Facing Questions, Clark Backs Army School

[aeon flux]

A wolf in sheep's clothing? How could he support such an institution?
I am losing my faith in this candidate.

--------------------

Facing Questions, Clark Backs Army School
by Joanna Weiss

CONCORD, N.H. -- Retired General Wesley K. Clark sometimes downplays his Army background, and criticizes the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy on gays. But there is one military institution he vigorously defends: the controversial academy once known as the US Army School of the Americas.

Opposition to the school, which trains military officers from Latin American countries, has long been a cause celebre among some Democrats and liberal activists, who say the academy has trained some of the most notorious criminals of the region and teaches skills that Latin American armies sometimes use against their own citizenry. Supporters of the school point to reforms from the 1990s, and say its courses teach foreign soldiers about democracy and human rights.

But many critics have not wavered in their opposition, and voters on the campaign trail -- in New Hampshire and elsewhere -- have been questioning Clark about his support.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0117-01.htm

[Democrats unite]

1. This will make the fourth thread to day on this!

Can't you all come up with something else?

Also it's not latest breaking news.

[baby_bear]

2. It was breaking news to me

I can't watch LBN all day long, even though I check it multiple times a day. I appreciate this being posted now. Thanks, Democrats unite.

s_m

[Say_What]

54. Otto (coup maker) REICH on the Board to Oversee SOA/WHISC

From 2002

<clips>
Otto Reich Named on Board to Oversee SOA/WHISC Reich Is Notorious for Aiding Coups

WASHINGTON - May 2 - Otto Reich has been named to the Board of Visitors at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA). The WHISC's charter requires a Board of Visitors to monitor the school, to ensure that the curriculum emphasize "human rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military, and the role of the military in a democratic society". Reich has a history of aiding coups and known terrorists.

In December 2000 Congress authorized the WHISC to replace the SOA. The SOA/WHISC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in documented human rights abuses and atrocities. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution.

The renaming of the school was widely viewed as an attempt to diffuse public criticism and to disassociate the school from its reputation. SOA Watch maintains that the underlying purpose of the school, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries, remains the same.

"It's a new name, but the same shame,"said Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, "They prove this point by putting Otto Reich on this rubber stamp board."

http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0502-10.htm

---

From 105th CONGRESS, 1st Session, H. R. 611 To close the United States Army School of the Americas.

<clips>

The United States Army School of the Americas graduates include some of
the worst human rights abusers in our hemisphere, including:

(A) El Salvador death squad leader Roberto D'Abuisson.

(B) Panamanian dictator and drug dealer Manuel Noriega.

(C) Haitian coup leader Raoul Cedras.

(D) Nineteen Salvadoran soldiers linked to the 1989 murder of six Jesuit
priests, their housekeeper and her daughter.

(E) Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, Guatemalan officer linked in the deaths of
an American innkeeper.

(F) Hector Gramajo, former Guatemalan defense minister found liable in
United States court for abduction, rape, and torture of Sister Dianna Ortiz,
a United States citizen.

(G) Argentinian dictator Leopoldo Galtieri, leader of the `dirty little war'
responsible for the deaths of 30 civilians.

(H) Two of the three killers of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador.

(I) Ten of the twelve officers responsible for the murder of 900 civilians
in the El Salvadoran village El Mozote.

(J) Three of the five officers involved in the 1980 rape and murder of four
United States churchwomen in El Salvador.

http://www.gmu.edu/org/ireland32/hr_611.html

[hedgetrimmer]

3. can't complain 'bout the post but can complain about the in ability of

people to face up...

[ConsAreLiars]

4. Man, even in this interview he hits Smirky hard.

"There's been a lot of rotten people who've gone to a lot of rotten schools in the history of the world," Clark said. "And a lot of them went to this school. But a lot of them have gone to Harvard Business School and a lot of other places."

[Say_What]

49. *rotten people* Riiiiight... LOL

<clips>

...JENNIFER HARBURY: Hello. I would like to speak today on behalf of my husband, Efrain Bamaca Velazquez or Comandante El Berardo, of Guatemala. Unfortunately, he is not here today to speak for himself because a few years ago, he was captured alive, tortured for two years, held in a full body cast, and then either thrown out of a helicopter or dismembered by between eight and 12 graduates of the School of the Americas.

I wish that I could say that this happened long ago and that we, therefore, don't have to worry about it anymore. But, in fact, it happened during the Clinton administration. I wish that I could say every school has its bad apples and maybe Colonel Alpirez, who personally presided over one of the torture sessions was just a bad apple but between the eight and 12 persons that participated directly in his torture and his eventual execution, most of them were also on C.I.A. payroll as paid informants.

This school is not just a training center; it is where we pick up our death squad partners for the C.I.A. This is where we link, this is where all roads cross on the way to Rome.

I'd like to speak briefly about precisely what did happen to my El Berardo, but only in the sense that his case is symbolic of so many other cases. His case, unfortunately, is not an extraordinary case. It is not a shocking case. Throughout Latin America, it was an everyday occurrence. So, while I speak about what happened to him, I'd like you just to be thinking of the hundreds of thousands, millions, of the same people who suffered the same terror, the same torture, the same miserable deaths and who have unmarked graves also across Latin America. Because when we speak for one, we have to speak for all of them.

<http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/24/1458247&mode=thread&tid=25>

[chasqui]

5. This is ridiculous

Latin American military institutions have been producing thugs for at least 100 years before the School of the Americas was created. Whereas I am sure that a wholesome curricula is not taught at that place, I am not sure that closing it down would create a wonderful paradise of human rights in these other countries.

[saskatoon]

68. Going on for 100's of years

What in hell has that got to do with the us taxpayers paying for these torturers---where in hell are your brains!

[Judi Lynn]

69. Thanks, we needed that.

You found the words which eluded some of us, I'm sure.

[Say_What]

71. Ditto that...

*

[0rganism]

6. Does anyone have links to actual course material from the SOA?

I went poking through the archives at http://www.soaw.org">SOA Watch, I didn't find any texts or lecture notes on really damning topics like "Torture 101" or "Counter-Insurgency Electives: Hiding Mass Executions". To his credit, Clark has said he would close down the school if he saw evidence that it was currently teaching the abuse of human rights. I think it's incumbent on anyone who has such evidence to come forward with it.

[tinanator]

7. yeah this guy agrees with you, and did

http://www.jaguar-sun.com/chiapas/soa2.html

[0rganism]

42. Thanks for the link, we need more like him (nt)

nt

[bobthedrummer]

8. SOA training manual link

http://www.mediafilter.org/caq/caq61/CAQ61manual.html

The influence of the neo-conservatives in the Pentagon is like a coup gone bad, Wes Clark worked with them all, he got contaminated as a result, and NOW he is a Democrat?
<scoff>
He's not what he seems folks.
Who here is gung-ho for SOA?

[0rganism]

21. I found two manuals at SOAW

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=98

Handeling of Sources
Counter Intelligence

I'm unable to go through them right now, but this looks like the material.

[Say_What]

23. "Keep the subjects naked, blindfolded in windowless dark interrogation.."

<clips>

Torture

...A review of the alumni records of the U.S. Army School of the Americas shows that Honduran military officers implicated in the 1983 disappearance of Father James "Guadalupe" Carney were trained at the notorious School of torture and assassination known as the School of the Americas.

Father Carney was tortured and then flung out of a helicopter by a member of Honduran Army's battalion 3-16. Witnesses say the execution of Father Carney was ordered by General Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, commander of the armed forces, who created Batallion 3-16, an elite Honduran Army death squad. Alvarez Martinez, a graduate of the School of the Americas, was awarded the Legion of Merit in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan for promoting "democracy." U.S. Army documents declassified last September confirmed the School of the Americas used training manuals advocating the use of torture, false imprisonment, sodium pentothal and assassination.

This growing library of torture manuals has come from a corrupt, decayed, dishonest, death centered, clandestine organization paid for by hard working citizens who have no idea of the misuseage of their faithful funding. "Keep the subjects naked, blindfolded in windowless dark interrogation rooms that are sound proof. There must be no toilet." Tell the subject, "we know your mother and your brother and if you don't cooperate we are going to bring them in.. . rape them...torture them and kill them." And this was done.

"Conduct an examination of all body cavities." Now what psychopath put that in the text? These are people you intend to kill, just what are you looking for? The United States School of the Americas began in Panama where it taught torture techniques using homeless people for experimentation. The moral cesspool was moved to Fort Benning, Georgia in 1984. Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Germany repudiated Naziism and developed a successful nation by denouncing its past horrors. The time has come for the United States to abolish its criminal agencies and their fiendish practices. Together with German citizens, we can say, "We're better than that"!

http://www.officeoftheamericas.org/docs/1997/970211_torture.html

<clips>
School of the Americas Gallery of Butchers

It would be impossible to list all of the School of the Americas (SOA) graduates who have gone on to become butchers in their own countries. Some of the School's more prominent graduates include:

# Roberto D'Aubuisson: Leader of El Salvador's notorious death squads from 1978 to 1992. D'Aubuisson and another SOA graduate were two of the three men accused of killing Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980. D'Aubuisson, now dead, graduated the SOA in 1972.

# Gen. Juan Rafael Bustillo: Best know for planning the murder of six priests, a housekeeper and her daughter in 1989, Bustillo is also wanted in France for torturing, raping and murdering a French nurse in the same year. As the head of the Salvadoran air force, Bustillo oversaw the Contras' operation of importing weapons into Nicaragua that were paid for by crack cocaine that was smuggled into the U.S. He also stands accused of commanding air force officials to torture and murder members of the teachers union in El Salvador.

