- WASHINGTON DC -- "On
May 4 last, I sent you a story on the interdiction, torture and killing
of foreign nationals by elements of the U.S. military based at Ft. Huachuca
in southern Arizona. This, apparently, is not a surprise to others living
in that area as witness the attached story from an Arizona paper.
-
- In point of fact, torture of civilians, killing unarmed
prisoners of war and civilians and other well-defined war crimes is more
the rule in our modern army in the field rather than the exception. When
the Iraqi war began, the United States possessed a well-trained and beautifully
equipped rapid response force, designed to act as an international fire
brigade.
-
- Now, thanks to the criminal stupidity of George Bush,
Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, the ground forces, viz the Army and the
Marines, are ruined. The casualty rates are terrible, and unreported, and
equipment such as trucks, soft-skinned vehicles, tanks and other support
vehicles, to include military helicopters, are mostly inoperative and under
repair because o the known damage done to internal combustion engines by
desert sand.
-
- The heavy death tolls, basically minimized by the DoD,
and the really appalling injuries suffered by troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan
has removed tens of thousands of soldiers from the field. Now, the unscrupulous
recruiters are filling the gaps in the troops caused by death, injury,
desertion, suicide and mental collapse by enlisting mental defectives,
drug addicts, gang members and persons with a criminal record. Anything
that is warm is now acceptable. The higher standards of six years ago have
been thrown over the side. As it stands now, the Mexican cabdrivers union
could invade El Paso and the military can do nothing. In short, our defenses
have been destroyed and it will take years to replace the missing soldiers
and, as important, the destroyed and badly damaged equipment. The allegations
of torture and worse being practiced inside the United States are only
the tip of a very ugly iceberg lying in the path of the approaching Titanic.
Bush has single-handedly ruined America's world reputation, destroyed her
ground forces, ruined their equipment and brought future decades of shame
and disgrace upon us all. Former president Carter was dead-on when he said
George W. Bush was the worse president in our entire history."
-
- Priests Claim Torture; Arizona Army Post Says No
-
- May 20, 2007
-
- by Bill Hess
-
- Sierra Vista Herald
-
- TUCSON, Ariz. - A pair of priests arrested in November
for trespassing on Fort Huachuca are determined to make a court case out
of what they contend is torture being taught at the Southern Arizona Army
post.
-
- "We're going to put torture on trial," the
Rev. Louis Vitale and the Rev. Steve Kelly told nearly 80 people Friday
in the sanctuary of the Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson
-
- The two believe the post and its intelligence leadership
prepare soldiers to become torturers in a misguided attempt to extract
information.
-
- But Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, the senior officer on the
post and the one who leads the Intelligence Center, denies torture techniques
are part of any instruction.
-
- The training on the post is "completely consistent
with applicable law and policy, to include Sen. (John) McCain's s amendment,
the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005," Fast said.
-
- The act, which the Arizona Republican specifically ensured
forbade torture, "requires that no person in the custody or under
the effective control of the Department of Defense facility shall be subject
to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by and listed
in the U.S. Army Field Manual on Intelligence Interrogation," she
said.
-
- In September, the Army released another field manual
specifically geared to human intelligence collector operations, which also
directed "that no person in the custody of or under the control of
DOD (Department of Defense), regardless of nationality or physical location,
shall be subject to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or
punishment, in accordance with and as defined in U.S. law."
-
- But Kelly said what is happening inside the wire at the
detention center in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, the main detainee complex for
suspected terrorists, is taught on the fort and includes using physical
and mental torture techniques.
-
- Vitale said a female rancher who said she has property
that abuts the fort "knows torture is taught." He did not name
the woman, who purportedly spoke at a support meeting for the two priests
last week.
-
- The two men - Vitale a Franciscan and Kelly a Jesuit
- are seeking moral, financial and physical support before, during and
after their trial, which is tentatively scheduled in the Tucson federal
courthouse on June 6.
-
- On Nov. 19, the priests performed an act of civil disobedience
by walking on to the fort through the post's Main Gate area as part of
what has become an annual protest of intelligence training. The event is
linked to a larger protest that takes place at Fort Benning, Ga., every
year. The School of the Americas is located at Fort Benning, and the school
has been accused of teaching torture methods to Latin American militaries.
-
- The two men, both who have served time in federal lockups
for anti-military protests, wanted to deliver a letter to Fast and be allowed
to speak to students at the Intelligence Center.
-
- As they did in November, they wore priestly garments
of their orders on Friday - Vitale in a brown cassock of Franciscan friars
and Kelly in black shoes, pants and shirt, with a small white collar at
his neck.
-
- As they walked across the street on to fort property
in November, they were initially approached by a man in civilian clothes
who did not identify himself and they continued on, they said.
-
- Kelly said as more people from the fort approached at
one point, he followed Vitale, who knelt and began to pray.
-
- The pair were eventually taken to a facility on post
and charged with trespassing. They were released on their own recognizance
that day.
-
- Vitale and Kelly were the first ever to be arrested for
trespassing on the post as part of the annual protest near the Main Gate.
-
- As the two men went toward the fort, supporters yelled
out encouragement while members of a counterprotest shouted disparaging
comments.
-
- In 2001, the name of the Fort Benning school was changed
to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. However, the
priests still call the facility School of the Americas, something they
constantly did at the Tucson meeting, because they do not believe there
has been any change in the instructional course at the Georgia installation.
-
- Appearance seen differently
-
- On Feb. 13, the priests and their supporters once again
went to the fort for what the priests said was an arraignment, but post
officials said was an initial appearance.
-
- Kelly said they were taken to a building where the post
courtroom is located and eventually were escorted - down into the basement
- into a room with a flickering light.
