[Ppnews] 20, 000 Protest at Ft. Benning - 11 Face Federal Criminal Trials

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley11192007.html

November 19, 2007


Eleven Face Federal Criminal Trials


Twenty Thousand Protest at Ft. Benning

By BILL QUIGLEY

In what has become the nation's largest annual gathering for peace 
and human rights, over twenty thousand people protested outside the 
gates of Fort Benning, GA on November 18, 2007. Eleven people were 
arrested on federal criminal charges and face up to six months in prison.

Fort Benning is the site of the internationally notorious U.S. Army 
training school for Latin American military and security personnel. 
For decades it was called the School of the Americas (SOA) - it is 
now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation 
(WHINSEC). The school has graduated hundreds of military officers who 
have lead or participated in nearly every human rights atrocity in 
the hemisphere. Organizations across the world, including Amnesty 
International USA, have called for its closure since discovering 
copies of torture manuals used at the school. In June 2007, 203 
members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to close the 
scandal-ridden school--six votes shy of the margin of victory.

Thousands listened quietly as Adriana Portillo-Bartow told how her 
father, stepmother, sister, sister-in-law and two daughters, ages 
nine and eleven, were "disappeared" in Guatemala in a war directed 
and carried out by graduates of the U.S. Army School of the Americas. 
Thousands moved towards the gates of the Fort and called out 
"presente!" as the names of hundreds of other victims of graduates of 
the school were sung out.

Veterans of WWII, Korea, Vietnam and the never-ending Gulf Wars 
marched side by side with Catholic sisters and Buddhist monks. 
Flowers, posters, pictures and thousands of small white crosses 
bearing the names of people executed by graduates of the school were 
put on the closed padlocked gates topped with barbed wire. Thousands 
of college and high school students chanted and prayed along side 
Grandmothers for Peace as military loudspeakers blared warnings and 
law enforcement helicopters hovered overhead. Huge puppets, singing 
children and drum circles alternated with the spirited calls of 
priests and rabbis and ministers of many faiths and races. Songs in 
many languages, indigenous chants, guitars, horns and mountain flutes 
filled the air.

The eleven people who crossed onto the grounds were arrested by 
military police. The eleven, ranging in age from 25 to 76, are 
scheduled for federal criminal trial January 28, 2008 for 
trespass--punishable up to six months in federal prison. Over two 
hundred people have served federal prison time for civil disobedience 
at prior protests - dozens of others arrested have served years of 
supervised federal probation. The movement to close the school 
started in 1990 when about twenty people held the first protest 
outside Ft. Benning.

Even if the U.S. government is reluctant to close the school, Latin 
American countries look like they will do it themselves. Argentina, 
Bolivia, Costa Rica, Uruguay and Venezuela have announced they are 
withdrawing their militaries from the school.

Crimes by graduates continue. Colombia recently arrested five 
high-ranking military officers who received training at the U.S. Army 
School of Americas and two additional officers who were instructors 
at WHINSEC. All are charged with providing security and troops for 
the major drug cartel in Colombia.

Simultaneous protests occurred in Santiago, Chile; Tucson, 
Arizona--outside of Fort Huachuca--where three people were also 
arrested and face federal criminal charges; Toronto, Canada; as well 
as Berkeley and Monterey California.

For more on the movement to close the School of the Americas see 
<http://www.soaw.org/>www.soaw.org

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola 
University New Orleans. He can be reached at 
<mailto:Quigley at loyno.edu>Quigley at loyno.edu.




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