Holy Week Anti-War Resistance

international | anti-war / imperialism | press release

Sunday April 12, 2009 08:41

by Solidarity

A number of faith based acts of nonviolent resistance to U.S. wars occured over the Holy Week season at the Pentagon, White House and Dept. of Energy in Washington D.C. and elsewhere. Here are some press release, images and reports......

Paul Magno arrested today at White House over "indefinite detention of
prisoners at places such as Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and Bagram Air Base,
Afghanistan."

Photo:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mike_benedetti/3429245481/

Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZyapuOUCVM&feature=play...edded

More:
http://100dayscampaign.org/node/451

Local activist, Paul Magno, to mark Good Friday with a dramatic
nonviolent direct action at the White House

WASHINGTON -- On a day holy to all Christians, a local peace and
justice activist will risk arrest during a dramatic protest against
the indefinite detention of prisoners at places such as Guantanamo
Bay, Cuba and Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan. The planned action will
attempt to nonviolently recreate the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at
the White House.

The action will happen at about 12 noon at the White House during
Witness Against Torture's daily vigil
(http://www.100dayscampaign.org/) calling for the immediate closure of
Guantanamo and the end of all torture. The group has also begun
calling for the closure of Bagram, despite U.S. military plans to
double the size of the military prison.

"I want to call on the president to do the morally correct and just
thing, and release all the prisoners who have never been charged with
anything, and to shine an even brighter light on these unlawful places
of injustice," said Paul Magno, a Washington activist.

Magno explained that his Good Friday protest is important, because it
highlights that Jesus of Nazareth was a victim of torture and a
prisoner of an empire.

According to local peace and justice activists, the action will be
purely nonviolent and done in a manner of respect, with the aim of
calling on President Obama to end the use of abusive tactics which
amount to torture and to immediately close "legal black holes" such as
Bagram and Guantanamo.

"It is not acceptable to simply close Guantanamo while leaving Bagram
open, a place with even less oversight," the Washington activist
added.

Magno has been associated with the Catholic Worker movement for nearly
three decades, and spent 20 months in federal prison for nonviolent
resistance to the nuclear arms race following a Plowshares action in
Florida in 1984. By comitting the action Friday, he will also be
violating an unsupervised probation ordered 10 months ago by Judge
Wendell P. Gardner of DC Superior Court, stemming from an earlier
protest calling for the closure of the controversial prison at
Guantanamo Bay.

Magno has been actively involved in the Washington Peace Center since
2004 as a former coordinator and currently a board member. He is
currently on staff of Witness for Peace, an organization of people of
faith and conscience engaged in supporting peace, justice and
sustainable economies in the Americas.

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5 Holy Week Pentagon anti-war resisters tried, convicted sentenced

by 5 sentenced

Sun Jun 21, 2009 09:09

Washington D.C.
5 Holy Week Pentagon anti-war resisters tried, convicted sentenced
http://dccatholicworker.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/faith-...date/

Update Paul Magno Gitmo Arrest at White House

by Update Gitmo Arrest

Fri Apr 17, 2009 09:59

Update Paul Magno Gitmo Arrest at White House

http://www.dailygazette.com/weblogs/letendre/2009/apr/1...aces/

Photos & Report from Anti-War Witness at Pentagon & D.O.E.

by Art - D.C.CW

Sun Apr 12, 2009 12:45

Photos from anti-war witness at Pentagon, Washington D.C.
http://www.photo.jonahhouse.org/holy-week-2009/pentagon/

Photos from Anti-war witness at Dept of Energy, Washington D.C.
http://www.photo.jonahhouse.org/holy-week-2009/departme...ergy/

Dear Friends,

Fifty people involved with the Holy Week Faith and Resistance retreat
in Washington, D.C., sponsored by Jonah House
http://www.jonahhouse.org/ and the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker, held a
nonviolent witness at the Pentagon early this Good Friday morning.
Dressed in black robes and white masks to symbolize the war dead,
retreatants silently processed to a solemn drumbeat around the south
side of the Pentagon carrying signs reading: Put Away the Sword,
Remember the Victims of War, Abolish All Nuclear Weapons, War Never
Again.

Other signs contained facts about the U.S. nuclear arsenal. As
the main procession entered the designated fenced off "protest zone"
outside the Pentagon Metro Entrance, Pentagon Police arrested eight
people as they prayed around a cross on the sidewalk near the "protest
zone." They were taken to the nearby Navy Annex for processing,
charged with "Disobeying a Lawful Order of a Government Agent" and
were given a June 19 court date. Those arrested were: Susan Crane,
David Ryle, Sr. Margaret McKenna, Molly Brechtel, Brian Hynes, Nancy
Gowen, Bill Frankel-Streit and Art Laffin.

On this Good Friday, as we remember the crucifixion of Jesus, we are
so very mindful of all those who are crucified today by our warmaking
empire. We remember, too, all those who await execution and all who
are crucified to the cross of exploitation, poverty and starvation. We
offer prayers of gratitude for the 14 arrested yesterday at Creech AFB
in Nevada for calling for the immediate disarmament of the Predator
and Reaper Drone Warplanes, as well as for all sisters and brothers
who, this Holy Week, have engaged in acts of nonviolent witness to the
God of Life and Love in resistance to the forces of oppression and
death.

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