the Bay Area 3
News Articles (cont.)
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the Bay Area 3
News Articles (cont.)
[Previous news articles may be found at: BA3-na.htm.]
1) Bay Area protesters sentenced Wallace & Houston, S.F. Chronicle, July 13, 2002
2) Foes of Institute Choose Prison Houston, Ledger-Enquirer. July 13, 2002
3) Woman Locks Herself to Gate Van, Ledger-Enquirer, July 14, 2002
1) Bay Area protesters sentenced in Georgia Jail, probation for 3 convicted of trespassing at Army school
By Bill Wallace and Jim Houston
San Francisco Chronicle, July 13, 2002, Page A3
One of three Bay Area residents found guilty of trespassing at Fort Benning, the site of a U.S. Army school that allegedly trains foreign officers in assassination techniques, was sentenced to six months in jail Friday by a federal judge.The Rev. Bill O'Donnell of St. Joseph the Workman Church in Berkeley also was fined $1,000 after being convicted earlier this week of trespassing at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation in the fall.
Two other protesters from the Bay Area, Berkeley peace activist Leone Reinbold and the Rev. Louis Vitale of St. Boniface Church in San Francisco, also were convicted and were awaiting their sentences late Friday night.
They were among 43 demonstrators arrested last year while protesting the school's alleged involvement in training foreign security and intelligence officers in lethal arts.
Thirty-seven of the demonstrators were tried on trespassing charges before U.S. Magistrate Mallon Faircloth, and all but one were found guilty.
O'Donnell, 72, was among the first to be sentenced Friday morning. He said the court's action showed its "moral bankruptcy" and told Faircloth the courthouse should have a sign above its door saying, "Abandon hope all ye who enter here."
Reinbold, 24, was awaiting her sentence Friday night and told The Chronicle the experience had been nerve-racking, but instructive.
"The testimony has been amazing," she said. "I have been in wonderful company. . . . It has been a good experience in many ways. I only hope prison is as much of a learning experience."
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas, is a specialized training center at Fort Benning. It instructs as many as 900 soldiers and police officers from other nations annually in a variety of subjects, including civil disorder management, collecting and analyzing military intelligence and anti-drug operations.
Critics allege that the institute also trains students in techniques of torture and assassination, pointing to a number of incidents in which graduates of the school have been implicated in atrocities in Latin America. The critics want the school closed permanently and have repeatedly held demonstrations at the site.
The school's officials deny training foreign military and security personnel to commit acts of terror and say they have instituted human rights training as a regular part of their curriculum.
"Those who want the school closed mean well, but their information is simply incorrect," said Gina DiNicolo, a spokeswoman for the institute.
But critics such as U.S. Army Maj. Joe Blair, a former director of instruction at the school who testified in behalf of the defendants during this week's proceedings, say there is little difference between the institute and the School of the Americas.
"There are no substantive changes besides the name," Blair testified during the trial. "They teach the identical courses that I taught, and changed the course names and use the same manuals."
Chronicle staff writer Bill Wallace reported from San Francisco and Chronicle correspondent Jim Houston from Columbus, Ga. / E-mail Bill Wallace bwallace@sfchronicle.com.************
Source: www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi2) Foes of Institute Choose Prison
No protesters elect to spend six months at Army schoolBy Jim Houston, Ledger-Enquirer (Columbus, GA)
July 13, 2002
U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth's courtroom echoed Friday with folk and religious songs as he held sentencing sessions for 35 protesters convicted of trespassing on Fort Benning during demonstrations last November.The judge also heard the United States condemned as a country founded on genocide and hate, his court labeled a sham and an arena for injustice, and the federal courthouse as a place that should bear a warning sign: "Abandon hope all who enter here."
The judge's offer of a sentence of six months as a student at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation was rejected by all of the protesters on Friday as an alternative to prison. The institute is the successor to the School of the Americas that has been the target of protests for 12 years.
The prospect of prison brought tears to some, but was accepted stoically by others as the price for the statement they made by crossing onto the military post on Nov. 18 to protest a school they say has produced Latin American graduates who have committed atrocities in their homelands.
Each protester called before him for sentencing after a week of pleas and trials was given virtually unlimited time to have his or her say, a practice Faircloth did not abandon as the day turned into night. One defendant's pre-sentencing statement lasted 55 minutes.
When the talking was done, Faircloth sentenced those who had trespassed onto the post before to the maximum six-month prison sentence, adding a fine for those whom he determined could afford the additional punishment. First-time trespassers who pleaded not guilty, but were convicted by trial after admitting they crossed onto the post, were sentenced to 90 days in prison, with some also receiving $500 fines.
Almost nine hours after the sentencing session began, seven of the eight protesters who pleaded guilty on Monday were sentenced. The sentence was six months probation, plus a $500 fine, for those who promised to honor their "ban and bar" letter from Fort Benning blocking their return onto the post for at least five years.
