This has been published in the book PEACE OR BUST. For ordering information, please click here.
The following is a transcript of Sanderson Beck's testimony in his trial before Magistrate Judge Patrick Walsh in Los Angeles on May 1, 2003 for his having entered Vandenberg Air Force Base on March 22 and March 24, 2003.
The Court:
All right. Dr. Beck, you're going to have to stand, please, and
raise your right hand.
Dr. Beck:
Sir, I do not swear, but I do tell the truth.
The Court:
All right. You're going to swear well, you don't have to
swear based on under God, but you have to swear to tell the truth.
Dr. Beck:
Oh, I thought you could affirm.
The Court:
All right. You affirm. Go ahead.
Sanderson Beck, defendant, affirmed.
Dr. Beck:
Yes, I do. So help me, God.
The Court:
Please have a seat. All right. Now I know you're representing
yourself though you have stand-by counsel, and you understand
the importance of being straightforward and being honest, and
regardless of what the oath is, the oath insures that you will
tell the truth, and if not, the government can come back after
you. You know that, sir?
Dr. Beck:
Yes.
The Court:
All right, Dr. Beck. Why don't you state your name and spell your
last name for the record, please.
Dr. Beck:
Sanderson Beck, B-e-c-k.
The Court:
And you're a doctor. What's your doctorate in?
Dr. Beck:
It's a Ph.D. in philosophy.
The Court:
Okay. You are going to be allowed to narrate what your testimony
is today, and you're going to testify as to what happened out
there and why you did what you did.
Dr. Beck:
Yes. I thought maybe it would make the most sense if I testified
basically chronologically.
The Court:
That would be great.
Direct Testimony
Dr. Beck:
So the first part would go to what I was talking about, efforts
that I had made to try to stop the war in other ways that are
legal. I could go a long ways back. I mean, I was a Conscientious
Objector during the Vietnam War, and I've worked for world peace
for a long time; but I'll jump ahead to basically this war.
In June of 2002 I became very concerned at that time I was writing a history of the world, a history of ethics. I had been working on it for many years.
The Court:
June of 1982?
Dr. Beck:
No, 2002.
The Court:
I'm sorry. Okay.
Dr. Beck:
I'm not going to go too far back.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
For the brevity of the court because I do have a long history
of working for world peace, and I'm just going to focus on the
Iraqi war. It was at that time oh, excuse me. Would you
bring my two books? I forgot yeah, bring all three, I guess.
Thank you.
The Court:
Thanks, Ms. Chen.
Dr. Beck:
I might mention that I did mention something actually about Saddam
Hussein in this book here, which I wrote in late 1994. It was
published in early 1996.
The Court:
Why don't you tell us for the record what the title of that book
is.
Dr. Beck:
The Future and How: A Philosopher's Vision.
The Court:
By Sanderson Beck?
Dr. Beck:
Yes.
The Court:
All right. We're not going to introduce that into evidence, right?
Dr. Beck:
No.
The Court:
You just wanted to show it. Okay, but the record will reflect
that he has the book on the stand and is flipping through it.
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
And in this book I was talking here about disarmament because
I prophesy, suggesting that that would be a much better future
if we could have complete worldwide disarmament, and I was
maybe I could just read this one paragraph. It's a dialog. The
question is
What if some dictator, like Saddam Hussein, refuses to give up his armies and weapons, would you go to war with his nation, or would you try economic sanctions against them?
And the answer, which I wrote as the Philosopher,
A key point here is to insist on individual responsibility and not sloppily go about punishing whole groups of people rather than only those who are responsible for the crimes. I'm afraid that economic sanctions are not very effective against militaristic leaders who have plenty even while their people suffer. Instead the sanctions punish the people of the country who are not necessarily to blame for their leader's policies. At the same time by punishing an entire nation in this way, the people tend to rally around their leader even stronger, as has occurred in Iraq and for so many years in the face of the very unjust U. S. embargo against Cuba.
The Court:
You don't have to sit so close to the microphone.
Dr. Beck:
Oh, okay.
The Court:
Your voice is more than loud and clear enough.
Dr. Beck:
Okay.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
And I also talk about a non about having world law and world
decisions, because I think my whole life reflects that, and I'm
really glad to be here actually in this courtroom today because
I believe very deeply in law and the process of justice and the
nonviolent settlement of disputes, and I believe that the effort
is, like Jesus said, to try to solve it on our way before you
get to the judge. You should do everything you can to become reconciled
with your brothers and sisters, and that I actually think of going
to the judge or the court as the last resort, and I do not believe
in war as a last resort or violence in that sense.
So, as I was saying, so that was earlier; but in June of 2002 I put aside my writing on the history of the world in order to put together this book, which I wrote, which is based on an earlier book, The Way to Peace, but it's only 280 pages; but this is 993 pages, and this then took till January. It was published, and it's called Guides to Peace and Justice: Great Peacemakers, Philosophers of Peace, and World Peace Advocates, and I would like to move this into evidence.
The Court:
Okay. Any objection from the government?
Ms. McCaslin:
No objection.
The Court:
All right. Now you understand that that's coming into evidence.
but I'm not going to read it.
Dr. Beck:
Okay.
