84-Yr-Old Nun, 2 US Vets Imprisoned For Exposing Gov't Crimes

Above photo left to right: Gregory Boertje-Obed, Sr. Megan Rice, 84, Michael Walli, imprisoned for exposing U.S. government crimes

Two United States veterans and an 84-year-old nun have been sentenced and imprisoned this week for protest actions at a nuclear weapons facility exposing government crimes, have been hailed as heoric Friday by thousands of U.S. veterans who demand their release.

Part of the trio’s crime included security guards finding the three placing banners, singing and offered the guards to join their meal. According to reports obtained from the security guards, the trio, members of Veterans For Peace, offered sharing with candles, white roses and Bible.

Two Catholic activists and an 84-years-old nun were arrested and sentenced in the federal court Tuesday, for trespassing a storage facility of nuclear weapon zone at Tennessee defense facility.

In July 2012, Greg Boertje-Obed, Michael Walli and Sister Megan Rice, confessed to cutting fences and encroaching on a Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, that caters United State’s main source of bomb-grenade uranium used to kill and maime under the guise of taking democracy to coveted resource-rich nations.

Veterans For Peace have said in a statement Friday that “in the strongest possible terms” it ”condemns the convictions and imprisonment of these concerned citizens, and calls for their immediate release.

“Our highest commendations are sent with gratitude and love to VFP member Gregory Boertje-Obed and his courageous and noble colleagues, Sr. Megan Rice, SHCJ and Michael Walli, members of Transform Now Plowshares for their extraordinary actions to expose the on-going criminal activity of the US government at the Y-12 nuclear processing facilities in Oak Ridge, TN,” stated Veterans For Peace in a written statement Friday. “We send also our love and support to their families and friends.”  

In initial phases of the case, the hearings were scheduled for Jan. 28 but later postponed halfway due to an intense regional snowstorm.

U.S. District Judge Amul Thapar demanded the protesters pay $52,953 for compensating damage at the nuclear facility. The trio confessed to hammering the exterior compound walls and spray painted walls of the facility.

The federal government of United States, and its jury convicted the three protesters last May for deteriorating national defense securities under the sabotage act. That carries imprisonment up to 20 years.

The 3 protesters were also charged for damaging the US government property worth $1000. The three have been arrested and have been in jail since their convictions.

To honor this extraordinary sacrifice of the Transform Now Plowshares activists, and help ensure a future for all of humanity, VFP National have called on its membership “to insist on the implementation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and move toward the abolition of these unconscionable weapons.”

Sources: The Eastern Tribune, Veterans For Peace

Join Veterans For Peace in demanding the release of these human rights defenders here.