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“Malicious” anti nuclear nun gets some support from top military man

last week some of her views gained traction from a surprise and formidable source, retired General James Cartwright, the former Vice Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff who also used to oversee the entire American nuclear arsenal.

Recently, Sister Anne and the other Bangor 5 appealed their conviction for “willfully and maliciously” destroying federal property by cutting through the fences on the Kitsap-Bangor naval base. The five defended their actions by claiming they were upholding international humanitarian law which deems nuclear weapons illegal. 

A Malicious Nun? HUFFINGTON POST, Helen Young,  05/31/2012  There are many words that come to mind to describe Sister Anne Montgomery, and her work but “malicious” is certainly not one of them. Sister Anne, an 85-year-old Roman Catholic nun from the Society of the Sacred Heart who once taught students in Spanish Harlem and high school dropouts in Albany, also spent years working for Christian Peacemakers, an ecumenical anti-war group.

She has put her life on the line in some of the world’s most war-torn regions, including the Balkans in the 1990’s, the Middle East, and more recently in Iraq. Her life has been devoted to working for peace and on nuclear disarmament.

It’s not work for the fainthearted. This diminutive woman, who is still razor sharp in her thinking, and who barely weighs 90 pounds soaking wet, has spent more than three years in prison because of her non- violent protests against nuclear weapons. Her first federal
incarceration came more than 30 years ago when she, along with Fathers
Daniel and Philip Berrigan and five others, trespassed onto a GE
missile manufacturing plant in Pennsylvania. The group, known as the
Plowshares 8 , hammered on the missile nosecones of Mark 12A warheads
with carpenter hammers to symbolically disarm them. Former U.S.
Attorney General Ramsey Clark defended the group, whose sentences were
eventually overturned.

Fast forward to 2012, and Sister Anne’s moral commitment to raising
awareness on the global threat posed by nuclear weapons has not waned.
In fact, it has intensified. Just last year she was thrown in prison
once again, this time for trespassing along with four others, onto the
Kitsap-Bangor U.S. Navy  nuclear submarine base near Seattle. The base
is homeport for eight of the nation’s 14 Trident nuclear submarines
and reportedly has one of the largest stockpiles of nuclear warheads
in the country. The five successfully cut through three chain link
fences and penetrated a “shoot to kill” zone where nuclear weapons are
said to be stored in concrete bunkers.

Sister Anne and her co-defendants, whom prosecutors called the Bangor
5, say they broke into the base as a symbolic wakeup call to the world
which, they believe, is sleepwalking toward nuclear annihilation with
the United States leading the way. The Bangor 5, who are all over the
age of 60, say that as the United States continues to upgrade and
modernize its nuclear weaponry, spending $60 billion a year  on its
arsenal, more than any other country in the world, it’s sending a
message to other nations that the mark of a powerful nation is a
nuclear one, thereby contributing to proliferation, global insecurity,
and an eventual holocaust.

“People are not going to disarm unless we make a move and do it
responsibly, you know, step by step. We don’t need these weapons, says
Sister Anne. “They’re not helping us. They’re endangering us,” she
adds.
Though some might dismiss the elderly nun’s words as the musings of a
radical outlaw, last week some of her views gained traction from a
surprise and formidable source, retired General James Cartwright, the
former Vice Chairman of the Joint chiefs of Staff who also used to
oversee the entire American nuclear arsenal. General Cartwright called
for an 80 percent  reduction in that arsenal a cutback that would
still insure American national security, while also going a long way
in reducing the worldwide nuclear arms threat. General Cartwright said
the warhead reduction was necessary to gain credibility with smaller
nuclear armed states, like India and Pakistan, and potentially
emerging ones, like Iran and North Korea, that the United States is
serious about nuclear disarmament……
General Cartwright’s proposals are contained in a new report issued by
Global Zero…..
The news should be heartening to Sister Anne and legions of other nuclear disarmament activists who have paid a heavy personal price for taking action to raise awareness on the nuclear weapons threat.
Recently, Sister Anne and the other Bangor 5 appealed their conviction for “willfully and maliciously” destroying federal property by cutting through the fences on the Kitsap-Bangor naval base. The five defended their actions by claiming they were upholding international humanitarian law which deems nuclear weapons illegal. A few weeks ago,
the Ninth Circuit for the Court of Appeals affirmed their conviction.
(Sister Anne Montgomery and her co-defendants tell their story
exclusively in the documentary Bangor 5 which is currently in
production.) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/helen-young/anti-nuclear-proliferation_b_1559213.html

June 1, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | opposition to nuclear, Religion and ethics, USA