CPTnet
1 April 2011
CPT INTERNATIONAL: CPTer Anne Montgomery and four other
Plowshares activists sentenced for trying to enforce international laws against
nuclear weapons
On 28 March 2011, five Disarm Now Plowshares activists who entered U.S. Naval
Base Kitsap-Bangor (Washington, USA) in November 2009 to disarm symbolically
the nuclear weapons stored there, received sentences ranging from to six to
fifteen months confinement and one year supervised release. Long-time
CPTer Sr. Anne Montgomery, sentenced to two months in jail plus four months
electronic home monitoring, said, “We join those…deprived by our wars and
military budget of a human way of life.”
On All-Souls Day, 2 November 2009, Bill Bichsel, 82, Stephen
Kelly, 62, Susan Crane, 67, Lynne Greenwald, 61, and Montgomery, 84, used bolt
cutters to break through a chain-link fence in an area where Trident submarine
nuclear warheads are stored. They
walked almost four miles into the base and cut through two more fences and
alarm wires, ignoring a sign warning that deadly force was authorized against
intruders. After putting up
banners and scattering blood and sunflower seeds, they prayed until they were
arrested.
Noting their “lack of remorse” for breaking into the base,
Judge Benjamin Settle told the five Disarm Now Plowshares defendants that their
protest was “a form of anarchy” that could lead to a “breakdown in the social
order.”
All five of the activists claimed they were not guilty
because U.S. nuclear weapons violate international law, but the judge refused
to allow them to use that argument during the trial.
Those who wish to write (letters only) to Montgomery and the other defendants
may do so using the following address:
NAME & REGISTER NUMBER
FDC SEATAC
FEDERAL DETENTION CENTER
P.O. BOX 13900
SEATTLE, WA
98198
Register Numbers:
Fr. Bill Bichsel 86275-020
Susan Crane 87783-011
Lynne Greenwald 40672-086
Fr. Stephen Kelly 00816-111
Sr. Anne Montgomery 03827-018
