Navy virus-laden carrier scuttled in Guam - ship captain sacked

Having come to Guam from a 'flag waving visit' to Vietnam, the virus-stricken USS Theodore Roosevelt nuclear aircraft carrier, with 5,000 crew members on board, docked in Guam on March 27 after the number of positive cases onboard continued to grow.

(Two U.S. Navy aircraft carriers reported cases of coronavirus onboard in March 2020. A pair of cases were reported aboard the USS Ronald Reagan at a naval base in Japan and dozens were reported aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt by the end of the month.)

At the Pentagon on Wednesday, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly told reporters 114 of the warship’s sailors had tested positive. So far, over 600 of the sailor's nearly 5,000 crew members have tested negative, Modly said.  He couldn’t yet say how long the Roosevelt might stay in Guam, or the evacuation’s effect on the fleet’s readiness. But he stressed that the aircraft carrier was being maintained in 'fighting condition'.

Modly emphasized that the Navy will not remove every sailor from the warship.

"This ship has weapons on it. It has munitions on it. It has expensive aircraft, and it has a nuclear power plant. It requires a certain number of people on that ship to maintain safety and security," he said.

Sailors who have tested positive for COVID-19 will be restricted in isolation facilities on the Navy base, Adm. John Menoni, commander of Joint Region Marianas, told Guam government officials.

The Navy has convinced Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero to allow sailors who test negative for the virus to be quarantined in certain Guam hotels for 14 days. The sailors will be forbidden from leaving the hotels which will be secured by military personnel.

The first of the COVID-19-free sailors are expected to be transported initially to two hotels – the Sheraton Laguna Guam Resort and Dusit Thani Guam Resort.

“Once those sailors are quarantined, isolated and re-tested, when they are COVID-free, the plan will be to rotate them back onto the ship and finish the remainder on the ship,” a navy spokesperson said. “There’s never been an intent to take all the sailors off of that ship. If that ship needed to respond to a crisis today, we would respond.”

Tight quarters on-board an aircraft carrier are not conducive to 'social distancing'.  The aircraft carrier captain was 'relieved of his duty' days after writing a letter to the Pentagon asking for help due to the growing virus on his ship.  His firing sends a clear message to other commanders throughout the US military - keep quiet about the virus at your installation.  The Pentagon understands that they have a public relations 'situation' on their hands and wants full control of the narrative. 

Virus-related travel restrictions have put Guam’s visitor industry on hold, leaving the island’s resort hotels vacant. Some hotels already are being used for local quarantine efforts, however.

The military has said security will be posted on each floor of designated quarantine hotels and in the perimeter of the hotels. Sailors will not be allowed to go to beaches.

The U.S. Navy on Wednesday declined to rule out punishing the captain of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, who wrote a scathing letter to Navy leadership asking for stronger measures to control a coronavirus outbreak onboard.  The letter was leaked to the San Francisco Chronicle which ran the story.

“I don’t know who leaked the letter to the media. That would be something that would violate the principles of good order and discipline, if he were responsible for that. But I don’t know that,” acting U.S. Navy Secretary Thomas Modly said when asked multiple times whether the captain faced discipline.

“The fact that he wrote the letter up to his chain of command to express his concerns would absolutely not result in any type of retaliation,” Modly said.

In the letter, the captain called for “decisive action”: removing over 4,000 sailors from the ship and isolating them. He said that unless the Navy acted immediately, it would be failing to properly safeguard “our most trusted asset - our sailors.”  

The Navy dismissed the captain from his post on Thursday, two days after the officer's unusually blunt letter .

Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was relieved of command at the direction of acting Navy secretary Thomas Modly. The Navy removed him after becoming increasingly convinced that he was involved in leaking the letter to the media to force the service to address his concerns.

~  Many parts of this article came from several sources - most of which are linked in the story.

Navy Wants to 'Give Back' to Jeju - In That Case Just Leave!

US Navy Visits Republic of Korea Island for First Time 
 By U.S. Navy News Release

JEJU-do, Republic of Korea – The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Stethem (DDG 63) is scheduled to arrive in Jeju-do, Republic of Korea (ROK) on Saturday, March 25, 2017.

This is the first visit by any U.S. Navy ship since the ROK Joint Civil-Military Complex opened February 26, 2016.

Rear Adm. Brad Cooper, the commander of U.S. Naval Forces Korea, will greet the ship along with Rear Adm. Kim, Jeongsu, the commander of Maritime Task Force Flotilla 7, as more than 100 ROK sailors, will welcome Stethem to the southern island.

“This may the first time we [U.S. Navy] will visit Jeju, but we have a long history of visiting the Republic of Korea at ports in Chinhae, Pyeongtaek, Donghae, Mokpo, and Busan,” said Cooper. “So, while the location may be new, our commitment to being good guests, respectful partners, and strong allies is as firm as ever.”

The ship is going to Jeju as part of a routine port visit following the ship’s participation in Foal Eagle 17, a joint exercise between the Republic of Korea Navy and U.S. Navy.

“We enjoy anytime we get to train with our ROK partners,” said Cmdr. Douglas Pegher, Stethem’s commanding officer, “because with each engagement we improve our cooperation and through that we enhance our combined defensive capabilities. We have trained with them at-sea and look forward to strengthening our relationship here in Jeju.”

While in Jeju, Stethem Sailors will have the opportunity to participate in various Morale, Welfare and Recreation (MWR) activities, sporting events, and participate in community relations projects to give back to the local Jeju community.

"We are honored to be here and develop new friendship and strengthen existing relationships through team building exercise, combined sporting events, and by giving back to the island through a community relations event," said Cmdr. Jeff W. Benson, Stethem’s executive officer.

Stethem is on patrol in the U.S. 7th Fleet area of operations in support of security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region.

Aegis Destroyer Arrives on Jeju Island

Report from Sung-Hee Choi in Gangjeong village on Jeju Island, South Korea:

The USS Dewey Aegis Destroyer (DDG-105) made entry into the Jeju navy base amid people's protest. Facing the three small kayaks [see yellow in photo] in protest to it, a Coast Guard ship was sent to stop the kayaks. Photographer Oum Mun-hee says, in the photos, you can see crews on the ship and even firing from the ship just before its entry to the port.

According to the Yonhap News, there will be 'live-fire naval exercise' in southern waters near Jeju Island joined by the three nations of South Korea, United States and Canada. The article details the Navy's words that 'the three sides plan to hold various drills on interdiction, air defense, anti-submarine operations and ballistic missile detection, along with live-fire training.'

The USS Dewey Aegis destroyer would be the 2nd Aegis destroyer following the USS Stethem's port call on March 25, this year. If the USS Stethem came to the Jeju navy base after its joint exercise with South Korea for a 'friendly exchange' and social service,' the USS Dewey comes here to have a meeting on coming joint exercise which will be from June 23.

