Tulsa Peace Fellowship

There never was a good war or a bad peace. ~Ben Franklin

URGENT! We urgently need money to bond people out of jail.I can spare $20..

Please make a donation to the SOA Watch Legal Defense Fund


As a community of resistance, we need to take care of our prisoners. The conditions in Muscogee County jail are deplorable and we need funds to pay the bond money, which has been set as high as $5,500 per person.


Several people engaged in nonviolent direct action and blocked the road to the Highway entrance to Fort Benning, others were arrested by the out-of-control Columbus police as they were leaving the vigil area on the sidewalk. Several journalists and bystanders were swept up in the arrests as well. 


Background information about the events yesterday:
http://tinyurl.com/2as4tso


Please donate to the SOA Watch Legal Defense Fund. We need the money
urgently TODAY:
http://tinyurl.com/2b3ofsa

In peace and solidarity,
SOA Watch

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More reporting:

26 Arrested at SOA Watch Protest
Posted: Nov 20, 2010 11:18 pm

By Andrew Wittenberg

COLUMBUS, GA (WTVM) - The protest group 'SOA Watch' says 26 people were arrested, including a television crew, during Saturday's protest near the gates of Fort Benning.

The television crew arrested was from RT America TV.

All those arrested are currently being held in the Muscogee County Jail for up to a $5,500 bond, according to the organization.

http://www.wtvm.com/global/story.asp?s=13543963

More information, from Wikipedia:

RT, previously known as Russia Today, is a global multilingual television news network based in Russia. RT was the first all-digital Russian TV network. The service is aimed at the overseas market

The network started broadcasting on Dec. 10, 2005 with nearly 100 English-speaking journalists reporting for it worldwide. RT broadcasts from its headquarters in Moscow and its studio in Washington, DC.

links

* RT website
* RT Live Flash stream
* Russia Today Channel YouTube
* Free-to-air 24-Hour News Channels via satellite

UPDATE
'It was brutal!' RT crew freed on bail after 32 hours in US jail for filming rally
From: RussiaToday | November 22, 2010 | 6,935 views
http://www.youtube.com/v/xwn-rw2fGYs

An RT news crew has been freed on bail - after spending around 32 hours in a U.S. jail. They were taken into custody in the state of Georgia, while filming an annual rally near a military base nicknamed the 'School of Assassins'. Correspondent Kaelyn Forde and cameraman Jon Conway were forced to pay a fine after they were accused of taking part in the unlawful rally. Police are still considering another charge against them, for allegedly failing to obey officers' instructions. Kaelyn Forde, who's at the centre of the story, described the police's actions as 'brutal'.
RT on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/RTnews
RT on Twitter: http://twitter.com/RT_com
Another UPDATE: Fr. Vitale jailed again, second year in a row, for SOA protest. New hero, age 24, also jailed for first time.

Judge sends 2 Ft. Benning protesters to prison

The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Nov 23, 2010 12:44:41 EST

COLUMBUS, Ga. — A federal judge in Columbus has sentenced two protesters to serve six months in prison for trespassing onto Fort Benning during weekend demonstrations outside the Army post.

Father Louis John Vitale, 78, and Michael Omondi, 24, received the maximum sentence possible from the judge after pleading no contest to trespassing charges Tuesday in U.S. Magistrate Court.

The men were among hundreds who gathered last weekend for an annual protest calling for the government to close the former School of the Americas, which trains Latin American military officers at Fort Benning.

Two other demonstrators -- Nancy H. Smith, 78, and Christopher Spicer, 28 -- were arrested on federal charges after either climbing Fort Benning's chain-link fence or crossing onto the Army post by road. They pleaded innocent and will return to court in January.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/11/ap-fort-benning-protests-2-se...

More detail, from The Columbus Ledger-Enquirer:

“You’re probably aware that I have been in this court before,” Vitale told U.S. Magistrate Stephen Hyles.

Vitale was convicted in January of crossing onto Fort Benning during the 2009 SOA Watch protest. He received six months in prison for that offense.

Vitale told Hyles that he served previously in the Air Force, where he said he learned of war’s futility. When he left the service, he became a Franciscan.

Vitale made bond after his Saturday arrest, but Omondi, who crossed on Sunday, was brought into Hyles’ courtroom in handcuffs and a jail uniform. His attorney argued that Omondi came to the protest with no intention of scaling the fence separating Fort Benning from Columbus and that his decision to climb it was made once here.

Omondi told the judge about his birth in Kenya, where he grew up around poverty. He now lives in California and serves the homeless.

“Your honor, I crossed the line on the 21st in protest of the School of the Americas, which I believe is a tool of death,” he said.

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/2010/11/24/1357422/two-protesters-ge...

.
They receive $18,000 the day they put this out..

For the second year in a row, a federal court in Columbus, Georgia, has sentenced activists to six-month prison terms for trespassing on the US Army's Fort Benning base during protests against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the US Army School of the Americas (SOA). This is the maximum sentence for the offense, and US federal magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth surprised observers when he imposed the penalty on three activists in January 2010.

Four of the activists arrested during the most recent protest—the 20th annual demonstration, held last Nov. 20—have received six-month sentences. Father Louis Vitale and Michael Omondi were sentenced after making a no-contest plea in November, and Nancy H. Smith and Christopher Spicer were sentenced by US Magistrate Stephen Hyles on Jan. 5. This is the third time Father Vitale has served time in jail for participating in the protests.

http://www.ww4report.com/node/9361

 

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