Clowns sabotage Minuteman III ICBM. Seriously.

[Vympel]

Link

On Tuesday morning, a retired Catholic priest and two veterans put on clown suits, busted into a nuclear missile launch facility, and began beating the silo cover with hammers, in an attempt to take the Minuteman III missile off-line. Seriously.

silo-E8-gate.jpgThe trio -- members of the Luck, Wisconsin group Nukewatch -- said the break-in was part of "a call for national repentance" for the Hiroshima and Nagaski A-bombings in 1945.

The activists used bolt-cutters to get into the E-9 Minuteman II facility, located just northwest of the White Shield, North Dakota. "Using a sledgehammer and household hammers, they disabled the lock on the personnel entry hatch that provides access to the warhead and they hammered on the silo lid that covers the 300 kiloton nuclear warhead," the group said in a statement. "The activists painted 'It's a sin to build a nuclear weapon' on the face of the 110-ton hardened silo cover and the peace activists poured their blood on the missile lid."

This was all done while wearing face paint, dunce caps, misfitting overalls, and bright yellow wigs.

We dress as clowns to show that humor and laughter are key elements in the struggle to transform the structures of destruction and death. Saint Paul said that we are “fools for God's sake,” and we say that we are “fools for God and humanity.” Clowns as court jesters were sometimes the only ones able to survive after speaking truth to authorities in power.

Guards responded within minutes. And when they arrived, the protesters "ate a lot of gravel," I'm told.

"The individuals were taken from the area and brought to the McLean County Jail," the AP notes. "The three are being charged with criminal trespass and criminal mischief, both Class A misdemeanors, and bond was set at $500 each.... The FBI is involved in the case and federal charges are pending."

[SirNitram]

That's just amusing.

[neoolong]

So is it normal that people can break in and get so close to nuclear missiles?

[Ghost Rider]

There's something slightly frightening and just bizarre with that whole affair.

[Academia Nut]

That's not going to look good on the old performance review.

Commander: So let me get this straight. You let three guys in clown suits get into a nuclear launch facility and start pounding on the cover of nuclear weapon with hammers?
Guard: In my defence sir, I was INCREDIBLY high at the time.

But yeah, more than a little scary considering that these guys were just stupid vandals and not, you know, terrorists. I'm sure the Bush Administration is going to have a field day with this one if they don't quietly sweep it under the rug.

[MKSheppard]

Considering that most ICBM silos are in the middle of nowhere, this is usual.

[Beowulf]

So is it normal that people can break in and get so close to nuclear missiles?

Oh, it's not hard to get to the top of the silo. Actually getting into the silo is something else entirely. There's just a chainlink fence around the silo. Over the silo is a multi ton blast door that's opened fairly explosively(think it's hydraulics that open it, but it literally gets thrown when it's activated). All the silos are geographically seperated from each other, to make it harder to take them all out at once. There's rapid reaction forces that go out to the silos if the fence gets breached.

[Ma Deuce]

This happened four years ago as well, except it was a trio of nuns that time, but like this incident they defaced the silo using hammers and their own blood. They were given sentences ranging from 30-41 months in a federal prison, which is likely the punishment awaiting these bozos.

[Glocksman]

This happened four years ago as well, except it was a trio of nuns that time, but like this incident they defaced the silo using hammers and their own blood. They were given sentences ranging from 30-41 months in a federal prison, which is likely the punishment awaiting these bozos.

Bozo the Clown was involved?

[Nephtys]

I'd be more amused if some base security showed up, and opened fire on them. It'd probably be a net gain really. Who on earth thinks nuclear weapons aren't destructive and bad? Forced entry into a site seems like a dumb idea.

Oh my! Atone for Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Em. How about Dresden? Or ANY attack that hurt civilians? Sheeeesh.

[Glocksman]

I'd be more amused if some base security showed up, and opened fire on them. It'd probably be a net gain really. Who on earth thinks nuclear weapons aren't destructive and bad? Forced entry into a site seems like a dumb idea.

Oh my! Atone for Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Em. How about Dresden? Or ANY attack that hurt civilians? Sheeeesh.

I'd guess that SOP in situations like this is to merely keep them under observation, let the fools beat on the concrete silo lid with their hammers, paint their slogans, and then haul them off to jail.
Whereas shooting them on sight, while understandable when dealing with the security of nuclear weapons, would be a PR disaster for the government.

However if they somehow managed to get in the silo proper, I'm almost positive they'd be lucky to not be shot dead on the spot.

[Nephtys]

I'd be more amused if some base security showed up, and opened fire on them. It'd probably be a net gain really. Who on earth thinks nuclear weapons aren't destructive and bad? Forced entry into a site seems like a dumb idea.

Oh my! Atone for Nagasaki and Hiroshima? Em. How about Dresden? Or ANY attack that hurt civilians? Sheeeesh.

I'd guess that SOP in situations like this is to merely keep them under observation, let the fools beat on the concrete silo lid with their hammers, paint their slogans, and then haul them off to jail.
Whereas shooting them on sight, while understandable when dealing with the security of nuclear weapons, would be a PR disaster for the government.

However if they somehow managed to get in the silo proper, I'm almost positive they'd be lucky to not be shot dead on the spot.

I suppose that's right. A few minutes with sledgehammers probably doesn't compare to nuclear overpressures... and gets these people incriminated deep enough. Who really doesn't think the Feds monitor missile silos closely?

[Golan III]

I used to live in Montana, and drove through the missile fields from Malmstrom pretty regularly.

