Plowshares activists sent back to prison

PORTLAND – Two peace activists were sent back to federal prison Friday for vandalizing a pair of military aircraft in Maryland while on probation for a similar incident aboard a Navy destroyer at Bath Iron Works.

U.S. District Judge Gene Carter imposed 12-month sentences on both Philip Berrigan, 77, and Susan Crane, 57, in separate hearings that were packed with more than 50 members and supporters of the peace group Plowshares.

Berrigan, a former Roman Catholic priest, did not deny that he and other demonstrators broke through a fence at a Maryland Air National Guard base and damaged two A-10 Thunderbolts. But he said he did nothing morally wrong.

“I was acting according to my conscience and the precepts of non-violent principles and laws,” Berrigan told the judge.

In sentencing Berrigan, Carter said he believed Berrigan’s conduct was based on “beliefs that are profound and conscientiously held” but said Berrigan’s beliefs did not provide legal justification for his actions.

Afterward, a supporter stood and shouted, “This court is an abomination to God and man!” before being led out by a security officer.

Then Berrigan’s supporters broke into a chorus and made peace signs with their hands as Berrigan was escorted from the courtroom. Some shouted, “God bless you Phil” and “We love you Phil” as he was led away.

Berrigan originally was sentenced to two years and Crane to 27 months in federal prison after the conviction of six activists for damaging USS The Sullivans while it was docked at Bath Iron Works in 1997.

The protesters boarded the ship, damaged its control panels with hammers and spilled baby bottles containing their own blood.

In addition to prison sentences, Berrigan and Crane were ordered not to engage in criminal conduct or to associate with others convicted of felonies under Carter’s original terms of supervised release.

They violated those provisions on Dec. 19, 1999, when they joined a group of demonstrators that used bolt cutters to get onto a National Guard Base in Essex, Md., and vandalize two aircraft.

Berrigan said the A-10 aircraft use armor-piercing ammunition that contains depleted uranium, which he believes is the source of Gulf War Syndrome and has caused hundreds of deaths in Iraq, and in Bosnia and Yugoslavia.

“Of all the weapons of mass destruction … perhaps the most assiduous is D.U. – depleted uranium,” Berrigan said. He believes 2 million Iraqis alone have died from depleted uranium exposure and sanctions since the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Countries that sent peacekeepers to Bosnia and Kosovo have been looking for links between the depleted uranium ammunition and illnesses contracted by veterans. So far, scientists say there is no firm link.

Before the sentencing, Berrigan’s supporters marched from a Bath Iron Works dry dock to the federal court. Berrigan seemed to be at ease, smiling and chatting and having lunch with supporters before going into court.