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42 House Democrats - including Cardoza and Costa - vote to keep School of Americas open
The 42 House Democrats that voted to keep the School of the Americas open include two Central Valley Congressmen, Dennis Cardoza and Jim Costa.
42 House Democrats - including Cardoza and Costa - Vote to Keep School of the Americas Open
By Dan Bacher
Two San Joaquin Valley Representatives, Dennis Cardoza of Merced and Jim Costa of Fresno, were among 42 Democrats that voted to keep the world's foremost torture school, the School of the Americas, open during a House vote on June 21.
Cardova, Costa and 40 other Democrats voted no on the McGovern Amendment that would have finally cut off funding to the School of Americas (SOA), now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Only 6 more votes were needed to pass it - but these Democrats shamefully chose to join Republican Representatives in voting for the school, whose graduates have been responsible for genocide, assassinations, torture and other human rights violations throughout Latin America for decades.
The vote was 203 yes, 214 no, 1 voting "present" and 19 not voting.
California representatives Loretta Sanchez and Grace Napolitano, along with Charles Rangel of New York, are listed among the Democrats who chose not to vote. (House Speaker Pelosi is not found on any list, not even present.)
SOA Watch, a human rights advocacy group founded in 1990 by Maryknoll Priest Father Roy Bourgeois to close the “School of Death,” was disappointed by the vote. However, SOA Watch vowed to continue its efforts in Congress until the school, located in Fort Benning, Georgia, is shut down.
“The grassroots mobilizing effort was tremendous: Tens of thousands of emails, faxes and calls flooded the halls of Congress over the past three days,” said Joao Da Silva, SOA Watch spokesman, after the vote at 11:52 p.m. on Thursday. “Students, clergy, union members and veterans traveled to DC and visited with hundreds of Congressional offices to communicate clearly that there is no room for institutions like the SOA/WHINSEC in our future. Despite this, 214 Members of Congress missed the chance to stand up for human rights, justice and democracy, and voted to keep the funding for the SOA/WHINSEC flowing.”
The WHINSEC “PR machine” and high-ranking Pentagon officials used taxpayer money to put a lot of pressure on Members of Congress. However, Da Silva said this is no excuse for Representatives to not be accountable to their constituents.
“There were Representatives this week that committed to vote to cut funding for the SOA/WHINSEC, and then shifted their vote,” said Da Silva. “Those people need hear from all of us, loudly and in public.”
Da Silva emphasized, “While we did not get enough Members of Congress to vote with us, it was clear to us and our supporters in the House that we have tremendous power when we mobilize together. We gained the support of new Republicans and new members of Congress. The margin of SOA/ WHINSEC survival is rapidly dwindling, and this week due to grassroots pressure, we added several new cosponsors to HR 1707 bringing our total to 111. We have gained a lot of ground in Congress and our goal of closing this School of the Death is coming closer and closer.”
Although the amendment failed to pass by 6 votes, the vote still came closer to ending the school's funding than last June's vote, when the amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill by Jim McGovern (D-MA) calling for school's closure failed by a 15 vote margin.
The recent vote came after a series of successes by SOA Watch over the past two years in convincing Latin America leaders to pull their military and police officers out of Latin America. Venezuela, the first country to pull its troops out of the SOA in 2005, was followed by Argentina and Uruguay last year. After a visit to Bolivia by Roy Bourgeois, President Evo Morales said Bolivia's military will be pulling out of SOA/WHINSEC on a gradual basis.
More recently, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias announced on May 16 that Costa Rica will stop sending its police to train at the school. Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the decision after talks with a delegation of SOA Watch, including Bourgeois and Lisa Sullivan Rodriguez.
Costa Rica does not have an army - choosing to spend its tax money on education, health and social welfare - but has sent some 2,600 police officers over the years to be trained at the school. "We agreed that when the courses end for the three policemen we are not going to send any more," Arias said.
The SOA/WHINSEC has graduated at least 11 military dictators and over 60,000 soldiers, many of which have been linked to some of the worst human rights abuses committed in the Americas.
“The school made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution,” said Da Silva. “Despite this admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses committed by soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation into the facility has ever taken place.”
SOA Graduates include Hugo Banzer Suarez, the former dictator of Bolivia, and Guatemalan Dictator Efren Rios Montt, who was responsible for a war of genocide against the Mayan people that resulted in the elimination of 626 Mayan villages from the face of the earth. Notorious human rights abusers such General Hector Gramajo of Guatemala, Leopoldo Galtieri of Argentina, and Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador were also graduates.
