Gods POV or stance is important in the stopping of the war. Lets leave the Religion out of this shit and maybe we can see staright for once.

by Fear tanaí Sat Sep 27, 2003 04:13

Ciaron is getting an awful gut on him. He's either gone to town on the pies or the pints or both. Hey Ciaron, I've got two words for ya: ATKINS DIET!

Mise le meas agus greann...

by someone on a small blue planet, somewhere Sat Sep 27, 2003 11:23

''Lets leave the Religion out of this shit and maybe we can see staright for once.''

so much for Left Unity!

If we 'salami tactic' comrades down to those that think only like 'us', all that will be left of the Left will be Drbinoche.

Everyone has their own reason for opposing this war, we should celebrate that.

by Ciaron Sun Sep 28, 2003 19:47

Fear baby
Give us a break. I'm 43..I'm over half way home. Definitely the Guiness, got to get back on to the Fosters!

Comment before..whatsyaname...don't understand your point. I was speaking at a religious event, most of the audience were nuns, lay folks and priests were returning from war zones...places your safe white butt will never be exposed to.

Ballyfermot Jesuit - Fr. Jim Hynes gets cut loose form a Texas prison - yeah Jim!

by Conor Sun Sep 28, 2003 20:14

Irelands part in the war wwas in no way substantial. It was miniscule if anything. If the planes didnt refuel here then they can go to a 100 othere airports. Protesting about Shannon does nothing and is just a symptom of this Nimby mentality so common amongst the left.

by Drbinoche Sun Sep 28, 2003 21:34

I am a retired soldier, while you were barely old enough to shave I was doing patrols in Cyprus and in Eritrea as well as over three tours in the Leb. I have served the armed forces of this fine country for over 20 years and I was involved in alot of warzones. I have certainly more experience than you and your nuns and priests. I lost alot of good friends and do not appreciate you assuming I am some pimply little 13 year old.

by Ciaron O'Reilly - Dublin Catholic Worker Sun Sep 28, 2003 22:42

Thanx for the introduction. You don't have more experience. You have different experiences - taking orders and wondering around other peoples countries armed.

We go into war zones and imperial prisons disarmed, so maybe we got a little bit more in common than we thought. I'm a radical Catholic that's the basis of my view of the world, the UN, refuleling the U.S war machine, Eritrea and Cyprus. When I speak publicly I like to tell folks when I'm coming from at the start - so you can factor that in.

You would have a lot more intersting discussions with the many of our folks who fought in Vietnam, North of Ireland, El Salvador who are now nonviolently resisting the war machine.

Now that we know each other a little better, we can get opver the stereotypes. I'll be outside the Dail - Mon 5 pm - Tues 9 am. Drop by for a chat!

by Ciaron O'Reilly - Dublin Catholic Worker Sun Sep 28, 2003 22:45

There will be a multi faith/ no faith memorial for the war dead - occupied and occupiers in Iraq.
Monday night 7 pm. Please bring a reading from your tradition or inspiration to share.

by from blue earth Mon Sep 29, 2003 13:16

'Irelands part in the war wwas in no way substantial. It was miniscule if anything. '

conor, 50,000+ US Troops out of the 140,000 or so in Iraq now is hardly not substantial... more or less 1/3rd of the troops in Iraq used Ireland as a doormat.

by Sacred Earth & Space Plowshares Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:23

3 Domincan nuns - Srs. Jacqueline Hudson, Carol Gilbert, Ardeth Platte - were recently sentenced to 2 & 3 years for their 2002 nonviolent sitizen's inspection and plowshares disarmament action on an ICBM missile silo in Colorado, USA.

They are presently being bounced around the jail system en transit to Fed Pens.
Please address your solidarity and support postcards c/-
Jonah House
1301 Moreland Ave.
Baltimore
MD 21216
USA
(.....*redirection avoids letters arriving at jails after prisoners have been transferred and letter being rteurned to sender etc. Jonah House will redirect to prisdon/jail the prisoner is in.)

September 20, 2003: Jackie's headed to Victorville, CA


September 12, 2003
Dear friends,


Jackie called 2 days ago from Victorville, CA. She arrived there on
Friday
after a one day stay in Oklahoma City. She sounded great and is glad to

be
in a place where she can get outside and breath in the fresh air.

