Maria, Scott, Fr. Martin & Sr. Susan were released at midnight on bail conditions banning them from a mile radius of any UK military base.

Next court appearance is January 16th. All are presently charged with one count of criminal damage under £5,000.

Maria, Scott, Fr. Martin & Sr. Susan were released at midnight on bail conditions banning them from a mile radius of any UK military base.

Next court appearance is January 16th. All are presently charged with one count of criminal damage under £5,000.

 http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/142021/index.php

List of Iraqi War Dead
 http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/03/20/18091521.php

List of British Military Dead in Iraq
 http://icasualties.org/oif/Country.aspx?hndRef=UK

List of Afghanis Killed by NATO Military Action
 http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2006/03/20/18091521.php

British Military Dead in Afghanistan
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_casualties_in_Afghanistan_since_2001#Table_showing_British_fatalities

This is a really brave action as it is away from the inner city crowds so makes peope more vulnerable to the police. The police are being cruel but the politicians who orchestrate all this madness are the cruellest and maddest of all. 'New' Labour = 'the latest' fascism, they've taken us further along the road than any other government and how are we going to turn back from this? For those people who were brought up in regimes this is so frightening for the worst is still to come. Sorry to be so pessimistic..

Chris prepared reflection on

Chris got sick and couldn't make it. His presentation was prefaced by a meditation on the crib scene. Reflections that came out of it included the role of Herod's imperial census - purpose of which would have been for colonial taxes and inteligence military recruitment. Also reflection on how one thing the giving off presents by the Maji has been hyped and spun by capitalism at the expense of all the themes and factors in the scene eg. the marginalised social position of the shepherds, holy family as soon to be refugees, the maji breaking Herod's injunction, God's power expressed in the vulnerability of the infant, the collateral damage of then and now - the Feast of the Holy Innocents.



Chris's Holy Innocents reflection

Read the passage. Matthew Ch:2

This time of the year is a special time for children. We long for all children to be happy, to be safe and secure. To be innocent perhaps in the ways of the world – not to be worried, afraid, fearful etc.

This juxtaposition of this story of the massacre of the innocents in the Christmas season is no coincidence and no joke.

Like most powerful people, the number one priority is to hold on to power at all costs and Herod is no exception. The biblical passage says that Herod ‘heard’ about the Maji’s visit and was ‘disturbed’. The powerful, as we know have spies and informants listening our for and disrupting anything that may challenge their grip on power – Herod is of course no exception.

When he hears of this challenge to his power, he gets his special advisors – "spads" as we call them today – and legal advisors together to try to work out what is going on how they can snuff out this threat. The Magi, Herod works out are obviously the ones in the know and are the most useful way in.

But the visitors from the east – who must have been wealthy and powerful themselves to make that kind of journey with those kind of gifts – need to be treated, how shall we put it - with kid gloves. No heavy hand tactics – not water boarding for them – but he calls them in for an interview - where he tries to co-opt them into being informers too with his lies and disinformation – “let me know as soon as possible so I can go and worship him too”.

And the passage goes on to say that after they had heard him out – it doesn’t say that they agreed to anything - they didn’t sell Jesus out if you like - they continued on their way. I imagine it kind of like our interviews sometimes with the cops – treading a fine line between being respectful, friendly, cooperative even, but not crossing the line, not giving the game away.

So they continued & found Jesus and gave them their gifts and having completed their mission, they quietly and carefully withdrew- clearly breaking the law, defying the powerful. Disobedient.

And so the word came down on high to Joseph – get the hell out of there , they’re after you – run. And run now. In our work, in our resistance that’s not an experience that many of us have had. Woken in the middle of the night to be given a few minutes or a few hours warning of the need to flee as your life and the life of your family is in danger – but we know that is a common experience in our world for many who challenge the powerful. And that’s what happened in the biblical story.. Joseph wakes Mary and they get their things together and flee to Egypt – refugees, leaving behind family, friends, community.

And boy is Herod pissed. His carefully laid plans, his network of informants, his special advisors & legal experts, his cultivating of the Magi - all of it has been useless. He has been, as the passages says ‘outwitted’ and he knows it. He is humiliated – and underneath it all – scared. So there is only one option left – what known these days as ‘the nuclear option’. Kill ‘em all – kill all boys under two - a neat and deadly solution – a pre-emptive strike - see if they can get out of that!

