Some call it Fort Sneezy but the innocuous nickname does little to mask the truly dark actions that take place at Fort Huachuca. Like most dirty little dark secrets, it is not so much a matter of no one knowing but of no one wanting to know. In Southern Arizona on Sunday November 20th about 80 protestors stood outside the gates of Fort Huachuca in solidarity with the 19,000 protestors across the country at Fort Benning, Georgia. The methods of torture and intimidation of the masses through war crimes to be used to foster regieme change are taught to members of the foreign militaries at Fort Benning’s Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation formerly called the School of the Americas.
Susan, a friend of mine. was at the protest in Sierra Vista/ Fort Huachuca yesterday and sent this description of the protest.
80+ in attendance (Needs to be hundreds!!!)
Didn’t get a chance to shoot many stills…..too busy filming the Grannies Raging cross the road, then get escorted back across by the cops, as a couple FBI or whoever it was cowered in the background….sorta! ha. Grannies were spectacular with their new songs, great lyrics, brilliant attire, and crowd participation. There were fabulous signs and flags and banners brought by everyone, even an art piece that was too radical for a gallery presentation. Food Not Bombs Blue Bus transported folks, others carpooled. John Fife spoke brilliantly and passionately, booming over a microphone for the world to hear. Was a beautiful and satisfying day of resistance with Susan Gallego and others planning and executing this wonderful protest. Next year hopefullly it will expand even more to become the huge sister protest it needs to be, gaining participation from everyone around who can’t make it to Ft. Benning, Georgia (16,000 made it to that one!). Ft. Huachuca is notorious for it’s torture training manuals…Channel 4 is going to feature Ft. Huachuca all next week I hear on their news program. Should be knee-deep I’m sure! Try not to slip if you watch it! Hope EVERYone comes next year….this needs to be an annual EVENT!!!
The stills she refers to follow:
Photos by Susan Thorpe.
You ever been to a class there? How do you know what they teach? It's quite a nice fort actually, and the training manuals they use in the class for the most part can be found online. I don't recall seeing anything about torture…in fact, they stress following the Geneva convention quite a bit.