Wikipedia

User:Viriditas/Transform Now Plowshares notes

< User:Viriditas

2002 edit

  • Kennon, Kenneth. 2002. Prisoner of Conscience: A Memoir. Xlibris Corporation. OCLC 49732233. ISBN 9781401025168.
Autobiography of Christian minister Kenneth Kennon who was arrested for marching against the School of the Americas (SOA) in Ft. Benning, Georgia. Mentions Rice's protests against SOA in passing.

2012 edit

Three protesters sneaked through fences at the Y-12 National Security Complex, spray-painted messages, and splashed human blood
Three peace activists — including an 82-year-old nun — infiltrated the highest-security area of the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in a predawn protest today, reportedly evading guards and cutting through three or four fences in order to spray-paint messages, hang banners and pour human blood at the site where warhead parts are manufactured...
Anti-nuclear weapons activists charged with trespassing after sneaking into the Y-12 National Security Complex will remain jailed for now.
Three peace activists, including Sister Megan Rice, an 82-year-old nun, were arraigned this morning on federal trespassing charges in connection with Saturday's pre-dawn break-in at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant, and U.S. Attorney Bill Killian indicated that other charges could be added later.
Singing peace protesters offered bread to guards
The U.S. government's only facility for handling, processing and storing weapons-grade uranium has been temporarily shut after anti-nuclear activists, including an 82-year-old nun, breached security fences, government officials said Thursday.
Felony charges were filed against three activists who sneaked into the Y-12 National Security Complex, and a U.S. judge released two of them.
Three anti-nuclear weapons activists arrested at the Y-12 National Security Complex face a new property depredation charge and more jail time.
Sister Megan Rice, 82, one of three people arrested in a break-in at a nuclear complex, is a peace activist with a privileged background and a long list of arrests.
Security cameras weren't working and guards failed to react when anti-nuclear weapons activists sneaked into the Y-12 National Security Complex, a federal letter says.
The article reports on the protest of Catholic activists on the activities in the Y-12 National Security Complex, the only nuclear weapons facility in the U.S. in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The author mentions that activists have been protesting for years on the plan of the Nuclear Security Administration to develop a Uranium Processing Facility in the complex. He adds that three protesters have been arrested for breaching the facility.
Inquiry into the Security Breach at the National Nuclear Security Administration's Y-12 National Security Complex. We initiated this inquiry to identify the circumstances surrounding the Y-12 National Security Complex breach because of the importance of ensuring the safe and secure storage of nuclear materials. Our review found that the Y-12 security incident represented multiple system failures on several levels. We identified troubling displays of ineptitude in responding to alarms, failures to maintain critical security equipment, over reliance on compensatory measures, misunderstanding of security protocols, poor communications, and weaknesses in contract and resource management. Contractor governance and Federal oversight failed to identify and correct early indicators of these multiple system breakdowns. When combined, these issues directly contributed to an atmosphere in which the trespassers could gain access to the protected security area directly adjacent to one of the Nation's most critically important and highly secured weapons-related facilities. We noted that following the incident, Y-12 and the National Nuclear Security Administration took a number of actions designed to improve security at the site. However, the successful intrusion at Y-12 raised serious questions about the overall security approach at the facility. Given the unprecedented nature of this security event, prompt and effective corrective actions are essential. Accordingly, we made several recommendations for corrective actions in the report. NNSA management agreed to implement the report's recommendations and outlined a number of corrective actions it had initiated or completed. Management's comments were responsive to the report and its recommendations.
On July 28, the three nuclear weapons abolistionists who boldly entered the Y-12 nuclear weapons factory in Oak Ridge, Tenn. used blood, spray paint, hammers and banners to name the machinery a criminal conspiracy to commit mass destruction.
Three disarmament radicals that snuck into the Y-12 nuclear weapons complex last July — among them Duluth’s own Greg Boertje-Obed — are preparing for their Feb. trial, and face the prospect that any mention of nuclear weapons will be forbidden.
The protesters who vandalized a uranium storage building at Y-12 National Security Complex said they would not accept a plea deal from the federal government.
More than four months after three protesters broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex, a hole that the trio cut in a perimeter fence still hasn’t been repaired, an Oak Ridge group said Wednesday.