Lower-level SOA graduates have been involved in many atrocities including the massacre of 900 people at the village of El Mozote in El Salvador in the early 1980's and the massacre of four Jesuit priests and the housekeeper at in San Salvador in 1989.
Bourgeois in his talks around the country always emphasizes the role that the school plays in providing the shock troops and enforcers for corporate globalization throughout Latin America.
"The SOA continues to provide the muscle for U.S. foreign policy. It keeps the rich rich and the poor poor,” said Bourgeois at a talk in Sacramento this February.
Protests calling for the closure of the School of the Americas/WHINSEC have taken place every year around the November 16 anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuit priests and two Salvadoran women at the hands of SOA graduates.
Every year, brave activists “trespass” onto army property during the protest at Fort Benning, facing arrest and time in federal prison. Since 1990, 211 SOA Watch human rights defenders have collectively spent over 92 years in prison, while over 50 people have served probation sentences.
SOA/WHINSEC Vote in Congress – Visit http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll536.xml to check the roll call to see how your Representative voted. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to thank your Representative or to express your displeasure.
For more information, visit the SOA Watch website and the Legislative Action Index.at: http://www.soaw.org/
List of Democrats Voting No for Closure of the SOA:
Abercrombie, Neil, Hawaii
Barrow, John, Georgia
Bishop, Sanford D. Georgia
Boren, Dan, Oklahoma
Cardoza, Dennis, California
Carney, Christopher, Pennsylvania
Castor, Kathy, Florida
Clyburn, James, South Carolina
Cooper, James, Tennessee
Costa, James, California
Cuellar, Henry, Texas
Dingell, John, Michigan
Edwards, Chet, Texas
Gonzalez, Charles, Texas
Gordon, Bart, Tennessee
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie, South Dakota
Jefferson, William, Louisiana
Johnson, E.B., Texas
Klein, Ron, Florida
Lampson, Nick, Texas
Mahoney, Tim, Florida
Marshall, James, Georgia
Matheson, James, Utah
McIntyre, Michael, North Carolina
Meek, Kendrick, Florida
Miller., Brad, North Carolina
Murphy, Patrick, Pennsylvania
Murtha, John, Pennsylvania
Perlmutter, Ed, Colorado
Peterson, Colin, Minnesota
Reyes, Silvestre, Teaxs
Rodriguez, Ciro, Texas
Ross, Michael, Arkansas
Ruppersberger, Dutch, Maryland
Sestak, Joseph, Pennsylvania
Skelton, Ike, Missouri
Space, Zachary, Ohio
Spratt, John, South Carolina
Tanner, John, Tennessee
Taylor, Gene, Mississippi
Present:
Christensen, Donna, US Virgin Islands
Not Voting:
Bordallo, Madeline, Guam
Costello, Jerry, Illinois
Cramer, Robert, Alabama
Johnson, Henry, Georgia
Meehan, Marty, Massachusetts
Melancon, Charles, Louisiana
Napolitano, Grace, California
Ortiz, Solomon, Texas
Rangel, Charles, New York
Sanchez, Loretta, California
Scott, David, Georgia
Weiner, Anthony, New York
By Dan Bacher
Two San Joaquin Valley Representatives, Dennis Cardoza of Merced and Jim Costa of Fresno, were among 42 Democrats that voted to keep the world's foremost torture school, the School of the Americas, open during a House vote on June 21.
Cardova, Costa and 40 other Democrats voted no on the McGovern Amendment that would have finally cut off funding to the School of Americas (SOA), now known as Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC). Only 6 more votes were needed to pass it - but these Democrats shamefully chose to join Republican Representatives in voting for the school, whose graduates have been responsible for genocide, assassinations, torture and other human rights violations throughout Latin America for decades.
The vote was 203 yes, 214 no, 1 voting "present" and 19 not voting.
California representatives Loretta Sanchez and Grace Napolitano, along with Charles Rangel of New York, are listed among the Democrats who chose not to vote. (House Speaker Pelosi is not found on any list, not even present.)
SOA Watch, a human rights advocacy group founded in 1990 by Maryknoll Priest Father Roy Bourgeois to close the “School of Death,” was disappointed by the vote. However, SOA Watch vowed to continue its efforts in Congress until the school, located in Fort Benning, Georgia, is shut down.