Why Canada? The presence of Canada navy here is unusual. But we know that she is a member of NATO and has dispatched its troops of the 3rd largest size after United States and UK during the Korean War, 1950 to 1953.

Reminded with recent bitter disasters on June 9 and June 17 when the US Aegis destroyers clashed respectively with a South Korean fishing ship in the East Sea (east of the Korean peninsula) and Philippine container ship in the east sea of Japan (near Shizuoka prefecture) I wonder whether such reckless war exercise would be really recommended for the US navies. (It is read that the Dewey has accompanied the clashed ship USS Fitzgerald to a port in Japan on June 17.)

 
We say NO to the entry of the USS Dewey Aegis destroyer to the Jeju navy base!

Stop the South Korea-United States-Canada maritime military exercise!

Photos by Oum Mun-hee (top color photo) and Song Dong-hyo (two black and white photos )


Update:   

The USS Dewey has unexpectedly left the port due to damage in its equipment. The Dewey canceled its participation in the joint ROK-US-Canada maritime exercise due to unknown equipment damage, which was found after its docking into the Jeju navy base. The Aegis destroyer left the port around 6 pm, 10 hours after its docking at the base on the same day. Jeju media reports though that the joint exercise between South Korea and Canada will be carried out with the arrival of two Canadian convoys on June 22.

BOTH SIDES OF FLOTILLA STORY

Below are excerpts of what some of the freed passengers had to say. See more here

Andre Abu-Khalil, Al Jazeera cameraman

First they [the Israelis] tried to come by helicopter and tried to come down on the main deck. But the Turkish people were gathering on the rooftop and they managed to grab three of the soldiers, which led to a second helicopter to come and start shooting live bullets on the people.

People [on board] did not have any guns. All what they had were some wooden sticks which is normal.

I was on the Mavi Marmara [the lead ship of the flotilla].

I wasn't on the rooftop deck. I was on the first deck floor where the Israelis tried to climb by the ropes on the deck.

There were 20 Turkish resistance guys throwing tomatoes, anything that they managed to throw, on the Israelis.

Then one of these Turkish guys got a bullet just in the head. When the Turkish people saw that, they pulled him inside when the Israelis started firing on the deck.

[After the Israelis took over the ship] they kept us tied up, hands behind the back, for nine hours until we reached the Ashdod port and from there they took us for individual interrogation and then shipped us all to Be'er Sheva jail.

The organisers [of the flotilla] swapped the four Israelis kidnapped, or caught, by the people on the ship, and because they were beaten up, because it's kind of resistance from our side, we swapped the Israeli soldiers to [get] to treat our injured.


Mohamed Vall, Al Jazeera reporter

The Israeli assault took those of us on the ship by complete surprise.

During that hour an half in the early morning everybody on board the ship thought that no-one would survive the Israeli attack because we saw about 30 war vessels surrounding this ship and helicopters attacking with very luminous bombs, the sound of them makes you think you are dead

That was a fear of war, complete war, on a ship that was full of men, women and even children.

The first soldiers on the ship were not killed, they were not shot at, they were captured by the defenders of the ship.

Moments later another bigger helicopter landed more troops and this time they fired immediately at people and killed as many as they could so that they could reach the cabin and take control of the ship.

I saw blood spilt on the ship and everyone knew that there was no weapons. we all knew the Israelis would intercept us and try to stop us, but we didn't think that they would open fire at the first moment.

I have been shown the picture of a Yemeni man, and this is ridiculous, who was on the ship and most people know that every Yemeni in the world has a Yemeni style knife, that is a cultural thing and does not have anything to do with violence.

I understand now that in Israel they are trying to make a big deal about that, saying that the boat was full of violent people and just because of that one man.


Othman Battiri, Al Jazeera crew member

At 4:15, tens of Navy boats carrying tens of soldiers tried to board the ships. They were met by resistance. Peaceful resistance. Helicopters came and tried to download soldiers. They could not.

At that moment, they started firing live ammunition.

First, they fired sound and gas bombs and rubber bullets. Some people were injured from the rubber bullets. Then, live bullets were used. I saw several men being wounded. We tried to help some of the wounded. I saw four people who were killed.

I saw two people die before my eyes. One of them had a bullet in the chest. The other was bleeding but I did not know where he was shot.

We went down to see the other dead people. One had a bullet in his head as if he was hit by a sniper. Live bullets were every where.

They did not respect that all those on the ships were civilians. There were no weapons.

There was not firing by the activists on the soldiers. As media we stand witnesses on that.

They four dead people that I saw were all Turkish. Two were old men. The other two were younger. One of the young people was a coordinator in the media room. His name is Juwdat.

We heard that more people were killed. I only saw four. Most of the fighting took place on the upper level around the room of ship captain, where the activist tried to prevent the soldiers from trying to control the captain’s room. This is where live ammunition were used.

The attack started at 4:15 and ended around 5:30 when we heard that the ship was controlled by the Israeli's.

Around 7:00 they asked us to leave our rooms and they started tying our hands.


Hazem Farouq, Egyptian MP from the Muslim Brotherhood

Helicopters were flying above us. Four military ships and 10 Navy boats surrounded us. They rained us with sound and gas bombs as if we were in real war.

Four people died before my eyes and in my hands. We could not find any first aid material. What happened required a field hospital to treat the injured. I did not have the necessary material to treat their bleeding wounds.

When we tried to carry the injured, the Israeli soldiers refused to allow men to carry the wounded. They pointed their guns with laser light toward their heads. They asked women to carry the wounded. Some women could not.

The wounded were very hurt because they were not carried in the proper way through the stairs and narrow doors.

Farouq is a dentist who was on board Mavi Marmara, the lead ship of the flotilla. He spoke to Al Jazeera after arriving in Cairo.


Issam Zaatar, Al Jazeera cameraman

I was filming, and then he [an Israeli solider] ran after me with a stun gun.

He could not catch me. One of his colleagues hit my hand from behind with a stun gun. My camera fell down. He ran to crush the camera with his feet.

I told him, don't break my camera. If you want the tapes, I will give them to you. I told him these are media equipment. They had no limits.

They used rubber bullets. They used tear gas bombs. It was an unbelievable scene.


Haneen Zubi, Palestinian member of the Knesset

We were expecting the Israeli army to stop us, to prevent us from entering but surely we didn't expect such a war against us.

It was 14 ships which approached us, nearly at 4.30 in the morning. Fourteen ships that I could count and one helicopter. Maybe more than 10 soldiers, I couldn't say exactly [how many] were getting out of the helicopter.

On the second floor of the ship there were just passengers who are journalists, a nurse and organisers of the flotilla who didn't have anything in their hands.

After 20 minutes, maybe 15 minutes, there were three dead bodies.

It ended at six, when a voice from the microphone said the ship was controlled by the Israelis, 'please enter the rooms'.