# Gen. Raoul Cedras: Although the SOA denies that both Cedras and his police chief, Major Joseph-Michel Francois graduated from the School, both received training at Fort Benning. Cedras, who led the Haitian military junta in power from 1991 to 1994, and Francois are known for the part they played in overthrowing Haiti's democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

# Leopoldo Galtieri: Dictator of Argentina in 1981 and 1982, Galtieri is known for attempting to invade the Falkland Islands. During Galtieri's tenure as head of the military junta, more than 30,000 people were killed or disappeared. Mothers of "disappeared" Argentineans tell about one tactic used by the Argentinean military: Fly victims out over the ocean and dump them--alive.1

# Gen. Hugo Banzer Suarez: Dictator of Bolivia from 1971 to 1978, Suarez is known for crushing the tin miners and abusing and murdering human rights workers. He also sheltered infamous Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie.

# Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez: A commander of the Guatemalan counterinsurgency force responsible for the deaths of more than 100,000 Guatemalans throughout the course of the four-decade civil war, Alpirez is best known for his role in assassinating American innkeeper Michael Devine in 1990 and guerilla leader Efrain Bamaca Velasquez in 1992. At the time of the murders, Alpirez was on the CIA's payroll. The CIA finally fired Alpirez in the wake of the scandal--after handing him $44,000 for his efforts.2 Velasquez' wife, American lawyer Jennifer Harbury, helped bring attention to the SOA by going on a 32-day hunger strike outside the American embassy in Guatemala City. Alpirez graduated twice from the SOA, once in 1970 and again in 1990.


http://www.isreview.org/issues/09/school_of_americas.shtml#manuals

---

Keep in mind that these were declassified by the Pentagon and most likely much was blacked out.

<clips>

Torture Training Manuals

IN 1997, the Pentagon declassified army training manuals that were used at the School of the Americas between 1982 and 1991. These and other manuals were used not to promote "democratic" values, but to train individuals in the most effective means of running a police state. The two declassified manuals deal exclusively with methods of interrogation, and entire chapters are devoted to "coercive techniques." The manuals recommend using coercive interrogation methods in order to "induce psychological regression in the subject by bringing a superior outside force to bear on his will to resist." Other manuals discuss ways to control the population and destroy even liberal opposition groups and individuals.

From the army manual Terrorism and the Urban Guerilla:

function of the CI (counterintelligence) agents is to recommend CI targets for neutralization...

Organizations or groups that are able to be a potential threat to the government also must be identified as targets. Even though the threat may not be apparent, insurgents frequently hide subversive activity behind front organizations. Examples of hostile organizations or groups are paramilitary groups, labor unions, and dissident groups.

The manual recommends the following restrictive measures meant to control the population:

Control of travel and transportation. A program of control of the population and resources must include a system of passes.

Curfew. Curfews can be an effective method to restrict movement between specific hours through a specific area or specific routes. The purpose is to permit the authorities to identify violators and take actions based on the premise that anyone who violates the curfew is an insurgent or sympathizes with the insurgents until he can prove the contrary.

Checkpoints: It is of little use to establish a program of passes and ID cards unless there is a system of verifying these official papers. Therefore, establishing checkpoints in all travel routes is necessary once the use of passes has started....

http://www.isreview.org/issues/09/school_of_americas.shtml#manuals

---

[Judi Lynn]

44. Excellent links to material seldom acknowledged

Very glad to see the authors being so firm about getting the truth out about the S.O.A.

Here's another article:

(snip) TORTURE 101
in the US School of the Americas (SOA)
by Lisa Haugaard


The Pentagon revealed what activists opposed to the school have been alleging for years-that foreign military officers were taught to torture and murder to achieve their political objectives," says Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy Il (D-MA), who has waged a three-year campaign to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA). Hoping to elude media attention, the Pentagon waited until late
on a Friday to release training manuals used at the school and distributed throughout Latin America that instructed officers on the use of torture, murder and blackmail in the fight against left-wing opponents.

The most egregious passages in the declassified manuals advocated such tactics as executions of guerrillas, extortion, physical abuse and paying bounties for enemy dead. One of the manuals offers the following techniques to recruit a guerrilla as an intelligence source: blackmail, false arrest, Imprlsonment of the potential recruit's parents and execution of all other members of his guerrilla cell. Another manual contains detailed instructions for making Molotov cocktails.

The Pentagon released the manuals after a sustained public pressure campaign focused on the role of the CIA in Guatemala, which was the subject of a June report by the President's Intelligence Oversight Board. Since the board's report mentioned the manuals, the Pentagon received requests to declassify them in their entirety.

The seven Spanish-language training manuals, totaling 1,100 pages, were prepared by the U.S. military and used between 1987 and 1991 for intelligence training courses in Latin America and at the School of the Americas. These manuals, with titles such as "Counterintelligence" and "Revolutionary War and Communist Ideology," were based on lesson plans used by SOA instructors since 1982. These lesson plans, in turn, were based in part on older material dating back to the '60s from "Project X," the U.S. Army's Foreign Intelligence Assistance Program. The U.S. government estimates that as many as a thousand copies of these manuals may have been distributed at the SOA and throughout Latin America.

In late 1991, after the Bush administration "discovered" the use of these manuals, the office of the assistant to the secretary of defense for intelligence oversight launched an investigation. The Pentagon provided the resulting report to congressional intelligence committees in 1992, but it remained sealed from the public until now. The investigation concluded that the manuals' authors and SOA instructors "erroneously assumed that the manuals, as well as the lesson plans, represented approved doctrine." When interviewed by the investigators, the manuals' authors stated that they believed intelligence oversight regulations applied only to U.S. personnel and not to the training of foreign personnel-in other words, that U.S. instructors could teach abusive techniques to foreign militaries that they could not legally perform themselves. (snip/...)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/torture101_SOA.html

Some truly sick stuff. SICK.

[Tinoire]

52. Thanks for finding/posting that! n/t

[JohnOneillsMemory]

64. Yo, bro Bobthedrummer. Please put up another Nazis/US Gov't thread.

The latest arrivals to DU really need this backgrounder to understand just how horrible things have been and can be.

Thanks in advance.

[Zhade]

15. Carter cut funding for five years.

That should say something right there.

[0rganism]

20. That tells us...

...that the SOA was a nasty place 30 years ago.

I think we can do better than that.

[CivilRightsNow]

25. Oh, you have to be joking me...

I love how this 30 years ago tactic can be used.

But when the topic of Wesley Clark and his involvement with NED, drafted with Frank Carlucci, Vin Webber , Francis Fukyama and that "chick" who runs the millionaire club for bush donations... everyone says...

OHHHHH... NED is such a great organization, look at XYZ that it did 30 years ago.

Not look at what they did in Venuzuela, look at what Clark helped them do in Haiti.. look at how all the people are protesting to get the president that Wes helped NED put in charge out of there that has even made the LBN on this very day...

It's just mind boggling how these things can be ignored so convieniently and the SOA can be said to have somehow miraculously changed in the last 30 years despite all the evidence to the contrary.

[0rganism]

41. I'm not into Clark's apologetics, but he does give a worthy challenge

Especially in a time when low-intensity warfare and counter-insurgency training is going to be all the rage, how are you going to make the case to Americans everywhere that the SOA is still training torturers in their craft, and should be stopped?

People go by the hundreds to fort benning annually, hold rallies to promote awareness, get arrested and even imprisoned, yet diddly shit is the result. Lip service. Renaming the institution. Adding a nominal human rights course that no one takes as an elective. Having a couple "inspectors" to add an illusion of congressional oversight. It's a crock, but what are you going to do about it? How are you going to break through the veneer of reform?

The best, and maybe only, way to do this is have the students and drill instructors themselves come forward and whistle-blow the operation. Like Major Blair.

[burythehatchet]

28. Wake up

SOA is our very own terrorist training camp

[0rganism]

40. Don't be rude, I know that

The problem is, how do you PROVE it.

[Say_What]

48. Notorious Latin Americans School of the Americas Graduates

Don't be naive. The proof is everywhere. At the link pick any country, the clips are from Guatemala and Colombia. BTW, Colombia is the SOA's aka WHISC's biggest customer--10,000 graduates--and Colombia is the worst abuser of human rights in the western hemisphere. FYI, the paramilitaries that they refer to in this article often carry out atrocities on Colombian indigenous people with chain saws.

Jennifer Harbury described what happened to her husband at the hands of SOA-trained torturers. See second article. Third article is a Human Rights Watch report about the SOA.

<clips>

Guatemala
COL Julio Roberto Alpírez 1989, Command and General Staff College 1970, Combat Arms and Support Services Torture, extrajudicial execution, 1992: A paid agent of the CIA, Alpírez supervised the prolonged torture of Efrain Bámaca Velásquez, husband of U.S. lawyer Jennifer Harbury, and his execution. Assassination, 1990: Six months after graduating from the SOA's most prestigious course, while still on the CIA payroll, Alpírez ordered the murder of U.S. citizen Michael Devine. (NYT, 3/23/96)

GEN Julio Arnoldo Balconi Turcios 1983, Command and General Staff College Disavows basic human rights principle, 1993: In an interview with Americas Watch in October 1993, Balconi defended the actions of one of Guatemala's infamous civil patrols. which had nearly killed a guerrilla after capturing him. In defiance of the Geneva convention, Balconi stated that guerrilla prisoners "lost" their rights simply by being guerrillas. (AW:HIG)

GEN Manuel Antonio Callejas y Callejas 1988, SOA Hall of Fame 1970, Command and General Staff College Assassinations: Under brutal dictator Lucas Garcia in the early eighties, Callejas was a senior intelligence officer in charge of choosing targets of assassination. Under Cerezo, was Armed Forces Chief of Staff, with Héctor Gramajo as Defense Minister.

