This is the just-released 2005 updated edition of a thorough and eye-opening documentary on the "School of the Americas," the infamous American army training center for Latin American military personnel who go on to torture and suppress dissent in their own nations. Graduates of the "School of the Americas" played key roles in the dirty wars and Central American torture and killing under the Reagan regime.
Some of the top current Bush Administration officials condoned the torture and liquidates of anyone suspected of being pro-democracy, liberal or guilty of being poor during the Reagan and Bush the First regimes.
In "quieter ways," many of the same barbaric methods continue in Latin America, but in a less intense fashion.
In many ways, the School of the Americas, located in Ft. Benning Georgia, was the birthplace of the "interrogation" techniques used in Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo and elsewhere, as well as the civilian mbuttacres that occurred in Fallujah and other cities.
This is a very credible documentary because it is not filled with ideological invective. Indeed, military representatives of the School of Americas have their say, along with a host of credible critics.
One of the most moving pbuttages in the film is the account of torture provided by a former nun who was subjected to the most savage of interrogations merely for having served the poor. An American was present as she was subjected to the most unspeakable series of tortures.
It is easy for Americans worried about Islamic persons to dismiss the protesters who yearly are arrested for challenging the bloody legacy of the School of Americas that continues to haunt our foreign policy today.
