[NYTr] SOA Grad Jailed, Ft. Benning white-washing Wikipedia entries Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:05:49 -0400 Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit SOA WATCH NEWS & UPDATES - Ayg 30, 2007 = www.SOAW.org = August 30, 2007 1. Chilean SOA Graduate Jailed for Life, SOA Officials still free... 2. Fort Benning Censors Wikipedia Entry on the SOA/WHINSEC 3. Peter Jessup Presente! 4. Stand Up for Immigrants Rights 5. Sept./Oct./Nov. - Mobilizations for Peace 6. SOA Watch is hiring a Development & Operations Coordinator =========================================================== CHILE SOA GRADUATE JAILED FOR LIFE, SOA OFFICIALS STILL FREE? =========================================================== Chile's Supreme Court has upheld the life sentence handed down to a former general for his part in the murder of 12 opponents of Augusto Pinochet. Hugo Salas Wenzel, a graduate of the School of the Americas was the head of the National Information Center, the intelligence service, which carried out the killings. He is the first senior member of Augusto Pinochet's military government to be given a life sentence for human rights abuses committed between 1973 and 1990. The 1973 coup and its bloody aftermath were largely the work of SOA graduates. The Spanish lawyers who presented the charges that resulted in Pinochet's 1998 arrest also requested the indictment of 30 other high-ranking officials of the Chilean dictatorship. Ten of those are SOA graduates. Although Pinochet himself was not an SOA graduate, his influence is clearly held in high esteem. In 1991, visitors could view a note from Pinochet, and a ceremonial sword donated by him, on display in the office of the SOA commandant. While countries like Argentina and Chile are coming to terms with the bloody past and those responsible are being held accountable, the School of the Americas where the henchmen received their instructions is still in operation. No U.S. officials are being held accountable for the destructive role they played. Without an independent investigation into the use of the torture manuals at the School of the Americas and the connection between U.S. military training and human rights atrocities in Latin America, the U.S. will repeat history and the people of the Americas are paying with their lives (as is the case in Colombia right now, where the SOA trained military is committing human rights abuses on a daily basis.) =========================================================== FORT BENNING CENSORS WIKIPEDIA ENTRIES ON THE SOA/WHINSEC =========================================================== A new scanning program has revealed that Wikipedia entries on the School of the Americas, renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHINSEC) have been edited from an IP address from Fort Benning to omit all references to human rights abuses connected to the school. WikiScanner, developed by CalTech graduate student Virgil Griffith, has traced the editorial changes made to the online encyclopedia to Fort Benning computers. The IP address used was 150.226.95.18. Any IP address that begins with 150.226 belongs to Fort Benning. That IP address has the name of doim1-358.benning.army.mil, which is via the Directorate of Information Management at Fort Benning. The program also revealed that an entry about Fort Benning was altered to delete all mention of SOA Watch. Graduates of the School of the Americas have a documented track record of using the skills they were taught at the SOA/WHINSEC against union organizers, social justice activists, faith leaders and everyone who speaks out for social change and the rights of the poor. The School of the Americas is also active against human rights groups within our borders. The school has not only monitored civilian groups and individuals who are working for a just U.S. foreign policy and the closure of the SOA/WHINSEC, but they are also using our tax dollars to actively interfere in the political process. Military officials at the SOA/WHINSEC are spreading misinformation to Congress, flooding the media with letters to the editor, and approaching student groups who are planning events on the SOA/WHINSEC to demand access to the campus. The SOA/WHINSEC is propagating a mindset that is not in line with the role of the military in a democratic society. In this light, it does not come as a surprise that SOA/WHINSEC instructors who taught "democratic sustainment" at the school from 2003-2004 were arrested earlier this month in Colombia for their involvement in one of Colombia's most notorious drug cartels. --> FIND OUT MORE about WikiScanner - http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/article2874112.ece ======================== PETER JESSUP PRESENTE! ======================== Former SOA Watch Prisoner of Conscience Peter Jessup passed away on August 11, 2007 after a fall from Maroon Bells peak in Colorado. Peter had turned 27 on the previous Thursday and decided to celebrate by hiking in the Maroon Bells, a national park 12 miles southwest of Aspen, Colorado. He was an experienced hiker who loved the outdoors. Peter attended Creighton University