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Year after year for more
than a decade, the campaign to close the School of the Americas (SOA) at
Fort Benning, Georgia, has drawn ever more people into
the practice of civil disobedience, and rooted their experience in prison witness
and support. Demonstrations at the base have marked each year since the November
1989 massacre in El Salvador of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her
daughter.
Death squads predominantly trained at the SOA were responsible for the slaughter.
After thousands have been arrested, and more than 100 people from all across
the country have served many months in prison, surely these are among the roots
that have helped nourish the rapid growth of anti-war mobilization since September,
2002. And talk of war certainly boosted turnout in November, when 10,000 people
joined the rally and funeral procession to the gates of the Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security Cooperation - SOA’s new, not-so-notorious name.
The city of Columbus, neighboring the base, again had approval from the courts
to search people entering the rally and march assembly site on November 17.
Former SOA prisoner of conscience Karl Meyer refused the wanding and search
as unconstitutional. He was charged with obstructing the police, “although
it was they who obstructed me, as I insisted on trying to enter without being
searched...
“
Our movements for peace and civil rights have gained and secured many First
Amendment rights, and Fourth Amendment rights ‘against unreasonable searches
and seizures’ during the forty-five years of my public activism; it is
important to me that we should not surrender the civil liberties that we won,
to the present climate of fear and repression,” writes Meyer. No trial
date has been set.
Officials erected a length of chain link fence to block the entryway and adjacent
stretches of open forest that buffer the sprawling base. The long procession
arrived and spread out along the fence, decorating it with crosses and other
personal effects memorializing the thousands killed by SOA-trained militaries
in Central and South America. About 90 people breached the barricade and were
arrested for trespass. Three people were also charged with destruction of property
after a lock was cut to open a pedestrian gate in the fence. Earlier, a woman
was cited for running a police barricade after she took a wrong turn into the
base.
Federal marshals dealt a new hand to those who crossed the line. All were shackled
and eventually taken to the unheated cells of the Muskogee County Jail to be
held overnight. Drummers and a puppet parade entertained the support vigil
outside the jail, while their sounds brought cheer to the prisoners enduring
a mostly sleepless, crowded and shivering night.
The next morning, U.S. Magistrate Mallon Faircloth upped the ante, holding
individual arraignments. After eight hours on the bench Monday, he had heard
50 of the 85 defendants, and set bail at $5,000 for each. Two were denied bail
for withholding required information. Hundreds of contributors responded to
an emergency bail appeal from SOA Watch, creating a run on the local Western
Union cash reserve. $500 bond was posted for nearly everyone by Tuesday evening,
and all by Thursday.
Patrick Lincoln, a 21-year-old Virginia Tech student told the Roanoke Times & World
News that “Soldiers go off to war and they’re willing to make these
extraordinary sacrifices, to be away from their families. If we’re working
for social change... we should be willing to make the same type of sacrifices.
For me, going to jail is like a
tour of duty. I consider myself a soldier for peace.”
In the largest set of federal prosecutions to date in the campaign, eighty-six
of these resisters have been convicted, most at two large group trials in January
and February. Forty-nine have been sentenced to serve from thirty days to six
months in federal prison.
Three are confined to their homes for their sentence. Thirty-two others were
sentenced to more than three decades of federal probation for the same nonviolent
action. Total fines exceed $39,000.
Six of those sentenced to prison - Eloy Garcia, Christine Gaunt, Douglas Kasper,
Scott Schaeffer-Duffy (all 3 months), William Slattery, and Jason Lydon (both
6 months) - went directly into federal custody. The others agreed to surrender
when summoned at a
designated prison, beginning in April.
The names and the prison addresses of those now in custody
are listed in Inside and Out.
-- -- --
College student David Tarbell was the first to be sentenced. He pled guilty
to trespass at a December 6 hearing before Magistrate Faircloth. Tarbell spent
three nights in jail while identifying himself only as John “Peace” Doe,
but his attorney Stephen Craft said he’d had a change of heart.
Local press quotes Craft telling the judge, “Sitting in jail, he learned
there are better ways to affect the process. Sitting in jail, he was able to
accomplish nothing but to waste time.”
