SOAW-W News for July, 2002
1) July News.
2) More July News.
3) Yet more July News.
4) The Trial.
School of the Americas/WHISC Watch–West ~ SOAW–W
July 1, 2002San Jose web site - http://teachers.bcp.org/llauro
National web site - www.soaw.org Check out the new design!Details below on:
1) July 2 press conference and vigil in San Francisco with SOA Bay Area 3
Action: Please come!
2) July 11 SOAW meeting in San Francisco
3) July 17 SOAW meeting in Oakland
4) June 30 San Francisco Chronicle article by Stephanie SalterAction: Write a letter to the editor: letters@sfchronicle.com
1) 11:00 AM on July 2 (Tuesday)
Press Conference and Vigil with SOA BA3
Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate Ave.
Between Polk and Larkin, San Francisco
BART: Civic Center StationThose going to trial will present a Declaration of Condemnation of the School of the Americas to Rep. Nancy Pelosi (or her staff) before the Press Conference.
The SOA Bay Area 3 are Fr. Bill O'Donnell of Berkeley, Leone Reinbold of Oakland, Fr. Louie Vitale of San Francisco. Their trials begin July 8 in Columbus, GA. They face sentences of 6 months in prison and a $5,000 fine for trespass.
A good crowd of support at the Press Conference would be great. If you can't make it, write a letter to Rep. Nancy Pelosi
450 Golden Gate Ave, 14th floor San Francisco, CA 941022) San Francisco SOAWW meeting 7:00 PM on July 11 (Thursday) - reports from the Columbus trial and on Ecuador and a viewing of the new SOAW video, "The New Patriot" featuring Laura Slattery and Charlie Liteky.
Unitarian Universalist Church, Franklin at Geary Contact: Dolores Priem, doloresmp@aol.com3) East Bay SOAWW meeting
7:00 PM on July 17 (Wednesday)
World Ground Café
3726 MACARTHUR BLVD (at 35th Ave), Laurel District, Oakland
Contact: Rachel Montgomery, catsdogs@mindspring.com or 510.205.3956And those who trespass
San Francisco Chronicle, June 30, 2002, Page D-4
Given that the guests of honor face federal prison terms for civil disobedience, there was a fair bit of joking last week at a going-away party for Bay Area Roman Catholic priests Louis Vitale and Bill O'Donnell.
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/*/archive/2002/06/30/*.DTL"My speech before the judge will be short," said Vitale, a Franciscan friar.
Pointing at his longtime friend, O'Donnell, Vitale feigned fear and repeated the Apostle Peter's denial of Jesus: "I do not know the man!"
About 150 friends and supporters at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley laughed and shook their heads in amusement and affection. By just about any standard, both Vitale, 70, and O'Donnell, 72, are considered near- saints in their activist communities.
Vitale has garnered respect and devotion as pastor of St. Boniface Church in San Francisco's Tenderloin District and through decades of peaceful protest against everything from nuclear weapons labs to the purported drug eradication program, Plan Colombia. Earlier this year he received a Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award from the international pacifist organization, Pax Christi.
An Oakland diocesan priest, O'Donnell has become something of a legend during 30 years of similar peace-and-justice activism at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley and through a drug-and-alcohol rehab center, Options Recovery, that he co-founded with Dr. Davida Coady. He logged his first arrest for civil disobedience alongside Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in the 1960s. The count now stands at 224, many with his pal of 20 years, actor Martin Sheen.
If previous cases are any indication, Vitale's and O'Donnell's social works won't impress U.S. District Judge G. Mallon Faircloth next month in Columbus, Ga.
On July 8, both priests will join 35 other defendants in Faircloth's court to be tried for "crossing the line" during a mass demonstration at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation -- better known by its former name, the School of the Americas -- at Fort Benning, Ga.
Despite its dramatic sound, crossing the line means peacefully trespassing onto the Army base. Each November, hundreds of protesters -- who contend that the school trains foreign soldiers in such black arts as assassination and making biological and chemical weapons -- trespass and get themselves arrested.
