Speaking out against torture

(photographs: The one with the man in the orange jumpsuit and the black hood is a depiction of a Guantanamo inmate. The people in the photograph (with the exception of the child) are all torture survivors. They include Sister Dianna Ortiz, a Ursuline who was brutally tortured while serving as a missionary teacher in Guatemala, and Mirna Anaya, a torture survivor who is now a member of the Supreme Court of El Salvador)

At the end of June, the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition (TASSC) held its annual Survivors week in Washington, D.C. Events that occurred during the week included a conference, held at Catholic University, titled "Torture Never Again," and a 24-hour vigil, held in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.
I attended a morning session of the conference at Catholic University and heard from several speakers, including Jennifer Harbury (the widow of Efrain Bamaca Velasquez, a Mayan resistance leader, who was captured by Guatemalan military, tortured, and then killed extra-judicially in the early 1990s), Father Roy Bourgeois, and Catherine Grosso, assistant professor of law at Michigan State University College of Law. Also we had one speaker named Colleen. (I don't know her last name or anything more about her.)
Here is some information that was offered at the conference:
According to Colleen, on the issues of torture and extraordinary rendition, Human Rights USA, TASSC, and other organizations have been working on putting together a criminal complaint to hold former officials, chiefly in the Bush administration, accountable for their actions. There is a Spanish court that may try to charge U.S. officials. This can only occur if the United States does not object. The alleged culprits must travel to Spain on their own. They will not be extradited to Spain to face justice.
Catherine defined torture as ill treatment. Examples of torture include holding a person in isolation or solitary confinement for long periods of time. She talked about Supreme Court cases concerning torture. She described a 1936 case involving a man named Ed Brown and a few others. These individuals were stripped and beaten by police. They were forced to confess to crimes. The state of Mississippi said that the federal constitution had no place in a state court. The Supreme Court said otherwise. It said that the interrogation of Mr. Brown and the other men violated basic basic principles and that evidence obtained by torture cannot be used in court. "It (torture) violates who we are as a nation." In an earlier case (1897), a man named Mr. Ram was forced to strip. He was never touched. He was told that he committed a crime. Mr. Ram ended up by confessing to the crimes because he was humiliated. The Supreme Court ruled that the confession was not voluntary, that the man was the victim of coercion.
These days, Catherine said, we have the issue of different standards being applied to Americans and people whom are termed to be "terrorists" and "enemy combatants." During the Bush administration, we had policy and practice that "chipped away at the ban on torture." This ban includes federal law against torture and an international convention against torture that was signed by President Ronald Reagan.
Although the Bush administration is now history, the current Obama administration has done little to investigate alleged abuses. Catherine said that President Obama "articulated that the Bush policy violated standards. He has not investigated. His silence speaks volumes." Catherine does not exempt Congress from criticism. She said "Congress has done nothing."
Jennifer said that we will not be "cured" of the scourge of torture with a few trials of former administration officials. "It is naive to think that it started with 9/11 and George W. Bush." She said that Americans have been involved in torture for years, either in the role of advisors or even supervisors. "We can't fix this problem unless we deal with the crimes."
The crimes of torture, Jennifer charges, include crimes against civilian populations. These civilian populations include people who have been termed "insurgents." This is a very loose term. In Latin America, for example, during the "dirty wars" and the various civil wars, the term "insurgents" frequently included priests, nuns, labor union organizers, teachers, journalists, and anyone who criticized their governments.
Jennifer talked about a common excuse that torturers use for abusing their victims, the "ticking bomb." She explained that torture doesn't work in that situation. "When people are tortured, they say anything. There was one guy who claimed to be Osama bin Laden's driver." (Apparently, Osama bin Laden never rode in this guy's car and, who knows... maybe the guy didn't even have a car...) According to Jennifer, in basic training, military types are taught to compartmentalize information. "You don't have the information unless you need to know it." So the information about where the ticking bomb would be located would not be shared with hordes of people. If the wrong person is grabbed and then tortured, well guess what happens? That person will say anything to get the pain to stop. He'll say where the ticking bomb is. Then, the bomb disposal squad will go to the wrong place because, of course, that person doesn't actually know where the bomb is. While the bomb disposal squad is looking for the nonexistent incendiary, the real bomb will go Ka-boom!
Jennifer said that the U.S. government resorted to torture because it was afraid. "Fear is deeply ingrained in the United States," she said, adding "Torture does not gain us security."
Father Roy talked about his experiences of having been in Vietnam as a Naval officer and in Bolivia as a Maryknoll missionary priest. He said that in Vietnam, "it was common knowledge that torture was policy." He said that pilots bragged about how easy it was to get information.
In Bolivia, under the dictator Hugo Banzar, torture was common. Father Roy said that he visited prisoners and documented the torture. He brought the information to Washington to try to get the U.S. government to put an end to it. Shortly afterwards, he was forced out of Bolivia. He then went to El Salvador. In November 1989, six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter were massacred by military. Those Jesuit priests had been friends of Father Roy's. Father Roy discovered that the United States trained the assassins at a school called the School of the Americas.
Shortly after the massacre, Father Roy formed an organization called "School of the Americas Watch." In November 1990, nine persons fasted at the gates of Fort Benning. By November 2008, more than 20,000 persons gathered at the gates of Fort Benning.
"We want the school of torture closed down," Father Roy stated.
Father Roy said that training manuals were discovered in 1996. These training manuals give detailed instruction to the military on how to torture people. These manuals got the attention of Congress.
Currently, the School of the Americas Watch continues to work for accountability. Father Roy said that SOA Watch uses several approaches to achieving this goal. One is the Latin American initiative. Representatives of SOA Watch have gone to 15 Latin American countries and have spoken to leaders, including six presidents, to ask them to withdraw troops from the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (the new name for the School of the Americas). Father Roy stated that there is a "sea change taking place in Latin America and that there is great hope."
Unfortunately, a few days after this conference, there was a coup d'etat in Honduras and the democratically elected president was forced out of the country in his pajamas.
The School of the Americas Watch is also working to get legislation passed. The current legislation, proposed by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) is HR 2567, the Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2009.
"There will never be healing and reconciliation unless there is acknowledgement of crimes and torture."
During the question and answer session that followed, torture survivors from all over the world talked about change that they wanted to see and their feelings about the current realities throughout the world.
Grace from Uganda talked about her cry. She said that many opposition leaders are rotting in cells. Government leaders in the UN Security Council do not talk about that, she said. "I am going through hell," she said. "No one is on the ground watching. This is my cry!"
A man from West Africa said that the United States is trying to found an SOA-type school in Africa.
An Iranian woman said that young people are tortured in the streets in Iran. "They want democracy. They are not terrorists."
And one person said, "Bush encouraged torture. Thousands were in prison. Many died. No one talks about them. They just want freedom. (President Barack) Obama is our last chance."

