ENVER -- Three Catholic nuns facing prison time for an act of ''civil resistance'' and their supporters say the government is persecuting them in order to quiet the antiwar movement.
''This is a dark time in our country, a time when there is only one truth in the government and very little tolerance for dissent,'' said Ardeth Platte, one of the nuns found guilty of sabotage for her actions at a Colorado missile silo in October. ''We were speaking out against the crimes of our government and they intend to punish us for that.''
Early in the morning of Oct. 6, Platte, 66, Carol Gilbert, 55, and Jackie Marie Hudson, 68, cut through a fence in northeastern Colorado to gain access to a Minuteman III nuclear missile silo. Once inside, they pounded with household hammers on the silo's 110-ton concrete cover and also on the tracks that would carry the lid in the event of a launch. Using their own blood, they drew crosses on the silo and the tracks and then they prayed for world peace and sang hymns until they were arrested.
''God was with us at the site,'' said Platte in a phone interview from her Baltimore home. ''We were successful because we brought a nonviolent spirit to a place of evil.''
In addition to a ''nonviolent spirit,'' the three nuns hoped their action would bring attention to the 49 nuclear-armed missiles in Colorado. Each has an explosive power of 300 kilotons, approximately 25 times the size of the Hiroshima bomb.
Not only were the nuns arrested, they are now facing prison time after being found guilty of injury to, interference with, and obstruction of the national defense of the United States and $1,000 in injury to government property. Although these crimes, which fall under the heading of ''sabotage,'' carry sentences of up to 30 years in prison, prosecutors say they will seek sentences of five to eight years.
Although far from the maximum, those sentences would be stiff for what the nuns' supporters say amounts to a trespassing case.
''What these sisters did is dissent from the government and challenge it,'' said Ved Nanda, an international law specialist who testified at the trial. ''The law seems to have come down very hard in this case. . . . What the sisters did did not warrant such harsh treatment.''
The US Attorney's office that prosecuted the nuns says they aren't being overly punitive, just enforcing the law.
''The defendants in this case have demonstrated a blatant disregard for the laws of the United States,'' US Attorney John W. Suthers said in a statement. ''No other country on earth provides as many avenues for peaceful and lawful protest as does the United States. But the defendants insist on unlawfully entering onto highly sensitive government installations, damaging government property, and interfering with government operations.''
All three nuns have histories of what they call ''civil resistance.'' Hudson is part of the Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, a Washington state-based group that carries out civil disobedience actions to protest war. Platte and Gilbert are members of Jonah House in Baltimore. Cofounded in 1973 by a former Roman Catholic priest, Philip Berrigan, and his wife, Elizabeth McAlister, part of the mission of the Jonah House is antinuclear civil resistance. All three Dominican nuns belong to the Plowshares Movement, which adheres to the biblical directive to ''beat swords into plowshares.''
In the government's sentencing statement, prosecutors listed the sisters' past crimes to substantiate the need for a stiff sentence. Included on the list is a 2000 incident at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs. After illegally entering the base, the nuns struck a parked Marine fighter jet with a hammer and poured their blood on its landing gear. Charges in that case were dropped. Sentencing is set for July 25.
''They have been prosecuted in the past for similar acts and sentenced to short periods of incarceration, which have not served as a deterrent,'' said Suthers in his statement. ''It is our hope that this prosecution and conviction serves as a deterrent not only to these defendants, but to others inclined to bypass peaceful and lawful means of protest to commit similar crimes.''
Bill Salzman, a Colorado Springs-based peace activist who provided support for the nuns during their stay in Colorado, said the sentence is ''the government trying to silence a specific wing of the peace movement.''
''America shifted gears after 9/11. The government is in war mode, where it wants to crack down and make examples of people,'' he said. ''They don't want Americans to look close to home. While they're pointing their fingers at the `axis of evil,' they're not talking about all the weapons of mass destruction we have here at home.''
The nuns' trial took place the first week in April, during the war in Iraq. Members of Plowshares and similar antiwar groups say they are acting under international law to prevent war crimes.
''There are several precedents that say that if a person thinks that international law is going to be violated, then it's his or her duty to act responsibly and try to stop that crime,'' said Nanda, who has written about such cases in his book ''Nuclear Weapons and the World Court.''
The nuns say they answer to both international law and God's commandment, ''Thou shall not kill.''
''It is our duty to do what we can to stop the slaughter,'' said Gilbert. ''These weapons were on high alert and they were pointed at thousands of innocent people.''
Platte likened it to a hostage situation.
''If you know that someone has a gun to someone's head, you break down the door, grab the gun, do anything you can to stop that person -- and you're a hero for stopping a crime,'' she said. ''We cut a few links of fence -- and this gun is pointed at thousands of people's heads.''
But the jury saw the events of Oct. 6 differently. ''I was very disappointed in our justice system -- so much so that I hesitate to use the term `justice,' '' Gilbert said of the verdict. ''Nothing we did interfered with national security.''
Nanda was surprised by the verdict and the stiff penalties the nuns are facing.
''Since 9/11, we've been living in an atmosphere of fear and apprehension,'' he said. ''Security is important, but when it outweighs everything else, all of democracy suffers.''
The sisters sat in a Colorado jail for seven months awaiting trial rather than sign personal recognizance bonds promising that they wouldn't commit any further crimes during wartime. But after the trial, they signed the bonds in order to say goodbye to loved ones and give away their belongings before their sentencing.
''We are willing to go to prison if that is what we have to give for peace,'' Platte said. ''We know that there are millions of others who share our dream and hope for a world without war.''
