Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison: Weapons of Mass Destruction Protected
\nBy Bill Quigley.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 They broke the lock off the fence and put up peace banners and posters.\u00a0 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 The men called their action the \u201cWeapons of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dressed in faded black striped prison uniforms and blue cloth slippers, they appeared before the federal court for sentencing.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Michael Walli, 58, also with the Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker in Duluth received 8 months.\u00a0 All were ordered to pay $17,000 restitution.<\/p>\n
During their trial, the men openly admitted try to disarm the nuclear weapon.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 Coiled beneath the surface of a bland concrete bunker, it is clearly visible from the gravel road.\u00a0 In fact, the otherwise pastoral countryside of farms and silos is full of nuclear weapon silos.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 \u201cI 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.\u00a0 Brother judge, you could have possibly been a Rosa Parks, but your actions said \u201cno.\u201d\u00a0 We all can openly and publicly condemn North Korea for nuclear bombs.\u00a0 We can openly and publicly condemn Iraq for nuclear weapons and go to war with them.\u00a0 We can openly and publicly condemn Iran for nuclear buildup, but we do not publicly condemn the United States for the same?\u201d<\/p>\n
Fr. Kabat then challenged all of us, \u201cWhat is the use of post marking our mail with exhortations to \u201cPray for Peace\u201d and then spending billions of dollars on atomic armed submarines, thermonuclear weapons and ballistic missiles?\u201d<\/p>\n
Michael Walli reaffirmed his continuing conviction of the illegality and immorality of these weapons.\u00a0 He pointed out that Irish Courts allowed juries to hear about international law.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 To conclude his sentencing statement, the Peace Prayer of St. Francis was read into the record.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
The judge challenged Greg Boertje-Obed\u2019s decision to take actions that risked a year in prison instead of staying home with his family.\u00a0 \u201cWhy would one leave a wife and daughter at home to engage in juvenile acts of vandalism to protest nuclear weapons?\u00a0 I would think your commitment to your family should far outweigh your calling to such actions.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Greg\u2019s wife, Michelle Naar Obed, was in the courtroom during this exchange.\u00a0 After the sentencing was over, Michelle shook her head and said, \u201cIf Greg had left us his for a year and risked his life to go to war to kill people, no one would question him \u2013 they would call him a hero!\u00a0 But, because he risked time in jail to act out his convictions for peace, people question his commitment to his family.\u00a0 That is a tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n
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?\u00a0\u00a0 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?\u00a0\u00a0 Until those interested in peace are willing to make the same sacrifices as those interested in war, peace will not prevail.\u00a0 These three men have proven they are willing to pay the price for peace.\u00a0 Their courage and sacrifice challenges us all.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 The law protects these weapons and finds those who try to protect the world from their holocaust criminals.\u00a0 If the weapons are ever used, the people of North Dakota will not need the news to tell them.\u00a0 The thunderous fiery launch of these weapons will signal the failure of justice and the end of life as we know it.<\/p>\n
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 https:\/\/www.jonahhouse.org
\nBill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New Orleans.\u00a0 He helped the defendants in their trial.\u00a0 He can be reached at Quigley@loyno.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison: Weapons of Mass Destruction Protected By Bill Quigley. 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.\u00a0\u00a0 The three dressed as clowns… Continue reading Blood-Pouring Anti-Nuke Clowns Sent to Prison:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":164,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions\/164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grassrootspeace.org\/traprock_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}