The Court:
All right. It's not any reflection on the book or the merits of
the book, but I'm going to decide this case today or tomorrow.
That book is 900 pages long. If there's any specific parts of
it you would like me to consider, I will read those parts, but
I'm not going to read the whole book tonight.
Dr. Beck:
Right. I will be referring to it later.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
And -
The Court:
And the nature of that book is how you is that non-peaceful
changes in the world I mean, I'm sorry, peaceful, nonviolent
changes?
Dr. Beck:
Yes. It's a history of the great peacemakers from Amos and Isaiah
to Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, the great philosophers, and efforts
for world peace. The main themes are nonviolence and world law,
international law. So, like, there's a chapter in here on the
international law pioneers. You know, like Grotius and Vattel,
and so on.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
And I also have a website, and many of my writings are on the
website, and they're available for free to people, and a lot of
these writings are on nonviolence. And this little handbook has
been on my website for years, and because of my concern about
the war I published this also. This was published in January of
2003.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
And it's called a Nonviolent Action Handbook by Sanderson
Beck, and I'd also like to move this into evidence.
The Court:
Any objection?
Ms. McCaslin
No objection.
The Court:
My same ruling, that it comes into evidence without objection;
but as you know, Dr. Beck, I'm not going to have an opportunity
to read that entire book before I make a ruling in this case.
Dr. Beck:
Right.
The Court:
It's Nonviolent Action Handbook, right?
Dr. Beck:
Yes. In November I began having the idea of doing everything I
can to bring about the changes that we need to prevent these kinds
of wars that we were seemingly rushing into, and it occurred to
me, since in 1987 I had toured the entire country trying to influence
people who were running for President and to have people influence
them to be more for peace and justice, and I had gone to 47 states
and talked to 600 peace groups and so on for six and a half months.
And in November of 2002 it occurred to me that I could go on a similar tour of the United States and try to work for world peace and to communicate these ideas. And then I suddenly had the idea, well, if I'm going to do that, you know, it's really hard to try to ask beg other people to take good positions on these peace issues that we could have disarmament and peace and justice, I thought, well, I might as well run for President myself. So I decided to do that, and I began working on that, and in December 2002 I published two or printed two brochures as part of this effort to prevent the war, and one of them was the campaign brochure, this one -
The Court:
Okay. Do you want to take a look at it? "For Peace and Justice,
the Campaign of Sanderson Beck as a Democrat for President of
the United States." Did you want to move this into evidence?
Dr. Beck:
Well, actually, it was reprinted a month or two later, which is
really a more revised form, and I'd rather move the second one
into evidence.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
But I just wanted to give the history.
The Court:
Okay. There's a revised one.
Dr. Beck:
Yes. So, there -
The Court:
Any objection from the government?
Dr. Beck:
- three copies of this for -
Ms. McCaslin:
No objection. We'll get our copy when he steps down.
The Court:
All right. That's fine. Now we need to be marking these exhibits.
So let's start. We're up to 105, Exhibit 105 with the defendant?
The Clerk
Yes.
The Court:
All right. The first book that you identified, Dr. Beck:, the
big one.
Dr. Beck:
Yes.
The Court:
That will be Exhibit 106. All right. The second book you've identified.
So the first book, Guides to Peace and Justice, is Exhibit
106. All right. The second book is going to be exhibit 107, and
that's Nonviolent Action Handbook. The third exhibit is
going to be Exhibit 108, and it's your campaign brochure for the
2004 presidential election, correct?
Dr. Beck:
Yes.
The Court:
I'm going to write 108 on this if that's all right with you. Okay?
In fact, when the trial is over, I'm going to allow you to take
your books out of the record, and we're just going to have a record
that these books were introduced into evidence. They're obviously
easy enough to figure out what's what and to recreate if we need
to for appeal or anything. All right. So we are now to Exhibit
108, which was your revised campaign brochure for the 2004 election.
It is your revised You are still running, correct?
Dr. Beck:
Yes. That's correct.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
And I would like just briefly to draw attention to the very beginning.
If you open it up, I oppose the main thing here, "Wars and
arming for wars" and the next item, "U. S. bombing of
other countries; all weapons of mass destruction."
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
Also at the same time that I printed the brochure the first time
in December, I printed a thousand the first time of each, that
and this. The second time I printed 10,000 of these. I'd like
to move into the record this one.
The Court:
I'm identifying as Exhibit 109 what has been handed to me, "Principles
and Methods for Achieving World Peace and Justice for the Good
of All Humanity and Life on Earth." Any objection from the
government to this coming into evidence?
Ms. McCaslin
No, your honor.
The Court:
All right, and this is going to come into evidence as Exhibit
109. All right.
Dr. Beck:
And again, just to hit the main points that are most relevant
to this trial, under "World Peace Principles" if you'll
look at starting with item 7, if I could just read a few
items here.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
Respect for individual freedom and dignity requires the protection of human rights by means of a universal system of justice.
8. Justice in human affairs is best attained by democratic means and due process of law.
And that's why I'm glad to be here in a court of law to try to settle this nonviolently.
Number 9: The use of force is justified only when a legal authority designated by consent of the people is required to restrain violence and bring to justice a violator of the law.
