Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson were sentenced by Judge Robert Blackburn on July 25, 2003. The Sisters are serving the following sentences: Jackie Hudson, 2 years, 6 months. Carol Gilbert: 2 years, nine months, Ardeth Platte: 3 years, five months. Blackburn labeled the Dominican Sisters, ‘dangerously irresponsible.’

On October 6, 2002, Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert, and Jackie Hudson, cut a chain link fence and entered an active nuclear missile silo site in rural northern Colorado. Declaring the Minuteman III a weapon of mass destruction, the nuns painted the site with six crosses in their own blood and tapped hammers against the silo lid and rusted tracks used to open the lid for a launch in a symbolic act of disarmament. ¹

(from Gene Sharp, The Methods of Nonviolent Action, Boston 1973)

24 November 2003

Columbus, GA - Over ten thousand people gathered this weekend outside the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia in the most diverse demonstration yet of opposition to the School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC), a combat-training school for Latin American soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared", massacred, and forced into refuge by SOA graduates.

51 people got arrested this weekend during the vigil and nonviolent direct action to close the SOA for the charge of trespassing on federal property. 3 people have asked that no one post bond for them and are still being held in Muscogee County jail.

"Prison will not deter us," said Kathy Kelly, who was among those arrested today. "We intend to close this school and to change the foreign policy that this school represents."

24 November 2003

View Videos from VitW

• Jessica Lynch’s Doctor talks to VitW
• “The Killing Continues”: A Press Conference with General Sanchez.
• Reflects on the Al Kawas Family
• Interview with Ed Kinane
• Rent a Whitey: A New Iraqi NGO

Jeff Leys
Christian Peacemaker Team
Baghdad

Jeff Leys traveled to Iraq before the war with the Iraq Peace Team and is in Iraq now with the Christian Peacemaker Team.

Three long days are coming a conclusion and I can finally grab a little bit of time to reflect on my experiences here in Iraq, rather than simply pounding out a basic email update.

One thing that is particularly striking to me is the air of normalcy with which Iraqi people are going about their everyday lives. It is the same air of normalcy which I experienced while here in February of this year with Voices in the Wilderness. Then it was an air of trying to carry on with their lives even as the US prepared to unleash shock- and-awe upon them. Now it seems to be trying to carry on with life even as the occupation continues without improvements in their material living conditions and as the insurgent war continues. It is an air of normalcy in abnormal times.

I continue to be amazed at the warmth and hospitality of Iraqi people. In my limited time walking the streets here, I’ve not felt any animosity directed towards me nor any hostility directed towards me. Just a couple of examples will suffice in this regard.