SOA Watch Resources

"This [video] is a powerful indictment of our government's complicity in the genocide of the people of Latin America..."
-- Martin Sheen, Actor.

More than 10,000 copies sold!

For the first time, An Insider Speaks Out! Major Joseph Blair, an instructor at the U.S. Army School of the Americas for three years, gives compelling reasons why he wants the SOA closed! In this 16 minute documentary, Major Blair reveals what the Pentagon and the SOA do not want you to know! - Hear and view the vivid reality and consequences of the training at the SOA in rarely seen footage from Latin America, as well as the arrests of SOA protesters at Ft. Benning. (16 min. DVD - NOW with optional Spanish subtitles and an updated history of the SOA / WHINSEC) - $15.00*

Rarely seen footage in this documentary shows how the combat-ready SOA graduates use their guns to protect the greed of large corporations and world financial institutions. Acting on their own or under orders from their governments, the soldiers target labor organizers, human rights advocates, educators, religious leaders and others who speak out against sweatshops and enterprises of greed that exploit the country's people and resources. SOA: Guns & Greed presents powerful statements from students, labor leaders, veterans and church people involved in nonviolent protests to close the School of the Americas. (20 min) - $10.00*

U.S. Military veterans speak out about terrorism, patriotism and their opposition to the U.S. Army School of the Americas (SOA)-now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC)-where Latin American soldiers are trained in counter-insurgency techniques aimed at terrorizing civilian populations. The lives of tens of thousands of people killed by these soldiers are considered no less precious than the thousands who lost their lives in the U.S. on 9/11/01 (18 min) - $10.00*

Since 1990 tens of thousands of people have made pilgrimages every November to the gates of Ft. Benning, Georgia to call for the closing of the Pentagon's School of the Americas (SOA), now renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC.

CONVICTIONS: Prisoners of Conscience focuses on some of the 200 SOA protesters who collectively have received 80 years of prison time for their nonviolent civil disobedience. Sentences have been as long as 18 months, with fines up to $10,000. 2004 VHS Video / (20 min) - $15.00*

“Hidden in Plain Sight”

This 2003 - 71 min documentary presents different points of view which illuminate the turbulent reality of Latin America, demystify the policy-making process and shed light on some of the most complex and urgent problems facing us today.

Enter noted scholars Noam Chomsky, Eduardo Galeano, Christopher Hitchens, and Michael Parenti, who broaden the debate about the SOA/WHISC to include such subjects as militarism, corporate globalization, national security, and international terrorism. Personal accounts from victims of the violence and repression in Latin America raise questions and concerns about the nature and consequences of U.S. policy in Latin America.

Available in DVD. If you want to purchase a copy or host/organize a screening contact:

Raven's Call Productions
PO Box 410772
San Francisco, CA 94141
for more information visit www.HiddenInPlainSight.org

On November 22, 1998, over 7,000 students, church people, former military and activists met outside the gates of Ft. Benning, Georgia, where the U.S. Army School of the Americas is located, in the largest protest since the Vietnam War days. Led by actor Martin Sheen and Sister Jackie Doepker, 2,318 of them risked arrest and imprisonment by "Crossing the Line" onto the military base. Carrying coffins and crosses bearing the names of thousands of men, women and children assassinated by SOA graduates in Latin America, they demanded that the U.S. government end its policy of training foreign soldiers and close the SOA's doors forever. This video documents this nonviolent protest with interviews of the participants and dramatic scenes of the march. (16 min) - $10.00*

Located at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, the School of the Americas (SOA) is a U.S. Army center that has trained more than sixty thousand soldiers and police, mostly from Latin America, in counterinsurgency and combat-related skills since it was founded in 1946. So widely documented is the participation of the School's graduates in torture, murder, and political repression throughout Latin America that in 2001 the School officially changed its name to the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.

Lesley Gill goes behind the façade and presents a comprehensive portrait of the School of the Americas. Talking to a retired Colombian general accused by international human rights organizations of terrible crimes, sitting in on classes, accompanying soa students and their families to an upscale local mall, listening to coca farmers in Colombia and Bolivia, conversing with anti-soa activists in the cramped office of the School of the Americas Watch—Gill exposes the School's institutionalization of state-sponsored violence, the havoc it has wrought in Latin America, and the strategies used by activists seeking to curtail it.

Based on her unprecedented level of access to the School of the Americas, Gill describes the School's mission and training methods and reveals how its students, alumni, and officers perceive themselves in relation to the dirty wars that have raged across Latin America. Assessing the School's role in U.S. empire-building, she shows how Latin America's brightest and most ambitious military officers are indoctrinated into a stark good-versus-evil worldview, seduced by consumer society and the “American dream,” and enlisted as proxies in Washington's war against drugs and “subversion.”

