The trial for Cindy Sheehan and six others for their arrest in front of the White House on March 20th is this Thursday, June 10th at DC Superior Court, 500 Indiana, NW in room 120.

There will be a short pro-peace/pro-1st Amendment Rally and press conference at 8:15am in front of the Court.

Some statements from the “Peace Criminals” and their attorneys:

Cindy Sheehan: (Gold Star Mother and National Director of Peace of the Action arrested for crossing a police line):

“When I was picking up my property the day after I got out of jail-a Park Police officer told me: ‘If you would quit protesting, this stuff would quit happening to you.’ Unfortunately, even though many people have ‘quit protesting’ since the Democrats and Obama have risen to the top of the dung heap in DC, the wars continue and people continue to die. We cannot stop until the wars stop. My grandbabies WILL NOT live in a world where war for profit is the norm and where basic civil rights are ignored or regularly violated by authorities. It’s draining in so many ways to continue, but continue we must.”

Elaine Brower: (MFSO and WCW-arrested for disorderly conduct)

“My son served 3 combat tours as a US Marine. My family suffered tremendous strain and stress with each re-deployment, and we were lucky to see him come home alive, but broken in a way that no one understands except the small percentage of families who are asked to make sacrifices for the illegal, illegitimate and immoral wars and occupations that this government refuses to end. I was participating in a peaceful protest allegedly safeguarded under the first amendment against furthering the deaths of millions of people. It is an outrage that we have no redress of our grievances, and spent 52 hours in jail because of it.”

Jon Gold: (Core Team Member of Peace of the Action and 911 Truth Activist arrested for crossing a police line)

“In response to our Government lying about, and covering up the 9/11 attacks, I began fighting for truth, accountability, and justice for what happened that day. My efforts, for the past eight years, have been on behalf of the people that lost someone that day, and for the 9/11 first responders that needed health care because of the toxic dust down at Ground Zero. The United States Government has used the 9/11 attacks as an excuse to launch illegal, preemptive wars and to take away our civil liberties. The resulting bankrupting of this country is unacceptable to me, and I felt it was my duty as a citizen to help to expose the cover-up. Ultimately, that fight led me to be in Washington D.C. on March 20th. It greatly saddens me that I was arrested, and will have to stand trial for such a trivial crime. I was under the impression that Americans have the right to peaceably assemble. Paradoxically crossing a police line is treated as a crime, but our leaders are not held accountable for their much more serious crimes of murder and genocide. It is also quite tragic to me that Cindy Sheehan, a mother of a lost soldier, has to stand trial because she believes in ending the illegal and unjust occupations that led to her son’s death.”

Kathleen Kirwin: (Lawyer for “Peace Criminals”)

I am honored to stand in solidarity as legal counsel for seven courageous activists who have the guts, integrity and justified anger and outrage to stand up to the government of this country which continues to engage in wars of aggression around the world at the cost of millions of lives. In order for the government to continue waging its unlawful wars with impunity, it willfully and proactively violates the First Amendment to the United State Constitution, which specifically PROHIBITS the government from interfering with any citizen’s RIGHT to peaceably assemble, petition for government redress of grievances and engage in freedom of speech. As such, and as a matter of law, it should be the government who faces trial for violating the constitution, not those who seek to defend it.

Mark Goldstone: (Lawyer for “Peace Criminals”)

“On Thursday, June 10, Cindy Sheehan, Iraq Veteran Matthis Chiroux and 5 other activists will go on trial, before a Judge of the DC Superior Court. They face relatively minor charges, but their trial raises the public outrage that the war in Iraq still goes on after 7 years – and the US invasion of Afghanistan is approaching its 9th year. A broad range of citizens and activists gathered in Lafayette Park on Saturday, March 20, to protest the US Government’s continuing wars in the Middle East – which only continue to destabilize the region, and to use America’s precious economic resources.”

The “Peace Criminals”

Cindy Sheehan: Gold Star Mother and National Director of Peace of the Action. From California.

Elaine Brower: Mother of US Marine and member of Military Families Speak Out and World Can’t Wait. From New York.

Matthis Chiroux: Veteran and member of Iraq Vets Against the War. From New York.

Jon Gold: Core Team Member of Peace of the Action and 911 Truth Activist. From Pennsylvania

Jim Veeder: Peace Activist. From New York.

Alex MacDonald: Peace Activist. From Pennsylvania.

LaFlora Cunningham: Peace Activist from DC.

The Legal Team

Ann Wilcox: DC-based lawyer and current chair of the Demonstration Support Committee for the DC chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. In the past year, she has advised and represented activists on issues ranging from climate change, single-payer health, peace and opposition to US torture policies.

