Barriere Lake Algonquins: Taking a Sovereign Stand

Call for Support from the Algonquins of Barriere Lake to Defenders of the Land

By Barriere Lake Defenders

Photo 2008: Police fire tear gas at Algonquins at Barriere Lake

(Nov. 18, 2008) In the upcoming week, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake will be taking action on our traditional territory. We realize that many of you have consensus decision making processes that may take time, but we are urgently requesting your community's support in the form of endorsements and a letter sent to key government officials on the day-of or in the days following our actions.
We are demanding that Canada and Quebec honour our signed resource co-management deal, the Trilateral and Bilateral agreements, and that Canada appoints an observer to witness and respect the outcome of a new leadership selection in Barriere Lake in accordance with our Customary Governance Code in order to normalize our leadership situation and our relations with the government.
The Government of Canada and the Government of Quebec have replaced our Chief and Council because our leaders were continuing to demand that they honour the agreements they entered into with our First Nation. This is a repeat of what they tried to do to us in 1996-1997, when the Canadian government recognized and tried to impose a minority faction on us. To prevent future interference in our customary governance, we codified our customs at the time into Mitchikanibikok Anishinabe Onakinakewin (the Barriere Lake Customary Code), but this has proved little deterrent to more government meddling. But our Customary Chief and Council continue to be recognized by our Tribal Council, the Algonquin Nation Secretariat.

Read more:

http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/11/algonquins-of-barriere-lake-taking.html

Cheney indicted for prison profiteering

Cheney and former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales indicted for criminal conspiracy in private prison profiteering, resulting in prisoner assaults

By Brenda Norrell
Censored News
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

WILLACY COUNTY, Texas -- US Vice President Dick Cheney was indicted today for a prison profiteering scheme and charged with abuse of prisoners. Cheney invested millions in the Vanguard Group, an investment management company with interests in the prison companies in charge of detention centers. Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales was also indicted in the prison profiteering scheme, resulting in ongoing prisoner assaults and at least one murder.
Human rights activists urged a probe into prison profiteering after the private prison corporation GEO Group and CCA (Corrections Corporation of America) began receiving numerous federal contracts to build detention centers. GEO's new contracts included migrant prisons in Laredo, Texas and Jena, Louisiana.
Human rights activists said the fever-pitched racism mounted in the US was induced for the purpose of prison profiteering by US officials reaping enormous profits. The increased arrests of migrants resulted in profits and a long list of new prison construction contracts for the GEO Group, formerly Wackenhut, both with a long history of assaults and murders in prisons.

A Texas grand jury indicted Cheney today and accused him of at least misdemeanor assaults of inmates by allowing inmates to assault fellow inmates. Gonzales was charged with having used his position to stop investigations into assaults committed in a prison for profit in Willacy County, Texas. Both Cheney and Gonzales were charged with engaging in organized criminal activity.
Last month, a Willacy County grand jury indicted the GEO Group, on a murder charge in the death of a prisoner days before his release in 2001. The indictment alleged the GEO Group allowed other inmates to beat Gregorio de la Rosa Jr. to death with padlocks stuffed into socks. The death happened at the Raymondville facility. A jury ordered the company to pay de la Rosa's family $47.5 million in a civil judgment in 2006. The Cheney-Gonzales indictment refers to the de la Rosa case.
Human rights activists protested both Raymondville and Hutto prisons in southwestern Texas in recent years. At Hutto, migrant women and children were abused. ICE refused to allow a UN Rapporteur into Hutto.

