If you've been following my blogs and the comments recently, you've noticed Mr. Lee Rials, the Public Affairs Officer for WHINSEC has been feverishly defending the school/institute against any claims that it has EVER been involved in teaching torture, murder, rape, assassination and various other sundry techniques to control the populace (translation: keep the rich in control) even when it was called the School of the Americas (in social justice and peace circles it is known as the “School of Assassins”).
In his comment posted on 7/15 Mr. Rials claims Fr. Roy as a “friend” and was anxious to hear what he had to say.
I was able to talk to Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of the (School of the America's Watch (SOAW) last Thursday, about Mr. Rials' comments on my blogs about the WHISC/SOA. Fr. Roy doesn't do email and did not have time to write a rebuttal but did grant me an interview. I'll start with the last thing he said about Mr. Rials and work of the Office of Public Affairs. He quoted Isiah saying, “...they will take evil and call it good, they will take a lie and call it the truth....”
My first thought was Mr. Rials' definition of “friend” must be really perverted or he's delusional and in need of medication.
(A quick note to Mr. Rials: The FBI has their own “trollers” and like yourself use programs to quickly troll – you gets points for admitting to it though!)
Fr. Roy went on to say that you don't teach democracy at a military institute, in fact you're not taught democracy in the military at all and Fr. Roy should know; he was once a solider. He also said that you don't bring in democracy in behind the barrel of a gun.
He referred me to a story in the on line edition of the National Catholic Reporter (NCR), “US continues to train Honduran soldiers,” by James Hodge and Linda Cooper. Two of the top six leaders in the recent coup were graduates of the SOA, now called WHINSEC. You can go to the NCR website through www.ncronline.org.
According to Fr. Roy a US Congress task force and a United Nations task force both concluded that the SOA was indeed responsible for teaching torture, rape, etc. The eight hour class on democracy now taught at WHINSEC/SOA is just a way to legitimize the school.
There is a long list of people trained at the SOA who abuse human rights, 11 dictators in Honduras alone, and it is mostly the poor who are victims. Rather than list them here I will refer people to the School of the Americas Watch website www.soaw.org for names and details.
Fr. Roy was part of a delegation that just returned from Honduras last Sunday where they met with US Ambassador Hugo Lorens. They were asking for an unconditional return of the President.
The democratically elected President of Honduras was ordered at gun point out of his home, forced onto a plane and sent to another country. Now there are “negotiations” between the coups leaders and the democratically elected government, which are really meaningless stalling tactics because there is a general election scheduled in six months. Fr. Roy pointed out that once again, the coup was led by graduates of the SOA, this is not a coincidence, there is a direct connection between the two.
John Amidon, who has worked for many, many years to close the SOA has a letter to the editor in the July 19th edition of “The Sunday Gazette” which also set Mr. Rials' statements straight. You can read his letter by clicking here.
Speaking of Mr. Amidon he is hosting the 11th Annual Peace Kateri Peace Conference, at which we will both present a workshop on the SOA/WHINSEC.
Having attended the conference for the last two years I can tell you that it is well worth your time. Here's some information on this year's event:
The Kateri Tekakwitha Peace Conference is just a month away. Please mark these dates on your calendar, August 14 and 15, 2009.
This year's conference, Harnessing the Winds of Change promises to be an exciting event featuring Bruce Hare, Lawrence Davidson, Janet Amighi and Joanne Sheehan. Complete conference information may be found here.
Advance registration is very much appreciated.
If you haven't yet seen No Running Water, a music video developed to help close the U.S. Army School of the Americas/WHISEC, please do. The address is here.
The Kateri Tekakwitha Peace Conference began in 1998 as part of the effort to close the SOA.
H.R. 2567 will helped to close the SOA when passed. Kindly call your Rep. at 202-224-2567 and ask your Rep. to cosponsor H.R. 2567. This is the year to close the SOA!
