Stop Torture weekend: Fort Huachuca in Arizona

HUNDREDS EXPECTED FOR TORTURE PROTEST AT FORT HUACHUCA

United States citizens from at least fifteen states, including all the Southwestern States, are expected to gather for the largest annual Southwest Witness To Stop Torture on November 15-16 in Tucson and Sierra Vista, AZ.
Southwest Witness will engage in peaceful nonviolent action at Fort Huachuca
• to protest the practice of cruelty our country has carried out against captives in the so-called “War on Terror”;
• to open dialogue with soldiers and commanders about their rights and obligations to report cases of torture and cruel treatment;
• to challenge our government’s increasing use of private contractors, with little or no oversight, both as instructors and as part of interrogation teams in the field.
• to call for independent civilian human-rights commission oversight of all United States interrogation training and practice.
A No to Torture Rally at Veterans Memorial Park in Sierra Vista beginning at 10 a.m. on November 16, will be followed in the early afternoon by a peaceful march and vigil to the main gate of Fort Huachuca and a nearby office of a corporate contractor. Speakers will include torture survivors and U.S. military veterans.
The weekend witness begins the day before in Tucson with participants discussing “How can we stop torture?” and building a plan of action; a Theater of the Oppressed evening of poetry, music and drama; followed by a No to Torture Candlelight Procession and Vigil to the Tucson Federal Building.
Additional related events include a Friday evening book reading from Dissent: Voices of Conscience by author Colonel Ann Wright, US Army ret., at a Tucson bookstore and a Sunday evening concert by Francisco Herrera, a peace and justice movement legend in the Bay Area.
Details of time and place for these related events can be found at southwestwitness.org
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, GA, where the testimony of torture survivors has informed us and moved us to action.
More information at http://www.southwestwitness.org/