republic-os/legal/us/code/title-18/chapter-105/section-2153.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, corpus, kind, title_number, title_name, chapter_number, chapter_name, section, citation, status, release_point, release_date, source, source_url, source_identifier, source_file, source_hash, raw_snapshot_hash, text_hash, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	corpus	kind	title_number	title_name	chapter_number	chapter_name	section	citation	status	release_point	release_date	source	source_url	source_identifier	source_file	source_hash	raw_snapshot_hash	text_hash	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
LegalText	18 U.S.C. § 2153	Destruction of war material, war premises, or war utilities	us	united_states_code	code_section	18	CRIMES AND CRIMINAL PROCEDURE	105	SABOTAGE	2153	18 U.S.C. § 2153	current	119-100	2026-06-26	official	https://uscode.house.gov/download/releasepoints/us/pl/119/100/xml_usc18@119-100.zip	/us/usc/t18/s2153	data/legal/raw/us/code/title-18/usc18.xml	a5a6fc45dc95fbf6ec67eeff6fe7e9d537dbcd898daea5f875d6b09082845901	1a1bbbbdb59e376ada4eb7ad1056fd68d396679ee7ab59f0561af15006122708	1742f32cda0b276c78d414491d9e98af13d4e2b2515c658912f4d33f6d564c94	2026-07-04	official	legal us-code

18 U.S.C. § 2153 - Destruction of war material, war premises, or war utilities

Text

(a) Whoever, when the United States is at war, or in times of national emergency as declared by the President or by the Congress, with intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the United States or any associate nation in preparing for or carrying on the war or defense activities, or, with reason to believe that his act may injure, interfere with, or obstruct the United States or any associate nation in preparing for or carrying on the war or defense activities, willfully injures, destroys, contaminates or infects, or attempts to so injure, destroy, contaminate or infect any war material, war premises, or war utilities, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than thirty years, or both.

(b) If two or more persons conspire to violate this section, and one or more of such persons do any act to effect the object of the conspiracy, each of the parties to such conspiracy shall be punished as provided in subsection (a) of this section.

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 799; June 30, 1953, ch. 175, § 2, 67 Stat. 133; Sept. 3, 1954, ch. 1261, title I, § 102, 68 Stat. 1217; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(L), Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147.)

Notes

Historical and Revision NotesBased on section 102 of title 50, U.S.C., 1940 ed., War and National Defense (Apr. 20, 1918, ch. 59, § 2, 40 Stat. 534). “As herein defined” was deleted as surplusage. The conspiracy provisions are new. Their addition to the section was strongly urged by the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, considering the gravity of the substantive offense as evidenced by the prescribed punishment therefor. The punishment provisions of the general conspiracy statute, section 371 of this title, are inadequate. Words “upon conviction thereof” were omitted as unnecessary since punishment cannot be imposed until a conviction is secured. Minor changes were made in phraseology.

Editorial Notes

Amendments1994—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 103–322 substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $10,000”. 1954—Act Sept. 3, 1954, made section applicable in time of national emergency as well as war, and recognized the possibility of bacteriological warfare by making “contamination” a crime. 1953—Subsec. (a). Act June 30, 1953, inserted “or defense activities” after “carrying on the war”.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

RepealsAct June 30, 1953, ch. 175, § 7, 67 Stat. 134, repealed Joint Res. July 3, 1952, ch. 570, § 1(a)(29), 66 Stat. 333; Joint Res. Mar. 31, 1953, ch. 13, § 1, 67 Stat. 18, formerly cited as credits to this section and also formerly set out as a note under this section.