22 more federal prisoners witness against terror academy

Twenty-two people have surrendered at federal prisons across the country to begin serving three and six months sentences for trespass at Fort Benning, Georgia, last November. "Benning" is home to the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly and notoriously known as the School of the Americas (SOA): a training academy for Latin American militaries that has graduated scores of convicted human rights abusers.

Most turned themselves in September 10, except Niklan Jones-Lezama and Fr. Louis Vitale. Fr. Vitale surrendered as ordered in Nevada on October 16. Jones-Lezama, of Blacksburg, Virginia, was officially a no-show at the federal prison in Beckley, West Virginia on September 10. That day he phoned the Roanoke Times and told a reporter "I'm not running away from prison. I expect to be there soon."

Jones-Lezama drove 1,500 miles to the White Earth Reservation in Minnesota, and turned himself in on the evening of September 11 to Native American activist and former Green Party vice-presidential candidate Winona LaDuke. The resister later explained that because Ft. Benning is located on America Indian land, he decided to surrender to the prominent Indian leader instead of federal authorities. LaDuke expressed surprise, but was understanding of Jones-Lezama's intent to continue bearing witness against the crimes of the School of the Americas. She accompanied Jones-Lezama to federal authorities in Minneapolis on Thursday, September 12, who took him into custody.

Grossly substandard conditions at the Crisp County Jail in Cordele, Georgia (reported in the last issue), where several SOA resisters have been serving time, have scarcely improved, but have been more exposed in the local press and are under further investigation due to the protests of supporters of the SOA resisters and others. Fr. Jerry Zawada was joined on the men's side of the jail September 30 by John Patrick Liteky, finishing off a two month sentence for trespass in August at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee. Toni Flynn is completing her sentence on the women's side.

That August arrest came just days before Liteky completed probation for earlier resistance actions at Ft. Benning. Federal marshals brought him from a Tennessee jail to the Georgia joint, and a revocation hearing that resulted in a sentence of six more months in federal prison.

Laura McDonald and Summer Nelson were freed from the Harris County (GA) Jail on October 12, after each served a three month sentence for trespass at the SOA.

The "Rainbow Revolutionaries"- an SOAWatch affiliated group of seven women arrested last April at the Capitol protesting U.S. military aid to Colombia - had their charges dismissed in October, following a hung jury at their trial last summer.

For more information, contact SOA Watch, POB 4566, Washington, DC 20017, (202)234-3440, email: info@soaw.org web: www.soaw.org

Letters of support should be sent to the School of the Americas resisters as noted on this page under Inside & Out. Please note that some have specifically asked that letters instead be written to Congress in support of legislation to close the SOA.