[Ppnews] Protesting Priests Escape Jail Before Torture Trial

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley04042007.html

April 4, 2007


Protesting Priests Escape Jail Before Torture Trial


Incident at Fort Huachuca, the Army's Torture Training Center

By BILL QUIGLEY

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 Quigley 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/>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 <mailto:Quigley at loyno.edu>Quigley at loyno.edu


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