New Name=Same Shame: The School of the Americas Tries to Hide with a Name Change.

• Author: Nelson, Sarah
• Position: Brief Article

It was a hot, sunny Chicago afternoon on Wednesday, May 24, 2000, and a coalition of groups including SOA Watch Illinois and the Chicago Greens were picketing at the downtown Federal Plaza. Not only was it hot outside, but apparently the covert operators and assassins trained at the US Army School of the Americas (SOA) in Ft. Benning, Georgia were starting to feel the heat as well. That is why we were participating in this National Day of Nonviolent Action

As stated in the flyer distributed by the coalition,

During its 54-year history, the SOA has readied over 60,000 Latin American troops in commando tactics, military intelligence, psychological operations and combat skills. In 1996, the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the SOA. These manuals advocated torture, execution, and blackmail. SOA graduates have been responsible for massacres and assassinations throughout Latin America. Among the groups targeted are those who

* do union organizing or recruiting

* distribute propaganda in favor of the interest of workers

* sympathize with demonstrators or strikes

* make accusations that the government has failed to meet the basic needs of people.

On May 18, 2000, the US House of Representatives approved the Pentagon plan to close the US Army School of the Americas, and reopen it with a new name at the same location, with the same instructors and same counterinsurgency courses as before. The new name proposed is the Defense Institute for Hemispheric Security Cooperation. Seeking to overturn this name-change provision in the Defense Authorizations Bill, Rep. Joe Moakley (DMA) offered an amendment to close the SOA. The Moakley amendment failed by 10 votes: 204 to 214.

Why is the Pentagon resorting to name change subterfuge? Because we are being heard and are having an impact. Last May, after thousands of us demonstrated and participated in civil disobedience outside the Pentagon, the House of Representatives voted to cut off all funding for the School of the Americas. Although it failed in the Senate, that House vote was a wake up call to the sinister operators at the SOA. Even the late Sen. Paul Coverdell (R-GA) called the name change "cosmetic"--a way to allow the SOA to "continue its purpose." Moakley says it's "like pouring perfume on a toxic dump." Having grown up in Chicago, my gut instinct is that it is just like when criminals take on aliases, so when the cops catch them, they can conceal their true identity and purpose...