Dennis Kucinich at the SOA

Cynthia McKinney at SOA Watch Event 2007

Twenty Thousand Protest at Ft. Benning
Eleven Face Federal Charges by Bill Quigley / November 20th, 2007

In what has become the nation’s largest annual gathering for peace and human rights, over twenty thousand people protested outside the gates of Fort Benning, GA on November 18, 2007. Eleven people were arrested on federal criminal charges and face up to six months in prison.

Fort Benning is the site of the internationally notorious U.S. Army training school for Latin American military and security personnel. For decades it was called the School of the Americas (SOA) — it is now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). The school has graduated hundreds of military officers who have lead or participated in nearly every human rights atrocity in the hemisphere. Organizations across the world, including Amnesty International USA, have called for its closure since discovering copies of torture manuals used at the school. In June 2007, 203 members of the U.S. House of Representatives voted to close the scandal-ridden school — six votes shy of the margin of victory...

I'm going to Columbus for the demonstration. I'm leaving at 7:00 AM sharp Saturday morning & leaving Columbus no later that 1:00 PM on Sunday. I can take up to 4 passengers if anybody needs a ride. Call me at 402.8436.

http://www.soaw.org/index.php

November Vigil: 16-18,2007
Take a Stand for Human Rights!

On the weekend of November 16-18, thousands will gather at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia for the Vigil and the Nonviolent Direct Action to Close the School of the Americas and to end the racist system of violence and domination that the SOA represents. Take a Stand for Justice!

After a close vote in the house of representatives on an amendment that would have cut funding for the SOA/WHINSEC, a series of very successful delegations to Latin America, and the Bolivian and Costa Rican governments’ announcements that they would cease all training at the school; this years vigil is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in recent years!

Come celebrate with us and join torture survivors, students, social movement leaders, religious workers, peacemakers, the Indigo girls, Congressman Jim McGovern, presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, the 1000 Grandmothers, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, Carrie Newcomer, Students for a Democratic Society, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Veterans for Peace, Aimee Allison, Josefina Lazo from El Salvador, Jim Schmitz of AFSCME, Miguel Ángel Vásquez de la Rosa from Oaxaca and thousands more in denouncing SOA/WHINSEC-sponsored violence in Latin America and demand a radical change in U.S. foreign policy!

A Laboratory for Latin America's New Militarism
By Benjamin Dangl Guerilla News Network Friday 03 August 2007

US troops establish a foothold in Paraguay.

Two soldiers in Paraguay stand in front of a camera. One of them holds an automatic weapon. John Lennon's "Imagine" plays in the background. This Orwellian juxtaposition of war and peace is from a new video posted online by U.S. soldiers stationed in Paraguay. The video footage and other military activity in this heart of the continent represent a new style of militarism in Latin America...

Grandmother to be released from jail Friday after 60 day sentence for ‘trespassing’ at Army torture school
Fri, 2007-05-18 Cathy Webster, a grandmother from Chico, CA., will be released from the Sacramento County Jail on Friday, May 18, after completing her 60 day sentence for crossing onto the U.S. Army Base at Ft. Benning, Georgia, as part of a protest against the U.S. Army School of the Americas...

Costa Rica to stop sending police to US army school
17 May 2007SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, May 16 (Reuters) - Costa Rican President Oscar Arias vowed on Wednesday to stop sending police to train at a U.S. facility criticized for a history of producing soldiers who went on to violate human rights. Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the promise after talks with Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a U.S. activist priest who has campaigned since 1990 for the closure of the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School for the Americas, at Fort Benning, Georgia....