The following summer, dozens go before Faircloth; most receive maximum six- month sentences.
Among the many people Faircloth sentenced last July to six-month stays in federal prison was an 88-year-old Franciscan nun, Dorothy Hennessey. Three years ago, he slapped consecutive six-month sentences on Charlie Liteky, a Vietnam War hero who won the U.S. Medal of Honor for dragging 27 G.I.'s to safety during a firefight in 1967.
Liteky, a former Catholic priest who lives in San Francisco with his human rights activist wife, Judy, was among the well-wishers at last week's bon voyage party. After he listened to O'Donnell read a speech he plans to give in Faircloth's courtroom, he told the throng: "Say goodbye to Bill now because you're not going to see him for a long time if he reads that statement."
Along with calling the court "a pimp for the Pentagon," O'Donnell will ask Faircloth to sentence him to study at the Fort Benning school so he can "tell the world: indeed the new institute has amended its ways and teaches only nonviolence and democracy to its students."
For all the joshing, Vitale and O'Donnell both know that what's ahead is serious business. Besides his usual pastoral duties, Vitale is in the middle of a multimillion-dollar renovation and earthquake retrofitting of St. Boniface. O'Donnell's Options Recovery center, which primarily serves the East Bay poor, is perpetually in need of funding.
But both men also believe priests can be called to live their faith in ways beyond their pastoral duties.
"I really, actually, did not intend to get arrested at Fort Benning," said Vitale. "But there's something just deep down inside of me that says this is the right thing to do. I'm really glad to have the opportunity to make this witness."
Action: Write a letter to the editor: letters@sfchronicle.com
School of the Americas/WHISC Watch–West ~ SOAW–W
July 3, 2002San Jose web site - http://teachers.bcp.org/llauro
National web site - www.soaw.org Check out the new design!Details below on being active with an SOAW group in your area:
1) July 11 SOAW meeting in San Francisco
2) July 15 SOAW meeting in San Jose
3) July 17 SOAW meeting in Oakland
4) Sept 28 Fr. Roy Bourgeois and SOA Watch workshops at Oakland Pax Christi
meeting
5) July 3 Article on Fr. Bill's and Fr. Louis' meeting with Rep. Pelosi's staff.
Actions: Write a letter to the editor: letters@sfchronicle.com OR
Write letters to Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein
U.S. Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Ask the Senators to introduce and back legislation similar to HR 1810.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
1) San Francisco SOAWW meeting
7:00 PM on JULY 11 (Thursday) - reports from the Columbus trial and on Ecuador and a viewing of the new SOAW video, "The New Patriots" featuring Laura Slattery and Charlie Liteky
Unitarian Universalist Church, Franklin at Geary
Contact: Dolores Priem, doloresmp@aol.com2) San Jose SOAWW meeting
7:00 PM on JULY 15 (Monday)
Mathewson Building, 960 Hedding Street, at the corner of Hedding and Elm.
Bellarmine Campus, San Jose 95126
Agenda - slides of El Salvador and organizing for Ft. Benning (Nov. 15-17)
Contact: Larry Lauro, llauro@bcp.org3) East Bay SOAWW meeting
7:00 PM on JULY 17 (Wednesday)
World Ground Café
3726 MACARTHUR BLVD (at 35th Ave), Laurel District, Oakland
Contact: Rachel Montgomery, catsdogs@mindspring.com or 510.205.39564) Bay Area Pax Christi Meeting
8:30 AM - 1:00 PM on SEPT 28 (Saturday)
St. Columba Church Hall
6401 San Pablo (at 64th St.), Oakland
Reflection begins at 9:00 AM followed by Fr. Roy's talk and workshops led by Laura Slattery of Pace e Bene (Franciscan Nonviolence) and Larry Lauro of SOAW San Jose
Preregistration $12 or $15 at the door.
Contact: Faye Butler at 510.791.8186Bay Area priests rally before trespass trial
Pelosi asked to help shut Ft. Benning schoolBill Wallace, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 3, 2002
Page A18; source: www.sfgate.com/*/archive/2002/07/03/*.DTL
San Francisco -- Only days before their trial for trespassing on a post where the U.S. Army allegedly trains torturers and assassins, two Bay Area clergymen urged Rep. Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday to help shut the school down.