Norman Paech, former member of the German parliament

This was not an act of self-defence [by the Israeli army], but rather it was completely disproportionate - although we were counting on our ship being blocked and maybe checked.

This was a very serious offence, this was a war crime.

I personally saw two and a half wooden sticks which were used [by activists].

We had not prepared in any way to fight. We didn't even consider it.

No violence, no resistance - because we knew very well that we would have absolutely no chance against soldiers like this.


Mihalis Grigoropoulos, Greece

I was steering the ship, we saw them [Israeli soldiers] capture another ship in front of us, which was the Turkish passenger vessel with more than 500 people on board and heard shots fired.

We did not resist at all, we couldn't even if we had wanted to. What could we have done against the commandos who climbed aboard?

The only thing some people tried was to delay them from getting to the bridge, forming a human shield. They were fired upon with plastic bullets and were stunned with electric devices.

There was great mistreatment after our arrest. We were essentially hostages, like animals on the ground.

They wouldn't let us use the bathroom, wouldn't give us food or water and they took video of us despite international conventions banning this.


Nilufer Cetin, Turkey

We stayed in our cabin and played games amid the sound of gunfire.

My son has been nervous since yesterday afternoon ... I did not need to protect my son.

They knew there was a baby on board. I put a gas mask and life jacket on my son.

We did not experience any other problems on board, only a water shortage.

We took walks on the deck, played games with my son. The curtains were drawn, so I did not see the raid as it was happening. I only heard the voices.

There are lightly and heavily wounded people.

There are thousands, millions of babies in Gaza. My son and I wanted to play with those babies. We planned to deliver them aid. We wanted to say: 'Look, it's a safe place, I came here with my baby-son.'

I saw my husband from a distance, he looked okay. The ship personnel was not wounded, because they [the soldiers] needed them to take the ship to port.

I will go again if another ship goes.

Cetin returned to Istanbul airport with her one-year-old son.


Youssef Benderbal, France

The instructions were clear. Do not provoke, remain calm and go to meet them [the commandos] saying 'we are pacifists and not terrorists'.

Masked commandos took possession of the ship. They were aiming for the captain's cabin.

Benderbal was not on board Mavi Marmara, the lead ship of the flotilla, but on one of the other five ships. He gave this account to Europe 1 radio after arriving at a Paris airport.


Dimitris Gielalis, Greece

Suddenly from everywhere we saw inflatables coming at us, and within seconds fully equipped commandos came up on the boat.

They came up and used plastic bullets, we had beatings, we had electric shocks, any method we can think of, they used.

Gielalis was on board the ship Sfendoni.


Mutlu Tiryaki, Turkey

When we went up to the deck, they emerged from helicopters and military boats and attacked us.

They approached our vessel with military ships after issuing a warning. We told them we were unarmed. Our sole weapon was water.

CONNECTING THE NAVY SHIP BUILDING DOTS

MacGregor Eddy and Sung-Hee Choi's mom at the jail
New Secretary of War Leon Panetta appears before Congressional committee with CodePink activists protesting behind him holding Bring Our War $$ Home signs. This photo appeared in the Los Angeles Times

• MacGregor's news from Jeju Island this morning is disturbing. She reports:

High points. Sung-Hee first lawyer would not do as Sung-Hee wanted. She is changing attorneys today. She is fasting again. Her mother, Yune, Mr Ko and I all visited her. She looks terrible. It is shocking. Weeping mother begged her to eat. Professor Yang is also fasting again. He looks skeletal.

We just came from the blocked gates . The Daemin construction company brought equipment in in the pouring rain at 3 am. After taking down all the banners, and opening the gate, they carefully hung all the banners back up!

Every day is a constant effort to block the construction. By both sea and land. The Jeju Island Council (Congress) voted to stop the construction of the base yesterday. Now it is up to the governor. The governor is on tour, he will be in Japan on June 12 -17 in Osaka.

We are all over the tweets, People who speak no English were showing me my own photo on Twitter.

If your group wants to have a banner of support put up here in Gangjeong village send the text and emblem to Bruce, and the villagers will make the banner. I have some money from GN with me, just send the donation of $30 for banner to the Global Network on the website. I can give the money for that and any other group that wants to make a banner. It is very important to the people here. It is hard to describe what life is like. Every single day, 24 hours a day, the villagers are on watch around the clock.

Sung Hee was very glad to see me. She is only allowed 10 minutes for all four of us, so most of the time was for her mother who lives in Inchon, and is leaving today. She got my letter that I wrote last week. Tell everyone to write her. Address in jail is:

Choi Sung-Hee, No. 36, Jeju prison, 161 Ora-2-dong, Jeju City, South Korea

Please get others to call the South Korean embassy or consulate in your country. These calls are more important than ever.

• Last Thursday Obama's new Secretary of War Leon Panetta was questioned by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) during his nomination hearings in Washington. Collins pressed Panetta about Navy shipbuilding plans and urged him to support growing the fleet from the present 285 ships to reach the Navy's goal of 313 ships.

“Based on Mr. Panetta’s response to my questions, I believe that he fully appreciates the number of ships we need in order for the Navy to accomplish its mission and to support our shipbuilding industrial base,” Collins said in a statement issued Thursday night to The Times Record. “During our private meeting in my office last month, we discussed the need for consistent shipbuilding funding in order for the Pentagon to achieve its plan for a stronger Navy.”

“I strongly believe the Navy has to project our force throughout the world and that the Navy is obviously crucial to that mission,” Panetta replied to Collins. “I agree with the ship numbers that have to be developed for the Navy in order to be able to do that.”

Collins and Panetta talk about these ships defending the nation and U.S. troops deployed overseas. They have to publicly maintain the myth about the Pentagon's mission being one of "defense". But we know otherwise.

Collins is most interested in destroyers because that is what they build at Bath Iron Works here in Maine. And destroyers are not about defense. They are vital instruments in the overall U.S. planning for first-strike attack and are being used today to help militarily encircle Russia and China.

This growth in Navy shipbuilding, even when the U.S. economy is collapsing, provides further evidence that America's role under corporate globalization of the world economy will be "security export". It is our job here in the U.S. to build and sell weapons and to attack and occupy any country that does not comply with the dictates of the global corporate agenda.

As these additional ships are built the Navy needs more ports in and around Russia and China. Thus the recent visit to a Romanian port on the Black Sea by a U.S. Aegis destroyer carrying "missile defense" interceptors onboard. And thus, sadly, the pressure by the U.S. government on South Korea to build the Navy base on Jeju Island - one more port of call for this growing fleet of warships. In this case within easy reach of the Chinese mainland.

Solidarity Statement from Jeju Island to BIW Protest

Dear Friends in Maine, United States,

Hello from Gangjeong village, Jeju Island, South Korea. Despite our struggle against base construction for nearly nine years, there was a ceremony for the completion of the Jeju navy base construction this February. However, despite the navy base, we will do our best to maintain village community. And we cannot get along with the navy as long as it continues to foster conflicts.

