Our Higher Institute of Learning Torture

Defying the Torture School
Quaker Risks Health to Make a Principled Stand
by Linda Jacobson

On April 11, Joanne Cowan entered federal prison. This effect was a direct result of the fact that Joanne was protesting our government's complicity in torture.

This is not the torture we've been reading about at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, in Afghanistan or in the secret Eastern European prisons, or through extraordinary renditions. All of these practices have a history. The reason that the techniques used in these places are so consistent is that they were all researched and taught at what was once known as The School of the Americas, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation — WHINSEC. The techniques were taught to the notorious from our neighbors to the south and practiced in Pinochet's Chile, in Argentina's "dirty war," in Guatemala and elsewhere, anywhere in this hemisphere where a nation's reputation is synonymous with torture.

How great a leap is it from teaching techniques of torture to foreigners to practicing them ourselves? People who have protested at SOA/WHINSEC, since it was moved from Panama to the United States, to Fort Benning, Ga., have asked this question for years, but it has received little press. A liberal columnist recently wrote that, until the revelations about our own actions came out, he had doubted the truth of the protesters' allegations. This year, 37 people crawled under a fence at the school and were immediately arrested. Joanne was one of them. As she sat in a local jail, a guard, who, one would expect, would know what was going on in her own town, brought Joanne food and whispered, "Thank you."

Joanne is an activist. She has been arrested before. This is different. Joanne has multiple sclerosis, which is exacerbated by heat and stress. She has been assigned to federal prison in Phoenix for two months. Joanne knew what she was doing and the risks she took. This, to me, is the true meaning of courage.

Her decision to take this action comes from a deep faith. Joanne is a Quaker. Our belief is that "there is that of God in everyone." What we do to each other, we do to that piece of God. We also believe in the concept of "being called." We believe that all people can hear the words of God, like the prophets of old. But since there are, and have always been, false prophets, Quakers provide many means of determining whether something is a true calling. That torture is wrong and inconsistent with our teachings is obvious. Still, Joanne underwent a lengthy process of discernment to determine whether this step of risking her health in an act of civil disobedience came from mere ego or a deeply felt necessity.

I have seen the results of this process in Joanne and how she relates to the world. Those personality quirks that we all manifest are not at the moment apparent. She speaks of a deep peace and a lack of fear that are tangible.

Those who know Joanne have accepted the truth of her calling, and have supported her intention in various ways. Today I have chosen, as my own personal witness, to write this piece. For Joanne's action to have meaning, it needs to reach as many people as possible.

In speaking to friends and acquaintances of Joanne's courage, I learned that many people have never heard of SOA or WHINSEC or what it does. I hope after you read this piece you will share it with others.

I also urge you to urge your congressional representative to support H.R. 1217, legislation in the House that seeks an opportunity for six months of suspended operations for a review and examination of WHINSEC. Currently Mark Udall is a cosponsor, so, please, thank him. Contact Sen. Ken Salazar and ask him to sponsor a similar resolution in the Senate. Senator Allard was one of the few senators to vote against the anti-torture clause that President Bush signed with conditions. Please let them know that we, Coloradans and Americans, are not, ever , torturers or accomplices to torture. Joanne gave up at least two months of her life to say this. I hope we can all give a few minutes of ours.