Weapon-Free Space

Peace activist MacGregor Eddy will be tried Jan. 19 in federal court for trespassing on Vandenberg Air Force Base. She was arrested Oct. 8, 2005, while attending a Keep Space for Peace rally, protesting the Star Wars program, at Vandenberg Space Command. It was Eddy’s third arrest at the base, a major US missile site.

The trial will be held at 1:30pm, in Santa Barbara federal court. If found guilty, Eddy will be sentenced at a later date. Eddy says she could face six months in jail, “but it’s highly unlikely that they would do anything that extreme.”

Besides, Eddy says, she’s confident that the judge will find her innocent.

“We’re going to ask the federal judge to find me innocent, and the executive branch, and by extension the military, and by extension Vandenberg, guilty,” she says. “That’s our job, to defend our constitution. My job, as a peace activist, is to ask the government to stop committing war crimes.”

At noon, just before Eddy’s trial, antiwar activists will stage a mock trial of the US government for violations of international law. Bill Mitchell, who co-founded Gold Star Families for Peace with Cindy Sheehan after his son was killed in Iraq, will be the star witness. [JL]