Mark Goldstone: has been defending non-violent activists for more than 25 years and was on the defense team for Cindy Sheehan’s first Washington, DC arrest in 2005. Mark is the former head of the Demonstration Support Committee of DC Chapter of National Lawyers Guild.

Kathleen Kirwin: has been a national and international criminal defense and human rights lawyer for 25 years. Ms. Kirwin has spoken at the United Nations on the issue of international peace- making and peace- building and she has been an anti-war activist for the past 40 years.

This is a message from Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox and Peace of the Action in solidarity with the FREE GAZA MOVEMENT “FREEDOM FLOTILLA” that is currently under sail in the Mediterranean and approaching its destination to the coast of the Gaza Strip. The ‘Freedom Flotilla’ is conducting a strictly humanitarian mission and carries a total of 10,000 tons of aid, 800 activists and politicians from more than 40 countries. The occupation and blockade of Gaza, by military and police forces of the Israeli government, is an immoral and heinous campaign of systematic oppression, slowly strangling every aspect of the innocent Palestinian people’s basic necessities, infrastructure, natural resources and human rights.

The following statement is found on the WWW.FREEGAZA.ORG website: “The FREE GAZA MOVEMENT is a human rights group that in August 2008 sent the first international boats to land in the port of Gaza in 41 years. We want to break the siege of Gaza. We want to raise international awareness about the prison-like closure of the Gaza Strip and pressure the international community to review its sanctions policy and end its support for continued Israeli occupation.”

We ask all people of good conscience to please call/e-mail the US State Department in Washington, DC asking that they actively monitor the status of the ‘Freedom Flotilla’ and to be in constant communication with the government and military forces of Israel demanding the Flotilla’s safe passage in continuing unhindered to their stated destination of the Gaza Coast. No threats or acts of aggression toward the Flotilla shall be allowed. If the Flotilla is acted upon with threats and/or acts of aggression we demand the United States to intervene on behalf of the Flotilla.

US State Department Telephone: (202) 647-4000 (24-hour number)

US State Department E-Mail: publicaffairs@panet.us.state.gov

To keep aware of the Freedom Flotilla’s current status on an hour-by-hour basis please monitor their website at: www.freegaza.org

Cindy Sheehan
5/12/2010

On March 20th, three members of Peace of the Action, including Cindy Sheehan, were arrested crossing a “police line” in front of the White House.

After 52 hours in DC jail, Cindy, Jon Gold and Jim Veeder, were brought to court in ankle and wrist shackles.

Along with other three defendents, Cindy, Jon, and Jim were ordered to return to court on June 10th.

The charge the three were arrested for doesn’t even contain any jail time (52 hours already) at all and the maximum penalty is $300.

Except for Cindy, who was not given the option, everyone else at the arraignment were given the option to “pay and forfeit.”

“Pay and forfeit” would mean that the other five could have been given “time served” and not have to go back to DC for the expense of a trial, etc. The other five plead “not guilty,” also and chose to go back to DC for the trial.

Cindy lives in California and will have significant travel expenses for this trial. The other five live in the East and will have some minimal expenses.

We would also like to pay some money to our attorney, Ann Wilcox.

Cindy and the other five were protesting wars that never should have been waged in the first place and have gone on for far too long. Even though there were thousands of people in attendance at the anti-war rally on the 7th anniversary of the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, just this handful of activists decided to go the extra step of doing civil disobedience.

If you can help with the legal expenses of these six, who have already suffered so much in jail, and from the Empire, please click the scales to donate to the Legal Defense Fund.

July 12th-16th we will be focusing on counter-recruitment efforts.

July 19th-23rd we will focus our energies on Congress before it recesses for summer break and going back to their home districts to campaign for November elections.

We do have some good POTA news to report. We have a fundraiser on board: Teri Perticone from Berkeley, who is fundraising for no compensation to herself, but for “love,” so let’s give Teri lots of love! Teri can be reached at TeriPerticone@noliesradio.org

We are also wading through many offers from activists who want to volunteer to be our Webmaster.

POTA will continue whether we have Summer Camp OUT NOW, or not. Peace of the Action is an organization dedicated to ending the empire through direct action. We are not interested in symbolic actions or Federal electoral politics.

Even though we are encouraging activist to do actions locally, we must have a strong presence in Washington, DC, too.

We are organizing for Summer Camp, but we need to have a certain number of people signed up to be able to go ahead with Camp.

If you are planning on coming to Summer Camp, please send an email to Cindy Sheehan: Cindy@PeaceoftheAction.org with the dates that you are planning on attending.

If you are planning on scheduling actions in your community, please also email Cindy.

If you would like to donate to help us work for peace, please click on the link.

Please RSVP for Summer Camp by May 10th.

