Art Landis Crosses the Line From Complicity to Civility 

“The SOA is a terrorist camp and terrorism and torture and killing are things I don’t approve of, whether we do it or our friends do it or it’s done in other parts of the world.” Art Landis, November, 2007

     The United States is a nation that teaches and practices torture and assassination. It is difficult to get your mind around that reality sometimes. It is a reality that is denied absolutely by those who practice torture, such as those in our military, our President and the syncophants with whom he surrounds himself. For example, our current Attorney General, Mukasey, who spent his life as a Judge, does not know if waterboarding is torture.

      I recently read an article in the print version of Counterpunch, in which a man waterboarded himself, just to see…it turns out that what waterboarding does is trigger a deep survival mechanism by making you experience the act of drowning. The deep terror that results shakes a human to his/her core. It is torture, as has been known for centuries. Another example is that of the constant PR responses of officials at the Western Hemispher Institute of Security Cooperation (WHISC). When those of us active to close this school, with the School of the Americas Watch, point out the documented use of torture and assassination manuals, the deeds of SOA graduates and WHISC graduates, they will never accept any responsibility. They even claim to teach human rights. 

     On Monday,1-28-2008,  Art Landis of Perkasie was sentenced to 30 days in prison for having the temerity to challenge the use of terror by his nation in Latin America and around the world. He was one of 11 SOAW protesters sentenced for crossing the line from complicity to civility at Fort Benning, GA in November of 2007 at the annual SOAW protests against the School of Assassins. The Morning Call reported the event, and in so doing, quoted as follows: "Lee Rials, the spokesman for the Western Hemisphere Institute, has called the claims about the school slanderous and 'absurd'". The Morning Call in 1999 called for the school to close in 1999, for very good reason. They neglect now to give a casual reader any clue as to their reasoning in 1999, or any background about the controversy that constantly envelops the school. 

    I encourage the reader to check out the statements and histories of the 11 who are bearing witness this year as citizens who will not be complicit with a criminal government - they are powerful histories and testimonies:  www.soaw.org. Thank you Art, for your witness. We will publish Art’s prison address when we know it. 

-Joe DeRaymond  Note:  for an account of the 2007 SOAW demo in these pages, see here, and for another article about Columbus, the SOA and the Stocking Strangler murders, see here, On the Road to the Torture School.