Why Knowing About The School of the America's Is SO Important!!

I had never heard of the school before a couple of weeks ago. I am going to leave you with information that may open your eyes on the atrocities that so many people even here on ATS think is just a problem with governments of other countries, this is true, but the question you might want to ask is...... WHO IS TEACHING THEM??


Before I get into more detail here is a small 2 part (13 min total) narrated by Susan Sarandon in 1994.


School of ASSASSINS 2/2



Here is a bit about the School of the Americas, now known as The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), located at Fort Benning Georgia.

The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), formerly the School of the Americas (SOA; Spanish: Escuela de las Américas) is a United States Department of Defense facility at Fort Benning near Columbus, Georgia in the United States.

Between 1946 and 2001, the SOA trained more than 61,000 Latin American soldiers and policemen. A number of them became notorious for human rights violations, including generals Leopoldo Galtieri, Efraín Ríos Montt and Manuel Noriega, dictators such as Bolivia's Hugo Banzer, some of Augusto Pinochet's officers[1][2], and the founders of Los Zetas, a mercenary army for one of Mexico's largest drug trafficking organizations, the Gulf Cartel.[3][4] Luis Posada Carriles was educated there in 1961, although he never graduated.[5][6][7] Critics of the school argue that the education encouraged such internationally recognized human rights violating practices and that this continues in the WHINSEC. This is denied by the WHINSEC and its supporters who argue that the alleged connection is weak. According to the WHINSEC, the education now emphasizes democracy and human rights.[8][9]

Here is a link to the watch group SOAW School Of Americas Watch.
www.soaw.org...

On September 20, 1996, under intense public pressure, the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals that were used at the School of the Americas for years. These manuals advocated torture, extortion, blackmail and the targeting of civilian populations. A Washington Post article by Dana Priest broke the story.

The release of these manuals proved what SOA Watch, thousands of Latin Americans and numerous human rights organizations had been saying for years: that U.S. taxpayer money had been used for the teaching of torture and repression.

www.soaw.org...

Here is a letter that was written as a secret investigative report to Dick Cheney about the manuals.
www.gwu.edu...


Most Notorious SOA Graduates.
www.soaw.org...

There was an attempt to close the school but was shot down. There is a scariness about this. Is it not bad enough that we the U.S are invading other countries, but for those that we do not take care of our selves, we teach human rights violators how to control/murder/destroy their own people.

Former Panamanian President, Jorge Illueca, stated that the School of the Americas was the “biggest base for destabilization in Latin America.” The SOA have left a trail of blood and suffering in every country where its graduates have returned. For this reason the School of the Americas has been historically dubbed the “School of Assassins”.

Since 1946, the SOA has trained over 64,000 Latin American soldiers in counterinsurgency techniques, sniper training, commando and psychological warfare, military intelligence and interrogation tactics. These graduates have consistently used their skills to wage a war against their own people. Among those targeted by SOA graduates are educators, union organizers, religious workers, student leaders, and others who work for the rights of the poor. Hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans have been tortured, raped, assassinated, “disappeared,” massacred, and forced into refugee by those trained at the School of Assassins.

www.soaw.org...

Here is a very good PDF.
The US Army School of Americas and US National Interests.
scholar.lib.vt.edu...

Inside the dark legacy of the US 'School of Assassins'

"I think that as Americans, we have a particular responsibility when our government has been involved in a lot of atrocities throughout history, but even more so today when our military aid is not being used in accountable ways," said Charity Ryerson, an activist with SOA Watch who spent six months in federal prison for intentionally trespassing on Ft. Benning to draw attention to the school's crimes.

On the weekend of November 20th, tens of thousands of activists are set to converge at its gates to demand an end to the militarization and the massacres, the human rights violations and the secrecy and will continue the fight to close the School of the Americas.

rt.com...


There will be more in a few, NRE.

Mod Edit--Posting Work Written By Others

Very interesting read. S+F

Chess...this is an example of a chess piece the US or other super powers move around to accomplish their goals.

This is but another chess piece that the US utilizes. Proxy groups have been used for years to do the dirty work of larger nations. This is a great example.

The US gains an informal advantage in an area of interest and the people being trained get the skills required to fulfill their goals within their home countries in conjunction with the goals of the umbrella country (US in this case)

Its smart for larger countries with the means, they can keep their hands relatively clean of the less acceptable practices to accomplish goals that arnt meant to be overly public,

Here is another interesting bit.

The School of the Americas, the CIA and the US-Condoned Cancer of Torture Continue to Spread in Latin America, Including Mexico

How Does This Background on US-Backed Torture and Murder in Latin America Fit in With Mexico?

