Reply #46: How about the School of the Americas brand of torture?

[ozone_man]

I draw a distinction between the torture of a terrorist and the training of military to conduct torture operations against civilians in South America. Can you justify general Clark's involvement with the School of the Americas?

On December 16, 1996, a few months after the Pentagon admission of the torture manuals, Clark visited the SOA, not to demand accountability but to give a commencement speech at an SOA graduation ceremony. Six years later and still, no one has been held accountable for the use of the torture manuals at the SOA. The SOA trained death squad leaders, assassins and military dictators. Its graduates were found responsible for some of the worst human rights atrocities in Latin America, including the El Mozote massacre of more than 900 civilians in El Salvador in 1980, the murder of Guatemalan Bishop Juan Gerardi in 1998 and of Colombian Archbishop Isaías Duarte in 2002.

At almost every campaign stop, Gen. Clark is facing critical questions concerning his connection to the SOA and his continued unpopular support of the school. Asked about his continued support of the SOA during an event in Manchester, NH, on Dec. 19, 2003, Clark responded, " I’m not going to have been in charge of a school that I can’t be proud of." In reaction to a question asked in Concord, NH, about the torture manuals Clark stated: "We're teaching police procedures and human rights . . . never taught torture." Despite cosmetic changes, the SOA remains a combat training school that teaches Latin American soldiers commando tactics, psychological operations, sniper and other military skills. Its graduates continue to be linked to massacres and other crimes. A few examples:

· In April 2002, the Venezuelan Army Commander-in-Chief Efrain Vasquez and General Ramirez Poveda -- both graduates of the SOA -- were key players in an attempted coup against the democratically elected Venezuelan government. In total, the school has produced at least eleven military dictators.

· In October 2003 it became public through documents released by the Mexican Secretary of Defense that SOA-trained ex-soldiers are now working as highly trained hired assassins for the Gulf Drug Cartel. SOA graduates comprise over a third of 31 renegade soldiers who were previously part of an elite counter-drug division of the Mexican Army.

· In December 2003, the Colombian prosecutor general's office ordered the dismissal of SOA graduate Oscar Eduardo Saavedra Calixto for failing to prevent a 2001 massacre of 27 civilians in the village of Chengue. human rights Reports consistently cite SOA-trained Colombian officers for collaboration with paramilitaries.

http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/0120-03.htm

Next week, the week of June 5, Congress will vote on an amendment to close the SOA/ WHINSEC. Rep. McGovern (MA) will introduce an amendment to the Foreign Operations appropriations bill to cut funding for the SOA/ WHINSEC!

We expect a close vote and need as many people as possible flooding the offices of the House of Representatives with calls in support of a YES vote on the amendment. This is it! And it's the people power of our movement that will get this amendment passed! Visit the Legislative Action Index for more information, for a sample call script and to send an email to your Representative:

http://www.soaw.org/new/

The U.S.-operated School of the Americas is often cited as having served as a training ground for members of death squads in Latin America by several human rights activists, most prominently SOA Watch (which terms it the "School of the Assassins"). Some graduates have gone on to commit atrocities as key military figures, though the School officially denies that any human rights abuses are taught in the curriculum (which it considers to have improved and modernized since the end of the Cold War) and claims that the majority of its graduates have not demonstrated such behaviour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_squads