Ms. Chen:
If I could just ask Dr. Beck to speak back. I think it's very
loud for the people sitting over here.
The Court:
Yes, you don't have to read into the microphone.
Dr. Beck:
Oh, I thought he was saying it wasn't loud enough. It's too loud?
The Court:
Yes.
Dr. Beck:
Okay. Sorry. So you can hear me better like this. Okay. The next
point is I think really important, number 10. It goes with 9:
A law enforcement official has legal authority only within the country of the people who designate that official. No nation has a sovereign right to use any force outside its national borders.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
War, use of force and sale or transfer of military weapons outside one's territory should be prohibited by international law.
And so then I go into what I guess some people might consider utopian, but I don't. I think it's really the most practical way that we can solve this serious problem that we have in the world - in recent history especially it's getting worse wars.
So I would suggest that these are efforts that I made to educate people and try to persuade them that there are better ways to solve our problems and our conflicts than by killing each other. I made like I said, we put things on my website. One of the things my website has actually been down. I haven't even been able to access it since the war started, which has been a frustration, and I don't know why, but it seems to happen whenever there's a war.
But anyway I put things on my website by suggesting strategy I think it was maybe sometime around December or January that I put up something suggesting that people use legal means to try to prevent the war from occurring in the first place; in other words, vigils, demonstrations, educating each other, marching in peace marches and doing teach-ins and doing everything that we could in legal ways to try to stop, prevent the war from occurring. And I think evidence shows that there was a tremendous effort. It wasn't just me. It was a worldwide effort. Millions of people actually demonstrated and tried to stop this war because which was so unnecessary.
Among other things that I did, as I was running for President I would try to speak to groups. I did many things. I gave a two-hour lecture in Ojai, where I live, on the history of Iraq. I met with local peace groups. We had a Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions in Ventura and a weekly meeting in Ojai. I attended many of those meetings.
There's a particularly important time, I think, I wrote a letter, and I'd like to refer to that. It's in the book here. I didn't I wasn't able to bring a copy. This letter was to Kofi Annan, the United Nations Secretary-General, and I wrote and took this letter to the Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions meeting in Ventura, and I believe that was January 6th, 2003, and there was about maybe ninety or a hundred people at that meeting, and I had a petition form so people could sign their names to support the letter to enclose it with the letter to Kofi Annan. Seventy-nine people signed their names out of less than a hundred to that petition in favor of the letter. I don't want to read all of it. Can I read maybe some parts of it.
The Court:
Go ahead.
Dr. Beck:
I think it's important because I think the United Nations is really
important in this particular war, and it was really a lot of the
effort to try to prevent the war, was done through the United
Nations.
Dear Secretary-General Kofi Annan,
For twelve years the military forces of the United States and the United Kingdom have been violating international law in Iraq. Those of us in the world peace movement are especially concerned about the imminent war threatened against Iraq by the United States and the United Kingdom. We believe that the numerous attacks on Iraqi air defenses and other targets in the so-called "no-fly zone" are illegal by international law according to the United Nations Charter, Article 2, Sections 3 and 4.
And maybe this would be a good time, and I could refer to it later, to quote these particular articles. Then I can just refer to it later, and I won't have to repeat, because I think these are really key. Article 2, Sections 3 and 4 of the U. N. Charter:
All members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security and justice are not endangered.
4. All members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations.
And I just might add, as we all know, the purpose of the United Nations was to try to stop or end the scourge of war. So the letter continues:
These attacks and the preparations for the aggressive war are also crimes against peace according to the Nuremberg Principles, which are defined as
And again maybe this will be the time to quote that definition of the crimes of peace according to the Nuremberg Principles.
Planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances.
And the letter goes on:
Although the economic sanctions that were imposed on Iraq by the United Nations Security Council in 1990 may have been justified in order to get Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, since that goal has been achieved, we believe they are no longer justified. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children have died as a result of these immoral and illegal sanctions. We believe they are crimes against humanity according to the Nuremberg Principles, which are defined as
murder, enslavement, and so on. I guess I won't read that because we really this trial is more related to the war rather than the sanctions.
The Court:
Well, this trial is really related to you going onto that property.
Dr. Beck:
Right, but the reason I went onto the property was to try to prevent
those crimes in the war.
The Court:
And I completely and I'm going to allow you to go on, but
I completely understand what you're saying. Your view is that
these laws this war against Iraq was a violation of international
law and the Nuremberg Principles as well as other principles that
you've enunciated in your "Principles and Methods for Achieving
World Peace," and that your only way to stop this war was
to go onto the base and tell the commander to stop, and to advise
the soldiers in the Air Force, the members on the base that they
should be Conscientious Objectors. So I do, I think, completely
understand what your defense is, and through today and through
the other times that you and I have met, and you get an opportunity
to state your beliefs on the record, I feel satisfied that I completely
understand what your position is. And I'm going to allow you to
go ahead if you're -
Dr. Beck:
Okay. And then it related to the sanctions I quoted, the Geneva
Conventions serious violations of those, but that's rather
long, and I'll skip over that since it has to do with the sanctions.