Father Roy Bourgeois

"You don't teach democracy out of the barrel of a gun."
The Buffalo Common Council declared March 14th to be Father Roy Bourgeois Day in Buffalo. The Erie County Legislature also issued a proclamation in Father Roy's honor.
Father Roy Bourgeois was presented with those proclamations on March 14th, when he came to Daemen College to speak about SOA/WHINSEC and about other issues of war, peace, and justice.
Father Roy talked about his own life experiences, first as a young man in Louisiana, who studied geology and had hopes of becoming rich in the oil fields of Latin America. His sense of patriotism then caused him to go into the U.S. Navy as an officer. He volunteered for shore duty in Vietnam, where he witnessed the devastation of war. In an interview that I had with Father Roy back in 2001, he told me that volunteering to help at an orphanage in Vietnam changed his life. He came to the conclusion that God was calling him to be a missionary. After Father Roy left the military, he enrolled in the Maryknoll seminary near Ossining, New York. He was ordained as a Maryknoll priest in 1972 and was then sent to serve in Bolivia.
Father Roy said that he was shocked by what he saw in Bolivia:
"The men with the guns ran the country." Those gunmen were under the command of dictator Hugo Banzar Suarez, who had support from the U.S. government.
He said, however, that the poor people, with whom he worked, did not give up hope in the face of these seemingly insurmountable obstacles. "The poor became our teachers," he said.
His missionary work did not win him any points with the Powers that Be in Bolivia. Because of his work with Bolivia's human rights commission, he was arrested and was later forced out of Bolivia.
His next mission was in El Salvador. This Vietnam veteran could not believe the conditions in El Salvador in the late 1970s. "I've never seen anything like El Salvador. It was the slaughter of the innocents," Father Roy said.
When Father Roy came back to the United States, he learned that the Salvadoran troops, many of whom had been involved in such incidents as the El Mozote massacre, in which 900 men, women, and children in one village were massacred, were coming to the United States to be trained in military tactics. In fact, Father Roy said, 500 troops had come to Fort Benning, Georgia, for training in the early 1980s. When Father Roy realized what was happening, he organized a protest right in front of the Salvadoran barracks at Fort Benning. With two others, he walked onto the grounds of Fort Benning, dressed as high ranking officers. They were saluted! At night, they climbed a tree just outside of the Salvadoran barracks. When the lights in the barracks went out, Father Roy turned on a boom box, set to top volume to play Archbishop Oscar Romero's last homily. The lights in the barracks went on again and military police were called.
When military police arrived, the three intrepid protesters were ordered to get out of the tree or get shot.
The protesters got out of the tree and were taken to the Muscogee County Jail. Eventually, they were tried and sentenced to federal prison.
That protest, however, apparently had nothing to do with the School of the Americas.
At the time, very few people knew about the existence of the School of the Americas. Those few people were mostly Panamanians.
The School of the Americas had been established as a cold war school to train Latin American troops to fight against the "Communist menace" back in 1946. It was placed in the Panama Canal Zone. Eventually, Panamanians referred to the school as "la escuela de los golpes" (the school of coups) and "la escuela de los assessinos." Some of the coups that the Panamanians were referring to occurred in the Dominican Republic and Guatemala in the early 1950s and in Chile on September 11th, 1973. When President Jimmy Carter renegotiated the Panama Canal treaties back in the late 1980s, one of the issues that could not be resolved was the continuation of the SOA in Panama.
The SOA was kicked out of Panama and was reopened at Fort Benning, Georgia, in 1984.
In 1989, an event occurred in El Salvador that resulted in shock and horror and Congressional attention to U.S. military policy in Latin America. This event was the massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter. Many members of Congress had attended Jesuit schools, so they were shocked and horrified to find out that six Jesuits, who had worked at the University of Central America, were killed by Salvadoran military, funded by the U.S. government.
It didn't take long before the existence of the SOA became known. The connection was made for many, including Father Roy, between military training and massacres when a Congressional panel reported that, of the 27 killers involved in the massacre of the Jesuits and their co-workers, 19 of them were SOA graduates. In 1990, Father Roy Bourgeois founded the School of the Americas Watch and moved into an apartment across the street from Fort Benning's main gates.
Over the years, SOA Watch grew from a small group of people who protested and fasted at Fort Benning's main gate to a large movement that holds annual protests at Fort Benning and lobbies Congress to close the school, which has since been renamed "the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation." Father Roy has referred to these protests as "poking the beehive."
The bees don't like that, and they tend to sting. Over the years, many people have been arrested on the grounds of Fort Benning, have been charged with trespass, and have been sentenced to federal prison, probation, or house arrest.
The movement to close the school has been working hard over the years to encourage Congress to close the school through legislative action. A number of bills have been introduced to Congress to close the school, first by Rep. Moakley of Massachusetts and later by Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts.
The current bill, introduced last month, is HR 2567 and is titled the Latin America Military Training Review Act.
Father Roy also talked about work that SOA Watch is doing to encourage governmental leaders in Latin America to stop sending troops to the school in hopes that, if there is no demand for the school, it will have to close down, due to lack of interest. So far, the following countries have stopped sending troops to the school: Venezuela, Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, and El Salvador.
"There is a sea change taking place in Latin America," Father Roy said. "A lot of the fear that was alive in those countries has been replaced by hope."
When Father Roy is not speaking on behalf of SOA Watch or working on closing the School of the Americas (in his copious free time), he travels. He has been to Iran and Iraq.
"War destroys hope," said Father Roy, who has been involved in the movement to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan said.