Of those who had previously been banned from Fort Benning for trespassing, only two drew less than the maximum prison time. Abigail M. Miller of Harrisburg, Va., and Summer Lisa Nelson of Missoula, Mont., received 90-day prison terms and $500 fines. They pleaded not guilty and were convicted after representing themselves during a Thursday trial.
One protester, Rae S. Kramer of Syracuse, N.Y., received the six-month prison sentence and a $5,000 fine -- the maximum punishment allowed. Faircloth said his decision on the fine was based on a defendant's ability to pay. Seven received $1,000 fines with their prison sentences.
The Rev. William J. O'Donnell -- the Berkeley, Calif., parish priest who suggested he be sentenced to the institute so that he could return after six months and tell what really goes on there -- said the protesters had decided to reject the proposal.
The SOA Watch, organizers of the protests for the last 12 years, discussed the proposal for hours before rejecting it, O'Donnell said.
"The SOA Watch community reminds me the primary goal is to shut the institute down today," the priest said. "It's a far greater honor to be in prison for six months than to be a student in a campus for terrorists."
O'Donnell also said the conviction of 36 of the 37 protesters by Faircloth shows the "moral bankruptcy" of the court in "any matters underlying anything military or Pentagonal."
O'Donnell was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $1,000.
The Rev. Erik T. Johnson, a Presbyterian minister from Knoxville, Tenn., had his codefendants and court spectators stand and sing the hymn "Peace Like a River" as part of his pre-sentence message to Faircloth. He also condemned the institute at Fort Benning, where Latin American soldiers, police officers and public officials are trained, as "a festering violation, like a cancer" and no better than the SOA that it replaced.
Johnson was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $1,000.
Niklan M. Jones-Lezama, of Blacksburg, Va., sang Bob Dylan's 1960s protest song, "Blowin' in the Wind," with spectators joining along. He spoke for 55 minutes, condemning the United States as "a country founded on genocide and hate" and a nation that has "killed more people than Adolf Hitler." He also said Faircloth's court is a "sham."
Faircloth, who rarely showed any reaction to the protesters' comments, was visibly angered by Jones-Lezama's characterization of the nation and of his court. He told him the country was founded on laws, and his court is a part of that system of laws nations must have to function as a civilized society.
He sentenced Jones-Lezama to six months in prison, with no fine.
The Rev. Jerome A. Zawada, a Franciscan priest from Cedar Lake, Ind., said he has spent more than 30 months in federal prison protesting nuclear arms and is proud to be a part of the movement to close the institute at Fort Benning.
"The message goes on. We will close the SOA, or the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, or whatever it is called," Zawada said.
Faircloth sentenced him to six months in prison, with no fine.
Four of the protesters chose to begin their prison sentences immediately and were removed to the Muscogee County Jail. The remainder posted $250 bonds and will be allowed to report directly to prison when ordered to do so by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
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Source: http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/...local/3654248.htm3) Woman Locks Herself to Gate
Protester acted alone at Benning gateBy Holly Van, Ledger-Enquirer, Columbus, GA
A 23-year-old woman locked herself to the main gate at Fort Benning Saturday, where she stayed for more than two hours to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation and the trial that sentenced 36 protesters last week.
July 14, 2002Rebecca Johnson of Washington, D.C., arrived at Fort Benning at 10 a.m. and cut the chain that held the main gate open on Fort Benning Road. She posted a banner that read, "Lock Up SOA/WHISC, Not Peacemakers" on the gate and locked
her neck to the gate with a bicycle "D-lock."Twenty-one protesters witnessed the incident until the Fort Benning Fire Department removed Johnson's lock using a bolt cutter at 12:50 p.m. Fort Benning Military Police arrested Johnson on charges of criminal trespassing,
damage to government property and impeding the flow of traffic.Though Johnson is a member of the SOA Watch, she acted alone, said Eric LeCompte, the group's outreach director.
"Her motive was to close access to the school," said LeCompte, who stayed for the duration of the protest.
Johnson came to Columbus last week for the trial of protesters who entered the military post on Nov. 18. She was not among the protesters on trial.
Journalist Frank Salerno was also arrested for trespassing while attempting to document the event for Atlanta Independent Media Network, Free Speech Radio News, Free Speech Television and WRFG 89.3 in Atlanta.
"He did not have credentials identifying himself as media," said Lori Egan, a public affairs spokeswoman at Fort Benning. "He came on Fort Benning property and had his camera taken away when he was arrested."
Salerno said his media credentials were in his car, about 150 yards away, because he was working on an unrelated assignment near Fort Benning. "I had no idea what was going to happen," he said. "It never crossed my mind to bring them."
Salerno was later released on his own recognizance, but Fort Benning Military Police withheld his equipment as evidence.
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