Posted: 11/11/07 Section: News

Media Credit: David Lai (From left to right) Cara Watton Jr., junior in FAA, Lindsay Millette, sophomore in LAS, Camille Griffin Jr., junior in Education, and Dan Brencic, sophomore in AHS, listen in about the SOA protest, which will begin Friday.

Lisa Pickert doesn't want her tax dollars used to fund the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, a combat training school for Latin American soldiers in Fort Benning, Ga.

The U.S.-funded institute, formerly known as the School of Americas, has graduated more than 60,000 soldiers since its establishment in 1946. According to the School of Americas Watch, an independent organization that aims to close down the school, many of these soldiers have since been linked to the torture, rape, assassination, kidnapping and massacres of hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans, most notably the assassination of the Archbishop Oscar Romero in 1980.

Pickert, junior in LAS, hosted a teach-in recently at Allen Hall to inform students about the school and to encourage them to attend the School of Americas protest, which takes place Friday through Sunday in Fort Benning. The event draws more than 20,000 people annually.

Lee Rials, public affairs officer for the institute, said in an e-mail that the protest is based on a false premise and the school is not responsible for crimes committed by former students.

"There is not one example of anyone using what he learned at the school to commit a crime," Rials said in an e-mail. "Saying so with no evidence is tantamount to libel of the soldiers who taught at the school."

Rials also said there will be a tour of the school Saturday so protesters can see the building and speak with the institute's leaders. He said he expects about 750 people to attend.

Rev. Don Coleman is the 70-year-old co-pastor of University Church, a Chicago congregation associated with the United Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ. Last year he attended the protest and was arrested with 15 others after trespassing onto the school's grounds in hopes of attracting attention to the institution.

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