*COL Juan Chajon Perez 1971, Auto Maintenance for Officers Corruption, 1996: Removed from his post in a 1996 purge by the Arzu government. It is widely believed that this purge was designed to remove corrupt officers involved in drug- and illegal wood-trafficking. The purge occurred shortly before "The Role of the Military in Civilian Society" was discussed as part of the peace negotiations. (CERIGUA)

Colombia

1LT Pedro Nei Acosta Gaivis 1986, Cadet Arms Orientation Course Murder of 11 campesinos, 1990: Ordered the massacre of 11 campesinos, had his men dress the corpses like guerrilla forces, and then dismissed the killings as an armed confrontation between the Army and guerrillas. (ETEC)

GEN Norberto Adrada Córdoba 1978, Training Management Course
1975, Special Maintenance Administration Disappearance, 18 June 1986: Covered-up of the murder of William Camacho Barajas and Orlando Garcia González, who were last seen alive in the hands of soldiers under Adrada Córdoba's command. (ETEC)

CPT Delmo William Alba Rincón 1984, Cadet Arms Orientation Course Ramírez massacre, 1986: Implicated in the murder of 6 individuals (4 were tortured) from the home of the Ramírez family. (ETEC)

CPT José Ismael Alvarez Díaz 1980, Cadet Arms Orientation Course Disappearance, 26 May 1982: Covered-up the murder of Gustavo Alveiro Muñoz Hurtado, last seen alive with soldiers under Alvarez Díaz' command. (ETEC)

---

<clips>

...JENNIFER HARBURY: Hello. I would like to speak today on behalf of my husband, Efrain Bamaca Velazquez or Comandante El Berardo, of Guatemala. Unfortunately, he is not here today to speak for himself because a few years ago, he was captured alive, tortured for two years, held in a full body cast, and then either thrown out of a helicopter or dismembered by between eight and 12 graduates of the School of the Americas.

I wish that I could say that this happened long ago and that we, therefore, don't have to worry about it anymore. But, in fact, it happened during the Clinton administration. I wish that I could say every school has its bad apples and maybe Colonel Alpirez, who personally presided over one of the torture sessions was just a bad apple but between the eight and 12 persons that participated directly in his torture and his eventual execution, most of them were also on C.I.A. payroll as paid informants.

This school is not just a training center; it is where we pick up our death squad partners for the C.I.A. This is where we link, this is where all roads cross on the way to Rome.

I'd like to speak briefly about precisely what did happen to my El Berardo, but only in the sense that his case is symbolic of so many other cases. His case, unfortunately, is not an extraordinary case. It is not a shocking case. Throughout Latin America, it was an everyday occurrence. So, while I speak about what happened to him, I'd like you just to be thinking of the hundreds of thousands, millions, of the same people who suffered the same terror, the same torture, the same miserable deaths and who have unmarked graves also across Latin America. Because when we speak for one, we have to speak for all of them.

<http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/11/24/1458247&mode=thread&tid=25>

---

Human Rights Watch Report

<clips>

Under the stated objective of fighting drugs, the U.S. has armed, trained, and advised Colombia's military despite its disastrous human rights record. Strengthened by years of U.S. support, the Colombian military and its paramilitary partners instead have waged a war against guerrillas and their suspected supporters in civil society, including members of legal political parties, trade unionists, community activists, and human rights monitors. Far from moving to address the mounting toll of this war, the U.S. has apparently turned a blind eye to abuses and is moving to increase deliveries of military aid, including weapons, to Colombia.

As U.S. military support for El Salvador waned in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Colombia emerged as the hemisphere's top recipient of U.S. military aid. Since 1989, the U.S. has provided $322 million in military aid to Colombia, nearly all on a grant (give-away) basis. 291

Not only did the United States play a disturbing role in supporting the military intelligence reorganization that led to serious human rights violations, U.S. aid, weapons, materiel, and training meant to fight drugs have gone to units implicated in serious human rights violations, a fact the United States is aware of but has not made public. In addition, Colombian officers linked to human rights violations have received U.S. training, including CIA-sponsored training in Panama and at the School of the Americas, and have even served at the School of the Americas and the Inter-American Defense College in Washington, D.C. as instructors.

U.S. arms sales to Colombia not only continue unimpeded, but are expected to reach a record level. Military aid provided to Colombia by the U.S. has been used to finance weapons purchases from the U.S, which totaled $73 million in FY 1992, $45 million in FY 1993, $88 million in FY 1994, and $31 million in FY 1995. The Pentagon estimates sales in FY 1996 at $84 million and in FY 1997 at $123 million - the highest level ever. 292

http://www.hrw.org/reports/1996/killer6.htm

[0rganism]

72. The problem is proving that it's *continued* to produce torturers

Its record from 10+ years ago is indeed notorious and beyond dispute.

If you can't find any hard references to atrocities of recent graduates (i.e., since its changeover to WHISC), it reinforces Clark's case that the institution has been reformed. Of course, we'd need more than that to know that real changes have taken place, but the problem is demonstrating that problems remain. Clark's position is that torture is no longer a part of the curriculum; you do not refute that by pointing out its legacy of gross human rights violations.

Don't be naive.

[Say_What]

73. ROFLMAO the lengths that people go to to avoid the truth is amazing

Torture no longer part of the curriculm??? ROFLMAO Riiight. Coup meister Otto REICH is on their Board of Visitors for keerist's sake.

Colombia is the worlds third largest recipient of US aid. 85% of that goes directly to the Colombian military who then trains and advices the RW paramilitaries who carry out 70% of the atrocities in Colombia--mostly the atrocities are massacres of the indigenous who live on the oil-rich land. Colombia has sent more soldiers (10,000) to SOA than any other country and Colombia has the distinction of being the worst abuser of human rights in the Western Hemisphere. That in itself would tell any thinking person that the SOA is NOT teaching soldiers how to bake apple pie. Duh.


<clips>

...SOA Watch and Witness for Peace sponsored the delegation. These groups hold that U.S. military aid exacerbates violence in Colombia. Human Rights Watch and the US State Department have documented links between the Colombian military and illegal paramilitary forces responsible for 70% of Colombia’s civilian killings. Since the US began sending aircraft and on-the-ground training to Colombia in 2000, politically motivated killings have risen from 14 to 20 per day, and the number of kidnappings and disappearances has doubled.

Colombia has sent 10,000 soldiers to the SOA/WHISC. The SOA/WHISC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in human rights atrocities. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution. In December 2000 Congress authorized the WHISC to replace the SOA. The renaming of the school was widely viewed as an attempt to diffuse public criticism and to disassociate the school from its reputation. SOA Watch maintains that the underlying purpose of the school, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by training and influencing Latin American militaries, remains the same.

“Colombia has sent more soldiers to this school than any other country, and it has the worst human rights record to date in the Western Hemisphere,” said Carrie Eikler, one of the delegates.

SOA Watch works to stand in solidarity with people of Latin America, to change oppressive US foreign policy, and to close the SOA/WHISC.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2002/0809-01.htm

---

Critique of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation

...CURRICULA

School of the Americas:

* No specific detail in original congressional authorization
* Practice: 8 hours human rights instruction tacked on

Western Hemishpere Institute for Security Cooperation:

* Includes "mandatory instruction for each student, for at least 8 hours on human rights the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military, role of the military in a democratic society" U.S. Code Title 10, Section 2166
* No restrictions on type or amount of military training

Concerns and Comparison of the Curricula: The new school includes human rights instruction, but that is not new. As the public outcry grew and congressional censure mounted, the SOA instituted first a four-hour human rights component and then upped it to eight hours in an effort to quell critics.

While the eight hours of human rights training is not harmful, it is minimal and inadequate for a school that touts its mission mandate as "promoting democratic values, respect for human rights." There is no requirement that the new school seek input from noted outside human rights specialists and no provision to modify the content to address specific human rights issues in particular countries (for example, paramilitaries in Colombia). In addition, there is no attempt to evaluate or to measure the effectiveness of the training through long-term monitoring of graduates or by any other means.

Although the bill is careful to minimize any mention of military training, the fact remains that, like the SOA it replaces, this is a military institution and Latin American troops will be sent there to learn military skills. The clearest proof of this is to ask how many soldiers would come to the school if it removed ALL combat-related training? We must also ask, if the primary purpose of the institution is to teach democracy and human rights, as claimed, isn't this more appropriately done in a civilian setting?

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=110

[0rganism]

75. Who, praytell, is avoiding the truth here?

I've probably spent just as much time browsing SOAW as you have. I've read many of the same articles. We agree on everything you're copying, exept...

...somehow, you continue to miss the point, and act like an ass while doing so. In order to get Clark to push for closure of the school, direct evidence that the current curriculum includes these things is all that is necessary. Confront him and his bloggers with this, and you've got a helluva thing.

Do you understand?

Making the case to me is preaching to the choir. I agree 100% with SOAW, and will probably go to Ft. Benning myself for this year's protest if I have the means. But crap like

> That in itself would tell any thinking person that the SOA is NOT
> teaching soldiers how to bake apple pie.

won't fly for militant America. SOA has been running for what, 50 years now? Colombia sends 10,000 soldiers to the school over that time period, that averages at 200/year. Well, Colombian armed forces regulars (not counting paramilitary and mercenary irregulars) were over 120,000 in 1998 (last year I see stats for), and probably over 150k now. Even if every Colombian SOA grad prior to 1994 made it into the officer corps by now, and you can link every one of those guys to a specific atrocity, it's not direct evidence that the current curriculum is telling students to do these things -- strong circumstantial evidence, yes, but not direct. There's also the influence of pre-existing officers (including SOA grads from when we do have evidence of torture instruction) and attitudes to consider.

We need to get a WHISC instructor (or even a student) to come forward with this information, or (better yet) get a (current) instruction manual with the kind of material that condones atrocities into public view, and suddenly that's exactly the kind of thing politicos will notice.

