"WMD Here!" Plowshares Sentenced to 8, 12 & 15 Months & anti-war resistance updates!

international | anti-war / imperialism | news report Friday November 17, 2006 14:23 by Bill - Catholic Worker North Dakota, USA

Their in Jail for Us, We're on the Loose for Them!

The "WMD Here!" Plowshares have been in custody since their nonvviolent disarmament of a ICBM missile silo in North Dakota - June '06. Fr. Carl Kabat OMI and former soldiers/ now Catholic Workers Greg Bortje-Obed and Michael Walli were sentenced this past week.

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