The facility in question is the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), a special training center at the U.S. Army's Fort Benning, Ga., that annually trains up to 900 soldiers and police officers from other nations in a variety of topics, including civil disorder management, collecting and analyzing military intelligence and anti-drug operations.
The Revs. Louis Vitale of St. Boniface Church in San Francisco and Bill O'Donnell of St. Joseph the Workman Church in Berkeley were among 43 protesters who were arrested at Fort Benning during a mass protest last year.
They and 35 other demonstrators are scheduled to begin trial in federal court in Georgia on Monday on trespassing charges that could result in six- month prison sentences and fines of up to $5,000 each.
Tuesday morning, the two clergymen gave Pelosi's aides a petition asking her to support House Resolution 1810, a bill that would close the school by eliminating its statutory authority to operate.
"There have been massive atrocities," O'Donnell told members of Pelosi's staff during the session at the Philip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco. "We (the demonstrators facing trial in Georgia) are being punished for trying to tell the American people that their dollars are being used to support our own terrorist training school right here at Fort Benning."
Pelosi was not at the meeting, but Dan Bernal, her deputy district director, accepted the petition on her behalf and read a statement from the congresswoman, a San Francisco Democrat, pledging to continue fighting to close the school.
"We must not condone any of the atrocities that have been performed by people who are graduates of the School of the Americas," Pelosi's statement said. "I will continue to work with all of you to close this institution."
The training center has been criticized in recent years and has been identified as the training facility for military and police personnel who were involved in a host of atrocities, including the murder of Colombian Archbishop Isaias Duarte earlier this year and the slaying of six Jesuit priests in 1989.
The school's officials deny that they train 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.
But critics say the changes in the school's courses have been superficial and are more intended to win over public opinion than to actually change the behavior of graduates.
"We've had people (from Latin America) come here for refuge and live in our churches," Vitale told members of Pelosi's staff during Monday's meeting. "We've seen the results of the kind of torture that is taught at the School of the Americas. . . . The name has changed, but not the game."
E-mail Bill Wallace at bwallace@sfchronicle.com.
School of the Americas/WHISC Watch–West ~ SOAW–W
July 9, 2002San Jose web site - http://teachers.bcp.org/llauro
National web site - www.soaw.org1) Urgent: Lost and not yet found! Can anyone help us find the 2 ft by 6 ft SOAWW Banner that we carried in the April 20 Demonstration in San Francisco? It was last seen displayed in the back of the Veterans for Peace tent in Civic Center Plaza.
2) Leone Reinbold of Oakland entered a plea of guilty. Fr. Bill O'Donnell pled not guilty. Some of his statement is mentioned in the article below. Fr. Louis will be part of the group in court today.
3) Join an SOAW group in your area:
*** July 11 at 7:00 PM San Francisco, Unitarian Universalist Church, Franklin at Geary
*** July 15 at 7:00 PM San Jose, Mathewson Building, Bellarmine Campus
*** July 17 at 7:00 PM Oakland, World Ground Café, 3726 Macarthur Blvd at 35th4) SOAW East Bay is planning for a fundraising event with the Bay Area 3 Aug. 3 (Saturday) at 7:00 PM at St. Joseph the Worker, Berkeley. Helpers need! Contact: Rachel Montgomery at 510.205.3956 or catsdogs@mindspring.com
5)
Posted on Tue, Jul. 09, 2002 SOA trial begins with pleas
BY JIM HOUSTON
7 protesters charged with trespassing on Fort Benning
Staff WriterColumbus, Georgia – Eighteen of 37 protesters facing possible prison terms for trespassing on the Fort Benning Military Reservation last November had their day in U.S. District Court on Monday.
For the eight who pleaded guilty and the 10 who pleaded not guilty, but admitted by stipulation that they crossed onto the post, the plea was an opportunity to again protest against the former School of the Americas, reborn more than 18 months ago as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
Most said they were among the thousands of protesters who marched to Fort Benning's gates Nov. 18, then crossed onto the post, because they were driven by conscience.