“The grassroots mobilizing effort was tremendous: Tens of thousands of emails, faxes and calls flooded the halls of Congress over the past three days,” said Joao Da Silva, SOA Watch spokesman, after the vote at 11:52 p.m. on Thursday. “Students, clergy, union members and veterans traveled to DC and visited with hundreds of Congressional offices to communicate clearly that there is no room for institutions like the SOA/WHINSEC in our future. Despite this, 214 Members of Congress missed the chance to stand up for human rights, justice and democracy, and voted to keep the funding for the SOA/WHINSEC flowing.”
The WHINSEC “PR machine” and high-ranking Pentagon officials used taxpayer money to put a lot of pressure on Members of Congress. However, Da Silva said this is no excuse for Representatives to not be accountable to their constituents.
“There were Representatives this week that committed to vote to cut funding for the SOA/WHINSEC, and then shifted their vote,” said Da Silva. “Those people need hear from all of us, loudly and in public.”
Da Silva emphasized, “While we did not get enough Members of Congress to vote with us, it was clear to us and our supporters in the House that we have tremendous power when we mobilize together. We gained the support of new Republicans and new members of Congress. The margin of SOA/ WHINSEC survival is rapidly dwindling, and this week due to grassroots pressure, we added several new cosponsors to HR 1707 bringing our total to 111. We have gained a lot of ground in Congress and our goal of closing this School of the Death is coming closer and closer.”
Although the amendment failed to pass by 6 votes, the vote still came closer to ending the school's funding than last June's vote, when the amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill by Jim McGovern (D-MA) calling for school's closure failed by a 15 vote margin.
The recent vote came after a series of successes by SOA Watch over the past two years in convincing Latin America leaders to pull their military and police officers out of Latin America. Venezuela, the first country to pull its troops out of the SOA in 2005, was followed by Argentina and Uruguay last year. After a visit to Bolivia by Roy Bourgeois, President Evo Morales said Bolivia's military will be pulling out of SOA/WHINSEC on a gradual basis.
More recently, Costa Rican President Oscar Arias announced on May 16 that Costa Rica will stop sending its police to train at the school. Arias, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, made the decision after talks with a delegation of SOA Watch, including Bourgeois and Lisa Sullivan Rodriguez.
Costa Rica does not have an army - choosing to spend its tax money on education, health and social welfare - but has sent some 2,600 police officers over the years to be trained at the school. "We agreed that when the courses end for the three policemen we are not going to send any more," Arias said.
The SOA/WHINSEC has graduated at least 11 military dictators and over 60,000 soldiers, many of which have been linked to some of the worst human rights abuses committed in the Americas.
“The school made headlines in 1996 when the Pentagon released training manuals used at the school that advocated torture, extortion and execution,” said Da Silva. “Despite this admission and hundreds of documented human rights abuses committed by soldiers trained at the school, no independent investigation into the facility has ever taken place.”
SOA Graduates include Hugo Banzer Suarez, the former dictator of Bolivia, and Guatemalan Dictator Efren Rios Montt, who was responsible for a war of genocide against the Mayan people that resulted in the elimination of 626 Mayan villages from the face of the earth. Notorious human rights abusers such General Hector Gramajo of Guatemala, Leopoldo Galtieri of Argentina, and Guillermo Rodriguez of Ecuador were also graduates.
Lower-level SOA graduates have been involved in many atrocities including the massacre of 900 people at the village of El Mozote in El Salvador in the early 1980's and the massacre of four Jesuit priests and the housekeeper at in San Salvador in 1989.
Bourgeois in his talks around the country always emphasizes the role that the school plays in providing the shock troops and enforcers for corporate globalization throughout Latin America.
"The SOA continues to provide the muscle for U.S. foreign policy. It keeps the rich rich and the poor poor,” said Bourgeois at a talk in Sacramento this February.
Protests calling for the closure of the School of the Americas/WHINSEC have taken place every year around the November 16 anniversary of the assassination of six Jesuit priests and two Salvadoran women at the hands of SOA graduates.
Every year, brave activists “trespass” onto army property during the protest at Fort Benning, facing arrest and time in federal prison. Since 1990, 211 SOA Watch human rights defenders have collectively spent over 92 years in prison, while over 50 people have served probation sentences.
