Blogging from the protests for Peacework (our first hosted blogs!) will be Bill Sweet, Joanne Sheehan, Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer, and perhaps others.

The School of the Americas (SOA, now officially known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation or WHINSEC) trains Latin American military officers. Over the decades, graduates of the school have been responsible for committing atrocities. For example, Col. Francisco del Cid Diaz returned to the SOA in 2003 despite being implicated in the shooting of 16 indigenous peasants in El Salvador.

For 17 years, activists have converged on Fort Benning, Georgia, the base which houses the terror-training school, to protest and to advocate shutting the SOA down. This year's protests will be held November 17-19, 2006.

Blogging from the protests for Peacework (our first hosted blogs!) will be Bill Sweet, Joanne Sheehan, Patrick Sheehan-Gaumer, and perhaps others.

- Sam Diener, Peacework Co-Editor