Patrick Liteky presente!

Friends,

I found out on September 16, while protesting the arms bazaar, that Patrick Liteky had died. It seems he had numerous health problems for the last few years. May he rest in peace.

Kagiso,

Max

John Patrick Liteky

** Former Navy Chaplain ** 1998 Found guilty by Judge J. Robert Elliott of dye attach on Fort Benning 's Ridgeway Hall in protest over School of Americas .

· John Patrick Liteky guilty of dye attack.

• Less than 15 minutes after leaving the courtroom Thursday, the jury sent word that it had reached a verdict.
• Dressed in a sweat shirt, warm-up pants and tennis shoes, former U.S. Navy chaplain John Patrick Liteky faced Judge J. Robert Elliott as clerk Carolyn Fryer read the verdict: Guilty of damaging Fort Benning's Ridgeway Hall, headquarters of the U.S. Army's School of the Americas.
• That the white-bearded Seattle resident splashed the building's walls with red dye at 1 p.m. on Feb. 25 was never in question.
• "I did it," Liteky, representing himself in the U.S. District Court trial, told the jury in his opening statement. "I'm on film.
• "I know I was breaking the law, but I also know from the past that sometimes there are laws that need to be nonviolently demonstrated against in order for change to happen."
• The change Liteky seeks is the closing of the "school of terror" that has trained Latin American soldiers who have returned to their countries and committed atrocities on men, women, priests and nuns, he said.
• "I'm not trying to go to jail," he said. "But within the next two weeks, the laws just might change because of what I and others like me have done for the last nine years."
• The U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to vote next week on a proposal to stop funding for the School of the Americas .
• "This case is not about the U.S. Army or the School of the Americas ," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Dixie Morrow. "It's about whether the defendant committed a property crime."
• Morrow urged the jury to reject Liteky's argument that he should not be convicted because he had no malice when he committed his carefully planned dye-splashing. The dictionary definition of malice may indicate ill will, but the legal definition simply means he intended to do something the law forbids, she said.
• "We're not suggesting he's not motivated to protest something he truly believes is wrong," said Morrow.
• Liteky told the jury he has spent 10 years of his life in "resistance actions" such as his anti-SOA protest at Fort Benning . In addition to previous convictions and a prison sentence for similar Fort Benning protests, Liteky said he has twice been convicted of damaging the Pentagon in Washington , D.C. , including once with the same turkey basters he used to spray the dye on the School of the Americas .
• "I love my country and I love my God and I love the laws, but I try to change them," he told the jury.
• After the verdict, Elliott congratulated Liteky on the manner in which he conducted his defense and said sentencing would be set on "a date to be determined."
• Liteky faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
• He was returned to the Muscogee County Jail to await transfer to the federal prison where he is serving a 12-month sentence for his last protest.
• Source: Jim Houston, Staff Writer, "Protester guilty of dye attack," Columbus Ledger Enquirer, Columbus , Georgia , September 11, 1998

· The official School of the Americas site offers an account of a protest by Patrick Liteky. What the official article does not state is that Liteky is a Vietnam combat veteran who received the Purple Heart for wounds in battle. Source: SOA Watch activist desecrates National Historic Building during Religious Service

• As millions of Catholics around the world observed the religious celebration of Ash Wednesday, a lone individual conducted an attack against the Army's School of the Americas here.
• John Patrick Liteky, a protester since 1990, was arrested yesterday by DoD Police following the incident. Liteky was charged with criminal trespass and injury to government property. The incident occurred while Father George Gonzalez of Our Lady of Lourdes Church was conducting Ash Wednesday religious services for the School's Catholic employees.
• "Someone saw him approach the entrance to the building and then he began spraying red paint and throwing propaganda pamphlets everywhere with total disregard for innocent bystanders," said Capt. Kevin McIver, Army spokesperson.
• The increased level of violence from the activists has many civilian employees at the School worried. "These people have thrown their own blood on the property, they have torn down signs and much more," said one of the employees who asked not to be identified. "It's only a matter of time until they really get out of control and do something more serious."
• Immediately following the incident, officials spoke with Liteky prior to his removal from School property. "He kept talking about closing the School and saying he had his medication with him," McIver said. "I asked him why he had committed the act and he said because all of our 60,000 students are murderers, which is one of the many untruths spread by his organization.
• "Mr. Liteky then became agitated and many of our soldiers observing took a few steps back when he reached inside a big bag he had brought with him. Fortunately, he only pulled out an identification card," said McIver. Liteky was detained by military police for about four hours, charged, and then released.
• "It is deplorable that Mr. Liteky would commit such an act during this sacred religious day when most of the School's employees were observing mass," said USARSA Chaplain (Maj.) Ruben Colon.

yaplet: Welcome to John Patrick Liteky

(March 26, 1940 - July 23, 2008)

Memorial Website

John Patrick Liteky - "By running, walking, praying, chanting, fasting you and I are witness to the world, in the most disarming ways that we are putting our lives on the line - across the line! - for peace, justice, love and nonviolence. I sing along with U-2 " WALK ON , WALK ON , WALK ON !"" J. Patrick Liteky


This memorial website was created to remember father, brother, friend, poet, and extrodiary human being, John Patrick Liteky.

Patrick, as he was known to many, was born in United States, in San Diego, California on March 26, 1940 and passed away on July 23, 2008 in Seattle Washington .

Patrick suffered a severe stroke in June of 2008. On his final day, in his final moments, he was with his two sons, Joshua and Jeremy Liteky, and his former wife and forever friend, Patricia Hoffman.

Patricks ashes will be scattered "off the pier in Santa Cruz " according to his wishes, by his sons.
This memorial website was created to give all of you who knew him, as a way to say "goodbye" and a way to communicate with Josh and Jeremy. PLEASE feel free to upload any pictures, memories, condolences, or simply "light a candle" in his memory.

He will live on in many ways, through is resistance work, his peace activism, his writing, and his poetry . He also lives on through his sons and his twin grandsons, Logan and Gray Liteky, and his grandson-in-love, Max Toews. He is survived by his eldest brother, Charlie Liteky, and his wife, Judy, and his brother/cousin Michael Donovan and wife Sharon. Patrick leaves us all a legacy of being a seeker, and doing what feels was right in the soul.

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To contact the creator Jen Liteky of John Liteky website please click here

Donations can be sent to the Baltimore Nonviolence Center , 325 E. 25th St. , Baltimore , MD 21218 . Ph: 410-366-1637; Email: mobuszewski [at] verizon.net

"The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles. The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their lives." Eugene Victor Debs