2013 edit

To sort

  • Matt Shafer Powell. 2013. “Trial Begins For Protesters Who Broke Into Nuclear Complex.” All Things Considered (NPR).
  • Munger, Frank. 2013a. “NNSA: Cost of Y-12 Break-in at Least $15M — so Far.” Knoxville News Sentinel, February 1.
  • LaForge, John. 2013a. “35 Years for Embarrassing the State? Greg Boertje-Obed Faces Prison for Tying ‘Crime Scene’ Tape Around H-Bomb Factory,” February 14.
  • “Y12 Activities Are Unlawful.” 2013. Oak Ridge Environmental Peace Alliance. April 24.
  • Zak, Dan. 2013a. “The Prophets of Oak Ridge.” The Washington Post, April 30.
  • LaForge, John. 2013b. “Defense Case Denied for Nuclear Weapons Protesters.” Duluth Reader, May 2.
  • O’neill, Patrick. 2013. “Activists Who Broke into Nuclear Facility Found Guilty.” National Catholic Reporter 49 (16): 7–7.
  • O’Neill, Patrick. 2013. “Y-12 Protesters Should Make Us Dig Deeper.” Knoxville News Sentinel, May 25.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013b. “Y-12 Protesters Found Guilty of Two Federal Charges, Jailed Overnight,” May 8.
  • Oak Ridge Today. 2013a. “Y-12 Protester Case Goes to Jury This Afternoon,” May 8.
  • Silman, Anna. 2013. “Bad Habit? 83-Year-Old Nun Who Sprayed Baby Bottles Full of Blood on Nuclea...: EBSCOhost.” New York Observer, May 9.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013c. “Federal Judge Orders Y-12 Protesters Jailed until September Sentencing,” May 10.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013b. “Frank Munger: Letter Writers Weigh in on Y-12 Protesters’ Punishment.” Knoxville News Sentinel, July 10.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013e. “Sister Megan Rice Granted Five-Day Release from Custody to Attend Brother-in-Law’s Funeral.” Knoxville News Sentinel, July 25.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013d. “Nun Convicted in Y-12 Break-in Freed to Attend Funeral.” Knoxville News Sentinel, July 25.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013f. “A Year after Break-In, Y-12 Searches for Its Lost Reputation.” Knoxville News Sentinel, July 27.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013g. “As Sentencing Looms for Y-12 Protesters, Legal Battles Continue.” Knoxville News Sentinal, August 27.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013h. “Sentencing for Y-12 Protesters Postponed until January.” Knoxville News Sentinel, September 13.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013i. “Judge Denies New Trial for Y-12 Protesters.” Knoxville News Sentinel, October 3.
  • Munger, Frank. 2013j. “Y-12 Nuclear Weapons Plant Cites Security Upgrades.” Knoxville News Sentinel, December 27.
  • Riegle, Rosalie G. 2013. Crossing the Line: Nonviolent Resisters Speak Out for Peace. Wipf and Stock Publishers.