We heard that there is a ceremony for the christening of a recently built Zumwalt destroyer in the Bath Iron Works (BIW), Maine, United States on June 18 and that this destroyer is the most threatening naval ship in history, with a production cost of more than 4 billion USD per ship. According to the Korean media, the U.S. Secretary of Defense said that all three Zumwalt-class destroyers, once being made, would be deployed in the East Asia Sea by the end of this year. It is very worrisome as it would intensify tension in Northeast Asia and threaten peace. We heard that you would carry out protest to the christening ceremony on the Zumwalt destroyer and some of you plan non-violent civil disobedience on June 18.  

Many of you have visited Gangjeong and have made solidarity with us with deep concern for the struggle in opposition to the Jeju navy base project. Thanks to you, we came to know that our fight is not isolated but connected to all the peace movements in the world. Therefore we send deep gratitude, friendship, and solidarity to you all who are to magnificently expressing faith on peace in protest to the christening of the Zumwalt destroyer.  We also resolve that we will endeavor more fully to keep our struggle.

Despite the navy and government manipulation 9 years ago, more than 94% among more than 70% of the electorate of the village strongly opposed the Jeju naval base construction. However, the government ignored villagers’ opinion and enforced base construction destroying democracy, environment and human rights. Further, the government and navy filed a wrongful lawsuit demanding around 3 million USD against the people of Gangjeong and are preparing to evict our community protest site, at the entrance to Gureombi Rock, which is now covered by concrete. The Jeju navy base was built on the destruction of democracy and threatens the peace of northeast Asia. That is why we continuously oppose to it and will do so in the future, too.

The Gangjeong sea with UNESCO-designation and the world’s largest soft coral habitat, a place where the 100 remaining Jeju Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins often came, has changed into a site infested with aegis destroyers and submarines. It is currently only used by military vessels of the South Korean navy. However given that Lisa Franchetti, the ex-commander of US naval forces of South Korea mentioned last August that the US wants to ‘send its ships’ to the ports of South Korea, including the Jeju navy base, it is very worrisome to imagine that the Zumwalt destroyer, the so called most threatening military vessel, might enter the Jeju naval port.  

We think peace can be made through peace not through war. Even though the base was completed and oppression on the opponents to the Jeju navy base has been heavy, we will not stop our efforts to oppose militarism and make Gangjeong a ground for life and peace, on behalf of future generations and the living creatures in the sea. 

We thank for your noble dedication and solidarity.

In peace,

The Anti-navy base committee of Gangjeong Village, Jeju Island, Korea

At the BIW Navy compound today

 

Trying to hand out flyers to Navy personnel at the BIW shipyard today (Photo by Peter Morgan)

 

Four of us (three from Veterans For Peace) returned to Bath Iron Works today for our Wednesday vigil outside of the Navy compound at the shipyard owned by General Dynamics. They build Aegis destroyers for the Navy here and many Navy personnel are sent to BIW to oversee the ship building operation from inside the gated compound pictured above.

In addition, as the warships near completion, the Navy crews are sent to BIW to begin to learn how to operate them. Thus we have a captive audience as six destroyers and hundreds of sailors are now at BIW.

My sign today read 'Where do these Aegis go?'  

 

At a previous protest at BIW along with a visiting South Korean activist from Jeju Island where the Navy is porting many of its warships. Her sign reads 'No Navy base'.

Each time I come to BIW I bring a different sign with a new message. We come for an hour starting at 11:15 am - right as many BIW workers and sailors are hitting the sidewalks to go to lunch.

We are doing this the 2nd and 4th Wednesday each month and invite others to join us. 

Today we heard about a dozen times from sailors that 'We are not allowed to take your flyers'. I asked several of them if they had actually been ordered to refuse our flyers and they answered Yes. Some took them anyway.

We handed out about 20 flyers to sailors and BIW ship builders.

It is our intention to prepare these sailors for the protests they will inevitability see as they set sail to ports around the globe where the US military empire has bases. (Largely encircling China and Russia.) We want the sailors to see that there are people at 'home' who are opposed to Washington's endless war making.

When the sailors told me they could not take the flyers I responded with, 'I thought we live in a free country?'  One of them turned and smiled at me and said, 'We ain't free.'

That's about right.

It was my similar experience at Travis AFB, California in 1971 during the war on Vietnam. Peaceniks outside the base gate created loads of discussion in the barracks, chow hall, and on the job.  We were told to ignore them, not talk with them, not take their literature, etc. It made me wonder - I thought we were in Vietnam for freedom? Why can't I hear what they have to say?

It was from that experience that I became an anti-war activist.

Bruce 

Back at the Navy gate

 

Yesterday at the Navy compound gate at Bath Iron Works (BIW) shipyard in Maine. Art work by Russell Wray (Hancock) held by Peter Morgan (right) and John Morris. Bill Rixon has the VFP banner. Photo by Lisa Savage.

We got a few double takes from sailors, shipyard workers and car drivers passing by on Wednesday. This amazing work of art by Russell Wray was the theme of one of our peace walks through Maine a couple of years ago. We then hung the banner on the side of a 15-passendar van, along with Russell's sculpture of a dolphin (Maka) on top of the vehicle. That two-week trek through our state got lots of looks as you could imagine.

I handed out about 10 flyers yesterday and would guess that since we began these twice-a-month vigils at BIW we've handed out more than 100 of them - about 70% to shipyard workers and 30% to navy personnel.

The navy compound in Bath is called Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA): The Force Behind the Fleet. 

Below NAVSEA at the worker-bee level in Bath is what they call 'Supervisor of Shipbuilding, Conversion and Repair (SUPSHIPS)'. (I'd like to hear the navy definition of 'conversion'.)

SUPSHIPS is co-located with major shipbuilders and are the Navy's on-site technical, contractual and business authority. 

SUPSHIP Bath oversees the design and construction of five Navy ship classes at three private shipyards in Bath, Maine, Marinette, Wis., and San Diego, Calif. SUPSHIP Bath’s product line includes Arleigh Burke Destroyers (DDG 51), Zumwalt Destroyers (DDG 1000), Freedom-variant Littoral Combat Ships (LCS), Expeditionary Sea Base (ESB) Ships, and John Lewis Fleet Replenishment Oilers (T-AO). Once these ships sail away from their respective building yard, SUPSHIP Bath oversees the post shakedown availabilities in their homeports.

 

For many years our vigils at BIW were at gates where the civilian shipyard workers come and go. It's good to reach out to them with our messages. But the navy personnel level right now in Bath is in the hundreds and many of them daily pass through the compound gate. Our vigils since May greet the sailors as they come in and out of NAVSEA.

