Posted on 11/14/2009 7:28:22 AM PST by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Since 2004, one Sunday in November has been the time when a group of people gather outside Fort Huachuca’s Main Gate to protest what they say are torture procedures being taught on the post.
And every year, the anti-post group is countered by supporters of the fort.
This year, the sixth year of the event, will begin at noon Sunday with a “No to Torture Rally” followed by a procession from Len Roberts Park where protesters are expected to hold “A Vigil of Presence” across from the post’s main gate.
Because of the annual protest, fort officials are closing the Main Gate to traffic coming on the post from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Entry to the fort and exit from the post will be through the East Gate, which is usually closed on weekends, during the hours the Main Gate is closed.
This year, the anti-fort protest will also tie the post as a major training site for the use of unmanned aerial systems, according to organizers Jack Joppa and Felice Cohen-Joppa.
“Drones terrorize and kill innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere,” they said.
They noted a United Nations official has exclaimed weaponized pilotless aircraft are operated in a way that may violate international humanitarian law and international human rights law by targeting individuals without due judicial process.
While the post is the major Army training installation to teach soldiers how to operate and maintain unmanned aerial systems, weaponized pilotless planes are not part of the training program.
News reports indicate that the weaponized unmanned aerial systems are either flown by the Central Intelligence Agency or the Air Force and a number of flights have been launched to eliminate individuals or groups setting up improvised explosive devices or targeting known leaders of terrorist groups. The Army is in the planning stages of putting weapons on some of their pilotless planes.
There have been many accusations that such launching of weapons from drones has also taken the lives of people not involved in terrorist acts.
Torture allegations
As for teaching torture, as part of interrogation actions, the protesters, who are part of a network involving Southwest Witness, Tucson SOA (School of the Americas) Watch and Torture on Trial, believe Fort Huachuca has had a long history of complicity involving crimes of torture, Joppa and Cohen-Joppa say.
However, in the past, a small delegation of protesters were allowed on the fort and briefed as to what type of training soldiers go through, provided by members of the 111th Military Intelligence Brigade.
Even after the briefings, some of those who attended the event tried to gain entrance on to the fort during the day of the protest only to be arrested.
Fort officials have consistently said torture is not taught on the post.
Every year, some of the protesters try to gain entrance to the fort, only to end up being stopped, arrested and given a letter denying them access to the fort for a year.
One year, some of the protesters were not given a ban letter but went to trial and attempted to have the fort and torture put on trial as part of their defense, which a federal judge in Tucson refused to allow.
Those who counterprotest are generally retired military members and their families, former veterans and their families as well as some who have sons and daughters, or husbands and wives, currently serving in the military, including being deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Sierra Vista police officers, as well as other civilian law enforcement officials provide crowd control.
Send them to Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn...
I am a civilian, now...
I will have no trouble at all...
Five arrested in fort protest
FORT HUACHUCA — Five individuals, including a Roman Catholic priest, were taken into custody this afternoon after illegally entering fort property during an annual protest of alleged torture being taught to soldiers on this southern Army post.
Post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said four of the protesters who provided their names were given letters banning them from entering the fort during the next 12 months.
The names of those who were given the letters will be provided later today, she added.
ping
Same one that got busted last year?
a procession from Len Roberts Park where protesters are expected to hold “A Vigil of Pestilence” across from the post’s main gate.
Yes, the same brown bathrobbed nut job.
One notices that the protestors of that stripe never
complain about the terrorists not providing judicial
process for the innocents they blow to pieces.
If it was up to me, I’d give them a rock salt hail storm.
NAW a Skunk Oil Shower would be more fun.
What part of "precision atack" and "reduce collateral threat" don't they understand?
“No to Torture Rally”....misdirected.
Thanks to you Sandy & all those that attended to support those who protect us!
Everything.
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