in Omaha, Neb., and graduated with a major in theology in 2003. During his summer vacations Peter worked as a nurse's assistant at Glen Valley Care Center, providing care for senior citizens. Peter also participated in a Semester Abroad Program, where he traveled to the Dominican Republic. There he became fluent in Spanish and assisted in medical care in the rural areas of the Dominican Republic. He was arrested in 2002 during the "November Vigil to Close Down the SOA" with a group of 86 human rights advocates, he served one year probation for bringing his protest against the SOA/WHINSEC onto the Fort Benning Military Reservation. Peter was awarded the Humanitarian of the Year on Feb. 6, 2006, by the Glenwood Springs Chamber of Commerce. In addition to his half-brother, Peter Jessup is survived by a sister, Jennifer Jessup of Denver, a half-sister, Morgan Jessup of Newcastle, his father, Ted Jessup of Newcastle, and his mother, Judy Britton of Glenwood Springs. ================================= STAND UP FOR IMMIGRANTS RIGHTS ================================= Immigration Officials Detained Elvira Arellano in Los Angeles on August 19 and Deported Her to Mexico Arellano is the president of the Chicago-based immigrant rights organization Familia Latina Unida. For one year she stayed in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago in defiance of a deportation order that would have separated her from her son, a U.S. citizen. She left the church on August 15 to continue her activism by speaking out on immigration issues in different cities, starting with Los Angeles. She had intended to end her tour with a prayer vigil in front of the Capitol in Washington, D.C. on September 12. --> Read more about this breaking news - http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/08/26/america/NA-GEN-US-Immigration-Activist.php -------------------------------- Bronx Activist Victor Toro to Face Immigration Judge on September 12 Immigration authorities detained longtime Bronx activist Victor Toro while he was traveling near Buffalo, NY in July. Toro is a Chilean who fled his home country after being imprisoned and tortured by Augusto Pinochet's military regime. Toro's next hearing is scheduled for Sept. 12 in Buffalo. His supporters are urging people to write letters to Immigration Judge Montante asking him to reassign the hearings to New York City. You can email the letters to Attorney Carlos Moreno, MrnCrls@aol.com. SOA Watch supports the struggle for Immigrant Rights. We understand that many immigrants to the United States are victims of U.S.-sponsored military training and atrocities in Latin America. In our fight to close the SOA, we continue to work towards a world that is free of suffering and violence. We recognize the SOA as being a part of the same racist system of violence and domination. We ally ourselves with those most affected by SOA violence and their families in our effort to create a better world. --> Read more about the Bush Administrations' clampdown on immigration - http://www.thenation.com/doc/20070827/bacon ========================================================= SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER/NOVEMBER - MOBILIZATIONS FOR PEACE! ========================================================= Join the protests against the war in Iraq in Washington, DC and around the country in September and October and the mobilization to close the SOA and change oppressive U.S. foreign policy at the gates of Fort Benning, Georgia in November. September 15 - March Against the War - Washington, DC - http://www.answercoalition.org September 29 - March against the war at home and abroad - Washington, DC - http://www.troopsoutnow.org October 27 and 28 - Regional antiwar protest around the country - http://www.unitedforpeace.org November 15-18 - Close the SOA and change oppressive U.S. Foreign Policy - http://www.soaw.org =================== WORK AT SOA WATCH =================== SOA WATCH IS HIRING A DEVELOPMENT & OPERATIONS COORDINATOR School of the Americas Watch is hiring a Development & Operations Coordinator to be based in Washington, DC. The position has been restructured as of August 1, 2007 and is full-time with health benefits, paid vacation and holidays. Salary is based on need and there are opportunities for skills development. Some of the responsibilities include - fundraising, applying for grants, maintaining a donor database, providing support for diverse working groups, stocking and promoting SOA Watch resources, supervise bookkeeping and accounts management, etc.. Bilingual candidates, people of color and women are encouraged to apply. --> READ the full job description and how to apply - http://www.soaw.org/article.php?id=756 ======================================================= Our postal address is SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, DC 20017 * ================================================================= .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org . List Archives: https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ . Subscribe: https://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================