Ft. Benning, GA – Meredith Aby, an anti-war leader from Minnesota, spoke out against U.S. political repression at the School of the Americas protest. Aby gave a presentation about the FBI raid on her home that happened because of her being an anti-war, Palestine and Colombia solidarity activist. 60 people attended, overflowing the room.

The Committee to Stop FBI Repression formed two years ago in response to a systematic FBI attack against anti-war and international solidarity activists. The FBI raided seven homes and the office of the Twin Cites based Anti-War Committee. 23 anti-war and international solidarity activists were subpoenaed to a federal grand jury. All 23, including Meredith Aby, resisted the undemocratic grand jury. “Yes, I have been to Palestine. Yes, I have friends who have donated food to starving Palestinian people. Is that providing material support to terrorists? I don’t think so,” stated Meredith.

Audience members asked questions ranging from her thoughts and feelings toward the FBI raids of her home, to how they personally can resist political repression by the U.S. government. “If it were not for community support,” she stated, “I would probably be sitting in a jail cell right now.”

Aby offered insight on the dirty tricks the government uses to infiltrate peoples movements – in particular a spy who lied about everything and to everyone she came into contact with. Aby noted that the big aim of the FBI is to divide people’s movements by causing fear of interaction with fellow activists. Aby said, “The way to overcome this is solidarity. There is strength in numbers, and the outpouring of solidarity with the Anti-War 23, especially with Palestinian-American activist Hatem Abudayyeh of Chicago, is overwhelming. The U.S. government and the politicians understand this.”

Aby continued, “Activists must stand together and resist the fears the government aims to put in our hearts and minds. We must resist the grand jury, like the radical heroes in the Northwest. We must organize to oppose political repression, to protect our movements and leaders. We must stand with all the Arab and Muslim people wrongly imprisoned in the U.S. by the phony war on terror, like the Holy Land Five, in prison for sending food to hungry people, for educating children and providing health care to families. We can push back the FBI and the political repression.”

For more information on the Committee to Stop FBI Repression, please visit www.stopfbi.net.

#FtBenningGA #AntiwarMovement #SchoolOfTheAmericas #SOA #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression

Fort Benning, GA – Over 4000 people gathered here, Nov. 19, at the [School of Americas Watch](http://www.soaw.org) protest of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Despite the change of name from School of the Americas (SOA) to WHINSEC, the legacy of half a century of training in counterinsurgency techniques, psychological warfare and interrogation tactics continues to this day in places like Colombia and Honduras.

‘Students’ of SOA/WHINSEC’s curriculum have been linked to death squads attributed to the rape, murder and torture of labor organizers, religious leaders, teachers and human rights activists.

Jimena Paz, a leader in the Honduran resistance movement, said, “In my country SOA graduates continue to repress social movements who stand up against a coup led by graduates of this school right here in Fort Benning.”

### Standing up to political repression

The [Committee to Stop FBI Repression (CSFR)](http://www.stopfbi.net) had organizers from across the country mobilize for the demonstration. CSFR organizers passed out flyers explaining the connections between the repression abroad and the FBI attacks on activists at home and received hundreds of petition signatures to defend [Carlos Montes](http://www.stopfbi.net/profile/carlos-montes), a target of FBI repression. Thousands of flyers were also distributed promoting the upcoming [NATO/G8 protests in Chicago](http://cang8.wordpress.com/) and the [RNC 2012 protest in Tampa Florida](http://marchonthernc.com/), with a common emphasis on defending the right to protest and speak out against injustice at these events.

The CSFR hosted a workshop on Saturday night, attended by over 100 people, to raise awareness of attacks on activists by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI has been used as an apparatus to infiltrate and repress peace, solidarity and civil rights movements, past and present. These attacks are relevant to the SOA/WHINSEC protest and its attendees in many ways.

The activists who have been attacked most recently are all prominent international peace and solidarity activists, indicating that this is a movement which is currently in the cross-hairs of the FBI. The volume of resources spent to harm this movement is alarming and the activist community across the U.S. should be aware of the vast scope of the repression, as well as the unjust methods and tools, which, in flagrant abuse of privacy rights and lacking due process, are at the ready disposal of federal Investigators.

As we continue to witness inaccurate media coverage of the ongoing Occupy actions, we should note the myriad systems of repression, often violent, that have been used in attempts to suppress a movement protesting the richest 1% in society. According to [the Gothamist](http://gothamist.com/2011/11/16/anatomy_of_a_raid_nypd_planned_ows.php), the New York Police Department’s raids on Zucotti Park were advised by the Department of Homeland Security, in a coordinated effort of aggression to preserve the status quo. However, the similarities in repressive methods against free speech and activist movements have been met with resistance.