The following are experts from a letter I received from her yesterday:…
The whole sage since sentencing has been a saga to say the least. 4
nights
in one of the most ineptly run county jail ever, Washington County jail

in
Akron, CO (pop. less than 1,000). Was driven to Denver Federal building

in
the early morning of the 4th day. Picked up by the federal marshals and

taken to Teller County jail in Divide, Co.- another small, relatively
new
facility, housing mostly State prisoners waiting to be taken to State
prisons. I was placed in isolation and told that I would stay there
until
the marshals came to take me to Oklahoma…There was one bunk and one
toilet,
no tv or newspaper, only one book after 2 days of asking. Then
supporters
called the media, the media called the jail and by the afternoon I was
moved
into the general population! Thank you!! Thank you!!


Tuesday of the 6th week in Teller, I was told to "pack up" and was
driven to
Pueblo County jail…4pm to 4am in a "holding tank" trying to sleep on a
cement floor. There were three of us in the cell… 2 other women from
Pueblo.
We were then taken upstairs to "medical" for an intake physical.
Stripped of
our clothes, we were told to shower, "bend over, spread your cheeks"
and
cough". The guard then issued us our black and white horizontal striped

uniform and we were taken to the women's pod. The lights went on at
5:30 am
so we had a very short night. No coffee and a half of an orange for
breakfast. I went to sleep until lunch!.

Carol and Ardeth arrived in the afternoon and got up to the pod at 8:30

and
9:30. We had a grand reunion! At 5 am we were awakened by the guard and

told
to pack-up. We, along with 2 other women were driven to the Pueblo
Airport.
Con Air landed around 8:30 am. We hobbled aboard in ankle shackles,
belly
chains and handcuffs… searched and not allowed even the smallest piece
of
paper. … The plane went to Great Falls , Montana to Seattle (Boeing
Field)
to OK City, picking up and dropping off people along the way. We
arrived
about 5:30 pm. There we got a 4 pieces of wonder bread,1 piece of
bologna,
an 8 oz bottle of water, an apple and a package of crackers and peanut
butter. That was dinner! Lunch had been 3 packages of crackers and
peanut
butter!

We were again stripped naked, "examined" and issued their uniform. At
10:30
pm we were assigned a cell and at 5am (seems to be the magic time of
day)
Carol and I were again awakened and told to pack up…our plane was
leaving
this morning. We were again stripped, "examined" and issued a clean
uniform.
We were given 2 boiled eggs, 2 pieces of wonder bread and an apple for
breakfast. Carol and I were called out shortly after that. It happened
so
fast we didn't have a chance to say goodbye to Ardeth. (She will be
leaving
Tuesday for Danbury) Carol was on the East and I was on the one heading

west.

My solitary journey had now begun.
There were about 100 men and women on the plane as well as 10 marshals.

We
landed at Travis Air Force Base. There some prisoners destined for
Dublin
were removed. We then flew to an abandoned AFB. We (2 women and several

men)
were taken off, patted down and placed in a van and taken thru acres of

abandoned AFB housing (all destined to be torn down instead of being
used
for low income housing). Intake consisted of filling out the same forms

we
filled out in OK City just the night before. Again doing what they do
best -
stripped, "examined" and given a new uniform-this time dark green.


We were interviewed by a PA and a psychologist and assigned a
dorm..There
are 280 women here at "Camp". The women here are "employed" to work on
the
newly constructed men's addition, scheduled to open within the next
year.
Rumor has it that when this happens, the women will be moved to Dublin
and
this becomes a men's camp. Who knows! I am on a lower bunk just inside
the
door. 20 women. There are 12 bunks… so 4 are open if you want to join
us!!

The larger number of women are in a huge room divided into cubicles for

two,
8 cement blocks high. The bathroom/shower room is off this area. There
are 4
TV rooms along the hall leading to our open room…. 1 for sports and
news, 1
for movies, 1 for Spanish language TV and 1 for general TV. There are
NO
CHAIRS, however, and we are not allowed to sit on the floor!!! But each

cubicle has A chair assigned. This same set up is duplicated in the
"South
Unit"… all connected but never the twain shall meet!

