11/16/2007 11:40 a.m. Jeppesen Corporate Headquarters, 225 W. Santa Clara St., San Jose, CA US
Sponsored by American Muslim Voice, Council of Churches of Santa Clara County, Declaration of Peace - San Mateo County, Global Peace Partners, Gold Star Families Speak Out, Green Party - Santa Clara County, Jewish Voice for Peace - South Bay, Los Altos Voices for Peace, Mountain View Voices for Peace, MoveOn District 14 Council, Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice, Pacifica Peace People, Peace Action of San Mateo County, Peace Umbrella - Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto, Peninsula Peace and Justice Center, The Rebuilding Alliance, San Jose Peace Center, South Bay Mobilization, Veterans for Peace, Womens International League for Peace and Freedom - Peninsula Branch
Stop Torture ~ Abolish the Torture Flights!
March, Picket, and Press Conference at Jeppesen Headquarters ~ Iraq Moratorium: Monthly Action to Stop the War ~
Jeppesen is a San Jose company that profits from illegal kidnappings and torture. The company handles the logistics for the CIA's so-called "extraordinary rendition" flights – torture flights.
11:40 p.m. - March from San Jose train station to Jeppesen Headquarters Take Caltrain #138. March is just over half a mile.
12:00 noon - Press conference and informational picket outside Jeppesen HQ 225 W. Santa Clara St. #1600, San Jose
This month's Iraq Moratorium action marks the one-year anniversary of the revelation of Jeppesen's role in the CIA's torture flights ("The CIA's Travel Agent," The New Yorker, 10/30/06, http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/10/30/061030ta_talk_mayer). It also marks the one-year anniversary of the first protests against Jeppesen demanding that it cut ties to the CIA and torture flights. Jeppesen, a Boeing subsidiary, has refused to respond. We will tell Jeppesen: "We don't want torturers in our community! Stop working for the CIA!"
Take the Anti-Torture Train: Protesters coming from the Peninsula can take Caltrain #138 (schedule at http://www.caltrain.org/timetable.html#weekday-southbound), which arrives in San Jose at 11:38 a.m. Get on at the first car. We will leaflet Caltrain passengers to educate them about U.S. torture policy, the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" of suspects to other countries for abusive interrogation, and efforts in Congress to end this abhorrent practice of the Bush administration, including HR 1352, the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act.
Members of The World Can't Wait attended the San Jose Peace Center, PPJC (www.peaceandjustice.org) and other sponsors noon press conference wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods with fake blood on our bodies, which induced chants of "Shame on Jeppersen, blood on your hands, ..." from a crowd that I would estimate at 100+.
Speakers included Charlotte Casey - San Jose Peace Center, Rev. Ben Daniel - Foothill Presbyterian Church, San Jose Rev. Dr. Diana Gibson - Council of Churches, Terry McCaffrey - Amnesty International, and Henry Norr - Act Against torture, with a statement from ACLU on their lawsuit against Jeppesen.
On November 16 around one hundred demonstrators converged on the headquarters of a San Jose company linked to CIA “extraordinary rendition” flights.
Some had marched from a commuter rail stop, where they distributed copies of an October 2006 New Yorker article by Jane Mayer which outed San Jose’s Jeppesen International Trip Planning, a subsidiary of Boeing, as a service provider for “war on terror” detention and transport. Mayer’s piece quotes Jeppesen managing director Bob Overby telling an employee, “We do all of the extraordinary rendition flights – you know, the torture flights.”
The action was part of the ongoing Iraq Moratorium campaign, a national grassroots project which encourages local anti-war activities throughout the U.S. on the third Friday of every month.
The Peninsula Peace and Justice Center worked with more than a dozen other peace groups to coordinate the action. Charlotte Casey of the San Jose Peace Center told the crowd that after reading the 2006 New Yorker article, “people were shocked to find out Jeppesen was involved with torture,” and in the past year San Jose activists had held protests at the building “many times.” Casey emphasized that Jeppesen “can continue to do business in San Jose, they just can’t do business with the CIA.”
Henry Norr of the group Act Against Torture, wearing an orange jumpsuit like the ones made infamous by Guantanamo prisoners, recalled the many protests he’d attended at Jeppesen, and that he was “delighted to see the numbers growing.” Norr congratulated San Jose Peace Center volunteers on their “sustained work taking it to the City Council and Supervisors.”
About 100 people gathered outside the headquarters of Jeppesen Corp. in downtown San Jose. One year ago, in an article in The New Yorker magazine, it was revealed that Jeppesen handled the flight logistics for the CIA's so-called extraordinary rendition flights -- torture flights.
Most of the picketers had traveled down the Peninsula together on the CalTrain, temporarily dubbed the "Anti-Torture Train."
This was the third collective action organized by about 15 local groups that are working together to create regional actions on each Iraq Moratorium day. The video is part of a video blog series called Orwell Was An Optimist. Check out the rest of the episodes!
And some photos from the picket at Jeppesen HQ:
Rev. Ben Daniel of Foothill Presbyterian Church, San Jose, and Charlotte Casey of San Jose Peace Center.