"I am very angry that it exists," Brigid Conarchy, 23, said of the school that protesters allege trained Latin American soldiers who later committed atrocities against civilians in their homelands. "It's very difficult for me to be proud of what goes on there."
As the protesters made their points, U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth engaged them in dialogue and presented them with copies of the congressional acts that created the School of the Americas and later replaced it with the institute, an organization with defined goals, missions, curricula and oversight.
The change was brought about through the democratic process, Faircloth said, not by people who took the law into their own hands.
"I ask you to determine whether the democratic process has worked and is working," he suggested.
As protester after protester condemned the record of alleged atrocities by graduates of the institute, they suggested the change was one of name only. It didn't deter them from continuing to protest last Nov. 18, and it won't stop them and others like them from coming back in the thousands until the school is closed, they told the judge.
Rae S. Kramer of Syracuse, N.Y., condemned the "blood lust of power" that created the school and perpetuates it in another form.
Toni Flynn of Valyermo, Calif., said the institute continues to stand for "the exact opposite of peace."
"In reality, what the school teaches is death and abuse," said Shannon McManimon of Philadelphia.
Then the Rev. William Joseph O'Donnell, a 72-year-old Catholic parish priest from Berkeley, Calif., took the stand late during the nearly 10-hour session. Arrested 224 times for protesting weapons production, supporting labor movements and fighting nuclear testing during the last 46 years, O'Donnell condemned Faircloth's court as one involved in "a sinister partnership with the Pentagon."
"This court for years has been pimping for the Pentagon and, as a pimp does, it covers up for the crimes of its prostitutes," the priest charged.
Then he added a challenge to Faircloth.
"Sentence me to six months at this infamous school for me to emerge and tell whether it has mended its ways," O'Donnell said.
The judge's eyebrows rose.
"I will certainly look into the possibility of such a sentence," Faircloth said. "It may be the healthiest idea I have heard all day long. Are you serious?"
"I am deadly serious," O'Donnell replied from the witness stand.
"I am, too," Faircloth said.
At least five of the remaining 19 defendants are expected to demand bench trials, requiring federal prosecutors to present proof they violated federal law by trespassing onto Fort Benning property.
The court proceedings resume at 9 a.m. today in the third-floor courtroom of Judge Faircloth in the U.S. Courthouse at 12th Street and Second Avenue.
July 10, 2002
The summary that follows was written by SOA Watch. (Source: www.soaw.org/new/article.php.)
Statements about those from the Bay Area:
Paragraph 2 - Fr. Bill was found guilty of trespass.
Paragraph 3 - Fr. Bill's statement before he was declared guilty.
Fourth paragraph from the end - Summary of statement made by Fr. Louis.The July 9 Court session began with the testimony of a defendant charged with
entering the base with a previous ban and bar letter. Like the most recent defendants, Lisa Hughes pled not guilty with a stipulation. Lisa's stipulation was significantly different from the previous defendants' because she admitted that she had crossed the line at the entrance to Fort Benning, but had not walked around the fence to reach the base. After the rally, marchers left their crosses, banners and other memorials on the fence and Lisa knelt on the grass to the side of the road praying in memory for the family of her honorary mother in El Salvador. Lisa's testimony about the deaths of the women and the children of El Salvador seemed to affect the judge as well as the other people in court. The prosecutor asked Lisa several questions about why she had not crossed the line and asked "Would it be fair to say your heart was with those who crossed onto the base?" Lisa answered that it was in fact fair to say that.
Judge Faircloth then adjudicated all the cases of defendants accused of trespassing onto the base, who had previous warnings and had stipulated to the facts presented by the prosecution. He found Ken Crowley, Gerry Zawada, Michael Pasquale, Toni Flinn, Kathleen Desautels, Erik Johnson, Rae Kramer, Kate Fantanazza, Bill ODonnell and Mary Dean guilty. Lisa Hughes was found not guilty.