Think about it. The last few major reforms that took place at SOA were linked to exactly these kinds of events. One such "defection" or documents leak is worth more than several hundred protestors "crossing the line", practically speaking. While I agree that the school should be closed for legacy violations alone, it seems unlikely to happen; but imagine what having the former SouthCom CiC advocate for closure would do.

[Say_What]

83. Who's being an ass? WAKE UP!! Hundreds of thousands are DEAD

because of the School of the Americas and you're insisting that Clark has a valid case in claiming that the institution has been reformed and that torture is no longer a part of the curriculum (post 72). Wow. Now I know where the term *sheeple* came from.

You seem to be of the opinion that everything just magically stopped at the SOA--Clark's whitewash of the SOA's canker on Uncle Sam's face basically says: *Torture?? Yeah we used to teach that but now we teach human rights instead*.

In this latest post you mention pushing Clark on closure of the school. Helloooo?? Didn't you read the article? Despite the fact that another bill cosponsored by 102 representatives, including Kucinich, was introduced last March to shut down the school; despite the many confirmed cases over decades of human rights abuses tied to SOA graduates, despite the direct correlation of SOA grads in Colombia and the fact that Colombia has the worst record for human rights abuses in the western hemisphere, Clark still BACKS the SOA.

<clips>
Colombia and the SOA

Over 10,000 soldiers from Colombia have trained at the SOA, more than any other country. Reports issued in 2000 by the U.S. State Department and Human Rights Watch document the involvement of Colombian SOA graduates in kidnapping, murder, massacres and setting up paramilitary groups. 50% of the 247 officials cited in an earlier report were trained at the SOA. Some Colombians were featured as guest speakers or instructors or included in the "Hall of Fame" after their involvement.

~ Major David Hernandez Rojas and Captain Diego Fino Rodriguez, cited for the March, 1999 murder of the Antioqua Peace Commissioner and two other civilians as they tried to deliver ransom for a kidnapping victim.

~ Col. Alirio Antonio Uruena Jaramillo and two other SOA graduates were implicated in the gruesome Trujillo "Chainsaw" Massacres in which at least 107 prisoners were tortured and murdered.

~ Major Jesus Maria Clavijo Clavijo and another SOA graduate were linked to paramilitary groups through cell phone communications and regular meetings on military bases. Clavijo was implicated in the February 1999 paramilitary killings near El Carmen de Atroto.

http://www.answerla.org/pdf/soafacts.pdf

[tinanator]

84. Deaf ears, nice try though!

Clark's base is military burnouts. To try to get them to admit their basic misguided faith in the US military may well be the strongest wind you will ever piss into. Just my opinion, of course.

[Say_What]

51. First hand accounts of victims might remind Clark that we aren't naive

...Rape and Torture of Sister Dianna Ortiz
1989. Guatemala. Sister Dianna Ortiz, a United States citizen, while working as a missionary, abducted and brutally tortured by Guatemalan security agents. "My back was burned over 100 times with cigarettes. I was gang-raped repeatedly. I was beaten, and I was tortured psychologically, as well--I was lowered into a pit where injured women, children, and men writhed and moaned, and the dead decayed, under swarms of rats. Finally, I was forced to stab another human being. Throughout the ordeal, my Guatemalan torturers said that if I did not cooperate, they would have to communicate with Alejandro. Hector Gramajo, former Guatemalan defense minister, a SOA graduate, was found liable in United States court. Cited in H. R. 611, introduced by Congressman Kennedy Feb 5, 1997, calling for the closure of the School of the Americas.

...Assassination of Archbishop Romero
March 24, 1980, San Salvador, El Salvador. While celebrating the Eucharist, Archbishop Oscar A. Romero was shot and killed at the altar by a death squad assassin. As Archbishop of San Salvador, Father Romero was a source of strength and hope for the poor and for the oppressed of his country, working with and for them, taking their struggles as his own. Romero wrote and spoke passionately and publicly of the need for Christians to work for justice, frequently faced with threat and danger from those who opposed his ideas. Introduction to Archbishop Romero
Or see Longer biography by Craig Johnson. Two of the three killers were SOA graduates. Cited in H. R. 611, introduced by Congressman Kennedy Feb 5, 1997, calling for the closure of the School of the Americas.

Atrocities Associated with Graduates of the School of the Americas

---

<clips>

...ADRIANA BARTOW : September 11, the Guatemalan security forces came to my father's home and kidnapped him, my stepmother, one of my sisters and my baby sister and my two young daughters, 10 and 9 years of age at the moment of their disappearance. Two months earlier, they have had killed one of my brothers. Ignorant of what had happened at my brother's home a couple of hours earlier, I came to his house only to be interrogated by a large group of men while another group was washing the floors. Very deeply my heart, i guess I always knew that there was a very, very little chance that my children have survived. Last year, I finally knew that they are gone, that they were killed by people trained at this school, by people who had been taught to torture, to kill innocent people. They are train by these men! I didn't know at the time that those who commanded the operation and those who carried out had literally been at this school. One of them is even a member of the hall of fame of the School of the Americas.

In Guatemala, since I was a child, I always knew that the United States and the Guatemalan military and government shared add very, very, very intimate relationship. It was through my involvement with the movement to close the school of the Americas that I finally learned how intimate that relationship has been. That macabre relationship has produced in Guatemala 150,000 people killed, over 50,000 more disappeared, 11% of them children. It destroyed the economy and it destroyed the social fabric, the elements that keep people together.

...JENNIFER HARBURY: Hello. I would like to speak today on behalf of my husband, Efrain Bamaca Velazquez or Comandante El Berardo, of Guatemala. Unfortunately, he is not here today to speak for himself because a few years ago, he was captured alive, tortured for two years, held in a full body cast, and then either thrown out of a helicopter or dismembered by between eight and 12 graduates of the School of the Americas.

I wish that I could say that this happened long ago and that we, therefore, don't have to worry about it anymore. But, in fact, it happened during the Clinton administration. I wish that I could say every school has its bad apples and maybe Colonel Alpirez, who personally presided over one of the torture sessions was just a bad
apple but between the eight and 12 persons that participated directly in his torture and his eventual execution, most of them were also on C.I.A. payroll as paid informants.

This school is not just a training center; it is where we pick up our death squad partners for the C.I.A. This is where we link, this is where all roads cross on the way to Rome.

I'd like to speak briefly about precisely what did happen to my El Berardo, but only in the sense that his case is symbolic of so many other cases. His case, unfortunately, is not an extraordinary case. It is not a shocking case. Throughout Latin America, it was an everyday occurrence. So, while I speak about what happened to him, I'd like you just to be thinking of the hundreds of thousands, millions, of the same people who suffered the same terror, the same torture, the same miserable deaths and who have unmarked graves also across Latin America. Because when we speak for one, we have to speak for all of them.

...Carlos Mauricio also spoke. He successfully sued two former Salvadorian generals for human rights abuses in a Florida court. He is a member of the Stop Immunity Project.

CARLOS MARICIO: I’m glad that I came. In 1983, I was captured by the Salvadorian army. In two weeks, I was horrible tortured, badly, badly beaten, and starved. The torturers, most probably, they got training in this School of Americas although I never saw their faces because I was blindfolded and handcuffed. But what I knew is that the top officers in the army, Colonel Cass Nova and colonel Garcia, they both have links to the School of Americas. So, when we found them living in Florida, we made a case against them and we, three Salvadorians who survived the torture, Gonzales, Majosa and myself, we made a case against them and we accused them of being responsible for what happened to us.

Everybody knows that the Salvadorian soldiers trained in the United States, came back to San Salvador and carried out the worst of the worst atrocities in El Salvador. In Mosote, For example, after they killed 900 villagers there, and the average age of the children killed is 4 years old, after the soldier left, they wrote a message there in Mosote. It said "hell's angels were here."

Because we knew that Colonel Garcia and Colonel Cass Nova were responsible, we made a case against them. And in Florida, in West Palm Beach a year ago, a jury found them guilty. And now -- now they are paying $54 millions of dollars. The guys who never blink an eye to kill, now they cannot sleep because we are taking their money. Believe me, when I was in the court, I was not alone. When I accused them. When I said to them, you are responsible for what happened to me, I felt the voices of the names of the people in those crosses that you are carrying right now. Their voices, I felt them in my back. Those names on those crosses, they also support me. When I finger them and tell them, you are responsible, you are guilty, you are murderers, I felt those names behind me because our case is a land mark case. Now several cases have also been filled against military, against Salvadorian military here in the United States.

10,000 Protest in Fort Benning, Georgia Against School of Americas, What Many Critics Call the “School of Assassins”

[mikehiggins]

9. I have always had trouble with the whole concept of the SOA, however

I am certain that under a Clark administration whatever reforms are necessary will be put into place. On the other hand, I think it is really questionable whether such an institution is (or ever was) necessary in the first place.

It seems like another hold-over from the Cold War that should go the way of the Berlin Wall. A cost-benefit analysis should put an end to this thing in short order.

[tinanator]

10. based on what?

prior experiences? first hand knowledge? empirical data?
faith based conclusion? Please share your logical basis for that statement.

[lostnfound]

14. No-- it wasn't about stopping Russia; it was about suppressing leftists

and that will never change. As long as this government declares capitalism to be MORE important than democracy, it will continue to suppress any insurgencies that threaten capital interests.

In Latin America, where the masses have no land or wealth, the US will forever be fighting against the people.

[Kitsune]

11. Whoa

Okay, he definitely dropped two or three places on my list with that one.

[Zhade]

16. Two things...

1. He dropped off my list far earlier, but yes, this would have knocked him off had he still been on.

2. I love your sig line and username. You must be an anime fan. :)

[CivilRightsNow]

12. The SOA is a violent mockery of an "education"

Anyone that has an iota of compassion and intelligence needs to do some research into this "school".