During the Bush-Cheney regime, prisons of torture and prisons for migrants became synonymous with the name GEO, from Guantanamo to migrant prisons in the south and along the southwest border.
Cheney said Guantanamo was vital in 2005 and detainees could expect to be treated better here than "by virtually any other government on the face of the earth."
Geo was awarded a contract for the continued management of the Migrant Operations Center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in Nov. 2, 2006. Recently, GEO received a contract for a migrant prison in Jena, La. GEO also received a contract for housing "criminal aliens" in the US, as stated on the GEO website.
GEO's migrant prisons were not restricted to the US. GEO also assumed a management contract in the Campsfield House Immigration Removal Center in England.
GEO was not the only one profiteering. The Wackenhut Corp. was also profiteering from transporting migrants from the border after their arrests. The two companies split in 2003.
All along the border, while GEO was building prisons, GEO's other half, Wackenhut Corp., was profiteering from the arrest of migrants from the borders. The United States Customs and Border Protection agency entered into the contract with Wackenhut Corp., which is now the domestic subsidiary of the U.K.-based security giant Group 4 Securicor, to transport migrants from the borders.
It comes as no surprise that the Vanguard Group is also currently a major shareholder in Halliburton, the longtime war profiteer in Iraq. Cheney's investments in the Vanguard Group are estimated at between $25 and $86 million, since exact numbers have not been released.

While the US filled its prisons with migrants, with a price on their heads, the number of Native American prisoners soared.
The US Department of Justice recently released a study showing that Native American inmates in Indian country jails increased by 24 percent between 2004 and 2007. The figures for Native Americans in all facilities -- tribal, federal and state -- increased 4.5 percent. Suicides, attempted suicides, deaths and escapes were cited as the result of deteriorating prison conditions.

Human rights activists hope the indictments of Cheney and Gonzales are the first of many indictments of the Bush-Cheney administration.

Alberta Tarsands: Genocide and biological warfare

IEN Conference: Mining impacts in Western Great Lakes

The Indigenous Environmental Network Welcomes You

THE LAND, SKY, WATER, AND CULTURE
MINING IMPACTS ON TRIBES IN THE WESTERN GREAT LAKES REGION BLACK BEAR HOTEL AND CONFERENCE CENTER FOND DU LAC INDIAN RESERVATION, CLOQUET, MINNESOTA

NOVEMBER 19, 20, 21, 2008

Numerous ferrous and non ferrous mines, mining proposals, and abandoned mines ring the Western Great Lakes Region. We are pleased to sponsor this conference in order to bring to you a broad spectrum on information on the impacts of mining gathered locally as well as the shared experience of others who have had mining activity in their communities. Welcome and please do enjoy the conference. Opening Reception 6:00 pm Otter Creek Room and key note address by Winona LaDuke, Executive Director, Honor The Earth, 7:00 pm. A special Thank You to the Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, The Lannan Foundation, and the Western Mining Action Network for their generous efforts and support to make this conference possible.
Read more, with schedule:
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/11/ien-conference-mining-impacts-in.html

Photo by Jim's public online Picasa gallery

Watch the Tar Sands Video:

"Tom Goldtooth: No new Tar Sands approval"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOr2vEuurN0

In this video, Mike, from the Tarsands at Fort Chip in Canada, is already burying family members with cancer. Mike speaks of the pollution and destruction from the mining of the heavy crude oil known as tarsands.

“It is slow industrial genocide. It is another form of biological warfare.

"As a martyr, I will stand and fight and die until the end. I have no choice. I will take my shield and fight and when I go, someone else will take up my shield where I left off and take up my fight.”

"The best we can do is to bring the whole world to our doorsteps and fight together."

Tom Goldooth, director of the Indigenous Environmental Network, “We have a monster, we have a monster amongst our people. Not only our First Nations, but all citizens of Canada.”

“We have a monster that has no respect for humanity. We have a monster that is killing people and gorging on the heart and spirit of the people who have lived here since time immemorial. We have to kill this monster that feeds on the sacrednesss of Mother Earth."

