Group holds vigil outside fort today (an da NUT-JOBS was FREEPED)

FORT HUACHUCA — The annual vigil concerning alleged training of torture procedures on the post will happen today near the fort’s Main Gate.

The object of the event, which is held in conjunction with the annual nationwide vigil against the now defunct Army School of the Americas at Fort Benning, Ga., is to protest military intelligence training that foster humiliation, intimidation and torture, according to the Tucson School of Americas Watch. The local protest will be held from 2:30 to 4 p.m., with the gathering point at the northeast corner of Fry Boulevard and Buffalo Soldier Trail.

In the past the Main Gate was closed during the protest period, but fort spokeswoman Tanja Linton said there are no plans to close the gate this year.

Entrance to the fort requires a military vehicle sticker and the showing of an identification card. Those without a sticker have to obtain a temporary pass before entering the post.

Tucson School of Americas Watch claims the Intelligence Center on the fort educates military personnel in torture and the students train others from around the world in such methods.

The Department of the Defense recently released a new training manual for interrogation methods, which was similar to previous editions, but with additional stringent requirements.

Never has the Army or Defense Department condoned torture, top defense officials have said.

Tucson School of Americas Watch also alleges Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, commander of the Intelligence Center and the fort, has links to the torture scandal during the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.

While she was the senior intelligence officer in Iraq during the prison scandal, she never has been accused of involvement with the torture practices at the Iraqi prison.

SENIOR REPORTER Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.

I arrived at the counterprotest site a little while after Protest Warrior (the group that planned the counterprotest) did. They'd already set up a row of American flags on each side of the street and were setting up more flags and signs.

I quickly met up with FReeper \/\/ayne and also Dennis the chapter leader of Protest Warrior. I set up my video camera and got out my "toys". My toys included an electronic bullhorn to which I had attached to its side a small MP3 player. The MP3 player was filled with pro-troops songs and messages as well as patriotic music to include the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force songs. Also in my bag of tricks was my "Mother of all Truth Bombs" which is a portable DVD player with a custom-made DVD that contains pro-troops videos along with videos that were captured in Iraq after the invasion wherein the Fedayeen Saddam had proudly videotaped themselves torturing and killing various Iraqi political prisoners. Since this moonbats were protesting the U.S. military for the "torture" that they allege the military commits, I figured those videos were very appropriate to educate them about what real torture is.

Soon after I arrived, the Protest Warrior leader was called across the street to talk to the Military Police there at the edge of the Ft. Huachuca installation. They told him that the U.S. Flags that we had planted along the sidewalk in the public easement had to be removed. We were all somewhat astonished that we were being prohibited from flying U.S. flags on the periphery of a U.S. Army installation. The reasoning that the MPs gave was that if we can fly "our" flags on the Army installation's side, that the moonbats would have to be permitted to fly flags and post signs there too. The MPs were unable to make the distinction between the U.S. flag and the moonbats' garbage. So, we removed the flags and posted them across the street.

We were there an hour before the moonbats were supposed to arrive, but one hippie looking moonbat in a tie-dyed shirt had taken a seat amongst our signs and flags on the SE corner of the intersection. I took my camera, videocam, and DVD player over to show him the torture video and record his reaction. He said that he was willing to "dialog" with me and I sat down and discussed what real torture was and showed him some of the video.

I then videotaped him saying things like he supported the Iraqi insurgents and then I caught him when I mentioned that the insurgents were the ones blowing up our troops with IEDs and using car bombs to kill fellow Iraqis en masse. He then said he didn't support the insurgents but I said that I alread had him on tape stating otherwise. I and one other counterprotestor verbally batted him around a bit but I soon tired of the game with the idiot and returned to our main corner.

More of the counterprotestors arrived and we spread out to cover the sidewalks on our side of the street. I played some patriotic tunes through the bullhorn to get us revved up before the moonbats arrived.

A couple arrived in a pickup truck and they looked suspicious to us. I went over and checked them out and I quickly determined they were moonbats. They donned orange jumpsuits and black hoods and came over and inserted themselves within our group on our corner. We tried to engage them in conversation but they, at first, wouldn't speak. We finally broke them down and they did speak and we argued for a while with them. The hippie guy that I'd messed with earlier got his orange jumpsuit and hood and joined the couple.

