Still training to torture? US training of military forces from Latin America

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 27, Issue 8, 2006, Pages 1439-1461

  Blakeley, Ruth ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF KENT   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARMED FORCES; HUMAN RIGHTS; TRAINING;

NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 33845570207     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436590601027289     Document Type: Article

References (120)

1. J Nelson-Pallmeyer, School of Assassins: Guns, Greed and Globalization, New York: Orbis Books, 1997
2. K McCoy, 'Trained to torture: A statistical analysis of human rights violations committed by graduates of the US Army School of the Americas, 1960-2000', Master of Science thesis, University of Wisconsin, 2003.
3. My interpretation of the terms 'human rights' and 'repression' are drawn from two bodies of international law: International Humanitarian Law (IHL) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL). Human rights are those rights which all citizens share under international law, both in peacetime and during armed conflict, and which are to be guaranteed by armed actors with regard to IHL, and by the state and armed actors with regard to IHRL. The most fundamental of these are the right to life, the prohibition of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, prohibition of slavery and servitude and the prohibition of retroactive criminal laws. In addition to these, human rights comprise the prohibition of discrimination on any basis, provisions for the protection of women and children, and the regulation of aspects of health and food provision, as well as labour. I de.ne repression as any act which violates these human rights laws. See ICRC, 'International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law: Similarities and differences', International Committee of the Red Cross, 2003, at http://www.icrc.org/Web/Eng/siteeng0.nsf/htmlall/57JR8L/$FILE/ IHL_and_IHRL.pdf?OpenElement. I use the terms 'coercion' and 'repression' interchangeably.
4. Lesley Gill undertook an anthropological study at SOA, and analysed the way in which the training is intended to shape the Latin American militaries in accordance with US foreign policy objectives, by focusing on the interactions between sta. and students there in the late 1990s. See L Gill, The School of the Americas: Military Training and Political Violence in the Americas, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2004, which is the only work to date which has contained interviews with those involved with the training.
5. Amnesty International's research on the extent of US training of foreign military personnel included a brief section which commented on the improved transparency and introduction of human rights training at WHINSEC. AI, 'Unmatched power, unmet principles: The human rights dimensions of US training of foreign military and police forces', 2002, at http://www.amnestyusa.org/stoptorture/msp.pdf.
6. J Borger, 'US troops ordered to undergo ethical training after killing of Iraqi civilians', Guardian, 2 June 2006, at http://www.guardian.co.uk/ Iraq/Story/0,,1788643,00.html.
7. W Blum, Killing Hope: US Military and CIA interventions since World War II, London: Zed Books, 2003, pp 7-20
8. N Chomsky & E Herman, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism: The Political Economy of Human Rights, vol I, Boston, MA: South End Press, 1979, pp 1-40
9. E Herman, The Real Terror Network, Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1985, pp 1-8
10. G Kolko, Confronting the Third World: United States Foreign Policy 1945-1980, New York: Pantheon Books, 1988, pp 3-16
11. D Stokes, America's Other War, London: Zed Books, 2005, pp 18-34
12. D Stokes, 'Why the end of the Cold War doesn't matter: The US war of terror in Colombia', Review of International Studies, 29 (4), 2003, pp 560-585.
13. On the Phoenix Programme, see D Valentine, The Phoenix Program, Lincoln, NB: Authors Guild BackinPrint.Com, 2000.
14. On US involvement via the CIA in coups and repression, see Chomsky & Herman, The Washington Connection
15. Kolko, Confronting the Third World
16. Blum, Killing Hope.
17. For analysis of counter-insurgency as a US foreign policy tool, see M McClintock, Instruments of Statecraft, New York: Pantheon Books, 1992.
18. US Department of Defense, USARCARIB School Supplemental Course Catalogue, 1962, pp 5-7, cited in J Leuer, 'A half century of professionalism: The US Army School of the Americas', Adelante, Historical Edition, 2000, p 13.
19. Nelson-Pallmeyer, School of Assassins
20. McCoy, 'Trained to torture'.
21. SOAW, ''Notorious graduates (by country)', 2004, at http://www.soaw.org.
22. L Haugaard, 'Declassi.ed army and Central Intelligence Agency manuals used in Latin America: An analysis of their content', Latin American Working Group, 1997, at http://www.lawg.org/pages/new%20pages/Misc/ Publications-manuals.htm.