SOA/WHINSEC Vote in Congress – Visit http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2007/roll536.xml to check the roll call to see how your Representative voted. Call the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 to thank your Representative or to express your displeasure.
For more information, visit the SOA Watch website and the Legislative Action Index.at: http://www.soaw.org/
List of Democrats Voting No for Closure of the SOA:
Abercrombie, Neil, Hawaii
Barrow, John, Georgia
Bishop, Sanford D. Georgia
Boren, Dan, Oklahoma
Cardoza, Dennis, California
Carney, Christopher, Pennsylvania
Castor, Kathy, Florida
Clyburn, James, South Carolina
Cooper, James, Tennessee
Costa, James, California
Cuellar, Henry, Texas
Dingell, John, Michigan
Edwards, Chet, Texas
Gonzalez, Charles, Texas
Gordon, Bart, Tennessee
Herseth Sandlin, Stephanie, South Dakota
Jefferson, William, Louisiana
Johnson, E.B., Texas
Klein, Ron, Florida
Lampson, Nick, Texas
Mahoney, Tim, Florida
Marshall, James, Georgia
Matheson, James, Utah
McIntyre, Michael, North Carolina
Meek, Kendrick, Florida
Miller., Brad, North Carolina
Murphy, Patrick, Pennsylvania
Murtha, John, Pennsylvania
Perlmutter, Ed, Colorado
Peterson, Colin, Minnesota
Reyes, Silvestre, Teaxs
Rodriguez, Ciro, Texas
Ross, Michael, Arkansas
Ruppersberger, Dutch, Maryland
Sestak, Joseph, Pennsylvania
Skelton, Ike, Missouri
Space, Zachary, Ohio
Spratt, John, South Carolina
Tanner, John, Tennessee
Taylor, Gene, Mississippi
Present:
Christensen, Donna, US Virgin Islands
Not Voting:
Bordallo, Madeline, Guam
Costello, Jerry, Illinois
Cramer, Robert, Alabama
Johnson, Henry, Georgia
Meehan, Marty, Massachusetts
Melancon, Charles, Louisiana
Napolitano, Grace, California
Ortiz, Solomon, Texas
Rangel, Charles, New York
Sanchez, Loretta, California
Scott, David, Georgia
Weiner, Anthony, New York
Add Your Comments
Comments
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How long are the true independents going to keep supporting the fraudulent organization known as SOA Watch? It does not want to close the School of the Americas, because President Clinton and Congress did that for them more than six years ago. They are attacking the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which President Clinton and Congress created more than six years ago. If you want the institute closed, why can't you provide even one issue that you have with it? Name one course you don't like. Take the six reports that have been given to Congress by DoD and find fault. Or the five reports by the Board of Visitors (which includes members of Congress and non-government civilians), which are posted on the federal committee web site. The real fraud here is SOAW persuading the good and sincere people who want to have an impact on the world to divert their resource to this false 'cause.' Most egregious is persuading good and sincere people to trespass onto Fort Benning for no purpose at all except to get it publicity. If you really want to know the truth, come see for yourself. Not only is the institute open to visitors every day, in November we hold an open house for those in Columbus for the protests. We have hosted quite a few from the Bay area. I know you can call me the 'spin doctor' for the institute; that's why I say, see for yourself. Mr. Bacher won't say that.
For more information:
https://www.infantry.army.mil/whinsec
Response to Lee A. Rials;
Lee wrote;
"How long are the true independents going to keep supporting the fraudulent organization known as SOA Watch? It does not want to close the School of the Americas, because President Clinton and Congress did that for them more than six years ago."
They are attacking the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which President Clinton and Congress created more than six years ago."
Response;
Hmm, could it be that SOA morphed into WHINSC with a simple name change? What sort of closure is there if you reopen the institution in the same location, same practices (training assassins, torturers, military dictators) and mostly the same military personal in the upper echelons of staff??
Lee wrote;
"If you want the institute closed, why can't you provide even one issue that you have with it? Name one course you don't like. Take the six reports that have been given to Congress by DoD and find fault."
Response;
How effective is the Dept of Defense at providing truthful internal critiques, especially under the GW Bush regime where anyone who doesn't tow the line of U.S. Uber Alles is labeled a traitor and "friend of THE TERRORists??" by the DHS Patriot ACT? We know that whistleblowers under GW Bush regime's DHS 'protection' are discredited publicly and sometimes either have accidents or disappear. However, sometimes whistleblowers are alive and well following their valuable testimony..
