"SOA
Philly 5" Acquitted!
Activists Vow to Continue Movement to Close US School of
Terrorism!
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: October 2, 2001
SOA Watch/NE ~ 6367 Overbrook Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19151
Contact: Linda Panetta (215) 473-2162; Karen Moldovan (215)
477-5892
Philadelphia,
PA - "Resistance against oppressive US
foreign policy and the School of Assassins is a necessity, not a
crime!" This was the presiding tone among the more than 50
supporters who held vigil outside the Philadelphia courthouse
this morning as the five SOA Watch activists went on trial for
peacefully protesting the School of the Americas (SOA), located
at Ft. Benning, GA. Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, from Detroit,
Michigan, offered eloquent testimony about the atrocities
committed by graduates of the SOA. Represented by former
Pennsylvania Attorney General Shane Creamer (who took the case
pro bono) and Public Defender Shawn Nolan, the activists were
acquitted on all charges (disorderly conduct, resisting arrest,
obstructing justice, obstructing a highway, and conspiracy to
obstruct a highway).
During the Republican National Convention (July 31, 2000), the
five enacted a massacre carried out by SOA graduates, presided
over by Uncle Sam. Defendant Laurel Paget-Seekins stated,
"We put the SOA on trial today and the verdict shows that
the real crime is the training of soldiers to repress their own
people. We will continue to nonviolently act to close this school
of terror until it is shut down for good."
The growing public outcry over the SOA and the exposure of the
atrocities perpetrated by its graduates has moved Congress to
action. Legislation to close the school gradually gained
bipartisan support, forcing the Pentagon to rename the SOA: the
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, in January
2001. The Defense Departments intent was to disassociate the
school from its murderous past, but the citizens movement and
Congress were not fooled. On May 10, 2001, a bipartisan bill was
introduced in the House (HR 1810) to close the SOA and
investigate the relationship between the training and the
countless human rights abuses perpetrated by graduates of the
school.
During its 55-year history, the SOA has trained over 60,000 Latin
American soldiers. It continues to train hundreds of soldiers
yearly in combat skills such as commando tactics, mine warfare,
military intelligence and psychological operations. SOA-trained
troops return home to wage war against their own civilian
population. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been
tortured, raped, assassinated, "disappeared," massacred
and forced into refugee camps by those trained at the SOA.
During the course of a decade, 75 SOA opponents have spent over
40 years collectively in federal prisons for nonviolent acts of
civil resistance to SOA violence. The "SOA Philly 5"
commit themselves to working in solidarity with the 24 nonviolent
resisters who are currently in federal prisons by continuing
their witness to close this school of torture.
To View Photos of the Protest Visit: www.soawne/RNCarrest.html
Bios of the "SOA Philly 5"
Ally
Styan, 18, is a recent high school graduate from
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and is currently working in the
national office of SOA Watch. Ally has traveled to Nicaragua and
Chiapas, Mexico to look at the effects of US foreign policy on
the people of Latin America. These experiences led Ally to
organize the Youth Coalition for Human Rights, a social justice
group at her high school. Since the RNC, Ally has continued in
her work to bring justice and peace to the people of the Global
South. She has continued to put her body on the line in acts of
civil disobedience to call attention to the violence of the SOA.
Laurel
Paget-Seekins, 21, grew up in Philo, California. She
graduated with honors from Oberlin College with a degree in
mathematics and liberation struggles studies. Laurel has been
working to close the School of the Americas for four years,
co-coordinating an active student SOAW chapter in Oberlin, Ohio.
She has traveled to Ft. Benning, Georgia, six times to protest
the SOA. Last January, she was part of a 31-day fast and vigil at
the gates to Ft. Benning. Laurel is dedicated to nonviolence and
to acting to create a more just world.
Rebecca
Johnson, 22, a recent graduate of Oberlin College and
a social justice activist, has spent nearly four years organizing
to close the school of assassins. In January 2001 she organized a
31-day fast and vigil at the gates of Ft. Benning to draw
attention to the reopening of the school under a different name.
As a woman of nonviolence, Becky hopes to denounce terrorism in
this trial, especially terrorism funded by the US government in
Latin America. As she mourns in the wake of the September 11
tragedy, she asks, "Are our hands clean?"
Bill
Brown, 32, lives and works in Philadelphia. Bill
has been involved with the human rights movement in the
Philadelphia area for several years spending the last three
focusing on the School of the Americas. Bill has been to Ft.
Benning three times, crossing the line twice, most recently
acting as a peacekeeper. Bill completed a 14-day fast in April
2000 to draw attention to the crimes of the SOA. Bill has lobbied
for the closure of the school, helping to hold our public
officials accountable for how our tax dollars are spent. Bill was
part of an SOA Watch affinity group that ventured to Quebec this
past spring to protest the FTAA.
Linda
Panetta, 35, is founder of SOA Watch/NE. She has been
working extensively on Latin American issues for the past 15
years. She lived and worked in Guatemala and Nicaragua in the
late 1980s, and in Oaxaca, Mexico in the mid-90s. She recently
returned from Colombia, and continues to travel to Latin America
working on human rights issues. Linda is the producer and
director of the award winning documentary "School of the
Americas: An Insider Speaks Out!" (over 6,000 copies sold),
and author of the book "Solidarity in Action." She does
extensive lecturing, and has directed the effort with Bishop
Gumbleton, which to date has resulted in a resolution signed by
over 300 bishops calling for the closure of the SOA. Linda is a
freelance photographer documenting, among other things, the
realities in Latin America.
For More
Information About the RNC Arrests Click Here
To View Photos of the Protest Visit: www.soawne/RNCarrest.html
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