Helen Woodson & Fr. Carl Kabat Resentenced- U.S. Prisoners of Conscience Since 1984

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday July 12, 2004 09:20 by Nuclear Resister

They're in There For Us, We're on the Loose for Them!

Along with the late Fr. Paul Kabat & the late Larry Cloud Morgan, Helen and Carl were part of the Silo Pruning Hooks that carried out a nonviolent disarmament action on an ICBM missile silo in 1984. ***See link below for backgorund on this 1984 action....

Larry & Paul were sentenced to 8 years. Helen & Carl were sentenced to 18 years.

Since 1984 Helen has spent less than a week out of custody. While in federal custody she carried out further resistance actions on military related industries in the federal prison. In the late '80' s she resigned from the specifically pacifist plowshares movement. When paroled in 1996, she expropriated $10.000 from a bank in Chicago. placed it on the floor of the bank, burnt it with lighter fluid and stated "money is the root of all evil!". She was released a few months ago and her probabtion breaking action is described below.

Dear Friends of Helen,

Helen has prepared the following statement for her sentencing, expected soon.

With only one day's notice, Helen was brought before the federal court in Kansas City on June 18, where she pled guilty to five counts of sending threatening communications, and one count of destruction of government property.

She told the judge that she considered her actions to be truthful, factual, and not a threat, but a warning.

Although she refers in her sentencing statement to Carl Kabat being in prison, at this writing he is not. Follow Helen's statement is Carl's story is reported by Bill Sulzman, and his own recent sentencing statement.

At the end of this e-mail, I have added the Kansas CIty Star report on her plea hearing.

At this time, Helen is still at the Bates County Jail in Missouri. You may still write to her at
Helen Woodson
03231-045
Bates County Jail
P. O. Box 60
Butler, MO 64730

Peace,
Jack Cohen-Joppa
----------------

Helen Woodson: Statement for Sentencing

The theme of my witness on March 11 was, "The Truth Bears Repeating." It has been said that the first casualty in war is the truth, and it was my intention to recover the truth about weapons of mass destruction, the subject of letters and a phone call for which I will be sentenced today.

We know that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but closer to home, the story is different. This past Good Friday, Fr. Carl Kabat, my co-defendant in this court in 1984, went looking in a nearby state and announced, "I found some! Right here in Colorado!" For his faithful presence at a Minuteman 3 missile silo, my dear friend is now in prison.

But I would like to move beyond the narrow definition promulgated by the government. The term "weapons of mass destruction" is new, but human beings have been seeking bigger and better ways to kill each other for thousands of years. The Roman, Lucretius, wrote of "the horrible weapons increasing day by day the terror of war. They even tested bulls in the thick of battle and drove wild boars against the enemy." He described the panicked animals trampling friend and foe alike into a slurry of tissue and blood.

In modern times our weapons of mass destruction have become more sophisticated. We can speak of the firebombings of Dresden and Tokyo, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the napalm and Agent Orange of Vietnam. And now the Depleted Uranium widely used in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Many Gulf War veterans are ill, and in Iraq cancer rates are soaring. One obstetrician said that birth defects are so common, parents no longer ask about the baby's sex; they ask only, "Is it normal?"

500,000 Iraqi children dead of starvation and disease caused by U.S. economic sanctions. That also was a weapon of mass destruction.

200 million have died in the last century's wars, but we should not stop with the human casualties. The noted Indian writer Arundhati Roy, reminds us, "Never counted in the costs of war are the dead birds, the charred animals, the murdered fish, incinerated insects, poisoned water sources, destroyed vegetation. Rarely mentioned is the arrogance of the human race toward other living things. This arrogance will probably be the ultimate undoing of the human species."

I was literally a child of war. My father, the late Carl Strauch, was my mentor, and he taught me reverence for life against the backdrop of WWII and the Korean War. I came of age during the Vietnam War, and my two oldest sons were born during the years that young men of my generation were coming home maimed or in body bags. So I stand today in spirit with courageous veterans like my friends George Vesey, Louie de Benedette, and Cal Robertson who returned from Vietnam to oppose all war.

They speak eloquently about the lingering pain of both physical disabilities and mental anguish, and I repeat Cal's simple declaration on behalf of those dying in Iraq, "This is not ok." (Show large photo from Time Magazine of flag-draped coffins.)

For the victims on both sides, military and civilian, warfare itself is a weapon of mass destruction and so I wrote to the Commander at Whiteman telling him that there were such weapons on his Air Force base. That was and is the truth, and "The Truth Bears Repeating."

