Weapon of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares
E-9 Minuteman Missile Silo
North Dakota
Some Images

The Weapons of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares activists arrived at missile silo E-9 on the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara Nation in North Dakota on the morning of June 20, 2006.(Why did they chose June 20? June 20 was chosen because everyday is a good day to do a plowshares action.)

They dressed as clowns to show that humor and laughter are key elements in the struggle to transform the structures of distruction and death. Clowns as court jesters were the only ones able to speak truth to power. Additionally, St. Paul talks about being fools for God's sake, and they said that they are "fools for God and humanity."

Nuclear Disarmament Begins at Home.

The US has 500 Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles buried in the ground. Each warhead carries 27 times the blast, radiation and heat of the Hiroshima bomb the U.S. dropped August 6, 1945. Minuteman warheads can travel more than 6,000 miles at 15,000 miles per hour. Taxpayers spent 7 million each for 1000 land based missiles.By any standard of proof, the threat or use of the Minuteman III constitutes crimes against peace, warcrimes and crimes against humanity or genicide.

Where are the weapons of mass destruction? The U.S. is always looking for them in Iraq, Iran, China, North Korea. We don't look in Israel, because everyone knows they have many. But these men found a WMD here, in North Dakota! The US has 1,050 active and spare Intercontinental Ballistic Massiles.

Carl used the bolt cutter to obtain entrance to the E-9 missile silo, so that they could begin to disarm the missile.

Weapons of Mass Destruction Here Plowshares activists include Rev. Carl Kabat, OMI, Greg Boertje-Obed, a military war veteran and Catholic Worker from Loaves and Fishes Catholic Worker in Duluth, and Mike Walli, a military war veteran and laborer.