Some of the shipyard workers who pass by during lunch are very kind, interested, and even a bit supportive. Others are afraid, angry and want to protect their job, or express what they might say are 'patriotic slogans' like one a shipyard worker yelled at me as he drove by yesterday, "Nuke 'em, all and let god sort 'em out!"

A few shipyard personnel say they are protecting our right to protest with the destroyers they build. But then when you try to use those 'freedoms' some of them would prefer you didn't.

The only other hassle I had yesterday was from a graying NAVSEA senior-executive type who told me I ought to move to the other side of the street. I was holding a sign that said 'Navy toxics kill oceans'. I reminded him that the side walk he and I were on is public.

Actually we got more honks, waves and smiles than the hard stuff. 

I actually love going there. Having grown up on military bases, joined the Air Force during the Vietnam war, and protested in Bath for about 17 years, I feel quite comfortable around all of the folks we come in contact with. 

They are not my enemy. The war system is.

We try to have a different message (along with the constant VFP flags) at each vigil. But because of the profound beauty of this banner we are going to take it back with us at our next vigil on September 8 at 11:00 am.

We'll keep coming back and back....its good for our souls.

Bruce

NAVY MISTAKES BRING MORE $$$$$

I

• Today was the first Saturday vigil at Bath Iron Works during the Advent season.  The vigils will continue each Saturday for the next three weeks.  These protests are organized by the Smilin' Trees Disarmament Farm from Hope, Maine.  The seasonal vigils been held at BIW for many years.

• Defense Daily reported last week:

The Navy has continued to accept delivery of ships containing hundreds and in some cases thousands of deficiencies despite recent efforts to improve quality control, and is not adequately pressuring contractors to minimize the number of flaws.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO-14-122) said the Navy should adapt more commercial practices that require the ship builder to assume greater risk for deficiencies and shoulder the cost of correcting them.  The GAO said the commercial side does a better job of detecting flaws and ensuring they are corrected while the ship is being built rather than at the time of or after delivery.

The report highlighted commercial standards to apply firm fixed priced contracts to their builders, believing that "the risks to the quality belong with the shipbuilders."  That's in contrast to the Navy's practice of cost-reimbursement and fixed priced incentive contracts that leave less risk on the shipbuilder, the GAO said.  The GAO said the Navy should at least tie incentives to quality control.

• So the bottom line is that the Navy shipbuilders (Huntington Ingalls Industries and General Dynamics, which owns BIW, are the main contractors for Navy ships) are making lots of costly errors and then get paid additional taxpayer $$$ to fix the mistakes.  In the commercial shipbuilding world it's the opposite.  Shipbuilding companies are expected to fix their mistakes at their own expense which incentivizes them to get it right the first time.  This is just one more example of what happens when you make military production a profit making enterprise.

PROTESTING AEGIS IN MAINE AND SOUTH KOREA

Jeju Island is just off the southern tip of South Korea Our annual Keep Space for Peace Week was a resounding success this year. We had more than 90 events in 13 countries – the highest total in recent years. We are grateful to all who organized video showings, protest events, and street leafleting to help educate the public.

Here in Maine we held two vigils at Bath Iron Works where the Navy’s Aegis destroyer is built. The Aegis is outfitted with “missile defense” systems and is now being deployed just off the coast of China as part of a doubling of U.S. military presence in the Asian-Pacific region.

China imports the majority of its oil through the Taiwan Straits and the U.S. strategy is to put in place the ability to choke off this importation thus giving the U.S. the ability to control the keys to China’s and the world’s economic engine. This is creating a dangerous arms race in the region.

On Oct 18, the Navy “Christened” a new Aegis destroyer called the Wayne E. Meyer (DDG 108) at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Maine. Rear Admiral Meyer is known as the “father” of the Aegis program. The Navy boasts that the Aegis phased array radar gives the ship the ability to “track, target and destroy aircraft, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles…to completely dominate a theater of operations.”

It was one of these Aegis destroyers that fired an interceptor missile in February 2008 that knocked out a wayward U.S. spy satellite that was falling back to Earth. At the time the public was told the satellite’s on-board hydrazine fuel would be a danger to the planet, but we have since learned that the fuel was largely gone at the time of the intercept. In the end the real reason for the shoot-down was to test the ability of the Aegis system to also function as an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon.

The October 18 “Christening” was met by a protest organized by Maine Veterans for Peace and the Global Network in an effort to express opposition to the deployment of another “offensive” Aegis ship but also to call for the conversion of the BIW. For the first time ever, a worker from BIW was a featured speaker at the rally held just outside the shipyard gate. Peter Woodruff has worked at BIW for 27 years and told the 75 people assembled that “With the development of the Aegis weapons systems on Navy ships (Aegis is the Greek word for shield) the Navy became more reliant on satellites to guide the so-called ‘smart bombs’ to their designated targets over the horizon and warfare from ships became more long-range, less risky, and less personal. What was sold to the American public as a defense system was actually a system for offensive warfare.”

Woodruff called for conversion of BIW saying, “I can envision building floating wind farms right here at BIW. This is not a revolutionary idea. Shipyards in Europe have been partially or wholly converted from military production to wind turbine production. If a project like this were subsidized by the federal government, like the Navy ships are now, we could create clean, inexpensive, and sustainable power for Maine and the rest of the Northeast. We could expand BIW’s workforce to as many as 12,000 employees and work our way out of this severe recession we are sliding into. If you want to bailout this economy create jobs. We are standing on the edge of a Green Revolution in this country and we must take the steps to realize it as if our lives depended on it.”

In my own speech at the BIW rally I talked about a small South Korean island called Jeju that sits just off the coast of China. Jeju has been designated as an ecological preservation site by UNESCO for its rare and beautiful species of coral (such as Alcyonium gracillimum) and shells (such as Charonia sauliae) which are in the brink of extinction).

In 2002 the South Korean government announced the intention to build a Naval base on Jeju Island and since that time people have been organizing to stop the construction of the base. According to one South Korean peace organization (Solidarity for Peace And Reunification of Korea), “Setting the Aegis [destroyer] in Jeju Island and operating the ships as an element of constructing an Asian missile defense system is part of the U.S. military program. From the geographical point of view, the naval base in Jeju Island cannot have been anything else but the U.S. missile defense base on the sea. Jeju Island is at the center of conflict structure of northeast Asia in reference to missile defense system. The island is located at the gateway of East Asia. Recently, the strengthening of the U.S.-Japan-Republic of Korea military alliance led by the U.S. is an unstable fact. Under the circumstance, the naval base in Jeju Island would become a stepping-stone for the U.S. navy. It would also be inevitable that Jeju Island would turn to be a focal point of an arms race in Northeast Asia.”

Little did we know that as we were protesting against the “Christening” of the Aegis in Bath, Maine that activists from Jeju, on October 18, were holding an action to oppose the construction of the Navy base on Jeju Island. Six people from a local village on the island went underwater on October 18 and held banners amongst the colorful coral protesting the base and expressing their concern that the coral life would be destroyed by the Aegis.