Standing with solidarity with the Dene, Cree and Metis, he said, "We need to stand up and speak for them who can not speak for themselves, the animals, and fish, the trees and the birds."--excerpts from the video

Quanah Brightman: Time for action at DQ University

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LISTEN TO THE TRUTH BEHIND INDIAN GAMING
It would be nice if some of the money went towards The One And Only Tribal College In CALIFORNIA: D-Q University

By Quanah Parker Brightman

http://ia341025.us.archive.org/0/items/DailyDigest013108/2008_01_31_gaming.mp3
Lehman L. Brightman National President of United Native Americans, Inc, Native American activists, speaks about the need to support D.Q. University:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccoVAHgaL8k
DQU is a Best Described as a "Dog With Fleas" The Number One Issue is Accountability. The Board of Trustees has a History of Corruption. Even Now with GSA Ready to Set In and Take Back the 643 Acres of Land, No One In Indian Country Wants To Roll up their Sleeves and Help Rebuild this Sacred Place. Most People are Unaware of The Fact That DQU is The Home of The Longest Walk 1978, Which Saved ALL 389 Treaties From Being Abrogated. We Would Not Even Have Casinos' or The MONEYS That CASINOS' Bring To Our Communities Today if Not For DQU and The Longest Walk 1978. It's Sad that We Have Lost Over a BILLION ACRES OF Our Own LAND Across Turtle Island, And These Greedy Gaming Officials Here In California Don't Want To Invest In Our Peoples Decolonization. They Would Rather Control Our People With a Monthly Check To Sit On Their Butts and Drink Their Lives Away.
I Think it's Time JUSTICE is Served Out at DQU. We Must Clear DQU's Name By Serving Indian Justice. I Think it's Time "WE" The Indian Community set up an Indian Tribunal to Hold All The Peoples Who Have Hurt DQU's GOOD NAME Throughout the Year's Accountable For Their Actions. Then and Only Then Will DQU Be Able to Move Forward to a Brighter Future.
Respectfully, Quanah Parker Brightman
United Native Americans Inc.
Fighting for Natives Since 1968.
Join us at http://www.myspace.com/unitednativeamericansinc

Censored News welcomes readers from around the world

The World is Watching
By Brenda Norrell
http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com/

SAN FRANCISCO -- A warm welcome to our readers from around the world. Our latest readers are from Benin in West Africa, Morocco, Latvia, Serbia, Ghana, Poland, Malta, Korea and Thailand. All together, readers from 70 countries have viewed Censored News this week. Special thanks to all the contributors!
A very special thanks to the U.N. OBSERVER & International Report at the Hague, for publishing Censored News articles, and to Paul Rafferty for his longtime support.
Thanks also to Victor Rocha at Pechanga Net and Narco News, Counterpunch and Indymedia for publishing the truth. Mohawk Nation News is peerless in the industry, published by resolute women warriors.
The Mohawk Nation News publisher, editors and writers, all Mohawk women, have been beaten by border guards, arrested, followed and harassed by police. Publisher Kahentinetha Horn continues to recover from a heart attack induced by the stresshold of Canadian border agents.
Since Saturday, Nov. 15, Censored News was visited by thousands of readers from 70 countries, from all regions of the earth, from Poland, Bolivia, Vietnam, Croatia, Italy and Turkey to Yemen, Russia and China. Welcome to our readers from Norway, Singapore, Philippines and Kazakhstan. Click on the country counter, on the left, for more details.
I began Censored News because of the censorship of news of Indigenous Peoples and international human rights. What began as alarm when I worked for the national news media, turned to horror in recent years as some of the editorial staff at Indian Country Today, where I served as a longtime staff reporter, manipulated the facts, censored the content and distorted the truth.
Now, Earthcycles producer Govinda Dalton, from northern California, and I are gearing up for the weeklong radio talk show in San Francisco. The live show, which will also be archived, will cover the weeklong AIM-West 40th year reunion; the Alcatraz Island Sunrise Gathering hosted by the International Indian Treaty Council on Nov. 27; the Shellmound and Peace Walkers arriving from their two week walk to the sacred shellmounds.
We'll be following up on the issues revealed on the Longest Walk, northern route across America, including protection of sacred places, climate change, mining and the destruction of Indian country lands, air and water.
We'll have interviews with all the great people attending for the week. Listen Nov. 24 -- 28, 2008, at http://www.earthcycles.net/ We will also be broadcasting live all week on a local FM radio station in San Francisco. If you would like to be a sponsor of a radio show segment, please contact govinda@earthcycles.net/
We will also be linking with other Native radio stations to provide coverage around the United States and globally on the Internet.
On this page for Censored News readers, there's an archive of articles on the lower left, and a blog search for key words, above on the left. On Censored News Page 2, there's the full-text of articles which might not be elsewhere on the web, in large text.
Please keep in your thoughts that Mohawk Nation News and Censored News are both advertising free news sites, with no source of revenue, and depend on reader's donations to survive. Both are labors of love, published by women, from the northern and southern borders. Both have PayPals on their websites.
Thanks to all of you!--Brenda

