School of the Americas Watch Vigil---a unique protest

[roody]

If you can be in Columbus, GA, this coming weekend,
Edited on Mon Nov-12-07 06:25 PM by roody
you will have the chance to participate in an incredible vigil to commemorate the lives of victims of death squads in Latin America. The event is unlike any other protest. It is quiet, solemn, and spiritual. An atheist like me revels in being surrounded by Christians that believe the teachings of Jesus Christ and are willing to go to jail for 6 months for trespassing at Fort Benning Army Base. The event is the School of the Americas Watch Vigil.
Vigil and Nonviolent Direct Action to Close the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC) - November 16-18, 2007
On the weekend of November 16-18, thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia for the Vigil and the Nonviolent Direct Action to Close the School of the Americas. Take a Stand for Justice!
The weekend will include a massive rally, nonviolent direct action training, workshops, benefit concerts, puppet shows, teach-ins and more! Please check back soon for schedule changes and updates.
http://soaw.org/article.php?id=1295

[NightWatcher]

1. One word of advice. DO NOT CROSS THE LINE

you will go to jail. It sounds like a lot of fun and can make you feel great, but they will throw you in jail for at least a weekend.

[roody]

2. The judge will sentence you to 3 to 6 months in prison,

a federal prison near your home.

[DCKit]

3. The death squads funded and trained by US for their strong-arm dictators?

That would be like spitting on the image of St. Ronnie and every other wonderful pResident all the way back to who knows?

FDR famously said of a Nicaraguan dictator "Yeah, Somoza's a son of a bitch, but he's OUR son of a bitch."

http://www.omnicenter.org/warpeacecollection/dictators.htm

:puke:

[GreenInNC]

4. I'll be there

I will be there this weekend.

They have really cracked down on civil disobedience over that last few years. I was arrested several years ago and just got a slap on the wrist. Now they throw you the federal pen.

[Algorem]

5. Dennis Kucinich is scheduled to speak at this year's rally

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/news-article.aspx?storyid=95830

Military School Protesters, Fort Supporters To Rally This Weekend

COLUMBUS, GA (AP) -- Thousands of protesters will gather in front of Fort Benning this weekend, just as they have for the last 18 years, to demand the closing of an Army school that trains Latin American military officers.

The protesters say they now have some political momentum on theirside in the fight to shut down the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation -- formerly known as the School of the Americas.

A proposal demanding that the school disclose the names of its graduates was approved by the House this year. And an amendment that would have cut the institution's funding fell six votes short of passage. Organizers say Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is scheduled to speak at this year's rally, which is expected to attract more than 20,000 demonstrators to the Fort Benning gates when it starts tomorrow.

Meanwhile, a crowd of more than 20,000 is expected to gather Saturday in downtown Columbus for the annual God Bless Fort Benning festival, featuring radio personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger. The event celebrates the fort's role in the community. Members of both groups may wind up mingling...


SOA Protest Draws Scant Support From Candidates

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20071112/mulvaney

Patrick Mulvaney


Heading into its eighteenth annual protest at Georgia's Fort Benning, the movement to close the US Army's School of the Americas has continued to show signs of progress. The House nearly voted to eliminate funding for the SOA this session, with newly elected Democrats tightening the roll-call count to 203-214. Meanwhile, the governments of Costa Rica and Bolivia announced that they would cut ties with the SOA, becoming the fourth and fifth Latin American countries to do so in the past four years. But in a sign that the SOA protest movement has a long road yet to travel, only two of the eight Democratic candidates for President--Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and former Senator Mike Gravel of Alaska--would close the controversial institution if elected to the White House.

Established in the Panama Canal Zone in 1946 and moved to Fort Benning, near Columbus, Georgia, in 1984, the SOA has instructed more than 60,000 Latin American soldiers in military and law-enforcement tactics. The Pentagon has acknowledged that in the past the institution utilized training manuals advocating coercive interrogation techniques and extrajudicial executions. SOA alumni, after returning to Latin America, have committed countless human rights atrocities, often in the course of creating and maintaining military dictatorships. Responding to that history, Congress intervened in 2001 by renaming the SOA the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) and revising its structure and curriculum.

With Congressional reforms on the books for six years, the SOA may hold less practical significance now than in decades past. Nonetheless, the institution retains an unparalleled symbolic position, given Washington's continuing history of manipulating the hemisphere's politics through military training and funding. "The school is important because it's about US policy in Latin America and how we've been on the side of military dictators who oppress their own people," said Roy Bourgeois, the Catholic priest who founded SOA Watch, in a recent interview. "Any presidential candidate who is serious about changing has to address this school because from the beginning it's been more about protecting US economic interests than contributing to the development of these countries."


Though only Kucinich and Gravel called for closure of the SOA, all but one of the Democratic candidates for President offered comments (through their campaigns) in response to inquiries about the institution...