I began with war, but I cannot end there, for this nation's weapons of mass destruction exist in many forms. After WWII, national leaders encouraged the conversion of military products to civilian use, and thus was born the age of chemical agriculture. In 1998 and ’99 alone, the U.S. used 5 billion pounds of pesticides and herbicides. Since the late 1950's more than 750 million tons of toxic chemical waste have been discarded. We all know the results, both in nature and in the human population. Is there anyone who has not lost a loved on to cancer? Our nation's pesticides are truly weapons of mass destruction.

Another non-military weapon of mass destruction is abortion. I realize that this is a sensitive issue, and I do not judge those who make that choice. But surely there is something wrong when the wealthiest nation on earth has seen the loss of more than 40 million unborn children to abortion since its legalization.

And with that word "legalization" I come to the letters and phone call which I addressed to the judges of this court, warning that there was a weapon of mass destruction in this building. The weapons of war, the millions of tons of toxic chemicals, the tens of millions of abortions, and capital punishment which is condemned throughout the civilized world - all are legal. The laws of the United States upheld by the federal courts are thus themselves weapons of mass destruction, and so my warning was and is the truth. I poured red paint on the security counter in this building and said, "the government has blood on its hands." That also was the truth and "The Truth Bears Repeating."

--end--

Date: Thu, 8 Jul 2004
Subject: Judge Shaffer's sentence and Carl Kabat's sentencing

Fr. Carl Kabat was sentenced to 3 years probation by Judge Craig Shaffer today, July 8. The first 6 months of the sentence are a form of house arrest with rigid rules about movemnt outside the St. Louis area. In addition Carl was ordered to do 300 hours of community service. He was given until noon Monday July 12 to report in to the St. Louis federal probation office. Numerous other conditions were set down which make it a very onerous probation. Carl is free for the moment and headed back to St. Louis by bus this evening.
The prosecutor and Carl himself (see below) had asked for the maximum of 6 months incarceration. There were about a dozen supporters on hand. The judge tried to put the best spin on his decision and defend his earlier rulings at trial which eliminated any consideration of nuclear weapons in his courtroom. So once again nuclear weapons got a full approval in federal court.
We'll keep you advised of future developments
Bill Sulzman
Citizens for Peace in Space
P.O. Box 915
Colorado Springs, CO 80901
719 389 0644


July 8th, 2004 Sentencing Statement
- Carl Kabat
I presume that everyone in this room knows that the bomb at N8 could kill about 2 or 3 million people. 2/3 of the American people say that we should get rid of nuclear weapons. We are a democracy. So what does the will of the people matter? If George Bush got rid of nuclear weapons he would probably be killed.

Gandhi, a lawyer said, "Open wide the prison gates and we must enter them as a bridegroom enters the bridal chamber. It is not in the courts, or halls of justice, or the assemblies of power that truth and justice will be won, but in the jails and sometimes on the gallows." I never completely understood why, when found guilty by the courts, Gandhi asked for the maximum sentence possible, but I do understand it a bit better now, and I ask for the maximum sentence now.

Lawyer friends have told me (not anyone in this room) that the courts are not a matter of Truth and Justice but a matter of power - and we know who has the power. Everything that Hitler did was legal. If you have enough power you can get any evil that you wish made legal. The great evils of history have all been 'legal': slavery, segregation, and apartheid have been legal but that does not make them morally correct.

The author John has Pilate asking, "What is truth?" and then had the one to whom the question was addressed crucified.

In 1983 the World Council of Churches declared, "The development, deployment, or use of nuclear weapons is a crime against humanity." Vatican Council II, ending in 1965 with all of the world's Catholic bishops assembled said, "Nuclear weapons are a crime against humanity." We also have the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights followed by the international covenant on civil and political rights article six, from which the human rights committee established under article 28 says, "The production, testing, possession, deployment, and use of nuclear weapons must be prohibited and recognized as crimes against humanity. The bottom line is that we are all criminals - since this is our country.

What is Truth? Are these truths or falsehoods? I believe these are truths.

Einstein said, "There is no secret, there is no defense. What is needed is an aroused peoples of the world." We have a grave responsibility because we have used nuclear weapons and have more of them in our possession than the rest of the entire world combined. Almost 900 of our young men and women have been killed supposedly because of weapons of mass destruction. The responsibility of what has happened in this room and is happening today in this room resides with the people of this room. There was no jury to whom the responsibility could be shifted.

I take responsibility for my actions and in fact am proud of them. You, brother magistrate judge Craig Shaffer and brother prosecutor must do likewise. I would say that if someone knows a better way to get rid of nuclear weapons, please, in God's name, do it.