Mohawks: Border police action causes elderly deaths

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BIG F--K UP AT AKWESASNE. GANG WAR BY CBSA, RCMP, OPP & MOHAWK POLICE ENDANGER LIVES AND VIOLATES HAUDENOSAUNEE JURISDICTION

MOHAWK NATION NEWS
Nov. 17, 2008. On Friday night November 15, 2008 around 8 p.m., an elderly couple, both 77, was returning from a trip to Montreal. They had to go through the Akwesasne Cornwall Island border checkpoint, a few minutes away from their home in Massena, New York. After crossing the bridge from Cornwall, they approached the intersection of International and Island roads just before the Canada Customs building, before heading to the U.S. Customs. Meanwhile the Akwesasne Mohawk Police were chasing a 21 year old non-native youth in a minivan on the Island. The youth from St. Jean sur Richelieu, Quebec, sped through the stop sign at the intersection and smashed into the car of the elders. All three were killed in the crash and resulting fire.

Island Road passes through a residential part of Akwesasne known as “Kawehnoke”. It has no lights, no sidewalks, and the posted speed limit is 40 km/h.

The cops set up this lethal event with their usual disregard for the right of Indigenous peoples to live in peace and quiet. Their internal investigations will probably show that the cops and border guards were following “standard procedure” when they created this deadly catastrophe.

The youth was flagged as a “cigarette smuggler” by the Canada Border Services Agency CBSA and undercover intelligence that were in the community in unmarked cars and just standing around. He crossed the bridge over to Cornwall. There, RCMP and OPP were waiting for him. The youth saw them, turned around and headed back over the bridge to Kawehnoke, chased by the OPP and the RCMP. They called off their chase and told the Akwesasne Mohawk Police to take over, according to Ron Moran, President of the Customs & Excise Union.

The Mohawk police claimed they had called off the chase. Witnesses said the cop car lights were still flashing when they came down the hill in pursuit; after the mortal impact, the police ran to the van going after cigarettes; and they made no attempt to rescue the elders. A witness tried to open their car door. It was jammed. The car was already on fire and then became engulfed in flames.

The border agents and cops at this checkpoint are well-known for their lack of judgment, their brutality and their cavalier approach to the law. They have been violently attacking the Mohawks who have to go through this checkpoint on a daily basis. They use the “Akwesasne Residents’ Lane” that is supposed to make movement easier for residents as target practice. On June 14 2008 CBSA attempted to murder two grandmothers they had pulled over. One suffered a trauma induced heart attack. The two women tried to get the RCMP and OPP to investigate the attempted murders. Both agencies said they had no jurisdiction. It was the responsibility of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police, who have done nothing.

All these agents, CBSA, OPP, RCMP and Akwesasne Mohawk police, “without jurisdiction”, are fighting their gang wars in Akwesasne! We have documentary proof that all of these agencies claim they have no jurisdiction here. In fact, Madam Mireille Tabib of the Federal Court of Canada has recognized that Akwesasne is not part of Canada [Kahentinetha & Katenies v. The Queen, T-1309-08, October 23, 2008].

