Navy spin-doctoring the Kitsap break-in (?)...and a correction

Our apologies, first off, for sloppily and incorrectly identifying Naval Base Kitsap as a Maine installation (the Bangor reference threw us off) - Kitsap is in Washington, evidently about 20 miles west of Seattle; we've corrected yesterday's blog post accordingly.

Regardless, considering that the story is grabbing attention beyond our ragtag blog, it appears that the Department of Navy or some higher powers are downplaying details about five senior citizen antiwar demonstrators who used bolt cutters to cut thru a few lines of barbed wire security fencing at the base to get near nuclear missile storage areas, merely to protest.

Whereas the Kitsap Sun report on Tuesday suggests the perps (get this...an 81-year-old Jesuit priest, an 83-year-old nun and three crafty seniors in their 60s ) roamed the base for 4+ hours under moonlight without being seen, a Navy spokesman in this AP report, picked up by San Jose (CA) Mercury News and the Navy Times, among others, suggests a ho-hum event.

Texas-based Spero News (apparently a publication focused on religious issues), on the other hand, details that the group not only easily cut through three sets of security fencing before they were apprehended after trying to break thru another fence and tripping a security alarm, but cited Naval Base Kitsap as home to more than 2,000 nuclear warheads, or nearly 25% of the U.S.'s arsenal (according to November 2006 data from the Natural Resources Defense Council). Scary.

Here's the kicker - the intrusion evidently occurred within a day of base security exercises where...better look out..."identification cards of those entering and leaving the base are being checked, and guards are electronically scanning everybody," according to this separate Kitsap Sun piece.

Naval Weapons Station Earle neighbors should keep this Washington incident fresh in their minds when considering the egregiously flawed Department of Navy plan to compromise base security by opening a fully impeded access route to the Laurelwood homes on the base and letting its developer (Laurelwood Homes, LLC) rent on-base housing to civilians from 2010-2040.

Otherwise, keep in mind this insomnia-curing but informative January 2009 report from the U.S. Department of Defense Inspector General that showed that our nearby Earle may have some security oversight problems of its own, pertaining to its reliance on outsource security personnel (a.k.a. Myers Security).

Anyone that did not attend last week's NOPE rally at CNHS or take part in our postcard campaign (NOPE has already collected over 600 sets and disseminated close to 1,000) should contact us immediately at njnope@gmail.com or justsaynope@verizon.net (or call us at 732.322.0130 or 732.946.3747), and we will provide you a packet of postcards (expressing discontent over the Earle civilian housing plan with the Secretary of Navy, EPA, NJ Governor and Homeland Security) that you can fill out and give to your neighbors, friends and family to mail to the proper authorities.