Persistent protesters: slamming Noriega's alma mater.

• Author: Lott, Jeremy
• Position: Citings - School of the Americas, renamed Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation - Brief Article

THE SCHOOL OF the Americas (SOA), recently renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, is infamous for training dictators such as Manuel Noriega. But it may as well be regarded as an ongoing internship program for American political protesters, who have been demonstrating against the school for 15 years.

In July, 37 defendants were tried in federal court for trespassing on Georgia's Fort Benning as part of the annual protest of the U.S. government-funded military school. The institute is dedicated to establishing links with the elite of Central and South American countries by training them in the art of soldiering, but protesters charge that it is a "School of...