Steve Baggarly at Probation Violation Hearing
before Magistrate Tommy Miller, the judge for the Nuclear Navy Plowshares
April 20, 2010. Steve Baggarly's probation violation hearing happened today, before Magistrate Tommy Miller, the judge who sentenced him to one day in jail and two years of probation for climbing on a B-52 at an Air Show in Virginia Beach in Nov. '08. Having been convicted of passing out flyers at the Pentagon after being ordered to stop this past Dec., Steve was violated for breaking probation.
In court today Steve stipulated to having been arrested and convicted in DC and Judge Miller gave him time to make a statement (which is below). He then said that Steve was no longer on probation and sentenced him to one day in jail, and he was out 3 hours later.
We passed out this leaflet on December 28th , the Christian Feast of the Holy Innocents, which remembers the massacre of the infant boys of Bethlehem by King Herod who was trying to execute the Christ child. Our current wars in the Middle East are also a massacre of innocents.
General Stanley McChrystal, commander of all US and NATO forces in Afghanistan , holds biweekly virtual Town Hall meetings with soldiers in the field, answering their questions. In March he responded to a question about escalation of force at situations at checkpoints, when soldiers end up shooting at cars at checkpoints. He responded, “ In the nine-plus months I've been here, not a single case where we have engaged in an escalation of force incident and hurt someone has it turned out that the vehicle had a suicide bomb or weapons in it and, in many cases, had families in it…We've shot an amazing number of people and killed a number and, to my knowledge, none has proven to have been a real threat to the force."
Last week a US military video was leaked of an Apache helicopter gunship attack on unarmed civilians in Iraq in July 2007, in which 10 adults, including 2 journalists, were killed and two children wounded. The soldiers were laughing and swearing as they machine-gunned the civilians, including two men who came with a van to remove the bodies (in violation of the Geneva Conventions). In response to hearing that two children were also shot in the van they said, “That's what they get for bringing their kids to a battle.”
Shannon Meehan, a tank platoon leader in Iraq , tells his story in “Beyond Duty” about calling an air strike after seeing a wire running across a road and into it a house. After following all the protocol, communicating with his commanding officers and his men closest to the scene, he had a psy-ops truck announce the attack several times up and down the block warning of a coming attack and telling everyone to vacate the block. The truck stopped in front of the house several times. Then he called in a missile strike that hit exactly the intended house. The first word from the ground he received was that two children on bikes came around the corner and were right in front of the house in front of the house when the missiles hit, blowing them apart. Then word from those who went in the house was that a family of eight were all found dead inside. Capt. Meehan who is now back in the States, and he has been haunted by that day ever since.
Two articles from last week's newspaper give another glimpse. “Air Strike in Pakistan Kills at Least 71 Civilians,” the US-backed military offensive in Pakistan has led to many civilian deaths. This attack on civilians was confirmed by the Pakistani government. And “US Troops Kill 4 Civilians on Bus.” US troops fired on a civilian bus near Kandahar , actually killing 6 people and wounding 18.
In Iraq , upwards of 1 million people have been killed, more millions made refugees, maimed, orphaned, tortured, or driven mad by the war. Tens of thousands of Afghanis have been killed or maimed. Drone attacks in Pakistan , Afghanistan and Somalia kill more innocents than anyone. US military night raids and home invasions kill more Afghans than drones. In Afghanistan , our next offensive will be in Kandahar , the second largest city in the country, and a large civilian death toll is expected.
As our flyer says, every war becomes a war on children. For the past half century, 90% of casualties in war have been civilians, with children much more likely than soldiers to die in war. The historical refrain is always the same, whether it was King Herod 2000 years ago in Roman Palestine or the United States today in Iraq , Afghanistan , Pakistan , Yemen , or Somalia --in pursuit of their high value targets the powers slaughter children as a matter of course.
I feel that by leafleting I was upholding the best of human law as well as God's law.
