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Americas terrorist training camp!

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
The School of the Americas now called WHISC based at Fort Benning in Georgia is a combat training school for Latin American soldiers. Its graduates are consistently involved in human rights abuses and atrocities. In 1996 the Pentagon was forced to release training manuals used at the school that advocated the use of torture, extortion and execution, proving what human right campaigners had claimed all along that is implicated in human rights abuses and terror in Latin America!

The existance of such a place on Americas soild goes to show the complete htpocracy of American foreign policy while on one hand caliming to be fighting a war on terrorism it is activily promoting terrorism for its own interests in Latin America!
http://www.soaw.org/new/

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    You are so full of shit.

    First, the SOA has never had any part of its syllabus or training materials that advocated torture, execution or anything other than combat within the constraints of the law of land warfare.

    Second, both the instructors and the materials used are screened extensively. The instructors are some of the finest professionals around.

    Berkley has graduated terrorists. Shall we say that Berkley is a terrorist mill? Oxford graduated spies. Shall we say that Oxford is a mill for espionage?
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The School of The Americas trains the military of Latin American countries that have appalling human rights records such as Columbia. A country where there have been thousands of assinations of trade unionists and political killings!

    The School of The Americas exists only so that America can defend its interests in Latin America by training and supporting the armies of some of the most brutal regimes on earth!
    http://www.soaw.org/new/
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Greenhat
    Oxford graduated spies. Shall we say that Oxford is a mill for espionage?

    Hell, we're accused of elitism, might as well throw espionage in there, too... :p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by DJP


    Hell, we're accused of elitism, might as well throw espionage in there, too... :p

    Wasn't it where Blunt etc were educated though?

    Perhaps you'll be approached DJP...
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Hornblower
    The School of The Americas trains the military of Latin American countries that have appalling human rights records such as Columbia. A country where there have been thousands of assinations of trade unionists and political killings!

    The School of The Americas exists only so that America can defend its interests in Latin America by training and supporting the armies of some of the most brutal regimes on earth!
    http://www.soaw.org/new/

    Go visit. Twit.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Torture is illegal in the US. That's why, when our Muslim friends captured Al Qaeda, they offered, and America accepted for them to interrogate the suspected Al Qaeda members on their soil. Egypt is one country that helped a lot...Saudi Arabia too. Torture is not illegal in those countries.

    And the BBC report on IRA fund raising was wrong in that it insinuated that it was done openly. Doesn't work that way. Hamas and Hezbollah and the IRA all found America to be a great place to raise funds for "the poor" which in turn was used to buy guns...I'm sure.

    Thirdly, Americans are aware that Iraq and Al Qaeda is using the Web to spread lies about America. And they are heavily involved with organizing the "peace" movement. Thank God America is strong enough to ignore idiot Europeans that don't even know their own history and didn't learn that you can't play up to tyrants...like Hitler. You need to talk to your Queen. She gets it.

    If someone was to attack the UK, liberals in the Uk would be the first to whine about America taking its time to come to the UK's defense like some people love to say about America's involvement in WW2. You've already had an Al Qaeda operative who was tracked going to Baghdad then to Northern Iraq, then to London. When he was picked up he had ricin...which Iraq is producing in its Castor Oil plant and the Al Qaeda group he had visited in Northern Iraq had used to kill someone this past summer. If that's not enough for you, it is for Tony Blair. And when history looks back on Tony Blair, he is going to be seen as a hero who put the needs of his country BEFORE his political career and was key to keeping the UK safe. The only kind of person who would consistently bash a powerful country that is a true friend to the UK, is an operative who doesn't have any love for the UK either.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    pnj, what you posted is more drivel that has nothing specifically to do with the topic of this thread. The SOA has been and continues to be watched and protested against by Americans themselves. This has nothing to do with outside terrorist nonsense.

    Start learning that things are going on under the cloak of our government (and have been for far longer than you or I have been alive) that are equally as heinous as all the atrocities committed by foreign agents or organisations.

