It was noon and in the high 90’s. Sixty balloon and banner toting activists marched doggedly along highway 32 near the National Security Agency (NSA) in Columbia, Maryland. They were halted by numerous local police, SWAT team members and federal officers at Canine Road just outside a Shell station. Stopped nearly 200 yards’ distance from the boundaries of NSA property, the authorities told demonstrators they could not approach the facility further or they would be arrested.

Demonstrators along Route 32


While thousands in Baltimore celebrated the 4th of July by enjoying cookouts, checking out sales in the mall, and then celebrating the piece de resistance – by watching fireworks, others embraced protest as a more suitable activity. The activists included members of Baltimore’s Pledge of Resistance, residents of Jonah House, Catholic Day Workers, a sprinkling of Greens and a group of students from Canada.

Dominican Sisters Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert, walked with the group. The two women are awaiting sentencing of up to 30 years for a "ploughshares action" in Colorado, where they hammered on a missile silo. As soon as they became aware of the way the police were handling the demonstration, the women left, concerned they would be arrested and taken immediately back to prison.

According to the protesters, they targeted the NSA because the spy agency’s information is used to oppress people in foreign countries. Many pointed to the “manipulated” intelligence used as a justification for the war in Iraq. Some mentioned the “bugging” of UN members who resisted endorsing a second resolution against Iraq. Still others talked about alleged spying on U.S. citizens by the huge, technologically superior agency.

Since 1986 peace activists have gathered in dissent at NSA on July 4. In the early years of protesting, people walked around the perimeter of the complex and handed out flyers to motorists. According to AFSC organizer, Max Obuszewski, this right was slowly but surely eroded.

One of the students from Canada, Natalie Maxson, was surprised by the intimidating tactics of the police. Carrying a sign that said, “Practice Non-Violence, Wage Peace” Maxson said that she never sees anything in Canada comparable to the numbers of police (at least 20 – 30 officers of various kinds) for a small group of 60 demonstrators. A helicopter circled overhead. She said, “I wonder what U.S. citizens would think about their tax money being spent like this.”

Dwyer Sullivan, organizer of the Canadian youth who are all graduates of a Catholic High School in Stratford, Ontario, talked about NSA spying on people in the U.S.. Sullivan has brought numerous high school graduates for the last 6-7 years to spend a week with DC Catholic Workers. He explained that they learn about "justice and charity" through experiencing it in the real world.

A Green Party member said, “We are bringing attention to how rights are being trampled in the U.S. The NSA does not increase our security, it decreases it.”

Another demonstrator said, “We’re celebrating July 4th by fighting imperialism exactly as we did 227 years ago.”

While the demonstrators were ordered to stand on a small patch of grass on a sloping hill between the highway and Canine Road, three people stepped forward to resist the commands of the officers who would not allow the protestors to proceed. Fifteen minutes passed in the face-off between the three and the armed officials. A camera crew, filming a documentary about the nuns and civil resistance, stood filming the confrontation.

Three Protestors Kneel in Front of Police



According to witnesses, Pastor John Dornheim from Baltimore took crime tape from his pocket and with the help of Marilyn Carlisle and Cindy Farrguhar stretched it across the road to indicate the line that they were forbidden to traverse. Then they stepped forward over the line. Eventually, Dornheim, Farrquhar and Carlisle were handcuffed and taken to the Provost Marshall’s office. At first they were put in separate cells. Then they were brought into one office where they say they were lectured for 30 minutes on the seriousness of the laws they had broken. Apparently one officer kept saying the group could get 25 years for “assaulting a police officer.” The three disputed that any assault had taken place. Later the federal officers released them without charges.




Pastor John Dornheim Confronted by Officer





A few of the demonstrators speculated that the filming crew may have been the cause of the charges being dropped.

Many of the protestors returned to Jonah House in West Baltimore for a pot luck meal. Sisters Platte and Gilbert welcomed people with cold water and listened to the stories about the arrests of the three protestors. The nuns conversed with friends, lightly and jovially recalling previous years of July 4th visits to NSA. “We should have started out early,” said Ardeth Platte. “In the past, we always started early before it got so hot.”





Sister Ardeth Platte and Friend at Jonah House





Jonah House was airy, comfortable, and spacious. A group ate around a long, wooden dining table. The camera crew followed the sisters, their friends and guests around, filming conversations. The journey back to Baltimore for the two nuns was to say goodbye to people they may never see again, due to the length of the sentences and ages of comrades, and to give away all their possessions. On July 25th, Ardeth Platte and Carol Gilbert will be sentenced the last time they will see a July 4th at NSA for many years to come.



Sister Carol Gilbert





**NSA is a U.S. intelligence gathering organization that has the most laws protecting it and maintains the highest level of secrecy about its operations, greater than the CIA. According to its website, NSA can’t reveal the number its employees, its physical size, or total financial worth, but if it could, it would be in the top ten percent of Fortune 500 corporations. While the organization touts its history of code breaking during WWII, program for talented youth, volunteer involvement in local communities, and general boy scout innocence and reverence for the law, NSA is not specific about what it does do. NSA collects data, but claims there is no spying on U.S. citizens. www.nsa.gov/

To find out more about NSA, read author and former NSA employee, James Bamford. His two books about NSA include The Puzzle Palace and Body of Secrets.