Amid all the talk of other countries possessing weapons of mass destruction, three Roman Catholic Sisters - Ardeth Platte, Carol Gilbert and Jackie Hudson - decided to look in the U.S. to expose weapons of mass destruction here. Consequently, since October, they have been in jail in Colorado.
Early in the morning of October 6, 2002, the first anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, the sisters, wearing hazmat suits labeled "Citizens Weapons Inspection Team" and "Disarmament Specialists", inspected a suspicious site on a farmer's field in Colorado and found a first-strike 300 kiloton (20 x the Hiroshima bomb) Minuteman III nuclear missile on high-alert. They symbolically disarmed the missile with household hammers and their own blood. They opened the site for public inspection. Forty-five minutes later, they were arrested and taken to jail.
The nuns and their legal team argue the obvious. Any United States threat or use of any weapon or tactic of mass destruction is every bit as illegal and criminal as anyone else's. Any threat or use of the Minuteman III nuclear weapon is a war crime. The U.S. must pursue and complete good faith negotiations for nuclear disarmament in all its aspects as agreed to in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This, necessarily non-violent process, includes declaration of all nuclear weapons, taking them off high alert and allowing inspections to verify disarmament.
Early in the morning of October 6, 2002, the first anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan, the sisters, wearing hazmat suits labeled "Citizens Weapons Inspection Team" and "Disarmament Specialists", inspected a suspicious site on a farmer's field in Colorado and found a first-strike 300 kiloton (20 x the Hiroshima bomb) Minuteman III nuclear missile on high-alert. They symbolically disarmed the missile with household hammers and their own blood. They opened the site for public inspection. Forty-five minutes later, they were arrested and taken to jail.
The nuns and their legal team argue the obvious. Any United States threat or use of any weapon or tactic of mass destruction is every bit as illegal and criminal as anyone else's. Any threat or use of the Minuteman III nuclear weapon is a war crime. The U.S. must pursue and complete good faith negotiations for nuclear disarmament in all its aspects as agreed to in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. This, necessarily non-violent process, includes declaration of all nuclear weapons, taking them off high alert and allowing inspections to verify disarmament.