Grandmothers for Peace Get Federal Prison Instead

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This is outrageous!

Bill Quigley | Grandmothers for Peace Get Federal Prison Instead:

Thursday 01 February 2007

Cathy Webster, a grandmother living in Chico, California, organized 'A Thousand Grandmothers for Peace' to protest in November 2006 against the torture-training School of the Americas (SOA) (now called the Western Hemisphere Institute of Security Cooperation or WHINSEC) at Fort Benning, Georgia.

SOA-WHINSEC has been the subject of international criticism since it was disclosed that torture manuals were used in training Latin American military personnel. Amnesty International USA called for the closing of the school, an investigation into the human rights atrocities committed by its graduates, and reparations and an apology to its victims.

This week a federal judge in Columbus, Georgia, sentenced Ms. Webster to two months in federal prison for stepping through a hole in the fence onto the grounds of Fort Benning to carry her protest to the doors of SOA-WHINSEC.

Two other Grandmothers for Peace were also sentenced to federal prison for the nonviolent protest - Julienne Oldfield of Syracuse NY and Val Fillenwarth of Indianapolis IN. The three grandmothers were among sixteen human rights activists, ages 17 to 71, who were on trial in federal court in Georgia this week. Fifteen were given federal prison sentences of one to six months.