Faircloth challenged Tarbell to read the Act of Congress authorizing the school’s
name change, because he believes it has fundamentally changed the nature of
the school and its instruction, while mandating more oversight.
“ There are those who don’t care what it says, who intend to continue this violation of the law to generate funds, publicity and a protest forum,” Faircloth said. “Facts only confuse them. They don’t want to be confused by the facts. There are those with whom you have associated who are close-minded.” (Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, 12/7/02)
One provision in the law requires annual oversight reports, but two years have passed without even the first one being prepared.
Tarbell was sentenced to three months in prison and $500 fine. He turned himself in on February 11.
In the same courtroom on December 17, 18-year-old New Jersey high school student Vincent Patrick Jackson changed his plea to guilty. He had come to the protest with a high school teacher, and no intent to be arrested. But apparently a young woman caught his eye. “Then I saw her do it. That pushed me over the line,” he told the court.
Jackson was sentenced to one year probation and ordered to pay $2,500 within five days.
On January 21, Charity Ryerson and Jeremiah John appeared before Magistrate Clay Lands on charges of destruction of government property (the lock) and trespassing. When their international law defense was rejected, the two agreed to plead guilty to the more serious destruction of property in return for the trespass charge being dropped. Sentencing is May 22. They face up to one year in prison and fines. Also on January 21, prosecutors deferred charges against Andy Olive, erroneously charged with cutting the same lock, and those against Rachel Shively, who’d made the wrong turn onto the base.
Forty-three of the remaining defendants reported for trial on January 27, another pled guilty on February 6, and the remaining 35 had their cases heard February 10-12.
Byron Plumley reported, “The first person before the judge January 27 was Lee Mickey, a 67-year-old woman who pled guilty, agreed to honor her ban and bar letter and not enter the base again. She indicated that she was caring for her 80-year-old sister who was dying of cancer. The judge sentenced her to 90 days in prison with no fine because she was on social security. The harsh sentence shocked all in the courtroom, yet we dared not gasp if we wanted to hear the remaining defendants. Upon hearing the sentence, defense attorney Bill Quigley immediately said, ‘Find me in contempt of court and let me serve her sentence.’ The judge denied the request.” (In February, Judge Faircloth reduced her sentence to 30 days in prison.)
Nearly all of the defendants pleaded not guilty and also stipulated to the facts. Each was summarily convicted and given an opportunity to address the court before sentencing. Four “first offenders” - Patrick Lincoln, Jason Lydon, Rachel Montgomery, and William Slattery - who did not stipulate and compelled the government to prove its case were nonetheless convicted and sentenced to the maximum six months in prison, and fined $500 each.
Summarizing the SOA 86 activists and their trials, former SOA prisoner of conscience Dan Sage wrote in the Syracuse, NY, Peace Newsletter:
“ As with past groups of human rights advocates [arrested at Ft. Benning], the membership was varied, consisting of nuns, a priest, a reverend, veterans, union organizers and students. Again the age groups ranged from nine who were in their teens, 31 in their twenties, to seven in their seventies. While most of those prosecuted were first time line-crossers, 18 had been arrested at Fort Benning before.
“ In examining the harsh sentences handed out by Judge Faircloth, certain patterns are discernible but numerous exceptions are evident. Most of the 17 who received the maximum six-month sentences were ‘second timers,’ but a few were ‘first offenders.’ In contrast, two recidivists were among the 29 who received only probation, and another received only home confinement. The use of a home confinement sentence was a new wrinkle in the judge’s repertoire, as was the assignment of community service (250-500 hours) to most of those who had received probation...”
Plumley concludes, “The government made several choices in bringing us to trial. They chose to arrest rather than simply give ban and bar letters. The government chose to prosecute all the protesters. The judge chose the sentences. These decisions have been different in past years. It appears to be an effort to deter the use of civil disobedience in the movement to close the WHISC.”
