The School Of Americas, A Blood Factory.

      For a while our babbling brook of bullshit, the mainstream media has been giving some space, between celebrities, sex and sport, to the hundreds of thousands painfully grinding their way across Europe from the hell hole that is the Middle East. Not much cover to the fact that the reason for the brutal bloodshed taking place in that region, is the imperialists, past and present, greed and power driven desire to plunder the rich resources of the region.

     This is not a unique situation, it is the pattern of imperialism that goes on across the globe. At the other end of the world, that troubled continent, South America, has faced, and still does, the vicious brutality of empire, as the corporate greed behind the American imperialism, try to crush any opposition to their plunder of the resources of that region.

        South America is steeped in blood, the blood of ordinary people, savagely beaten, tortured, murdered and "disappeared". All at the behest of American corporate power, through the medium of the American military.

      Just as the European imperialists are seeing mass exodus from their killing fields to their "homeland", so the US imperialists are seeing a similar mass increase crossing their border by those fleeing the savagery of their military machine.

     The rivers of blood that have flowed, and are still flowing, to protect the profits of the corporate world, outdo the combined volume of the Nile, Yangtze and the Amazon. Truly, corporate profit can be measured in blood.
This is a video that everybody should see.

 

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SCHOOL OF AMERICAS - SCHOOL OF TORTURE.

       We all know that the School of Americas, SOA, is a US government organisation for the export of torture and repression. It functions for the purpose of training forces of repressive regimes around the world in brutal methods of supressing political and public dissent. It is part of the US foreign policy of propping up repressive puppet governments that are compliant to the aims of American foreign policy. All this from the country that preaches democracy, but it is democracy at the end of a gun and only if it suits the American corporate empire. 

      For years groups of people have organised to try to shut the place down, they have faced brutallity, and imprisonment but still they come back. They see it as a cancer on the land, it has no place in any civilised country, it is the bedrock of government repression. One such case of over the top sentencing is that of Theresa Cusimano who has been sentenced to six months in Federal prison for peacably crossing the line to speak out against the SOA.

 

       Those words adorn the wall inside the courtroom of Judge Stephen Hyles at the Columbus courthouse. And there they remain, strong words that ring hollow in face of injustice, merely adornments. For her act of peacefully crossing the line at Fort Benning, Georgia - a misdemeanor offense - a 6-month sentence was imposed on Theresa Cusimano. Those who train men with guns at the SOA/WHINSEC, those who created those torture manuals, have never had to defend their actions, yet Theresa is being sentenced to six months in prison for nonviolently calling attention to the US military's role in the violence carried out against her sisters and brothers in the Americas.

       Theresa Cusimano wrote the following statement to Judge Stephen Hyles before her sentencing, telling him that his complicity goes on record today as obstructing international justice and U.S. Rule of Law, and that she wished that he had the courage of Father Roy and the honor of being a subversive.:

Read the full speech HERE.

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SOAWATCH.

OCCUPY FORT BENNING

Shut Down the School of the Americas

        November 18-20, 2011: Thousands of social justice activists from across the Americas will occupy the main gates of Fort Benning, Georgia to call for an end to U.S. militarization and for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly the School of Americas,

       The three day convergence will include a massive rally, where thousands will occupy the main gates of the Fort Benning military base in order to transform it from a place that trains assassins to a place of initiation into political awareness. On Sunday, November 20, the chain-linked barbed wire fence will be transformed with images of the martyrs, crosses, stars and flowers into a memorial for the victims of SOA violence and U.S. intervention. Human rights activists will carry their protest onto the grounds of the military base, risking arrest and up to six month in federal prison. The mobilization will include speakers from the NAACP, the Sisters of Mercy, the Georgia Undocumented Youth Alliance (GUYA), torture survivors and human rights activists from Latin America as well as plenaries, workshops, concerts, strategy sessions and more.

       “The SOA provides the military muscle to protect the greed of the 1% at the expense of the 99% throughout the Americas.” said Father Roy Bourgeois, the founder of SOA Watch. “The surge of social justice activism in the U.S. is fueling the call for the closure of this notorious institution.”

      The SOA/WHINSEC is a U.S. taxpayer-funded military training school for Latin American soldiers, located at Fort Benning, Georgia. The school made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution. Despite this shocking admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses connected to soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation into the training facility has ever taken place. SOA violence continues in Mexico, where 1/3 of the original members of the Zetas drug cartel were trained at the SOA, and where the U.S. is promoting military solutions to the drug problem. SOA violence continues in Colombia, which has sent more than 10,000 soldiers to train at the SOA, and where SOA graduates are involved with extrajudicial killings and other serious human rights violations. SOA violence continues in Honduras, where SOA graduates overthrew the democratically elected government in 2009. SOA violence continues in Guatemala, where SOA graduate Otto Pérez Molina just won the presidential elections, and throughout the Americas. In October 2011, Time Magazine published the article “Is It Time to Shutter the Americas' 'Coup Academy'?:” http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2097124,00.html#ixzz1b9Rvmcbu

