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Resistance See other Resistance Articles Title: RT America correspondents arrested at Fort Benning protest RT America correspondents arrested at Fort Benning protest Mon, 22 Nov 2010 16:28 CST Russia Today An RT crew, including correspondent Kaelyn Forde and cameraman Jon Conway, has been released after detention by US police while filming protests near the Fort Benning military base in Georgia. They were taken into custody despite complying with the police demand not to come close to the gates of the base. The journalists were detained after the demonstration was over and everybody, including correspondents, was leaving the site. The arrest was very rough, RT Washington bureau informs, with hard plastic hand cuffs injuring Kaelyn Forde's wrists. This type of handcuffs is commonly used by US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the footage she can be seen yelling, "We are press, why are you arresting me?" The RT correspondents, as well as the demonstrators, were charged with insubordination to the authorities, taking part in unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. All those detained were transported to a jail, their private possessions, clothes and, in the men's case, underwear were confiscated. They received prison jumpsuits with the tag "Muscogee County Jail". The arrested were put in the same cells with convicted criminals serving their sentences. Kaelyn Forde managed to make a call from the prison. After 24 hours of detention, all the arrested were brought before a judge. After a six-hour interrogation of the arrested, and the policemen who detained them, the judge kept most of the charges in place. In particular, the RT correspondent and a cameraman were facing the dilemma of admitting their guilt of "participation in unlawful assembly" and paying a fine, or going back to jail. The decision was made to pay the fine. Another charge, "insubordination to the authorities", will require further investigative measures. Eventually, at midnight Georgian time, 32 hours after the arrest, the correspondents were released. Activists from a protest movement claim that this year's crowd dispersal was the toughest and most irrational. One of the organizers of the rally, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed that it was done on purpose in order to intimidate the protestors, with the message that, if the government can take such rough measures against the press, it can behave even worse to the activists. Each year human rights activists gather at the gates of Fort Benning, which houses the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-operation (formerly the School of the Americas), demanding its closure. The institute has been training police and military personnel from Latin American countries, many of whom are said to have been allegedly involved in crimes against civil citizens and killings of foreigners. Some call Fort Benning "America's terrorist training camp". About 60,000 law-enforcement agents have been trained there, having then returned to their countries. They have committed all kinds of human rights abuses. For example, in 1993, the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador named the army officers who had committed the worst atrocities of the civil war there. Two thirds of them had been trained at the School of the Americas. In Chile the School's graduates rate both Augusto Pinochet's secret police and main prisons there, which are often referred to as concentration camps. Generals who led the bloody military coup in Honduras in 2009 were trained at the School of the Americas, which is now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Co-operation - the name may have changed but the practices have not. These, by all standards non-violent, demonstrations at Fort Benning happen every year. The rally has brought together thousands of people protesting, including human rights activists, victims of torture. One of the arrested was a 90-year old priest.
Poster Comment: IMHO the RT journalists were arrested because RT is opposed to the ruling regime of the US. We've been witnessing a war on journalists who speak the truth. In Iraq there were quite a few journalists killed by US forces. We had one case where a US soldier was near a journalist who was wearing a badge to show his credentials and was unarmed. The US soldier just shot the guy dead in the chest without any cause. In another case a US tank fired a round into a hotel at a location where it was known journalists were at. They said that the soldier thought the camera a journalist was holding was a weapon. and so they fired a round into the hotel where the journalists stayed, because a camera lens was sticking out the window. In another case an Italian journalist was arrested and treated badly, then after release US forces attacked the journalist's car and killed a body-guard. There have been other cases where journalists have been arrested or killed by US forces.
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#1. To: Red Jones (#0)
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡ "The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good." -- Thomas Jefferson
I know. and think that the people arrested also didn't do anything at all to warrant being arrested. They were present at a peaceful protest where people spoke against US policy. This is a crime now. no doubt republican partisans will blame the situation on Democrats and/or Democrat partisans will blame the situation on Republicans. but both groups will go and vote for leaders who advocate torture and police state actions by government.
Psalms 137:1 By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡ "The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good." -- Thomas Jefferson
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