I know Wesley Clark is the embodiment of the Military Industrial Complex that we have been warned of again and again throughout history. But even those that are not quite as perceptive to the subtle should have all their doubt removed by this and Haiti and Venezula... and Kosovo.. etc etc. But this one is pretty friggin glaring.

Try to sweep it under the rug the best you can, be complicit and say you cant find anything the SOA is doing wrong.. and to that Ill respond..

You arent even looking.

[Meritaten1]

13. You are repeating smears

Clark is not the "embodiment of the Military Industrial Complex". A post blaming him for a variety of vague and unsupported allegations is unfair candidate bashing.

[CivilRightsNow]

24. Bullarkey

vague and unsupported allegations?

Im sick of posting this crap over and over again and if you think that Haiti, Venuzuela, SOA and Kosovo concerns are unsupported I'd suggest you do a bit more reading on these forums.

I know you appear to be new here but these topics have been hashed and rehashed again and again and there are many who believe that the evidence produced against Wesley Clark is way more damning then the excuses that are given for Wesley Clark are encouraging.

If you are in doubt of these things you should perhaps search for threads regarding Wesley Clark and the plethora of posts that have been made by folks like Tinore, RedQueen, CWebster and myself among others.. but that should get you started.

People, open your hearts and your eyes before it is too late.

I implore you with much love and hope.

[Meritaten1]

34. Yes, and I do read the forums just don't agree with you on this

No offense, but I have visited DU intermittently, just haven't posted much until the primaries. The nice thing about DU is it offers a forum for civil discussion and presentation of diverging points of view.

You can't expect anyone to take a reference like "Haiti" and "Venezuala" and respond intelligently. You need to cite a source for your charges because during an election year people raise a host of allegations about issues and candidates. This thread topic pertained to SOA.

Do your homework and cite specific, verifiable factual sources before expecting someone to ascertain what particular issue you are raising. It's up to someone making comments about candidates/issues to provide the data before expecting a response from someone disagreeing (or agreeing) with them, IMHO.

I don't believe Clark would condone human rights abuses/violations (please see my post #19). It addresses the SOA issue you are raising, and the Kosovo issue, perhaps. As far as Haiti and Venezuala, I don't know what you are talking about, or what sources you are relying on, and I'm not inclined to do a "search", sorry.

[Zhade]

35. You don't agree. You're still wrong.

All evidence points to the SOA being a very, very bad place.

Your last line is quite revealing. Maybe it would help to actually explore the evidence.

[Meritaten1]

56. Zhade, I have no problem with "exploring" evidence-- present some

My only point is that it's not up to readers of a thread on Clark and "SOA" to conduct research into unsubstantiated smears on other topics.

It's a good thing to research candidates and issues thoroughly, IMHO. So we agree on that much.

But if one wants to present evidence on other unrelated issues, and expect that people who do not know what is being complained about should take the complaint seriously, then the basis of the criticism ought to be set out and the sources cited. That's only fair, because it is impossible to evaluate material in a careful way without knowing the source.

[CivilRightsNow]

59. Wow...

You are amazing.

[CivilRightsNow]

58. Your loss..

Again,

My burden is not to educate you. I educate myself. The information is out there. More specifically, it is already on DU, post and posts and pages and pages of information.

I told you who to search for. Im not wasting the time for one person who is too lazy to do a search.... in LBN, at that, which very few people participate in anyway... who is obviously a cheerleader for a man they dont even seem to know.

I hate to be blunt, but come on.. you cant do a search? I gotta organize it and spoonfeed it to you?

No way.

[Zhade]

17. AMEN.

To defend the School of the Assassins - where CIA-written materials on how to torture dissidents are used to teach - is to defend horrific practices.

There was a bill (H.R. 1810) introduced - and, shamefully, defeated - in the 107th Congress, aimed at closing down the SOA and investigating "...the effect of such education and training on the performance of Latin American military personnel in the areas of human rights and adherence to democratic principles and the rule of law."

Here's a list of Congressional Reps who voted for the Moakley Amendment to H.R. 4205 (DoD appropriations bill), dated May 18, 2000. Note that Dennis Kucinich voted to close the SOA, as did 153 other Democrats, 48 Republicans, and 2 Independents.

Clearly, a lot of Reps see a problem with the SOA. Unfortunately, not enough did at that time.

For anyone actually interested in the truth about the SOA, check out www.soaw.org.

[aeon flux]

18. Bump

I was on the fence between Dean and clark, but this has made the choice easy. Major strike against Clark, which is a shame.

I wonder if Dean has a position on the SOA. He better not be in favor of it. Coming from his medical background, I doubt that he is though. Dean all the way!

[demdave]

19. I have now seen it all. Open support for the SOA on the DU!! WOW

How hard do you have to swallow to get this one down?

I have never come out against a candidate in these forums but I will begin here.

The man was a Rep. no more than a year ago. He is a military officer. He bypasses debates. Now, he supports the SOA. All this, and I didn't even dip into the Clinton/Clark freep conspiracy theories.

[Meritaten1]

30. He doesn't support torture/human rights abuse

1). Regarding the SOA issue
See: http://www.boston.com/news/politics/primaries/new_hampshire/articles/2004/01/17/facing_questions_clark_backs_army_school?mode=PF

Clark reportedly told a woman in Concord that she could tour the school with George Bruno and "If you find anything in that curriculum material or anything that's taught there that looks in any way remotely connected with human rights abuse or torture, you let me know, and I promise you, we'll close the School of the Americas when I'm president," he said.

But if "you find nothing wrong you see these officers and noncommissioned officers in there learning about human rights, I'd like you to change your position."

2). Regarding the bypassing debate issue:

Clark entered the race comparatively late and did not campaign in Iowa. He did participate in a number of the candidate debates after he entered the race, but not the final ones in Iowa. He's also held some online "wireside chats" so it's not correct to suggest he's avoiding debate on issues.

3). Regarding the military officer issue:

Yes, he's a retired four star general, and he also won the Presidential Medal of Freedom (2000), the nation's highest civilian honor. He opposed genocide in Kosovo and saved many, many ethnic Albanians from Milosevic's "ethnic cleansing" campaign. See http://www.tucsoncitizen.com and look up the guest opinion from January 8, 2004 by Dan Christman and Chuck Larson entitled "Guest Opinion: Gen. Clark's stand v. Milosevic praiseworthy." They write, in pertinent part: "The easier wrong would have been to ignore the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, as we had in Rwanda. Clark knew...he was putting his career on the line...His moral courage was instrumental in stopping another round of ethnic cleansing..."

4). Regarding the Republican claim: completely false. He is a Democrat. He voted for Republican candidates when he was in the military until Bill Clinton ran for office. He voted for Clinton and apparently for Democrats since then.(That issue has been discussed extensively on DU and is really old news.)

I'm supporting Clark, and would not be doing so if I believed for one minute that he would condone human rights abuses/torture as President.

As far as the voting Republican issue; many people have made that mistake.

I don't think it's fair to make unsupported allegations on the basis of broad labels about candidates and not back the claims up with specific facts.

[Say_What]

47. Clark's SOA Speech

Portions of his speech to the SOA 1996 graduation class from the SOA website.

<clips>
...I HAVE BEEN IN MY POSITION NOW FOR SOME SIX MONTHS. I HAVE VISITED MOST OF THE COUNTRIES OF THE HEMISPHERE. I HAVE MET SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS' GRADUATES WHO ARE AIDES TO THE HIGHEST MILITARY LEADERS, AND I HAVE MET SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS' GRADUATES WHO ARE THE HIGHEST MILITARY LEADERS. I THINK YOU KNOW IN YOUR COMMAND STRUCTURES WHO THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS' GRADUATES ARE AND YOU KNOW THAT THEY ARE RESPECTED.

AND YOU KNOW THAT THAT DEGREE OF RESPECT CARRIES WITH IT RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS, NOT ALL OF THAT IS EARNED BECAUSE YOU STUDIED HERE...BECAUSE YOU WERE SPECIAL BEFORE YOU CAME HERE. YOUR COUNTRIES CHOSE THEIR BEST TO COME TO STUDY TOGETHER AT SOA. AND YOUR LEADERS WILL EXPECT A GREAT DEAL FROM YOU. BECAUSE THEY REMEMBER THE TACTICS BLOCK THEMSELVES. THEY'LL EXPECT YOU TO IMPROVE ON DOCTRINE AS MANY OF THEM HAVE. AND YOU'RE GOING TO FOLLOW IN THEIR FOOTSTEPS.

http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/usarsa/SPEECH/cgscspch.htm

---

<clips>

Human Rights Watch Report

7 SOA GRADUATES CITED

http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/colombia/">"The Ties That Bind: Colombia & Military – Paramilitary Links"

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) report, issued February 23, 2000, presents detailed and abundant evidence of continuing ties between the Colombian Army and paramilitary groups. Compiled by Human Rights Watch and investigators from the Colombian government, the report implicates three brigades that operate in Colombia’s three major cities, including the capital, Bogotá. The report reveals that despite claims by the Colombian Army, military support for the paramilitaries remains national in scope. In fact, the cited brigades function in areas of the country where military units are receiving or are scheduled to receive U.S. aid.

The investigation found that as recently as 1999 Colombian Army officers established a "paramilitary" group composed of active duty, retired and reserve duty officers. "Paramilitaries," such as this, operate in coordination with the military. This means that the Colombian military shares intelligence, plans and carries out joint operations, provides weapons and munitions, provides support with helicopters and medical aid, and coordinates with the paramilitaries on a daily basis.

