Leaders attempt to close infamous military school

In the small, historic town of Fort Benning, Ga., a military school teaches a little more than basic writing and math skills. In fact, the United States Army's School of the Americas teaches its students military techniques that many have criticized as tortuous and inhumane.

As these acts and violations are gaining more attention, a nationwide movement to close the school has begun. Leading this movement is Father Roy Bourgeois, who will speak to the University community at 7 p.m. today in Eisehnower Chapel's Memorial Lounge.

The School of the Americas was founded in 1946 as the Latin American Training Center-Ground Division and began training international students from 22 Latin American countries and the United States. After several moves, it became the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA) in 1963, with a stated mission of instructing its students in military infantry, combat and leadership. Relocated in 1984 to Fort Benning, it was designated an official U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command school.

With a goal of improving multinational military relations and professionalizing Latin American armies, SOA has an annual enrollment of about 1,000 students. About 56,000 students have graduated since the school opened.

Throughout the Latin American region, many graduates have given SOA a reputation for training its students as human rights violators.

The list of graduates includes Manuel Noriega, ex-dictator of Panama who was sentenced to 40 years in prison for drug trafficking and 20 additional years for ordering the murders of several soldiers.

In 1993 the United Nations Truth Commission cited 47 graduates of the SOA for war crimes. Among there crimes:

• Assassination of Salvadoran Archbishop Oscar Romero -- two of three officers were SOA graduates.
  

• Murder and mutilation of hundreds of Salvadoran citizens by military forces -- 10 of 12 officers cited were SOA graduates.
  

• Murder of six Jesuit priests and two women -- 19 of 25 officers cited were SOA graduates.
  

What some call a coincidence, others see as a mass training of murderous crime. Many protesters have renamed the School of Americas "The School of Assassins."

The SOA trains soldiers to suppress uprisings among their people, such as those who are protesting wages, housing standards and health care, sociology professor Sam Richards said. These protesters threaten U.S. business, he said, because the results of their protests may cause businesses to spend more money on those factors.

"We bring soldiers from Latin America to the United States," Richards said. "We train them to put down uprisings on the part of the people, and we train them to demobilize activists. But they do that by killing people, by torturing them, by disappearing them."

The ultimate incentive behind the school, Richards said, is American business.

"Business defines our foreign policy," he said. "The school is based on the principle that freedom and democracy are good for us, but they're not good for anybody else if they jeopardize our political and business interests."

Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.) has presented two bills before the House of Representatives to have the SOA closed. A U.S. Defense Department investigation found that the SOA was using training manuals that demonstrated the use of torture and execution.

Both times the bills have not passed, but Richards said the issue is gaining more and more attention and eventually the school may be closed.

The speech is sponsored by the Penn State Catholic Community, Pax Christi at Penn State, Newman Society, State College Peace Center and Amnesty International Penn State.