And then the letter goes on:
The stated purpose of these sanctions and the threatened war against Iraq is to make sure that they do not have any weapons of mass destruction, and we support thorough inspections in Iraq by agents of the United Nations to make sure that Iraq does not have any such weapons. Thus far several of inspections have not revealed any evidence that they do. If any -
The Court:
Let me stop you for a second.
Dr. Beck:
Yeah, yeah.
The Court:
This isn't about the facts right now. This is about -
Dr. Beck:
But this is the letter to Kofi Annan.
The Court:
I understand that, but this is your this isn't about whether
you I know this is why you went onto the base.
Dr. Beck:
Okay.
The Court:
I know what you're saying here. So you don't have to repeat it.
You don't have to read me that letter.
Dr. Beck:
Okay.
The Court:
You're not telling me anything that I didn't know before you started
reading this particular paragraph, and what I'm trying to do is
give you a fair opportunity to tell me everything you want me
to know.
Dr. Beck:
Yeah.
The Court:
But, you know, I know what your view is on Iraq and sanctions
and the way Vandenberg's role in it and playing up you know,
working up to the war.
Dr. Beck:
Okay.
The Court:
Is there anything else that I should know in order to make a fair
decision in this case about whether what you did was right or
wrong.
Dr. Beck:
The reason I'm presenting this evidence is because of the -
The Court:
You tried other -
Dr. Beck:
- element that I tried other methods, and so I believe that Kofi
Annan, being the top authority in the U. N., that that was an
intelligent way to try to go about it.
The Court:
I find that you made other efforts to stop this war, and I do
not think the government is objecting that you I completely
accept your representation and your testimony that you did other
non-unlawful means to try and stop this war.
Dr. Beck:
Right.
The Court:
So what we're talking now, and what I want so let's assume,
you have to assume now you proved that to me. You have.
Dr. Beck:
Okay.
The Court:
I'm the fact-finder. You proved that. Let's get past that now,
and you're going to be allowed in your closing to make these points.
And I'm not going to sustain any of the government's objections
if they're saying at this time, well, he didn't exactly testify
about all these methods of non-unlawful he didn't testify
to each of these lawful methods in which he tried to stop this
war. I'm going to listen to you argue that. So you don't have
to testify to it now.
Dr. Beck:
Okay. Okay. So anyway, the letter it's nearly done. It's
just the idea then I talk about that the war is unnecessary,
illegal, and immoral, and I ask them to try to stop it with his
authority.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
Okay. Some of the other efforts I made: I was on a community-access
television program in Santa Barbara, and I could move this into
evidence.
The Court:
Okay. This is going to be Exhibit 110, and Dr. Beck: went on TV,
community-access TV in Santa Barbara and tried to stop the war.
Dr. Beck:
This was a weekly program -
The Court:
And the government has no objection to that coming in?
Ms. McCaslin:
No.
The Court:
And they're not objecting. They're not opposing that position.
All right.
Dr. Beck:
This was a weekly program called "War or Peace," and
I was on that actually eight consecutive weeks.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
All right. Another factor, which I guess maybe is related to what
led me to go to Vandenberg was I did meet and talk with Peter
Lumsdaine, who is a friend of mine from the earlier Vandenberg
Action Coalition in 1983.
The Court:
All right. Is he here today?
Dr. Beck:
No, he's not.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
But I do have a couple of other exhibits.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
I don't have any other copies of these actually.
The Court:
All right. We're going to identify this. We're going to call this
Exhibit 111. Can I write 111 on this?
Dr. Beck:
Sure.
The Court:
All right. It's going to be Exhibit 111, and this 111 is entitled
"Stop the Masters of War," and this appears to be an
emergency response action for Armed Forces Day, Saturday, May
17th, 2003 rally at Vandenberg Air Force. So now we've just put
the government on notice that someone's going to be back there
on May 17th for another protest. But this is a friend of yours
-
Ms. McCaslin:
Actually, your honor, we would like in all seriousness a copy
at some point of both sides of that.
The Court:
It's going to be admitted into evidence.
Ms. McCaslin:
Yes.
The Court:
And you're going to get a copy of both sides. All right. This
is your friend, Peter What's his last name?
Dr. Beck:
Lumsdaine.
The Court:
Mr. Lumsdaine, and he is involved in this? Is this what -
Dr. Beck:
He was, yeah, the main organizer one of the main organizers.
The Court:
All right. So this continues is what you're saying.
Dr. Beck:
Well -
The Court:
Because this is in the future. This isn't yet.
Dr. Beck:
Well yeah, they put that date on there way back. That was put
out in October or November, I think. So it was that's just
one it's not just that date. Actually the thing I'd like
to refer to also on this Maybe we could just go ahead and
move this into evidence also.
The Court:
Right.
Dr. Beck:
This is a smaller thing that Peter gave me actually in person
at a peace march one day on a Saturday in Santa Barbara.
The Court:
Okay. This next one you handed me, Dr. Beck, is going to be marked
as Exhibit 112, and Exhibit 112 says "Wage Peace," and
it talks about "back-country security zone occupation at
Vandenberg Air Force Base to disrupt the targeting guidance and
command systems for the assault on Iraq starting week of"
It doesn't say which week. I'm sorry. This was talking about
by October 2002. So this is admitted into evidence.
