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Kathy Kelly was arrested at Senator Richard Durbin’s office in Chicago, on April 5, along with three other anti-war activists.  The Senate Appropriations Committee is to consider a spending bill on April 6 to provide nearly $80 billion more to fund the war in Iraq.  They sought a pledge from Senator Durbin to vote against the bill. Kelly was informed that that Senator Durbin will vote for the supplemental spending bill.  Kelly and her group then disrupted the operations of the senator's office by reading the names of US soldiers and Iraqi civilians who have lost their lives in...

CHICAGO -- Supporters of two Chicago activists sentenced to prison for disobeying a judge's order while protesting at a Georgia Army base came out to give the pair a send-off. Supporters gathered at Montrose Beach on Tuesday as two activists, Ron Durham and Liz Deligio, prepared to go to prison to serve three-month jail terms, NBC5's Mary Ann Ahern reported. Durham and Deligio were sentenced for their part in protesting at the School for the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga. A judge's order had prohibited protestors from walking on to the Army base. Activists Receive Send-Off "They want to intimidate...

Columbus, Georgia-AP) Nov. 21, 2004 - Susan Sarandon is there, so is Martin Sheen. But this isn't some Hollywood get together. The actors are among those gathering outside Fort Benning, Georgia, to protest a military school there. The school serves as a military training center for Latin American soldiers. Protesters claim graduates of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation were involved in human rights abuses in the 1980's. The protesters claim the school also enforces a US foreign policy that they say exploits the people and resources of Latin America. Protests outside Fort Benning are held annually on the...

The pilgrimage of the human zoo came to the front gates of Fort Benning this weekend just as it does every November. Thousands protest against the training of Latin American officers and NCOs at Fort Benning's Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. This year we had a God Bless Fort Benning Day counter demonstration that virtually matched the size of the protest. We had Lee Greenwood headline the bill. Columbus Georgia's Jack and Miriam Tidwell were the chief organizers of the effort. We also have a Friends of WHINSEC group which counter punches the propaganda of the Left. Today as...

Protesters who gather each year to call for the closing of a military school at Fort Benning will be surrounded by temporary fences this year, local police decided. The temporary fence will be set up in reaction to a recent federal court ruling that bars the practice of forcing SOA Watch protesters to pass through metal detectors. The group gathers every November to protest the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, formerly called the School of the Americas. It's a training academy for Latin American soldiers. Protesters allege the school teaches Latin American soldiers to violate the...

Army's Midcareer Leaders Are Bearing Up Under the Burden of War BY DAVID WOOD Sgt. 1st Class Eric Jarvis holds his dog tag imprinted with the seven "Army values." (Photo by Bob Mahoney) Army staff sergeants like Bobby Munoz of San Antonio (l) and Geoffrey Holt of Tuskegee, Ala., are key combat leaders. Here, they discuss an attack during field training at Fort Benning, Ga. (Photo by Bob Mahoney)   FORT BENNING, Ga. -- When firefights erupt with terrifying chaos in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is usually sergeants -- not officers -- who steady their riflemen, maneuver their soldiers down...

  Basic Training Brigade tests intensified schedules FORT BENNING, Ga. (Army News Service, Feb. 2, 2004) -- The Basic Combat Training Brigade at Fort Benning is piloting two programs of instruction that provide more time in the field and focus more on warrior skills. The “immersion” and “alternate” courses include the original POI from today’s basic training, but add military operations in urban terrain and training with more weapons, without increasing the overall eight-week length of instruction. The pilot class for the immersion POI started Jan. 29, and the class for the alternate POI picks up Feb. 12. The...

