School of The Americas Watch (SOAW): Congress Forces US Army School to Release Information on Graduates
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 23, 2008
8:12 AM
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CONTACT: School of The Americas Watch (SOAW)
Joao Da Silva
(202) 234 3440
(202) 302 4706
media@soaw.org |
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Congress Forces US Army School to Release Information on Graduates
Graduates and Instructors of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) have been linked to Human Rights Abuses and Criminal Activity in the Hemisphere
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WASHINGTON, DC - May 23 - The culture of secrecy and lack of accountability surrounding the Bush administration suffered a severe blow today when the U.S. House of Representatives approved the McGovern-Sestak-Bishop (GA) amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2009. The amendment requires the public release of names, rank, country of origin, courses and dates of attendance of WHINSEC’s graduates and instructors to the public. The McGovern-Sestak-Bishop amendment was proposed in response to the strong public outcry against the denial of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for information on graduates and instructors who attended the WHINSEC.
The WHINSEC, formerly known as the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA), is a military training facility for Latin American security personnel located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. The SOA was founded in 1946 in the Panama Canal Zone and has since trained over 60,000 Latin American soldiers in counter-insurgency, psychological operations, intelligence gathering, and weapons training. The institution was catapulted into the headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution.
“This is a major victory for the human rights community,” said Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of School of the Americas Watch. “For years, WHINSEC has denied information that in the past has been vital in identifying the perpetrators of massacres, targeted assassinations, and human rights abuses committed in Latin America,” he added.
In August 2007, thanks to previously approved FOIA requests for data on WHINSEC graduates and instructors, human rights organizations were able to identify two former instructors at the WHINSEC who were arrested for providing security and mobilizing troops to protect Diego Montoya, leader of the Norte del Valle drug cartel. Colonel Alvaro Quijano and Major Wilmer Mora taught courses in “Peacekeeping Operations” and “Democratic Sustainment” at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation from 2003-2004.
The denied FOIA requests expose WHINSEC’s lack of transparency and its willingness to undermine public attempts of exercising oversight of the institution. For decades, human rights organizations have provided Congress with information on human rights cases where SOA and WHINSEC graduates have been involved. On June 9, 2006 the U.S. House of Representatives debated the first amendment to prohibit funding for the WHINSEC. Two months later, and for the first time in 45 years, the Pentagon classified the names and refused to release them to the public. Previous FOIA requests for SOA and WHINSEC graduates and instructors have been made available to the public.
In spite of an aggressive public relations campaign, support for the WHINSEC has steadily decreased throughout the hemisphere. Costa Rica, Bolivia, Argentina, Uruguay and Venezuela have announced a withdrawal from the Fort Benning institution due to its negative image among Latin Americans.
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