23. US Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense, 'Fact Sheet concerning training manuals containing materials inconsistent with United States policy', US Department of Defense, 1992, at http://www.gwu.edu/nsarchiv/nsa/archive/news/dodmans.htm.
24. Haugaard, 'Declassi.ed army and Central Intelligence Agency manuals'.
25. Interviews with DOD personnel between June and September 2004 enabled me to trace the development of the Spanish language materials.
26. J Kennedy, Report on the School of the Americas, Washington, DC: National Security Archives, 1996, pp 1-20.
27. CIA, Human Resource Exploitation Manual, Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 1982, manual acquired by National Security Archives under the Freedom of Information Act. The author can provide an analysis of the material that advocates torture within this manual on request.
28. Interview with Kenneth LaPlante, WHINSEC Liaison to the US Army, US DOD, The Pentagon, 3 June 2004.
29. Ibid.
30. US Inspector General, Report of the US Inspector General: Policy and Oversight, Washington, DC: Office of the US Inspector General, 1997, pp 7-8.
31. ICRC, 'Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of non-International Armed Con.icts (Protocol II)', 1977, at http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/ 52d68d14de6160e0c12563da005fdb1b/d67c3971bcff1c10c125641e0052b545? OpenDocument, Article 4.
32. US Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defence, 'Fact Sheet concerning training manuals containing materials inconsistent with United States policy'.
33. There is some confusion about the compilation and translation of the training manuals. SOAW claims that the training manuals were originally published in English by the US Army, and were then translated into Spanish. It claims that the DOD say the original English versions have been lost, and therefore no longer exist. The manuals available on the SOAW website are the English translations (by the Army) of the Spanish versions. However, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense claims that the manuals were published in Spanish only, and that no English translations were prepared when they were first compiled. Thus, whereas SOAW states that the DOD claim that the English originals no longer exist, the DOD claim that English originals never existed, and that they were only compiled in Spanish. As regards the English translations that are available from the SOAW website, which SOAW claims are translations by the US Army of the Spanish versions, these are, at times, poor translations.
34. US Department of Defence, Handling Sources, Washington, DC: US Department of Defence, 1989, School of the Americas Training Manual, at http://www.soaw.org.
35. Ibid, pp 1-37, 128.
36. Ibid, p130.
37. Ibid.
38. Handling Sources.
39. Ibid.
40. The other manuals also contain similar passages, and additional passages not mentioned in the ASDIO report, which also advocate human rights violations.
41. N Chomsky, 'Market democracy in a neoliberal order: Doctrines and reality', University of Cape Town, 1997, at http://www.bigeye.com/ chomsky.htm.
42. B Gills, J Rocamora & R Wilson (eds), Low Intensity Democracy: Political Power in the New World Order, London: Pluto, 1993, pp 3-34.
43. W Robinson, Promoting Polyarchy: Globalisation, US Intervention, and Hegemony, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, esp ch 1.
44. Interviewees from the DOD, WHINSEC and SOAW all agreed on the figure of 10 000 protestors.
45. Interview with Roy Bourgeois at his offce, situated outside the gates of Fort Benning, Columbus, GA, 20 July 2004.
46. United Nations Security Council, 'From madness to hope: The 12-year war in El Salvador: Report of the Commission on the Truth for El Salvador', 1993, at http://www.usip.org/library/tc/doc/reports/el_salvador/ tc_es_03151993_V.html.
47. K Burger, 'Army Secretary, DOD back ''serious reform'' at the School of the Americas', US Department of Defense - Inside the Army, 2000, at http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usamhi/usarsa/main.htm.
48. Interview with Joseph Leuer, Assistant Dean of Academics, WHINSEC, 16 August 2004.
49. US Department of Defense, Floyd D Spence National Defense Authorisation Act for Fiscal Year 2001, 10 USC 2166, Public Law 106-398.
50. Ibid.
51. The minutes from these meetings are documented and available at http://www.do.gov/facadatabase/AgenciesList.asp.
52. US Department of Defence, 'Directive Number 5111.12. Subject: Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation', US Department of Defense, 2002, at http://www.benning.army.mil/whinsec/uploadedFiles/ InstituteCharter.pdf.