It is important to note that though human rights violations attributed to the Colombian military have diminished over the past several years, abuses by the paramilitaries have skyrocketed to 70% of all violations. The military—paramilitary ties allow political violence to continue while the Colombian Army maintains a relatively clean human rights record, making it eligible for U.S. military aid.

SOA Graduates
Human Rights Watch reports that at least 7 SOA graduates are highly involved with the paramilitary. Colombia has graduated more officers from the SOA than any other country. Among the officers cited in the report are Brig. General Jaime Ernesto Canal Albán, General Carlos Opsina Ovalle, Captain Diego Fernando Fino and Major David Hernández Rojas.

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=203

[Meritaten1]

61. So what do the excerpts really prove about Clark? Nothing.

1). Excerpt from graduation speech:

Clark praised the SOA in 1996 at a graduation ceremony. Most speakers at graduation ceremonies do not bash the institution where they are speaking, and I suppose in a military setting that situation might pertain even more often than it does in civilian educational settings.

The time line posted at http://clark04.com/records/timeline indicates that he was the Commanding General, United States Southern Command in Panama from June, 1996 until July, 1997, so that would be consistent with his statement in the speech that he'd been in his position for some "six months."

He praised the graduates of the SOA. We can disagree with him about whether SOA produces such a great set of graduates, but I don't see that this excerpt proves anything, other than the fact that he has made favorable statements about the SOA in a setting where any speaker addressing the audience in question would probably be making favorable statements or would not be speaking at all.

2). Human Rights Watch excerpt

This excerpt supports the proposition that SOA graduates have been found to have been involved with paramilitary groups and human rights abuses as recently as 1999. It says nothing about Clark.

Even if some of those graduates attended the SOA during the one year period of time that Clark as Commanding General of the United States Southern Command had jurisdictional responsibility for the school, and we don't know that any of them did, what would this association "prove"? The horrendous accounts cited in earlier posts occurred many years previously. There is no evidence that Clark was responsible for the activities of the paramilitary members singled out in the human rights report you cited. The entire argument hinges on a guilt by association theory (and a really weak one at that).

For example, please note: <http://www.boston.com/news/politics/primaries/new_hampshire/articles/2004/01/17/facing_questions_clark_backs_army_school?mode=PF>

Clark reportedly stated "There's been a lot of rotten people who've gone to a lot of rotten schools in the history of the world," Clark said. "And a lot of them went to this school. But a lot of them have gone to Harvard Business School and a lot of other places."

That statement suggests to me that he does not condone the behavior of all of the graduates of the SOA. He indicated in the same article when he told a woman in Concord that she could tour the SOA with George Bruno and "If you find anything in that curriculum material or anything that's taught there that looks in any way remotely connected with human rights abuse or torture, you let me know and I promise you, we'll close the School of the Americas when I'm president." He added that if she found "nothing wrong you see these officers and noncommissioned officers in there learning about human rights, I'd like you to change your position."

[Say_What]

62. Clark staunchly defending the SOA speaks for itself.

"It says nothing about Clark." Doesn't have to. Given the proven track record of the SOA and Clark staunchly defending the it speaks for itself.

<clips>

History of Efforts to Close School of the Americas

# ...On Feb 5, 1997, Congressman Joseph P. Kennedy, II, introduced H. R. 611 which calls for the closure of the School of the Americas. The bill cites "some of the worst human rights abusers in our hemisphere, including:

* El Salvador death squad leader Roberto D'Abuisson
* Panamanian dictator and drug dealer Manual Noriega
* Haitian coup leader Raoul Cedras
* 19 Salvadoran soldiers linked to the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter
* Col. Julio Roberto Alpirez, Guatemalan officer linked in the deaths of an American innkeeper
* Hector Gramajo, former Guatemalan defense minister found liabile in United States court for abduction, rape, and torture of Sister Dianna Ortiz, a United States citizen.
* Argentinian dictator Leopoldo Galtieri, leader of the "dirty little war: responsible for the deaths of 30 civilians
* Two of the three killers of Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador
* Ten of the twelve officers responsible for the murder of 900 civilians in the El Salvadoran village of El Mozote.
* Three of the five officers involved in the 1980 rape and murder of four United States churchwomen in El Salvador.

http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/soaback.htm

[Meritaten1]

70. Typo correction

Sorry, typo in second from last sentence of post #47 caught too late to use edit function:

"nothing wrong AND you see these officers..." The "AND" is capitalized to reflect that it should be bracketed- the brackets didn't show up on posting.

[Zhade]

36. We usually don't agree, but here we do.

It is rather astonishing to see progressives supporting, or even condoning, the SOA.

Astonishing, and very saddening.

[Minstrel Boy]

80. It's very discouraging to see

how far apologists will go. His stand on SOA ought to be indefensible, and ought to be regarded as another huge red flag re: his legitimacy.

Increasingly, it's simply mystifying how this man can be embraced as a "progressive" choice.

All across this country
The news spreads from town to town
Every day a new voice shouting
Shut this school of torture down
- David Rovics, "Song for the SOA"

Shut Down the School of Assassins:
http://www.soaw.org/new/

[Whoa_Nelly]

22. School of the Americas--School of the home-grown terrorists

Has this been forgotten?...or is it just not worth remembering?

[Zhade]

37. Sadly, far too many people will not face reality.

After reading a piece about military dissidence during Vietnam, it struck me what an amazing job of whitewashing history the rightwing has done.

I was born in '75, I'm 28 now, and it still amazes me the depths of depravity the U.S. government has sunk to at times, including now.

It shouldn't surprise me - after all, my great-grandfather was adopted into a white family because his parents were killed for being "injun savages". What I didn't learn in school, though...astounding how much has been deliberately forgotten.

Until more people wake up - I mean really wake up - to the evils that have been done in our name by those who are supposed to work for us, we will have a huge handicap in this war. And let's not kid ourselves here, it's a war. They started it.

We need to finish it. And we can't hope to win with blinders on.

[latebloomer]

26. Bad, very bad

Kinda confirms the doubts I've had about him all along.

[NNN0LHI]

27. What are the other candidates position on this? Anyone know? n/t

[Zhade]

38. Kucinich voted to close the "school" down. See post #17 for more info.

NT!

[Say_What]

63. Letter the SOAW office sent to 2004 presidential candidates

<clips>

The following letter was faxed to all of the Democratic candidates running for president.

January 14, 2004


Dear :

School of the Americas Watch is seeking statements from all of the Democratic candidates for President of the United States regarding your position on the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), formerly the United States Army School of the Americas (SOA). SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America, to close the SOA/WHISC. There are currently over 200 SOAW grassroots groups nationally, hundreds of groups that work on the SOA as a primary issue, as well as many other organizations and constituency groups with whom we work closely.

In response to grassroots and media inquiries following the appearance of an article in the NY Post on General Clark’s support of the school, we are providing information on the positions of the presidential candidates on this issue. The Kucinich campaign has already publicly opposed the SOA/WHISC and stated that he would close it down. All of this information will be posted on the web and has already been sent to our email list of over 20,000 nationally. We wanted to alert your campaign to the media coverage and invite you to issue a statement so that we may educate our networks on your position. If you collect any articles that are appropriate we would encourage you to send those as well.

Despite efforts to evade criticism of the Ft. Benning-based training school through a name change and cosmetic changes, it is still a combat training school that provides dangerous skills to countries with serious and current human rights problems. The proliferation of skills like counter-insurgency and psychological warfare in countries like Colombia, where impunity is offered to paramilitaries, only perpetuates the cycles of violence. Keeping the school open under any name sends a powerful anti-human rights message. Establishing reasonable living conditions for the people of Latin America and strengthening civil institutions will do more to stabilize the region than training repressive militaries.

The graduates of this institution have a long history of human rights violations. From the atrocities in El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980's to recent violations in Colombia, SOA/WHISC graduates consistently appear in reports on human rights abuses in Latin America. SOA/WHISC training has resulted in civilian massacres, assassinations, disappearances, death threats and has led to both attempted and successful coups of democratically elected governments in the hemisphere. Closing the SOA/WHISC, whatever its name, would demonstrate that the United States has made a clean break from the tragic history of the SOA/WHISC and its graduates.

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=710

[NNN0LHI]

67. Thank you for the link Say_What. Much appreciated n/t

[DoNotRefill]

29. If it walks like a hawk, talks like a hawk, and flys like a hawk....

odds are pretty good that it's not a dove.

[fabius]

31. SOA used to be really bad news

Supposedly there have been "reforms". I don't know if I believe it but Clinton didn't dismantle it so I would presume Democrats aren't uniformly against it.

I would love to see a very visible public debate on the School of the Americas or whatever its called now including its history and present justification.

That said, I think it's too early to condemn Clark without hearing from teh other candidates. I know Kucinich has promised to abolish it but I don't know if any other candidate has mentioned it.

[Say_What]

46. Used to be?? Better take a good look at Colombia TODAY.

SOA changed it's name to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). See congressional background article.

<clips>

. . . SOA graduates are behind the violence in Colombia:

Colombia, with over 10,000 troops trained at the SOA, is the school’s largest customer. Not surprisingly, Colombia currently has the worst human rights record in all of Latin America.

General Mario Montoya Uribe, an SOA graduate with a history of ties to paramilitary violence, commands the Joint Task Force South, which includes the 24th Brigade. The 24th brigade is ineligible for U.S. military aid due to its complicity in paramilitary violence. A leading Colombian newspaper identifies Gen. Montoya as "the military official responsible for Plan Colombia."

U.S. Military aid under Plan Colombia has been sold to the U.S. public as part of the war on drugs. In actuality, the forces under Montoya’s command are engaged in a counter-insurgency war against leftist guerillas. The aid is directed to troops taking offensive action against guerillas in areas targeted for coca fumigation. Evidence shows that these offensives often happen in conjunction with paramilitary attacks. Robert Zoellick, a top foreign policy advisor to President Bush, was recently quoted as saying, "We cannot continue to make a false distinction between counter-insurgency and counter-narcotics."

