Subject: 6 Young Women in Jail Tuesday Night Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2001 18:09:38 EDT From:Sarah Saunders
we are out safely and back in oberlin, with a june 20th court date for a
jury trial (yay!) in dc. we have only 1 standing charge - unlawful
entry, which carries a maximum 6 month jail sentence and $100 fine (which is
possible but not likely). we were released at 5pm Tuesday, after the
monday action where we locked down for over 4 hours. our spirits are high -
the press release and statement are below.
much love,
sarah
Six Oberlin College Students Occupy Sikorsky Corporation Conference to
Protest Plan Colombia
Washington, DC – Six Oberlin College students - Sarah Bania-Dobyns, 22,
from Denver, CO; Rebecca Johnson, 21, from Cincinnati, OH; Jacqueline
Downing, 21, from Topsfield, MA; Laurel Paget-Seekins, 20, from Philo,
CA; Sarah Saunders, 20, from Lake Orion, MI; and Kate Berrigan, 19, from
Baltimore, MD. - are in Central Cell Block in Washington D.C. tonight
and will appear in court tomorrow on charges of unlawful entry and some
weird charge dealing with the "lock boxes" into which they inserted their
arms. "Use of Criminal equipment!" (I never knew there was such a charge).
They disrupted and halted the opening session of a Sikorsky Corporation
suppliers conference at the National Guard Memorial building in
Washington, DC. They were protesting the Sikorsky Corporation's profit
from the war in Colombia. They entered the building at 3:20 pm; they locked
themselves into the sleeves they had created; and there they remained for 5
and 1/2 hours. They were taken to the 5th precinct in D.C. and then, about
11:00 p.m. we were told they were being held overnight and transported to
Central Cell Block. We sent them the message that we loved them and would be
in court in the a.m. They sent messages back to us.
Through their 5 and 1/2 hour vigil a parallel vigil was held outside the
building with banners, leaflets, chants, support for the women and for
their spirit and their action.
Last summer the US Congress approved a $1.3 billion package, of mostly
military aid, to Colombia. $221 million of the taxpayer money is going
to Sikorsky for 30 Blackhawk helicopters. Sarah Saunders, one of the
students who visited Colombia this January, said, "Blackhawk helicopters
will not bring peace and economic development to the Colombian people or
end the supply of drugs in the US. Instead, helicopters will fuel
Colombia's violent 40-year civil war."
The people of Colombia did not want helicopters and military aid from
the US. After Plan Colombia was written in Colombia, the corporate lobbying
of the Sikorsky Corporation, among others, drastically altered the aid
package before it passed the U.S. Congress. "We are here to let the Sikorsky
Corporation know that they cannot profit off war and the suffering of
the people of Colombia without opposition," said Kate Berrigan.
There is growing opposition in the U.S. to Plan Colombia and to military
solutions to the drug trade. This independent action took place during
a week of actions and lobbying in Washington DC, organized by School of
the Americas Watch, to bring attention to Plan Colombia and the training of
Latin American military personnel at the newly renamed School of the
Americas. This evening, a vigil organized by Amnesty International is
planned for outside the Colombian Ambassador's residence in Washington, DC.
Thanks for your continued support for these women and for the justice
for which they yearn.
Love, Liz McAlister et al at Jonah House
=============
April 2, 2001
Statement for "Blackhawks Do Not Bring Peace" Action
We, the Peace Activist Coalition of Oberlin, OH, are here today to take
a stand against Plan Colombia. We are women of nonviolence. We believe
that our presence will make a difference in the hearts and minds of those
who profit from the war in Colombia. Plan Colombia, the $1.3 billion US aid
package, is being used to enrich private corporations in the US and fuel
the violence in Colombia, not to being peace or to end the drug trade. We
target the Sikorsky Corporation today because the Sikorsky Corporation is
making $221 million on 30 Blackhawk helicopters that will be sent to
Colombia. We believe that helicopters and military aid will not bring an
end to the 40-year civil war or the drug trade in Colombia.
The people of Colombia did not want helicopters and military aid from
the US. After Plan Colombia was written in Colombia, the corporate lobbying
of Sikorsky, among others, drastically altered the aid package. Two of us
have been to Colombia, and we have seen the effects of the violence of Plan
Colombia. We have seen devastation and, as young people, we have hope
and love for the children of Colombia. We are here to nonviolently show our
opposition to the Sikorsky Corporation's role in Plan Colombia.
By locking ourselves together in the room of the Sikorsky Corporation's
conference, we hope that our commitment and dedication will make our
voices and the voices of the people of Colombia heard. We take this risk
because we know that whatever the consequences, we are speaking the truth to
power. We are young people who have a vision of peace and justice for the
world, and we will continue to work for this vision.
- Sarah Bania-Dobyns, 22, from Denver, CO; Rebecca Johnson, 21, from
Cincinnati, OH; Jacqueline Downing, 21, from Topsfield, MA; Laurel
Paget-Seekins, 20, from Philo, CA; Sarah Saunders, 20, from Lake Orion,
MI; and Kate Berrigan, 19, from Baltimore, MD -
Subject: More on the new Vietnam War in Colombia Date: Wed, 21 Feb 2001 06:23:14 -0500 From:Jackson Day
Through my membership in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, I receive news
of
US Government activities which usually don't appear or aren't
highlighted in
the established media. The following chilling article on US activities
in
Colombia and Peru is one such article.
==============================================================
NARCONEWS.COM
Monday, 19 February 2001
Ex-Navy Seals on Pay-Per-Kill Mission
Plan Colombia's Mercenaries
-------------------------------------
By Peter Gorman
IQUITOS, Peru- As we go to press, Colombia's President Andres Pastrana
has
just met for the first time since November with Manuel "Sureshot"
Marulanda, the leader of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC).