-
- Post spokeswoman Tanja Linton said the initial hearing
was "held in a well-lit room in Greely Hall"? because there were
so many supporters with the priests they could not fit in the courtroom.
-
- The hearing was held in a nearby conference room, she
added.
-
- Vitale's impression of the building was that it is â¤the
intelligence headquarters for the United States and the spy headquarters
for the world, where every phone call made by a soldier to a family member
is monitored.
-
- Linton said that description is not true. Greely Hall
is primarily used for the headquarters of the Army Network Enterprise Technology
Command, along with other organizations, she said. NETCOM is the Army's
premier communications organization.
-
- Kelly said many people will not accept the fact the U.S.
government, through its military and other agencies, practices torture.
And, he said, the conflict of whether torture is right is something American
citizens have a hard time grasping.
-
- A Christian congregation was polled, "and the majority
said torture is acceptable," Kelly said.
-
- The problem is the government is convincing people that
in today's world any way to extract information is allowable, he said.
-
- Vitale said his own sister, whom he described as a gentle
person who would not hurt a flea, also believes in some cases of excessive
force, such as torture, can be used.
-
- According to a recent Pentagon report, a large number
of soldiers and Marines serving in Iraq also believe torture should be
used if it will save the lives of their buddies.
-
- Soldier rallying point
-
- Both men used the death of Alyssa Peterson, an Army specialist
from Flagstaff, as a rally point for their anti-torture crusade. Her suicide
was the act of a woman who could not bear the responsibility of being an
interrogator in Iraq, they said.
-
- "The Army put her in a program that taught her how
to torture," Vitale said.
-
- According to a March 11 article in The Arizona Daily
Sun in Flagstaff, the 27-year-old Peterson killed herself in Tel Afar,
Iraq, on Sept. 15, 2003. The article about the soldier's death was based
on an investigative report the newspaper obtained under the Freedom of
Information Act.
-
- Peterson had a hard time separating being an interrogator
from who she was as an individual, according to the article.
-
- The soldier apparently had a lot of empathy for Iraqi
detainees, so much so she was reprimanded and reassigned after just two
days as an interrogator, the newspaper article stated.
-
- She reportedly was concerned detainees did not have showers
in the cage "where they were held" or other accommodations, did
not like being required to be nice to one person and harsh to another and
was particularly upset when only three of 43 detainees questioned were
found worthy of additional attention, the newspaper said the investigating
document stated.
-
- One of the sworn statements from a fellow soldier about
the number of detainees held said: "he was angry with the fact that
we treated them all as guilty initially and only backed off when their
innocence was proven,"? the Daily Sun reported.
-
- In the article, Peterson was described as driven, intelligent
and warm. It was noted she had a talent for learning languages. After graduating
from Northern Arizona University, she enlisted in the Army and attended
the Defense Language Institute, which is in California, where she learned
Arabic.
-
- Then-Maj. Gen. David H. Petraeus approved the investigation
report, the newspaper sated. Today, he is the four-star general in command
of all Iraqi operations.
-
- The priests contest the reports by the Army that torture
is not taught, stating the main reason for Peterson's self-inflicted death
was she had to torture as part of her job, which she learned while attending
counterintelligence courses on Fort Huachuca, which is one of the many
classes taught on the post.
-
- Fast not commander
-
- The two men also claim that Fast, who when she served
in Iraq, commanded the prison at Abu Ghraib, the scene of detainee abuse.
-
- The post's spokeswoman said this is not true. Linton
said the general served as the director of intelligence for the Multi-Nation
Force-Iraq, Operation Iraqi Freedom.
-
- "She did not command Abu Ghraib prison. The facility
was commanded by Brig. Gen. Janis Karpinski, and interrogation operations
were commanded by Col. Thomas Pappas,"? Linton said.
-
- Pappas was the commander of an intelligence brigade and
has been punished, as has Karpinski, according to news reports.
-
- The detainee abuse was committed by military police,
medical and intelligence soldiers, most of whom have been punished, news
reports state.
-
- Fast has been the subject of a number of investigations
and has not been charged. When she returned from Iraq, she was supposed
to assume command of the Intelligence Center and the fort, but that was
delayed a number of months until the last investigation was completed.
She will leave command in late June, heading to a lateral assignment at
the Training and Doctrine Command at Fort Monroe, Va.
-
- Linton said any allegation that Fast supports torture
is untrue.
-
- "Throughout her 30-plus years in the Army, Maj.
Gen. Fast has adhered to all applicable laws and policies and has lived
the Army values,"? Linton said, adding, "She has never condoned
torture."?
-
- Torture training ground
-
- On the other hand, the priests are not convinced the
post is not the initial torture training ground for the Army.
-
- To them, 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds at Fort Huachuca are
being turned into torturers.
-
- Vitale and Kelly are among those who do not accept the
government's non-torture claim.
-
- The question they are facing will be answered by a federal
judge, if they can create a trial within their trial.
-
- And, they believe, it is equally important for Arizonans
that it has taken awhile for the anti-torture community to recognize that
initial training in dehumanizing a soldier starts in the state.
-
- "It starts here in your back yard," Vitale
told the audience. "It starts at Fort Huachuca."
-
- For Fast, there is no hiding how training is done on
the post.
-
- Training on the fort is transparent, she said, emphasizing
that under lawful polices "which forbids torture" American and
other lives are being saved.
-
- "We have hosted several media days for the media
to view our training, and also supported numerous individual requests from
international, national and regional media. Additionally, several congressional
officials have visited and observed our training," Fast said.
-
- Sierra Vista herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess
can be reached at 520 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
-
- url
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- http://tbrnews.org/Archives/a2688.htm
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