Inside the Belly of the Beltway Beast

Seven Peace Activists Acquitted by Jury Right to Dissent Inside Senate Office Building Upheld WASHINGTON – Seven peace activists were acquitted Thursday, July 12th, by a jury of their peers in a criminal case stemming from an anti-war protest inside a Senate office building. The group of activists from three different states and the District of Columbia were arrested on March 29, the same hour the U.S. Senate voted to spend $95 billion more on the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were charged with unlawful conduct. "Today was a victory for justice and the people of this nation," said Gordon Clark one of the seven defendants pro se, and the coordinator of the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance. The jury deliberated for four and a half hours Thursday before returning a unanimous not guilty verdict. The defense successfully argued their group was not any more disruptive than a comparable sized group of tourists, school groups or others. The p...

My dear friend Eve Tetaz was release from police custody Saturday at 3:00 p.m. The judge on duty arraigned her and made it clear that he did not want to hold her any longer. Monday she returns to D.C. Superior Court on a status hearing from an earlier case. Then the following Monday, the 9th, she appears again to begin a jury trial with six other co-defendants. That one stems from a protest in March in the Hart Senate Office Building atrium during the same hour the Senate voted for additional monies for war and occupation. Eve's co-defendants include: Ellen Barfield of Maryland, David Barrows of D.C., Gordon Clark of Maryland, Sam Crook of Maryland, Joy First of Wisconsin and Malachy Kilbride of Virginia. Sunday morning Eve was considering her next action against war and how to best mourn all those lost to violence. One idea is bringing the grief of all those of conscience to the Pentagon.