2014 edit

To sort

  • Balloch, Jim, and Frank Munger. 2014. “Sentences for Y-12 Protesters: 35 Months for Nun, 62 Months Each for Co-Defendants.” Knoxville News Sentinel, February 18.
  • Bhat, Devika. 2014. “I’ll Do Jail, Says Nun, 84, Who Broke into Nuclear Warhead Site.” The Times, February 17, sec. News.
  • Board, News Sentinel Editorial. 2014a. “Editorial: Y-12 Takes Steps to Improve Security Following 2012 Breach.” Knoxville News Sentinel, January 6.
  • ———. 2014b. “Editorial: Sentence Balances Destruction at Y-12, Intent of Activists.” Knoxville News Sentinel, February 20.
  • “Briefly Noted.” 2014. Christian Century 131 (6): 19–19.
  • Crocker, Lizzie. 2014. “The Nuclear Nun Goes to Jail.” The Daily Beast, February 18.
  • Dennett, Lydia. 2014. “A Realignment Commission for National Labs: How to Downsize America’s Bloated and Unsecure Nuclear Weapons Complex.” Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists 70 (6): 39–47. doi:10.1177/0096340214555081.
  • “Elderly Nun Sentenced over US Nuclear Site Break-In.” 2014. BBC News. February 18.
  • Fincher, Megan. 2014. “US Activists Answer: What Is Patriotism?” National Catholic Reporter, July 3.
  • Gang, Duane W. 2014. “Nun Sentenced to 35 Months in Nuclear Plant Break-In.” USA Today, February 18.
  • Gillespie, Michael. 2014. "Jerry Ebner Returns From Prison." Washington Report on Middle East Affairs 33 (3): 66–67. (subscription required)
The article reports that Omaha Catholic Worker Gerald A. Ebner celebrated the end of his six-month federal prison term on February 28, 2014 with his friends and colleagues gathered at the Des Moines Catholic Worker's Dingman House. It discusses Ebner's experiences in the prison facility, including his explanations about his pacemaker to the prison guards and his talks with other prisoners about courage. It also discusses the imprisonment of other activists like Catholic nun Megan Rice.
  • Gleason, Robert. 2014. The Nuclear Terrorist: His Financial Backers and Political Patrons in the US and Abroad. Macmillan.
  • Jimenez, Ben. 2014. “Partners in ‘Crime.’” America 210 (18): 7–7.
  • Knoxville News Sentinel. 2014. “Five Things to Know Today: Another Rocky Houston Trial, Y-12 Protesters Sentenced,” January 28.
  • Kohls, Gary G. 2014. “The White Rose Lives!” Duluth Reader, February 27.
  • LaForge, John. 2014. “Any Courtroom in China or Iran.” Duluth Reader, April 3.
  • McVeigh, Karen. 2014. “Nun, 84, Sentenced to Three Years in Jail for Nuclear Break-In.” The Guardian, February 18.
  • Meckles, Jennifer. 2014. “Fired Y-12 Security Officer Tells His Side of the Story.” WBIR.
  • Munger, Frank. 2014a. “Attorneys for Y-12 Protester Maneuver for Lighter Sentence.” Knoxville News Sentinel, January 6.
  • ———. 2014b. “Recommended Sentence Could Keep Protesting Nun Jailed until She Turns 90.” Knoxville News Sentinel, January 24.
  • ———. 2014c. “Attorney Says Y-12 Protesters Are ‘Ready’ for Future.” Knoxville News Sentinal, January 27.
  • ———. 2014d. “Snow Delays Sentencing of Y-12 Protesters to February.” Knoxville News Sentinel, January 28.
  • ———. 2014e. “Federal Judge to Sentence Y-12 Protesters - News Sentinel Story.” Knoxville News Sentinel, February 17.
  • ———. 2014f. “Frank Munger: The Demolition Is Done, but K-25 Cleanup Continues.” Knoxville News Sentinel, April 2.
  • Munger, Frnk. 2014. “Snow Brings a Halt to Plowshares Sentencing.” Knoxville News Sentinel, January 28.
  • “News Briefs.” 2014. America 210 (8): 10–10.
  • Oak Ridge Today. 2014a. “Guest Column: U.S. Marshals Place ‘Cone of Silence’ over Sr. Megan Rice,” January 27.
  • ———. 2014b. “Judge Says Y-12 Protesters Not Contrite as Snow Delays Sentencing,” January 29.
  • ———. 2014c. “Y-12 Protesters to Be Sentenced in Three Hearings Tuesday,” February 14.
  • ———. 2014d. “Sentencing for Y-12 Protesters Now Consolidated, Starts Later Tuesday Afternoon,” February 18.
  • ———. 2014e. “Y-12 Protesters: Nun Sentenced to Three Years, Men Receive Five,” February 18.
  • ———. 2014f. “Letter from Prison: Y-12 Protesters’ Statement on Second Anniversary of Break-In,” July 30.
  • O’Neill, Patrick. 2014. “Judge, Y-12 Protesters Differ in Sense of Duty.” Knoxville News Sentinel, February 13.
  • Piazza, Jo. 2014. If Nuns Ruled the World: Ten Sisters on a Mission. Open Road Media.
  • Reuters. 2014. “Elderly Nun Sentenced to 35 Months for Tennessee Nuclear Break-In,” February 18.
  • Stanton, Kate. 2014a. “Activist Nun Sentenced to Jail after Nuclear Plant Break-In.” UPI Top News, February.
  • Strain, Charles R. 2014. The Prophet and the Bodhisattva: Daniel Berrigan, Thich Nhat Hanh, and the Ethics of Peace and Justice. Wipf and Stock Publishers.
  • Stanton, Kate.2014b. “Activist Nun Sentenced to Jail after Nuclear Plant Break-In.” UPI, February 18.
Nun sentenced: Along with Sister Megan Rice (an octogenarian nun), a federal judge sentenced two other protesters to more than five years, after the three broke into a high-security, nuclear weapons complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Three peace activists who intruded onto a nuclear weapons site in July 2012 were sentenced Tuesday to 35 months or 62 months in prison by a federal judge, three weeks after he ordered them to pay $53,000 in restitution for damaging the site's security systems and defacing a storage facility that contains the United States's stockpile of weapons-grade uranium
  • Wald, Kenneth D., and Allison Calhoun-Brown. 2014. Religion and Politics in the United States. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 154. OCLC 872114883. ISBN 9781442225558. March.
Religion and Politics in the United States includes analyses of the nation's most pressing political matters regarding religious freedom, and the ways in which that essential constitutional freedom situates itself within modern America. The book also explores the ways that religion has affected the orientation of partisan politics in the United States. Through a detailed review of the political attitudes and behaviors of major religious and minority faith traditions, the book establishes that religion continues to be a major part of the American cultural and political milieu while explaining that it must interact with many other factors to influence political outcomes in the United States.

