THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603130511
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY KAREN JOLLY DAVIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 115 lines
Last summer, four people sneaked onto an unfinished attack sub and pounded on it with household hammers. They sang songs, prayed for peace, and emptied baby bottles filled with their own blood into the missile launch tubes. Then they turned themselves in.
Protester Rick Sieber sees his actions at Newport News Shipbuilding as symbolic, religious dissent. State officials called it vandalism. And federal prosecutor Ray Shepard calls it sabotage.
``It puts you up there in the ballpark of terrorists,'' Sieber said of the federal charges. ``Sabotage is one of those older, Cold War terms that conjures up images of a guy with a bomb. It changes the whole intent and hope of (the peace protest).''
Shepard said the protesters were charged with sabotage because that's what they did.
``The conduct of the defendants fits squarely into the (sabotage) statute's charge,'' Shepard said. ``That's what the facts support, and that's what occurred in this case.''
If Michele Naar-Obed, Sieber and his 21-year-old son, Erin, are convicted on all counts they could expect, under federal sentencing guidelines, to get five to 10 years in prison, Shepard said.
The Jubilee Plowshares jury trial is scheduled for March 19 in Newport News. But at a hearing on Thursday, a federal judge will be asked to decide whether the protesters can tell the jury why they hammered on the sub on Aug. 7, 1995.
Legally, it's an important point. The federal law on sabotage calls for prosecutors to prove ``intent to injure, interfere with or obstruct the national defense. . . .'' Rick Sieber thinks his protest had no such intent.
``First of all, it was a religious protest,'' said Sieber. ``It was purely symbolic. What we were trying to do is akin to liturgy. We were trying to flesh out some of the biblical concepts.''
If they were trying to put a real dent in the national defense, said Naar-Obed, would they have used ``three little household hammers?'' Saboteurs wouldn't have turned themselves in to the security force, she said, and they wouldn't have chosen an unfinished, unarmed sub.
But Shepard has filed a motion asking the court not to allow the jury to hear evidence based on religious or political beliefs. He said it's irrelevant. What the government has to prove, Shepard said in an interview Tuesday, is intent to damage the sub.
``Other courts have held that the intent required by those statutes is not the same as motive,'' said Shepard. ``The government does not have to prove a bad motive.''
Plowshares defense attorney Sebastian Graber disagrees.
``We believe we have every right to introduce evidence as to what their intent was to do,'' he said.
Rick Sieber, 47, is a maintenance worker and manual laborer in Philadelphia. His son takes classes at Temple University and a community college in Philadelphia. Michele Naar-Obed lives in a Baltimore religious commune with her husband and child. She said the community paints houses for a living.
They met through the Atlantic Life Community, an organization of pacifist groups that sponsors retreats to pray and reflect on peace issues. It took a year for them to plan the Jubilee Plowshares project.
On Sept. 19, the Plowshares protesters were found guilty of misdemeanor trespassing charges in Newport News General District Court. But the state waived felony vandalism charges in favor of the federal indictments.
After the misdemeanor trial, Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney John D. Middlebrook criticized the Plowshares defendants for using the courtroom as a pulpit.
Erin Sieber, with the others, admits that part of the Plowshares effort is to start public debate about military spending in a military area, where opinions on the subject tend to be ``monolithic.''
``We're trying to present another view here,'' he said.
The protesters believe nuclear subs and nuclear warheads to be dangerous even if they aren't used. They point to data collected by the Greenpeace Institute for Policy Studies, the Center for Defense Information, and the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists.
According to these studies, there have been 612 accidents since 1965 involving U.S. nuclear subs, said Naar-Obed, including 13 direct collisions between nuclear subs and surface vessels.
Seven nuclear reactors have been lost at sea since 1965, she said, as well as 43 Soviet and seven American nuclear warheads.
``We're not making this up,'' said Naar-Obed, pointing to a ream of documentation on the accidents. ``We're not fanatics, or people who aren't wrapped too tight. This stuff is real. The danger is real.''
The Plowshare demonstrators have spent the past few months, since posting bail, speaking to church groups and peace protest organizations. They've spoken on a few radio shows, mailed newsletters and printed articles in ``alternative'' publications.
Meanwhile, they've had to face the possibility that they may spend a big chunk of their lives in jail.
And they aren't sure the sacrifice will matter.
``I don't know if any of this is going to make a difference in our lifetime,'' said Naar-Obed. ``But it seems like the right thing to do.''
Her only child, Rachel, is about 18 months old.
``I don't know if I'm prepared to do 10 years - to be separated from Rachel for the first 10 years of her life,'' she said. But if it comes to that, said Naar-Obed, she'll just have to cope.
``I would have to believe that God will be there with us as we deal with whatever consequences come,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
MOTOYA NAKAMURA/The Virginian-Pilot
Michelle Naar-Obed, center, and Rick Sieber, right, face federal
charges for their protest against nuclear weapons. To Naar-Obed's
left is her husband, Greg Boertje-Obed; Sieber is holding the Obeds'
daughter, Rachel.
KEYWORDS: VANDALISM ANTI-NUCLEAR WEAPONS PROTEST
ARREST by CNB