“Just as people have linked arms and successfully defended Occupy encampments from police repression,” said Kosta Harlan of the CSFR, “in the same way our movements for justice, peace and equality are uniting to defend the Anti-War 24 and Carlos Montes,” targets of government raids and subpoenas to appear before federal grand juries.

CSFR activists stressed the necessity of taking up the fight against repression of activist movements, setting a precedent for resistance. Workshop facilitators encouraged attendees to write or phone President Obama, Attorney General Holder and local representatives to demand that they call off attacks on free speech in the U.S.

“We came to Fort Benning this weekend to challenge the killers of the SOA,” stated Daniel Ginsberg of Peace Action. “We’ll be heading home to our Occupations to continue defending activists from government repression.”

#FtBenningGA #AntiwarMovement #SchoolOfTheAmericas #CommitteeToStopFBIRepression #WesternHemisphereInstituteForSecurityCooperationWHINSEC #Occupy

For over 60 years, the SOA has trained more than 60,000 Latin American military officers, soldiers and policemen. The SOA is responsible for many human rights violations, including several genocides and military-led overthrows of democratically elected governments.

According to the independent human rights organization, School of the Americas Watch, the military graduates of this institute are responsible for thousands of deaths. This includes the infamous massacre of nearly 1000 peasant farmers, clergy and community members in El Mazote, El Salvador, on Dec. 11, 1981. Then in 1988, nine Colombian SOA graduates were implicated for a massacre in the village of Segovia. On that day 43 Colombian villagers, children and peasant farmers were killed by hand-grenades and rifle fire from three truckloads of paramilitary death squads aided and abetted by the Colombian military.

As the Colombia Action Network states, “Colombia sends more soldiers to the SOA than any other country in Latin America. Colombia also has the highest number of human rights abuses. The Pentagon directs the Colombian military and their training at SOA, and gives the nod to their death squads. Colombia’s former top general, Mario Montoya trained and instructed others at the SOA. Montoya, along with two other Colombian generals and 24 military officers were forced to resign in 2008 due to the ‘false positives’ scandal – they ‘hired’ unemployed men in the cities, shot them dead in rural areas and then dressed them in FARC uniforms to claim success against the revolutionaries. We say, ‘Close the SOA!’”

The SOA protest brought participants from all over America, including people from Alaska, Minnesota and many other states. Amongst them were students, clergy, veterans, farm-workers, steel workers and other types of workers. One student participant from the University of Florida, the president of UF Amnesty International, Emily Flynn, said that she had driven all the way to Georgia because, “I was really upset that my tax dollars are funding dictatorships in Latin America and a lot of people don’t know that this is happening. I just found out two years ago, and I wish we had more mainstream [media] attention.”

The week of action ended on Sunday, Nov. 22 with a river of thousands of people marching to the gates of this deadly training school. The protesters carried crosses with names of those murdered by graduates of this institute. Some of the crosses commemorated Maria Isabel Salinas, a victim from Argentina, the beloved Salvadorian Archbishop Oscar Romero as well the four U.S. churchwomen killed in El Salvador in 1980. The victims’ ages range from a baby girl of three to a 63-year-old man.

Four veteran human rights defenders, Nancy Gwin of Syracuse, New York, Ken Hayes of Austin, Texas, Father Louis Vitale of Oakland, California, and Michael Walli of Washington, D.C. crossed into Fort Benning to engage in civil disobedience.

#FtBenningGA #FortBenningGA #AntiwarMovement #Americas #SchoolOfTheAmericas

Fort Benning, GA – 15,000 people from across the U.S. and Latin America protested this weekend at Fort Benning, Georgia to say, “Shut down the School of Assassins.” The School of the Americas (SOA) trains military officers to run death squads in Latin America. In Colombia, these U.S.-trained military leaders conduct the dirty war against union workers. They shoot farmers and those trying to build a better life for themselves and their children.

Sarah Buchner from University of North Carolina-Asheville Students for a Democratic Society said, “I traveled to Colombia this summer to see for myself what those trained in Georgia at the SOA do. It was terrible. We heard story after story of the horrible disappearances and executions done by graduates of the School of Americas. These people are murderers. We must shut down the School of Americas!”

#FtBenningGA #FortBenningGA #AntiwarMovement #SchoolOfTheAmericas