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TechnoratiHonduran Coup Shines Spotlight on Controversial U.S. Military Training School
Before the torture debates about Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, there was the School of Americas -- a U.S. military training school in Fort Benning, Georgia, which has trained some of the worst human rights abusers in Latin America.
![[A soldier stands guard in a desolated street in the surroundings of the presidential palace in Tegucigalpa. An increasingly isolated Honduras braced for more protests with authorities threatening to immediately arrest ousted President Manuel Zelaya if he dares to return. (AFP/Jose Cabezas)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/coup-2.jpg "coup-2.jpg")
As Facing South reported yesterday,
two of the leaders of the Honduran coup -- General Romeo Vasquez
Velasquez, leader of the armed forces, and Gen. Luis Javier Prince
Suazo, head of the Air Force which transported the president to Costa
Rica -- were trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security
Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas.
The Honduran coup leaders are just two of over 60,000 Latin American graduates of the school, which since 1984 has been headquartered at Fort Benning, Georgia. The SOA Watch database lists 3,566 graduates of the school from Honduras alone.
As watchdog groups like School of Americas Watch have documented, many of the school's trainees have been directly linked to death squads, killings of clergy and other aid workers, kidnappings and other gross violations of human rights.
The School of Americas/WHISC has also been linked to torture. In 1996, Dana Priest of The Washington Post broke the story about use of training manuals at the school that taught students many controversial techniques:
U.S. Army intelligence manuals used to train Latin American military officers at an Army school from 1982 to 1991 advocated executions, torture, blackmail and other forms of coercion against insurgents, Pentagon documents released yesterday show.General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, widely credited with spearheading this week's military coup, appears to have been trained at SOA when torture was part of the curriculum.Used in courses at the U.S. Army's School of the Americas, the manual says that to recruit and control informants, counterintelligence agents could use "fear, payment of bounties for enemy dead, beatings, false imprisonment, executions and the use of truth serum," according to a secret Defense Department summary of the manuals compiled during a 1992 investigation of the instructional material and also released yesterday.
Torture techniques were introduced at SOA after Vietnam, when the U.S. used lessons from the counterinsurgency experience in that war to create course materials for the school. The practice was halted under the Carter administration in 1976 due to human rights concerns -- the same year that General Vasquez first attended SOA.
The second time General Vasquez was trained at SOA in 1986, the torture techniques had been re-introduced into the school's lesson plans and training manuals under the Reagan administration. An in internal investigation, the DoD later concluded that the inclusion of torture techniques in violation of international law was a mistake. An internal memo dated March 10, 1992 stated [pdf]:
It is incredible that the use of the lesson plans since 1982, and the manuals since 1987, evade the system of doctrinal controls.And who was Secretary of Defense when these warning signs about U.S. involvement in torture practices in Latin America came to a head? Dick Cheney, whose leadership in national security policy as Vice President would bring torture back into the media spotlight.
We're not aware of any evidence that General Vasquez was directly involved in torture, and the Obama administration has strongly condemned the military coup. But such history is an important backdrop to current events, which are vividly remembered in Honduras.
31 Comments so far
Show AllSociopaths ! ! ! !
It is our collective responsibility to recognize these aberrant individuals and separate them from society, to prevent their paranoid delusions from influencing the most gullible - they must to identified and put where they can no longer harm society (or the planet) if the human race is to survive ------armybrat July 2nd, 2009 6:17 am
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Wishful thinking --- Dream on -- at least there were demonstrations in Iran the USA is totally "zombified".
Uncle Sam says loud and clear -- your country needs you --- give me your Sociopaths.
These qualities are what the "Military" looks for.
Glorified by 007 type mythology.
If the CIA ever opens its records they will show that the vast majority --- nearly all in fact --- of the prisoners at Gitmo are and were simply unlucky enough to be sold to the US by their enemies, or swept up in operations that just got everybody.
Remember the US did not torture to only get information, the US tortured to plant information.
