THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, September 7, 1996 TAG: 9609070237
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LYNN WALTZ, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 68 lines
Three peace activists were sentenced to federal prison terms Friday for defacing the nuclear submarine Greeneville at Newport News Shipbuilding last year.
Michele Naar-Obed of Baltimore, 39, the mother of a 2-year-old girl, received 18 months. Rick Sieber, 47, of Philadelphia, received 9 months. His son Erin, 22, received 8 months, with 4 to be served through home electronic monitoring. Each defendant also was fined $2,000 and ordered to pay about $1,100 in restitution.
The sentencings became emotional at times as the three declared their moral and religious objections to warfare and killing. Naar-Obed gave U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith pictures of nuclear holocaust in support of her objection to war.
Each had been charged with sabotage and destruction of government property. In May, they pleaded guilty to one charge each of destruction of government property as part of a plea agreement.
Naar-Obed told the judge the birth of her daughter had inspired the August 1995 attack on the submarine.
``It was an act of love and hope,'' she told the judge. ``A gesture to show there's another way to live and uphold justice. We've got to do better than this for our children's sake.''
Naar-Obed and the two others cut through a chain-link fence at Newport News Shipbuilding on Aug. 7, 1995. They walked onto the Greeneville, which was then under construction, and pounded on it with household hammers and emptied bottles filled with their own blood into the sub's missile-launch tubes. They called the demonstration ``Jubilee Plowshares.''
The name comes from Isaiah 2:4, which says God's people will ``beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.''
After the attack, the co-defendants sang songs, prayed, and left leaflets condemning the sub - and the Tomahawk missiles it fires - as weapons banned under international law. They turned themselves in to security guards.
On Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Harvey Bryant told the judge there were 315 hammer indentations in the submarine and human blood was poured onto it. Regardless of ideology, Bryant argued, a crime had been committed. ``This went far beyond symbolism,'' he said. ``This was dangerous illegal conduct - regardless of motivation.''
Damage to the sub was more than $23,000, Bryant said.
Judge Smith said Naar-Obed's long history of trespassing and disobeying police orders belied her assertions that she was law-abiding.
``You have no right to use illegal means to express your beliefs, and you must be punished,'' Smith told her before sentencing her.
Smith warned Naar-Obed that if she broke the law during her three-year probation, she could be sentenced to three more years of prison time.
``You must decide if you want to be away from your child for 4 1/2 years,'' Smith told her. ``That's a long time to be out of a child's life.''
At one point, the judge ordered a supporter in the gallery removed by U.S. marshals after the woman shouted, ``What about the underground railway?'' in response to Smith's assertion that the defendants should find a legal way to express their beliefs.
When the gallery broke into the chorus, ``Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say rejoice,'' Smith banged her gavel and temporarily charged about 60 people with contempt of court.
Marshals sealed the courtroom for several minutes and handcuffed an older woman before the judge relented and let the supporters leave when they agreed to do so quietly.
Earlier, about 40 supporters demonstrated on the sidewalk outside Norfolk federal courthouse. One held a color poster that read: ``Weapons are not healthy for children and other things.'' by CNB