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Priests Protesting Torture
Jailed
By Bill Quigley
10/18/07 "ICH" -- -- Louis Vitale, 75, a Franciscan priest, and
Steve Kelly, 58, a Jesuit priest, were each sentenced to five
months in federal prison for attempting to deliver a letter
opposing the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca in Arizona.
Both priests were taken directly into jail from the courtroom
after sentencing.
Fort Huachuca is the headquarters of military intelligence in
the U.S. and the place where military and civilian interrogators
are taught how to extract information from prisoners. The
priests attempted to deliver their letter to Major General
Barbara Fast, commander of Fort Huachuca. Fast was previously
the head of all military intelligence in Iraq during the
atrocities of Abu Ghraib.
The priests were arrested while kneeling in prayer halfway up
the driveway to Fort Huachuca in November 2006. Both priests
were charged with trespass on a military base and resisting
orders of an officer to stop.
In a pre-trial heating, the priests attempted to introduce
evidence of torture, murder, and gross violations of human
rights in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and at Guantanamo.
The priests offered investigative reports from the FBI, the US
Army, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Physicians
for Social Responsibility documenting hundreds of incidents of
human rights violations. Despite increasing evidence of the use
of torture by U.S. forces sanctioned by President Bush and
others, the federal court in Tucson refused to allow any
evidence of torture, the legality of the invasion of Iraq, or
international law to be a part of the trial.
Outside the courthouse, before the judge ordered them to prison,
the priests explained their actions: “The real crime here has
always been the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca and the
practice of torture around the world. We tried to deliver a
letter asking that the teaching of torture be stopped and were
arrested. We tried to put the evidence of torture on full and
honest display in the courthouse and were denied. We were
prepared to put on evidence about the widespread use of torture
and human rights abuses committed during interrogations at Abu
Ghraib and Guantanamo in Iraq and Afhganistan. This evidence was
gathered by the military itself and by governmental and human
rights investigations.”
Fr. Vitale, a longtime justice and peace activist in San
Francisco and Nevada, said: “Because the court will not allow
the truth of torture to be a part of our trial, we plead no
contest. We are uninterested in a court hearing limited to who
was walking where and how many steps it was to the gate. History
will judge whether silencing the facts of torture is just or
not. Far too many people have died because of our national
silence about torture. Far too many of our young people in the
military have been permanently damaged after following orders to
torture and violate the human rights of other humans.”
Fr. Kelly, who walked to the gates of Guantanamo with the
Catholic Worker group in December of 2005, concluded: “We will
keep trying to stop the teaching and practice of torture whether
we are sent to jail or out. We have done our part for now. Now
it is up to every woman and man of conscience to do their part
to stop the injustice of torture.”
The priests were prompted to protest by continuing revelations
about the practice of torture by U.S. military and intelligence
officers. The priests were also deeply concerned after learning
of the suicide in Iraq of a young, devout female military
interrogator in Iraq, Alyssa Peterson of Arizona, shortly after
arriving in Iraq. Peterson was reported to be horrified by the
mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.
Investigation also revealed that Fort Huachuca was the source of
infamous “torture manuals” distributed to hundreds of Latin
American graduates of the U.S. Army School of Americas at Fort
Benning, GA. Demonstrations against the teaching of torture at
Fort Huachuca have been occurring for the past several years
each November and are scheduled again for November 16 and 17
this year.
Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola
University New Orleans. Bill can be reached at
Quigley@loyno.edu .
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