Posted on 03/15/2003 11:36:22 AM PST by Amerigomag
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Security forces at Vandenberg Air Force Base may use "deadly force" against protesters if they infiltrate the military complex if a war starts, officials said. Some anti-war activists plan to trespass onto base grounds in hopes of disturbing Vandenberg's mission and to vandalize sensitive equipment they contend helps guide the war effort.
Vandenberg officials revealed Friday that military security police may shoot to kill, if necessary, to protect base residents and machinery.
The directive has always been in existence, but a base spokeswoman said it is more critical now that people understand its severity.
The deadly force policy will not deter protesters, said Peter Lumsdaine of the Vandenberg Action Coalition, one of the organizers of the planned trespassing.
"I think it does underline that people in the nonviolent resistance movement are willing to take some risks," Lumsdaine said.
A Guadalupe man jumped onto the base's entrance sign Friday and sprayed it with 4 ounces of his own blood in a symbolic gesture of his anti-war stance. Dennis Apel, 52, later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor counts of trespassing and vandalism. He will be sentenced next month in a Santa Barbara federal court and faces a possible jail sentence or fine.
"We wanted them to see some blood," said Apel, a member of Guadalupe Catholic Worker, a social reform movement. "We wanted them to in some way visually experience the consequences of what they're doing."
(Excerpt) Read more at fresnobee.com ...
In the Ukraine, it's authorized for shoplifting. Poor little kid :-(
(steely)
There was one IFC Warrant Officer that was full of himself and in attempts to find "van guards" asleep, would jump the fence. He did this one night to a Buck Sgt. that was onto the WO's behavior. The Sgt., with a round in the M-16, made the "intruder" low crawl, at rifle point, about 50 yards on the ground to a lighted area where he could be positively ID'd (per Regs). The WO was ID'd and Hdqtrs MP's were summoned. The WO wanted to Court Martial the Sgt.. I know for a fact, the Sergeant wasn't and the WO was transferred out of the Nike system.
These situations with civilians need some well trained AP's and local LEO's with their heads out, to keep the PR on our side.
BANG
Turns out this fellow is not a current Guadalupe resident nor a light weight in the international protest movement.
He's a buddy of Ramsey Clark, helped Clark write his latest anti US diatribe and was part of the recent peace delegation to Iraq.
First, God bless and protect our troops from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Second, yeah right, this won't deter protesters any more than the threat of risk detered the "Human Shields". I mean, the ones who aren't being held prisoner at this very moment.
The publicity may well not deter anyone but the policy will kill them.
Forced to choose, Id rather them absent than temporarily detered.
Is there any way we can get them to think there's a really big important protest going on inside Vandenberg?
Yea, just like the threat of IDF bulldozers didn't deter the protesters in Gaza.
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