Torture 101

Here is my story for this Friday the thirteenth:

On a quiet Thursday in the House of Representatives, July 22nd, to be exact, a renewed appropriation for the continued operation of the U. S.'s most infamous torture-teaching school, known as the School of the Americas, was passed. On a day when the 911 Commission was presenting its report, this vote was hardly a blip on the screen.

Yes, America is the home of a state-of-the-art torture school, first established to fight Communists during the Cold War. However, in reality the SOA's graduates have gone out into the world, trained in the illegal physical and psychological abuse of prisoners, to assist our government in establishing dictatorial and repressive regimes favored by the Pentagon.

The interrogation manuals used at SOA were catapulted into public awareness last May by the National Security Archive. The horrors of Abu Ghraib are shining examples of torture techniques which have been field-tested by SOA graduates.

Human rights organizations have documented the long history of torture by U.S.-trained thugs in Latin and Central America under the command of SOA graduates. In El Salvador, Guatemala, Chile, Haiti, and now in Iraq, human suffering and outright torture have been perpetrated by the United States of America, thanks to the suberb training at the School of the Americas in Georgia. So how is it that our government can claim to be horrified when the pictures of Abu Ghraib surfaced last spring? What was it our leaders were shocked about? Surely the whole scenario did not really come as a surprise. But the American people were given that impression. The truth of the matter is that we Americans purposely produce these torturers.

In 2000, the Pentagon tried to soften the SOA by giving it a new name: Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation. As the old saying saying goes, you can put lipstick on a pig....

Stories of murder, coups, kidnappings, torture, and rape continue to surface. In El Salvador, Guatemala, Venezuela, Colombia, and Bolivia, the work of the U. S. government goes on. Our country is known for its violence throughout the world. It is no secret. There has been an effort to close this dreadful school, the SOA, since the early 1990's. Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA) has spearheaded opposition to SOA, but his amendment to the Foreign Operations appropriation which would have killed the funding for the school was withdrawn at the last minute after a bipartisan agreement which limited the number of amendments that could come to the floor. Even Senators Boxer and Feinstein did not come forward to protest when asked about the matter.

Our elected representatives can't claim they don't know of the school's record on torture.

There will be a protest sponsored by SOA Watch in November (19-21) at the school's home in Fort Benning. Will America pay any attention?