After a while we decided that we'd had enough of their presence and the chapter leader produced the permit and asked them to leave. They refused. The police didn't care either.

More moonbats arrived and kept inserting themselves within our ranks. I stried to use my bullhorn to drive them away, but it didn't work. The police just stood there and watched and refused to enforce or honor our exclusive permit for a rally on all four corners outside the Army base. What was worse is whenever one of our signs or flags covered the sign or presence of a moonbat who had pushed there way in between our people, the police would make us move away so that the moonbat would be unobstructed.

More moonbats arrived. And more. We were getting seriously outnumbered. We had a few dozen, including the parents of USMC Lance Corporal Joshua Lucero. Lucero, from Tucson, was killed in Iraq two years ago. His parents and other relatives are regular participants in troop rallies and counter protests. They and those with them wore black shirts with the word "INFIDEL" in large white letters on the front and back.

Some of the moonbats infiltrated our southern corner, pushed there way to the front of our people, and unfurled a banner in front of them and their signs and flags. The police did nothing despite their rigid enforcement that we not cover or visually obstruct the moonbats.

A large contingent of moonbats took up a corner across a frontage road from our southern corner. They beat drums, held signs and banners, and a few chants were heard. We countered with pro-troops and patriotic music from my bullhorn and \/\/ayne verbally condemned them and their messages with his bullhorn. The moonbats that were on our main corner moved across the street to be with the largest portion of their group.

Then I noticed that our northern flank, along the road about 100 feet from our northern corner, a bunch of moonbats and moved in and they had even set up amplification equipment with a microphone and some guy was playing some lousy guitar music. We decided to try to dislodge them to the corner across the street where the rest of the moonbats were.

[To be continued later. I've got to get to work.]

Arizona weather promised to be hot and windy on November 19th as about 15-20 Pro Americans rode to Sierra Vista from Tucson. Moonbats planned to be at Ft. Huachuca at 2:30 pm to falsely accuse US soldiers of torture. Accordingly, we planned to start a troop support rally at 1:00 pm. We arrived at 12:30 pm. Dennis, the local Tucson Protest Warrior leader, had obtained a permit for all four corners.

But as we soon found out, the permit made no difference. The police said anyone could be anyplace with or without a permit. Why did do the city bother issuing them, then? Only Sierra Vista city officials know the answer to that. We parked in the corner empty lot and were hoping to fill it up but did not as the lot was too large! However, we did get a lot of cars in there and one was especially handy later.

The Pro-American crew worked quickly, setting up signs requesting cars honk for the troops. At least 15 American flags were erected. The MP's asked us to stay off the Fort side of the street and we complied, though it seemed strange to be removing American flags from in front of an American Army Post. However, they must have known about Sierra Vista's Pusillanimous Permit Policy and didn't want moonbat banners there. I met Spiff again who declared he was ready with his small but amazingly powerful musical bullhorn and other equipment.

A Prius drove by with a tie-dyed shirt wearing moonbat giving us a startled stare from the driver's seat. He soon parked and sat down with a badly lettered sign against "US torture," between two American Flags on the south side of Highway 90. (The moonbats didn't bring any of their own.) Soon some more moonbats came and dressed in orange suits with hoods, their favorite outfit. I set up my "Support The Troops and Their Mission" (FreeRepublic) sign to stand by itself and got my "Say No To Communism" sign with "Don't Believe Left-Wing Lies and Propaganda" on the other side.

A video taper from New Mexico seemed very interested in my sign and allowed me to make a speech for the moonbats on his public access TV report. I explained as I usually do how Marxist regimes killed over 100 million people while all the wars put together killed 35 million, according to Professor R.J. Rummel. I also handed him an article on how 500 munitions found in Iraq were certified as WMD. Tie dye moonbat dude, now dressed in orange with a hood, violently snatched it out of my hand with a curse but was reprimanded by police.

