[newsfromthenetwork] SOA Watch Legislative Action - Now on to the Senate!

North and South, the People Say, Close the SOA! Donate

We Won the House, Now on to the Senate! Click Here to Email/Fax Your Senator Now By now you've heard the news that SOA Watch secured an incredible victory in Congress last week when the House of Representatives passed an amendment to require the release of the names, rank, country of origin, dates and courses attended at the SOA/ WHINSEC! The amendment passed by a wide margin of victory with a 220 - 189 vote in a decisive statement in favor of transparency and accountability and you can read more about the amendment on the SOA Watch Legislative Action page. Thanks to all who relentlessly contacted their member of Congress is support of this important issue! Not everyone in the House was supportive, in fact, many members of Congress ignored the wishes of their constituents and others succumbed to Pentagon pressure by rejecting the recommendation of the Chairman of the House Armed Services committee, Representative Ike Skelton, to vote yes on the amendment. These members of Congress should be held accountable for their votes as they represent YOU in Washington D.C. Visit our May 2008 Post-Vote Action page for strategies and tips on how to promote accountability and pressure those in the "Hall of Shame." We may have won, but it's not over yet! We need your help with the Senate! The language that passed the House has been sent to the Senate and we need to flood Senate offices with calls urging them to support the decisive statement that operations at the SOA/ WHINSEC should be transparent! Please take the time to contact your two Senators using the suggested call script below. You can reach your Senators by contacting the Senate Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and the operator will connect you to the Senate office you request. If you don't know the names of your Senators, check out the Senate webpage and search for your state. Click Here to Email/Fax Your Senator Now After you are connected with your Senator's office, ask for the military affairs legislative aide and here is a suggested message to convey: "Hello my name is ______ and I am a resident of the state of ______. As your constituent, I urge you to support the public release of names, rank, country of origin, dates and courses attended for graduates and instructors of the SOA/ WHINSEC. As you may know, on Thursday, May 22nd the House overwhelmingly passed the McGovern- Sestak-Bishop (GA) amendment that would require the release of this information. In a decisive statement in favor of transparency and human rights, the amendment was agreed to with a wide margin of victory in a 220 - 189 vote. As you may know the School of the Americas, renamed WHINSEC, has a notorious history linked to serious crimes and human rights abuses throughout Latin America. In the past few years under WHINSEC, known human rights abusers have attended the school and WHINSEC instructors have been arrested in Colombia for returning home and aiding the drug cartels. None of this information would be known if the basic information about enrollment at WHINSEC were not disclosed. This information is vital to the work of Congress and human rights organizations who seek protection of human rights and promoting transparency, however all FOIA requests for this information are now being denied. I urge you to advocate, at any opportunity in committee, on the Senate floor, or in conference committee, the immediate release of this information to the public. Thank you." For more information about the SOA Watch legislative campaign, contact the SOA Watch Legislative Coordinator Pam Bowman at (202) 234-3440 or pbowman(at)soaw(dot)org and visit the Legislative Action Index.

Close the SOA, November 21-23: Converge on Fort Benning, Georgia! From November 21-23, the annual November vigil at the gates of Fort Benning will follow the presidential election by two weeks. It will be an opportunity for the progressive movement to set an agenda against oppressive U.S. policy, whatever the result of that election is. ¡Presente! Summer '08 Issue Out Now! The Summer 2008 issue of Presente, the newspaper of the movement to close the SOA, is fresh off the presses. If you are not yet receiving Presente, click here to sign up now for free and we'll mail you the paper three times a year to your home. Consider joining the Presente Activist Distributor Network and distribute the paper in bulk in your community. Visit the Presente webpage: http://www.soaw.org/presente

We appreciate your interest! You are subscribed to this list as newsfromthenetwork@lists.wri-irg.org. Click here to unsubscribe, or reply to this email with "unsubscribe" in the subject line. Contact us. Our mailing address is: SOA Watch, PO Box 4566, Washington, D.C. 20017, USA Our telephone: (202) 234 3440 Donate to Support the Campaign to Shut Down the SOA/WHINSEC