This details a small victory for an ethical FBI whistleblower;
"Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 5, 2007. In a historic ruling against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a federal court jury unanimously held that the FBI illegally retaliated against Jane Turner, a 25-year veteran FBI agent. The federal jury found that the FBI retaliated against Ms. Turner when it downgraded her performance reviews. She was awarded $60,000.00 in lost wages and $505,000.00 for damages to reputation and emotional distress caused by the FBI’s retaliation.
The case was previously heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, which had unanimously upheld the right of Jane Turner to go before a jury and state her claims. That decision can be found at Turner v. Ashcroft , 421 F.3d 688 (8th Cir. 2005).
Ms. Turner’s performance had been attacked by FBI managers after she filed a civil rights case and disclosed serious FBI misconduct in its handling of child abuse cases. In one case, Ms. Turner vigorously complained that the FBI had improperly classified the brutal rape of a two year old Native American child as a "motor vehicle accident." At the trial, government witnesses confirmed that Ms. Turner had successfully “dogged” the case for over one year and forced the government to re-open the prosecution. Her investigation led to a guilty plea by the rapist.
Among the FBI officials who participated in the retaliatory actions against Ms. Turner were James Burrus, the current Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Division and James Casey, a high level official in the FBI’s counterterrorism program.
Ms. Turner is the same FBI agent who also blew the whistle on FBI theft from Ground Zero (the 9/11 WorldTradeCenter crime scene). As a result of her disclosures the DOJ Office of Inspector General confirmed widespread FBI-takings from Ground Zero.
Stephen M. Kohn, one of Jane Turner’s attorneys, and the President of the National Whistleblower Center, issued the following statement: "The buck stopped here. Jane Turner is an American hero. She refused to be silent when her co-agents committed misconduct in a child rape case. She refused to be silent when her co-agents stole properly from Ground Zero. She paid the price and lost her job. The jury did the right thing and insured that justice will take place in her case. For eight years the FBI misused its performance review and inspection process to justify vicious retaliation against an award-winning agent.”
"
There is protection for whistleblowers @;
http://www.whistleblowers.org/
On the subject of theft of evidence from the 9/11 WTC building collapse, it is timely to include this whistleblower as today former EPA head Christie "Todd" Whitman attempts to obfuscate evidence in public trial. There was another less fortunate FBI whistleblower who predicted the attacks by Al-Queda on the WTC building months ahead of time, though was repeatedly ignored by FBI authorities and transferred to the WTC where he died in the attacks..
This from those radical "9/11 conspiracy wingnuts" at PBS Frontline:
"Update- April 12, 2004: In the week that the 9/11 Commission holds hearings scrutinizing the FBI's actions in the years prior to the terrorist attack, FRONTLINE rebroadcasts the remarkable story of John P. O'Neill, the FBI's counterterrorism expert who long warned of Al Qaeda's threat. A summary of this FRONTLINE report follows:
When the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001, among the thousands killed was the one man who may have known more about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda than any other person in America: John O'Neill.
The former head of the FBI's flagship antiterrorism unit in New York City, O'Neill had investigated the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa and the USS Cole in Yemen. For six years, he led the fight to track down and prosecute Al Qaeda operatives throughout the world. But his flamboyant, James Bond style and obsession with Osama bin Laden made him a controversial figure inside the buttoned-down world of the FBI. Just two weeks before Sept. 11, O'Neill left the bureau for a job in the private sector -- as head of security at the World Trade Center. He died there after rushing back into the burning towers to aid in the rescue efforts."
article @;
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/synopsis.html
We cannot be expected to believe that the Dept. of Defense treats their whistleblowers any better than does the FBI!!
Lee wrote;
"Or the five reports by the Board of Visitors (which includes members of Congress and non-government civilians), which are posted on the federal committee web site."
Again, just who are these handpicked Board of Visitors and how are they chosen? Whom are they chosen by??
Lee wrote;
"The real fraud here is SOAW persuading the good and sincere people who want to have an impact on the world to divert their resource to this false 'cause.' Most egregious is persuading good and sincere people to trespass onto Fort Benning for no purpose at all except to get it publicity."
Response;
Any desired publicity from SOA-Watch is for the goal of eventual closure of the SOA renamed WHINSC military campus. Perhaps the SOA-Watch is using a dated name and would be more accurate renamed as WHINSeC-Watch or something like that..