53. J Cope, 'International military education and training: An assessment', Institute for National Strategic Studies, 1995, at http://www.ndu.edu/inss/macnair/mcnair44/m44cont.html.
54. Interview with Major Tony Raimondo, Judge Advocate and Chief of Human Rights Training, WHINSEC, 9 August 2004. The breakdown and explanation of the human rights and democracy training was also given at the WHINSEC Board Meeting on 16 July 2004.
55. Interview with Father Roy Bourgeois, 20 July 2004.
56. School of Americas Watch, Shut Down the SOA Flash Movie, Washington, DC: School of Americas Watch, 2006, at http://www.soaw.org/new/.ash.php.
57. Ibid.
58. Barry Cannon, 'Venezuela, April 2002: Coup or popular rebellion? The myth of a united Venezuela', Bulletin of Latin American Research, 23 (3), 2004, pp 285-302.
59. School of Americas Watch, Shut Down the SOA Flash Movie.
60. McCoy, 'Trained to torture', pp 4-5.
61. Ibid, pp 50-51.
62. Sean Donahue, 'General Clark, the School of the Americas and US values', School of Americas Watch, 2004, at http://www.soaw.org/new/ article.php?id=721.
63. McCoy, 'Trained to torture', pp 47-48
64. SOAW, 'Notorious graduates'.
65. McCoy, 'Trained to torture', pp 47-48.
66. SOAW, 'Notorious graduates'.
67. Ibid.
68. Interviews with Jacqueline Baker, SAOW Legislative Coordinator, SAOW office, Washington, DC, 7 June 2004 and Eric LeCompte, Events and Outreach Coordinator, SOAW Office, Washington, DC, 16 June 2004.
69. Interview with Father Roy Bourgeois, 20 July 2004.
70. Ibid.
71. Interview with Eric LeCompte, Events and Outreach Coordinator, SOAW, SOAW Office, Washington, DC, 16 July 2004.
72. School of Americas Watch, 'Argentina and Uruguay abandon SOA! Critical victory for human rights organisations across the Americas', 28 March 2006, at http://www.soaw.org/new/article.php?id=1290
73. School of Americas Watch E-mail/website news item, 'Venezuela ceases all training of Venezuelan troops at the School of the Americas (SOA/ WHINSEC)', 2004, at http://www.soaw.org/news/docs/venezuela.doc.
74. Centre for International Policy, 'Article 98' Agreements and the International Criminal Court', Latin America Working Group and Centre for International Policy: Just the Facts: A Civilian's Guide to US Defence and Security Assistance to Latin America and the Caribbean, 4 April 2005, at http://ciponline.org/facts/art98.htm.
75. Personal correspondence with Lee Rials, WHINSEC Public Affairs Officer, 13 April 2006.
76. School of Americas Watch, 'Argentina and Uruguay abandon SOA'.
77. See also Greg Grandin, 'The wide war - how Donald Rumsfeld discovered the Wild West in Latin America', Tomdispatch.com, 7 May 2006, at http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/printer_050806L.shtml.
78. Personal correspondence with Lee Rials, 13 April 2006.
79. US Department of Defense, 'Field Manual 27-10. The Law of Land Warfare', US Department of Defence, 1956, at http://www.globalsecurity.org/ military/library/policy/army/fm/27-10/index.html.
80. Observations of Command and General Sta. O.cers Course sessions, WHINSEC, 20-22 July 2004.
81. Interview with International Committee of the Red Cross representative, WHINSEC, 21 July 2004.
82. S Hersh, Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib, London: Penguin Books, 2004, p 13.
83. L Lumpe, US Foreign Military Training: Global Reach, Global Power, and Oversight Issues, New Mexico: Foreign Policy in Focus, 2002, p 30.
84. Dana Priest, The Mission: Waging War and Keeping Peace with America's Military, New York: WW Norton, 2004, p 222.
85. Lumpe, US Foreign Military Training, p 27.
86. Ibid, p 19.
87. Priest, The Mission, pp 219-222.
88. Ibid, pp 219, 223.
89. Lumpe, US Foreign Military Training, p 5.
90. United Nations, Press Release Hr/CN/975, 'Commission of Human Rights opens Special Session on East Timor', New York, 24 September 1999, at http://www.un.org/index.html.