IMPORTANT POINTS:

1) WE NEED YOU TO RSVP BY MAY 10TH–IF WE DON’T GET ENOUGH PEOPLE TO SIGN-UP BY MAY 10TH–WE WILL NOT HOLD SUMMER CAMP.

2) THERE WILL BE NO CAMPING AT CAMP. WE ARE TRYING TO GET PERMITS TO HAVE A CONVERGENCE CAMP, THOUGH–HOUSING WILL PROBABLY BE AVAILABLE AT ST. STEPHEN’S AGAIN.

3) NO ACTIONS ON THE WEEKENDS, UNLESS SOMETHING INTERESTING AND UNEXPECTED COMES UP TO PROTEST.

http://peaceoftheaction.org/give/

Love & Peace
Cindy Sheehan and POTA Team

Cindy@PeaceoftheAction.org

Source: islamtimes.org

By: Cindy Sheehan
3/8/2010

Recently, I was given the honor of going to Venezuela to interview its President, Hugo Chavez, and I also had some extraordinary experiences and interviews along the way.

I was able to travel to Uruguay with Chavez and his team to attend the inauguration activities of President Jose Mujica. I traveled with and got to know some amazing revolutionaries and dedicated public servants.

Trust me, these people work hard and they are extremely dedicated to the revolution and devoted to President Hugo Chavez. We were constantly on the move and things changed by the minute. Spending two days traveling with this crew was exhilarating but also extremely fatiguing—I can’t even imagine doing it everyday!

Anyway, one of the people we traveled with was Temir Porras, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in charge of Asia and the Middle East. I asked Temir if he would sit down with us for an interview. When I made the request I said, “Temir, I would love to interview you to ask you what you would do differently in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Palestine if you were president of the United States.” He agreed to the interview but said the answer to that question was easy, “Everything!”

Temir speaks perfect English, so no interpreter was required and we sat down with him for about 40 minutes in my hotel room in Caracas.

The entire, wonderful interview will be broadcast on my radio show: Cindy Sheehan’s Soapbox soon, but I wanted to write about the highlights.

I asked him some easy questions to begin the interview to highlight the difference between an aggressive and violent foreign policy, like the US has, and the foreign policies of a so-called Dictatorship.

ME: Temir, how many illegal foreign wars of aggression is Venezuela currently involved in?

TEMIR: None.

ME: Thank you. Temir, how many countries has Venezuela invaded lately?

Temir: None.

ME: Temir, how many wars of any kind is Venezuela involved in?

Temir: Zero.

In stark contrast to the Empire where I was born and currently reside—the US is presently in the midst of two very illegal and immoral invasions and is regularly bombing in Pakistan and Yemen—Venezuela has a foreign policy based on “respect for sovereignty.” The only time the US Empire respects a nation’s sovereignty is if that nation carries water for the corporations, IMF or World Bank.

Not only is the US involved in its own military misadventures, but it is also the foundation and support for Israeli aggression and occupation against Palestine. Again, Venezuelan policy on this issue is, in my opinion, the more principled one.

In 2006 when Israeli invaded Lebanon, (with military hardware purchased by and through the US), Venezuela recalled its Ambassador in Tel Aviv. Then when Israel slaughtered Gazans at the end of 2008, Venezuela expelled Israel’s Ambassador and totally closed its embassy in Tel Aviv. There was not even a peep from official US channels against this aggression—as a matter of fact, we have officially supported the atrocities with giving trite li-service to “human rights.”

Vice Minister Porras was very generous with his time and very articulate in explaining Venezuelan foreign policy to us, but I was particularly interested in its Middle Eastern views.

The policies of Venezuela and my own are very similar—Nations should completely honor and respect the sovereignty of other nations.

Troops and independent contractors should be immediately and totally withdrawn from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan and the Palestinians deserve their own sovereign state within Palestine.

Temir was also very concerned with US aggression towards Iran and did not support sanctioning Iran saying that it is up to the government of Iran whether it should have nuclear power and even a nuclear bomb. No one likes nukes, but Iran’s close regional neighbor is Israel, and everyone knows that Israel has many nuclear bombs—the only way to forestall that problem would be if every nation disarmed and conformed to IAEA regulations, inspections and controls.

Towards the end of the interview, I asked Temir if he felt that the US occupations all over the world, but especially in Afghanistan, would cause the collapse of the US Military Empire as it did the Soviet Union’s—his answer was immediate and brief:

“I hope so.”

I hope so, too—the only unfortunate thing is that when the Empire collapses it will cause turmoil and sorrow all over the world.

Temir had (in my opinion) unfounded optimism in the people of the United States that we will be able to turn this trend around before the collapse of the Empire takes the rest of the world down with it.

In solidarity with our children and the children of the world—I HOPE that Temir is correct.