In the span of five days, separate juries acquitted two groups of Minnesota anti-war activists of trespass back in 2004. “Not guilty” verdicts are extremely rare in such political trials, but four Minneapolis juries have sided with protesters who refused to leave the premises of the biggest arms merchant in Minnesota until they got an appointment. After refusing to see several insistent groups, Alliant Techsystems, formerly of Eden Prairie, MN, had scores arrested. But we beat the rap, so who is guilty of a crime?

    Added to similar acquittals in 2003 and 1997, Minneapolis juries have vindicated a total of 106 people, including 79 protesters who were acquitted after arguing that Alliant Tech’s production of landmines is illegal. Two other groups had their charges dismissed in January 2005, and another 31 resisters, arrested March 14, 2005, had their charges later withdrawn by an embarrassed prosecutor.
    Alliant Techsystems (ATK) endured a decade of relentless local protest over its production of landmines, cluster bombs, rocket motors, and “depleted” uranium or DU munitions—then moved its headquarters outstate. The firm is a $2.4 billion weapons giant and one of the world’s foremost producers of DU. It has sold over 18 million DU shells to the Pentagon.
    What is “depleted” uranium?
    DU shells are made of uranium-238, metallic waste left over after uranium-235 has been removed from processed ore or from used uranium fuel rods. The misnomer “depleted” is Pentagon smooth talk: DU is “depleted” only of U-235. When these armor-piercing “penetrators” burn through hard targets, the resulting uranium oxide dust is dispersed by the wind. U-238 is a heavy metal like lead or mercury with a radioactive half-life of 4.5 billion years. Experts call the toxic, carcinogenic pollution “metallic fumes.”
    The Pentagon has fired hundreds of tons of this weaponized radioactive waste at targets all over Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo and Bosnia, and at bombing ranges across the U.S., South Korea, Vieques Island, and elsewhere.
    The Pentagon says its DU shells are “tank busters,” but they’re actually “gene busters” because the pulverized uranium-238 can be inhaled or ingested and, inside the body, DU’s alpha radiation bombards surrounding tissue and damages chromosomes—for eons. The Council of Europe has asserted that the use of DU in Kosovo and Bosnia by the United States will have “long term effects on health and quality of life in South-East Europe, affecting future generations.”
    Why the juries acquitted
    The juries in all four anti-war cases decided that nonviolent refusal to leave ATK’s property was reasonably allowed under law. As Hennepin County District Judge Jack Nordby instructed one jury, “If defendants acted in good faith under claim of right, even if reasonably mistaken as to this right, you must find the defendants not guilty.” The defendants testified that weapons made with nuclear waste are illegal and that federal and international law provide the “claim of right” needed to excuse trespass.
    Judge Nordby’s instructions explained that the Claim of Right is “A good faith claim by defendants that permission was given to them to be upon the premises by a statute, rule, regulation or other law.” Such a claim “is not limited to a claim of title or ownership.” Judge Nordby reminded more than one jury that, “‘other law’ means any law enacted by the federal or state government, any treaty to which the United States is a party, or any binding rule of international law.”
    In all the DU cases, the juries heard evidence that wartime use of ATK’s uranium munitions violates both the Geneva Conventions, which require protection of civilians, and the 1907 Hague Regulations that prohibit poisoned weapons. Further, the Nuremberg Charter, written to prevent another holocaust, outlaws crimes-in-the-making. Simply planning and preparing weapons, the use of which would violate binding treaties, is itself illegal under Nuremberg law. Tying the argument together is the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution that says treaties are “the Supreme Law of the Land.”
    Evidence of the poisonous character of DU was presented to the jury in one case by Jane Hosking, John Heid, and Mike Miles, then of Luck, Wisc., who are all eyewitnesses to birth abnormalities during visits to Iraqi children’s hospitals.
    Because DU—and hydrogen bombs as well—attack children and future generations, the law is on the side of the abolitionists. DU weapons stand condemned by more than local juries: the UN’s Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and the European Parliament have both called for a halt to the use of DU.
    As for refusing to leave ATK’s “dirty bomb” headquarters until granted a meeting, anti-DU campaigners merely attempted an act of crime prevention. Government prosecutors can now consider bringing charges against the real criminals.
— John LaForge is on the staff of Nukewatch, a nuclear watchdog group in Wisconsin.