Research needed.In "School of Shame" (February 2007), the author addresses the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC or WHINSEC), formerly the School of the Americas (SOA; Spanish: Escuela de las Américas), is a United States Army facility at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. (WHINSEC WHINSEC Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation ) in a way that is deceitful and false and libels the good people who work here by suggesting that they teach illegal, immoral, and unethical unethical said of conduct not conforming with professional ethics. things. Nothing could be further from the truth. I challenge you to do some research about our current activities. Tell people what courses are offered here, and that members of Congress, clergymen, lawyers, and others routinely oversee our activities. You and your writers should know that there is nothing hidden here. Anyone can come, sit in our classes, talk with students and faculty, and review our instructional materials. You will find people here every bit as serious, moral, and conscientious con·sci·en·tious adj. 1. Guided by or in accordance with the dictates of conscience; principled: a conscientious decision to speak out about injustice. 2. as any of your staff. Lee A. Rials Public affairs Those public information, command information, and community relations activities directed toward both the external and internal publics with interest in the Department of Defense. Also called PA. See also command information; community relations; public information. officer, WHINSEC Hendrik Voss responds: In 2003, a School of Americas Watch activist received from Lee A. Rials a copy of the Army's Strategic communications Campaign Plan for the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). With a total budget of $246,000, including $9,000 for "media monitoring software" and $50,000 for Internet work, the plan calls for flooding the media with letters to the editor in an effort to balance the negative press the school has received with a "desired 'end state'" that the "congressional audience will not support legislation to close the WHINSEC" because "the number of letters from constituents to Congress criticizing the WHINSEC is decreased." The fact that the Army perceives letters from constituents as a threat to the future of this school confirms that we are making a difference every time we encourage a neighbor to study the history of U.S. state A U.S. state is any one of the fifty subnational entities of the United States, although four states use the official title "commonwealth". The separate state governments and the federal government share sovereignty, in that an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and support for torture and "military solutions," and to take action against it. Support for WHINSEC (aka School of the Americas) in Congress has been eroding since it became public that the school continued to train known human rights abusers. A June 2006 amendment to cut funding for the WHINSEC fell only 15 votes short of success. Hendrik Voss is networking coordinator for School of the Americas Watch School of the Americas Watch is an advocacy organization founded by Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois and a small group of supporters in 1990 to protest the training of mainly Latin American military officers, by the United States Army, at the School of the Americas (SOA). (www. soaw.org) in Washington, D.C. |
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