"WMD Here Plowshares" Go to Trial Sept 13th.

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press

Friday September 08, 2006 14:29

by Bill Quigley - is a human rights lawyer at Loyola University, New Orleans, also a legal advisor to the defendants.

TRIAL-Bismark, North Dakota, USA

No Clowning Around WMD-Federal Judge: Priest and Two Veterans Must Go to Trial

A federal judge cleared the way for a priest and two veterans to be tried before a federal jury on September 13, 2006 for damaging a Minuteman III intercontinental nuclear missile in North Dakota.

The three, dressed as clowns, hammered and poured their blood on the silo of the 40 ton weapon. The bomb has over 20 times the destructive power of the one dropped on Hiroshima. If convicted on the felony charges of criminal damage to property, each face up to 10 years in federal prison and fines of up to $250,000.

They dressed as clowns “to show that humor and
laughter are key elements in the struggle to transform
the structures of destruction and death. Clowns as
court jesters were sometimes the only ones able to
survive after speaking truth to power.”

Warheads launched from the Minuteman III missile silo
can reach any destination within 6000 miles in 35
minutes. The nuclear bomb launched from a Minuteman
silo produces uncontrollable radiation, massive heat
and a blast capable of vaporizing and leveling
everything within a 50-mile radius. Outside the 50
square miles -- extending into hundreds of miles --
the blast, wide-spread heat, firestorms and neutron
and gamma rays are intended to kill, severely wound
and poison every living thing and causing long-term
damage to the environment.

Because the Minuteman III is a weapon of mass
destruction, they argued, it is illegal under
international law.

In a statement, defendants challenged the hypocrisy of
U.S. policy on nuclear weapons. “US leaders speak
about the dangers of other nations acquiring nuclear
weapons while our nation has thousands of horrific
weapons of mass destruction. Our nation fails to act
in accordance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty which commits the U.S. to take steps to disarm
its weapons of mass destruction. We act in order to
bring attention to people's responsibility for
disarming weapons of state terrorism.”

The judge refused to dismiss the charges saying: “The
laws of the United States do not support the theory
that an individual has a right or responsibility to
correct a perceived violation of international law or
humanitarian law or tribal law or religious law by
willfully destroying government property.”

Known as the Weapons of Mass Destruction Here
Plowshares, the defendants are: Fr. Carl Kabat, 72, a
Catholic priest who has spent more than fifteen years
in prison for anti-nuclear protests; Greg
Boertje-Obed, 51, a husband, father and ex-military
officer; and Michael Walli, 57, a Vietnam vet.
Boertje-Obed and Walli are members of the Loaves and
Fishes Catholic Worker community in Duluth, Minnesota.

Francis Boyle, a professor of law at the University
of Illinois, submitted his legal opinion to the court
in support of dismissing the charges: “Where the
“property” allegedly damaged is part of an illegal and
criminal threat of use of a weapon of mass destruction
– these defendants acted lawfully and reasonably to
prevent the most egregious and fundamentally
prohibited of all crimes, war crimes.”

Testimony from the Mayor of Hiroshima about the
effects of nuclear weapons and the 1996 advisory
opinion of the International Court of Justice
outlawing nuclear weapons were submitted to the court.

"We are not criminals,” Fr. Kabat told the court. “We
are following the laws of morality. These weapons are
the crimes against humanity!”

The jury trial will be held in Bismarck, North
Dakota. Defendants, who remain in jail awaiting
trial, are now dressed in black and white striped jail
jumpsuits. No word yet on how they intend to dress
for their appearance in court.

****

For more information about the upcoming trial contact
the Loaves and Fishes Community in Duluth at
001 218.728.0629 or Nukewatch at 001 715.472.4185. Copies of
some pleadings in the case, pictures and updates from
the men are posted on the Jonah House website
http://www.jonahhouse.org