Court trial begins for SOA protesters - School of Americas Watch - Brief Article

National Catholic Reporter, Oct 12, 2001 by Gill Donovan

The trial of five School of Americas Watch human rights activists who were arrested July 31, 2000, in Philadelphia during the Republican National Convention, began Oct. 2. The five face charges of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest, obstructing justice, obstructing a highway and conspiracy to obstruct a highway following a peaceful protest.

The charges against the five were originally dismissed during a pre-trial hearing last October. Attorneys successfully argued that the defendants were selectively prosecuted because of the content of their speech and that their First and 14th Amendment rights were violated when they were singled out for prosecution. However, on May 17 of this year the district attorney's office succeeded in reversing the dismissal.

Despite the fact that Congress recently changed the school's name from the School of the Americas to Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the school, located at Fort Benning, Ga., is still run by combat instructors who teach counterinsurgency.

Reports by the U.S. Department of State, the United Nations, and human rights experts have implicated the school's graduates in some of the worst human rights abuses in the hemisphere in recent years. A news release from SOA Watch/Northeast said that among those who have received training at the school are "Manuel Noriega of Panama, and Roberto D'Aubuisson from El Salvador who was responsible for the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero."

"As we continually hear media reports applauding President Bush's initiatives for a war against `terrorism,'" the news release said, "we sadly wonder how many U.S. citizens are aware that millions of U.S. taxpayer dollars are used to fund a training school for terrorists in its own backyard."

Bishop Thomas Gumbleton will be among the character witnesses testifying for the defendants.