Perhaps, part of understanding torture going on now in Mexico is what Sister Ortiz wrote about her horrific ordeal in Guatemala: "So often it is assumed that torture is conducted for the purpose of gaining information. It is much more often intended to threaten populations into silence and submission. What I was to endure was a message, a warning to others - not to oppose, to remain silent and to yield to power without question."

truth-out.org... uding-mexico

A CIA Latin America Section Chief Makes His Argument for "Ugly" Collateral Damage

Given that the CIA and countless US intelligence agencies, not to mention the Drug Enforcement Agency, are entrenched in Mexico, it might be appropriate to reflect that our real government/corporate interest in the nation is as a marketplace and a non-populist pro-US government.

In a 2007 documentary, "The War on Democracy," by British, leftist, political commentator John Pilger, he explores the exploitative and deadly anti-democracy efforts to ensure that Latin America stays in the hands of the ruling classes and open to American business and the extraction of natural resources south of our border.

truth-out.org... uding-mexico

Peace, NRE.

Is It Time to Shutter the Americas' 'Coup Academy'?

A free trip to the United States

Lieutenant Zarza (a pseudonym) is one of 1,764 Mexican soldiers who have studied at SOA. Although he spoke openly with AméricaEconomía, he was pushing the bounds of acceptable military behavior, and asked not to be identified to avoid punishment.

Zarza arrived at SOA in the second half of the 1990s, and he admits that when his superior recommended him for the course on intelligence, he knew little to nothing about the school. His education, up to that point, had been in the line of duty, and he was often on the front lines of the battle against drug trafficking.

"For me, it was a scholarship to go to the United States. I wasn't high ranking and I didn't have any specialty in the field, but I had the highest grades in the preparatory courses, so in spite of the complaints of higher ranking officials, I went to Fort Benning," he says.

www.time.com...

Peace, NRE.

Why the notorious graduates list only south american countries?

Amazing thread, this information is new to me, but it makes a lot of sense

S & F

reply to post by hp1229


Because the SoA was primarily a tool for the implementation of Plan Condor, a detailed and horrific plan during the 60s and 70s aimed at stopping the rise of progresist and popular govt's in South America (Like Salvador Allende, first democratically elected socialist president of the continent, who was murdered by A. Pinochet) and to exterminate the political groups that pushed for govt's "by the people, for the people".
A very dark period of our history in which, just in my country, 30.000 people were kidnapped, tortured and murdered. and thousands more had to leave the country...

Now, what we must never forget is that there's not just ONE guilty party, while the US was, as always, using it's militar and economical power to keep leeching the rest of the world, there were many traitors from all of our countries that were functional to that policy because it meant money and power for them...

Just came home from work and thought this needed a bump. There is tons of info about this so called school, and what its all about.

Peace, NRE.

reply to post by NoRegretsEver


I wish more people were discussing this

Anyways, I dunno if you've read Confessions of an Economic Hitman, He talks about the school of americas and how Noriega wanted to close it down, and that led to the military invasion of Panama, and his imprisonment, and how when the EHM [economic hitmen] fail, a country/corporation would send in the Jackals [assassins] and if that doesn't work, they do full on military intervention

Alas, great work oP, very interesting, and i wish i had more to share

I agree this needs to be out there, and the only way to ensure that it is, is that I bump it every few days, so here is it!!

Peace, NRE.

reply to post by NoRegretsEver



article: Teaching Torture

Colonel Byron Lima Estrada graduated from there and he assassinated a bishop

On 8 June 2001, three army officers – Col. Byron Disrael Lima Estrada and Capt. Byron Lima Oliva (father and son), and José Obdulio Villanueva – were convicted of his murder and sentenced to 30-year prison terms. A priest, Mario Orantes, whom the court had identified as an accomplice, was sentenced to 20 years. The case was precedent-setting in that it was the first time that members of the military had faced trial before civilian courts. The defendants appealed, and in March 2005 an appeals court lowered the Limas' sentences to 20 years. Orantes' sentence was left unchanged and Villanueva had been killed in prison before the appeal verdict was reached. These revised prison terms were upheld by the Constitutional Court in April 2007. The elder Estrada had been trained at the School of Americas.[3]

Wiki: Assassinated Bishop


crazy

reply to post by NoRegretsEver


Heres the manual of the school:

WHINSEC manual


this is from a Newsweek article:

f the Wharton School had this many Milkens, maybe it would. A NEWSWEEK investigation of the School of the Americas turned UP hundreds of less than honorable graduates--some of them petty thugs, some of them top military brass. At least six Peruvian officers linked to a military death squad that killed nine students and one professor at a university near Lima last year were graduates of the school. Four of five senior Honduran officers accused in a 1987 Americas Watch report of organizing a secret death squad called Battalion 316 were trained there. Last year a coalition of international humanrights groups issued a report charging 246 Colombian officers with human-rights violations; 105 were school alumni.