During the trial, Becky Johnson was served a summons for her own trial. Last summer, Johnson locked herself to the closed Ft. Benning gate, at the end of the previous large group trial of the SOA 43. She held a banner reading “Lock Up SOA/WHISC, Not Peacemakers.” Prosecutors say she trespassed and destroyed government property. Facing a possible 18 months in prison, Johnson was delighted on March 25 when prosecutors offered to drop the more serious property destruction charge in return for a guilty plea to trespass. Potential jurors were dismissed and Johnson is free on bond until her sentencing on May 21.
PRISONER UPDATES
Sue Daniels refused to continue work at the prison
camp in Alderson, West Virginia on November 8.
She was transferred
to a local jail
to complete the last month
of her sentence. Daniels was released from prison
in early December, as
were ten other members of the SOA 43:
Abi Miller, Chuck Booker-Hirsch, Kathy Boylan,
Jonna Cohen, Nancy Gowen, Palmer Legare, Tom
Mahedy, Richard
Ring, Janice
Sevre-Duszynska,
and
Michael Sobol.
Jerry Zawada OMI and
Toni Flynn completed their six month sentences in January and were released
from
the Crisp
County Jail.
Fr. Zawada departed shortly thereafter for
Iraq, and Flynn has returned to the High Desert
Catholic
Worker
in Valyermo,
California.
Peter Gelderloos and Fr. Louis Vitale also
completed their sentences in early January.
Early March brought a turn of the key and a wide open prison door for Bill O’Donnell, Chani Geigle, Erik Johnson, Mary Dean, Sr. Kathleen Desautels, Kate Fontanazza, Kenneth Crowley, Michael Pasquale, and Rae Kramer.
Patrick Liteky was released from the Crisp County Jail on April 3, and is now serving six months supervised probation for crossing the line at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee. It was that arrest in August, 2002, which violated an earlier SOA probation and led to the new six month sentence in Georgia.
The latest group of
prisoners
of conscience began surrendering
at various federal
prisons
around the country in early
April. Edith Balot, Katie Bjorkman, Katherine
Brown, Jesse Carr, Bud Combs, Philip
d’Onofrio,
Joyce Ellwanger, Dan Fortson, Sr. Caryl
Hartjes, Don Haselfeld, Lisa Hughes,
Ann Huntwork, Fr. Jim
Hynes, Sr. Moira Kenny, Sr. Kathy
Long, Pam McBride, Sr. Dorothy Pagosa,
Marie Salupo, and Marilyn White all began
their sentences by
April 8.
Eloy Garcia and Scott Schaeffer-Duffy were released from the Harris County Jail on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2003. Christine Gaunt is scheduled to be released Friday, April 25th.
Judith Kelly, Mimi Lavalley, Carey Martin, Lee Mickey, Rachel Montgomery, J.C. Orton, Laura Slattery, Corbin Street, and Mike Wisniewski, will report on April 29. Sonja Andreas will report on May 6. Cliff Frazier will report on May 27, Judy Bierbaum on May 20 and Derrlyn Tom on June 10.
Their prison numbers
and addresses will be posted at http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=127 when
they
are available.
A complete list of all recent defendants
and their sentence will also
be found there.
-- -- --
Elsewhere, solidarity actions included the now-traditional west coast blockade
of the Sacramento Federal Building, resulting in 17 arrests on Friday, November
15. Chris and Dan Delany of the Sacramento Catholic Worker wrote “The federal
government is so busy looking under every carpet for ‘terrorists’ these
days (they don’t look for those they train themselves) that we were told
they are probably too busy to prosecute us.”
In Dublin, fifty people remembered the Salvadorian martyrs outside the U.S. embassy in Dublin on November 16, and demanded the SOA be shuttered for good. A demonstration took place outside the U.S. embassy in London, as well.
For more information,
contact SOA Watch, POB 4566,
Washington, DC 20017, (202)234-3440,
www.soaw.org
Letters of support must be individually
addressed and should be sent to
the SOA prisoners listed
under Inside & Out. 
SOA Watch also requests that supporters urge their congressperson to co-sponsor HR 1258, the “Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2003.” It would repeal authority for the SOA/WHISC and states that no successor school can be opened for at least 10 months. It also demands the establishment of a joint congressional task force to assess U.S. training of Latin American military.