That is what is was designed to do - create false confessions that Saddam was involved in the Bush failures of 9/11, to justify the war they wanted to prosecute, to inflict on a civilian population.
Torturing people to justify mass murder - the conservative creed ???????????????
http://tinyurl.com/lzwuhk
Arabs had no problems with America until US foreign policy was dominated by pro-Israel Zionists or sympathizers (AIPAC).
Arabs never viewed America as their enemy until America got their hands dirty with the Zionist agenda.
AIPAC wants America to fight wars against Islam to antagonize over 1 billion people in the world in order to defend the interests of Israel engaged in colonialism in the view of most of the world.
" Who killed the kennedys? ---When after all --It was you and me"
There is no 'enlightened self-interest' involved in any immoral act. Anti-social behavior is destructive to both the perpetrator and the victim - and yet society after society allows itself to be destroyed by embracing these egregious practices - by refusing to take responsibility for the behavior of its leaders. That's why you often hear 'people get the government they deserve' - because the collective is always stronger than the few sociopaths (psychopaths) spawned in every society. It is our collective responsibility to recognize these aberrant individuals and separate them from society, to prevent their paranoid delusions from influencing the most gullible - they must to identified and put where they can no longer harm society (or the planet) if the human race is to survive.
'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you' requires that all people (and other organisms, as well as the environment itself) be treated with tolerance, compassion, and justice. Sociopaths do have traits that can be identified with modern technology - usually a shrunken amygdala, with or without connections to the frontal lobe. It is stupidity - plain and simple - to allow anyone to rise to a position of power if they are incapable of experiencing the 'normal' range of sympathy and/or empathy as found in the general population. While humanity did not previously have the technological tools to identify physical factors that would identify such abnormal brain functions, there is no reason, in this day and age, to pretend they don't exist, or to pretend that ignoring them will ever lead to a secure, peaceful, and prosperous society. While environmental factors may have some importance in how a sociopath expresses him/herself, the biological realities cannot be ignored. And since such paranoid, delusional, perverted individuals possess a congenital defect, it would not be moral to punish them for their atrocities - but they MUST be segregated so they can no longer harm other living things, or we are all doomed.
I can understand why the horrors of the 'eugenics' era make this subject uncomfortable to debate, but it is a debate we MUST have if we are to survive - as a species, and as a habitable planet. The very idea that we are discussing such egregious programs such as the SOA, torture, terrorism, etc, is proof that this discussion is long overdue.
----It was twenty years ago today,
Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play----
The Road to Iraq and Afghanistan (and maybe Iran and Pakistan) started with the invasion of Panama under the direction of George H.W. Bush, the father.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/654.html
Zelaya has not said he was tortured. So this story is a bit contorted.
Actually, Obama's people tried to stop the coup. Obama himself has refused to recognize Micheletti as president.
The article does not claim that the general tortured Zalaya, just that he may have tortured in general in the country.
Who the hell came up with the dumb idea to train foreign military officers in the first place?
On an extensive scale, the Romans were the first, providing Roman citizenship to those converting, which is why Rome was able to unify most of Italy in fairly short order. The Chinese also did this in a similar manner; the term comprador refers to someone native to their country doing the bidding of China. Modern Imperialism has combined the two--Uribe and Blair are good examples. It would be very correct to describe the Honduran golpistas as compradores of the USA.
I meant which politician in this country came up with the idea, but thanks.
As a formal policy, it was Truman. Informally, it's encoded into our constitution regarding Letters of Marque related to piracy/privateers. The tenets of Espionage also call for the recruiting of another country's military for what should be obvious reasons.
Good point, thanks.
which politician - The Bush Crime Family, who else?
Who the hell else?
In 1946, in Panama, under the auspices of the Army/Pentagon, the School of the Americas was first set up. It remained there until 1983 when it was forced out and relocated to Ft. Benning Ga.
If you're lost,
any road will take you home.
joe
So Truman eh?
"which since 1984 has been headquartered at Fort Benning, Georgia."