Dr. Beck:
Yes.
The Court:
Is there something you wanted me to see on that?
Dr. Beck:
Yeah, there's a couple of things on both of these in terms of
actually - the idea was to meet as soon as the war starts.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
Because we didn't know when the war was going to start. He didn't
know. No one really knew when the war might start. So the idea
was to try to stop the war from starting; but if it did start,
then we were going to then it would be like an emergency.
We would need to make more of a sacrifice. And I had a conversation
and went to a couple of meetings with Peter in small groups, and
we talked about how people in the military make very, you know,
full sacrifices. They sacrifice their lives often fighting in
wars, and we believe that the people working for peace should
make strong sacrifices too.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
But without using any violence. What I'd like to particularly
note is on the back here. I'd just like to read this one sentence.
The Court:
Go ahead.
Dr. Beck:
By October 2000 an Aviation Week and Space Technology report confirmed that Vandenberg had moved six of its billion-dollar KH-11s and the cross satellites into position over Iraq, continuously sending classified surveillance and target data back to VAFB's computers for designing the operational attack plans of the new war.
The Court:
Can I see that for one second, please?
Dr. Beck:
Yeah.
The Court:
That is Exhibit 111, and 111 I'm going to refer to as the May
17th, 2003 Protest Leaflet. That's just for my records. You guys
can refer to it whatever way you want. And then the other exhibit,
which was the paper one -
Dr. Beck:
Right.
The Court:
- which should be 112, right?
Dr. Beck:
And this same sentence appears on this one also.
The Court:
Right, and what you're establishing is that they're playing a
role in that.
Dr. Beck:
Yes. They gave me a reasonable belief that Vandenberg was going
to be actively involved in the targeting in the war.
The Court:
And you have established, and the government does not object,
to my conclusion that Vandenberg played some role in the Iraqi
war.
Dr. Beck:
Right.
Ms. McCaslin:
You know, what we can say is truthfully there were people from
Vandenberg deployed overseas.
The Court:
All right, and what I'm trying to do is short-circuit the requirement
that we prove that, and I'm just going to assume for purposes
of this trial that Vandenberg played some role in the war effort.
If they didn't, then, you know, that's my bad.
Ms. McCaslin:
No, people went. That's what we know.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
I just want to point out that on this one, 112, it refers to that,
the week the bombing starts in terms of gathering at Vandenberg.
The Court:
All right, and the bombing started, I guess, in the beginning
of March, huh?
Dr. Beck:
No, the war itself well, I'll get to that chronologically,
and I'm almost to that point actually.
The Court:
Go ahead.
Dr. Beck:
As we got closer to the war, we were concerned that it might start
around the new moon in early March, and I believe it was sometime
in late February after we had in the middle of February, you know,
there was millions of people marching for peace by that point.
And I made a statement at the Santa Barbara peace march and to
other people and on my website that I just wanted to do everything
I could to try to stop this illegal and immoral war, and that
as soon as President Bush made a kind of an ultimatum to Saddam
Hussein that by a certain date, if he did not, you know, give
up his government or, you know, whatever, that a war would begin.
As soon as President Bush made that, I was going on a juice fast,
and I was also suggesting that other people vigil and march every
day, and I called for a general strike in the United States in
order to peacefully, legally put as much pressure as we could
on the government not to do that. And as it turned out, that statement
by President George W. Bush did not occur until March 17th, and
so at that time I began a juice fast; but then he only gave 48
hours' warning; so my juice fast only lasted a little more than
a couple of days. And it was on the evening of March 19th that
President Bush went on the television and radio again and announced
that he was ordering the invasion of Iraq.
So I was extremely concerned. I felt that it was an emergency, that people - especially since they were talking about the "shock and awe." They were talking about, you know, six or seven thousand cruise missiles, which would kill many, maybe tens of thousands. It didn't turn out to be that way, but there was a reasonable belief that it could be, and it looked and it was a lot of people being killed by this aggressive war. And so it just happened in my life that I had to, because I was going to go on a tour around the country for my presidential campaign, that I had to move out of the room where I was living, and it just happened to coincide by divine providence, or whatever you want to call it, that the day the war started was the day I moved out of my room, March 20th, that morning.
I went to Santa Barbara, and that was a Thursday, I believe, and I was actually on this TV show. We did a taping of two shows that afternoon, and by the time I got to the rally at De La Guerra Park people were in a large circle and were ready to go marching out in the streets, and I participated in that, and I witnessed it. Some people had been arrested for blocking the 101 Freeway in Santa Barbara that afternoon, and some people had gone toward the off-ramp, and it was naturally It was the first day of the war and the bombing, and a lot of people were very frustrated and upset, and they were just roaming around the streets. Fortunately Santa Barbara had a very good relationship between the Not In Our Name group that organized these marches and the police, and we were because of that good communication there was no one being arrested without really having to make that choice. And there was no what we would consider to be property damage or looting or anything of that kind. But I was concerned because I believe that a situation like that could degenerate into rioting, and I definitely would want to avoid anything like that because I am dedicated to nonviolence, and there were - more serious incidents were occurring in San Francisco and in Los Angeles.
