The New Yorker's March 9 issue offers an interesting account of the three Catholic anti-war activists, including a now-85-year-old Catholic sister, who broke into and engaged in a nonviolent protest in what the U.S. government calls its most secure nuclear weapons plant, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tenn., near Knoxville. The three were sentenced to federal prison terms following their convictions of sabotage and destruction of government property.
The article, "Break-In at Y-12," reads in part:
Y-12 has some five hundred security officers authorized to use lethal force within its Protected Area, five BearCat armored vehicles, Gatling guns that can fire up to fifty rounds per second and shoot down aircraft, video cameras, motion detectors, four perimeter fences, and rows of dragon's teeth -- low, pyramid-shaped blocks of concrete that can rip the axles off approaching vehicles and bring them to a dead stop.
The three entered undetected.
The well-written article also gives a good, concise history of the Plowshares movement, which NCR has followed for decades.