Thanks to Global Network member Sung-Hee Choi, who lives in South Korea, we were able to learn about this protest under the waters of Jeju Island. This is just one example of how our international solidarity around weapons in space issues is growing. Next April 2-4 the Global Network will hold its annual space organizing conference in South Korea as we try to learn first-hand more about the dangers of U.S. “missile defense” deployments to surround and “contain” China.

The Jeju Island story completes the circle. It reveals how the weapons in space issue impacts even life under the seas. The people of Jeju Island are asking all of us to connect these dots and to help stop this deadly arms race from destroying their culture.

Peter Woodruff, working at BIW and courageously speaking out for conversion, shows us the way out. We don’t have to build weapons for endless war to provide jobs in our communities. We don’t have to waste our tax dollars on an arms race to control the world’s diminishing resources. We can build rail, solar, and wind power systems and protect our Mother Earth.

Day 15 & 16 - The Big Finish

Lined up across from the Navy shipyard gate in Kittery this morning

Navy veteran Eric Wasileski tells his story at the Navy shipyard rally

MB and I are home and have unloaded the car and cleaned out the coolers and food crates.  The signs and banners are stowed for next week's (October 31) protest at the Bath Iron Works shipyard where the Navy will 'christen' another Aegis destroyer.

In the video posted just below you find about 50 of us having just come over the bridge from Portsmouth, New Hampshire heading for the Kittery Naval shipyard in Maine.  We held a rally at the gate with several good speakers and the band played some more music which we broadcasted with our sound system deep into the shipyard for their listening pleasure.

One of the speakers at the shipyard gate was Eric Wasileski who served in the Navy on a destroyer during Bill Clinton's attack on Iraq (Operation Desert Fox) in 1998.  Eric's ship fired more than 50 cruise missiles into Iraq and he told the story of one of the missiles that misfired and landed in the ocean just minutes away from the ship.  They steamed to the site of impact and discovered massive kills of ocean life - fish, sea snakes, sea turtles and more.  He also told the story of regularly firing 'depleted uranium' shells from onboard the ship into the ocean to test the guns which would have put huge amounts of the radioactive debris into the sea.

On Friday as we neared Portsmouth we arrived at the Kittery Naval shipyard at 3:00 pm just in time for the start of the worker shift change.  Cars poured out of the gates for more than an hour and we stood on both sides of the narrow exit road holding our signs and banners.  Veterans for Peace member Nate Goldshlag handed out many fliers to drivers as they sat at the traffic light waiting to leave the shipyard.  (In the end we got rid of all of the flyers we made for the walk.)

This morning (Saturday) we gathered at Market Square in the heart of downtown Portsmouth to prepare to walk back to the shipyard for our rally at a second gate.  As we waited on folks to arrive the 'Leftist Marching Band' cranked up the sound which drew attention far and wide.  As we walked the two miles to the shipyard the band kept the songs going.  We were also joined this morning by Nipponzan Myohoji Buddhist monk Brother Kato who in the past has led several of our walks through Maine.  It was quite a site seeing our long line of marchers going over the bridge.

After the rally at the shipyard gate we walked back to Market Square for our final closing circle.  I thanked this wonderful community, a family, for their cooperative spirit and for their determined effort to walk so far for such good reasons.  While I am sure everyone will be glad to get back to their own beds tonight I know that we all will miss one another and cherish the bonds we formed during this sacred walk.

My hope is that we all find ways to work and walk together again.

I am still collecting photos from the walk.  Probably tomorrow I'll post many more of them.  Thanks to all who helped make this walk such a great success.

Mutiny aboard US carrier Abraham Lincoln off Iranian coast

Recent reports indicate a serious mutiny situation aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. Seven U.S. Navy personnel have possibly been killed and several others injured in a violent clash among the crew, highlighting growing unrest and morale issues during an extended deployment.

Worried families vented their anxieties about loved ones onboard the Lincoln at an emotional town hall meeting with navy leaders in San Diego last Thursday, Stars and Stripes reported. One spouse among the 200 or so family members said that her husband had texted her that day saying “he hopes he doesn’t wake up tomorrow”.

A woman at the meeting told acting navy secretary, Hung Cao that the navy had “broken trust between us and the leadership”, the paper reported. The Navy Times gave details of thwarted suicide attempts onboard the aircraft carrier during the current deployment. Annabelle Loma told the outlet that her husband had tried to jump overboard after his spell at sea kept being extended. “He’s scared. He thinks he’ll get a dishonorable discharge, and just because he was burnt out his 13-year career is ruined, just like that,” she said. 

Bonnie York, whose stepson is aboard the Lincoln, told MS NOW she had been told a doctor or therapist on the ship warned the crew needed to reach port before people started “losing their minds.” She voted for Trump—and partly because he promised not to start any new wars. She no longer believes the country is safer for it. “You’ve essentially stranded them out there,” she said of the crew. 

Seven US Navy personnel have reportedly been killed and several others wounded in a violent clash aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, as growing unrest among the carrier’s crew has exposed mounting pressure inside the US military amid a prolonged deployment. 

The incident erupted after an adviser to US Central Command (CENTCOM) chief Brad Cooper boarded the carrier to address mounting complaints from crew members following protests by their families over the ship’s prolonged deployment, according to Tasnim News Agency, citing an informed military source. The adviser was reportedly met with boos and had water bottles thrown at him while addressing a gathering of personnel. The confrontation subsequently escalated into a fight among crew members involving knives and other bladed weapons, leaving seven personnel dead and several others wounded, according to the source.

Pistol Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, dismissed the accounts as “more fake news”.

Deployment Context

The USS Abraham Lincoln has been deployed for over 260 days, which is a modern-era record for a U.S. aircraft carrier. This prolonged deployment has led to significant stress and mental health challenges among the crew

Conditions and Morale

Reports from military families describe poor living conditions, including food shortages and inadequate facilities, contributing to the deteriorating morale. 

Response and Claims

In addition to internal conflicts, there are external tensions, with Iran claiming to have attacked the carrier, although U.S. officials have denied these allegations. 

History lesson: Israel attack on U.S. navy ship in 1967

James unravels the shocking truth behind Israel's attack on the USS Liberty, a U.S. Navy ship stationed off the Sinai Peninsula during the 1967 Six-Day War. Israel claims it was a case of mistaken identity, an explanation accepted by the American government. 

Why did the Pentagon, Congress and White House kill the story?

But almost right away, it became clear that a massive cover-up ordered by President Lyndon Johnson, possibly to hide a clandestine CIA-Mossad plan, code named Project Cyanide, to sink the Liberty to foment support for the Six-Day War and secure victory for Israel.

Help the Liberty veterans in their fight to secure their day in Congress: https://shorturl.at/mkqB8

0:00 The “Mistake” - A Cover Story

2:34 "Cyanide": Evidence of a Deliberate Attack?