Lee wrote;
"If you really want to know the truth, come see for yourself. Not only is the institute open to visitors every day, in November we hold an open house for those in Columbus for the protests."
Response;
Of course visitors can view the stated public relations platform ("Freedom, Peace and Brotherhood", what a nice ring!!) of WHINSC either via their website (nice pix!) of by stopping into the front office to view the public display. Of course WHINSC cannot be expected to show off everything because 'THE TERROR'-ists may use any top secret military info to their advantage EH? Or maybe the WHINSC torture rooms (sorry; 'info extraction' rooms) are NOT visible to the public OR 'THE TERROR-ists' either because that is a top secret aspect of WHNSC that nobody besides the info extractors or the info extractees (sorry; torture victims) needs to know about..
BTW, While in Columbus, GA, be sure to visit the "porno strip" of adult entertainment stores that lines one of the main roads near WHINSC military campus. Here WHINSC trainees and graduates are emotionally desensitized by frequent exposures to pornography culture in preparations for thier use of rape and sexual abuse as a torture (sorry; info extraction) tactic used on prisoners..
Lee wrote;
"We have hosted quite a few from the Bay area. I know you can call me the 'spin doctor' for the institute; that's why I say, see for yourself. Mr. Bacher won't say that."
Response;
We don't need to call you anything, haven't you already implicated yourself by your content??
Lee wrote;
"How long are the true independents going to keep supporting the fraudulent organization known as SOA Watch? It does not want to close the School of the Americas, because President Clinton and Congress did that for them more than six years ago."
They are attacking the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, which President Clinton and Congress created more than six years ago."
Response;
Hmm, could it be that SOA morphed into WHINSC with a simple name change? What sort of closure is there if you reopen the institution in the same location, same practices (training assassins, torturers, military dictators) and mostly the same military personal in the upper echelons of staff??
Lee wrote;
"If you want the institute closed, why can't you provide even one issue that you have with it? Name one course you don't like. Take the six reports that have been given to Congress by DoD and find fault."
Response;
How effective is the Dept of Defense at providing truthful internal critiques, especially under the GW Bush regime where anyone who doesn't tow the line of U.S. Uber Alles is labeled a traitor and "friend of THE TERRORists??" by the DHS Patriot ACT? We know that whistleblowers under GW Bush regime's DHS 'protection' are discredited publicly and sometimes either have accidents or disappear. However, sometimes whistleblowers are alive and well following their valuable testimony..
This details a small victory for an ethical FBI whistleblower;
"Minneapolis, Minnesota, February 5, 2007. In a historic ruling against the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a federal court jury unanimously held that the FBI illegally retaliated against Jane Turner, a 25-year veteran FBI agent. The federal jury found that the FBI retaliated against Ms. Turner when it downgraded her performance reviews. She was awarded $60,000.00 in lost wages and $505,000.00 for damages to reputation and emotional distress caused by the FBI’s retaliation.
The case was previously heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, which had unanimously upheld the right of Jane Turner to go before a jury and state her claims. That decision can be found at Turner v. Ashcroft , 421 F.3d 688 (8th Cir. 2005).
Ms. Turner’s performance had been attacked by FBI managers after she filed a civil rights case and disclosed serious FBI misconduct in its handling of child abuse cases. In one case, Ms. Turner vigorously complained that the FBI had improperly classified the brutal rape of a two year old Native American child as a "motor vehicle accident." At the trial, government witnesses confirmed that Ms. Turner had successfully “dogged” the case for over one year and forced the government to re-open the prosecution. Her investigation led to a guilty plea by the rapist.
Among the FBI officials who participated in the retaliatory actions against Ms. Turner were James Burrus, the current Assistant Director of the FBI's Criminal Division and James Casey, a high level official in the FBI’s counterterrorism program.
Ms. Turner is the same FBI agent who also blew the whistle on FBI theft from Ground Zero (the 9/11 WorldTradeCenter crime scene). As a result of her disclosures the DOJ Office of Inspector General confirmed widespread FBI-takings from Ground Zero.
Stephen M. Kohn, one of Jane Turner’s attorneys, and the President of the National Whistleblower Center, issued the following statement: "The buck stopped here. Jane Turner is an American hero. She refused to be silent when her co-agents committed misconduct in a child rape case. She refused to be silent when her co-agents stole properly from Ground Zero. She paid the price and lost her job. The jury did the right thing and insured that justice will take place in her case. For eight years the FBI misused its performance review and inspection process to justify vicious retaliation against an award-winning agent.”
