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Nuns attack US weapons of mass destruction


Denver - A Catholic nun told a United States court on Thursday she was obeying President George Bush's call to dismantle weapons of mass destruction when she and two other sisters trespassed at an unmanned missile silo in northern Colorado.

Sister Carolyn Gilbert and two other Dominican sisters, Jackie Hudson and Ardeth Platte, are charged with sabotage and malicious destruction of property relating to an October 6 break-in at the Minuteman 3 silo near Greeley, Colorado.

Gilbert and Platte are peace activists in Baltimore, Maryland, and Hudson does similar work in Bremerton, Washington.

Since the trial opened on Monday, peace activists have packed the federal courtroom in Denver to support the nuns.

The three have said they cut cables and made the sign of the cross on the lid of the silo with their own blood before they were arrested by military police.

Platte told the court in an opening statement on Tuesday they wanted to protect the children of Iraq with a "symbolic disarmament".

"Our president has asked that weapons of mass destruction be destroyed," Gilbert told the court on Thursday.

"I had a duty, a responsibility and privilege to try and stop a crime, not only under God's law, but under US and international law," she said.

Bush, backed by Britain, launched a war against Iraq on March 19 for what he said was President Saddam Hussein's refusal to dismantle weapons of mass destruction.

The nuns have been in jail since October after refusing to be released on bond.

US district judge Robert Blackburn has said the women could not make use of the Nuremberg defence, which allows a citizen to break the law in order to prevent a crime against humanity.

If convicted, the women face up to 30 years in jail and fines of up to $250 000 (about R2-million).

AndyTheGoth wrote:@ hallucienate

Your Current Sig "Weekend Satanist" - What do you do the rest of the week?

Nuns on the run after crash

ROME (Reuters) - Italian police say they are scouring the countryside for four nuns after a hit-and-run accident near the northern city of Bergamo.


The nuns, behind the wheel of a Citroen, ignored a stop sign at a crossroads and ploughed into a Mercedes driven by a 63-year-old man, who escaped uninjured.


Instead of stopping as Italian law requires, the nuns sped off before anyone could even get a glimpse of their car registration.


"This is the first time I've ever heard of such a thing happening in all my years in the police. It's extremely strange," Enzo Fiocchi, the police chief heading the search, told Reuters by telephone from the village of Albano Sant'Alessandro on Wednesday.