And so the next some people established a vigil at the park, stayed overnight and went on a water fast, and I came back early the next morning and started talking to them and others about what I considered maybe a better strategy, a more nonviolent strategy for trying to stop the war and focusing efforts of our peace protests to really try to stop the war and as peacefully as possible, you know, without degenerating into a riot. And also I didn't think, like, blocking cars like some people might do sometimes was really that purposeful because those people driving around weren't necessarily the ones that were doing the war.
Okay, so I started talking to people, and I went to the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. I talked to its founder and head, David Krieger, about different strategies, and I talked to a lot of people in vigils. And that evening then when people gathered in that park again to go out and march in the streets, I persuaded the leaders to have a time where each person could get up and suggest different possibilities of ways to work and see if we could, you know, because we talk about, this is what democracy looks like, to try to find ways that we could try to find ways that we could try to stop the war that would be more purposeful and directed to the people who were really perpetrating the war. So we did that for a little bit, and we didn't have a mic. So actually I couldn't be heard too well, and I was told that, and maybe that's one of the reasons why I was shouting so loud at Vandenberg because people had told me that I wasn't speaking loud enough on that particular occasion.
So some people did meet, and one of the ideas was Vandenberg. Another idea was maybe to protest at Raytheon, which was the biggest employer in Santa Barbara and a big weapons contractor. Others wanted to say, you know, not to pay taxes and so on. And then they just went out and marched again. And so we had a repeat of what happened the night before, basically again, fairly peaceful, but still people roaming around the streets kind of aimlessly in a way. So that was then Friday night.
And then Saturday I went to Vandenberg Air Force Base because there was, because of these leaflets I showed you, a standing plan to meet there the first Saturday after the war started, that that's when the protest would take place, the first one.
And so I went. We had a vigil there, what we would consider a legal vigil, exercising our first amendment right. We had only a very narrow space along the highway there; but we did miming the suffering of the people of Iraq in different poses, like five minutes for each poise. It was like a silent vigil that lasted about an hour.
And after that Dennis Apel suggested that there's some people might want to make a further sacrifice and walk maybe across the line to protest in some way Vandenberg's complicity in the war. And so as it turned out, while he was explaining that, the man next to me looked at me, and he said, "Are you Sanderson Beck?"
And I said, "Yes."
And he said, "Are you running for President?"
And I said yes.
"Well, maybe I'd like to talk to you or something."
I said, "Well, can you wait till he's through talking."
But then after Dennis was through talking, Mary Pat said, well, she was going to do this.
And I said, "Well, Mary, do you want to do this alone? Do you want some company?"
"Oh, I'd like some company."
And another woman named Sheila Baker, she said, "Well, I'd like to do it also."
Meanwhile I wanted to talk to this it turned out he was a photographer for the Los Angeles Times - about my presidential campaign, because I knew I might, you know, be taken into custody, and I wanted to have a chance to do an interview or whatever.
So the two women, while I was talking, trying to find him, just walked right across the line and knelt down and prayed, and they were given the written the warning, the written warning. I believe it's probably the same one that's entered in the evidence here today, and they were taken into custody.
And so I the reporters from the L. A. Times, they were over across the line covering this because they were allowed to go over across the line without being arrested or anything. And so it took a little while before they came back, and then I did a little interview with the Los Angeles Times.
And now I think we can go into the video because the beginning of the video is the end of that interview where he's asking me, "What do you think about the war?"
And I briefly say, and then you'll see, I particularly want to notice that I asked permission to go on the base, and then I made a speech while I'm on the base, and then I'm arrested, and that's what the video will show.
Ms. Chen:
And this we previously marked as 101, and the government has no
objection.
The Court:
Thank you.
The video contains the following:
Dr. Beck:
Sir, I would like permission to go on the base.(Sanderson Beck crosses over the green line.)
This base is in violation of international law. You are complicit with war crimes. You are murdering the people of Iraq. These are crimes against international law, the Nuremberg Principles, the United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions. You people are war criminals. I'm asking you to stop, and now you're violating my right of free speech by drowning out my voice with your megaphone system. What happened to free speech? Stop the war crimes! I would like to see the commander of the base. The commander is a war criminal.
God knows what you are doing. Your soul knows what you are doing. You will live with this forever. You only carry your experience when you die. You take nothing else with you but what you have done. And when you participate in the murder of innocent people, you are responsible. Retire; quit your jobs. Do not participate in killing innocent people.
The United States is becoming a fascist nation; we are aggressively attacking other nations. It is immoral; it is illegal. Everyone in the world is turning against the United States because the United States is becoming a war criminal. People need to rise up and nonviolently protest to lovingly put yourself between the war to tell people not to commit these kinds of crimes. It's our responsibility; it is our nation that is killing people.
Wake up! Wake up, America! We could lead the world to peace. I am running for President of the United States on a true disarmament platform. It is not disarmament to tell another country that is weaker than us, you cannot have any weapons of mass destruction while we have more than anyone else in the entire world put together. It is hypocrisy; it is arrogance; it is war crimes.
