Change?

[Junious Ricardo Stanton]

From The Ramparts
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Change?

“If the School of the Americas concentrated its training on protecting country borders from foreign aggression or safeguarding citizens from invasion by outside enemies, it would be considered an exemplary institution, worth the cost of American tax dollars and US prestige. But, the SOA has very different goals. Its curriculum includes courses in psychological warfare, counterinsurgency, interrogation techniques, and infantry and commando tactics. Presented with the most sophisticated and up-to-date techniques by the US Army's best instructors, these out source teach military officers and soldiers of Third World countries to subvert the truth, to muzzle union leaders, activist clergy, and journalists, and to make war on their own people. It prepares them to subdue the voices of dissent and to make protesters submit. It instructs them in techniques of marginalizing the poor, the hungry, and the dispossessed. It tells them how to stamp out freedom and terrorize their own citizens. It trains them to destroy the hope of democracy.” School of the Americas: School of Assassins, USA www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/SOA.html

Much ado has been made of President Obama signing an Executive Order mandating the US detention center at Guantanamo Bay Cuba be closed and ordering a review be conducted by his administrations on how to proceed, prosecute and process the detainees; many who have not been officially charged with any crime and have had limited contact with attorneys. Obama stated emphatically for the cameras and the corporate mind control apparatus’ benefit, “The United States does not torture.” . Lest we get too caught up in the hype, George W Bu$h said the same thing.

If President Obama is really serious about cleaning up AmeriKKKa’s image and getting the nation on the right track, he would do more than just hold PR photo ops and symbolic gestures. Obama’s Executive Order does not do away with the CIA practice of rendition (kidnaping) or torture. First of all the CIA will continue to kidnap and “disappear” people but instead of holding them and torturing him in US controlled detention centers, they will out-source the torture to countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia and pay them to beat, degrade and torture any poor soul unfortunate enough to be targeted as a “terrorist” or enemy combatant.

If Obama is really serious about reversing the Nazification of AmeriKKKa he would sign an Executive Order closing the notorious US Army School of the Americas or as it has been renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. The “school” was created in 1946 immediately after WWII and set up in Panama by the US Army. It’s goal was to strengthen the stranglehold the US had on Latin America by training despots, dictators and psychopaths in techniques and tactics to suppress dissent, revolution and mass participation in the political process.

Do some research on the SOA and you will be genuinely shocked. The US Army School of The Americas was so foul, so off the hook and so out of control, when the Panamanians were negotiating the transfer of the Panama Canal back to their sovereignty, they demanded the SOA vacate the premises. The US subsequently relocated the SOA or the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation as it is now known to Ft Benning in Georgia. Once what the SOA was doing started to get out, Ft Benning became a magnet for demonstrators, attracting human rights advocates and anti-fascist activists. There are always folks getting arrested for demonstrating to get that place shut down.

If Obama is really serious about changing AmeriKKKa’s image in the world, and adopting a more humane foreign policy, he will shut that place down. Absent that, he is just posturing and bsing. The truth is, the SOA uses many of the techniques made famous by the Nazis. They were amplified and altered by the US Army. Obama and the US military are now saying prisoners will be treated in accordance with the existing US Army field manual. The same techniques taught at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation are part of the US Army manual. Go to www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Terrorism/SOA.html read the article then go to www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/soa.htm and read what they have to say about SOA. Then ask yourself, do I condone this, is this what I want my tax dollars going for?

There is a Chinese proverb that says, “the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”. Obama took a major step (I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt on this one), when he signed the Executive Order closing Gitmo. The question is, was it for real or a PR ploy? Don’t go for the okey-doke, follow up and hold Obama’s feet to the fire on this. The AmeriKKKan empire is not benevolent, it is a very ruthless and inhumane entity on so many levels, economic, militarily and culturally. If we are going to have real change we will have to force Obama to make more and more steps in the direction of real and positive changes.

-30-