Taking a stand: Trial begins in Georgia for 37 protesters

By Maura Halpern/Tribune-Star

Sister Kathleen Desautels of the Sisters of Providence along with 36 other protesters from around the country could face up to six months in jail for civil disobedience during a nonviolent protest at an Army base in November.

The federal trial, which began Monday in Georgia, involves activists who attended an annual human-rights protest at the Fort Benning Military Base in Columbus, Ga.

Desautels is one of approximately 6,000 who attended the protest against the newly renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as School of the Americas, which is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers.

The WHISC has trained more than 60,000 soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and other tactics, according to the School of the Americas Watch organization. The training is funded by U.S. taxpayers and conducted in Spanish, said a public affairs representative at Fort Benning.

The controversy over the training techniques has ignited across the country and even into Congress, where nine bills have been introduced to shut down the school. Only two Senate bills proposing to shut down the WHISC remain active.

During the protest in November, Desautels and the 36 others on trial were detained by the FBI on charges of illegally trespassing on the grounds of the Fort Benning Army base.

Desautels carried a coffin to symbolize victims in the Americas and defied a court order by participating in a procession onto the grounds of the Army base. Since 1997, Desautels has been arrested six times for breaching the fort's grounds, but has served only a day or two in jail.

Standing trial with the Sister of Providence are citizens from many walks of life, including an 18-year old from Colorado and a 72 year-old priest from San Francisco.

As of early Monday afternoon, six of eight defendants intending to plead guilty to the trespassing charges already had done so.

Attorney Bill Quigley, who is defending 28 of the 37 on trial, believes it is only a matter of time before the WHISC will be forced to close, and explained that the defendants are under no illusion as to what could happen. Presiding Judge Mallon Faircloth sentenced an 88-year-old nun to a six-month jail sentence last year for similar law violations.

"We've been trying to close [WHISC] for 10 years, and Congress came within one vote of cutting all funding, and so this is when the Pentagon stepped in and reconstituted the school under a different name," Quigley said during a short break from the trial Monday. "It was really just a cosmetic change to try and divert the Legislature, and it has worked so far, but it's not a question of if, it's a question of when."

Quigley said Faircloth appears to be moved by the sincerity and commitment of the defendants, but obviously does not agree with the methods they have chosen.

The trial is expected to last through the week.

"[The defendants] feel that justice has to be served, just like those who fought for the runaway slaves in the 1800s, advocated civil rights in the '60s, and also those who sheltered the Jews in Germany," Quigley said. "All of these people may have technically broken the laws, but in the name of a much higher justice, and history will show that all of these people are actually heroes."

The remaining defendants will plead not guilty, Quigley said. Desautels has been chosen to represent this group in speaking to the judge about their motives, according to the Sisters of Providence.

Three other Sisters of Providence have traveled to Georgia with Desautels to support her during the trial.

"I have admiration for [Desautels] that she is willing to do this, and stand her ground -- I know it's a little scary, but she is very calm about this," said Sister Marsha Speth, a spokeswoman for Desautels.

"She's trying to be peaceful and open with it, that she could potentially serve six months of jail time, so she's trying to hold that loosely. She believes very strongly in what she is doing, and she has been deeply affected by those who have lost relatives from the atrocities in the Americas."

Desautels, a 42-year member of the Sisters of Providence, is an Indianapolis native who taught at St. Mary-of-the-Woods Village School in 1964 and at St. Peter School in Linton from 1968 to 1969. She also served as coordinator of religious education at St. Peter's parish from 1969 to 1970.

Among the notorious graduates of this training school include dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama. The massacre of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador in 1989 also is attributed to graduates of the School of Americas, according to the watch group.

The generals who orchestrated the unsuccessful overthrow of the democratically elected president in Venezuela earlier this year also were graduates of the Fort Benning training school, Quigley said.

It is largely because of the incident in 1989 that the SOAW movement was formed a year later. The SOAW, a grassroots organization which advocates nonviolent protests against human-rights violations and to encourage democracy, has rallied for years to close the WHISC.

"This is definitely a school that targets warfare; this is terrorism taught right here in the U.S., said Matthew Smucker, a global activist who works at the SOAW office in Washington, D.C. "We have no reason to believe the school has changed.

"It's disgusting that these citizens could get jail time for basically serving their civic duty in trying to call the government into accountability for their policy," he added.

Rich McDowell, public affairs officer at Fort Benning, believes WHISC is different from its predecessor, and those who support the SOAW are essentially insulting the U.S. military and its positive missions.

"To say that American soldiers are teaching torture and all of the things they claim are taught -- that is a total insult to every American soldier," said McDowell.

"In relation to the events occurring in the Americas, it is so ridiculous to claim that there is a cause-and-effect for the education these people received at Fort Benning. It's like holding Harvard responsible for the Unibomber," he added.

In defense of the WHISC "training future offenders," McDonnell adamantly believes that Fort Benning is making a difference for the positive. The WHISC seeks to foster good relations with America's close neighbors in Central and South America.

"[The SOAW and activists] are totally off the wall. That is what our Army is all about, to defend the Constitution and our civil rights, and they can protest as long as they do it legally and peacefully," he said. "When they trespassed, they were violating law.

"For these people to accuse us of these atrocities and murders -- they are just doing it for media attention. If what they are accusing us were true, we would have been closed years ago," asserted McDowell.

The reasons behind the name change of the former School of Americas in January 2001 supply a controversy as well. In 1996, the training base admitted openly to having material in its manuals relating to interrogation techniques such as torture, execution and blackmail.

Many from the SOAW believe the school may exist under a "different name, but has the same shame." Smucker and others find it to be a public relations ploy, contending it is essentially the same structure with the same instructors.

"Renaming the school was a cynical move to try and quell resistance and disassociate the school from its dubious reputation," Smucker said. "They have earned the reputation, and its list of graduates are some of the worst offenders in this hemisphere.

"Thousands of people wouldn't travel across the country and risk incarceration for a frivolous reason or media attention," Smucker said. "Obviously many people are concerned about human rights, and they are dedicated citizens."