Common Dreams - Jun 21, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0621-15.htm
WMD Found - Disarmament Begins
LUCK, Wisconsin - June 21 - A Roman Catholic Priest and two Veterans
went to a Minuteman III silo this morning and began to disarm the
nuclear weapon using hammers.
Reverend Carl Kabat, OMI, Gregory Boertje-Obed, and Michael Walli
entered the E-9 missile silo on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation
in North Dakota about 75 miles southwest of Minot. Using a
sledgehammer and household hammers, they disabled the lock on the
personnel entry hatch that provides access to the warhead and they
hammered on the silo lid that covers the 300 kiloton nuclear warhead
that is targeted and ready to launch. The activists painted "It's a
sin to build a nuclear weapon" on the face of the 110-ton hardened
silo cover and the peace activists poured their blood on the missile
lid.
They were detained and arrested by McLean County Sheriffs and are
being held in the McLean County jail. The three have been charged
with County Criminal Trespass and Criminal Mischief.
Speaking from jail, Greg Boertje-Obed, from Duluth, Minnesota,
explained, "I believe Jesus led us to do this witness based on his
teachings of intervening for the sake of the poor. These weapons are
killing us and the poor today. I believe this plowshares action is a
natural extension of our Catholic Worker mission which is
hospitality, providing for the needs of the poor, and defending the
poor."
Carl Kabat, OMI from St. Louis , Missouri added, "We now prepare for
the nuclear bombing of Iran with the reasoning that only weapons of
mass destruction can stop weapons of mass destruction. We bombed and
strafed in Iraq based on lies that the Iraqi's possessed nuclear
weapons. We have the weapons here."
The Minuteman III missile is targeted and on alert for launch. The
missile is armed with a warhead that carries 27 times the heat, blast
and radiation of the bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima , Japan in
1945.
The activists say that they are following the nonviolent Jesus, that
they are taught by their faith to love their enemies, and that the
money used for these weapons of mass destruction is a theft from the
poor and should be used for food, housing, medical care and
rebuilding the infrastructure of our country.
For press updates, more information and images, go to
http://www.jonahhouse.org
Dan Scanlan
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.coolhanduke.com
"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious
is the first duty of intelligent men." — George Orwell