Alice's court statement

On August 10, as a part of the Witness Against War walk, thirteen of us attempted to walk onto the grounds of Fort McCoy, located near Sparta, Wisconsin. We were hoping to speak to the National Guard troops who are trained at Fort McCoy. We were also hoping to give them a letter to let them know that the government's authorization to deploy the National Guard (the war powers resolution of 2002) has expired and was not renewed.
During the walk, I had met many people whose loved ones, members of the Wisconsin National Guard, had been deployed over and over again. This is very hard on the members of the National Guard and on their family, friends, co-workers, and employers. Those encounters spurred me to choose to go onto the grounds of Fort McCoy and speak with the soldiers, as someone who wanted the best for them.
I feel that the National Guard is needed at home. During times of natural disaster, it is the National Guard that we call on to take care of our needs.
When the thirteen of us arrived at the main gate of Fort McCoy, we were met by police, who told us not to pass a barrier that they had established. We did pass the barrier and we were arrested and charged with trespass. Shortly after we were processed, we were issued tickets and were released.
On January 12th, we had our trial before Magistrate Judge Stephen Crocker in Madison, Wisconsin. We each had a chance to speak our piece... peace... and were found guilty and fined $75 each.

Below is a copy of my court statement:

Since I returned to Western New York in September after completing the 500-mile Witness Against War walk from Chicago to Saint Paul, Minnesota, I have continued to walk nearly every day. I have walked along the Niagara River and through the City of Buffalo. I walk through two state parks in Grand Island, the town where I live.

I walk for exercise and to find interesting things to photograph for the Grand Island Dispatch. I work as a freelance photographer and reporter for that newspaper.

Sometimes on my walks, I see parents walking or riding on bicycles with their kids. I see people catching fish, or at least trying to. I see people walking dogs. I see people jogging in all kinds of weather, even in snow and wind. During my weekday walks, I see kids returning home from school. I see kids playing on the slides and climbing equipment at the nearby playground.

In other words, I experience normal every day life on my walks.

Last summer, I had similar experiences. I saw bicyclists and joggers and kids going to summer school.

But a few incidents served to remind me that the lives of many of our friends and neighbors are far from normal. One of those incidents occurred in Jefferson, early in the morning, as we were starting our day’s walk. We could see the kids heading off to summer school. We crossed a street near the school. A crossing guard spotted us and our banner. She went to the middle of the street to help us. As I passed her, she turned to me and said, “I support what you do. My son is in Iraq for the fifth time. I just want him to come home.”

In another town, we were at a church for a potluck dinner. A woman there looked at me, wanting to talk. I could see sadness in her eyes and feel heartbreak in her voice as she told me that her son had been killed in Iraq.

I heard about police departments that were short staffed because so many of the officers were also members of the National Guard, who had been deployed overseas.

The normal every day life that I saw as I walked was nowhere near as normal as it appeared.

When I heard the sadness and longing that people had for their absent family members, friends, and co-workers, I had to wonder why the normal every day lives of these communities was being disrupted and destroyed. Why have National Guard troops been deployed over and over again, far away from home and from the families and communities that need them? Why are National Guard troops continuing to be deployed to Iraq, even though the War Powers resolution of 2002, which gave the Bush administration the authority to deploy the National Guard, has expired and was not renewed.

On August 10, 2008, I went with a group to the gates of Fort McCoy to talk to the troops, to tell them that they were needed at home to do the work that the National Guard is meant to do, especially disaster relief. I had a letter to give them that offered details of alternatives to deployment for them. I never spoke to a single soldier. We were arrested before we could speak to the soldiers or to give them our letters.

I felt that my presence that day at Fort McCoy was necessary. I did not feel that I did anything that could be described as illegal. I felt that I was simply exercising my first-amendment right of free speech. On the other hand, I did perceive the government as violating the law, by continuing to deploy National Guard troops after the authorization to deploy them has expired.

It is time for National Guard troops to come home. They are needed here. I hope that my presence at Fort McCoy on August 10^th helped to serve as a reminder that our National Guard troops are needed at home, even though I never had a chance to speak to the soldiers.

When the deployments finally end, the National Guard troops and their families and communities will be able to start healing and, eventually, will be able to return to their normal, every day lives.