Before announcing his decisions, the judge allowed the defendants to make additional statements if they wished to. Some of the statements: Rae Kramer: "if Rotarians from Iowa marched on the lawn at Ft Benning with signs proclaiming support for WHISC, they would be welcome on the base. It is our challenge, not political statements, that the Army objects to." Bill O"Donnell, "I am not at home in the houses of government. I am at home in the houses of the poor." Erik Johnson:, "I believe in the power of nonviolent love and our government has tried to silence that. You, Judge Faircloth, can make a difference, just as other Southern judges made a difference for the civil rights of our brothers and sisters of a different color." Kathleen Desautels, "Our movement has taken many steps to close the SOA. We have taken one extra step. Our conscience is our higher guide."
The next group of cases heard was people charged with first time trespass that were willing to sign a stipulation. The testimony given was individual and powerful. Several defendants responded specifically to Judge Faircloth's repeated assertions that experts agree that the SOA has been closed and that WHISC has not produced a single perpetrator of atrocities.
Tom Mehedy spoke of the forcible removal of the Creek Indians from land now owned by the US Army at Fort Benning, comparing it with policies in Latin America today. Chuck Booker-Hirsch, a Presbyterian minister from Ann Arbor Michigan, spoke of his work at El Barrio, a Texas refuge that housed 12,000 Guatemalans in only ten years. Chuck compared reform of the School of the Americas, because of its history, to "offering a chauffeur's license to someone with 1000 DWIs."
Nancy Gowan of Richmond Virginia spoke of her mother's violent beating, rape and murder by a gunshot to the head and how the grief she felt led her to work with anti-capital punishment groups, volunteer in prisons and live a life devoted to peace and nonviolent activism. Michael Sobol, an 18 year old Coloradan, graduated from an alternative high school in May, a school which granted him credit for participating in the November actions. He talked about the need for 'global community service.' "I am attracted to gentleness and humility," he said. "I don't want to close WHISC; I want to change it to teach community, human rights and compassion."
Jonna Cohen, from Denver, spoke about her work with rape victims, their horror and emotional scars. Her work inspired her to take action to close the SOA, a school that teaches rape as a method of intimidation. "It is ironic that we are discussing law when lawlessness is taught at WHISC."
Janice Sevre-Dazynska, Lexington Kentucky, a teacher and 'woman called to ordination in the Roman Catholic Church,' suggested replacing the stars and stripes with guns and dollar signs. Her Polish ancestry and the knowledge of Polish relatives living under the horrors of Nazi occupation led her to work to close the SOA.
Laura McDonald of Syracuse NY identified herself as a member of the human family. "People don't consider the cost of their lifestyles. We must change the policies of our country."
Louis Vitale of San Francisco is a Franciscan brother and priest now but he described his earlier life as a 'bit of a partier'. He had been an ROTC officer and an officer in the Air Force as a flight interceptor. During a long life of activism, Louie met his chief mentor, César Chávez, who he credited with teaching him about fasting and nonviolent civil disobedience and social change. Quoting Gandhi, Louie said, "No one has all the truth; we all have some of the truth."
The judge has repeatedly asked defendants if they have ever tried other methods of democratic change such as writing letters to Congress. Rich Ring spoke directly to Judge Faircloth's previous statements of support for civil disobedience ... if it didn't break any laws. Rich defended civil disobedience by boldly suggesting that perhaps Rosa Parks should have written a letter to her white mayor instead of sitting at the front of the bus, or that Dorothy Day should have written to her male Congressman to ask for the right to vote.
Kathy Boylan, a Washington DC Catholic Worker, testified about her history of resistance to all violence and war and about the government's lies during her lifetime, specifically about Vietnam and Iraq. She also asked Judge Faircloth to sign a petition for statehood for Washington DC.
The defendants who plead not guilty, while stipulating to the facts, will be adjudicated tomorrow morning. Following the Judge's decisions, the remaining eight defendants will present their cases pro se.
SOAW-W News continues: More of July
[For archived news from previous months,
click on: April - June.]
