Staff Reports
NS&D Monitor
8/1/2014
The second anniversary of the July 28, 2012, security breach that radically transformed the Y-12 National Security Complex and had an impact on security throughout the government enterprise passed this week, and the three perpetrators—self-named the Transform Now Plowshares—issued a statement defending their actions and calling on followers to not be passive in their resistance to the U.S. production of nuclear weapons. “Only complete disarmament can save humanity,” the statement said.
Sister Megan Rice, Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed were convicted on multiple felony charges, including sabotage, for breaking into Y-12, cutting through multiple security fences, and defacing facilities with spray-painted messages and splashes of human blood. The protesters are now housed at federal prisons in three different states, but they collaborated on a four-page message that was released by Rice, an 84-year-old Catholic nun, who is currently at the Brooklyn (N.Y.) Metropolitan Detention Center.
Protesters Continue to Show No Remorse
The protesters continued to show no remorse for their actions. “We acted humbly as ‘creative extremists for love,’ to cite one of our most important and revered leaders, Martin Luther King Jr.,” the statement said. “There are a number of reasons for what we did. We three were acutely mindful of the widespread loss to humanity that nuclear systems have already caused, and we realize that all life on Earth could be exterminated through intentional, accidental or technical error.”
Rice, Walli and Boertje-Obed said their actions at Y-12 “exposed the storage of weapons-making materials deliberately hidden from the general public.” The National Nuclear Security Administration, which oversees Y-12 and other nuclear weapons facilities, declined to comment on the anniversary.