<p>Democratic presidential candidate and retired general Wesley Clark has been slammed - unfairly, in our view - for his relationship with the Army's controversial School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Ga.</p> <p>Clark fought to keep open the school, whose purpose was to train soldiers from Latin American allies of the United States.</p>

With a larger-than-expected first-day crowd at the annual protest of an institute at Fort Benning, tensions amped up Saturday after the Army and protesters engaged in a day of electronic and legal jousting. As protest leaders took to the stage with speeches and music, Fort Benning blared anthems and martial music from loudspeakers positioned just inside its gates, about 50 yards away.SOA Watch, which conducts the annual protest against the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, called the move a "psychological operation," and said it planned to file suit against the Army."There's a lot of ill will being caused that's...

COLUMBUS - Three Fort Benning soldiers have been arrested in the death of a man whose skeletal remains were discovered in a wooded area. Douglas Woodcoff, 24; Mario Navarrette, 24; and Jacob Burgoyne, 24 were arrested late Friday and charged in the death. The man, whose identity, which is being withheld until authorities can reach family members, is believed to be a soldier in his 20s.

Chris Williams went to Fort Benning's famous school for Army paratroopers and earned his wings a few months out of high school with the required five jumps. His sixth jump was at night, into Iraq. Williams graduated Antelope Valley High School, the class of 2002, with pretty good grades. He belonged to the Junior ROTC program there, and he liked it. He's still got friends at the school, though most of his friends now are in the Army. "I was 18 when we jumped into northern Iraq," he said. "It was my first night jump." He returned home on leave...

A 22-year-old Fort Benning soldier suffered cuts, bruises and a broken shoulder Thursday night after being beaten by over a dozen males, in what Columbus police describe as a gang-related incident in Oakland Park. Freddy Hougley, of Headquarters and Headquarters Co., 3rd Brigade, was transported by emergency personnel to Martin Army Community Hospital following the 7 p.m. incident outside a home on Mesa Street. Authorities said Hougley and a friend were walking in the area when they were met by an estimated 20 men. Once near the home, Hougley and the witness said the men began calling out to him,...

<p>A portrait of Saddam Hussein covered in glass on the floor of the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, Ga., will be removed and put in storage.</p> <p>FORT BENNING, Ga. — Visitors to the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning no longer will be able to trample on the face of Saddam Hussein. A large oil painting of the deposed Iraqi leader has been moved from the museum’s display floor.</p>

<p>FORT BENNING, Ga. (AP) — At the National Infantry Museum here, one of its most prized portraits lies flat on the floor, covered by glass, so visitors can walk on it.</p> <p>Museum director Frank Hanner thought that would be the most appropriate way to display a large oil painting of Saddam Hussein brought home by U.S. troops from Iraq.</p>

Wounded girl moves Fort Benning soldier BY S. THORNE HARPER Staff Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq -Staff Sgt. James Mattwig has seen too many children wounded by war, but there was one little girl he couldn't shake from his mind, and he couldn't sleep Saturday night.Mattwig, 31, a D-Troop scout with the 3rd Infantry's 3rd Brigade from Fort Benning, had escorted civil affairs officers earlier that day to conduct war-damage assessments inside Baghdad.That's when he saw 3-year-old Aya.She could see him with only her right eye; an oversized patch covered her other one. Her parents explained that an artillery round about two...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military ordered more than 11,000 desert-trained Army troops from the 3rd Infantry Division to begin moving to the Gulf in coming days in the kickoff of a major build-up of American ground forces for a possible war with Iraq, defense officials said on Wednesday. Army officials in Washington and at division headquarters in Fort Stewart and Fort Benning, Georgia, said the 1st and 3rd brigades of the division would soon begin moving to join the 2nd brigade of more than 4,000 troops, who are now training in Kuwait. The movement, including tanks and attack helicopters,...

A local resident will face federal trespassing charges Monday related to her protest of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at Fort Benning, Georgia - formerly known as the School of the Americas. Activist Linda Holzbaur was one of several dozen to be charged after she crossed onto the site of the institute in November. She and 36 others face up to six months in jail and $5,000 in fines. Opponents see the institute, which trains foreign students in military combat, as a symbol for U.S. involvement in bloody conflicts in Central and South America. Protesters note that many...