         In August 2011, 69 Members of the House of Representatives delivered a letter to President Obama, calling on the President to shut down the Western Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), formerly the School of Americas (SOA) by executive order. The 69 Representatives including Representative John Lewis from Georgia, Representative Ron Paul from Texas and Representative James McGovern from Massachusetts. To read the letter, visit http://soaw.org/docs/ObamaLetter.pdf

        On November 4, Representative McGovern introduced H.R. 3368, the Latin America Military Training Review Act, in the House of Representatives. The bill calls for the suspension of the SOA/ WHINSEC and an investigation into the connection between U.S. military training and human rights abuses in Latin America.

        SOA Watch is a nonviolent grassroots movement that works for the closing the School of the Americas and a change in U.S. foreign policy - www.SOAW.org

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SHUT THE SCHOOL OF AMERICAS.

       We should never forget that the wanker bankers are not the only problem with this system, we have the state and its hit squad, the military apparatus. For many years now Fort Benning in Georgia USA has been the training centre for assassins, dictators and their henchmen, who, when they graduate move on and take their place in some of the most repressive regimes on the planet. When in place, they usually pay back their trainers by carrying out the dictates of the Western corporate greed machine and implement their  polices with a brutality that they were taught at the School of Americas, (SOA).  The following is an appeal from SOAWATCH.

Education Through Action!

       It's that time of year again to gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia. For more than 20 years we've come together as a community to close the School of the Americas (WHINSEC) and to resist the culture of militarization through teach-ins, music, memory and direct actions. Be one of thousands who will mobilize this year to fight oppression and stand up for justice and self-determination!

        Read the October 17 Time Magazine article about the SOA. Some of us are called to put our bodies on the line and engage in civil disobedience. Direct action is one of the pillars of our resistance. It is an opportunity for all those who seek peace with justice to bring their grievances to the place where the killers are being trained to protect the policies that benefit the world's richest 1%, at the expense of the 99% throughout the Americas.

Federal Line Crossing
       Over the years, hundreds of activists have risked federal prison time because they "cross the line" onto Fort Benning, in order to draw attention to the US militarization of Latin America. If you are interested in exploring this opportunity, please contact directaction@soaw.org. You can learn more about the SOA Watch Prisoners of Conscience here.

Other Actions
       For those who cannot risk serving federal prison time but have the desire to bear witness, there is the opportunity for other creative actions (in the past, SOA Watch activists have employed tactics such as leaf-letting, banner hanging and visiting local church groups - see more ideas here). But don't feel limited to these actions alone - GET CREATIVE! Groups or individuals considering direct action should prepare ahead of time (please see these materials) and contact directaction@soaw.org.

     The witness of the occupation of Wall Street, the Summer of Human Rights in Georgia, and the Arab Spring reminds us of the possibilities that flow from disrupting business as usual. Join with human rights activists around the globe in making the Vigil this year another forum of speaking truth to power.

Schedule of Events, November 18-20

Friday, November 18
10-12pm Stewart Detention Center Rally and Vigil V *Please contact becca@soaw.org to coordinate transportation.
2-11pm Workshops
2-5pm Nonviolence Training (note: this is not preparation for the weekend, if you are considering civil disobedience at the vigil, you should contact directaction@soaw.org ahead of time)

7:30-8:30pm Direct Action Meeting (for people who are interested in learning more about possible creative nonviolent educational actions)
2-5pm Peacemakers Training
8:30-11pm Dreams of Peace Benefit Show

Saturday, November 19
9-10:30am SOA Watch Plenary
10:30am Women's Peace Convergence on Columbus
11:30am-4pm Rally at the gates of Ft. Benning
5pm to 11pm Workshops
5:45-6:45pm Interfaith Service
7-8:15pm Panel: Somos Una America! Connecting Our Struggles Across the Hemisphere
8:30-11pm Benefit Concert: Canta mi pueblo!

Sunday, November 20
7:45am Veterans for Peace March to the gates, meet at the Columbus Inn (formerly the Days Inn)
8:45am Vigil at the Gates, followed to funeral procession, speakers, puppetistas pageantry and more!

...and finally: WE NEED YOUR HELP!

         The November Vigil is made possible by the help of hundreds of dedicated volunteers from across the country. Please let us know if you can help with: Volunteering: We need people throughout the weekend to help set up tables, unload equipment, clean-up, and more! Contact Nico at nico@soaw.org or 202-234-3440. Peacemakers: We need twenty-five committed people to help direct Saturday and Sunday's rally and procession. Contact Kathleen at kathleend8@gmail.com to find out more. Medics: We need trained medical personnel to help provide any necessary first aid. Please contact Larry Egbert at egbertL4pj@yahoo.com.

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