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VIDEO & PHOTOS: Protest at Fort Lewis Highlights Abuses at Fort Lewis Brig

author: Seattle Indymedia, Video and Photos by Elliot Stoller
Oct 19, 2009 12:03

October 18, 2009 -- Veterans from around the northwest converged on Fort Lewis on Sunday to protest the violation of prisoners' rights at the Fort Lewis brig. Joining the protest were attorneys from the National Lawyers Guild who were attending the Guild's national conference in Seattle.

Attorneys and military veteran bloggers have long commented on reports of human rights abuses in the Army's Regional Correction Facilitities (RCF), including the use of female guards to sexually humiliate prisoners. One of these reports was about the 2005 case of Michael Levitt, who plugged up his cell toilet in response to reported sexual humiliation by guards, and was then chained to a “stress-chair” (with metal frames but not seat) for 109 hours. Now James M. Branum, the civilian attorney for GI resisters Travis Bishop and Leo Church, reports that his clients are being subjected to human rights abuses and violations of their constitutional rights at the Fort Lewis' RCF. Other war resisters, such as Sgt. Kevin Benderman and Spc. Suzanne Swift, have also been held at the Fort Lewis RCF.

Sgt. Travis Bishop and Spc. Leo Church are being held virtually incommunicado at the Fort Lewis brig, according to their attorney. Bishop and Church have been watched by female guards during strip-searches, while using the restroom as well as when they were in the showers. Both soldiers have been denied one in-person visit by their attorneys and all phone calls with their attorneys have been illegally monitored by guards. Branum also says that BIshop and Church may have been filmed during strip searches.

Seth Manzel, a Fort Lewis Stryker Brigade veteran and executive director of G.I. Voice, commented, “These techniques of sexual humiliation are far too similar to those practiced on foreign prisoners at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and Bagram in Afghanistan. Is the Army at Fort Lewis using enhanced interrogation techniques to break down American soldiers here at home?”

Leo Church is serving an eight month sentence for going AWOL to keep his family from being homeless after the Army refused to help. Travis Bishop is serving a one year sentence after publicly refusing to deploy to the war in Afghanistan for religious and ethical reasons. Amnesty International has declared him to be a “Prisoner of Conscience.”

With his family facing homelessness, Leo Church asked his unit for help, but he was denied Church received 8 months prison time for going AWOL. Church and his wife were eventually forced by this ordeal to give their son up for adoption. According to Church, “With everything that was going on, from me leaving, even though it was to care for my family, because I could find no support from the Army, Amanda and I had to place our son, Austin in a loving home through adoption. We did not want him enduring the strife that we had endured and for him to end up being fatherless, because I would be living in prison.”

Andrew VanDenBergh, a Marine veteran of the Iraq War and G.I. Voice staff member, said of Leo Church, “He joined the Army, found out his family was homeless, wasn’t allowed to keep his children from living on the streets, went to take care of his family, had to give a child up for adoption and is now locked in prison and being abused. Being abused for what? For taking care of his children?”

“These young men should not be in jail to begin with,” says Gerry Condon of Greater Seattle Veterans For Peace. “Travis Bishop obeyed both international law and U.S. law when he refused to deploy to the U.S. war in Afghanistan, which is illegal, immoral and unwinnable.”

Sgt. Travis Bishop recently arrived at Fort Lewis to serve a 12-month sentence in the RCF, and was recognized by Amnesty International as a “Prisoner of Conscience.” Bishop refused orders to deploy to Afghanistan based on religious reasons, and applied for Conscientious Objector (CO) status. He went AWOL (Absent Without Leave) from Fort Hood, Texas, on the day of his deployment to give himself “time to prepare for my application process.” He was away from his unit for about a week, during which he drafted his CO application and sought legal advice. When he returned voluntarily to his unit, Bishop submitted his application, but he was court martialed even as the Army was reviewing his application.

Travis Bishop is also an accomplished country musician. He opened for Toby Keith while serving in Baghdad with the 3rd Signal Brigade in 2007, as well as country stars Keith Anderson and Chely Wright . G.I. Voice is calling on country musicians and fans to come to the support of Travis Bishop.

Video from the protest on Sunday:

Click here if you are unable to play the video above.

Photographs from the protest on Sunday:

 

 

 

 

 

Additional Information

• G.I. Voice / Coffee Strong
  
  • http://www.givoice.org
    
  • http://www.coffeestrong.com
• Coffee Strong: Listening to the G.I. Voice at Fort Lewis (Zoltan Grossman)
  
  • http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=1252
    
• Army Prisoners Isolated, Denied Right to Legal Counsel (Dahr Jamail)
  
  • http://dahrjamailiraq.com/army-prisoners-isolated-denied-right-to-legal-counsel
    
• Free Leo Church (Legal Defense Fund)
  
  • http://freeleochurch.wordpress.com/about-leo-church
    
• Free Travis Bishop (Legal Defense Fund)
  
  • http://freetravisbishop.wordpress.com/
    
• Amnesty International Declaration on Travis Bishop
  
  • http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/093/2009/en/bb7a6bba-48c4-49ba-975f-af5bc0ff9c5e/amr510932009en.html
    
• Sgt. Travis Bishop Says No to Afghanistan Occupation
  
  • http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/08/13-3
    
  • http://adoptresistance.blogspot.com/2009/05/sgt-travis-bishop-another-ft-hood.html
• New Country Star interview of Travis Bishop in Iraq
  
  • http://newcountrystar.com/travis_bishop.htm
    
• Travis Bishop Music
  
  • http://www.myspace.com/travisbishopmusic
    
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZkqcOz-KUM
    
  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jGpl6JHWy50
    
• Veterans’ articles on human rights violations in Fort Lewis RCF
  
  • http://jack-dalton.blogspot.com/2005/12/he-dared-to-challenge-power-part-two.html
    
  • http://www.williambowles.info/gispecial/2006/0306/080306/gi_4C8_080306.html
    
• Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (Marjorie Cohn)
  
  • http://givoice.org/node/8121
    
  • http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2009/09/25/people
    
• Letters from Fort Lewis Brig (Kevin Benderman)
  
  • http://www.globepequot.com/globepequot/index.cfm?fuseaction=customer.product&product_code=1-59228-933-9&category_code=
    
• Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent (Marjorie Cohn and Katheleen Gilberd)
  
  • http://p3books.com/rulesofdisengagement

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