No MUOS photo
from LaSicilia.it (a translation from the original Italian)
Niscemi
The No MUOS Movement makes it clear: “The site is vulnerable ‘
November 15, 2015
PALERMO – The MUOS, located near Niscemi, “one of the most important strategic sites of the U.S. armed forces, is vulnerable” and therefore “dangerous”. So writes the website of the Sicilian movement “No MUOS, ” hailing the action of their activist Turi Vaccaro, who last Thursday, evading the strict surveillance of U.S. soldiers and the police, managed to penetrate the military base in the area of Ulmo, climb one of the three radar dishes of the disputed system of satellite telecommunications, and sabotage it with a hammer, causing damage of close to 800 thousand euro.
The “NO MUOS” movement, which from the beginning opposed the construction of the site for its powerful electromagnetic waves considered hazardous to the health of citizens and for air traffic at the airport of Comiso (Ragusa), writes triumphantly that “it is possible to violate the protected site, you can dismantle the Muos, you can stop and undermine the madness of war, and it is possible to win. ”
Turi Vaccaro, a pacifist in his sixties, remained on the dish for 34 hours, at 40 meters high, damaging the electrical systems for radio transmitting and illumination. Arrested and processed at the court of Gela, Vaccaro has been released with an order to remain in in the province of Caltanissetta. The pacifist chose to stay in the “Peace Pagoda” in Comiso, the home of Buddhist monk Morishita, his personal friend.
For more information: http://nomuos.org/en
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from Vice News (a translation from the original Italian)
This pacifist has hammered the MUOS in Sicily
Leonardo Bianchi
November 11, 2015
At around half past seven this morning, the pacifist Turi Vaccaro entered the disputed military satellite installation Muos Niscemi (Caltanissetta), climbed on one of the huge satellite dishes – considered “instruments of war and death” – and began to hit it with a hammer.
According to MeridioNews, Vaccaro climbed over the fence and for about half an hour was free to move, since the American staff had not noticed his entrance. The action was claimed as a swords and plows movement.
“Turi is fine, in good spirits, humming the children’s song fra’ Martino (or frere Jacques). He has already broken light bulbs on the radar dishes. With him is a shirt with a peace sign and the words “No NATO NoMuos,” said a post published on the page of the movement No Muos. In his bag, he had a drawing done by his grandson that he intended to deliver to the base commander. “Now police, rescue and fire crews are arriving at the structure. The area is guarded by a huge deployment of police.”
Of Sicilian origin, Vaccaro is a former Fiat worker and a longtime activist who has been found guilty of several nonviolent protests, participating in many protest movements.
In the eighties, for example, Vaccaro protested several times against the construction of the NATO base in Comiso, in Sicily, which would then host about 7,000 soldiers and 112 cruise missiles.
Among his most outstanding actions was the breaking – with club blows — of mechanical controls on two F16 aircraft in the NATO base Wonsdrecht, Holland, on 10 August 2005.
Vaccaro was also very active on the front of the No Tav protest. On June 27, 2011, in Chiomonte, he tried to block a bulldozer that was about to break down the blocks of No Tav. In his hand was a flag and a braid of garlic “to bless the machinery. ”
In March of 2012 – always in Chiomonte – Vaccaro remained well for 16 hours on the trellis from which he had fallen the militant No Tav Luca Abba. These protests cost him an expulsion from the police headquarters in Turin.
The following year, Vaccaro was among activists No Muos that in April of 2013 climbed on the antennas of the US base. In December 2014, the pacifist managed to enter the base of Niscemi, then being arrested by the US military and getting a prohibition of residence.
In March 2015, Vaccaro marched barefoot from Palermo to Niscemi – about 400 kilometers – with an ass; and in May of that year he entered again into the base, this time naked, for “spreading salt.”
Currently the Muos is under sequestration since last April 1, when the prosecutor in Caltagirone successfully applied for the sealing of the construction site. On 13 February 2015, also the TAR Sicilian had upheld the actions of the movement No Muos and Legambiente, defining “illegal” work for the plant as “lacking the necessary authorizations landscape” and “spoiled by lack of proper environmental investigation.”
The sentence was then partially reversed in September 2015 by the Council of Administrative Justice of Sicily, which has established that – environmentally – the “permissions were legitimate.”
In a recent interview on the actual state of the work, Alfonso Di Stefano – historical militant movement No Muos and the Anti-Racist Network Catania – but he said that “the construction of the system Muos substantially complete. At the moment only remains to launch another satellite, to support, because we know that the fourth was sent into space in early September. ”
“The only real obstacle to its entry into operation overall,” concluded Di Stefano, “are the last legal process and especially the resumption of popular mobilizations.”