Newsweek: Running a School for Dictators



I'll keep posting stuff as i find it

reply to post by NoRegretsEver


First video is broken...

Umm...I will look into this more later...just wanted to tell you that first and say... there are so many things going on today that are so wrong that it overwhelms me. I literally cannot keep up with all the atrocities. You know all these things cost money, of course. No doubt whose money it is, or I should say, who paid for it. Just disturbing to see how corrupt these people are. I guess the inside guys figure all is fair in love and war, but these guys would realize they are hurt their own country's people. They are the social terrorists responsible for the drugs getting into our country and ripping neighborhoods apart. It's gross.

While I'm sure this is important, I feel the need to say that nothing can be accomplished without focusing on one issue at a time. I haven't prioritized the list. I just don't see the point. I can't convince anyone I know to donate their time and energy into investigating these matters. Our country is a ticking time bomb...

Just to let y'all know, it's no longer called the school of the america's, it's WHINSEC

WHINSEC

Daynight42: this is important to know about, because

A: it's a real 'conspiracy', not one of the ones made up, or created.. There is no denying the US trained dictators and kill squads in the ways of torture.. it's a fact with concrete evidence

B: if your american, it was funded with your money.. Your money funding terrorism

C: it helps explain why latin america is the way it is.. people don't understand why theres poverty and death in latin countries, but it's because we're [the american empire] profiting too greatly off it.. the Empire wants the resources so they keep it in constant chaos so people don't have the luxury to even think about standing up against it, they're too busy trying to survive




PS: I'm going to bump this everyday until more people start discussing this.. The thing i hate most about ATS is: the people on here would rather chase 'fake' conspiracies involving illuminati and demons, when there are REAl conspiracies taking place, right under our noses, but no one talks about it.. there are literally THoUSANDS of REAL authentic conspiracies, that if we collectively fought against we could change, but people would rather follow the BS that has ZERO evidence..
Granted, the real conspiracies don't have the hollywood glitz of the the manufactured ones, but they do have EVIDENCE and are actually taking place..

sorry for the rant......

Nicely said, bro.
I think it has to do with HOW things are perceived.
A galactic/demonic/whatever conspiracy not only puts us in a fantastic and surreal adventure, it also tickles our egos. While more "mundane" conspiracies remaind us how massively we are all being taken up the arse and moreso how BLIND and PROGRAMMED most of us are...
That's not an easy thing to acknowledge....

Originally posted by drakus
A galactic/demonic/whatever conspiracy not only puts us in a fantastic and surreal adventure, it also tickles our egos. While more "mundane" conspiracies remaind us how massively we are all being taken up the arse and moreso how BLIND and PROGRAMMED most of us are...
That's not an easy thing to acknowledge....

That's a good point.. I forgot to take Ego into account, but it makes a lot of sense..

I just wish people would stop calling themselves "enlightened" because they "know" George Bush was a bloodsucking reptile sent to enslave mankind by the Sun god Ra.. That's not enlightened, that's delusional..

George Bush was a bloodsucking HUMAN sent by the American Empire [corporatocracy] to enslave mankind..

There is a real conspiracy, but it's boring with loads of legal paperwork

So sickening to know your own government, the one that is suppose to be "for the people by the people.." Is involved in training would be dictators and murderers. Sickening that if I were to show this thread to many of my family and people I know, they would blow it off as absurd nonsense.

Nothing more to add.. Just think this thread needs more views, so mostly a bump and Star/Flag for bringing this to our attention.

Found out about this school when i was watching a Youtube series of CIA intervention in various countries after WW2.

It's such a damn shame indeed, not only did the USA train dictators and teach them how to suppress the rights of their people, but the school also trained killers, assassins and mass murderers, who killed women and children in various South American countries.

And all this by a country that claims to be the number one democracy on the planet. Laughable indeed. The question is what can we do about it? not much. People are content and happy with 3 meals a day and a drink at the bar. People just aren't concerned with what's happening in their world, as long as they have just enough freedoms. Sad indeed. Just sad.

I wanted to give this a bump as the ATS live show will be discussing "Fast and Furious" in its second hour.

Peace, NRE.

reply to post by NoRegretsEver


Bump


Honduran Dictator from WHINSEC