<html>
<body>
<font size=3>
<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley04042007.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/quigley04042007.html<br><br>
</a></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=4><b>April 4,
2007<br><br>
</font><h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5><b>Protesting
Priests Escape Jail Before Torture Trial<br><br>
<br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5 color="#990000">
Incident at Fort Huachuca, the Army's Torture Training
Center</b></font></h1><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=5>By BILL
QUIGLEY<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=6 color="#990000">D</font>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>espite 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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
Counter-protestors waved flags and accused those protesting against
torture of being supporters of Islamic terrorists. <br><br>
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. <br><br>
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.<br><br>
The text of the letter the priests tried to deliver to the base commander
reads:<br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>To: Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast <br><br>
<dd>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. <br><br>
<dd>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.
<br><br>
<dd>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. <br><br>
<dd>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. <br><br>
<dd>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 <br><br>
</dl>Bill Quigley</b> 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
<a href="http://www.jonahhouse.org/">http://www.jonahhouse.org/</a> For
other information about the protest and the priests, contact Jack or
Felice Cohen-Joppa 520-323-8697. You can reach Bill at
<a href="mailto:Quigley@loyno.edu">Quigley@loyno.edu</a><br><br>
<x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">The Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
</font><font size=3>
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.freedomarchives.org</a></font></body>
</html>