10:41 The Cover-Up

15:00 The Power of the Israel Lobby

IN THE WATER AT BIW

The new Zumwalt class "stealth" destroyer being built by General Dynamics at Bath Iron Works (BIW) in Maine was moved to dry dock and then into the Kennebec River over the weekend.

Coming out of dry dock at BIW does not mean the ship is ready to put to sea. BIW will keep finishing their work on the ship before installing a considerable arsenal of weapons, including two Advanced Gun Systems (AGS), which can fire rocket powered, computer-guided shells that can destroy targets 63 miles away. That's three times farther than ordinary destroyer guns can fire. In addition cruise missiles (the weapons that were first to be fired from destroyers to start Bush's "shock and awe" in 2003) will be installed. The Zumwalt will ultimately be equipped with 80 missiles, including Tomahawk cruise missiles and Seasparrow surface to air missiles.

The $4 billion warship will be one of three Zumwalt class destroyers the Navy builds.  Originally the Navy intended to build as many as 20 of these ships but the Pentagon scuttled the program due to excessive cost.  (Previous destroyers were costing about $1.5 billion each.)  But Obama rescued the Zumwalt with a compromise that will fund the construction of three of this ships - all to be built at BIW.

Navy Capt. Jim Downey, the Zumwalt program manager, told the media that the ship was the "most complex surface combatants the US Navy has ever developed.....[and] make it a 100% globally deployable asset to the fleet."

Translation:  This "stealth" destroyer will be a key element in the US military encirclement of China.

The blessing from Jesus Christ will have to wait until the spring.  You can be sure that a protest will be scheduled when that big event is held.  In the meantime activists in Maine will hold their annual weekly peace vigils at BIW during the entire Advent season (from Nov 30 thru Christmas eve).  They will be done each Saturday from 11:30 am until 12:30 as the weekend shift leaves the shipyard.

RAY MCGOVERN: WORKING FOR PEACE

Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern speaks tonight at Bowdoin College in Brunswick

I had lunch with Ray McGovern today.  He swung by Bath and we walked down to our nice local Thai restaurant for a meal.  He was interested in the huge crane at Bath Iron Works that hangs over the city like a bad memory.  I told Ray about the USS Cowpens that was built in Bath and launched in 1989.  This Aegis cruiser became the first US Navy ship to launch ordnance in the opening stages of the Iraq War when she fired 37 Tomahawk cruise missiles in George W. Bush's "shock and awe" attack in 2003. 

I told Ray the sad story about the woman Lieutenant on-board who was driving the ship when it launched those missiles.  She came to one of my talks in Boothbay, Maine some years ago and would become close friends of Mary Beth and I. She also became a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) and Veterans For Peace here in Maine.  She told us how, after their cruise missiles had been fired on a defenseless Baghdad, she went below deck to join the crew watching the burning city on TV.  The Navy personnel on the ship were cheering with each new explosion and she felt sick.  This remarkable young woman today suffers from a severe case of war trauma.

Ray is no stranger to these kind of stories.  He's been around war and peace activism for many years now.

Ray came from his native New York to Washington in the early Sixties as an Army infantry/intelligence officer and then served as a CIA analyst from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief, which he briefed one-on-one to President Ronald Reagan’s most senior national security advisers from 1981 to 1985.

In January 2003, Ray helped create Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose the way
intelligence was being falsified to “justify” war on Iraq.

In 2011 Ray joined the US boat to Gaza to bring humanitarian aid and solidarity to the embattled Palestinian people.  At the behest of Tel Aviv and Washington, Greek authorities stopped the small flotilla from sailing to Gaza in a challenge to Israel’s four-year blockade of the narrow strip of land and its 1.6 million people.

Thanks go to Michael Cutting (Portland) who took on the challenge of organizing Ray's speaking tour this week in Maine and New Hampshire.  Ray specifically requested that he get to speak with students and Michael made Ray more than happy by securing invitations to speak to several high school and college audiences.

PUSHING THE NEXT PRETEXT

New Chinese aircraft carrier was recently challenged by US Aegis cruiser

Sometimes I just shake my head in disbelief.... the recent US-China military near hit (the second time in recent months) indicates that our nation is pushing this power trip thing way too hard.  This game is being ramped up to create "China fear" in the hearts and minds of the people (here and around the world).  China says it is not rolling over.  Someone or something eventually has to give way...

Foreign Policy reports on the recent naval warship "near collision" between the US and China:

On Dec. 5, the U.S. missile-carrying cruiser Cowpens almost collided with a Chinese ship in international waters. The Cowpens was observing the maiden voyage of China's new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning (pictured above), when a vessel accompanying it cut across the Cowpens' bow less than 200 yards away, forcing it to change course. Chinese and U.S. sources agreed that this was the most serious incident between the two countries' navies since 2009, when Chinese ships harassed a U.S. vessel about 75 miles away from southern China's Hainan island -- but Chinese officials are speaking louder about it than their U.S. counterparts. After the story was first reported on Dec. 13, an unnamed senior U.S. defense official told the New York Times that the Chinese ship had been "particularly aggressive" and "unhelpful in trying to increase cooperation between the two navies;" other major U.S. media reports cite unnamed officials as well. But Chinese were willing to go on-record with their side of the story: Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo told the state-run People's Daily that the Cowpens had provoked the confrontation.

On Dec. 5, the U.S. missile-carrying cruiser Cowpens almost collided with a Chinese ship in international waters. The Cowpens was observing the maiden voyage of China's new aircraft carrier, the Liaoning (pictured above), when a vessel accompanying it cut across the Cowpens' bow less than 200 yards away, forcing it to change course. Chinese and U.S. sources agreed that this was the most serious incident between the two countries' navies since 2009, when Chinese ships harassed a U.S. vessel about 75 miles away from southern China's Hainan island -- but Chinese officials are speaking louder about it than their U.S. counterparts. After the story was first reported on Dec. 13, an unnamed senior U.S. defense official told the New York Times that the Chinese ship had been "particularly aggressive" and "unhelpful in trying to increase cooperation between the two navies;" other major U.S. media reports cite unnamed officials as well. But Chinese were willing to go on-record with their side of the story: Rear Admiral Yin Zhuo told the state-run People's Daily that the Cowpens had provoked the confrontation. - See more at: http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/12/16/china_america__near_miss_pacific_cruisers#sthash.eaHCRCL8.tMuW4Vuk.dpuf

As I write this I am listening to a recent interview with filmmaker Oliver Stone.  He's was talking about those inside the Pentagon, during the JFK administration, who wanted the US to push toward war with Russia because at the moment the Pentagon was confident they could "win the war".  Stone named Navy Admiral Arleigh Albert '31-knot' Burke as one of those key players who wanted war.  Today the Navy has named an entire class of Navy destroyers after Burke.  These destroyers, outfitted with 'missile defense' systems, are being used to encircle and provoke Russia and China.  The admiral would be proud - his blitzkrieg strategy still on the verge of being implemented by the Nobel Peace Prize president.

