Activists from SUSTAIN (Stop US tax-funded Aid to Israel Now!) marched
into the building in Downtown DC that houses the Caterpillar office, to
make a citizens arrest under the provisions of the 4th Geneva convention,
and to demand that the CAT executives come to the UN building in DC
immediately to turn themselves in for war crimes. The arrest warrant
served to CAT read:

"The Israeli Defense Forces have committed numerous war crimes and crimes
against humanity--as defined by the Fourth Geneva Convention--against the
Palestinian people using Caterpillar equipment. The Caterpillar
corporation, by knowlingly selling equipment to be used for such
purposes, and by refusing to cease such sales when illegal uses were
documented, is complicit in these crimes. It is thereby violating its
duty under international law, and violating its own code of moral
conduct."

Based on this complicity, and in the spirit of Israeli justice, which CAT
supports, the warrant called for:

"the immediate arrest of all senior executivs of the Caterpillar
Corporation. Further, all Caterpillar executives living in the District
of Columbia, are to be exiled to Anacostia [ghettoized area in southeast
DC]. They will be furnished with UN refugee tents erected in abandoned
alleys, though these will later be bulldozed with Caterpillar equipment.
While some of these executives may not be directly associated with
Caterpillar complicity in war crimes, we suspect they are related to
people who are, and that's good enough for us."

Upon delivery of the warrant, the CAT executives tried to slam the door,
but the SUSTAIN activists blocked it with their bodies and held it open.
The CAT executives first threatened to call the police, and then
threatented physical assault. The activists replied calmly that they
would remain there until they were finished articulating all of the war
crimes for which CAT was responsible. They presented color photographs
of CAT bulldozers demolishing civilian homes, and explained that at
Nurenburg, corporate executives who knowingly supplied equipment for war
crimes were tried and held accountable under international law.

Meanwhile, downstairs in front of the building more activists from SUSTAIN,
dressed as Israeli soliders, were condemning the CAT building for
demolition. They were demanding, over a bullhorn, that everyone evacuate
the building because people complicit in terrorist acts and war crimes were
being arrested inside. "This is a closed Israeli military zone" they yelled
as 'construction workers' put orange cones in front of the entrance and
wrapped the building in yellow 'Caution' tape. They then posted
"Condemnation Orders" on the front doors of the office building which read:

"This Office of the Caterpillar Corporation (and the activities carried
out herein) Are Condemned. All personnel are instructed to vacate the
premises and to turn over this office to homeless Palestinian families."

The CAT executives were visibly shaken, and were publicly indicted in
front of the media. The executives and the media were made aware of the
fact that similar actions happened today at other CAT offices around the
country, and that if CAT continues to supply bulldozers for Israeli war
crimes, the actions will continue to escalate nationally and
internationally.

Video, pictures, and press releases will be available at
www.sustaincampaign.org shortly.