    Washington is no bastion of saintliness, and the sooner you learn how dirty our own hands are in this whole crisis of global terrorism the more youll be able to assess situations and who is complicit in them.

    Nobody claimed that "torture" was occurring in the US, but that doesnt negate the fact that people are being and have been trained in it by our military for insurgency campaigns outside of America.

    http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/MiddleEast/TerrorInUSA/Backyard.asp

    http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/ArmsTrade/TrainingViolators.asp

    http://www.nd.edu/~observer/11161999/Viewpoint/2.html

    http://www.luc.edu/orgs/phoenix/dec5soa.htm

    Basically as you can see from the links above the concern over the training given at SOA isnt only from foreigners but from decent Americans like yourself who abhor the double standards and complicity our own government has held by training and using those who by their actions are so boldly renounced by Bush as terrorists (while having received their training and financing from our tax dollars).

    So if every nation that even traffics with such types are "sponsors of terrorism" (according to Bush's own definitions), that doesnt leave our own leaders too much room to maneuvre out of their criminal complicities. If we are to be consistent, mind you (something which Greeny and co would love to sweep under the rug and not have to admit).
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    This basically says it all doesn't it:
    Graduates of the SOA are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. Among the SOA's nearly 60,000 graduates are notorious dictators Manuel Noriega and Omar Torrijos of Panama, Leopoldo Galtieri and Roberto Viola of Argentina, Juan Velasco Alvarado of Peru, Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador, and Hugo Banzer Suarez of Bolivia. Lower-level SOA graduates have participated in human rights abuses that include the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero and the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians.
    And why does America need to train soldiers in countries whose regimes are just as bad as Iraqs! Maybe because these countries have got American economic interests whichAmerica wants to defend. It just shows the complete hypocracy of American politics where on one they are claiming to get tough with rogue regimes like Iraq,Iran and North Korea while turning a blind eye to rogue regimes in Latin America that also torture and murder their own people!
    http://www.soaw.org/new/
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Steelgate,

    Why don't you do a little research into the crimes committed by graduates of Harvard, Oxford, UCLA and Cambridge? Then you can rail against them and call for them to be closed (unless of course they have committed rape, which you support). You're still a twit.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Big difference between the odd individual who happened to go to some particular university and those specifically being trained and sent out to commit covert terror operations Greeny. Not surprising you should try to whitewash the truth of the matter since youre part of the problem in the first place.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Clandestine
    Big difference between the odd individual who happened to go to some particular university and those specifically being trained and sent out to commit covert terror operations Greeny. Not surprising you should try to whitewash the truth of the matter since youre part of the problem in the first place.

    Bullshit, Clandestine. You know absolutely nothing about the instructors, materials or syllabus of the school in question. You're just spouting the party line. As for me being part of the problem? If keeping fuckwits like you from getting away with telling your lies is the problem, then I am happy to be part of the problem.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    LOL!, I would highly doubt that any syllabus that the public would see would boldly announce " Terrorism 101" or Torture and Mulitation Seminar" lol. Get real Greeny, people dont just invent these facts, theyve been long documented and scrutinised. Another reason why after the vote to close the institution on these very grounds, it merely opened under its new name and acronym.

    And as for lies, the only lies flying thick and fast these days are the ones you and your taskmasters are shoveling upon a public largely ignorant of the world outside our borders.

    Tell it to someone else, youve got zero credibility and time will prove to the majority of our fellow countrymen the errors of putting any faith in what you claim to be the truth.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Clandestine
    LOL!, I would highly doubt that any syllabus that the public would see would boldly announce " Terrorism 101" or Torture and Mulitation Seminar" lol. Get real Greeny, people dont just invent these facts, theyve been long documented and scrutinised. Another reason why after the vote to close the institution on these very grounds, it merely opened under its new name and acronym.

    And as for lies, the only lies flying thick and fast these days are the ones you and your taskmasters are shoveling upon a public largely ignorant of the world outside our borders.

    Tell it to someone else, youve got zero credibility and time will prove to the majority of our fellow countrymen the errors of putting any faith in what you claim to be the truth.

