By Courage to Resist. November 21, 2007
The weekend before Thanksgiving, members of Courage to Resist traveled to southern Arizona to participate in a protest at Ft. Huachuca. The base is the headquarters for Army intelligence where interrogation techniques are developed and taught. Three hundred anti-torture activists gathered across the street from the fort’s main entrance to demand an end to the brutal and dehumanizing methods used by U.S. interrogators and the closure of the US prison at Guantanamo Bay.
Speakers read messages from Father Louie Vitale and Father Steven Kelly, both presently serving prison sentences for illegally entering the fort last November. The priests were arrested by military police before they could deliver their message to the fort’s commanding officer.
This year, three people, Betsy Lamb, Mary Burton Riseley, and Jerry Zawada, entered the base and were arrested. They will be arraigned in December. Members of Veterans for Peace, Code Pink, and Iraq Veterans Against the War were among many groups taking part in the protest organized by Southwest Weekend of Witness Against Torture in solidarity with the protests at School of the Americas Watch at Fort Benning, Georgia.
A great many participants expressed enthusiasm for Courage to Resist’s Canada campaign and promised to help spread the word.
“Since the day I surrendered to military custody after refusing to return to Iraq, Courage to Resist has been there for me and my family as a constant fountain of support.”