Stop the war! There will be a nonviolent revolution in this country if you do not stop these wars. There will be a new American revolution. The people will take over and throw the fascists out. You are being warned. There will be a new American revolution in this country. We will not allow you to murder people.
Listen to your conscience. If you are Christians, follow what Jesus taught, what Jesus demonstrated. Love your enemies. Make peace. Resist not the evil, because if you resist the evil, you just make more evil. If you resist violence, you make more violence. The answer is not violence. The answer is love and understanding.
We need complete disarmament. We need disarmament in this country first, because we have more than anyone of these illegal weapons. Vandenberg Air Force Base is one of the biggest criminals in this country. I was arrested here for protesting the MX missile in 1983. The MX missile is a first-strike weapon system.
(Sanderson Beck is taken into custody and is led away.)
Stop the war! Stop the war! Stop the war! Make peace through nonviolent action. Stop the war! Vandenberg is committing war crimes! Quit your jobs!
The Court:
Okay. I've watched the videotape of Dr. Beck's crossing over the
green line at Vandenberg Air Force Base, spending several minutes
on the property, and he then was arrested after being warned if
he didn't leave, he would be arrested. All right, Dr. Beck. Anything
further you want to add before -
Dr. Beck:
I think you could see in that video that there were reporters
walking around in that area who -
The Court:
But that's argument, and I did see that.
Dr. Beck:
I understand. Okay, okay. I just wanted to note that you saw it.
Okay.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
As you see, I am testifying without notes, and so -
The Court:
I understand.
Dr. Beck:
If I might go back, one incident, one other thing that occurred
of my efforts. There was a Peace Congress in Santa Barbara on
January 18th in which I was on a panel, and there was another
panel on which an international expert on international law and
human rights, Dr. Richard Falk, was present, and he gave a presentation.
Afterwards I asked him a question, and just briefly he essentially
agreed that the United States that the President of the
United States was violating the United Nations Charter even then.
The Court:
All right. Well, his testimony, though, is hearsay, and I'm not
going to allow it.
Dr. Beck:
Okay, okay.
The Court:
What other people have told you doesn't come into evidence.
Dr. Beck:
Okay.
The Court:
What I'm going to try and do now is I'm going to give you five
more minutes to present any further evidence you want me to consider,
and then I'm going to allow the government to cross-examine you
if they wish. And I feel that I have given you more than enough
time. We've been putting on your case since about five after twelve.
We've given you an hour and five minutes of unrestricted court
time and given you every opportunity that I think you're entitled
to present the best defense you can in this case.
Dr. Beck:
I'm nearly completed with my testimony. I'm wondering, though,
if we might take a lunch break before the closing argument.
The Court:
We'll talk about that when we're done with the cross-examination.
Dr. Beck:
Okay. So I'll just proceed chronologically. I was taken about
fifty yards down there, and there was a time period before I was
put on the bus, you know, escorted onto the bus, in which I did
talk to there was a row of soldiers in riot gear, whatever
you want to call it. I guess they were Air Force personnel, and
I did make a little speech to them about the Nuremberg Principles,
and I asked them to be Conscientious Objectors.
The Court:
All right, and Sergeant Walden -
Dr. Beck:
Walton.
The Court:
- Walton testified to that as well.
Dr. Beck:
Yes, but I -
The Court:
So it's clear that you were trying to convince these military
personnel to quit, to be Conscientious Objectors.
Dr. Beck:
Yeah, or to apply for Conscientious Objector. Yes, that's right.
And to give them that choice so that they could become aware,
because you know, it may be within our society and within the
military and our media the way it is that they might not have
been aware that this was an illegal war. And also they may not
have been aware that they do not have to obey orders which are
illegal.
The Court:
All right.
Dr. Beck:
So I was trying to give them that moral choice. And then I was
taken into a building, a processing, and again, just to be succinct,
I did similar type of conversations.
The Court:
Exactly, and we had testimony to that, and Sergeant Walton testified
to that as well. No doubt you were trying to convince them not
to be part of the war.
Dr. Beck:
Right, and so then I was given a citation and released.
The Court:
Yes, and you were given a letter don't come back.
Dr. Beck:
That's correct.
The Court:
All right. You got all those facts down, and you came back two
days later, right?
Dr. Beck:
Yes, sir.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
And the reason I did was because I felt I go by divine guidance
from within myself to do to help humanity in the best way
that I can, and on Sunday, the next day I participated in facilitating
two nonviolence trainings, one in Santa Barbara and one in Ventura,
to help prepare people in the methods of nonviolence.
The Court:
Right.
Dr. Beck:
And then really on Monday when I woke up quite early and was meditating
and praying, whatever, I was guided into the idea that I should
return to Vandenberg Air Force Base because that's where they
were really perpetrating the crimes. So that was the best place
that I could go to make my protest in this emergency. And so I
did that, and I went essentially by myself. Now this was a different
circumstance because they weren't expecting a protest, and so
they didn't have a lot of people out there where the green line
was. In fact, there wasn't anybody there. There was a reporter
who came to take a picture of me, and she -
The Court:
Did you tell them you were going out there? Is that how he knew,
or was he just out there?
