Skip to main content

My housemate is held over night after dramatic protest at White House

Catholic peace activist, Paul Magno, arrested at
White House while dramatizing the crucifixion

WASHINGTON -- Dramatizing a contemporary 'crucifixion,' a local peace and justice activist was arrested during a Good Friday nonviolent protest at the White House.

After two colleagues helped chain Paul Magno to the fence of the president's home, an assembled group of protesters, many with Witness Against Torture's 100 Day Campaign (http://www.100dayscampaign.org/), began to sing "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord." The action occured shortly after 12 noon, amid a crowd of tourists.

The activists are calling for the immediate closure of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and the end of all torture. The group has also begun calling for the closure of Bagram, Afghanistan, despite U.S. military plans to double the size of the military prison.

"Just as our Lord Jesus of Nazareth was torture and crucified, men in places such as Guantanamo and Bagram are being tortured and crucified today," Magno said. "Our president must act justly and immediately release those who have never been charged with a crime, but have been held for years."

Magno is being held overnight, and will likely be arraigned Saturday morning in DC Superior Court. It was not clear late Friday afternoon what crime he was being charged.

"We are here today to remember that men are being imprisoned, tortured and run through a sham of a judicial system, just as was Jesus Christ," said Carmen Trotta with Witness Against Torture.

Magno has been associated with the Catholic Worker movement for nearly three decades, and spent 20 months in federal prison for nonviolent resistance to the nuclear arms race following a Plowshares action in Florida in 1984. By comitting the action Friday, he will also be violating an unsupervised probation ordered 10 months ago by Judge Wendell P. Gardner of DC Superior Court, stemming from an earlier protest calling for the closure of the controversial Guantanamo prison camp.

Magno has been actively involved in the Washington Peace Center since 2004 as a former coordinator and currently a board member. He is currently on staff of Witness for Peace, an organization of people of faith and conscience engaged in supporting peace, justice and sustainable economies in the Americas.

# # #
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guantanamo put on trial -- May 27th

In eight days, Eve Tetaz, a 76-year old retired D.C. public schoolteacher, will enter a courthouse in Washington, D.C. and engage in the legal debate over the fate of America's detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The name of Noor Muhammad has never appeared in an American criminal court. On May 27th, Tetaz will change that. On that day, she will appear at the Washington, D.C. Superior Court as Noor Muhammad. Tetaz was arrested, along with 78 others, at the U.S. Supreme Court on January 11, 2008, protesting the denial of habeas rights to and the torture of inmates at Guantanamo. Like her fellow protestors, Tetaz took the name of an inmate during her arrest. ( See the January 13 Washington Post article "Activists Pose as Guantanamo Prisoners" ) Tetaz says she felt compelled to participate in the protest at the Supreme Court because detainees are being tortured at Guantanamo. "Torture is a terrible crime and sin against humanity," she said. Thirty-four ...
7 comments
Read more

The Sad and Disturbing Tale of Dustin Thompson

Wow, it has been a while since I have written a blog entry. In fact, it has been a year, and I have a lot to fill you in on. But let's get down to what I covered via Tweets recently -- the insurrectionist Trial of Dustin Thompson, of Ohio, who entered into the Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, and stole first a bottle of booze and then a coat rack from the office of the Senate Parliamentarian. Yesterday Thompson was convicted on all six criminal counts the Department of Justice had charged him with. There have now been about a half dozen January 6th insurrectionists (many call them rioters) who have been convicted following a trial. About 170 have already plead guilty. Growing up in central Ohio, Thompson was originally a libertarian with moderate political views overall. According to his wife Sarah, the two met when they were both students at Ohio State University, Thompson had a double major of history and psychology. Sarah, a democrat, was a fashion merchandising major an...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rev. Yearwood attacked by police, arrested, injured

This is American democracy in action. My friend, Rev. Yearwood, was jumped by these six power-tripping Capitol Hill Police officers. He was wearing a button which read "I love the people of Iraq." I have seen the video a couple of times, and while it is disturbing it will be useful in court. If it was me, I'd probably pursue a civil case for damages. Rev. in hospital after anti-war arrest Published: Sept. 12, 2007 at 11:28 AM WASHINGTON, Sept. 12 (UPI) -- An anti-war minister and U.S. Air Force veteran was treated in hospital after his arrest by Capitol Hill police outside this week’s Iraq congressional hearings. The Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president of the Washington-based Hip-Hop Caucus, was charged with disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer after being denied entry to a House hearing room in which Gen. David Petraeus was giving evidence Monday, Capitol Police spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider told United Press International. But a video of his arrest, post...
4 comments
Read more