The following dossier contains descriptions of all Joint Munitions Command production, storage, and distribution facilities from the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant to the east coast. It does not include dedicated JMC demilitarization facilities.
Each document is a guide to the facility location, its purpose, its function and known links within military and civilian arms manufacture, and its connection to this wider network via military-designated strategic rail (STRACNET). These facilities are not wholly dependent on rail for shipping, but the nature of the military equipment they produce guarantees that much of it must move by rail between manufacturing locations and to east coast ports for transport to Israel or supporting US installations and vessels in the region.
These facilities covered here are, from west to east:
McAlester Army Ammunition Plant, McAlester, Oklahoma
Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, Middletown, Iowa
Lake City Army Ammunition Plant, Independence, Missouri
Pine Bluff Arsenal, Pine Bluff, Arkansas
Quad City Cartridge Case Facility/Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, Illinois
Crane Army Ammunition Activity, Crane, Indiana
Anniston Munitions Center, Anniston, Alabama
Holston Army Ammunition Plant, Kingsport, Tennessee
Blue Grass Army Depot, Richmond, Kentucky
Radford Army Ammunition Plant, Radford, Virginia
Letterkenny Munitions Center, Chambersburg, Pennsylvania
Scranton Army Ammunition Plant, Scranton, Pennsylvania
Our initial focus on the eastern sections of this network is motivated by reporting on specific chains of munitions production involving these plants, as well as their proximity to the east coast ports. If your region is not covered in this breakdown, don't worry, the work awaits for you as well. Many civilian arms manufacturers, as well as Air Force plants, are also served by STRACNET. Unredacted state by state maps are publicly available at https://www. sddc. army. mil/sites/TEA/Functions/SpecialAssistant/Pages/RailroadsNationalDefense .aspx with many fascinating locations marked. You, too, can see where tracks cross rivers and go through tunnels in satellite images. Our – and your – centralized knowledge base of this fragile infrastructure network will only continue to grow.
We enclose as well our perspective on methods for targeted rail disruption.
This is only the beginning.
TACTICS, METHODS, CAVEATS
This is a roundup of information that is publicly available on the Internet with the right amount of digging. Links will be reproduced at the bottom.
As part of a larger document titled "To Settlers, by Settlers: A Callout for Rail Disruptions in Solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en," anonymous activists provided instructions for a simple but effective method for disrupting rail networks which we have found to be easily replicable. We are including these instructions below. Our comments are included in brackets. This "copper wire method," as the authors describe it, is also known as a shunt.
"- DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS ON SUBWAY TRANSIT LINES [you will electrocute yourself]
– You can use this method when engaging in group actions to immediately send a signal to stop all train traffic
The steel rails of tracks act as part of a track circuit for something called "automatic block signalling" (ABS). A very low voltage is sent through the rails to track sensors to create a loop in sets of geographic blocks. When a train moves along them, the train axle disrupts or shortens the circuit and sensors pick that up to indicate the block is occupied, automatically closing traffic in that area to other trains.
By using a low gauge [lower number = thicker] copper wire and wrapping it around and then across the rails, one can replicate the tripping of the circuit sensors. Note: you don't need to locate and connect the actual block sensors. [We recommend around 6 gauge wire for this purpose]
TIPS: the copper needs to be touching areas on both rails that are NOT rusty/oxidized and still conducting. [An easy way to remove rust is white vinegar and a pad of steel wool] Have a lookout for trains and security patrols. Have a plan before you start wrapping. You may need a small tool to clear some crushed rock under the rail before wrapping the wire. Find a good spot, dig out both rails, and wrap one rail first. Remember as soon as you trip the circuit by connecting the wire to both rails the ABS will be tripped indicating something is up. Get out as soon as you can. Burying the cable with crushed rock, snow, or dirt will make it harder to find/spot within the block."
Additional things to keep in mind with this method are that if you're near a crossing, this will trigger the crossing arms to come down and the bells and lights to go off.
Another thing to watch out for are trail/game cameras, motion-sensing cameras that are often installed on trees. Two women acting in solidarity with the Wet'suwet'en, Samantha Brooks and Ellen Brennan Reiche, were arrested installing a shunt on BNSF tracks in Washington state in 2020 after a BNSF railway officer received an alert on his phone and photo from a game camera near the tracks and called the police. The trail camera photo was helpfully included in an article in The Guardian, meaning you can look at it and draw your own conclusions about where railway trail cameras are likely to be mounted relative to tracks.
Whenever possible, choosing a secluded location that is only accessible by foot is recommended to delay law enforcement response time. We also recommended scouting the target area beforehand.
While it is tempting to bust open the various equipment cabinets and start cutting cables, unless you are very confident in your abilities as an electrician we recommend living to fight another day. You can, however, get very annoying with spray foam, epoxy, superglue – use your imagination.
Another method for rail disruption that has been used by Russian partisans in solidarity with Ukraine against the war effort that is easily replicable is loosening and removing the bolts that anchor different sections of the track together. A simple adjustable pipe wrench with a handle of 24" or greater is the only tool needed, although a lubricant to ease rusted or stuck bolts is also helpful. Actually separating segments of track can cause train derailments, so think carefully about location and potential collateral damage. Even if not separating the track segments, removing the bolts creates the potential for a serious problem that rail lines will need to spend time, personnel, and money to repair, creating economic and logistical disruptions. If you are aiming to separate track segments without being detected, a conductive wire should be used to join the track segments prior to separation to prevent disruption of the track's electrical signal, which would alert dispatchers to a problem on that segment of track.
We encourage you to do further research of your own and see what sparks your creativity.
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2023/12/02/18860816.php [this link also contains maps of California]
https://web.archive.org/web/20230205182233/https://north-shore.info/2020/01/05/to-settlers-by-settlers-a-callout-for-rail-disruptions-in-solidarity-with-the-wetsuweten/
theguardian . com/environment/2021/jul/29/activists-sabotaging-railways-indigenous-people
JUSTICE UPRIGHT / JUSTICE REVERSED
The clock is running out.
People of the United States of America: Without our taxes, our votes, our labor, our compliance, there would be no siege on Gaza. The Zionist client state cannot maintain this war of extermination except through our complacency. In our numb routines and toothless civil disobedience, we, too, are foot soldiers of empire. We, too, are following orders while our country fills the white phosphorous shells and signs the checks that pay for them.
We will go to sleep tonight knowing we will not wake up under rubble. What will we do when we wake up? Will we continue to go to work, beg our representatives for action, and wait for news of another "pause"? Or will we pull the weapons from the murderers' hands?
We turn our eye on the US Army's Joint Munitions Command: nodes in the network of slaughter producing and moving equipment along strategic rail lines to the ports for transport to Israel. Production and transfer of this materiel within the United States begins at a small number of facilities, connecting to a small number of ports. We have studied this network and found its connective tissues to be weak and scarred. With a little pressure, they will snap.
All that remains is to take action against the merchants of death with the information provided you.
Do not be another sullen conscript in brutality. This world is a grist mill; it churns through the people of this earth who long for liberation. Take vengeance for what blood has been spilled. Strike now, before we drown in it.
Mutiny.
Turn your bayonet on the soft underbelly of empire with all your strength.
Palestine is calling. The best time to answer was yesterday. The second best time is now.
Ever vigilant,
– ELEVENTH HOUR –
XI
Found on Chicago Anti-Report