The Geneva Conventions oblige belligerents to make distinctions between people involved in hostilities and the civilian population. They prohibit indiscriminate attacks, the use of indiscriminate weapons, and attacks with disproportionate impact on civilians. The Nuremburg Principles forbid crimes against the peace, including wars of aggression (it would be hard to argue that the invasion of Iraq wasn't a war of aggression). They forbid war crimes, including the murder of civilians (which happens on a daily basis), ill treatment of prisoners (which happens on a daily basis), plundering property, and the wanton destruction of cities, towns, or villages. Nuremberg holds all accomplices to these acts responsible for their totality even if one did not pull the trigger. It can be argued that in a democracy we are all accomplices. Article 6 of the US Constitution says that such International Treaties are the supreme law of the land, and all judges are bound by it.
As far as God's law goes, Jesus teaches followers to love God and love their neighbor as themselves, and to treat others the way they like to be treated. He says these two statements are the summation of law. They exclude violence. For Jesus, love is both ends and means.
After healing a man's withered hand on the Sabbath, Jesus asks, “What is lawful, to do good or to do evil, to save life or destroy it?” he posits that the whole purpose of law is to do good and to save life. St. Paul says “Love fulfills the law.”
Finally, in the Hebrew Scriptures the word “mishpat” is the root of the words translated “law, right, justice, judgment, and judge”. The word doesn't imply objectivity but defense of the poor and weak against the injustice of the powerful. The Biblical vocation of the law and its judges is to do justice for the poor, the powerless and the victims. Judge, the Air Force and their B-52 bombers don't need you, the Pentagon doesn't need you, but there are millions of their victims who do.
Norfok Catholic Worker given summons for violating probation
Steve Baggarly to go back to federal court
For climbing on top of a
B-52 at the Oceana Air Show, and saying
"No More War, War Never Again"
Steve was given two years probation.
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Steve Baggarly, along with Beth Brockman, Susan Crane
and Kristen Saddler hold banners on the B-52 |
Steve Baggarly of the Norfolk Catholic Worker was given a summons by the US Marshals to appear in court on Tuesday, April 20, at 2 pm, for a probation violation hearing.
Steve was given 2 years of probation after getting on top of a B-52 with four friends and anti-war banners during an airshow at Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia Beach in September 2008. (see video below)
On December 28 , 2009 he joined others at the Pentagon in passing out leaflets against the US wars in the Middle East. A March 19 trial found Steve and 5 others guilty and a fine was imposed. This arrest violated terms of his probation and his probation officer and the judge have thus summoned him back to court.
There will be a 12:45 pm vigil at the courthouse against the US wars in the Middle East before the 2 pm hearing on April 20. The Walter E. Hoffman US Courthouse is at 600 Granby St. in Norfolk, 23510, at the corner of Granby St. and Brambleton Ave. downtown.
For more information or support, contact Kim Williams and Steve Baggarly: (willbaggs2002 at yahoo.com)
Steve Baggarly's Sentencing Statement in Federal District Court
for Handing out Leaflets at the Pentagon
Seven years ago today, the United States invaded Iraq. On that day, Marc Garlasco was the chief of high-value targeting at the Pentagon. In a 2007 interview on “60 Minutes”, he said that of 50 missile strikes he recommended for that first day of the war, targeting Saddam Hussein and other Ba'ath party leaders, not one killed its intended target. Instead, the casualty count was “a couple hundred of civilians, at least.” He said at that time targeters had leeway to call strikes on any high-value target where less than 30 civilians were believed present. 29 civilians or less were an acceptable target.
Whatever the intention, war always comes down to killing. And every war becomes a war on children, with children much more likely than soldiers to be killed. As many as one million Iraqis have been killed in the past seven years, and several million more have been maimed, orphaned, driven mad, or made refugees—untold numbers of them civilians.
We passed out our flyers at the Pentagon on December 28th , the Christian Feast of the Holy Innocents, which remembers the massacre of the infant boys of Bethlehem by King Herod who was trying to execute the Christ child. The historical refrain is always the same, whether it is Herod 2000 years ago in Roman Palestine or the United States today in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia—in their pursuit of high-value targets the powers slaughter children as a matter of course.
We feel as Dan Berrigan, who said, referring to another US invasion, war, and occupation, “It gives us no rest, thinking of the land of burning children.”