The warm welcome of the women has been overwhelming. Susan Crane's
friend
Alix, from Dublin, is here as is Judy Birnbaum from the SOA. We met at
supper the first night. Blanca, from Clear Creek, is here also. Several

of
the women have come up and mentioned seeing articles about our action.

We were "dressed out" - 5 of everything-uniforms, t-shirts, bras,
pants,
socks plus 1 pair of steel toed boots for work.

Tomorrow, Monday, will be my first day of work. Until we get a full
time
work assignment, we are considered A and O"- we report to the message
center
at 7am and noon to be assigned a "job". I'll know tomorrow how this
works.

Wake up call is at 5:30 AM, breakfast 6am to7am, Pill line for meds 6am

to
6:15a and 7 to 8pm,Lunch 11 to noon and dinner after the 4pm count.
During
the week. Sat. and Sunday breakfast 7-8am, Lunch after the 10 am count.

Otherwise we are pretty much on our own to use the library, track, etc.

The sunsets have been spectacular. Mars is so clear these nights… All
in all
things are going fine……

Jackie's address is as follows:


Jacqueline Hudson 08808-039
Federal Prison Camp-Victorville
PO Box 5100
Adelanto, CA 92301

If you want to visit, send Jackie a card with your address. She will
send
you a form to fill out and you will mail it back . It takes a couple of

weeks to process it. They will notify her whether you are approved. You

only
have to go thru this once. Visiting is Sat. and Sunday and all legal
holidays from 8:30am to 3pm tho I'm not sure how long these visits can
be.
When I get that info, I'll pass it along.


Jackie is relieved to be settling in and grateful to you all for your
support. For all you who have sent letters for Jackie to me, I've
mailed
them out to her today. She also said that outgoing mailed is not read.
-
they seal it and put it in the mailbox. Mail coming is opened "and
scanned
for contraband" but supposedly not read.

Peace,
Sue

by Ciaron - Pit Stop Ploughshares Wed Oct 01, 2003 12:40

Vigil went well. Good crew in the afternoon leading up to multi-faith/ no faith memorial for the dead. Had a good chat with Trevor Sargent admirally cycling by on one of those colapsable bicycles. Also a chatlater with the pro-war F.F. TD from Athlone - who totally disagrees with us bu has expressed admiration for our stickability etc.

Blackpope had dropped off his megaphone, so we made use of it for the memorial. We read statements form Ed Horgan returning his medals and a US solider in Iraq from the Airborne who opposes the war. We rememebered the dead of the war and those in prison for resisting it. We called on the Irish Government to stop providing Shannon as a pit stop for the U.S. war machine and not to send Irish troops to Iraq. Jim from Christchurch (NZ) sang a song, Ronan from Kimmage covered Luka Blooms Shannon Song and Marie Ferguson gave a rendition of one of her own compositions. Bill form Brisbane (who taught me high school when I was 15 and employed me 10 years later) refused to sing. He has just arrived from working in East Timor for 2 years.

At 8 pm most folks headed to Buswells to hear Kate Dewes & Rob Green form Christchurch, NZ - ex-Commander in the British Navy talk about their work trying to rid the world of nuclear weapons. Rob is addressing memebers of the British Navy at Faslane this week (organised by Church of Scotland and Trident Ploughshares).

Damien turned up after knocking off work at 9 pm, Eoin Dubsky, Paul O'Toole...so their were a lot of laughs until about 2 am.

A very drunk Eammon Dunphy came staggering down the opposite sidewalk about 1 am. We gave him a shout and a bit of feedback on his tv show. He gave the Dail and the cop on duty the finger, this upset the cop a little. We said give us a peace sign. He obliged and said they have assaulted me (in the past). I yelled "They've assaulted a lot of us, don't take it too personally! We're the folks that did the US war planer at Shannon put us on your show! Have your people talk to our people and we'll do lunch. He gave the finger to the cop again and the peace sign to us, a Richard Nixon type farewll thing we both hands and staggered off.

From 2 am - 8 am...it got a little lonely and pretty wet. The new cop on duty invited me out of the rain and into his little sentry box. I thanked him and declined as I was determiend to have an overdue "dark night of the soul". It was great - ecstasy, despair, occasional cigar, flask of tea. Damien took over at 8 am.