Editor:
The weekend of Nov. 21-23, we will again join thousands in Columbus, Ga., to call for the closure of the controversial School of the Americas, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC).
Graduates of this U.S. taxpayer financed institution, a combat training school for Latin American security personnel, continue to be implicated in civilian targeted killings throughout Latin America.
This combat training facility, located at Fort Benning, Ga., made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion, and execution.
Despite this shocking admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation into the training facility has ever taken place.
For hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans, this school is a symbol of torture and failed U.S. foreign policy. It is out of line with the values of everyday Americans, and closing it for good would send a strong human rights record to Latin America and to the world.
An ever growing movement of human rights groups, religious clergy, lay people, students, veterans, and many others will converge in Georgia next week-end, including a contingent from Wyoming. We will again demand that this training camp be shut down.
The path to lasting peace and security can only be found if we implement foreign policy that reflects our ideals of justice and democracy.
To learn more about the SOA/WHINSEC and efforts to close it, visit www.SOAW.org or call (202)231-3440.
ROX MONTERSTELLI and
JOAN ANDERSON, Casper
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Comments to this story.
Being honest works best wrote on Nov 17, 2008 11:05 AM:
This training center has had its name changed several times and I note that is not discussed here or on your web site.
As a matter of fact exactly who started this training center if I am not mistaken it was under Truman’s (D) watch who could have vetoed anything related to this but did not even though there would never have been enough opposition votes to over ride any veto. As a matter of fact any administration Democrat or Republican could have stopped this at any time. Again you fail to mention this fact. What else are you being less than honest about?
More than anything I detest dishonesty which includes not telling the whole truth. You set this up to make it look like people you disagree with politically did this all on their own. This training area may need to be closed but I will not support you until you start telling the whole truth. "
Lee Rials wrote on Nov 17, 2008 6:36 PM:
On Oct. 30, 2000, President Clinton signed the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2001. One section of that law created the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. One sentence in the law shut down the Army's School of the Americas. Different law, different organization. Having said that, no one has ever found one example of anyone using what he learned at the school to commit a crime--not even one! That of course includes anyone who may have seen those manuals which apparently did NOT advocate illegal, immoral, unethical acts, or the opponents would have given you an example. If those folks from Wyoming who are coming to Columbus, GA, to protest WHINSEC would come on a weekday, they could drive to our door, sit in any class, talk with any student or faculty member, and review any instructional materials. That way, they could make an informed evaluation of the institute. They cannot do that by standing in the street three miles away from the institute on Saturday and Sunday!
Lee A. Rials
Public Affairs Officer
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation "
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