Protesting Priests Escape Jail Before Torture
Trail
By Bill Quigley.
04/03/07 "ICH"
-- -- Despite calls by federal prosecutors to jail two
priests protesting against torture training at Ft. Huachuca,
Arizona, a federal judge has allowed them to remain free until
their trial, which is set for June 4, 2007.
Fr. Louis Vitale, a 74 year old Franciscan priest, and Fr. Steve
Kelly, a 58 year old Jesuit priest, were arraigned in federal
court in Tucson on federal and state charges of trespass and
refusal to follow police orders at an anti-torture protest at
Ft. Huachuca.
The federal prosecutor asked the judge to put the two priests in
jail before their trial saying they had a substantial history of
arrests and were likely to be involved in similar protests and
commit other protest crimes unless jailed. After the prosecutor
admitted that the actions charged were nonviolent, the court
released the priests on their own recognizance.
The priests were arrested on November 19, 2006 at Ft. Huachuca,
in Sierra Vista Arizona after the knelt to pray on the road
approaching the gate to the fort. They were part of a crowd of
120 people peacefully protesting against military intelligence
training at Ft. Huachuca that fosters torture. The protestors
objected to the teaching of torture interrogation tactics at Ft.
Huachuca by U.S. military intelligence – tactics used at Abu
Ghraib and Guantanamo. Documents detailing Department of Defense
spying on protestors outside the Fort in 2004 have been made
public. The DOD described the protest as a “credible threat” to
national security.
The Army Field Manual on interrogation (Human Resource
Exploitation Training Manual) was written at Fort Huachuca. A
number of the officers and soldiers responsible for human rights
abuses at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison
have worked at or were trained at the Headquarters for Army
Intelligence Training at Ft. Huachuca.
The two priests tried to speak to enlisted soldiers and deliver
a letter to Major General Barbara Fast, commissioner of the
post, denouncing torture and the Military Commissions Act of
2006.
General Fast is the highest ranking intelligence officer tied to
the torture at Abu Ghraib. Two other soldiers with ties to Fort
Huachuca are among the 28 implicated in the beating deaths of
two prisoners in Afghanistan in 2002.
Counter-protestors waved flags and accused those protesting
against torture of being supporters of Islamic terrorists.
Fr. Vitale is a member of Pace e Bene, whose mission is "to
develop the spirituality and practice of active nonviolence as a
way of living and being and as a process for cultural
transformation." Fr. Vitale is also a co-founder of the Nevada
Desert Experience, a faith-based organization that has opposed
nuclear weapons testing for a quarter of a century. He recently
served six months in jail following his arrest at the Ft.
Benning vigil in November, 2005, and was ejected from
congressional hearings in September after speaking out against
the Military Commissions Act.
Fr. Steve Kelly is a member of the Redwood City Catholic Worker
community and has served time in federal prison for the
nonviolent direct disarmament of nuclear weapon delivery
systems. In December, 2005, Kelly served as chaplain for Witness
to Torture, a delegation of over two dozen U.S. anti-torture
activists who defied the U.S. embargo of Cuba with a peaceful
march through that nation to the gates of the Guantanamo Bay
naval base and prison camp.
The text of the letter the priests tried to deliver to the base
commander reads:
To: Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast –
We are here today as concerned U.S. people, veterans and clergy,
to speak with enlisted personnel about the illegality and
immorality of torture according to international humanitarian
law, including the Geneva Conventions.
We condemn torture as a dehumanization of both prisoners and
interrogators, resulting in humiliation, disability and even
death. In addition to the hundreds of detainees who have died,
we are also concerned about U.S. military personnel. Alyssa
Peterson committed suicide after participating in the torture of
Iraqi prisoners. Lynndie England and others have been imprisoned
for their illegal activities.
We are here today at Ft. Huachuca in solidarity with tens of
thousands of people at the Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation at Ft. Benning, Georgia (formerly known as
the School of the Americas) to say that the training of
torturers must immediately stop. Nothing justifies the inhumane
treatment of our fellow brothers and sisters. Torture by U.S.
military personnel has reached alarming proportions and has
horrified people around the world.
We are convinced that the Military Commissions Act of 2006 is
unconstitutional. We totally reject its conclusions. Torture is
a useless and unreliable tool that leads to an accepted practice
of terrorization and the rationalization of wrongdoing.
We are here today to repent and clearly state that because of
our sense of moral and human decency we condemn torture. NOT IN
OUR NAME. 19th day of November, 2006 - Louis Vitale,OFM / Steve
Kelly, SJ
Bill is a law professor and human rights lawyer at Loyola
University New Orleans and represents one of the protesting
priests. You can find out more about the protest and the jailed
priests on the website for Jonah House
http://www.jonahhouse.org/
For other information about the protest and the priests,
contact Jack or Felice Cohen-Joppa 520-323-8697. You can reach
Bill at Quigley@loyno.edu
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