"
There is protection for whistleblowers @;
http://www.whistleblowers.org/
On the subject of theft of evidence from the 9/11 WTC building collapse, it is timely to include this whistleblower as today former EPA head Christie "Todd" Whitman attempts to obfuscate evidence in public trial. There was another less fortunate FBI whistleblower who predicted the attacks by Al-Queda on the WTC building months ahead of time, though was repeatedly ignored by FBI authorities and transferred to the WTC where he died in the attacks..
This from those radical "9/11 conspiracy wingnuts" at PBS Frontline:
"Update- April 12, 2004: In the week that the 9/11 Commission holds hearings scrutinizing the FBI's actions in the years prior to the terrorist attack, FRONTLINE rebroadcasts the remarkable story of John P. O'Neill, the FBI's counterterrorism expert who long warned of Al Qaeda's threat. A summary of this FRONTLINE report follows:
When the Twin Towers fell on Sept. 11, 2001, among the thousands killed was the one man who may have known more about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda than any other person in America: John O'Neill.
The former head of the FBI's flagship antiterrorism unit in New York City, O'Neill had investigated the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Africa and the USS Cole in Yemen. For six years, he led the fight to track down and prosecute Al Qaeda operatives throughout the world. But his flamboyant, James Bond style and obsession with Osama bin Laden made him a controversial figure inside the buttoned-down world of the FBI. Just two weeks before Sept. 11, O'Neill left the bureau for a job in the private sector -- as head of security at the World Trade Center. He died there after rushing back into the burning towers to aid in the rescue efforts."
article @;
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/knew/etc/synopsis.html
We cannot be expected to believe that the Dept. of Defense treats their whistleblowers any better than does the FBI!!
Lee wrote;
"Or the five reports by the Board of Visitors (which includes members of Congress and non-government civilians), which are posted on the federal committee web site."
Again, just who are these handpicked Board of Visitors and how are they chosen? Whom are they chosen by??
Lee wrote;
"The real fraud here is SOAW persuading the good and sincere people who want to have an impact on the world to divert their resource to this false 'cause.' Most egregious is persuading good and sincere people to trespass onto Fort Benning for no purpose at all except to get it publicity."
Response;
Any desired publicity from SOA-Watch is for the goal of eventual closure of the SOA renamed WHINSC military campus. Perhaps the SOA-Watch is using a dated name and would be more accurate renamed as WHINSeC-Watch or something like that..
Lee wrote;
"If you really want to know the truth, come see for yourself. Not only is the institute open to visitors every day, in November we hold an open house for those in Columbus for the protests."
Response;
Of course visitors can view the stated public relations platform ("Freedom, Peace and Brotherhood", what a nice ring!!) of WHINSC either via their website (nice pix!) of by stopping into the front office to view the public display. Of course WHINSC cannot be expected to show off everything because 'THE TERROR'-ists may use any top secret military info to their advantage EH? Or maybe the WHINSC torture rooms (sorry; 'info extraction' rooms) are NOT visible to the public OR 'THE TERROR-ists' either because that is a top secret aspect of WHNSC that nobody besides the info extractors or the info extractees (sorry; torture victims) needs to know about..
BTW, While in Columbus, GA, be sure to visit the "porno strip" of adult entertainment stores that lines one of the main roads near WHINSC military campus. Here WHINSC trainees and graduates are emotionally desensitized by frequent exposures to pornography culture in preparations for thier use of rape and sexual abuse as a torture (sorry; info extraction) tactic used on prisoners..
Lee wrote;
"We have hosted quite a few from the Bay area. I know you can call me the 'spin doctor' for the institute; that's why I say, see for yourself. Mr. Bacher won't say that."
Response;
We don't need to call you anything, haven't you already implicated yourself by your content??
Wow, I don't have to say anything after that diatribe! Just go through it and see if you can find one single fact, then come to Fort Benning and see just how free you are to investigate whatever you want about the institute. Stunning that someone can make utterly ignorant accusations and expect you to believe him just for saying it. Do the research; educate yourself. (Oh, by the way, the names of the Board of Visitors is on the web site, and their names and reports are on the federal committee database. All of that is in the public domain.)
For more information:
https://www.infantry.army.mil/whinsec
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