Each missile is generally in the middle of nowhere. None are located on their base itself, that's just where the maintenance facilities and admin are located. Each silo is separated both from other missiles and from the Launch Control Center (LCC), by a couple miles. Generally they're located in farmland, and are pretty visible since it's a square of chainlink fence where the fence itself is actually in good repair all around the object. There is also a small white pipe that sticks up in the air above the silo about 10 feet, which is a doppler radar to detect anybody/thing that breaches the fence. Usually it's just deer or rabbits, but occasionally people or nutsos like these. There are other means of monitoring the site as well, such as closed-circuit TV and IR/motion/seismic sensor stuff. Oh and there are heavily armed patrols of Air Force security policemen roving the fields, usually no more than 5 or 10 minutes away. You can tell who they are since they're the only people driving giant up-armored humvees around on the state highways back there.
To get into the missile itself, there are obviously quite a few locks sealing the access hatch. Once you get past the access locks, there is a plug of concrete that seals up the ladder shaft. It hydralically lowers over a half an hour. Once that's down, you then have access...maintenance workers, when they come to work on the missile, just leave their tools on the plug, which slowwwwwwwly lowers down. During that time they eat their lunch or take a break, and once that's over their tools are at the bottom already for them, so they don't have to carry them down the ladder.

I got to go into a Peacekeeper missile silo once at Hill AFB, UT. That's where the USAF has their ICBM system program offices, which manage the overall missile programs. One of the things they have is a replica LCC and Peacekeeper/Minuteman missile silo, complete with "missile" inside. All of the operational equipment is duplicated there so that if there are upgrades to be installed, they can be tested in-place, while still not out in the operational field. The only thing different is that the "missile" obviously doesn't have a real rocket motor at the bottom of it, and that the LCC isn't 100 feet or whatever belowground, but actually at ground level. Still pretty interesting to see it face-to-face!!!

[Big Orange]

These naive fools did not cause any real damage and they caught by base personnel before amy real damage was done; if they were terrorists, they would've been quickly taken down by sniper fire.

[1123581321]

These naive fools did not cause any real damage and they caught by base personnel before amy real damage was done; if they were terrorists, they would've been quickly taken down by sniper fire.

If they were terrorists the government almost certainly would have wanted them alive. Dead men tell no tales after all.

[FedRebel]

On Tuesday morning, a retired Catholic priest and two veterans put on clown suits, busted into a nuclear missile launch facility, and began beating the silo cover with hammers, in an attempt to take the Minuteman III missile off-line. Seriously.

And now presenting the Darwin Award for the greatest stupidity perpetrated by a group...

They premeditatedly break into a military facility (Damn shame the MP's didn't give them any copper coated candy for their trouble.) They decide to commit this act in clown costumes. Then they try to breach the blast door with sledge hammers.

Not to mention, that the US has nukes coming out the demon hole, so if they manage to take one out, we still have half a million to spare.

The trio -- members of the Luck, Wisconsin group Nukewatch -- said the break-in was part of "a call for national repentance" for the Hiroshima and Nagaski A-bombings in 1945.

Those were necessary, the only thing the US needs to repent are the US Army–Indian Wars

"Using a sledgehammer and household hammers, they disabled the lock on the personnel entry hatch that provides access to the warhead and they hammered on the silo lid that covers the 300 kiloton nuclear warhead,"

Brilliant!

Yep, preventing access to the eminence hatch and concentrating on trying to break in through the blast door really is the best way to gain access to a missile.

the group said in a statement. "The activists painted 'It's a sin to build a nuclear weapon' on the face of the 110-ton hardened silo cover

It's also a sin to break into other people’s property and vandalize said property

and the peace activists poured their blood on the missile lid."

Nothing helps the back breaking labor of trying to break through concrete and steel with sledgehammers like massive blood loss.

We dress as clowns to show that humor and laughter are key elements in the struggle to transform the structures of destruction and death.

Your way off, what transforms destruction and death is a little thing called "peace" and it's meaner associate "Mutually Assured Destruction"

Saint Paul said that we are “fools for God's sake,”

Well God always needs a sucker, Just ask L. Ron Hubbard

and we say that we are “fools for God and humanity.”

More like "insanely stupid embarrassments to humanity."

Clowns as court jesters were sometimes the only ones able to survive after speaking truth to authorities in power.

Because no one takes clowns seriously, moron

[FedRebel]

Yep, preventing access to the eminence hatch and concentrating on trying to break in through the blast door really is the best way to gain access to a missile.

That should say maintenance hatch

[Ma Deuce]

Just to illustrate how huge these missile fields are and how much distance separates each silo, here is a map of the three ICBM bases currently in operation with the USAF; the big black circles represent the launch control centers, and the black dots represent the silos. As you can see from the scale on the map of Malmstrom, the entire missile field is over 200 miles wide!

Malmstrom AFB

Minot AFB

Warren AFB

[Boyish-Tigerlilly]

What the hell's wrong with these people? They tried to give a religious defense for trying to break in and nerf a weapon? What would happen if we had intelligent people who were real terrorists, and not fanatical clowns break in?

[Beowulf]

What the hell's wrong with these people? They tried to give a religious defense for trying to break in and nerf a weapon? What would happen if we had intelligent people who were real terrorists, and not fanatical clowns break in?

Depends on whether they shoot at the SF who get there. If they do, they get taken down. If they don't, they eat dirt, just like these clowns. One of the points of the distributed silos is that they are all hardened to prevent easy access. It takes a couple hours to access the interior, when you're not trying to get in the normal way, and usually involves quite a while of using jackhammers.