Priests protesting torture jailed

[redwitch]

Information Clearing House <http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/>
Priests Protesting Torture Jailed
By Bill Quigley

10/18/07 -- -- Louis Vitale, 75, a Franciscan priest, and Steve Kelly, 58, a Jesuit priest, were each sentenced to five months in federal prison for attempting to deliver a letter opposing the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca in Arizona. Both priests were taken directly into jail from the courtroom after sentencing.

Fort Huachuca is the headquarters of military intelligence in the U.S. and the place where military and civilian interrogators are taught how to extract information from prisoners. The priests attempted to deliver their letter to Major General Barbara Fast, commander of Fort Huachuca. Fast was previously the head of all military intelligence in Iraq during the atrocities of Abu Ghraib.

The priests were arrested while kneeling in prayer halfway up the driveway to Fort Huachuca in November 2006. Both priests were charged with trespass on a military base and resisting orders of an officer to stop.

In a pre-trial heating, the priests attempted to introduce evidence of torture, murder, and gross violations of human rights in Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib in Iraq, and at Guantanamo. The priests offered investigative reports from the FBI, the US Army, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Physicians for Social Responsibility documenting hundreds of incidents of human rights violations. Despite increasing evidence of the use of torture by U.S. forces sanctioned by President Bush and others, the federal court in Tucson refused to allow any evidence of torture, the legality of the invasion of Iraq, or international law to be a part of the trial.

Outside the courthouse, before the judge ordered them to prison, the priests explained their actions: "The real crime here has always been the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca and the practice of torture around the world. We tried to deliver a letter asking that the teaching of torture be stopped and were arrested. We tried to put the evidence of torture on full and honest display in the courthouse and were denied. We were prepared to put on evidence about the widespread use of torture and human rights abuses committed during interrogations at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo in Iraq and Afhganistan. This evidence was gathered by the military itself and by governmental and human rights investigations."

Fr. Vitale, a longtime justice and peace activist in San Francisco and Nevada, said: "Because the court will not allow the truth of torture to be a part of our trial, we plead no contest. We are uninterested in a court hearing limited to who was walking where and how many steps it was to the gate. History will judge whether silencing the facts of torture is just or not. Far too many people have died because of our national silence about torture. Far too many of our young people in the military have been permanently damaged after following orders to torture and violate the human rights of other humans."

Fr. Kelly, who walked to the gates of Guantanamo with the Catholic Worker group in December of 2005, concluded: "We will keep trying to stop the teaching and practice of torture whether we are sent to jail or out. We have done our part for now. Now it is up to every woman and man of conscience to do their part to stop the injustice of torture."

The priests were prompted to protest by continuing revelations about the practice of torture by U.S. military and intelligence officers. The priests were also deeply concerned after learning of the suicide in Iraq of a young, devout female military interrogator in Iraq, Alyssa Peterson of Arizona, shortly after arriving in Iraq. Peterson was reported to be horrified by the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners.

Investigation also revealed that Fort Huachuca was the source of infamous "torture manuals" distributed to hundreds of Latin American graduates of the U.S. Army School of Americas at Fort Benning, GA. Demonstrations against the teaching of torture at Fort Huachuca have been occurring for the past several years each November and are scheduled again for November 16 and 17 this year.

Bill Quigley is a human rights lawyer and professor at Loyola University New Orleans. Bill can be reached at [e-mail] .

[GeminiProgressive]

1. You have got to be kidding me

welcome to democracy!

[applegrove]

2. About time we see RC establishment protesting something other than

abortion, distribution of condums and gay marriage.

[Riktor]

5. The Catholic position is more dynamic than that

While the Catholic church remains staunchly conservative on sexual and reproductive rights, the Church has likewise been staunchly opposed to human rights violations, at least in recent history. Likewise, the Church has had a history of siding with the Democrats more often than the Republicans. This isn't the first instance of Catholic clergy stepping up the US government's draconian practices abroad. A number of Latin American clergy, including a few archbishops, were very vocal in denouncing the School of the Americas and its successor, WHINSEC.

I'm not defending the Church's archaic position on sex and reproduction, but they have shown a history of supporting social services programs and opposing brutal repression. I guess that makes them a tad more ideologically consistent than their evangelical cousins, who tout themselves as beacons of morality while supporting the death penalty and military aggression.

At any rate, I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. These fellows stood up to the government in opposing something which is blatantly contrary to normative human behavior, and they were slapped for it. That's fairly admirable in my opinion, regardless of how they may feel about gays and abortion.

[applegrove]

6. I am glad they stood up. Really I am. But I have seen too many catholics

put down the use of condoms in Africa where there is an AIDs epidemic to have much sympathy for their good works over the last few years. For sure they have been at the forefront of human rights in Latin America. I'm just happy when they are doing good.

[varkam]

3. They should have gone to trial.

I think they would've had a good case for jury nullification (which isn't that often), but being that they pled and they did technically break the law...well it's just a crap situation.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

4. that will show them commie, libril terra-loving pinkos!

where's the taze, dude?