    "Documented and Scrutinized" LOL! And everything on a webpage is fact, huh? You using Chomsky for your "facts" again?

    In this case, bullshit and more bullshit.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The US Britain and very few other countries are the reasons there are free countries today.

    Hornblower, by the time you do your peace march/sitdown/blocktraffic/ofpeoplewhoactuallywork/ thing. The war will have started. Why not be a Human Shield?

    Just an idea.:p
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Something which you are proficient in! :lol:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by pnjsurferpoet
    You've already had an Al Qaeda operative who was tracked going to Baghdad then to Northern Iraq, then to London. When he was picked up he had ricin...which Iraq is producing in its Castor Oil plant and the Al Qaeda group he had visited in Northern Iraq had used to kill someone this past summer. If that's not enough for you, it is for Tony Blair.
    There are still no proven links between the Iraqi regime and Al Qaeda! The links are not based on soild evidence but on small pieces of evidence that only hint at a link. There is no solid evidence of Iraqi officials actively helping Al Qaeda or even of any intercepted communication between the Iraqi regime and Al Qaeda operatives.

    Osama bin Laden Al Qaedas' leader also hates Saddam Hussain and wants him dead! In 1990 he want to use his Al Qaeda group to fight a jihad to free Kuwait from The Iraqi occupying forces just as he had done against the Russian forces in Afghanistan and was furious when America pre-empted him with their operation desert storm!

    If there are Al Qeada orperatives in Iraq then they must be living in the Kurdish controlled northern part of the country and not the parts controlled by Saddam! In case you didn't know the Kurds control a large part of northern Iraq which is almost completely independent of Saddams regime!

    When this war comes it will be a war that will kill and maim thousands and thousands of innocent people as well as making thousands more homeless! Nothing can justify that! You cant justify the mass bombing of innocent people just because you think their government might pose a threat to western security! :mad:
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by pnjsurferpoet
    The US Britain and very few other countries are the reasons there are free countries today.
    What about all the democratic governments that America helped to overthrow such as Chile in 1973! What abouts its ilegal Contra war in Nicragua in the 1980s when it used drug money to fund the Contras and what about Americas massive 5 billion dollars a year in aid to Israel most of which goes to buy weapons and military equipment so that it can illegally occupy the Palestinians land!
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I am consistently amused by the naiveté displayed by so many who profess to know the methods and the techniques allegedly taught by the staff of the School of the Americas. I can almost smell a whiff of that venerable pejorative "baby killers" wafting through the air in this discussion. I notice the absence of specifics whenever anyone points out the tactics that our cadre allegedly teach in the SOTA. And in all the years of the protests, I have never seen any categoried record linking the syllabus of the SOTA and one act of brutality commited by any of it's graduates. Why? Because there are NONE!

    I know of no other armed force on earth who spends as much time teaching and practicing ethics and discipline as regards non-combatants as the US Army. I know of no other country that would allow it's armed forces to be so closely scrutinized for their actions under fire as the US Army. The confrontation with the facts of the circumstances of My Lai made the Army aware that, in the absence of instruction, even in the presence of a firm chain of command, people will commit violations of the laws of land warfare and exceed the bounds of humanity as regards non-combatants. Our armed forces are not without blemish, but most occasions are well-known, documented, and are used to teach soldiers and officers how to avoid such events in the future. The efforts made by our armed forces to avoid collateral damage, in Panama, in Desert Storm and in the Balkans have been unprecedented. Having served with many European allies, including "progressive" France and Germany, I can assure you that their soldiers and officers feel much less compunction to be so scrupulous as our leaders are trained to be vis-a-vis civilians in a combat zone. The French are notorious for their disregard for civilian casualties and aren't very shy about saying so; They merely regard them as unfortunate but unavoidable. And pass it off with a Gallic shrug.