2015 edit

Beige is the new black for imprisoned Sister Megan Rice, an 84-year old Catholic nun and anti-nuclear activist.
With the help of friends and advocates, including the National Association of Women Judges, Rice is drawing attention to conditions inside U.S. corrections facilities.She and a few hundred others had been set to live in a women's prison in Danbury, Conn., which served as a model for the prison in Orange is the New Black. But after authorities decided to overhaul that facility, the Catholic nun was sent to what was supposed to be a temporary holding center.
  • Ahern, Kevin. 2015. Structures of Grace: Catholic Organizations Serving the Global Common Good. Orbis Books. OCLC 891609550. ISBN 978162698120. March 1.
The theological, spiritual, and practical meanings of successful faith-based organizations at work internationally, nationally, and locally. This study of non-official structures, lay and religious, focuses on little known but enormously effective ecclesial organizations. Hundreds of these transnational Christian organizations are involved in global social engagement that includes Immigration reform, Affordable housing, Universal healthcare, Food security, Wage equity. It presents imitable case studies on the international levels such as The International Movement of Catholic Students and The Jesuit Refugee Service and on the national level, such as Network, a Roman Catholic social justice lobby most visible to the public by Nuns on a Bus, and local case studies such as homeless shelters and parish soup kitchens. Structures of Grace shows how these church organizations work and why they are one of humankind's best hopes for a better world.
  • Teays, Wanda. 2015. Business Ethics Through Movies: A Case Study Approach. John Wiley & Sons. April 8.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit voted 2-1 to throw out the most serious charge, sabotage, against Rice. The court said no rational juror could have concluded the nun and her two collaborators cut fences at the nuclear site to let al-Qaida slip in. And the court majority wrote, "it takes more than bad publicity to injure the national defense."
This in-depth look at Sr. Megan Rice, the octogenarian religious sister and anti-nuclear weapons activist, highlights the life and work of a bold modern-day advocate for peace. She was convicted for her role in carrying out what the New York Times called “the biggest security breach in the history of the nation’’s atomic complex.” After breaking into a nuclear weapons facility, Rice’s only comment at trial was “I regret I didn’’t do this 70 years ago.”Sr. Megan’s faith in a world that can transform its resources into sustainable, alternative methods doesn’t end with her own future behind prison walls. Her cause is great and her hope is even greater.
  • Eiger, Leonard. 2015. “The Nuclear Abolitionist: Court to Hear Transform Now Plowshares Appeal.” The Nuclear Abolitionist. March 11.
Boertje-Obed's release was abrupt; he said Friday that he didn't know he was going to be released until a guard summoned him and told him he was being freed. Boertje-Obed said he's filled with gratitude for people who supported and prayed for him, including members of Duluth's Veterans for Peace and Grandmothers for Peace groups. While he was in prison, Duluth residents wrote to him, sent him books and kept him up on their lives in Duluth.
  • “Nun Released.” 2015. Press, The.
  • Rice, Megan, Eileen Balladur, M. G. Hebert, Richard Gercken, William Gavin, Walter R. Smith, and Edd Doerr. 2015. “Letters.” National Catholic Reporter 51 (9): 25–26.
How a handful of pacifists exposed the vulnerability of America’s weapons-grade uranium.
  • Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. 2015. Civil Disobedience: An Encyclopedic History of Dissidence in the United States. Routledge. April 8.
Throughout American history, people with strong beliefs that ran counter to society's rules and laws have used civil disobedience to advance their causes. From the Boston Tea Party in 1773, to the Pullman Strike in 1894, to the draft card burnings and sit-ins of more recent times, civil disobedience has been a powerful force for effecting change in American society.This comprehensive A-Z encyclopedia provides a wealth of information on people, places, actions, and events that defied the law to focus attention on an issue or cause.
  • Sontag, Deborah, and Twila Schmitt. 2015. "National Briefing." New York Times 164 (56861): A11. May 9.
The article offers news briefs in the U.S. as of May 9, 2015 on topics including the transfer of inmate Ashley Diamond at Jack T. Rutledge State Prison, the conviction of sister Megan Rice and activists Greg Boertje-Obed and Michael Walli, and the visit of President Barack Obama in South Dakota.
The legal decisions that freed three peace activists last week were as unprecedented and surprising as the break-in that put them behind bars.

Timeline edit

July 28, 2012
  • Break-in and trespassing at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
February 14, 2014
  • Sentencing (three years)
May 2014
  • Conviction; remanded to custody
May 2015
  • Release

Summary edit

Transform Now Plowshares is a nonviolent direct action that took place on July 28, 2012, by three protesters: Megan Rice (aged 82), Michael R. Walli (aged 63) and Gregory I. Boertje-Obed (aged 57). The three activists broke into the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, spray-painted antiwar slogans, and splashed blood on the outside of the heavily guarded Highly Enriched Uranium Materials Facility.

Walli, Rice and Boertje-Obed posed for photographs with "Transform Now Plowshares" banners sevearal days before the direct action at Y-12.[1]

References

  1. ^ Munger, Frank. "Activists Infiltrate Y-12’s High-Security Zone, Hang Banners, Splash Blood." Knoxville News Sentinel, July 28, 2012.
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