Sheriff's Department Interferes with Citizen's
Weapons Inspection Team

by Wayne Sumstine and Doctress Neutopia

Raytheon's Tomahawk Missile

On February 11, 2003, United Neighborhoods (UN) of Tucson held a press conference to express their concern that the Raytheon Missiles Corporation is building weapons of mass destruction, and has repeatedly broken international law. The group informed the media of their intention to conduct a citizen's weapons inspection of the Tucson plant.

Keith McHenry and Pat Birnie talk with the press in downtown Tucson about weapons of mass destruction being made at the Raytheon Corporation

The Raytheon Corporation has publicly acknowledged their manufacture of such weaponry as the Tomahawk, the Bunker Buster, and the Stinger missile. The Stinger is a shoulder-held missile, used primarily to bring down aircraft. The Bunker Buster is a projectile that penetrates dense structures. The Tomahawk is a computer-guided weapon that is fired from US combat ships or submarines by booster rockets. The latter missile contains 1,000 lb warheads or a cluster of 166 soda-can size "bomblets." They have the ability to carry a 220-kiloton nuclear warhead, ten times more powerful than "Fatman," the uranium bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945.

Stinger Missile
Tomahawk Missile

According to publicly released Central Intelligence Agency reports, Stinger missiles have turned up in the hands of rogue states, and terrorist cell groups. They are attributed to dozens of attacks on civilian populations. The Raytheon company has supplied governments with all of the above mentioned weaponry, as well as other weapons that have ultimately been used to commit war crimes and other crimes against humanity by attacking, destroying, removing and rendering useless bridges, roads, electric plants, water supplies, hospitals and other objects indispensable to the survival of civilian populations. These are all war crimes enumerated and articulated under Article 54 of the Geneva Conventions, Protocol 1. The use of weaponry and attacks that cannot discriminate between soldiers and civilians are also war crimes. There is sufficient evidence now in the public record for reasonable citizens to determine that the Raytheon Missiles Corporation is committing war crimes in violation of international law.

Lawyers report back to the inspectors that they think it is safe for the group to walk to the Raytheon guard gate. Wayne Sumstine and other members of the inspection team assemble to approach the Raytheon entrance.

Doctress Neutopia talking with Free Speech TV

The Nuremberg International War Crimes Tribunal convened at the end of World War Two established the legal precedents of individual responsibility during warfare. Twenty-four executives of the German manufacturing firm, the I.G. Farben Company, were tried as war criminals. The company manufactured the Zyklon-B gas used to kill millions of Jews in the concentration camps. Though the gas was not designed to be used on human beings, thirteen of the company executives were convicted and sentenced to prison for aiding and abetting crimes against humanity because they had reason to know, or should have known what the gas was being used for. Eleven lower level executives were found not guilty because they were able to prove at the trial that they were acting under severe duress from the Nazi government.

UN citizen inspectors walk to the Raytheon gate to begin their inspection.

It is crucial now that a complete and comprehensive weapons search be done at the Raytheon plant. Furthermore, it is crucial that pertinent files and records be confiscated before the evidence is destroyed which could determine whether Raytheon executives are committing war crimes under duress or whether they are committing war crimes under their own aegis.

After Keith McHenry talks with the Raytheon security and the sheriff's officer,
UN inspectors walk through the gate.

On February 13, 2003 United Neighborhoods (UN) of Tucson attempted to conduct such a search. As the team of approximately fifty concerned citizens approached the security gate of the Raytheon missile factory, officers from the Pima County Sheriff's Department informed them that the were trespassing on private property and could be arrested if they continued forward into the missile factory. The deputy in charge then asked United Neighborhoods General Secretary, Keith McHenry if he was aware of the law. A discussion ensued as to the legal ramifications that could come into play if the UN group were to proceed any further. The sheriff's deputies on the scene did not seem to know whether the myriad of international laws being violated in their immediate proximity superseded the local trespassing statute, or vice versa. They decided to detain and cite eight of the UN inspectors who entered through the Raytheon security gate.

Inspectors were given a court date for criminal trespass section A 13-1502.

After being cited,
Bill Moeller talked with the press

As the United States is now one of only two countries that refuses to recognize the legal authority of the world court or to voluntarily comply with the Geneva Convention, enjoining the Pima County Sheriff's Department from interfering in the enforcement of international law may require stationing UN troops along the Old Nogales Highway near the entrance to the Raytheon missile factory.

Nuclear weapons are the "cornerstone" of US foreign policy. This policy in and of itself is against international law because nuclear weapons are omnicidal; they indiscriminately kill not only people, but make the environment uninhabitable. Creating 77,000 nuclear weapons in the United States is in preparation to do the unthinkable. The only way to win a nuclear war is to prevent it.

The United States cannot expect the rest of the war to disarm their nuclear weapons while maintaining its own stockpiles and building more lethal weapons for the domination of outer space. If the US is truly a "world leader," then it needs to lead the world in nuclear abolition and find a solution to the serious problem of nuclear waste.

If UN inspectors can effectively inspect one country, then they can effectively inspect all countries. Through this process we can achieve mutually assured disarmament. Our species is at an evolutionary standstill. Until we eliminate the causes of war and abolish nuclear weapons, we don't stand a chance of building a world with beauty, love, universal health care, education, sustainable agricultural and housing, along with human rights for all, as the cornerstone of a global civilization.

Human Extinction or Lovolution?