    Our miltary teaches, preaches and trains our forces to avoid the targeting of civilians, to minimize exposure, even at the risk of our own troops. Our generous nature tends to that anyway. It is patently absurd to believe that the staff of the SOTA would teach or even imply that the targeting/use of non-combatants in a conflict is acceptable. Our teaching cannot overcome all cultural or environmental factors that could lead a graduate of SOTA to abandon what he has been taught not to do. The graduates of SOTA are not Americans. They do not grow up in our culture, nor is SOTA a magic wand that suddenly produces a bunch of camo-clad "Mr.. Rogers" saying "Hello, boys and girls." Poverty, lack of regard for human life, the lack of a true middle class, all of these can come into play when some 17-year old campesino is standing in a village with a rifle in his hands. The USA cannot follow every soldier around in perpetuity, monitoring every thought, word and deed. I would further aver that, especially since the 1980s, the track record of many of these armies and governments in Central America, has improved, at least as determined by the absence of recorded atrocities committed by these states. I am in no way stating that there is no more brutality by some of these armed forces. But I can state without hesitation that the attention paid to them connotes a lack of a pattern of brutality. Given the fact that such behavior would indeed be "news", I feel safe in saying this. The US State Departments report on Human Rights and Labor practices has indicated consistent progress in the practices of the governments and armies of many Central American nations. I would further opine that the fact that we have the opportunity to, even in the classroom setting of the SOTA, influence in a positive way the military commanders in these armies can be nothing but beneficial. For many, I am sure it's the first time they have heard another professional soldier look them in the eye and tell them that it is their obligation to conspicuously avoid civilian casualties.

    I am afraid many people who protest SOTA are on a fringe that, regardless of what the US Army did or did not do, they would be dissatisfied. I observe the tired worn-out nature of the protestors slogans and even their practices in protest. Many of them are living in the 70's, dead set against the US Army. I would ask the people who believe that our soldiers are trained to brutalize, to go ask the Iraqi soldiers who we captured in Desert Storm, "Who gave you more humane treatment after your surrender; The USA or your own Iraqi Army?" I know what the answer would be.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Clandestine
    Big difference between the odd individual who happened to go to some particular university and those specifically being trained and sent out to commit covert terror operations Greeny. Not surprising you should try to whitewash the truth of the matter since youre part of the problem in the first place.

    Specifically trained and sent out to commit covert terror? If the School of the Americas was so darn good at training these socipaths why would they need to be covert? They are trained terrorists, torturers and murders (did I leave anything out?) surely they could impose their will on the weaker creatures of the 3rd world countries scaring the daylights out of them to the point that the poor things would never utter another word. Why be covert? If they are such abusers of human rights why don't they simply smash into the village and kick tail?

    Since I'm sitting here in a pair of SOA sweats the answer is pretty simple on why they don't do it. They aren't trained to. Imagine that? In Colombia, the area with all the human rights abuses, if a Colombian soldier has a human rights complaint not violation but a complaint then he can't be trained with American money or soldiers. Many of the American soldiers who train the people in those countries attended the School of the Americas where torture and terrorism was not part of the proscribed course of study.

    Do any of you people know anyone who has attended the school? Have you seen the training first hand or is this just what you heard some where from somebody?

    Has anyone bothered to look up the statisics on abuses since soldiers from some of those countries started attending the school? You'll be disappointed to know the program is working and the abuses are becoming fewer and fewer.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    .
    Originally posted by G8rRanger
    It is patently absurd to believe that the staff of the SOTA would teach or even imply that the targeting/use of non-combatants in a conflict is acceptable. Our teaching cannot overcome all cultural or environmental factors that could lead a graduate of SOTA to abandon what he has been taught not to do. The graduates of SOTA are not Americans. They do not grow up in our culture, nor is SOTA a magic wand that suddenly produces a bunch of camo-clad "Mr.. Rogers" saying "Hello, boys and girls." Poverty, lack of regard for human life, the lack of a true middle class, all of these can come into play when some 17-year old campesino is standing in a village with a rifle in his hands.

    Horatio Hornblower,

    Unless you have been to a Third World country and have seen with your own eyes how cultural diversity in some of these areas affects judgement and attitude, you won't understand this.

    Don't make assertions about things you haven't seen or experienced.

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