School of the Americas - "Closed"? No, Just Renamed Mon, 22 May 2000 14:56:41 -0400 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit May 18, 2000 CONGRESS "CLOSES" US ARMY SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS... BUT OKAYS A CLONE Human Rights Advocates Vow To Shut Down New "School of Assassins" Washington, DC -=- By a 214 to 204 margin, the US House of Representatives voted Thursday to close the controversial Army School of the Americas (SOA) located at Ft. Benning, GA. But in the same vote Congress approved the Pentagon proposal to immediately open a clone. The new school, called the Defense Institute for Hemispheric Security Cooperation, is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Like the School of the Americas, it will be located at Ft. Benning Rep. Joseph Moakley (D-MA) tried to defeat the Pentagon proposal with an amendment to the Defense Authorization bill. Republicans Joseph Scarborough (FL) and Tom Campbell (CA) joined Moakley and James McGovern (D-MA) as co-sponsors of a measure that would have closed the School of the Americas but halt opening of the proposed Institute until a congressional task force reported it recommendations. The House rejected the bi-partisan amendment. Critics call the Pentagon plan cosmetic a name change with no attempt to address the growing public outcry and congressional concern over the SOA's link to human rights atrocities in Latin America. SOA alumni include death squad leader, Roberto D'Aubuisson, from El Salvador and Col. Lima Estrada, arrested in January for the assassination of Guatemalan human rights champion, Bishop Juan Gerardi. In 1998, assassins beat Gerardi to deathwith a brick just days after he released a human rights report critical of the Guatemalan Army. The bi-partisan task force called for in the Moakley amendment would have evaluated the effect of US military training on the human rights performance of Latin American soldiers. Commando and combat courses have been core curricula at the SOA and critics believe that the training contributesto human rights atrocities. Salvadoran soldiers cited by a United Nations Truth Commission for the commando-style massacre of six Jesuit priests and their two women co-workers had just completed the SOA commando course. "Congress may have been fooled, but the people are not. The SOA has a new name, but the same shame. We will be at Ft. Benning by the thousands again this November, and we will be in the halls of the new Congress in January. We will keep coming back until we shut down the "School of Assassins" -- whatever they call it," promised Fr. Roy Bourgeois and Carol Richardson who head up the ten year effort to close the SOA. SOA Watch ~ PO Box 4566 ~ Washington DC 20017 ~ 202-234-3440 ~ www. soaw.org Contact: Roy Bourgeois, 706.682.5369 ~ Carol Richardson, 202.745.0485 ~ Jeff Winder, 202.234.3440 source - Ted Lewis tedlewis @ globalexchange.org; http: // www. globalexchange.org ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-05.22.00-14:56:36-15605