"Solidarity in Action!" is a grassroots organizing manual which provides essential information on organizing to close the School of the Americas. Along with resources on how to organize a local group, the manual includes guides to media and legislative outreach, tips for effective public speaking and group facilitation. Also included are suggestions for and examples of local actions, nonviolence guidelines, an extensive resource appendix (including numerous SOA fact sheets in both English and Spanish), and much more! The manual covers diverse topics from the how-to's on writing a letter to your Congressperson to organizing a local action to starting an SOA Watch office. The range of information in this manual makes it an excellent resource for any group, organization, or individual involved in grassroots organizing or working to close the SOA! $15.00 / low income: $10.00*

Sorry - this item is no longer in print.

School of Assassins updates and expands the author's bestselling primer on the facts and controversy surrounding the U.S. Army's School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. Although the school has tried to change its image through a new name and a sanitized curriculum, critics continue to call attention to its trail of suffering and death in every Latin American country where its graduates have returned.The murders of Archbishop Romero, the Jesuit martyrs, and the U.S. churchwomen slain in El Salvador-all can be directly linked to graduates of the SOA.

In this new and expanded edition, Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer reviews the case for closing the school and lays bare the case of its proponents. But he also shows how the school has functioned as an instrument of U.S. foreign policy in this hemisphere, and spells out the connections with globalization, third world debt, and the ongoing "war against the poor" in this hemisphere and around the world.

Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, who holds a master of divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in New York, has lived in Central America on and off since 1982. He is author of Brave New World Order: Can We Pledge Allegiance? and The Politics of Compassion: Hunger.. The Arms Race... U.S. Policy in Central America. 155 pages, $15.00*

The inspiring journey of a prophetic priest and the campaign to close the Army school responsible for training dictators and death squad leaders.

Maryknoll priest Roy Bourgeois has achieved national attention for leading the campaign to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas. From his Cajun roots in Louisiana to his stint as a Naval officer in Viet Nam, we follow the route that led Bourgeois to Maryknoll and his work in Latin America that awakened his conscience to the U.S. role in supporting oppression there.

Since 1990 Father Bourgeois has campaigned against the School. He has served several years in federal prisons for civil disobedience and his witness has turned a spotlight on a record of shame and aroused the conscience of the nation. The protest every November attracts more than 10,000 people from around the country.

“An astonishing chronicle . . . on a deeper and even more profound level, this book describes the evolution and journey of a soul from conversion to re-conversion, from prayer and contemplation to heroic action, all in a continuous effort to unite the will of the spirit to the work of the flesh.” —-Martin Sheen, from the Foreword

“From the first pages of Disturbing the Peace you will be hooked . . . . Roy Bourgeois and I are soul mates—both Cajuns from Louisiana, both Catholics putting our faith into action—but I still found plenty of surprises here. I am delighted at last to have this account of an amazing spiritual journey.” —-Sister Helen Prejean, author, Dead Man Walking

“Roy Bourgeois represents all that is best about America—our abiding faith, our love of country, and our deep compassion for the least among us. He is both priest and patriot, a decorated war veteran who has fought for peace and justice to redeem the promise of America as a beacon of hope for all the world to admire.” —-Joseph P. Kennedy II

James Hodge, a longtime writer and editor with The Times-Picayune in New Orleans, Louisiana, has written for years about Roy Bourgeois, the SOA and Latin American issues.

Linda Cooper, an ESL instructor at Tulane University in the early 1990s, has extensively researched the SOA and written stories for the National Catholic Reporter. 240 pages. $20.00* paperback

From Warriors to Resisters - Edited by Margaret Knapke

The first edition of Warriors to Resisters told the stories of how eleven U.S. military veterans came to be critical of U.S. foreign policy and involved with SOA Watch. In this new, 96-page expanded edition, five veterans of the current war in Iraq add their voices and talk about their current resistance to the war. The book has a new preface and lists resources for people considering joining the military, for soldiers rethinking their participation, and for soldiers looking for ways out of the war. Warriors to Resisters is a counter-recruitment tool you can use with friends and family considering military service. See www.resistersbook.org for more information. 96 pages - paperback / $7.00

Those who have been to the fall vigil at Ft. Benning (or the spring rally in Washington, for that matter) are probably familiar with the wonderful music of Colleen Kattau and Jolie Christine Rickman. If you haven't heard them, you should. These songs will alternately have you in tears, or dancing around the house. An inspiring 10-song CD that keeps the spirit of Ft. Benning alive all year round. $10.00*