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photo gallery - 01 January 2008
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AAT joined South Bay Mobilization in the second annual New Years Day "skate-in" against corporate sponsorship of
San Jose's Holiday Ice Rink by Jeppesen, torture travel-agents for CIA "extraordinary rendition" flights.
Skaters from the South and East Bay converged on the city-sponsored rink across the street from Plaza de Cesar Chavez,
and helped our South Bay friends and Raging Grannies make clear that helping the U.S. government to commit
torture is not an acceptable way to turn a profit. More photos taken by the Raging Grannies at KPFA coverage of
Skate-in (audio, MP3), excerpted from the 6pm news on 1 Jan 2008 (full broadcast is
archived on the KPFA site;
this segment is 23 min, 23 sec into the half-hour broadcast). Also see
photos from last year's skate-in on this site.
On December 11th, 2007, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors passed a
resolution supporting federal legislation against
the torture flights coordinated by Jeppesen International, and
pointing a finger directly at San Jose's torture travel-agents
(see article in the SJ Mercury; the
legislation is HR 1352, the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act; on the Bill of Rights Defense Committee
site you can view the text of the SC County resoution).
Making sure Jeppesen was held accountable for its sordid business was a solid victory for the SBM activists,
and we salute their tenacious commitment to ending U.S. government practice of torture and indefinite detention.
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Orange-bedecked anti-torture skaters from the South Bay blended in with those who'd simply
come to start the new year off on ice.
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Meanwhile, at curbside, a crowd of picketers let pedestrians and cars passing by the downtown ice rink
know why we'd forsaken televised bowl games to skate and picket in San Jose.
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The ice rink, situated beside the San Jose Museum of Art, provided a venue for discussing art-against-torture.
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Orange jump suits prompted some skaters to ask what brought on an anti-torture protest at an ice skating rink.
We explained, and handed out half-sheet flyers with more information.
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Charlotte Casey, who initiated protests against San Jose's Jeppesen International after reading about the company in
a New
Yorker article by Jane Mayer, in the magazine's edition of Oct 30, 2006, was on the ice this year.
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Jeppesen's corporate sponsorship of the rink was acknowledged by a sign hung on an inside railing. Someone
decided to add an "Air Torture" bumper sticker to make the company's business activities clear.
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Through the magic of still photography, you'd never know from looking at this web page that the sticker lasted
for less than a minute before vigilant staff, um, removed it.
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Some of the skaters stopped for a breather, and to hold signs that were (officially, anyway) banned
from the ice.
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Some had enough ice under their blades to be able to skate backward.
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The Raging Grannies posed rinkside between songs sung a la tuba.
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