Herod was not the first and certainly not the last ruler to lash out in anger and fear, creating havoc, mayhem and murder in order to stay ‘in control’ or for ‘the good of the state’, or ‘in the public interest’. To try to convince themselves that the consequences of their actions are, well, sad of course, but necessary – the ends justifying the means. Throughout the 20 centuries since that massacre of innocents to our very own time, the innocent have been victim of the powerful, time and time again. In our own time of course we think of Iraq, and Afghanistan, and all the other wars whereby the powerful seek to impose their authority in order that the status quo is maintained...

But wait. Lest we all sit here in quiet righteous indignation, furious at the Herods and the Hitlers, the Blairs and Brown, lets pause for a minute. I want to share with you the story of the death of Aden and Dawit, a story which has affected and inspired me a lot in the 10 years since it happened.
Eritrea and Ethiopia - up until mid-1990 neighbours and friends - literally brothers. Border conflict - brought about - wider economic issues, conflict escalates and war breaks out. On June 5th 1998 (what we're you doing then) Ethiopia and Eritrea started bombing each other. Eritrean aircraft bombed Ethiopian town of Mekele, small town children were finishing school for the day - when bombs rained down from sky and the school was hit by number of cluster bombs. (OHP) Aden aged 4 rescued by passer by Dawit. Aden died of his injuries at the scene – Dawit continued to try to resuce more people but was killed by delayed action cluster bomblet. Some 40 people were killed including children - just one minor incident in one minor war - nothing to do with us. But Eritrea nor Ethiopia have an indigenous arms industry - those planes and cluster bombs were imported - not saying from UK but possibly. We know for certain that cluster bombs made in the UK – in Bedford in fact – were used in the war.
So why do I bring this up? Well I wanted to make the point that the focus of our scorn –the blame for the massacre of the innocent in our world, for all the terrible things that happen in our world cannot simply and easily be laid on the heads of those in charge. They cannot be our scapegoats. I think that is unarguable that as we live in the rich north, we too are ‘the powerful’, that we benefit hugely from the status quo that say , sadly and unfortunately the innocent around the world will always get killed – nothing personal.

I want to make one more related point. The biblical story pits babies against kings, the weak against the strong, the vulnerable against the secure. The way the world goes, there should only be one winner, right? Yet the passage continue that it is Herod who dies and Jesus returns to triumph as we known, not just over kings but over prinicipalities and powers and over death itself.

In our time, “security” has come to be almost the ultimate value. In my own work, when I meet with other groups and NGOs, we don’t talk about "peace" so much any more , we talk about building ‘human security’ – and there are good reason for the that – to challenge the concept of military security etc – won’t go into that. But I wanted to make the point that the gospels call us to not to security but to vulnerability. However this is something that I personally struggle with very much – and we can talk about this together

Right around the world the search for peace and security has becoming more and more central to how we live our lives and order our society. However, almost without exception, ‘security’ and ‘peace’ have been linked with militarism, arms and intolerance. This is nothing new. At the same time that Jesus and the early Christians were urging people to love their enemies (Matt 5:44-45) and extolled the virtues of - what we now call - nonviolent peacemaking (Matt 5: 4-12). Roman military commander Flavius Vegetius Renatus wrote ‘If you want peace, prepare for war’. Whilst one ‘philosophy’ hailed armed conflict as a means of security, the other suggested that real peace and security lives in the practice of love and justice. The same is very much true today.

Whilst no one would seriously argue that working for security or self-defence or defence of another is wrong, as Christians we are committed to much more. American theologian Lisa Sowle Cahill who has written extensively around these issues suggests that “Treating the right of self-defence (“security”) as paramount, even when exercised on behalf of an innocent victim, .... has a way of insidiously shifting the foundation of the discussion to a different view of the moral life than that embodied in the gospel. The foundation of moral reflection becomes, not a discipleship of love and the cross, but self-assertion and the limitation of the obligation to include, to love, to forgive, to serve.” (very rich – could spend a lot of time on that)

As Biblical Christians we are committed to loving our enemies. As Latin American Jose Comblin puts it “In Christian ethics, love is the absolute value, even in the face of the overwhelming danger of losing security.” So, for Christians, building peace means taking the cross seriously, being willing to cross comfortable boundaries, take risks, challenge presumptions and stereotypes, confront injustice and sometimes be willing to stand alone.