1984? Are you sure? I was stationed at Ft. Benning in 82 and there was definitly something very much like the School of the America's in operation there then. Maybe it wasn't called School of the America's but I'd swear it was.
"General Romeo Vasquez Velasquez, widely credited with spearheading this week's military coup, appears to have been trained at SOA when torture was part of the curriculum."
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Oh, General Romeo will be the BMOC when he attends the next SOA class reunion.
But there's a down side to success: no sooner had he completed the coup than the SOA Director of Alumni Relations was on the phone, asking whether the General had considered bumping up his yearly donation in light of his recent success.
I understand that the school even dangled the promise of naming their new "Center for Rendition and Detention Arts" after him.
· Yr Obd't Servant
The basic wrong of the School of Americas is that it is built on the philosophy of "the ends justify the means". This errant philosophy is the grounds for most American politics and economics. It has gotten us (and the world) into the sorry shape it is in today. It will continue to ruin the world until it is unfit for the human species (and thousands of others).
The Neo-cons believe that the United States as they want it to be (and erroneously think it used to be) can only be served by doing what's necessary to win. Their economic values also reflect this error. The world cannot be saved until the basic philosophy of "the ends justify the means" is thoroughly discredited and discarded by all teachers of morality, economics, statesmanship, and all other disciplines. This foolish error in thinking was first proposed in a treatise called The Prince, written by Niccolo Machiavelli in the early 16th century, though the philosophy goes all the way back to the Greeks and Romans at least. It is deemed the realistic way to act by most modern movers and shakers. For those who believe in this philosophy, The School of Americas is only doing it's patriotic duty. This philosophy allows for torture, wars of aggression, financial misdeeds, terrorism (both domestic and foreign) to name a few. It is the reason why Communism is doomed to failure, as is Capitalism. In the Bible, Satan is called "the father of lies". The basic lie of lies is that the end justifies the means.
George Markley, I just finished reading The Prince for the second time. If those people at SOA as it used to be called, really were following that philosophy they would also understand that to recruit soldiers of fortune would be folly. However Machiavelli was speaking at a different time and place about colonialism, expansion, and war. Today wars are fought for resources, money and to maintain the status quo of those powerful elite. Now like then, however for these people the ends do justify the means. Those in very high places enjoy playing games with sheep who imagine themselves wolves. All these so called leaders trained at Ft Benning can be dispensed with as easily as they were placed into so called power positions. It was Saddam who was supported by the US in Iraq was it not.Fools and idiots the lot of them for allowing their strings to be pulled in pursuit of power. Shame on us here in America for allowing this to happen today.
Morality itself is subjective. After all, it is only enlightened self interest in the form of a social contract. On an individual basis, stealing is good as I achieve things I did not have easily and cheaply. The risk is I can also be stolen from. I am not the fastest, strongest and smartest person on the planet. Therefore, while I may be faster, stronger and smarter than some, others will have an advantage over me. This is why societies have agreed stealing is wrong, because most of us stand to lose as much as we gain if not more. Where deterrance is not in place morality becomes irrelevant.
Just look at all the struggles large and small all over the world? Who in the world walks in the edge of a razerblade?
Hindus
Enlightened self interest is NOT morality. The name itself says it's not morality.
Enlightened self interest is ANTITHETICAL to morality - all it means is that you can use the language of morality for personal gain.
Anyone who thinks enlightened self interest is morality probably doesn't really believe it, or doesn't understand morality.
Morality must be grounded in something. In not a god, then what?
Morality may be subjective, but acting as though 'the end justifies the means' goes against basic survival. A sentient species that follows this is doomed to failure for it is based on a false view of reality. Enlightened self interest dictates that means and ends be the same thing as in "do unto others, as you would have them do unto you".
Only ideally. If the penalty for murder is death, and both criminal and victim end up dead as a result, what is the correlation? Was the victim also deserving of death? Yes, in theory the Law of Reciprocity works for a logical reason. If everyone has the same adversive potentional no one ultimately gains for being adversive. However when you get down to it its really just a numbers game. Our rules are man made and therefore not absolute. These rules were created as an example of cooperative self interest. Wherever there is an imbalance of power, however slight, there will be struggle. And further, if there were no imbalance of power people would always re-create it.