Some pertinent facts and truths that should have been allowed into the courtroom: About a hundred German judges, possibly knowing of the conspiracy of silence during the Nazi era, blocked the US base at Mutlangen where Pershing II nuclear armed missiles were stationed - they are now gone. Humanitarian law, the UN charter, US soldiers manual, Kellogg Briand pact, the 1996 world court opinion in regards to nuclear weapons and the even stronger dissenting opinion and many other things such as necessity, competing harms, and such things are pertinent in regard to insane nuclear weapons. Bill Quigley, law professor at Loyola University School of Law in New Orleans, titled a release "Felony criminal charges dismissed against blood pouring peace activists." International law defense was used; the jurors were deadlocked 9-3 in favor of finding the defendants innocent. He further says that prosecutor Dentes said that he would not try to re-prosecute because he thought another trial would have the same outcome.

In Iowa and in England, the international court opinion regarding nuclear weapons was allowed to be presented and the individuals were found not guilty. You, Brother Magistrate Judge and Brother Prosecutor are the ones who have ruled out the international court opinion in regard to nuclear weapons. You, brothers Magistrate Judge and Prosecutor could have allowed all the truth to be presented and then ignored it, but you chose not to.

What is Truth? (God is Truth. God is Justice.) We can deny both. Shakespeare has Mark Anthony, after the murder of Caesar, say of Brutus, "for he is an honorable man." The judge, who sentenced Franz Jaegarstaetter to be beheaded for refusing service under Hitler, cried when he sentenced Franz. He too was an honorable man. And as Shakespeare said, "and so they are all." If this planet is destroyed it will be because of honorable men. Our late president Ronald Regan said, "A nuclear war can never be won and must never be fought." If that is true then I ask why we still have nuclear weapons and why you defend them.
The End

I ask you, Brother Magistrate Judge to relieve my lawyer, Ms. Sue Tyburski from any duties she has to this court, since I will not appeal (and who has done a wonderful job under the restrictions that you and the prosecutor imposed) so that she could sit with the sisters and brothers who attempt to stand for Truth—all of us in our own feeble ways. I would invite you to ask the marshals to remove me from this court and that I be sentenced in absentia. When I leave here and return to the table I intend to turn my back on this court as a symbol that Truth was not able to be spoken here. I think it is not so much contempt of this court but rather sadness that Truth could not be spoken in this room, as it is in most courtrooms of this country.

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Fri, Jun. 18, 2004
Peace activist pleads guilty to vandalism and threats
By MARK MORRIS
The Kansas City Star
A peace activist who has spent 20 years in prison pleaded guilty in Kansas City today to vandalism and threatening federal judges and Air Force personnel.
Helen Woodson, 60, was detained by deputy U.S. marshals on March 10 after she threw a mixture of red paint and cranberry juice, which resembled blood, on a security desk and screening device at the U.S. District Courthouse.
The day before she had mailed threatening letters to the judges and the commander of Whiteman AFB Base in Knob Noster. She followed those the next morning with similar letters entitled "Second Warning." And before coming to the courthouse March 10, she called a courthouse employee, who remembered her saying, "This is a warning, there is a weapon of mass destruction in your office, get out now!"
At her hearing today, Woodson recalled the statement differently.
"I said, 'This is a warning. There is a weapon of mass destruction in your building. Choose life,'" Woodson recalled.
Woodson and three others received long prison sentences in 1985 for using a jackhammer to chip the concrete lid of a nuclear missile silo near Whiteman AFB. The four identified themselves as the Silo Pruning Hooks, in reference to the Biblical admonition to beat swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks.
Three days after her parole in 1993, Woodson walked into a Illinois bank and used an unloaded starter pistol to get $25,000 from a teller.
According to press reports, she then piled the money on the floor, burned it and told witnesses: "Money is evil. You don't believe in God; you only worship money."
She subsequently was convicted of bank robbery and other violations and was sentenced to more than nine years in prison. After her release March 9, she had been instructed to return to Kansas City and meet with a probation officer to review the terms of her probation.
"I will never abide by the terms of supervised release," Woodson said.
Her lawyer, Henry Stoever, said Woodson considers herself a "soldier for peace," and deeply opposes nuclear weapons and abortion.
Woodson's moral convictions were reflected in her answers to questions posed by Chief U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple. Asked what she considers to be her home, Woodson replied: "Right now, I live in this courtroom. I live wherever God takes me."
She also asked Whipple to sentence her quickly so she can return to prison, which has been her home for all but five days of the last two decades.
"I don't believe in the court process because of my religious beliefs and don't wish to participate in it," Woodson said. "Therefore, a speedy resolution is good for me."
Stoever described Woodson's commitment to peace protests as a "witness."
"She doesn't worry about whether it's effective or not," Stoever said. "She just believes she needs to do this."

-end-
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