School of the Americas...ever heard of it? Its in Ft. Benning GA. They train terrorists there. Right here on US soil. They are skilled in assassinations, coup-d'etat, blowing up buildings ...ships...you name it. The one guy mentioned in the article...Orlando Bosch, blew up a polish freighter in Miami Harbor, FL...he is a right-wing Cuban Terrorist and when he was caught he was eventually gotten off the hook by one of the Bush brothers...not the Governor but another one who is a lawyer. Otto Reich figures prominently in the latest coup attempt in Venezuela. All the turmoil caused...all those democratically elected leaders that died...including Archbishop Romero by a right-wing death squad...all of that death, and for what?! We are a duplicitous society who adorns itself on the outside with morality and Christianity...but underneath that fascade is another America...completely out of control, and is responsible for much of the worlds terrorism...certainly more than Al Queda. Bottom line for these terrorists is getting someone in office who will let foreign corporations rape the country, it was never about the ideology of fighting "communism". When we took out Arbenz in Guatemala, it was about United Fruit and Standard Oil...Arbenz was bad for their business. Enter the Assassins.
Heres a couple of links:
SOAwatch
Common Dreams
The following article is from' common dreams' website:
Otto Reich Named on Board to Oversee SOA/WHISC
Reich Is Notorious for Aiding Coups
WASHINGTON - May 2 - Otto Reich has been named to the Board of Visitors at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), formerly known as the School of the Americas (SOA). The WHISC's charter requires a Board of Visitors to monitor the school, to ensure that the curriculum emphasize "human rights, the rule of law, due process, civilian control of the military, and the role of the military in a democratic society". Reich has a history of aiding coups and known terrorists.
In December 2000 Congress authorized the WHISC to replace the SOA. The SOA/WHISC is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in documented human rights abuses and atrocities. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution.
The renaming of the school was widely viewed as an attempt to diffuse public criticism and to disassociate the school from its reputation. SOA Watch maintains that the underlying purpose of the school, to control the economic and political systems of Latin America by aiding and influencing Latin American militaries, remains the same.
"It's a new name, but the same shame,"said Fr. Roy Bourgeois, founder of SOA Watch, "They prove this point by putting Otto Reich on this rubber stamp board."
Reich first gained notoriety throughout Latin America and among US human rights groups for his role as head of the Office of Public Diplomacy during the Reagan administration. This office launched an anti-Sandinista propaganda campaign, illegally designed to influence the American public to embrace the administration¹s agenda for Central America. Later, as US ambassador to Venezuela, Reich used his office to help Orlando Bosch, a known terrorist, get into the US. Bosch was convicted of firing a bazooka at a freighter in Miami, and accused of bombing a Cuban jet, killing 73 people. Despite this record the current Bush administration nominated Reich for Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. In this capacity Reich admittedly advised Pedro Carmona‹the businessman who seized the presidency‹during the failed coup in Venezuela last month. Also he met with generals who planned the coup in the months leading up to the coup (some of whom were trained at the SOA).
"This only renews our conviction that this school of coups, torturers and assassins must be closed down for good,"said Bourgeois.
SOA Watch works to stand in solidarity with people of Latin America, to change oppressive US foreign policy, and to close the SOA/WHISC.