To finish a short poem

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the Earth betrayed by war and hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out and the sun burns late.
That was no time for a child to be born
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome
Honor and truth were trampled by scorn --
Yet here did the Saviour make his home.
When is the time of love to be born?
The inn is full on planet earth,
Any by a comet the sky is torn --
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.
Madeleine L'Engle

DEFINITION OF NORTHWOOD MILITARY H.Q.

NORTHWOOD

Local History

Local associations in history include that of the only English Pope, Nicholas Breakspear, with Harefield; Cardinal Wolsey and the Duke of Monmouth with Moor Park; Thomas Gray, who wrote Elegy in a Country Churchyard, with Stoke Poges; and Milton, who alternated between boredom and matrimonial strife at Chalfont St Giles.

Finally, it was recorded in the reign of Queen Elizabeth I that “Five Ruislipians and eight Uxbridge men with unknown malefactors to the number of a hundred, assembled themselves and played a certain unlawful game called football, by reason of which there arose a great affray, like to result in homicides and serious accidents.”

Northwood Permanent Joint Head Quarter’s mission can be summarized as follows:
As part of the Defence Crisis Management Organisation, provide politically aware military advice to the MOD to inform the strategic commitment of UK forces to overseas Joint and Combined operations
When directed by the Chief of Defence Staff, exercise operational command of UK forces assigned to overseas Joint and Combined operations, either led by the UK or another nation, in order to achieve MOD UK’s strategic objectives
In conjunction with the Front Line Commands and MOD, develop the UK’s Joint warfighting capability. The HQ has some 630 personnel from the 3 Services and the Civil Service. The HQ is responsible for directing, deploying, sustaining and recovering UK joint forces, however, there are certain areas that the HQ will not be involved. These are: Strategic Nuclear Deterrent; Defence of the UK Home Base Territorial Waters and Airspace Northern Ireland Counter-terrorism in UK; NATO Article V (General War)
Northwood's role in the Falklands war (1982), the bombing of Serbia and Kosovo (1999) and the attacks on Afghanistan (2001) and Iraq (1998, 2003).

A £1.15 billion contract for the redevelopment, management and operation of facilities on the Northwood Headquarters site was announced by Ministry of Defence Minister Tom Watson.

The 25 year contract for Northwood has been finalised with Eastbury Park Limited, a joint venture between Carillion Private Finance (Defence) Limited and HSBC Infrastructure Fund Management Limited. It will see the significant redevelopment of the 43 acre site at Northwood, Middlesex, the home of the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ), which runs all UK military operations worldwide.

PJHQ is responsible for all UK involvement in overseas operations as well as maintaining the Permanent Joint Operating Bases ranging from the South Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.

The Northwood Headquarters is a high-density, 43-acre site providing employment for over 2000 military and civilian personnel. Whilst part of the underground facility has benefited from major investment, the remainder of the site infrastructure needs to be upgraded.

The site hosts the Permanent Joint Headquarters (PJHQ), which commands all UK overseas military operations.
The contract will bring about a mix of new buildings, the retention and refurbishment of some existing buildings and the demolition of surplus buildings. This will be achieved through a phased process over a five-year period.

Scott Albrecht, former member of the U.S. Air Force, of the nearby Catholic Worker farmhouse has maintained a weekly anti-war vigil at Northwood for the past 6 months. Catholic Workers Ciaron O'Reilly, Sr. Susan Clarkson and Scott Albrecht were arrested and charged with criminal damage of the Northwood HQ sign in 2001  http://www.cambridgeclarion.org/northwood_court.html in response to the bombing of Afghanistan.

In 2003, in anticipation of the invasion of Iraq Sr. Angela Broome, Scott Albrecht and Damien Prescott transformed the Northwood HQ sign with red paint. There have also benn larger actions at the base over the years by "Reclaim the Streets", "Voices in the Wilderness", "D10 Crew". Many of the soldiers on armed guard duty are veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Des Moines Catholic Worker website has been updated to include video and press coverage of yesterday's arrests during the SODaPOP (Season Of Discontent a Presidential Occupation Project) action.