One-year anniversary

Last year, on September 19, 2007, I was released from the federal prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut, after completing my six-month sentence. As happy as I was to get turned loose onto an unsuspecting world, it was a sad experience, too. I had to leave behind friends, who had far longer sentences than I had.
Spending time in prison, especially when that time is measured in years, not in months that can be counted on one or two hands, is very hard on women. Many of them are mothers, and they must endure long separations from their children. The children grow up without their mothers, which is hard on them, too.
I believe that too many people are in prison. Keeping people in prison is expensive and nonproductive. I would very much like to see more people sentenced to probation and community service and restitution (if necessary) than to prison sentences. I would also like to see more use of restorative justice. It is important for people to take responsibility for their actions, to apologize, and make right what they have made wrong. Occupying space in prison does not accomplish any of that. So these are a few things that I have learned from my time in prison.
I have also learned that being in prison is challenging but it is an experience that the overwhelming majority survives. They then go on to other things and other adventures. I have also learned that going to prison for something that you believe in is somewhat difficult but far from impossible. I believe that change can occur when ordinary people, such as me, are willing to make sacrifices for the things that they believe in.
In two months, there will be another vigil at Fort Benning. Undoubtedly, some people will choose to cross the Fort Benning fence. Might you be one of them? Would you be one of those who chooses to take that step (literally) to say yes to life and human rights and no to torture and assassination? Or, if you prefer to travel to Arizona, rather than Georgia, might you take that step, instead, at Fort Huachuca? I would encourage you to think about it. I have no regrets about having crossed that fence and, I believe, that, if you crossed the fence, too, you would not regret it.
And, speaking about steps, I have finished my 500-mile walk from Chicago to Saint Paul, Minnesota, with Witness Against War (see http://www.vcnv.org). It was a good experience, and I will write more extensively about it in later posts. Above is a photograph of me on the top of Brady's Bluff at Perrot State Park, in Trempealeau, Wisconsin. The upper Mississippi River is in the background.

Witness Against War

Hi all!
I am part of the Witness Against War walk from Chicago to St. Paul, Minnesota. We started the walk on July 12 and will finish on August 30.
For more information and to see the blogs that I have posted, take a look at the Voices for Creative Nonviolence website at http://www.vcnv.org
Bye bye for now, and I will post on this blog when I return home!

Sharing the message in Washington, D.C.

Our colorful message in favor of human rights certainly attracted a lot of attention on Monday morning, near the Capital South metro station. Plenty of people who work in Congressional offices take the metro to that stop. They couldn't miss us with our signs and big banners.
OK, I know that the name of the school at Fort Benning, Georgia, is no longer "School of the Americas" or "SOA." It's the "Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation" (a real mouthful). But the message is the same... close the school and get an independent commission to investigate the instructions.
A bunch of us spent much of the day on Monday on Capitol Hill. We visited the offices of House Members and Senators and we talked to foreign policy and military policy aides in those offices. It was a very interesting and educational experience. I learned about the difference between an "authorization" bill and an "appropriations" bill. All government programs have to be reauthorized each year. Hence the "authorization" bill. But that bill doesn't pay for the programs. That is done with an "appropriations" bill.
I also learned that, in each Congressional session (two years), many bills are proposed and then are sent to committee. A good number of these bills tend to languish in committee because they lack support. Support for a bill is measured in the number of co-sponsors who sign on to that particular bill. So it is necessary for people who want a bill to be passed to contact the offices of their members of Congress to ask them to co-sponsor the bill.
In the case of Rep. McGovern's bill, HR 1707, the Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2007, we are doing well with co-sponsors, but we could be doing better. If your House member is not yet a co-sponsor of HR 1707, please ask him or her to become a co-sponsor. The best ways to do that are by calling, sending a fax, or visiting the office. If your House member is a co-sponsor, please contact the office to express your thanks. Members of Congress feel much better about taking a position on an issue when they know that they have support from their constituents.

A request from a friend

Tomorrow, I'm headed to Washington, D.C., and will be there for a week. I'm going to spend several days focused on WHINSEC and lobbying and stuff like that.
Today, Tina Busch-Nema, my friend and fellow member of the SOA 16, asked me to share something with you. It's about the terrible effects on people of countries using nuclear weapons. I can't really add much to this, so here it is...
Dear Friends,
Fatemeh Keshavarz or known my most as Fati, is a woman who teaches at Wash U here in St. Louis. Fati is from Iran and is working tirelessly to prevent an attack on her homeland.
She wrote this poem and asked it be circulated far and wide. She wants to circulate it to let make a point...the dust of these bombs infects our souls...as well as our bodies.
Tina
Meet Keiko!
Twenty years ago, when we first moved to St. Louis, I met this lively graduate student named Keiko. After twenty odd years, it is hard to recall details beyond her round face framed by short shiny black hair.
But I remember the way she moved through the building with a combination of agility and grace, in bursts of short successive moves - much the way robins would explore a tree (without making noise or knocking anything down) .
A year after we had met, Keiko died – suddenly – of lung cancer. “I didn’t know Keiko smoked!” I said to the teary-eyed friend who brought the news of her death. “She didn’t,” he said rather hurriedly, and added after a silence, “She was born in Hiroshima.” Neither of us said much after that.
Keiko’s round face and shiny black hair have come back, often, these past few days. And every time, I have caught myself drafting a letter in my head, a letter I know I will not put in the
mail:
“Dear Senator Clinton!
I write with a personal request.
If we were careless enough to hand you the key that
opens the Oval Office
And with it as many war fronts across the globe as you
wish
Please do yourself a favor, throw it away and do not
look for it!
You may want to find out first
Why the idea of “obliterating” seventy million people
does not make you shudder
And if you have the time to pass through St. Louis,
Missouri,
Please stop by and meet Keiko Yamakawa
Her round face smiling from a hand-made picture frame
Ashes of Hiroshima in her lungs”
Fatemeh Keshavarz
Asheville, North Carolina
April 29, 2008

