2008 Woodie Awards
WHINSEC has weak connection to SOA
By: Lee A. Rials
Issue date: 3/8/07 Section: Letters to the Editor
- Page 1 of 1
This is old news because The Journal covered the issues between Webster and WHINSEC in November and December, but I want to make a couple of points for future consideration.
My first thought is sadness that not only you and your paper, but also your faculty, chose ideology over truth in the pursuit of this issue.
The most basic error in fact that your paper perpetrated is that WHINSEC is the same as SOA. When President Clinton signed the Defense Authorization Bill for FY2001, one section of the law withdrew the Army’s authority to operate the School of the Americas. That law also had a section that created the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Similar, not the same. A successor, not “formerly.”
Having said that, does it not strike anyone as strange that there is never any accusation about a course or instructor at the school? Did you ever notice that of all these “notorious graduates” and “dictators,” there is never a link to the course or courses they took? Consider this: Not one example has ever been shown of anyone using what he learned at the school to commit a crime — not even one. Saying so with no evidence is morally a libel of the people who worked there, falsely accusing them of illegal, immoral or unethical teaching.
Have you or anyone there looked at our courses and made any value judgments about them? With the school gone and SOA now transferring its political efforts to WHINSEC, one would think there is at least some current issue with what we do. If there is, I haven’t heard it.
Not all “Peace and Justice” groups are about justice, and certainly not about truth, if it doesn’t fit their message. And not all aspects of government are bad, just because they are part of government. Do the research, make the hard call to speak the truth, even if it doesn’t fit the agenda of your friends.
I repeat here my standard offer. Come to the institute, sit in classes, talk with students and faculty, review our instructional materials. Nothing here is inaccessible to you. You don’t even have to notify me in advance, but you do have to bring a photo ID to enter Fort Benning.
Lee A. Rials
Public Affairs Officer
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
Ft. Benning, GA
My first thought is sadness that not only you and your paper, but also your faculty, chose ideology over truth in the pursuit of this issue.
The most basic error in fact that your paper perpetrated is that WHINSEC is the same as SOA. When President Clinton signed the Defense Authorization Bill for FY2001, one section of the law withdrew the Army’s authority to operate the School of the Americas. That law also had a section that created the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation. Similar, not the same. A successor, not “formerly.”
Having said that, does it not strike anyone as strange that there is never any accusation about a course or instructor at the school? Did you ever notice that of all these “notorious graduates” and “dictators,” there is never a link to the course or courses they took? Consider this: Not one example has ever been shown of anyone using what he learned at the school to commit a crime — not even one. Saying so with no evidence is morally a libel of the people who worked there, falsely accusing them of illegal, immoral or unethical teaching.
Have you or anyone there looked at our courses and made any value judgments about them? With the school gone and SOA now transferring its political efforts to WHINSEC, one would think there is at least some current issue with what we do. If there is, I haven’t heard it.
Not all “Peace and Justice” groups are about justice, and certainly not about truth, if it doesn’t fit their message. And not all aspects of government are bad, just because they are part of government. Do the research, make the hard call to speak the truth, even if it doesn’t fit the agenda of your friends.
I repeat here my standard offer. Come to the institute, sit in classes, talk with students and faculty, review our instructional materials. Nothing here is inaccessible to you. You don’t even have to notify me in advance, but you do have to bring a photo ID to enter Fort Benning.
Lee A. Rials
Public Affairs Officer
Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation
Ft. Benning, GA
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