Please help close the S.O.A
Hi, have you heard about the School of the Americas?
The School of the Americas is a U.S. taxpayer funded military training camp for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America.
I just signed a petition calling on the Presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain to commit to close the school if they will be elected President. Please sign below and tell everyone!
http://www.LASolidarity.org/petition
Thank you so much for your help!
PS - We are getting much closer to our goal. We came within 6 votes of closing the school. Up the pressure and lets get this terrible institution closed for good, and help restore US respect worldwide. Learn more at www.soaw.org
Comments
Mr. Rials, you are hardly an independent voice of reason on this matter. You are the PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICER for the School Of the Americas (SOA, or as you prefer the obsure name, Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). People can read about Mr. Rials and his shallow reasoned complaints about the work of the School of the Americas Watch at http://www.coha.org/2007/07/06/whinsec-remains-open-congress-narrowly-fails-to-halt-funding-the-former-school-of-the-americas/
But since you insist on me naming names, Mr. Public Affairs for the SOA, here you go:
Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians.
One particularly well trained Peruvian graduate, Angel Sauni, a self confessed member of the Colina Group, a team of select army intelligence operatives accused of killing 25 people in two massacres in 1991 and 1992, said the strategy used against the leftist Shining Path and Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement came directly from teachings and manuals of the "School of the Americas."
People can learn more about these wonderful graduates that Mr. Rials supports at http://soaw.org/article.php?id=205 . Help impove America's image worldwide by closing this disgraceful institution.
Mr. Public Affairs Officer, you obviously spend your day searching the Web for anti-SOA blog posts, and then throw your spin into the mix. You joined Vox earlier today, solely so you could leave your enlightening comments. We don't take kindly to strangers strolling into town, and pretending they belong. Por favor, get lost.
Moopdog, you seem to be up on Vox, so you probably noticed my posts are made in the evening, when I am home. Funny how when ideologues have no answers, they don't want to talk.
Lars, you have listed names, now tell everyone when they attended, what courses they took, and what that has to do with the school. All that information is in the SOAW database. I'll give you a headstart: Leopoldo Galtieri took an Engineer Operations Course in 1949, when he was a 23-year-old lieutenant. Do you really think those few weeks have relevance to his behavior 32 years later? SOAWatch is perpetrating a fraud on all you peace and justice people, wasting your time and resources on a false issue. What is worse, nobody is listening any more. SOAW persuades people to go to jail, and there is only one sure result--they get a federal conviction. And for what? To get a little local publicity in the hometown newspaper.
Lee,
I am proudly one of those "peace and justice people," as you call us. My values coincide with that side much better than that for injustice, war and torture. It is a noble sacrifice to go to jail to conscientiously object to unjust laws and practices, and I raise my glass to those who have done it. Please go bark up a different tree, Mr. Public Affairs.