A large portion of the U.S military aid to Colombia will pay for Blackhawk helicopters to be used in the counter-narcotics/counter-insurgency war described above. Flight training for these helicopters takes place at the Helicopter School Battalion (HSB) at Ft. Rucker, Alabama. The HSB has been a part of the School of the Americas since it opened in 1991. Until recently, it was part of WHISC also. The web site of WHISC reported, as part of its course listings, "Helicopter School Battalion remains unchanged." As public attention to the controversial Colombia aid package increased, the HSB disappeared from the course catalog. The public affairs officer had no explanation for the change.

This is consistent with the history of the School of Assassins. The rhetoric changes, classes are shifted and re-packaged; but the same training continues and the poor continue to suffer.

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=115

---

<clips>

SOA Legislation Summary

2003: 108th Congress
A new House bill to repeal authority for the institute known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC) is introduced by Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) and over 49 other representatives.

2002: 107th Congress
HR 1810: The bill (see below) gathered 113 co-sponsors. The House Armed Services Committee did not discuss the bill or follow-up on its request for executive comment from the Department of Defense. The 107th Congress ended and there was no further action.

2001: 107th Congress
HR 1810: Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA), Joe Scarborough (FL-R), Joe Moakley (D-MA), Connie Morella (R-MD), Chris Shays (R-CT), and Lane Evans (D-IL) introduced a bill to close the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation on May 10, 2001. The school would close and a congressional task force conducted an assessment of the school’s education and training programs. The school could not re-open for at least ten months after the bill is enacted. It was referred to the Armed Services Committee

2000: 106th Congress
HR 732: See below. SB 873: See below. Authorizations: Rep. Moakley offered H. Amdt. 723 to the Defense Authorizations bill, HR 4205, to close the SOA. The amendment was offered on May 18, 2000. The amendment was defeated by a vote of 214 to 204. The Defense Authorization Bill HR 4205, section 2166 called for the Department of Defense to close the SOA and open the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=107

[maggrwaggr]

32. He also has an exhalted opinion of Colin Powell

which is why I bailed on Clark.

I still like the guy, I think he has a lot of integrity, in fact I think he's a regular boyscout, but I think his mind is shaped by WAY too much military training.

Colin Powell is complicit in the war crimes of this administration. If Powell had ONE IOTA of integrity, he would have quit this administration on about day ten.

But no, he went in front of the United Nations and lied his ass off so we could murder thousands of people.

Fuck Colin Powell and anybody who thinks he's a good guy. Fuck them.

[Zhade]

39. Powell never was a good guy.

In 1963, Capt. Colin Powell was one of those advisers, serving a first tour with a South Vietnamese army unit. Powell's detachment sought to discourage support for the Viet Cong by torching villages throughout the A Shau Valley. While other U.S. advisers protested this countrywide strategy as brutal and counter-productive, Powell defended the "drain-the-sea" approach then -- and continued that defense in his 1995 memoirs, My American Journey.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html

[CivilRightsNow]

60. Dont forget Powell and My Lai

http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/colin3.html

Powell probably taught a SOA class in his "drain the sea" tactics of murdering hundreds if not thousands of innocent villagers.

[notbush]

33. I Just don't

trust him!!!!

[Judi Lynn]

43. The School of the Americas cultivates the very worst in people

The very worst of the worst:

(snip) The School of the Americas

......Founded by the United States in 1946, the SOA was initially located in Panama, but in 1984 it was kicked out under the terms of the Panama Canal Treaty and moved to the army base at Fort Benning, Georgia. Then-President of Panama Jorge Illueca called it "the biggest base for de-stabilization in Latin America," and a major Panamanian newspaper dubbed it " The School of Assassins."

Today, SOA instructors and students are recruited from the cream of the Latin American military establishment. The School trains 700-2,000 soldiers a year, and since its inception in 1946, more than 60,000 military personnel have graduated from the SOA.

If the SOA concentrated its training on protecting country borders from foreign aggression or safeguarding citizens from invasion by outside enemies, it would be considered an exemplary institution, worth the cost of American tax dollars and US prestige. But, the SOA has very different goals. Its curriculum includes courses in psychological warfare, counterinsurgency, interrogation techniques, and infantry and commando tactics. Presented with the most sophisticated and up-to-date techniques by the US Army's best instructors, these courses teach military officers and soldiers of Third World countries to subvert the truth, to muzzle union leaders, activist clergy, and journalists, and to make war on their own people. It prepares them to subdue the voices of dissent and to make protesters submit. It instructs them in techniques of marginalizing the poor, the hungry, and the dispossessed. It tells them how to stamp out freedom and terrorize their own citizens. It trains them to destroy the hope of democracy.

The School of the Americas (SOA) has been given other names -- "School for Dictators", "School of Assassins", and "Nursery of Death Squads". And, countries with the worst human rights records send the most soldiers to the School.

Countries / Graduates (since 1946)
Argentina / 931
Bolivia / 4,049
Brazil / 355
Chile / 2,405
Colombia / 8,679
Costa Rica / 2,376
Dominican Republic / 2,330
Ecuador / 2,356
El Salvador / 6,776
Guatemala / 1,676
Honduras / 3,691
Nicaragua / 4,693
Panama / 4,235
Paraguay / 1,084
Peru / 3,997
Uruguay / 931
Venezuela / 3,250
(snip/...)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/SOA.html

[Say_What]

45. Hidden in Plain Sight --excellent documentary about the SOA

for all those pathetically naive enough to believe that the SOA teaches foreign soldiers about democracy and human rights. 10,000 people demonstrate each year at the SOA in Fort Benning, many of them victims of the SOA.

<clips>

HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT is a feature-length documentary that looks at the nature of U.S. policy in Latin America through the prism of the School of the Americas (renamed, in January of 2001, the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation), the controversial military school that trains Latin American soldiers in the USA.

http://www.hiddeninplainsight.org/main/home.html

[sendero]

50. I have to admit....

.... this is the first time I've had serious doubts about Clark.

What the SOA is about has been well known since the 80s. For him to say "anything bad going on, I'll shut it down", is more than a bit disingenuous.

It is simply and starkly incongruous with almost the entirety of his stated beliefs. I just don't understand. :(

[Tinoire]

53. It is incongruous with the stated beliefs

as well as other associations he's had in the past.

I do NOT understand how so many Clark supporters, who seem like decent people, can just ignore this type of stuff. Are we that blinded by our emotional investments in certain candidates that we refuse to even consider they might not be what they're telling us?

[bobthedrummer]

55. SOA graduates in Colombia torture and assassinate labor as "terrorists"

http://www.populist.com/02.7.Hirsch.html

Clark endorses SOA.

[Say_What]

57. Colombian General Carlos Ospina

SOA: enforcer for US corporate interests in Latin America

<clips>

Colombia is the most dangerous country in the world for trade unionists. One need look no further than the U.S. State Department’s most recent human rights report, dated March 31, 2003, to see the extent of this problem and its causes. According to this report, 1,875 labor activists have been murdered in Colombia since 1991—already 178 in 2003 alone. The State Department explains that a majority of the murdered trade unionists have been killed at the hands of right-wing paramilitaries which, as the State Department accurately concludes, continue to be aided and abetted by the very military the U.S. is funding at record levels. As the State Department notes, members of the Colombian armed services continue to collaborate with and tolerate the activities of the paramilitaries, even, in some cases, joining the ranks of the paramilitaries.

Collaboration with the paramilitaries extends to the very highest ranks of the Colombian military, including the head of the Colombian army himself, General Carlos Ospina. As The Guardian noted in a February 4 article by George Monbiot, General Ospina was meeting and shaking hands with his counterpart in the Pentagon the very night of President Bush’s State of the Union address in which he stressed the importance of the "War on Terror." Ospina, a graduate of the School of the Americas, has been cited by Human Rights Watch as an active and frequent collaborator in death squad atrocities.

In an almost comical understatement, the State Department concluded in its 2003 report that, for the year 2002, "violence against trade union members and antiunion discrimination were obstacles to joining unions and engaging in trade union activities."

Examples of these "obstacles" are more bloody than comical:

In 1996, Isidro Segundo Gil worked for the Coca-Cola bottling plant in Carepa, Colombia, and served on the executive board of its SINALTRAINAL union. The plant manager ordered paramilitaries to destroy the union there, and union members began receiving threats. SINALTRAINAL wrote to the headquarters of the Bebidas y Alimentos bottling company and to Coca-Cola Colombia to tell them of the threats and to ask for protection. On December 5, 1996, Isidro Segundo Gil was killed by paramilitaries inside the plant. The other union board members were told to leave town or die. On December 7, paramilitaries returned to the plant and again told employees to resign from the union, leave town, or die. Workers were then escorted to the manager’s office to sign union resignation forms already prepared by the company.

http://www.americas.org/News/Features/200307_JulyAugust/ColombiaUnionistMurders.htm

[Judi Lynn]

65. It' s hard to accept Coca Cola's record on human rights, as well

From the article:

(snip) Recently, in both the Coca-Cola and Drummond cases, the judges—both appointees of President George W. Bush—denied the corporate defendants’ motions to dismiss (at least in part). In both cases, the courts ruled that (1) corporations are "individuals" subject to suit under the terms of the Torture Victims Protection Act; and (2) as is required by this Act, the Plaintiffs have alleged sufficient facts to demonstrate that the paramilitaries are in fact state actors in light of their collaboration with the official armed services.

