[Dryerase] SOA nonviolent actions continue

[Shawn G]

SOA nonviolent actions continue; 2 arrested, including IMC journalist

By Melissa Fridlin

Columbus, Georgia, July 15 (AGR)— As  the week-long trial of the “SOA 37” 
concluded on Friday, School of the Americas Watch (SOA Watch) activists 
continued the tradition of nonviolent action against the SOA/WHISC by 
staging another action at the main gate of Fort Benning.

Judge G. Mallon Faircloth gave twenty-nine human rights activists sentences 
ranging from three to six months in federal prison. Seven defendants 
received six months probation. Fines ranged up to $5,000.

Ken Crowley of Houston, TX was the first defendant called before the judge 
for sentencing. His attorney stated that the federal probation office had 
made a recommendation that he be sentenced to 12 months probation and a $500 
fine. Judge Faircloth ordered attorneys and defendants not to bring up any 
of the other probation office recommendations during sentencing. It is 
believed that a majority of the defendants received similar recommendations.

The defendants were among 10,000 who gathered last fall to call for the 
closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation 
(WHISC), formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA).  They were 
charged with trespassing after peacefully crossing onto the property of Fort 
Benning, site of the school, on Nov. 18, 2001.

The SOA/WHISC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers that 
operates at Fort Benning, Georgia. Many human rights organizations have 
published reports that directly link graduates of the school to human rights 
abuses and atrocities. In December 2000, Congress passed legislation which 
created the WHISC to replace the SOA. The renaming of the school was widely 
viewed as an attempt to defuse public criticism and to disassociate the 
school from its reputation. Critics say that the school has changed little 
of its notorious curriculum.

Many of the activists on trial wore t-shirts proclaiming: “You Can Jail the 
Resisters But You Can’t Jail the Resistance.”  SOA Watch  activists followed 
through on that statement by continuing nonviolent action on Saturday, just 
12 hours after sentencing concluded.

The front gates of Fort Benning were closed at 10am on Saturday by SOA Watch 
staff person Rebecca Johnson, who chained them shut and locked herself to 
the gates. She sat underneath a sign that read: “Lock up SOA/WHISC, Not 
Peacemakers!”

Johnson was joined by a vigil including some of the 37 who were sentenced 
and their supporters who gathered in a permitted demonstration area. No cars 
were able to enter the base through this entrance during the three hours it 
took Ft. Benning authorities to remove her.

Frank Salerno, a journalist for the Atlanta Independent Media Center and 
Free Speech Radio, was also arrested while videotaping the action. Stepping 
a few feet over the line to get a better camera angle, Salerno stepped back 
when told that he was trespassing.  Approximately 30 minutes later, he was 
detained by base security while on the Columbus side of the property line.

After being questioned, fingerprinted and photographed, Salerno was released 
without being charged with a crime. His camera, film and notebooks were 
confiscated and held as “evidence.” This is the first time that a journalist 
has been arrested while covering an SOA protest.

Though long and often tedious, last week’s trial allowed the 37 defendants 
to tell their personal stories and reasons for risking a possible sentence 
of six months in prison and a $5,000 fine.

Richard Ring, a paralegal from Atlanta, GA, said, “While I was in Guatemala, 
I asked the people there what I could do to help, and they answered, ‘If you 
really want to help, go home and change your country,’” said Ring.  “So I 
came to Fort Benning and thought, ‘What else can I do but cross the line?’”

Many of the defendants challenged Judge Faircloth to find them not guilty, 
claiming that they were following a higher law when they crossed the line. 
The power of jury nullification was brought up several times.  This power 
allows judges and juries to declare a defendant not guilty based on other 
factors, even when the evidence proves that the person actually committed 
the crime in question.

Father Bill O’Donnell, a 72-year-old Catholic priest from Berkeley, CA, who 
has been arrested 224 times for civil disobedience over the last 46 years, 
condemned the court for being involved in “a sinister partnership with the 
Pentagon.”

“This court has for years been pimping for the Pentagon, and as a pimp does, 
it covers up for the crimes of its prostitutes,” he charged.  He then asked 
Faircloth to sentence him to six months at the WHISC instead of prison, so 
that he could “emerge and tell whether it has mended its ways.”

Faircloth eventually did offer the possibility to nine defendants (not 
including Father O’Donnell) who were “first-timers,” people who have only 
crossed onto the base one time during a protest.

The sentence would have included six months federal probation, with the 
requirement of attending classes at the WHISC for the entire six months. In 
addition, the defendants would not have been allowed to leave Muskogee and 
Chattahoochee counties for the duration of the probation.

All of the defendants eventually refused the offer, saying that they could 
not in good conscience attend the WHISC, and would prefer to spend their 
sentence in a jail cell.

During the trial of Peter Gelderloos, US Army Major Joseph Blair, a former 
instructor at the SOA, testified for the defense. “A few months ago, I 
reviewed the new curriculum of the WHISC.  I found no substantive changes. 
The courses I reviewed were the same identical courses that I taught at the 
SOA in the 80’s; they simply changed the names… The WHISC continues to teach 
military practices to control civilian populations, directly violating 
treaties of the Organization of American States, domestic and international 
human rights laws, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, NAFTA and 
other laws.”

Gelderloos used Blair’s testimony to add to the evidence proving the urgency 
of the need to close the school.  The judge, however, consistently refused 
the “necessity defense,” saying that there was no reason to believe that by 
trespassing on Fort Benning, that the defendants could have immediately 
stopped atrocities from happening.

While activists were processing the sentences that were passed down on 
Friday, they were simultaneously celebrating.  Steve Jacobs, one of 26 
people prosecuted last year for similar actions, was released from 
Leavenworth Federal Prison on Friday. He had completed a one-year sentence 
for crossing onto Ft. Benning during SOA Watch’s November 2000 vigil and 
action.

Even as Jacobs returned home, others were entering jail. Five of the “SOA 
37” were taken into custody immediately following sentencing, after refusing 
to voluntarily report to prison.  The rest of the defendants were released 
pending self-report to federal prison.





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