Detroit Free Press, USA
May 11, 2004 Editorial
www.freep.com

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 7274 • Posted: Saturday May 15, 2004  

---

Despite a recent name change, the military training school at Ft. Benning, Ga., formerly known as the Army School of the Americas, remains a festering sore in relations between the United States and Latin America.

Congress ought to close this training center for Latin American soldiers, now named the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., would do that.

The school was made infamous in 1996 with the release of a torture training manual used in the 1980s. It has schooled hundreds of soldiers who have committed documented human rights abuses in Latin America, including some of those involved in the murder of six Jesuit priests in 1989 in El Salvador. The links to such abuses continue, most notably in Colombia.

Supporters say the school has promoted peace. More accurately, it has trained soldiers to defend dictatorships against the poor and disenfranchised of their own countries. Graduates include Manuel Noriega, the former Panamanian dictator jailed for drug dealing.

The school changed its name in 2001, but its mission and curriculum remain essentially the same.

“It’s connected to terrorism, violence and atrocities,” said the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Vietnam veteran and Catholic priest who led the fight against the school after working with the poor in Bolivia.

For many Latin Americans, the school symbolizes what’s wrong with U.S. foreign policy. Keeping it open will further damage relations south of the border without advancing U.S. interests.

Congress should shut this Cold War relic down.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: USA Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: USA Read Another Article Previous entry: Divine Revelations in Copyright Next entry: Freedom fries RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books USA Most Popular Today Couple plead not guilty to killing their 7-year old daugher Australian Senate again rejects inquiry into Scientology cult Second Wave of Attacks Near Jos, Nigeria Leaves 13 Christians Dead Cult survivor relives history of servitude in the Brisbane Christian Fellowship FLDS sect member Merril Leroy Jessop sentenced to 75 years in prison Tokyo marks 15th anniversary of subway sarin attack

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.