Post-fast reflection

This morning, I broke my fast with breakfast and a good cup of tea. It felt good to enjoy the texture, tastes, and smells of food again. One of the results of my fast is that I've learned, once again, not to take food for granted. Food is a delight and a joy, a pleasure for the senses. It's also a necessity, to maintain physical strength and, indeed, to maintain life.
But, lately, the news has been about the constantly increasing price of food and how that is affecting the world. There have been images on the news of the crisis in Haiti, where people don't have enough money to buy sufficient food to provide necessary nutrition for themselves and their families. In Asia, the cost of rice is increasing astronomically.
So, I think about food... about how good it is... and about how necessary it is...
I also think about conflict in the world. The Sierra Leone story gave me hope. The war was very terrible and many people were killed. Children were given drugs and weapons and were forced to fight. They fought fiercely because the images that they had in their heads were of loved ones, who were killed in front of their eyes.
After the war, Sierra Leone started working on reunifying the country. They established a truth and reconciliation commission as a part of the healing process. That is a process that worked well in South Africa.
So... I have to relate all of this to WHINSEC/SOA... might establishing a truth and reconciliation commission help all involved to heal, to accept responsibility for wrongs done, for anger and grudges to be put aside? In my mind and in my heart, I have no doubt that this would be the right direction to go.
And so... I stop here... for now... more to come...

Fast approaching the finish line

It's 8:40 p.m. on the last day of my fast. My tummy is actually saying very little to me right now. It seems to have adapted.
Doing the fast has been a good experience for me. I hope that everyone participating in this fast has found it to be a positive experience. Although the cause that motivated me to fast centers on Latin America, I did spend much time thinking about and reading about other parts of the world that are in conflict and where people are victims of human rights violations. These include situations that, most likely, had very little to do with U.S. military training of foreign troops.
I do not believe that the United States is responsible for every bad situation in the world. It is not that powerful, after all.
My sister lent me a book to read, called A Long Way Gone:Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, by Ishmael Beah. He was a child soldier in Sierra Leone during the civil war. He tells his shocking story in a very matter of fact way. That makes the story seem even more shocking and even more horrifying.
In the course of reading the story, I found out that I had met the American woman who eventually adopted Ishmael Beah. Her name is Laura Simms, and she is a professional story teller. I met her a few years ago at a story telling retreat, called "Keeper of the the Flame," at the Chautauqua Institution. She and I bonded and, although it has been a few years since I've seen her, I feel that we would connect instantly when we next meet. I said "when" and not "if" because I have no doubt that we will meet again at some point.
Sierra Leone went through a terrible civil war that lasted eleven years. For someone who was a child at the time, it must have seemed as if the war would never end. But, fortunately, the war did come to an end and a truth and reconciliation commission was established to find out what exactly went wrong and to try to make sure that this horrible history would never be repeated. You can find out more at http://www.trcsierraleone.org/drwebsite/publish/index.shtml
I also think about the story told by Dominic Ding at the Lenten Luncheon last month here in Grand Island. Dominic Ding is a young man from the southern part of Sudan. He and his brothers ran away from their home in 1986. They were running for their lives. Just a year later, the Sudanese government ordered all boys in southern Sudan to be killed. So many boys fled. These boys were called the "lost boys of Sudan." They walked for many miles and, along the way, quite a few of them died. Dominic Ding was one of the survivors who found their way to a refugee camp in Kenya. A number of the lost boys, including Dominic and one of his brothers, came to the United States in 2001.
Some of the Lost Boys traveled to the United States on September 11. When they saw the news of the terrorist attacks, they were horrified and thought that they had brought their war with them to the United States. The Lost Boys who came to the United States have been very focused on their education, and many of them have graduated from college. Dominic Ding is now a graduate student. He wants to be a teacher and he has teaching experience. He did some teaching at the refugee camp in Kenya and he works with refugee children in Buffalo, New York, helping them get adjusted to a different culture. His photograph is above.
Dominic Ding and Ishmael Beah are two amazing young men who have endured things as children that are beyond the comprehension of most of us.
I have the deepest admiration for them.
So... it's getting late and soon, my fast will be just a memory.
This will be my last "fast report."
I'm headed to Washington, D.C., on Friday, and will update this blog after I return from that adventure.
Ciao for now.

day three, 1:00 p.m.

This morning, I noticed that my tummy had stopped complaining. That's a good thing. Tomorrow, I'll break my fast and give it some well-deserved attention.
I decided to go to a drug store where a free blood glucose and cholesterol screening were being offered. The nurse gave me a form to fill out, which I did, and then, I waited for my turn to have my little pin prick. That didn't take long, as there was only one person in front of me. Once I was seated in front of the nurse's table, I informed her that I was on a three-day fast. I told her that because that does affect the results of the blood tests.
"Why are you fasting?" the nurse asked me.
I told her that I was fasting to close the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas.
"What's that?" she asked.
I told her about the school and that it had been in business for sixty years and that it is in Fort Benning, Georgia. I told her that it used to be in Panama until a few years after the renegotiated Panama Canal treaties went into effect. The Panama Canal treaties were renegotiated in the late 1970s and went into effect in the early 1980s. I told the nurse that the Panamanians renamed the school, "the school of the assassins."
The nurse said that was not a good thing.
Five minutes after the test was done, I got my results, which were not particularly good for cholesterol. I arranged with my doctor to have a follow-up test.
Could I be consuming a little too much chocolate???
Hmmm. Maybe a fast is a good thing for me.
I'll write another update later.
Ciao for now.