91. Lumpe, US Foreign Military Training, p 19.
92. US Department of State, FY2004: Congressional Budget Justi.cation for Foreign Operations - Military Assistance, p 154.
93. J Cole, 'US military rules of engagement and the Iraq war', Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion, web log of Juan Cole, 2005, at http://www.juancole.com/2005/08/ us-military-rules-of-engagement-and.html.
94. The military doctrine that deals with this issue is DOD, 'Operational Law Handbook, Chapter 5: Rules of Engagement', US Department of Defence, Judge Advocate General's Legal Centre and School, 2003, at http://www.juancole.com/2005/08/us-military-rules-of-engagement-and.html.
95. J Cole, 'US military rules of engagement and the Iraq war'.
96. Democratic Sustainment Course, Case Study on Colombian Civil-Military Relations, WHINSEC, class observed 29 July 2004.
97. Interview with Kenneth LaPlante, 24 June 2004.
98. L Lumpe, 'US Foreign Military Training'.
99. J Bybee, 'Memorandum for Alberto R Gonzales, Counsel to the President. Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 USC 2340-2340A', US Department of Justice, Office of Legal Counsel, 1 August 2002, cited in K Greenberg & J Dratel (eds), The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp 172-214.
100. Ibid, p 2.
101. Ibid.
102. Hersh, Chain of Command, p 5.
103. President George Bush, 'Order signed by the President on the Treatment of Detainees', Associated Press, 2002, at http://www.kron.com/global/ story.asp?s=1962000&ClientType=Printable.
104. Interview with Kenneth LaPlante, 3 June 2004.
105. D Rumsfeld, Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism: Assessment of Legal, Historical, Policy and Operational Considerations,Washington, DC: O.ce of the Secretary of Defence, 4 April 2003, cited in Greenberg & Dratel, The Torture Papers, pp 286-359.
106. J Mayer, 'Outsourcing torture: The secret history of America's "extraordinary rendition" programme', The New Yorker, 7 February 2005, at http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/ 050214fa_fact6.
107. D Priest, 'CIA holds terror suspects in secret prisons', Washington Post, 2 November 2005, p A01, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ content/article/2005/11/01/AR2005110101644_pf.html.
108. Mayer, 'Outsourcing torture'
109. Priest, 'CIA holds terror suspects'.
110. D Priest, 'Jet is an open secret in terror war', Washington Post, 27 December 2004, at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/ A27826-2004Dec26.html.
111. J Wilson, 'Bush seeks CIA exemption from ban on cruelty to terror suspects', Guardian, 26 October 2005, p 16.
112. Personal correspondence with Professor Deborah Avant, 12 December 2005, and with Lee Rials, 12 December 2005; interview with Jose Sorzano, Arlington, VA, 21 June 2004, in which he excused US complicity in human rights violations during the Cold War in Latin America, arguing, 'As you know the Monroe Doctrine declared the Western Hemisphere to be the US' zone of influence. We had an interest in preventing the Soviet Union, but also since urban guerrillas are associated with the Soviet side, we had a propensity to help the other side'.
113. Associated Press, 'Biographical info on Supreme Court candidate Ben Hand', Associated Press, 7 April2006, at http://www.al.com/news.ash/ regional/index.ssf?/base/news-20/114444686545500.xml& storylist=alabamanews; and Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, 'WHINSEC Board of Visitors', WHINSEC, 2006, at https://www.benning.army.mil/whinsec/BOV.asp?id=27.
114. Edward Herman & Gerry O'Sullivan, The 'Terrorism' Industry: The Experts and Institutions that Shape our View of Terror, New York: Pantheon, 1989, ch 2.
115. Marc Ambinder, 'Inside the Council for National Policy: Meet the most powerful conservative group you've never heard of', ABC News, at http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=121170&page=1, accessed 16 March 2006.
116. Personal correspondence with Professor Deborah Avant, 12 December 2005.
117. Personal correspondence with Lee Rials, 30 April 2006.
118. For a discussion of the differences between priorities under Clinton and since 9/11, see Grandin, 'The wide war'.
119. Interview with Father Roy Bourgeois, 20 July 2004.
120. Interview with Eric LeCompte, 16 July 2004.