Free the `Star Wars 17'.

US -- On July 14, 2001, anti-nuclear protestors gathered at Vandenberg Air Force Base on the California coast to challenge a test of the Pentagon's trouble-plagued anti-missile system. The protests only delayed the test for two minutes' but 17 protestors (from Britain, India, Australia, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Spain and the US) wound up facing six years in prison and $250,000 fines. Fifteen Greenpeace activists and two journalists who floated into Vandenberg waters on a rubber boat were arrested, placed in leg shackles and thrown into a maximum security prison. In past demonstrations, nonviolent protestors were cited for trespassing, a misdemeanor. In this latest case, the activists were charged with conspiracy counts that carry long prison sentences. "These charges are politically motivated," reports Duncan Campbell of The Guardian (London), the harsh new "policy on felony charges has come from Washington." According to Greenpeace's William Peden, "It should be Star Wars on trial, not Greenpeace." [Greenpeace, 965 Mission St., No. 625, San Francisco, CA 94103, [phone]]