Day two, 9:00 p.m.

Today was a good day. I finished my work for my Big Media Job, and I got to go to Stella Niagara in Lewiston for my friend Jinni's watercolor painting class. Lewiston is a beautiful village, with lots of interesting shops and a state park dedicated to visual and performing arts (Artpark). It's also right on the Niagara gorge, and that is always a stunning sight, winter or summer. Springtime is best for me. I was well distracted from the yelps of my tummy by the beauty of the hyacinths, forsythia, jonquils, and daffodils. Also, I've noticed some azalea bushes starting to blossom. The trees are turning green again.
Hmm, well, I learned a lot about horticulture when I was in prison and working in the greenhouse (which has since fallen over in a windstorm).
But I digress. The painting class was great fun. We all made paintings with people in them, which was good because last week, we found drawing people to be a bit nightmarish, and we started to rebel. This week, we learned a new technique, which made drawing and painting the people to be a whole lot easier. My painting featured a couple dancing on water's edge beneath a full moon. In the background, there was a lighthouse on a hill.
Sister Celia looked at my painting and said, "Love is in the air."
I'm not entirely sure of what motivated me to choose this romantic theme but I did...
... and I'm glad that I did...
I'm thinking that my choice of themes to paint may have been a reminder to myself that my protest isn't just about getting rid of the negative... the violence of wars that leads to torture and assassination... it's about saying that all people deserve to have positive, life-affirming experiences... which they can't really have if there are military trained to commit human rights violations running around their countries!
My tummy wasn't really growling while I was painting... I was probably well distracted... so all is good... I'm feeling strong and happy that I chose to make this statement for human rights.
I hope that you are feeling well and, if you're fasting, too, I hope that you're feeling strong...
I'll post again tomorrow.

turning into a pumpkin

It's midnight, and I'm turning into a pumpkin. Day one of my fast is complete. I'm thinking about a world in which torture doesn't exist, where no one would even think that torture is the way to "get information" or, even more shocking, "to protect our freedom."
I'm thinking about a world in which governments admit that they made mistakes and where truth and reconciliation commissions dig deep into past injustices so that they don't become present injustices or future injustices.
I'm thinking about a world in which diplomacy is used to settle international disputes and war is not seen as a first-choice in exercising foreign policy.
It's late... and my tummy is still growling... but I really don't think that I'm asking for too much... when I ask for governmental leaders to act in a mature way... to practice diplomacy and nonviolence... to work for peace... and to say torture and assassination and massacres are never acceptable...
... on the other hand, when I listen to the presidential candidates bash each other and avoid discussing the issues...
Enough said. I'll write more tomorrow...

wow

I'm working on my articles for Friday's edition of the Island Dispatch.
I'm being good and keeping hydrated by drinking my water, not just keeping a bottle of water next to me as a visual aid.
My tummy is demanding attention.
My head and heart understand what this fast is all about...
... and my head and heart ask readers of this blog to please call their congressional representatives and ask them to co-sponsor HR 1707, the Latin America Military Training Review Act of 2007. This legislation would call for the suspension of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning. It would also call for an independent commission to investigate the instruction at that school. It is very similar to the recommendation made by Amnesty International in its 2002 report, Unmet Principles, Unmatched Power.
It is a very good idea.
My tummy is still complaining.
Time to drink some water.
I'll be back later.

Day one, 2:00 p.m.

I was watching television earlier this afternoon. I couldn't help but notice how many commercials there are for food. Even the food that I don't like looked so tasty. It was bright and colorful, surrounded by happy people. I'm probably noticing it because of my fast. Come to think of it, even when I don't fast, which is most of the time, I notice food.
So... when I'm not fantasizing about food, I'm thinking about the ten folks who are currently in prison for crossing the Fort Benning fence on November 18, 2007. At least some of them are fasting. I am grateful for their witness and their determination.
So... it's afternoon on the first day. I've done three-day fasts in the past, and the first day is always the most challenging.
I'll drink some more water... and juice... and go back to work on my Big Media Job. More later.
Ciao.

Upcoming fast!

I start my fast tomorrow. For someone who is as food oriented as I am, fasting is a big challenge. But, when I think about the massacres and the torture and all of the human rights violations that occur in this world, either directly or indirectly because of military aid and training provided by my government, my sacrifice seems very small indeed.
Although I have been part of a movement that has focused on one military training school for foreign troops in the United States, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known as the School of the Americas), I am well aware that the United States runs many of these schools. They train troops from around the world. Troops are trained in the United States and in the home countries of those troops. The U.S. government tends to provide military aid and training to the dictator or thug who is serving U.S. interests best at any particular time. The example that is usually cited is the aid provided to the Taliban when the former Soviet Union was bogged down in its war with Afghanistan. When the dictator or thug stops serving U.S. interests... well... gosh, it's hard to untrain those bad guys...
So... I'm fasting to send a message to the government... stop repeating the same mistakes over and over again... stop training foreign troops to do things that U.S. troops would get court martialed for doing (although, sometimes, they do it, and only the lower level troops get punished).
Gotta get some chocolate while I still can... I'll write again tomorrow!!!!