Dr. Beck:
It was a lady actually. Yes, I did call a couple of newspapers
and asked them if they wanted to cover my story of going back,
and they sent someone out, and she took a couple of pictures as
I walked onto the base. And then she went I warned her that
her car was not in the safe area, that she might want to get her
car and go, and so she did. I hope she got safely out. And I started
walking toward what I thought was the Visitors Center, which apparently
is the main gate, hoping that I could get permission that
maybe since there wasn't a protest happening, that I might be
able to get permission to talk to the commander. And so I was
just actually I was carrying these two books that I put
into evidence, which is one of the reasons why I put them into
evidence, these two.
And I just walked on the sidewalk, and I got about half-way there. I think I would say it's about a hundred yards from, you know, the line to the Visitors Center. Anyway I got about half-way there, and a police car Air Force Police, I guess stopped and asked me what I was doing, and they put handcuffs on me and put me in the car, and I said that I wanted to speak to the commander at the base, and so they made some calls, and they parked the car, took me somewhere. I got out of the car, and then I believe it was Colonel Wright Lieutenant Colonel Wright appeared with Captain Quigley, and he asked me why I was there or what I wanted or something, and I said that I wanted to speak to the commander of the base because I was concerned that there were war crimes occurring. As soon as I said the words "war crimes," he said, "Take him in," and that was the end of the conversation.
They took me then to a building handcuffed, and in that building I went into a room with Malcolm, Sergeant Walton, Malcolm Walton, who testified, and we had become kind of friends, actually I would say, earlier. And we had a long conversation and talked about philosophy and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X and a lot of things. But I particularly like I talked about the responsibilities of the war crimes and so on. And then even there was a time where some other officers I guess they had seen my books. They were out of the room somewhere, and they were looking at them. Then they came in, and they mentioned some of the pictures, some of the names of the people who were on the front of the books and started we got into a philosophical discussion about international law and war and peace and philosophy and so on.
And then I had longer, other conversations with Malcolm. Now he did ask he did in terms of I did state I think my words were more exactly, "You might as well keep me in custody because if you don't, I'm going to keep coming back." I don't believe I used the words "every day," but I understand that people's memories are not exact, and sometimes people remember, and this is pretty similar.
I did indicate that I wanted to be in custody because I wanted to get before a judge as soon as possible, and the reason for that is because I believe that in our Constitution we have checks and balances, and that the presidential, the President and the Congress are abusing their powers committing crimes. It's the responsibility of the judiciary it should be independent to hold them to account. And so I wanted to get to a judge as soon as I could because of the war emergency.
And in the previous time when I was arrested on Saturday, at first, I was given a court date April 18th, which was actually the date for Bud Booth's trial because I had been at his arraignment, and also it was the date for a sentencing of Dennis Apel for an action he had done. And so I was kind of pleased that that might be a good date. And then they changed it and made it June 20th, and that was, like, more than two months later, and that to me was unacceptable in terms of trying to get a speedy trial. I'm under the impression that if you're in custody, you're more likely to get a speedy trial than if you're not.
And so that was why I came back, and that's why I told him that I wanted him to just keep me in custody. And so what he did was he made a call, and apparently he talked to the Assistant U. S. Attorney here, Sharon McCaslin, and they arranged for me to have an arraignment two days later on Wednesday, March 26th. And he asked me if I would accept that, and I agreed to that basically so he could release me and I would promise to go, and I said, "Yes, that's what I want. I want to get before a judge to bring these issues so that we can resolve them in a judicial process nonviolently." And so I accepted that citation, and he took me off the base and dropped me off, and I was picked up by a friend.
The Court:
Okay.
Dr. Beck:
So then -
The Court:
And I know what happened after that.
Dr. Beck:
So that's all that's really relevant, I guess, in terms of the
sequence of events, because I'm letting Ms. Davina Chen represent
me on the other charge.
The Court:
Okay. Great. Anything further you want to add? You're still going
to have a chance to do closing argument.
Dr. Beck:
Yeah, right. I think that's it in terms of actually the evidence.
The Court:
Great. Ms. McCaslin, you have an opportunity to cross-examine
the witness if you'd like, the defendant in this case. Please
go ahead.
Dr. Beck:
Wait a minute. Can I just think for a moment? Because -
The Court:
Yes.
Dr. Beck:
- like I don't have notes.
The Court:
You can think of -
Dr. Beck:
So I'm trying to think of the elements.
Ms. McCaslin:
While he's thinking, may I approach the clerk -
The Court:
Yes.
Ms. McCaslin:
- and present her with a proposed exhibit, and I need a stapler.
The Court:
You can just cut right through there, Sharon. You can just cut
right through. Okay, anything further, Dr. Beck:?
Dr. Beck:
I think given what you said and have assumed that I've presented
a lot of evidence in terms of my belief that what I was doing
could stop the crimes to some extent, and that's one of the elements
-
The Court:
There's no doubt in my mind that that -
Dr. Beck:
I think there's a lot of evidence that I had that belief.
The Court:
There's no doubt in my mind that that's what you believe. The
government, I don't think, is contesting that.
Dr. Beck:
Okay.
This has been published in the book PEACE OR BUST. For ordering information, please click here.