We were definitely outnumbered by moonbats who used their advantage to move among us and try to outflank us, mingle and overtake corners. Overheard by moonbats talking to each other: "How could you stand living in a hate filled, homophobic town like this for so long?" The reply was lost in noise. When the same person remarked a few minutes later how few moonbats were there, I joked that most of them may have gone to a legalize marijuana protest first and then got lost, but I don't think she appreciated the jape.

Most liberals eventually went across Fry Blvd from the empty lot, where I used a bullhorn to inform them again and again of my point about Communism. For those who doubt such ties, I noticed a sign used by the Communist Party USA Arizona Party Secretary in a previous protest. Battered, tattered, crude and cardboard, it was still in use. "It is Communists who torture!" I shouted, naming off countries. "And especially you, with your badly lettered homemade signs!" I finished to Pro-American laughter.

I sang the first verses of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard theme songs, and the entire Army song (I brought a few copies of the full version and many sang with us) over and over…and over. Soon about 40 Harley-Davidson's trailing full American flags burst onto the scene, revving their engines.

A woman across the street standing among 80 moonbats was throwing pagan curses and hand gestures at the riders as they circled through the ally, but they simply drove on with laconic biker stares. At one point, Tina Lucero, Randy Graf and I were the only three people on the empty lot side of Fry facing the 80 moonbats. We decided to have some non pagan prayer. The bikers circled back about every 15-30 minutes.

Some moonbats tried ripping out signs but were lectured by Protest Warrior leader Dennis who made them put the signs back. Eventually all the left-wing activists trooped across the Fry Blvd to the empty lot to have speeches. Suddenly a police wall was thrown up. While liberals had been allowed to mix with us, we were not allowed the same rights, which made some people on our side kind of mad, especially since we had the permit!

"You can make all the noise you want and raise up signs, as long as you stay on that side of the line," remonstrated a sturdy Sierra Vista Police Officer. Hmm. All the noise we want, huh? Spiff stood up in the open door of a vehicle with bullhorn blasting while car radios, boom boxes, chants and patriotic songs arose amongst us. Since the right to mingle (which they had received) was denied us, we would use the rights we did have. All the biggest signs went up to block my large sign but I got permission from the owner of a nearby vehicle to stand on the hood. The clueless liberals continued to block air for some time, however.

I could see the speaker, John Fife, saying "President Bush is a liar…" "You're the liar!" I boomed out, momentarily startling him from his monotone false accusations. He continued on. I could barely hear him but interjected when I could. Eventually "singing grannies" (extremist left wing activists using thrift shop apparel to disguise themselves as countrified grandmothers) began to croon parody lyrics to well known melodies. However, the cacophony of dissident sound did not lend itself to acoustical enjoyment. Did I mention the bikers came by again?

"The drumbeat of Communist killing appoaches!" I shouted or something to that effect as a drummer walked to the microphone. Fife and friends went to go to the Post gate in order to deliberately get arrested as the drummer beat a somber, depressing, Soviet style tone. Moonbats began to pack up and leave. They seemed to understand that the action we took was an ironic comic imitation of so many liberal protests which seek to "drown out" the speaker. However, in this case the people were standing in front of our military, falsely accusing them while calling others liars.

As we were all breaking up I asked one moonbat with a video camera to give me a President Bush lie so I could refute it. She claimed there were too many so I told her to pick the biggest one. She chose President Bush's National Guard service but was disappointed when I explained that other Air National Guardsmen have already explained how they served with Bush during the disputed time, he received an honorable discharge and had payroll paperwork to back up his service.

Besides Spiff, I met Freepers Sandrat, Margie and Lurker Kelly. I wish I could have spent more time with them but it was a big protest. As a previous post explained, the Sierra Vista Herald reported about 100 of them and 50 of us in a fairly balanced article. Later some soldiers came over to thank us but one of them was switching to the Marines, to the great pleasure of Marine Veteran and frequent moonbat counterer Frank. I won't have photos till later still but here's a crude map to hold Freepers over till then.

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Dueling protests: Two clergymen charged with trespassing on post