One of the most shocking lies by a military officer in recent history was told by Marine Col. Oliver North before a Senate investigating committee on the Iran-Contra scandal. He openly admitted that he had lied to Congress, a felony offense for which he did not spend one hour in jail nor pay one dollar in fines. In September 1996 major newspapers all over the nation carried the story released by the Pentagon that U.S. Army intelligence manuals used to train Latin American military officers contained passages advocating the use of a variety of methods of intimidation, including assassination and torture. The School of the Americas is credited with the use of the manuals. We have to sift through all the facts available and make our own decisions about what is being done in our name with our tax money.
Secrecy abounds in our government today.
The CIA breaks national and international laws with impunity and when the U.S. government is called by the World Court on its illegalities, it simply ignores it. Secrecy makes hypocrisy of our democracy. In my opinion, the School of the Americas has a serious credibility problem relative to what has been and is being taught to foreign military students from Latin America and more recently Mexico. There is no such thing as restoring its credibility, which from its inception has been going downhill. I don't think so, given the evidence released by the Pentagon and the average person's revulsion for torture.