In the Drummond case, the judge further concluded that, as alleged by plaintiffs, the human rights abuses at issue amount to "war crimes." The "war crime" in this case is the murder of three top mining union leaders by paramilitaries who, acting at the behest of Drummond, pulled the leaders off company buses taking them home after work and then shot them. The judge also ruled, in a landmark decision, that the rights to associate and organize a union constitute fundamental and internationally recognized human rights, the violation of which are actionable under the Alien Tort Claims Act and Torture Victims Protection Act which allow suits for "violations of the law of nations."

These cases challenge both U.S. government and corporate complicity in paramilitary violence in Colombia, particularly violence against trade unionists. (snip/...)

Once you learn what has been happening, you simply can't return to your former state of ignorance. You can't forget it. This is loathesome.

[Ctuser]

79. what goes better with coke?

Torture? Yes this is loathesome but it's so american.Which makes it US.Which means you and me.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

66. "But he's OUR sonofabitch..." n/t

[Ctuser]

78. no he's not

he a p-o-s time for a flush. next you'll say he's hired republican advisors oh wait he already did that

[JohnOneillsMemory]

87. That was sarcasm. Used to be the justification for US friendly killers...

Sorry, I should have used an icon to clarify my comment. Was it President Johnson? or another Cold War US politico who responded to criticism of supporting some dictator who was called a son-of-a-bitch by saying "yes, but he's our son-of-a-bitch"?

That seems to be the attitude some Clark supporters have.

The amount of murder and torture that some people can defend with 'the ends justify the means' thinking makes me want to drink myself silly.

I see a better camouflaged 'kinder gentler' corporate hegemony under Clark. I guess that's an improvement over the current cabal of blatant slaughterers...(gulp,gulp,gulp)

It could happen here...again and again.

[tinanator]

88. Truman about Samoza I believe

Yeah, its fucking amazing, isnt it? Have one on me.

[Say_What]

89. I was gonna say Sec of State Cordell Hull about Trujillo "He may be

nothing but a Dictator, BUT he's OUR Dictator"!

Have one on me... :beer:


Clark on the SOA: "Torture? Oh sure, we used to teach torture at the SOA, but now we teach human rights."

and the US sheeple actually swallow that bullsh*t. Meanwhile, at WHISC's second BOV meeting, of which Otto "coup maker" REICH is a member, when other members asked to see teaching materials--guess what--they couldn't provide any. Looks like those torture manuals were just unavailable. </sarcasmoff>

:wtf:

[davidinalameda]

74. are all the graduates blood thirsty murdereres and dictators

"Now, on the stump, Clark strongly defends the school, without denying that some graduates have committed atrocities in their home countries.

At a retirement home in Concord this month, one woman told Clark that the school's graduates have been accused of murder. Clark responded that when white-collar criminals are arrested for fraud, nobody faults their alma mater.

"There's been a lot of rotten people who've gone to a lot of rotten schools in the history of the world," Clark said. "And a lot of them went to this school. But a lot of them have gone to Harvard Business School and a lot of other places.""

[Judi Lynn]

76. Some facts on Bush's support of countries with human rights violations

US government steps up military aid for human rights abusers

In the wake of the 11 September 2001 attacks in the USA, the US government has massively increased its military aid to dozens of countries. Some of the recipients of this aid are armed forces which have committed grave human rights violations. Recipient countries include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Colombia, Georgia, Israel, Nepal, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Turkey and Yemen. (snip)

US military training has a poor track-record on human rights issues. One training institution in particular, the School of the Americas (SOA), became notorious for training and educating Latin American soldiers who went on to commit human rights violations. Among its "graduates" were human rights abusers in El Salvador, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Chile and Argentina – including General Leopoldo Galtieri, President of Argentina under the military government and a commander of the "dirty war" in Argentina and 10 of the 12 officers responsible for the December 1981 massacres of nearly 800 villagers in and around El Mozote in El Salvador.

In the 1980s and early 1990s the SOA used manuals that advocated torture, extortion, kidnapping and execution. No one was ever held accountable for the development and use of these manuals. (snip/...)

~ ~ The USA spends more on arms than the combined total of the next 25 highest-spending states.~ ~

"America encourages and expects governments everywhere to help remove the terrorist parasites that threaten their own countries and peace in the world… If governments need training or resources to meet this commitment, America will help."
US President George W. Bush, 2002

http://web.amnesty.org/pages/ttt4-article_8-eng

[Judi Lynn]

77. Joseph Kennedy's the one who exposed the torture manuals!

Just learned this a short time ago, rummaging around in google:

(snip) The government admission that the manuals did in fact exist and had condoned torture was made under pressure. Despite numerous first-hand sighting, no one had managed to hold onto a copy until one made its way to Congress member Joseph Kennedy. When the Pentagon learned that the Massachusetts Democrat had the hard evidence, it tried to beat him to the punch and release the excerpts. The seven manuals-nearly 1,200 pages in the original Spanish-recommended using "fear, payment of bounties for enemy dead, beatings, false imprisonment, executions, and truth serum." The chilling text forever disproved the School's claims that the Noriegas, Banzers, and D'Aubuissons who came out of SOA were just a few "bad apples." Rather, they were the bad seeds that SOA- acting as "Johnny Rotten-Appleseed"-had planted in the fertile ground of Latin American dictatorships.

SOA public affairs officer Maj. Gordon Martell was left hanging out to dry by the change in the official line. He had admitted that some SOA grads were guilty of abuses but had downplayed the impact. "Out of 59,000 students who have graduated from a variety of programs, less than 300 have been cited for human rights violations like torture and murder, and less than 50 have been convicted of anything." In fact, the low number had more to do with the level of impunity in Latin America than any failure of the students to master their lessons. And up until the end, the hapless Martell was denying that the manuals contained anything untoward. "All of the manuals used by the School of the Americas are approved by the Army, and the school has never done those things, ever, in its history."

Torture, Lies, and Videotape

Two people who had been on the trail of the manuals were Robert Richter, whose 1995 film, School of Assassins, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Short Documentary, and Roy Bourgeois, a Maryknoll priest who had long opposed the school. After reading an article in CAQ that reported the existence of the manuals, they traveled to Paraguay. (The article had linked the manuals to serious human rights abuses performed under Operation Condor and documented that they taught torturers how to keep prisoners alive during sessions using electric shock).4 In Asuncion, Bourgeois and Richter met with Martin Almada, the activist and torture victim who had told CAQ of seeing the manuals and of having experienced their lessons first hand. Although the two did not find the instructional material, which had disappeared from the archive where it was catalogued, they ferreted out former SOA students who were now willing to talk. In Richter's updated version of the documentary, one of those former students revealed some of his "unconventional training":

Mr. X: "The difference between the conventional and the unconventional training is that we were trained to torture human beings. They would use people from the streets of Panama, because they would bring them into the base and the experts would train us on how to obtain that information through torture. And there were several ways of doing it. There was the psychological torture and there was of course the physical torture."
(snip/...)

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/SOA/Mexico_SOA.html

[Ctuser]

81. what a kick

in the lower part of the body for messrs moore and mcgovern. do they still back clark? but clark voted for tricky dick and ronnie blank brain so where is the suprize?

[NNN0LHI]

82. All of the candidates were asked their position on this almost a week ago

So far only Kucinich has addressed this issue. He wants it closed up. The rest appear not to want to address it. It would be good if we could get some of the frontrunners on record that they would shut this place down too.

Don

http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=710

The following letter was faxed to all of the Democratic candidates running for president.

January 14, 2004


Dear :

School of the Americas Watch is seeking statements from all of the Democratic candidates for President of the United States regarding your position on the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), formerly the United States Army School of the Americas (SOA). SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works to stand in solidarity with the people of Latin America, to close the SOA/WHISC. There are currently over 200 SOAW grassroots groups nationally, hundreds of groups that work on the SOA as a primary issue, as well as many other organizations and constituency groups with whom we work closely.

In response to grassroots and media inquiries following the appearance of an article in the NY Post on General Clark’s support of the school, we are providing information on the positions of the presidential candidates on this issue. The Kucinich campaign has already publicly opposed the SOA/WHISC and stated that he would close it down. All of this information will be posted on the web and has already been sent to our email list of over 20,000 nationally. We wanted to alert your campaign to the media coverage and invite you to issue a statement so that we may educate our networks on your position. If you collect any articles that are appropriate we would encourage you to send those as well.

Despite efforts to evade criticism of the Ft. Benning-based training school through a name change and cosmetic changes, it is still a combat training school that provides dangerous skills to countries with serious and current human rights problems. The proliferation of skills like counter-insurgency and psychological warfare in countries like Colombia, where impunity is offered to paramilitaries, only perpetuates the cycles of violence. Keeping the school open under any name sends a powerful anti-human rights message. Establishing reasonable living conditions for the people of Latin America and strengthening civil institutions will do more to stabilize the region than training repressive militaries.

The graduates of this institution have a long history of human rights violations. From the atrocities in El Salvador and Guatemala in the 1980's to recent violations in Colombia, SOA/WHISC graduates consistently appear in reports on human rights abuses in Latin America. SOA/WHISC training has resulted in civilian massacres, assassinations, disappearances, death threats and has led to both attempted and successful coups of democratically elected governments in the hemisphere. Closing the SOA/WHISC, whatever its name, would demonstrate that the United States has made a clean break from the tragic history of the SOA/WHISC and its graduates.

We urge you to demonstrate your commitment to human rights in Latin America, and all over the world, by voicing your commitment to close the SOA/WHISC. If you have any questions, please contact me at 202-234-3440, [e-mail]. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,



Jacqueline Baker
Legislative Coordinator

[KLA2004]

85. I don't know much about this

I should find out some more.

[Hoppin_Mad]

86. OTTO REICH ! OH My God ! He's nothing but terrorist scum ! >

A true terrorist is 'overseeing' the WHISC - how FITTING !

http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB40/