A blog about a criminal enterprise
On February 4, in his first major foreign policy address, President Joe Biden announced “we are ending all American support for offensive operations in the war in Yemen, including relevant arms sales.” Speaking of the Saudi-led coalition that has been at war in Yemen since 2015, creating what he called “a humanitarian and strategic catastrophe,” Biden declared “This war has to end.”
Stating an intention is not fulfilling it and considering Biden’s further pledge, “to continue to
November 10, 2020
In a letter dated November 2, 2020, Judge Stacey Smith of the Juneau County District Court in Mauston, Wisconsin, denied the motions made by seven antiwar activists to adjourn their trial scheduled for November 16. The seven, Bonnie Block, Joyce Ellwanger, Joy First, Bob Graf, Jim Murphy, Phil Runkel, all of Wisconsin and Brian Terrell, of Iowa, had been arrested for trespass on November 12, 2019, in a protest at Volk Field, a Wisconsin Air National Guard base that trains personnel
“But what of the price of peace?” asked Jesuit priest and war resister Daniel Berrigan, writing from federal prison in 1969, doing time for his part in the destruction of draft records. “I think of the good, decent, peace-loving people I have known by the thousands, and I wonder. How many of them are so afflicted with the wasting disease of normalcy that, even as they declare for the peace, their hands reach out with an instinctive spasm in the direction of their loved ones, in the direction
Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Anniversary of his Murder in a Pandemic Year
April 4, 2020
The United States Strategic National Stockpile of essential medical supplies maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, seems unable to respond to the present COVID-19 crisis. There is much discussion in today’s news about who is responsible for the shortcomings. Did Trump find the shelves empty or full when he took office after President Obama? Is the stockpile meant to
Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph (2020)
Reviewed by Brian Terrell
Dorothy Day: Dissenting Voice of the American Century by John Loughery and Blythe Randolph, is billed as “the first full-length biography of its subject in forty years.” It is also significant as the first such work by authors who are not a part of the Catholic Worker “family”, but who are principally biographers of a wide range of subjects. While their work
an invitation from Voices for Creative Nonviolence to walk from Green Bay to Marinette, Wisconsin, September 9-15, for peace, in defense of the earth, and against Saudi war crimes and human rights violations.
Last December, the U.S. Navy awarded a Lockheed Martin-led team a multi-billion dollar contract to construct four warships for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The four Multi-Mission Surface Combatant (MMSC) ships will be constructed at the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard in Marinette,
A reflection on the trial of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7
By Brian Terrell
“Whether nuclear weapons are actually illegal under international or domestic law (a doubtful proposition) is not relevant or an appropriate issue to litigate in this case,” so ruled Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of the US District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, late on Friday October 18. This last minute order, restricting the defense of seven antinuclear activists at a trial that began Monday morning the 21st,
Current events concerning Turkey and the Kurds in Syria remind me of a conversation I had with a US Air Force colonel almost 17 years ago in a courtroom in Des Moines. To refresh my memory, I dug deep into my closet and dusted off the transcript of the case, “STATE OF IOWA, plaintiff vs. CHRISTINE GAUNT et al.,” in which I was a defendant, heard in February, 2003, the month before the US invasion of Iraq. The following quotes from that dialogue are verbatim per the transcript.
The case concerned
A response to Lincoln Rice and “The Catholic Worker as Institution”
Brian Terrell, Strangers and Guests CW Farm
Lincoln Rice and Maria Bergh presented a powerful roundtable discussion at the national Catholic Worker gathering in Rochester this summer concerning racism and the CW movement. This followed a similar discussion with several Midwest CWs at Mary House in New York last year. Good advantage was taken of these opportunities for meaningful and constructive dialogue. I was particularly
November 15, 2018
On November 14, the Republican majority in the U.S. House of Representatives blocked a resolution that its supporters say would end U.S. participation in the war and famine in Yemen. It is unclear, however, what effect this resolution would have on the ground even if it were passed into law. It imposes no limits on arms sales to Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates. It does not propose any oversight or limitation of activities CIA or of private contractors from the U.S. in