A US judge has sentenced 84-year-old nun and peace activist Megan Rice to 35 months in federal prison under the “Sabotage Act” for breaking into the Y-12 nuclear complex at Oak Ridge and spray-painting antiwar slogans on the exterior.
Rice, who has a long history of anti-nuclear activism, was initially charged with misdemeanor trespass, but the charges were ratcheted up to felony sabotage of a military facility by the Justice Department, who argued the non-violent protest “endangered US national security.”
In reality, the Rice protest underscored ridiculously lax security at Y-12, where the US keeps its weapons-grade enriched uranium. That an 82-year-old snuck in totally undetected with spray paint and food (which she offered to the guard that finally caught her) was no small embarrassment to the administration, and likely the real source of the stiff sentence.
Rice had been arrested more than three dozen times before Y-12, usually on trivial charges related to other antiwar protests. She also twice served six months in prison for protesting against the School of the Americas in the late 1990s.
During her testimony in the trial, Rice said that “I regret I didn’t do this 70 years ago.” The Y-12 facility has supposedly undergone considerable security upgrades since, which will ideally keep future octogenarian nuns from infiltrating the site.
We used to be the nation without political prisoners. No more. Where are the defenders of Pussy Riot? Oh wait, I forgot – they were protesting against religious people like these.
Only in America. Do you people not realise how much it makes the rest of the world despise America and all it stands for?
No, not ONLY in America. There are plenty of reasons for the "rest of the world" to despise America but locking up an 84-year old nun for spray painting graffiti on a building in a supposedly secure facility isn't one of them. Laughing stock, maybe… Kind of like the clown who broke into Buckingham Palace a while back.
It should make Americans sick though to know the USG can and does go so far to squelch dissent.
"Department of Justice" – what a crock of horse droppings. If Obama had the spine of a sand worm, he'd commute the sentence forthwith.
He doesn't have to commute her sentence. The US is the "land of the free."
The mighty US scared shitless by a very old lady.
Obama has no shame.