Protest the School of the Americas

[roody]

Nov. 21-23, 2008: Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia
The annual November vigil to close the School of the Americas at the gates of Fort Benning will follow the presidential election by two weeks. It will be an opportunity for the progressive movement to push for the closure of the SOA/WHINSEC and to set an agenda against oppressive U.S. foreign policy, whatever the result of that election will be.

When Obama is president, we will have to get him on board to close all of our schools of torture.

www.soaw.org

[Peace Patriot]

1. Thanks for posting! It's the number one thing on my mind! End torture!

End indefinite detention without trial! End renditions! End secret prisons! End known torture prisons! Disclose and prosecute these crimes! But, above all, END THEM, definitively and forever, with a Constitutional amendment if necessary, absolutely forbidding such actions by the U.S. government and military.

I would go much further. End the "prison-industrial complex." Release all non-violent offenders, in jail for long terms, for things like drug possession or sale, or prostitution. End the corrupt, failed, murderous "war on drugs." Legalize all adult recreational drug use; take the profit out of it, and the gangs and the criminals go away. Thus we save ourselves $6 BILLION dollars in military aid to Colombia alone, where military-connected death squads murdered at least 40 union leaders this year alone, and the cocaine production never ceases--and billions and billions and billions of non-existent taxpayer dollars for this insane "war" here and abroad. The "war on drugs" and capital punishment create a nazi atmosphere in our prisons and also in the courts and police departments. Beatings, rape and other brutality and degradation are common. How do we expect people to create decent lives after they've been treated like shit for years on end?

The "prison-industrial complex" boondoggle, and its poisoning of our culture with nazism, goes hand in hand with the School of the Americas, and the slaughter and torture of people in Latin America, and other places. They have led straight to the dehumanization of Iraqis, for instance, with one million innocent Iraqis slaughtered for their oil, and hardly a mention of those deaths here, in our putrid national political culture.

End torture. End nazism. Restore our progressive, democratic culture as the dominant culture in this land. I have followed polls on these issues for a long time. This is the will of the people! And the profit in excessive, brutal imprisonment, in torture and in war are why the will of the people has been thwarted. Even if that were not true--what the people want--it is the obligation of leaders to educate people on human rights, and to obey laws and treaties on these issues, and promote the improvement and not the degradation of human life. A number of stolen elections have led our country in the opposite direction. We are now one of the worst human rights violators on earth. That is a disgrace. We must work for transparent elections in the U.S.A.--as well as an end to these human rights crimes. We can't just protest--as noble a calling as that is. We must help provide the people with the practical mechanism of change: vote counting that everyone can see and understand.

[roody]

2. Absolutely! Thank you.

Here in Mendocino County, there is a new war on marijuana. What a waste of resources.

[roody]

3. This is two weeks away.

[roody]

4. k

[Judi Lynn]

5. Hope the time is closing in on this place. South America is turning AWAY from training their armies

to serve as the enemies of their common people, to slaughter them in massacres, to intimidate and oppress them in order to sustain governments which serve US corporate interests before the democratic choices of their own people.

The time to end this tyranny passed a long time ago. The time and resources used maintaining this system since then have been been spent improperly.

[Judi Lynn]

6. This is a perfect place for posting an article KCabotDullesMarxIII posted

in LBN. The author is acquainted, in a not so comforting way, with SOA's world view, as made real in her life in Guatemala:

A nun confronts her torture - text of speech beginning a Mar 31-May 6 human rights vigil outside the White House - Guatemala - Transcript - Cover Story
Progressive, The, June, 1996 by Dianna Ortiz

Today, on Palm Sunday, I begin my silent vigil for truth in front of the White House--the truth about my own case, and the truth about all those Guatemalans who have suffered and died at the hands of the officially sponsored death squads. For those of us who know and love Guatemala, it is painfully clear that our own United States government has been closely linked to these death squads, and has a great amount of detailed information about those of us who have survived, as well as those of us who have perished. We need and demand this information so that we can heal our wounds, bury our dead, and carry on with our lives. We need and demand this information so that we can insist on change, insist that these terrible realities never be repeated.

More:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1295/is_n6_v60/ai_18311896/pg_1?tag=artBody;col1



Dianna Ortiz

[roody]

7. k

[Judi Lynn]

8. El Salvador massacre case filed in Spanish court

El Salvador massacre case filed in Spanish court
The killings date back to the Central American country's 1980-92 civil war

updated 5:31 p.m. CT, Thurs., Nov. 13, 2008
MADRID, Spain - Rights groups asked a Spanish court on Thursday to indict a former president of El Salvador and 14 ex-officials over the massacre of six Jesuit priests and two others during the Central American country's 1980-92 civil war.

The two groups — the Spanish Association for Human Rights and California's Center for Justice and Accountability — filed the lawsuit accusing former Salvadoran President Alfredo Cristiani Burkard of covering up the 1989 killing of the Jesuits, their housekeeper and her teenage daughter.

The lawsuit also seeks charges against the country's former defense minister, Rafael Humberto Lario, saying he was present at the meeting at which the massacre was ordered, the groups said.

~snip~
The killings occurred during the country's civil war between leftist rebels and a U.S.-backed right-wing government.

On Nov. 16, 1989, members of an army battalion with orders to kill University of Central America rector Ignacio Ellacuria massacred the Spanish-born Jesuit, five other Jesuits, the housekeeper and her daughter.

International outrage
The massacre sparked international outrage and tarnished the image of U.S. anti-Communism efforts after it was found that some soldiers involved had received training at the former School of the Americas at Fort Benning in Georgia.

More:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27704097/