Fasting for human rights and life

I invite anyone reading this blog to join me in fasting from April 23rd through the 25th to say yes to human rights and to life and no to torture and assassination!
My fast is in conjunction with a nationwide effort by the School of the Americas Watch to focus attention on the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas. My hope is that Congress will implement Amnesty International's recommendation of suspending operations of the school, pending an investigation by an independent commission. It is only by learning the truth, whatever it may turn out to be, that healing can begin.
The upcoming fast will be my second fast with SOA Watch. I participated in my first fast last April, while serving a six-month sentence for crossing the Fort Benning fence in November 2006. Fasting in prison was not a very difficult chore nor did it seem like a huge sacrifice, as the food served in federal prison is... well... OK... but not too awesome! Fasting at home... well, that's a different story... because the food is awesome!
So... please join me; I'll be posting regular updates on what it's like to fast when surrounded by delicious foods and wonderful aromas! And, if you do join me, make sure to consume plenty of liquids! Getting dehydrated is not part of the plan!

Anniversaries

March 19th was the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war. People had their say on the streets of Washington, D.C., Syracuse, N.Y., and other places. And March 21st was the anniversary of the day last year that I self-surrendered to the federal prison in Danbury, Connecticut, to begin my six-month sentence for crossing the fence at Fort Benning, to say no to torture and assassination and yes to human rights and to life. I marked these anniversaries quietly and sadly, but with a little bit of hope for the first time in a long time.
After so many years of feeling horror when listening to and watching news of war, torture, and violence, I am looking forward to a future in which human rights may once again be respected. Although I did not support Barack Obama when he announced his candidacy, I now feel that he may be the best hope that this country has of ending that disastrous and pointless Iraq war. I have hopes that he will use the presidency to say no to torture, assassination, and war and yes to human rights and to life.
Of the three candidates who are left in the race, I see Barack Obama as the best choice. The candidate whom I had supported at the start of the campaign, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, has also thrown his support behind Barack Obama.
I am hoping that a president Barack Obama will work hard for human rights throughout the world... in Iraq and Afghanistan, in Darfur and Tibet, in Burma and Colombia, and right here in the United States. Implementing Amnesty International's 2002 recommendation for Congress to suspend operations of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation and appoint an independent commission to investigate the school and its alleged connections to human rights abuses in Latin America. These human rights abuses include massacres, assassinations, and torture.
These things have no place in a civilized society. Yet they seem to be the topic of today's discourse. We have a president who gave the message that torture may be necessary to protect us against terrorists and rogue governments that harbor weapons of mass destruction. Ugh! Might that have been something that Vlad Dracula would have said? There is a story that, back in the 1400s, Vlad Dracula invited all of the beggars into his castle for a meal. After the beggars had enjoyed their food, Dracula then burned down the castle so there would be no more poor people in his realm. We're supposed to be more civilized than that. We're supposed to leave that sort of barbarity in the past.
But have we?
Our government has vast stockpiles of nuclear weapons, stashed all over the country. Yet we have a president who started a war against Iraq because it supposedly had "weapons of mass destruction," despite the fact that the weapons inspectors couldn't locate them. Our government refuses to have normal diplomatic relations with Cuba because it says that Cuba does not honor human rights. Ironically enough, the chief symbol of the U.S. government's lack of regard for human rights, Guantanamo Bay, is located on the island of Cuba.
Will an Obama administration do better?
I believe that it will.

Lobby Days in May

The School of the Americas Watch will hold Lobby Days in Washington, D.C., from May 4th through the 6th. I intend to be there, to visit Congressional offices, to encourage Congressional staff members to ask their bosses to use their votes to say no to torture and assassination and yes to human rights and to life!
There is no place for either torture or assassination in a civilized society. I'd like to encourage everyone who reads this blog to write or call your Congressional representatives and ask them to co-sponsor HR 1707, the bill to suspend operations of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation and to put in place an independent investigation of the instruction that has been offered at both that school and the school that it claims to replace, the School of the Americas.
The public relations staff at WHINSEC continues to claim that their school has no connection with the former School of the Americas. They claim that they are a new school for a new century and that they don't teach any of the bad stuff that was taught at the School of the Americas. On the other hand, they are spending an awful lot of time and money to prevent HR 1707 from being passed. So... why are they working so hard to prevent an independent investigation?
The PR staff of WHINSEC has all sorts of tricks at their disposal to influence Congress and the media...
... but we have our passion... some of us have first-hand experience of the brutality of some of the SOA graduates... many of us know someone who was a torture victim, who was related to a torture victim, who witnessed a massacre...
... and we need to share that with our Congressional representatives.
I am looking forward to going to Washington, D.C.
I could not go to Georgia in November. I chose not to take such a long trip or to be with a lot of people just two months after being released from prison. And, as it turned out, I was not healthy enough to travel. A sinus infection somehow developed into pneumonia, and I was a very sick Alice for more than a month.
I am feeling much stronger and much better now, and I am looking forward to going to Washington, D.C., in May.
No, I don't have any extravagant gifts for the Congressional offices. No bouquets, no paintings, no musical compositions commissioned especially for them. But I do have my passion and my determination to continue to say yes to human rights and to life and no to torture and assassination.
Please visit the School of the Americas website (there's a link on this page) to read about the SOA 11, the folks who are on trial next week for crossing the Fort Benning fence to say no to torture and assassination and yes to human rights and to life!

snow, wind, and a glimmer of light...