Guess who’s investigating this one? The OPP and the RCMP! Though they have no jurisdiction, they think they can perpetrate crimes! It looks like the families of these three victims could launch a big lawsuit against this IBET posse [Integrated Border Enforcement TaskForce]. Maybe Homeland Security should get involved as the elders are U.S. citizens. Sgt. Kristine Rae told the Ottawa citizen that the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service asked the OPP to investigate the collision.

The Special Investigations Unit SIU, an Ontario civilian law enforcement agency, usually investigates any incident involving police that results in serious injury or death. The Akwesasne Mohawk Territory is out of the SIU's jurisdiction. The almost death and serious injury of the two women caused by the CBSA doesn’t count! They only investigate the death and injury of non-Ongwehonwe by their agents!!! It’s called racism!

Policing is supposed to be a service requested by the people to take care of issues within the community. These four colonial mob agencies have brought their violent conflicts to our community without our consent because they think it’s a “no man’s land” for the colonizers and they can get away with it. The truth is that it’s the Haudenosaunee peoples’ jurisdiction. These mobs serve “outside racketeers” and extortionists who try to impose non-Ongwehonwe mayhem. They are “tax” extortionists with guns who rob on behalf of the colonial state. Some surmise that they may have been trying to rob the youth, grab his load and sell it themselves. Then they put these kids through their court system.

Everyone knows that cigarettes are legal. We are free to trade as we always have been since time immemorial. Neither the youth or the 77-year old couple deserved to die. What did the “border squatters” who have set up their illegal shop in the middle of our community want? To extort a share of our legitimate commerce! The colonial society has deliberately debilitated us so that we have no economy. It’s no coincidence that Canada created a situation that killed old people. It’s a culture that disrespects elders. It claims us as citizens but it has taken the Old Age pensions from our elders here.

We Mohawks feel deeply saddened by the tragedy that took place in our midst. We are outraged by the remorseless gangsterism of the colonial thugs that caused it. These hoods knew this poor young guy was not a native. They set him up because he was alone and unprotected. He died because of a failed economy and having no prospects in his own society. Poor people buy the cigarettes because they can’t afford the state taxes used to support their parasitic government officials. There is hardly anything left over for proper education or health care for their people.

These thugs should leave Akwesasne. They are now using twisted logic to try to blame us for their gangland style “hit”. They claim it all happened because we didn’t support them! What a bunch of sickos! The only involvement of our people were the witnesses who tried to save the lives of the victims. People were out and about. The Mohawk Police officers showed no common sense when they conducted this lethal high speed chase through the middle of our community.

Anger and frustration about the accident and the chase is simmering across Akwesasne and beyond. If Canada wants to call trade in our cigarettes contraband, that’s their business. It doesn’t make it so. We think their gang wars are to get a piece of the action, as they see it. We don’t want any part of them. We want them to get their fake border, goons and dangerous behavior out of our community. If they want to do s--t like this, let them do it in their own bedroom community. We’ve had enough.

All these people were killed over a load of cigarettes. Their creed is commercial greed before human life! The blame for this tragedy can only be laid at the feet of all these criminal entities, CBSA, OPP, RCMP and the Akwesasne Mohawk Police. http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/new ... 92d2f37511

Karakwine & MNN Staff – Mohawk Nation News www.mohawknationnews.com
Katenies20@yahoo.com kahentinetha2@yahoo.com

Note: These challenges of CBSA abuses at the border require support and money. Your financial help is needed and appreciated. Please send your donations to PayPal at www.mohawknationnews.com, or by check or money order to “MNN Mohawk Nation News”, Box 991, Kahnawake [Quebec, Canada] J0L 1B0. Nia:wen thank you very much.

