Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison: Weapons of Mass Destruction Protected

Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison: Weapons of Mass Destruction
Protected

By Bill Quigley. Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola
University New Orleans. He helped the defendants in their trial. He can be
reached at Quigley@loyno.edu

Three men protesting the presence of weapons of mass destruction in North
Dakota were sentenced to federal prison terms of over three years and ordered to
pay $17,000 in restitution by a federal judge in Bismarck. The three dressed
as clowns and went to the Echo-9 launch site of the intercontinental Minuteman
III nuclear missile in rural North Dakota in June 2006. They broke the lock off
the fence and put up peace banners and posters. One said: "Swords into
plowshares - Spears into pruning hooks." They poured some of their own blood on
the site, hammered on the nuclear launching facility and waited to be arrested.


The Minuteman III missile has over 20 times the destructive power of the bomb
dropped on Hiroshima and can reach a target within 6000 miles in 35 minutes.
The men called their action the “Weapons of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares.”

Dressed in faded black striped prison uniforms and blue cloth slippers, they
appeared before the federal court for sentencing. Fr. Carl Kabat, 73, a
catholic priest from St. Louis with a life-long history of resistance to nuclear
weapons was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Greg Boetje-Obed, 52, a former
Navy officer living with his family in the Catholic Worker community in Duluth
Minnesota was given a 12 month and one day prison sentence. Michael Walli, 58,
also with the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker in Duluth received 8 months.
All were ordered to pay $17,000 restitution.

During their trial, the men openly admitted try to disarm the nuclear weapon.
They pointed out to the jury that each one of these missiles was a devastating
weapon of mass destruction, a killing machine precisely designed to murder
hundreds of thousands. Testimony by experts about the illegality of these
weapons of mass destruction under international law and their effects were
excluded by the court and never heard by the jury.

The 40 ton Minuteman III site they damaged lies deep in rural North Dakota, at
a site called Echo-9 about 100 miles north of Bismarck. Coiled beneath the
surface of a bland concrete bunker, it is clearly visible from the gravel road.
In fact, the otherwise pastoral countryside of farms and silos is full of
nuclear weapon silos. One nuclear weapon launching site lies just across the
road from a big farmhouse, another just down the road from a camp for teens.
There are 150 other such nuclear launching facilities in North Dakota alone.

At the sentencing, Father Carl Kabat, who has already spent 16 years in prison
for peace protests, spoke simply and directly to the court and prosecutor. “I
believe that you, brother judge and brother prosecutor, know that the Minuteman
III at E-9 is insane, immoral and illegal, but your actions protected that
insanity, that immorality and that illegality. Brother judge, you could have
possibly been a Rosa Parks, but your actions said “no.” We all can openly and
publicly condemn North Korea for nuclear bombs. We can openly and publicly
condemn Iraq for nuclear weapons and go to war with them. We can openly and
publicly condemn Iran for nuclear buildup, but we do not publicly condemn the
United States for the same?”

Fr. Kabat then challenged all of us, “What is the use of post marking our mail
with exhortations to “Pray for Peace” and then spending billions of dollars on
atomic armed submarines, thermonuclear weapons and ballistic missiles?”

Michael Walli reaffirmed his continuing conviction of the illegality and
immorality of these weapons. He pointed out that Irish Courts allowed juries to
hear about international law. Recently, after learning that US jets were
stopping at Shannon Airport to refuel on their way to bomb Iraq, the Pitstop
Plowshares went onto the runway, poured their blood on it and started to take up
the tarmac to prevent additional flights. After two mistrials, these peace
protestors were acquitted on all counts earlier this year by an Irish jury who
heard an expert on international law and other witnesses explain the illegality
of the U.S. actions. To conclude his sentencing statement, the Peace Prayer of
St. Francis was read into the record.

Greg Boetje-Obed appealed to the judge to consider the testimony of the mayors
of Hiroshima and Nagasaki about the horrific effects of a tiny nuclear weapon on
their communities, testimony the court would not allow the jury to hear. He
asked the judge to re-consider expert testimony from Professor Francis Boyle
about the criminality of nuclear weapons under international law and the UN
resolutions calling for nuclear disarmament, evidence also kept from the jury.

The judge challenged Greg Boertje-Obed’s decision to take actions that risked a
year in prison instead of staying home with his family. “Why would one leave a
wife and daughter at home to engage in juvenile acts of vandalism to protest
nuclear weapons? I would think your commitment to your family should far
outweigh your calling to such actions.” Greg’s wife, Michelle Naar Obed, was
in the courtroom during this exchange. After the sentencing was over, Michelle
shook her head and said, “If Greg had left us his for a year and risked his life
to go to war to kill people, no one would question him – they would call him a
hero! But, because he risked time in jail to act out his convictions for peace,
people question his commitment to his family. That is a tragic.”

What does it say about our society that personal sacrifices to go to war to
kill people in war are praised, while personal sacrifices for peace are
condemned? What does it say that intentional destruction of cities and
communities and families and individuals are considered totally legal, while
actions trying to dismantle weapons of mass destruction send people to prison?
Until those interested in peace are willing to make the same sacrifices as those
interested in war, peace will not prevail. These three men have proven they are
willing to pay the price for peace. Their courage and sacrifice challenges us
all.

While these men serve their time in prison, one hundred fifty weapons of mass
destruction sit peacefully free and protected in the fields of North Dakota.
The law protects these weapons and finds those who try to protect the world from
their holocaust criminals. If the weapons are ever used, the people of North
Dakota will not need the news to tell them. The thunderous fiery launch of
these weapons will signal the failure of justice and the end of life as we know
it.

For more information about the men contact the Loaves and Fishes Community
in Duluth at 218.728.0629 or Nukewatch at 715.472.4185. Copies of some pleadings
in the case, pictures, updates and addresses for the men are posted on the Jonah
House website http://www.jonahhouse.org