note: This is my March 2007 newsletter
In mid-January, winter finally arrived here in Western New York, with ice, wind, snow, and breath-defying temperatures.
The ice made the bare tree branches glow with the prism of fractured colors on a sunny day. During that time, I returned to Columbus, Georgia, for trial for stepping through a hole in the Fort Benning fence.
I visited the Riverwalk along the Chattahoochee River for a few peaceful walks. The air was not frigid, as it was in Western New York, but it was cold.
I looked deep into the water, and saw that it flowed gently and seemingly endlessly. Ducks floated by on the surface of the water. I walked past patches of violas, those hardy plants that bloom brightly in temperatures that would kill other flowers. I bent down and photographed the plants.
It was during those quiet moments that I looked inward for the words that I would say in court to answer the question: why did I cross that fence for a third time? Why did I risk another six-month sentence in federal prison?
The ducks and violas had reminded me of the quiet joy of being alive. I was free to enjoy a peaceful walk along a river. Despite the cold and the bare trees, the experience was life-affirming. And affirming life is what led me to the Fort Benning fence. I was not there just to say no to torture and to assassination but to say yes to human rights and to life.
Originally, I chose to cross the Fort Benning fence as a means to express my horror that my language school classmate, Sister Dianna Ortiz, had been tortured by military who had been trained in their violent acts right here in the United States. I was horrified by what had happened to her. But she survived and is now the executive director of the Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International (TASSC International).
Many others who were tortured by U.S. trained military did not survive. Many of them disappeared without a trace. They had friends, too who can never have closure. I think of the mothers and the grandmothers (abuelas) of the disappeared who continue to stand with photographs of their loved ones in Plaza de Mayo in Argentina.
When I learned about the 1,000 Grandmothers group that Cathy Webster started for the Fort Benning protest, I thought about the ladies of the Plaza de Mayo. And so, I chose to cross again, to affirm life and to remember those who had died as a result of my government's policies. When I stepped through that hole in the Fort Benning fence, I carried with me a cross inscribed with a man's name. The Salvadoran man had been 105 years old when he was killed. I remember being shocked that someone who was old suffered such a violent death.
I was able to carry only one cross through that hole in the fence but, in my heart, I carried many others. I remembered the judicial anti-drug squad who had been massacred by the Farallones High Mountain Battalion of the Colombian Army's Third Brigade in May 2006. I remembered the eight members of the San Jose de Apartado Peace Community of Colombia who had been killed by members of the 17th brigade, led by SOA graduate Brigadier General Hector Jaime Rincon, in 2005.
I chose to make a stand for the human rights that had been denied to these individuals. I wanted to say that these folks' lives had meaning and that the world had not been made safer by their violent deaths. By crossing the fence, I used my body to say that I valued life and human rights more than my personal freedom. I talked about my motivations in court.
"I came to petition my government for a redress of grievances. I was welcomed by fences, barbed wire, no trespassing signs, and hordes of police. I was welcomed by the sight of no governmental official willing to listen to my concerns or to accept my petitions. I felt lost in a security state that I could not understand..."
I also read in Spanish and English part of Archbishop Oscar Romero's final homily before he was assassinated by an SOA-trained death squad. He talked directly to the soldiers, begging them to end the violence that was consuming his country. I chose to speak those words because I felt that Archbishop Romero's words came from the perspective of someone who had the strength to speak truth to power, even though he knew that he was placing his own life in danger.
"Hermanos, vienen de neustra gente estan matando a sus propios hermanos. cualquier orden a matar, ha de ser coforme a la ley de Dios, el caul dice, no maten!
Nadie tiene que obedecer ninguna orden que sea inmoral.
Es tiemo que obedezca a su conciencia y no las ordenes inmorales.
La Iglesia no pueda mantenerse en silenci antes dicha abominacion...
En el nobre de Dios, en el nombre del pueblo sufrido cuys gritos leegan cada dia mas fuerte al cielo, les pido, les ruego, les ordeno, para la represion!
"Brothers, you come from your own people. You are killing your own brothers. Any human order to kill must be subordinate to the law of God, which says, 'Thou shat not kill.' No soldier is obliged to obey an order contrary to the law of God. No one has to obey an immoral law. It is high time you obeyed your consciences rather than sinful orders. The church cannot remain silent before such an abomination... in the name of God, in the name of this suffering people whose cry rises to heaven more loudly each day, I implore you, I beg you, I order you: stop the repression."
After I finished, the prosecutor, Stuart Alcorn, asked Judge G. Mallon Faircloth to sentence me to six months in federal prison because this was "the third time that she's crossed in five years." Judge Faircloth agreed with the prosecution and he sentenced me to six months in prison.
At the end of my six month sentence, I will regain my freedom and will go home. I see it as a small sacrifice when I think of the friends and families of the disappeared, who may never know what happened to their loved ones and who have to live with that pain for the rest of their lives.
I will begin my six-month sentence on Wednesday, March 21, at the federal prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut.
Thank you for all of your support and for the work that you do to say yes to human rights and to life!

SOA 16

Julienne Oldfield sent me this picture of the SOA 16, all together as a group in a circle.
We are still together in spirit, although we are separated by miles now and will be in separate prison facilities to serve our sentences.
Some of us have been notified as to where we are to serve our sentences and when we are expected at our new "homes." My notice came first, sooner than I anticipated. I will serve my six-month sentence at the federal prison camp in Danbury, Connecticut. I have to deliver myself there on March 21, the first day of spring. I am looking to come back home somewhere around the 19th of September.
Even though I've been in prison in the past, the prospect of spending six months in federal prison is still a bit daunting and even scary. But, even so, I am fortunate. I am going to prison for something that I truly believe in. I am going to prison because I chose to carry a message that said yes to life and human rights and no to torture and assassination onto the grounds of Fort Benning, home of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (formerly known as the School of the Americas). I chose to leave a cross on the grounds of Fort Benning, bearing the name of an old man who had been killed by people trained by my government. I left that cross in a spirit of hope, not despair, however. The hope is that no more old men, young women, babies, children, or any other people will be killed or tortured by troops trained by my government. The hope is also that my government will establish a truth and reconciliation commission so that some redress can be afforded to the victims of U.S.-sponsored violence against civilians.