Some of the ‘borderline’ culprits involved: Prothonotary Mireille Tabib, 284 Wellington TSA-6032, Ottawa ON Canada K1A 0H8 613-992-4238 Fax 613-952-3653; Phil Fontaine of the AFN is a partner in CBSA’s Sustainable Development Strategy 2007-9; Chris Kealey, Canada Customs Excise, Immigration Taxation Board, CBSA Media Relations 613-991-5197; President CBSA 613-952-3200, 613-957-0612, CBSA-ASFC@Canada.gc.ca; National Aboriginal Initiative CHRC 204-983-2189 1-866-772-4880 info.com@chrc-ccdp.ca; Canada Customs Port of Entry at Cornwall Island Ontario; Gaetan Cousineau, Quebec Human Rights presidence@cdpdj.gc.ca; Akwesasne Mohawk Police 613-575-2250 ex 2400; Mohawk Security at the border 613-932-5183, 613-575-2340; Lance Markel, District Director CBSA 613-930-3234, 613-991-1214; Brent Lafave, Investigator CBSA; Susan St. Clair, Canadian Human Rights Commission, 344 Slater, Ottawa 613-995-1151, 1-888-214-1090, 613-943-5188; CBSA National Spokesperson 613-957-6500; Quebec Media Relations CBSA 514-350-6130; Chief Mohawk Council Akwesasne 613-575-2250 nbenedict@akwesasne.ca; Minister Stockwell Day, Ottawa 613-995-4432; Melissa Leclair Communications Pub. Safety 613-991-2863.

Go to MNN “Border” category for more stories; New MNN Books Available now! Purchase t-shirts, mugs and more at our CafePressStore http://www.cafepress.com/mohawknews; Subscribe to MNN for breaking news updates http://.mohawknationnews.com/news/subscription.php; Sign Women Title Holders petition! http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/Iroquois
Posted by Brenda Norrell at 10:24 AM READ ARTICLE
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/11/mohawks-mohawk-police-cause-elderly.html/

US Torture Protested at Fort Huachuca

THREE BARRED FROM FT. HUACHUCA AS 200 RALLY AGAINST TORTURE AND CRUEL TREATMENT OF "TERROR WAR" PRISONERS

By Jack and Felice Cohen-Joppa
Photos by Jim Haber

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. -- More than 200 people rallied against torture on Sunday, November 16, 2008, at Veterans Memorial Park in Sierra Vista, Arizona. The group then processed two miles through the city to the main gate of Ft. Huachuca, home of the U.S. Army Intelligence Center where interrogators are trained.
Soon after the procession arrived opposite the entrance to the Fort, three people crossed the street and entered the base to deliver messages to base Commander Major General John Custer and his soldiers, opposing the cruel treatment and abuse of detainees from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Sr. Megan Rice, 78, from Las Vegas, Nevada; Fr. Louie Vitale, 76, from Oakland, California (in "Torture is Wrong," photo on right) and Dennis Duvall, 66, from Prescott, Arizona, were quickly stopped and taken into custody. They were released within the hour with a formal letter barring them from entering the base for one year. A base spokeswoman told reporters, "We're trying to keep this as low key as possible."
Franciscan Fr. Vitale, a former provincial of the order's Santa Barbara province, was arrested during a similar protest at the Fort in 2006. Together with co-defendant Fr. Steve Kelly, he had served a five month prison sentence for trespass and failure to obey an officer.
Two of three people arrested at the Fort in November, 2007, returned to join this year's demonstration. Fr. Jerry Zawada and Betsy Lamb had both served two months in prison awaiting trial.
Speakers at the rally included torture survivor and Colombian refugee Hector Aristizabal and retired U.S. Army Col. Ann Wright.
The procession was led by musicians Francisco Herrera, Jose Serrano, Ted Warmbrand, Chet Gardiner and Terry Pawlowski, along with people carrying large, colorful butterfly puppets. The puppets represented transformation from a nation that sanctions cruelty and torture to a world that embraces hope for humanity.
The demonstration concluded with a stop at the nearby office of CACI, a private military contractor implicated in the abuse of Iraqi detainees, and currently contracted to write manuals and teach interrogation.
Sunday's rally and procession capped a weekend of events that began in Tucson. Event coordinator Rev. Ken Kennon noted that the "Southwest Witness to Stop Torture is a regional action in solidarity with the campaign to close the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Georgia, where the testimony of torture survivors has informed us and moved us to action."
Thousands of people will gather at Ft. Benning this coming weekend, November 21-23, for the annual vigil to close the School of the Americas. Human rights abuses in Latin America, including torture and murder, have been carried out by graduates of the school. The torture manual which was used at the School of the Americas came from Ft. Huachuca.
A statement written for the Ft. Huachuca demonstration follows this press release.
For more information see http://tortureontrial.org/, http://southwestwitness.org/ and http://soaw.org/
Why We Protest at Ft Huachuca
A Statement of Southwest Witness Against Torture / October 2008