The cost of this enormously aggressive strategy is being felt in communities across the nation.  Here in Bath high percentages of children in school come from poor families.  Jobs are scarce, people are losing their homes, the homeless population is expanding rapidly, people can't afford to heat their homes, and our right-wing Gov. LePage keeps talking about the need to reform welfare.  Kick the cheats off the dole!  Studies show that the "cheats" are few and far between but that tens of millions of $$$$ in corporate welfare are handed out in Maine.  We are waiting for the Democrats to take that one on.... if they wish to defend the poor and struggling families they must take on the corporations.

But they must be pushed to do so.  A coalition rally to this end will be held in Augusta, Maine inside the capital Hall of Flags on January 9 at 1:00pm.

The Rally of Unity is a collaborative demonstration by the Alliance for Common Good, an ad-hoc coalition of over 20 environmental and social justice groups assembling as a unified front to give voice to ordinary Maine people and to push back against corporate dominance in government, with hopes to organize into the future.  We recognize that our democracy has been abandoned, so we must work together to tell to our elected officials that we want:

• Maine Money and Resources for People, Not Corporations!
• A Maine Economy that Protects the Environment
• Money Out of Politics

DEMANDING CONVERSION AT BIW

On May 7 another Aegis destroyer will be "christened" at Bath Iron Works and a protest will be held beginning at 10:00 am

Today was the 6th weekly vigil at Bath Iron Works (BIW) here in Maine during the Lenten season. Organized by the Smiling Trees Disarmament Farm, these weekly vigils have been a mainstay outside the Navy ship yard for many years.

Since our house is so close it is one of the few protests we can actually walk to - a very nice thing for us.

I held a sign today that has a train painted on it by an artist friend and reads "Built in Bath" across the top. As the Saturday shift workers drove by at noon it was clear that many of them understood the message - and many of them agree - that something different could and should be produced at BIW. There is growing support amongst the workers to consider the idea of conversion. But in order to make it happen the workers inside these military production facilities are going to have to become more vocal.

These Aegis destroyers, with so-called "missile defense" systems on-board, are keys to the aggressive Pentagon military strategy that calls for deployments around Russia and China's borders in order to neutralize their nuclear retaliatory forces.

The hard fought struggle now going on at Jeju Island in South Korea against the construction of a Navy base is linked to these Aegis destroyers as the Navy needs more ports of call for the ever-expanding fleet of these ships.

The next "christening" of an Aegis at BIW will be on Saturday, May 7 so we will once again put out the call for peace activists to join us there for a protest of these war ships. Many of Maine's leading politicians, including our new Republican governor, will be on-hand for the event. We will gather at 8:30-10:00 am in order to be there as the thousands of people file into the ship yard to watch the ceremony. We'll hook up a portable sound system and hear speeches from representatives of many peace groups in the state. After it is over we'll hold a pot luck lunch at the Addams-Melman House in Bath.

We'll be talking alot that day about jobs. Studies show that spending $1 billion on military production creates 8,555 jobs. But if that same $1 billion was invested in building rail systems at places like BIW we'd get 19,795 jobs. That's a huge difference and you'd think that the media, unions, politicians, and the public would be all over this little known bit of good news.

People are clamoring for jobs these days. Corporations, despite huge tax cuts, are not investing here in the U.S. because they are attracted to cheaper labor overseas. So if we want more jobs in this country we've got to take our federal tax dollars, that are presently being pissed down the rat hole, and invest them in building rail systems, wind turbines, solar systems back here at home.

This won't happen though unless we demand it and we must do it repeatedly. We'll have another opportunity to do so at BIW on May 7.

LETTER TO EDITOR

The Navy's new expensive and provocative Zumwalt class destroyer at Bath Iron Works in Maine gets 'christened' on April 12

My letter to the editor was printed in our local Times Record newspaper today.

Dear Editor:

On April 12 there will be a ‘christening’ of the Navy’s new ‘stealthy’ Zumwalt destroyer at BIW.  Veterans for Peace, PeaceWorks and other groups around Maine will hold a rally just across from where the public will assemble for the Navy show.

The Navy has to put on the good face for this one, largely because they did not want the expensive Zumwalt anyway; it was going to eat up too much of the shipbuilding budget.  But the corporate forces behind the project pushed the door open and here we are.

Costs for the Zumwalt are still mounting (someone might ask about the sagging walls inside the engine room that are weak because money was saved by ignoring design specs) and will likely come in over $4 billion per ship.  The past destroyers made at BIW were more than $1.5 billion per copy.

President Obama pushed the Navy hard to go with the Zumwalt in spite of huge costs and questions about its strategic value.  One should follow the interesting thread about the Crown family in Chicago (who are majority stockholders in General Dynamics) helping fund and direct Obama’s political career. There is much to learn there – a real “House of Cards” story.

The Associated Press has reported,  “A super-stealthy destroyer [Zumwalt] that could underpin the U.S. Navy’s China strategy will be able to sneak up on coastlines virtually undetected and pound targets with electromagnetic ‘rail guns’ right out of a sci-fi movie.  Using electric pulses, not chemical explosives, the ‘rail gun’ can shoot a 40-pound metal slug from New York to Philadelphia at up to 5,600 mph — more than seven times the speed of sound — with 32 times the force of a car traveling at 100 miles per hour."

In other words, the Zumwalt will be provocative and destabilizing.  We want war with China now too?  Someone is pulling our chain.

Obviously jobs are the big issue when it comes to BIW.  Connecticut, near the top of the list of states most dependent on the military, last year passed a law to create a commission to make plans for the conversion/diversification of military production facilities.  One way or the other 57% of every discretionary tax dollar can’t keep going to the Pentagon.  When military budgets come down jobs will be cut.  But studies show that investing those same dollars in any other kind of job creation result in more jobs in every case.  Thus planning for a stable transition is imperative. 

People across the nation are demanding funding for social progress, education, health care, and probably most importantly turning us away from our toxic shock attack on Mother Earth.  What is our social priority – a corporate version of feudalism or real democracy, social justice and sustainability?

On April 12^th we’ll hold our BIW rally from 10am to noon and we will talk to those lining up for the ‘christening’ about the benefits of the conversion process.

Later in the evening on April 12 an International Panel on US ‘Pivot’ to Asia-Pacific will be held at the new Unitarian Church in Brunswick.  Speakers from India, Japan, Korea and the US will discuss the implications of moving 60% of US military forces into the Asia-Pacific to “control” China.  Potluck supper begins at 6:00 pm and the panel discussion at 7:00 pm.  The public is warmly invited.

 

Bruce K. Gagnon
Bath