Three activists charged with trespassing, criminal mischief
By ELOISE OGDEN, Regional Editor eogden@minotdailynews.com
Minot Daily News, June 22, 2006
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Three nuclear protesters arrested Tuesday at a Minuteman III missile launch facility west of Garrison when they unlawfully entered the area, remain in the McLean County Jail in Washburn Wednesday.
The three, Greg Boertje-Obed, 51, and Michael Walli, 57, both military veterans from Duluth, Minn., and Carl Kabat, 72, a retired priest from St. Louis, made their initial appearance in Washburn Wednesday afternoon before South Central District Judge Bruce Romanick.
McLean County Sheriff Don Charging said the three are being charged with criminal trespass and criminal mischief, both Class A misdemeanors, and bond was set at $500 each. He said the FBI is involved in the case and federal charges are pending.
On Wednesday, Col. Sandra Finan, commander of the 91st Space Wing at Minot AFB held a news conference for local media regarding the incident at the missile site.
The space wing operates, maintains and controls 150 Minuteman III missiles in underground launch facilities in northwest and north-central North Dakota.
The missile site that the three men entered is located about 30 miles west of Garrison and just northwest of the White Shield community in McLean County. The site is about 75 miles southwest of Minot AFB.
Finan said the three individuals unlawfully entered the Echo-9 missile launch facility at about 10 a.m. Tuesday.
“The individuals used bolt cutters (to cut the lock) to gain access to the site. Once inside, they attempted to destroy government property using hammers and by posting graffiti,” Finan said. More specifically, she said they “took a hammer and beat on some of the external components, then they sprayed graffiti in several different locations and hung some signs.”
The Wisconsin-based Nukewatch group, of which the three men are volunteers, reported the three men entered the missile silo area and painted “It's a sin to build a nuclear weapon” on the face of the hardened silo cover and poured their blood on the missile lid.”
Finan said the launch facilities are unmanned, remote sites that are directly monitored 24-hours a day, seven-days a week by Air Force personnel in launch control centers.
She said as soon as the individuals entered the missile launch facility area, “we (LCC personnel) knew.”
“As soon as that happened we sent our security forces to see what was happening. Security forces arrived, found the three individuals on site, detained them and then waited for the sheriff to arrive,” Finan said.
Finan said the missiles housed in these facilities are in hardened underground silos protected by multiple layers of security. She said more than 700 security forces airmen “can and will respond at a moment's notice to any security violation.”
“Yesterday the system worked as designed,” Finan said. “Within minutes, our security forces were on scene and had detained the individuals until local law enforcement arrived and took custody. The individuals were taken from the area and brought to the McLean County Jail.
In statements on Web sites, the nuclear protesters said their actions Tuesday at the missile site took the missile off-line and it couldn't be used.
Finan said Wednesday that is not true.
“At no time was the underground missile's safety, security or readiness affected in any way,” she said.
Sheriff Don Charging said the three men were wearing clown suits when they arrived at the jail in Washburn.
In a statement on a Web site, the three men said, “We dress as clowns to show that humor and laughter are key elements in the struggle to transform the structures of destruction and death.”
A photograph of the three dressed in clown outfits at the fence of the E-9 missile site is shown on a Web site.
Authorities are seeking a fourth person or others who apparently dropped off the men at the site and took the photo which is posted on the Web site. That individual or individuals was not at the missile site and there was no vehicle there.
Bonnie Urfer, Nukewatch co-director at its headquarters in Luck, Wis., said the organization is not a membership organization but has volunteers, including Boertje-Obed, Walli and Kabat. She said the organization supports the three men's actions in North Dakota.
She said the reason, according to statements from the three men arrested, that they entered the missile silo area is “they feel as if the building of nuclear weapons is a sin against God and criminal according to national law....”
She said there was not any specific event or reason that the three Nukewatch volunteers visited the North Dakota missile silo at this time.
Urfer, who has been with Nukewatch for 20 years, said peace activists are aware of what can happen when they go to an area to protest. “I think people who do disarmament tactics know what to expect,” she said.
Urfer said Nukewatch was more active in North Dakota in the 1980s when the group was publishing “Nuclear Heartland,” a book on the missile silos in North Dakota and mapping their locations.
She said Nukewatch promotes getting rid of all nuclear weapons in the United States. She said she thinks the United States should set an example for other nations, but with having “7,000 ready to go – not a way to set an example,” she said.
Urfer did not know of any immediate plans for other activities of Nukewatch in North Dakota – “only in conjunction with any trials or subsequent court proceedings,” she said.
Finan said at the news conference, “The men and women of the 91st Space Wing are deeply committed to our national security mission and we will ensure that all property that is under our responsibility is protected in the interest of the nation.”
“When folks violate that security, it is our responsibility to ensure that our national strategic deterrent forces are ready all the time and that they are safe and secure. And we will execute that mission,” she said.
The incident remains under investigation.