Gandhi teaches us that nonviolence needs to be practiced in places of institutionalized violence.
We practice nonviolence at Ft. Huachuca - headquarters of U.S. Army military intelligence training - to protest the policy of cruelty our country has carried out against captives in the so-called "War on Terror."
We practice nonviolence at Ft. Huachuca to open dialogue with soldiers and commanders about their rights and obligations to report cases of torture and cruel treatment. We call on enlisted personnel to speak publicly about their training and any abuses they have observed.
We practice nonviolence at Ft. Huachuca to protest our government's increasing use of private contractors - with little to no oversight or accountability - both as instructors and as part of interrogation teams in the field.
We practice nonviolence at Ft. Huachuca to call for civilian, human-rights centered oversight of all interrogation training and practice, which must include absolute prohibition of cruel treatment and command responsibility for any violation of this prohibition.
Our nonviolent presence joins growing, deepening movements throughout the world calling for an end to war and torture everywhere. We act in solidarity with the campaign to close the School of the Americas/Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation at Ft. Benning, Georgia, where the testimony of torture survivors has informed our outrage and moved us to action. We know that torture diminishes the humanity of both perpetrator and those who are tortured. It damages the very soul of our country.
We are told that basic training in military interrogation at Ft. Huachuca respects the Geneva Conventions and follows the U.S. Army Field Manual. Yet, despite the efforts of many honorable soldiers and commanders who respect human rights, this training has been inadequate to prevent abuses of prisoners in U.S. custody at Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and other military prisons and secret detention centers around the world.
What is being taught in the field and in advanced courses about interrogation? What is happening in this dark space between training and the field? Has the policy of cruelty practiced by some U.S. military, CIA, FBI, and private agencies been integrated into military doctrine and advanced training? Does such activity take place at Ft. Huachuca?
We understand that secrecy and deception are part of the nature of military intelligence. We challenge this institutionalized silence, because torture and cruelty betray not only the Constitution of the United States, but who we are as a people. In a democratic society, such silence must not prevail.
To break this silence, interrogators and all other personnel (including private contractors) must be taught when and how to resist illegal orders that violate the laws of war, the Geneva Conventions and the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. They must be taught their obligation to speak out against such orders, and to report abuses to their superiors. And they must receive guarantees that speaking out will not lead to retaliation or punishment.
Ft. Huachuca's role in past military involvement in torture training must also be brought to light. Such involvement includes the creation of notorious manuals used at the School of the Americas to teach Latin American military personnel how to torture. Undoubtedly, records about past and contemporary use of torture exist at Ft. Huachuca. We call for the release of all such information, both past and present.
It is time for a light to shine on the darkness that has been hidden behind the walls of Ft. Huachuca.
Monsignor Oscar Romero of El Salvador said, "Love begins where violence ends." To end the violence of torture and war we will stand at the gates of Ft. Huachuca. Together let's build a world without torture.
http://censored-news.blogspot.com/2008/11/three-halted-at-fort-huachuca-torture.html