This is a followup to my post yesterday, on a few boards and my site. on the happenings at our Very Own Terrorist Training School, the once known as 'The School Of The America's'!
Yesterdays was an updated E - Newsletter from The SOA Watch on what took place on Saturday 11-17-07.
This one covers the happenings on Sunday 11-18-07.
25,000 Strong! Eleven Arrested for Nonviolent Civil Disobedience
Sunday, November 18
The 18th annual Vigil to Close the SOA was one of the largest and most vibrant yet. As early as 7 am, Veterans for Peace and supporters began marching along Victory Drive to the gates of Fort Benning where Gennaro Jacinto Calel from the International Mayan League offered a Mayan Blessing.
Some known names were in attendance.
U.S. presidential candidates Dennis Kucinich and Cynthia McKinney, Sister Mary Waskowiak and Rabbi Michael Lerner, addressed the crowd with messages of hope, and Adriana Portillo Bartow gave a tribute to Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the El Mozote massacre of over 900 men, women and children in El Salvador.
Simultaneous actions took place throughout the weekend in Santiago, Chile; Fort Huachuca, Arizona; Monterey, California; San Francisco, California; and Toronto, Canada. More than three hundred people rallied against torture outside the gates of Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center and school for interrogation. Three people were arrested during the rally as they tried to bring their witness against torture onto the base. Betsy Lamb, Mary Burton Riseley, and Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada were taken into custody and charged with criminal trespass on a military installation and failure to comply with a police officer.
This has been a very exciting and energizing weekend of celebration and we invite you to continue to check the SOA Watch website for updates regarding this year's vigil, We also ask that you make a contribution to SOA Watch so that we can continue the organizing work to close down the SOA/WHINSEC, to end the racist system of violence and domination that the school represents and to create a culture of justice and peace.
I received the update on Saturdays action at Benning, in Georgia, yesterday afternoon. Sadly I couldn't make the event but wanted to share what they have going on with others who also couldn't or are not a subscriber to the School of the Americas Watch Newsletter.
18,000 human rights advocates from around the country and from all walks life have filled up Fort Benning Drive, the main access to Fort Benning's main gate. The presence began this morning with songs from the musicians collective and a welcome message from Fr. Roy Bourgeois and former prisoner of conscience Martina Le Force.
"We are gathered here today in the name of peace and to send a message of love and solidarity to our sisters and brothers of Latin America an all the countries of the world where people have been victimized by our government's foreign policy. We are here to express our outrage and call for the closing of this school, this combat training school for Latin American soldiers which has graduated so many human rights abusers year after year," said Fr. Roy.
Apparently the authorities at Fort Benning once again tried their damnest to disrupt the non-violent and peaceful gathering by setting off sirens and flying military helicopters above the stage.
As Martina Le Force said during her morning speech, "they fear us because we are branching out, we are a unified international movement and we have more friends than the Bush administration and it's silly wars will ever have".
The question of the SOA/WHINSEC, and what this country should do about it's very own terrorist training camp, though not all graduates turn out to be Despots, Murderers, or potential Dictators of the countries they come from, many seem to take their U.S. Military Training to advance their own Ideological wants, should be near the top of the lists of questions to all running for seats in Congress, especially those that would be new to those halls of representation of the people.
As it is apparently with Representative Jim McGovern.
who earlier this year introduced an amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations bill that would have cut funding for the SOA/WHINSEC, confirmed his commitment to continue working until the SOA is shut down for good. 203 members of Congress voted in favor of the McGovern/Lewis amendment which lost by a margin of only six votes. HR 1707, the bill that would suspend operations at WHINSEC is still alive and we encourage you to continue to pressure your members of Congress to become co-sponsors.
While they gathered on Saturday and Today, Sunday,
simultaneous events are taking place in Chile, Canada, Arizona, San Francisco and Monterey in California. We have also received solidarity statements from different countries in Latin America where human rights organizations are fighting to close the SOA and hold human rights violators accountable for their actions.
The evening closed with an amazing Puppet Peagant as a tribute to Rufina Amaya, the sole survivor of the El Mozote massacre in El Salvador, who passed earlier this year due to a heart condition.
Visit the SOA Watch website to find out much more about SOA if not familiar. Also, either here or at the site Click to subscribe to the News Letter. It's not intrusive but is very informative.
You can read more about the SOA Action, in the Ledger EnquirerHere {scroll down just a tad, it closes with this "Or you can just crack open a beer and complain about all the God bless’n hippies."}, or here: SOA protest is personal for Kucinich, or Here, and also Here. Some are earlier articles from the 17th, and one from today.
