SEAL BEACH : Activists Plead Guilty to Axing Satellite

Two anti-war activists pleaded guilty Monday in federal court to charges that they struck a military satellite at Rockwell International with axes, causing about $2 million in damage.

Before entering their pleas in U.S. District Court, Peter A. Lumsdaine, 37, and Keith J. Kjoller, 31, both of Santa Cruz, stood outside the Santa Ana courthouse and told reporters they stand by their actions. They took the axes to the $50-million satellite, the men said, to bring to the public’s attention what they felt was the government’s attempt to control the world through modern technology.

“We did what we could in terms of trying to set back this kind of hidden . . . global war,” said Lumsdaine. “We take the kind of action for peace that soldiers willingly take for war.”

By pleading guilty to a felony count of destroying U.S. property, the men face a sentence of two to three years in federal prison along with an agreement that each pay up to $1.5 million in restitution and $250,000 in fines.

However, U.S. District Judge Gary L. Taylor has the discretion of sentencing the pair to a lesser or a greater prison term, the maximum being 10 years in federal prison. They are scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 21.

Lumsdaine and Kjoller were arrested May 10 after they scaled an eight-foot, chain-link fence at Rockwell, broke into a building with axes and attacked a Navstar Global position satellite. Federal prosecutors said Kjoller smashed windows in a sealed, dust-free room where a number of other satellites were also stored.

Officials at Rockwell have said that the satellite was to be delivered to the Department of Defense in August and has both military and civilian uses for air, land and sea navigation and environmental surveillance.