http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/Co...&tacodalogin=no

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Don't look other way in Iraq Doubtful new ambassador, who was in Honduras during Contra war, will fare as well in Baghdad -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Negroponte `looked the other way' -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 27. "Exquisitely dangerous" indeed. Duncan Campbell's account of John Dimitri Negroponte's tenure as United States Ambassador to Honduras (1981-1985) during the Contra war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, is certainly a premonition of what Iraq can expect. In Central America, Negroponte left a trail of blood. In the '80s more than 200,000 people were killed in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala as a result of President Ronald Reagan's support of brutal military regimes in the area. More than 3 million fled the violence sponsored by Reagan, and continued by former President George H. W. Bush. Negroponte's role was that of a White House policy enforcer. In the process, he violated the U.S. Congress ban on aid to the Contra forces. U.S. government documents show that Negroponte, who was at the helm of what was then commonly known as the USS Honduras as a result of the massive U.S. military build- up of that impoverished nation, and Vice-President Bush elaborated a plan to funnel Contra aid money through the Honduran government. Negroponte also befriended some of the most sadistic graduates of the U.S. School of the Americas. Known throughout Latin America as the School of Assassins, the U.S. army training centre produced Honduran Chief of the Armed Forces Gustavo Alvarez Martinez, accused of atrocities against civilians and General Luis Alonso Discua, founder of Battalion 3-61, a military death squad, legendary for its brutal torture and killing methods. Both generals would later acknowledge that Negroponte sanctioned their terrorist actions against captured Sandinista soldiers, Salvadoran refugees, and Honduran civilians suspected of being Communist sympathizers. In 1983 Reagan awarded Alvarez the Legion of Merit for "encouraging the success of democratic processes in Honduras." The Honduran Commission on Human Rights accused Negroponte himself of human rights violations. Although Negroponte was generally considered a pivotal Machiavellian character in Central America's bloodbath, he would eventually testify before a U.S. Congressional hearing that he was unaware of any human rights' violations when he served as U.S Ambassador in Honduras. Not unlike today's official White House position disavowing prisoners' torture in Guantanamo and Iraq. It certainly appears that his Central American résumé eminently qualifies Negroponte for the post of U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. It is doubtful however that he will fare as well in the Middle East. While both Tegucigalpa and Baghdad were turned into armed fortresses by the U.S. government, there was no insurgency in Honduras. Negroponte was relatively safe to do as he pleased. Iraq is a different story, a far cry from the exquisitely dangerous times Negroponte spent in Central America. In Iraq, he would be well advised not to look the other way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pastor Valle-Garay, Professor, York University, Toronto, Former Consul General of Nicaragua in Canada (1979-1988) for the Sandinista government

Don't even go there. The Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC)(formerly known as the School of the Americas) at Fort Benning never taught any student about torture and anything less than democratic principals. You can join the rest of the pathetic mob which protests against WHINSEC annually and even get incarcerated and charged in Federal Court if you cross the post boundary. Most of protest is about the same wild claims you make about the US training of past graduates.

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Democracy and Human Rights at WHINSEC The mission of WHINSEC is to educate and train military, police and civilians within the context of the democratic principles set forth in the Charter of the Organization of the American States (OAS). This mandate is explicitly stated in the public law that created WHINSEC in 2001 and adheres to the hemisphere-wide desire to maintain peace, prosperity and freedom for all the people of the region. The Institute, in keeping with its mandate from Congress, has developed and implemented meaningful and effective training in democracy and human rights, making our program among the best offered by military educational institutions anywhere in the Western Hemisphere.

Their web site is here: Link