Key leaders of Honduras military coup trained in U.S. »
Posted By dissent 4 months, 1 week ago in NewsKey leaders of Honduras military coup trained in U.S.
At least two leaders of the coup launched in Honduras today were apparently trained at a controversial Department of Defense school based at Fort Benning, Georgia infamous for producing graduates linked to torture, death squads and other human rights abuses.
Leftist President Manuel Zelaya was kidnapped and transported to Costa Rica this morning after a growing controversy over a vote concerning term limits. Over the last week, Zelaya clashed with and eventually dismissed General Romeo Vasquez -- who is now reportedly in charge of the armed forces that abducted the Honduran president.
According to the watchdog group School of Americas Watch, Gen. Vasquez trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation at least twice -- in 1976 and 1984 -- when it was still called School of Americas.
The Georgia-based U.S. military school is infamous for training over 60,000 Latin American soldiers, including infamous dictators, "death squad" leaders and others charged with torture and other human rights abuses. SOA Watch's annual protest to shut down the Fort Benning training site draws thousands.
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dissent
we live in a culture of war.
let's make it a culture of peace.
"my country is the world. and my religion is to ...
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Natureboy4 months, 1 week ago
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Let's tell the whole truth -
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It's not just that SOA grads were later involved in mass torture and "disappearing" of dissidents. SOA TRAINED them in torture.
Many of those committing the atrocities under Operation Condor were SOA grads.
http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=343 -
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Wolfie20074 months, 1 week ago
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djn3nunez34 months, 1 week ago
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So you're saying that General Vasquez and Gen. Luis Javier Prince Suazo did not study at Fort Benning, Georgia? Or perhaps some of the facts presented you disagrees with. How about you just list them and we'll have a honest discussion about them?
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CaptainLucid4 months, 1 week ago
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jcmcamis4 months, 1 week ago
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SOAW has been going after SOA for a long time. There are numerous military schools attended by Central and South American military students every year. The U.S. Military has trained tens of thousands of foreign military personnel. For anyone to suggest that "had it not been for SOA, these events would never have happened," is just a gross exaggeration of the facts. But I do admit it gives anti-military activists a target to go after.
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You ever wonder why, out of the tens of thousands of students, you only hear about the ones that empower their message? Because if they also reported on all the good that had been done, it would put holes in their arguments.
Take any school anywhere, do background checks on their students, follow their lives for a few decades, and then condemn the school for a few bad apples. That's the tactic being used. Let's not talk about the 99% of the good apples, let's talk about the 1% that went bad.
Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I am not condoning bad behavior. I worked in the Security Assistance Program for half my military career, and saw things that I would have rather not seen. But I also saw a great deal of good come out of our assistance. Try convincing the folks at SOAW of that. It's impossible because they have a one-track mindset. That's what this story is all about. Read it and forget it, there's nothing new here.-
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dissent4 months, 1 week ago
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Try convincing the folks at SOAW of that. It's impossible because they have a one-track mindset.
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the same could be said of the folk in latin america who've suffered under the soa's graduate program. they have a one track mind about all this too. go figure
it's no surprise much of that continent is turning its back on us. too many years of too many "bad apples." tell them about your 99% "good conduct" card. they won't give a rat's
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theorangetrailblazerComment removed: Hard Banned
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