It is possibly the last chance at the peace tables for the rebels before
he unleashes his US-trained-and-armed jungle fighters on them, and
follows
four extensions to the peace-table-or-else ultimatum Pastrana set for
early January. Some observing the ongoing civil war in that country view
Pastrana's unwillingness to forego the peace process in favor of all out
war as a sign of enlightened leadership.
Skeptics, however, see it more as a sign that his US-trained troops are
not quite ready for action. In fact, before heading into war Pastrana
has
several pieces of his military puzzle to line up, a process that may
take
several more weeks, and if the skeptics are right, until those pieces
are
in place additional olive-branches-extending the already passed January
1
deadline for peace talks-will be offered to the FARC as a cover for
preparing for battle.
Preparing for the coming war
Pastrana needed four things to occur before he could feel confident that
a
war with the FARC could be won in a decisive manner.
First, of the three battalions of hand-picked and US-vetted Colombian
military troops to be trained by US-Special Forces personnel, only one
has
finished its training and is fully prepared for battle in the dense
jungle
of Southern Colombia, the FARC stronghold. The two additional batallions
won't be ready for several more weeks, leaving Pastrana currently
shorthanded in well-trained jungle troops.
Secondly, while the 46 armed-Blackhawk and Huey helicopters promised as
part of Clinton's initial $1.3 billion dollar Plan Colombia have been
delivered, Colombia has insufficient troops to fly them. So Pastrana, by
stalling the commencement of hostilities against the FARC, is also
buying
time for US advisors to train Colombian chopper pilots.
A third element that Pastrana needed to have in place before going to
war
has recently been taken care of: Peru, which under former president
Alberto Fujimori had refused to permit either the US or Colombian troops
to use Peruvian military bases near the Colombian border (leading to the
US-arranged coup of Fujimori; see The Narco News Bulletin, Jan 1, 2001),
has changed its stance since new interim-president Valentin Paniagua has
taken over Peru's reins. Paniagua, through his Interim Prime Minister
Javier Perez de Cuellar, the former UN Secretary General, announced on
January 16, that Peru has done an about face and will now back Plan
Colombia in any way it can. Since then, the US has quietly begun moving
advisors-and is preparing to move military equipment-to a base near the
Putumayo river, the Peru-Colombia border adjacent to where the heaviest
fighting is expected to take place.
Mercenaries: Last piece of the puzzle
There is one more piece to the puzzle that Pastrana needs in place
before
taking on the 17-20,000 strong FARC in the jungle turf they know so
well:
someone to clean up the mess and eliminate them as they flee.
That piece of the puzzle is also falling into place, though both the US
and Colombia, along with now-complicit Peru, deny it. During the past
two
months, the Peruvian jungle city of Iquitos, the closest Peruvian city
to
southern Colombia with an international airport, has become the
receiving
point for several gunboats said to be part of the US-backed Peruvian
"Riverine" Program.
That program is one in which the US provides boats and training to
Peru's
jungle military in order to help them better intercept coca base making
its way through the Peruvian Amazon to the Colombian port of Leticia,
just
a five minute boat ride across the Amazon from Peruvian soil. But while
the Riverine Program has been in place for several years, it is only
during the past few weeks that those boats have begun to be moved from
Peru's Amazon to the Putumayo.
The boats, as large as 38-feet with 4 guns, are equipped with cutting
edge
marine electronics, from radar to listening devices, and armed with
anti-aircraft guns along with mounted machine guns. But unlike when they
were genuinely used as part of the Riverine Program, they are no longer
going to be manned by Peruvian forces but by teams of retired Navy
SEALS,
often considered the Pentagon's best stealth fighting force.
The retired SEAL teams-who have also been arriving in Iquitos during the
past several weeks-have been brought in to ostensibly work the boats'
complicated electronics devices and systems. In truth, their job will be
to ply the Putumayo river and kill any FARC rebels-or anyone else for
that
matter-trying to retreat onto Peruvian soil.
They claim, quite openly to those in Iquitos, including this reporter,
to
have been hired by a company named Virginia Electronics. They say they
earn their money per kill, and that since they are retired they are not
bound by military codes.
A web search doesn't show the existence of a militarily-connected
company
called Virginia Electronics. There is, however, a Virginia Electronics
Expo site which touts itself as being approved by the Department of
Defense, deals in part with cutting edge marine-electronics technology
and
is sponsored by a who's-who list of military defense contractors.
This does not mean that it's the same company. Whether there is a
genuine
connection between the two or whether it is simply the invented name of
the "company" that hired them is anyone's guess. Calls to the US Embassy
in Lima, Peru produced only heated denials that "we would ever be
involved
in the use of mercenaries," and that "it's unimaginable that former Navy
SEALS would ever be mercenaries" from someone who refused to give their
name.
The legitimate US Special Forces troops working various programs out of
Iquitos, however, affirm that the men are just who they say they are:
mercenaries hired to kill retreating FARC troops who were culled for the
black-bag-operation because of their SEAL backgrounds and the quality of
their work in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Central America and
Africa.
Once Pastrana has all four of these military components in place-three
US-trained battalions of specialized jungle fighters; chopper pilots to
move the new Plan Colombia Blackhawks and Hueys; a jungle base in Peru
near the planned region of battle to repair military equipment and bring
in new supplies; and a team of killers waiting to pick-off those who try
to escape through the back-door into Peru as the Colombians push them
southward, there will probably be no more peace-talk deadline
extensions.
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