08075
January 31, 2008
Two Presbyterians receive prison time
Pair entered Army base while protesting U.S. military school
LOUISVILLE — Two Presbyterians, one of them a minister, were given prison terms Monday (Jan. 28) for trespassing during an annual demonstration against a military school they blame for human rights abuses in Latin America.
The Rev. Chris Lieberman, 55, of Albuquerque, NM, was sentenced in federal court to 60 days in prison. Le Anne Clausen, 29, of Chicago, received a 30-day sentence. No fines were imposed in either case.
The Rev. Chris Lieberman
The two Presbyterians will not have to report to jail until notified by the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Lieberman and Clausen were among 11 demonstrators who appeared before U.S. Magistrate G. Mallon Faircloth to enter pleas to the misdemeanor. They were accused of illegally entering on Nov. 18 the Army’s Fort Benning near Columbus, GA, which houses the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly called the School of the Americas (SOA).
The peaceful protest, which draws thousands, was organized by the School of the Americas Watch 18 years ago. It is timed to commemorate six Jesuit priests who were killed along with their housekeeper and her daughter in El Salvador on Nov. 19, 1989.
The group claims that some of those responsible for the massacre had attended the Spanish-language school, which moved to Fort Benning from Panama in 1984 and was reinstituted as WHINSEC under the U.S. Department of Defense in 2001.
Lieberman, a member of Santa Fe Presbytery, is co-pastor of Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque, along with his wife, the Rev. Joyce Lieberman, who also is stated clerk of Santa Fe Presbytery. The Oregon native earned degrees from San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, CA, and Harvard Divinity School in Cambridge, MA.
“The big thing here is the concern for human rights and for a witness that can make lives better and for me a step of faith,” Lieberman told the Presbyterian News Service. “It feels to me like the action of civil disobedience I took was right for me and continues to be right for me.”
Le Anne Clausen (Interfaith Youth Core photo) Clausen is a student in her final year at Chicago Theological Seminary, which is related to the United Church of Christ, where she is co-chair of the student senate. She spent last semester serving as a student pastor at First Presbyterian Church in Chicago. The Iowa native is a candidate for ordination under the care of North Central Iowa Presbytery.
“I’m really at peace with it,” Clausen said of her decision to trespass onto Fort Benning and the subsequent prison sentence. “I think this is going to be a very powerful witness to what is going on at the school especially when we’re looking at the clergy people, including Presbyterian clergy, in South America that are having their lives threatened. They are either fleeing the country or they’ve been killed. This is in some ways the least I can do.”
Lieberman and Clausen were among at least 50 participants in the demonstration from the Presbyterian Peace Fellowship (PPF), which has long opposed the military training facility.
The PPF is an affinity group of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) committed to nonviolence and peacemaking. It receives no funding from the denomination but occasionally works collaboratively with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program on matters of common concern.
PC(USA) General Assemblies in 1994 and 1995 condemned the SOA and urged that it be closed, citing human-rights abuses perpetrated by graduates.
The military has acknowledged that some former students committed crimes after attending but says no cause-and-effect relationship has ever been established.
Army spokesmen have pointed out that all WHINSEC courses emphasize democracy, human rights and ethics. They believe that emphasis has played a role in spreading democracy throughout Latin America.
WHINSEC Public Affairs Officer Lee A. Rials said: “I find it distressing that people will trespass and get a federal conviction for a place they know nothing about, when on any work day they could show a photo ID and come to our door, sit in classes, talk with students and faculty, and review our instructional materials.” |
