Pit Stop ploughshares Go Searching for Weapons of Mass Destruction

dublin | anti-war / imperialism | news report Monday April 05, 2004 08:03 by Pit Stop PLoughshares - Dublin, Ireland pitstopploughshares at hotmail dot com c/-Ploughshares 134 Phibsborough Rd. Phibsborough DUBLIN 7,IRELAND 087 918 4552

The Pit Stop ploughshares await trial on charges arising out of their nonviolent disarmament of a US Navy war Plane at Shannon Airport on February 3rd. 2003. Conviction carries maximum penalties of 10 years imprisonment

PIT STOP ploughshares GO SEARCHING FOR WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION!

This past week, the Prosecution has delayed the trial of the Pit Stop ploughshares by initiating a judicial review of the trial judges order of discovery in relation to the nature of US military flights through Shannon preceeding the outbreak of the US bombing campaign. The move is reminsicent of the British state's response to the discovery order in the Katherine Gunn/MOD case - where discovery on the British Attorney General's opinion on the legality of the war given to Blair was ordered and remains unrevealed.

For the past several weeks of Lent, the ploughshares have maintained a daily vigil outside the Irish Aviation Authority in downtown Dublin. This has been an attempt to remain awake to the monthly movement of 10,000 US troops through Shannon Airport en route to Iraq. This contribution to the U.S. war effort is sanctioned by the Irish Aviation Authoritiy and other government and private bodies. Many passers by are shocked to discover that the U.S. military are still using Ireland as a pit stop. The public genearlly assumes this is a practice, war and issue of the past.

This past week saw a US military plane flyig the skull and cross bones land at a Dublin airport. The flag of pirates (privateers) is appropriate in the ongoing plunder of Iraq. The basis of the Pentagon's ongoing war on the people of Iraq has always been to expand power and profit. The marketing of the war as a crusade against Weapons of Mass Destruction and against Terrorism is steadilly exposed with each passing day of no WMD finds and Iraq's transformation into a font of humiliation, vengeance and the terror of the ilequipped.

Both terrorism and weapons of mass destruction remain serious issues in our world. Dublin Catholic Worker's, Damien Moran and Ciaron O'Reilly, will join the search for WMD in England over the Easter season participating in the 50 mile peace walk from London to Aldermaston - Britain's nuclear bomb factory www.youthstudentcnd.org.uk ***Apri 9th. - 12th.

ploughshares/Catholic Worker & friends will also maintain an overnight vigil outside the Israeli Embassy on the last night of the 17 1/2 year incareration of Maordachii Vanunu http://www.nonviolence.org/vanunu In 1986, Vanunu was kidnapped in Rome by Mossad after exposing Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. he was drugged and illegally taken to Isarel where he has spent the last 17 1/2 years in prison (The first 11 years in solitary confinement). The Dublin vigil will comence on ***Tuesday April 20th. 7.30 pm and conclude at 12 noon April 21st. It will be one of many vigils at Israeli Embassies around the world.

Friends contiue to be arrested and imprisoned for nonviolently confronting the terrorist training camp that is the School of the Americas www.soaw.org Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness www.nonviolence.org/vitw began a four month prison sentence this week.

The Pit Stop ploughshares will next return to court for a bail hearing on Monday April 19th.

The Prosecution appears for its judicial review on April 21st.