Kathy Kelly, founder of sanctions busting '90's outfit "Voices in the Wilderness", and two others were arrested occupying pro-war Republican Presidential Rev Mike Huckabee's office - posing the question "Who Would Jesus Bomb?"

Go to the homepage and click on the photo of those arrested on the
right of the page at:
www.desmoinescatholicworker.org

Or go to the video of the action on YouTube at:

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GrjecBEX1HQ

 http://www.indymedia.ie/article/85631&comment_limit=0&condense_comments=false#comment216712

Twelve people were arrested today for occupying the campaign
headquarters of two leading presidential candidates. Members of
SODaPOP (Seasons of Discontent: a Presidential Occupation Project)
 http://www.desmoinescatholicworker.org/sodapop.html arrived at the
campaign offices of Senator Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney
early this afternoon. All 12 spent the night in the Polk Co Jail and
will appear before a Judge on Thursday morning.

Four were arrested in the Romney headquarters. They are: Chris Gaunt,
51, Grinnell, IA, Ed Bloomer, 63, Des Moines, Janice Sevre-Duszynska,
57, Nicholasville, KY, Suzanne Sheridan, 31, Chicago, IL.

Shortly after SODaPOP members arrived, Obama staff locked the doors to
the office and ordered press reporters, volunteers, and visitors to
leave at that time. Members of the press were not allowed to
photograph, to witness or report any portion of the actions inside or
the arrests that were ultimately made. Arrested in Obama headquarters
were Vicki Andrews, 63, Grand Rapids, MI, Diane Haugesag, 48,
Minneapolis, MN, David Hovde, 37, Evanston, IL, Dan Pearson, 26,
Chicago, IL, Tom Roddy, 76, Evanston, IL, Brian Terrell, 50, Maloy,
IA, John Tuzcu, 23, Des Moines, IA, Kathy Kelly, 55, Chicago, IL

All 12 who were arrested are being held overnight in the Polk County
Jail and are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning.

In a news release issued earlier by the Des Moines Catholic Worker,
Kelly, co-director of VCNV  http://vcnv.org/ , was quoted as saying,
"We're very respectful of the Iowa caucus process and the long history
behind it but we feel quite strongly that the issues of this war must
be inserted into the process of narrowing down the candidates for the
presidential election."

Kelly was also arrested on Monday during a similar occupation at the
Des Moines headquarters of Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Photos of the occupation may be uploaded with permission at:

Obama Occupation

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/monashaw/sets/72157603610988784/


Romney Occupation

 http://www.flickr.com/photos/monashaw/sets/72157603610860184/

Photos of this action taken by Mauro Heck may be viewed and down-loaded at:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/monashaw/sets/721576036274.../show

Twenty-five members of SODaPOP appeared at Sen. Hillary Clinton's
Campaign Headquarters this afternoon with the intention of occupying that office until the senator agreed to pledge to bring an immediate end to the war in Iraq and to veto further funding of that war if she is elected president.

When Clinton staff saw SODaPOP members approaching their office, the door to the building was locked and entrance was barred to all SODaPOP members as well as press who had arrived to cover the occupation.

SODaPOP then stood in front of the entrances holding banners that read "End the War in Iraq" and "Stop War Funding" and handed out flyers outlining their reasons for being there. After several hours and when the headquarters were closing to leave for precinct caucuses, SODaPOP members decided to leave. No arrests were made.

This concluded the three-day campaign in Iowa. A total of 15 arrests
were made in the campaign that also included occupations at the
Huckabee, Romney, and Obama campaign headquarters in the Des Moines metro area. SODaPOP (Seasons of Discontent: a Presidential Occupation Project) is a project that intends to insert the peace movement into the U.S. presidential campaigns. It is coordinated by Voices for Creative Nonviolence, the Iowa Occupation Project and hosted in Des Moines by the Des Moines Catholic Worker Community.

In a news release issued earlier by the Des Moines Catholic Worker,
Kelly, co-director of VCNV, was quoted as saying, "We're very
respectful of the Iowa caucus process and the long history behind it
but we feel quite strongly that the issues of this war must be
inserted into the process of narrowing down the candidates for the
presidential election."