Good point. Actually, considering how much war profiteering is going on, I'd say that to neocons the ends (war) are the means (for profits).
Every major religion objects strongly to such ideas. I doubt many real philosophers in Greece supported such ideas either. Morally, I doubt there's a base for this.
The people who have argued for this throughout history are generals and politicians and (usually) men who have/want power. Quite often, such people claim they are patriotic or pious, but their actions negate such false beliefs. No reasonable person should seriously accept their words, nor should believe such people can be converted to morality (unless you are able to coax this person, face-to-face, everyday). The more "honest" ones claim they are "realists" and any pretty ideal of the state or religion is just decoration (so they won't even pretend to be swayed), but if everyone acted like this (as they expect), no one can truly accomplish anything because even when they meet their goals, they constantly have to be vigilant to stop others willing to sabotage them with the same recklessness. Paranoia is not realism. Meanwhile, thousands will die in the wars and disasters that result from the schemes.
Of course, to individual countries, businesses, and people, there's a always a fear that not acting like this puts one at a disadvantage before those who do. However, such "realists" can't last. AS noted above, their antisocial behavior alienates them to most normal people (so even when such people rule, they must use more force/lies to ensure their discredited rule--which is bound to fail), and such behavior is always a threat to the existing power, who must either destroy or co-opt them.
As for combating this, I think the refusal to watch TV shows that sponsor these beliefs and the persuasion of friends to reject these beliefs is a way.
Well, well, well....are we really surprised that this school would train would be brutal dictators and terrorists. We openly support Israel and they are perhaps the most aggressive terrorist state on the planet, second only to the US. We, the US, are the birthing facility for the enterprise of 'evil' fascism and dictatorships, because that is what we really are and we use our mass media to project the face of freedom and democracy to the world. However, the world has matured and seen through this pathetic facade! The US citizenry will hopefully emerge from their mass psychosis, spawned by entrenched denial, and revolt against their elite corporate rulers!!!
Could it be our military/CIA does one thing and Obama does the other? Or were all levels of our government pining for a coup in Honduras? I think we're selective democracy supporters.
odoco
Much of the government of the United States would be correctly classified as a criminal element (to paraphrase Mark Twain); the reason they are not prosecuted for crimes as mentioned above is that they make the laws that protect themselves, or simply disregard laws made by others.
Accountability, prison sentences, disbarment, expulsion from the healing practices and permanent revocation of licences (in cases of physicians and psychologists who aid and abet torturers), and the banning from ever serving in any governmental capacity would be a good start for those who employ methods as described above.
This country is morally dead.
More than dead, Odoco, this country is morally putrid.
And Obama is complicit.
odoco, Trials and hangings would take care of all that. On the other hand forget the trials. The U.S. are not giving trials. If anyone in this World deserves the gallows it is old baldy Cheney.
Deepa
The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), previously known as the School of the Americas, at Fort Benning, Georgia, says that it trains civilian, military and law enforcement students and holds the promotion of democracy at the core of its mission.
However, George Monbiot links this school to terrorism by giving details of its numerous atrocities. He contends that “the evidence linking the school to continuing atrocities in Latin America is rather stronger than the evidence linking the al-Qaeda training camps to the attack on New York.”
Some of the "distinguished" alumni have been the most brutal military dictators and human rights violators in Latin America over the past five decades: Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua; Leopoldo Galtieri of Argentina; Generals Hector Gramajo and Manuel Antonio Callejas of Guatemala, Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia, and the El Salvador death-squad leader Roberto D'Aubuisson.
Luis Posada Carriles, who was involved in the bombing of a Cubana Airlines Flight 455 on October 6, 1976 killing 73 people on board, rose to the rank of second lieutenant at Fort Benning, Georgia.
It is one of the more putrid boils on our decaying society.