Democracy Now! March 19, 2002

9:01-9:06 HEADLINES 9:06-9:07 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:07-9:20 HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER AND ACTIVIST JENNIFER HARBURY BRINGS THE CASE OF HER MURDERED HUSBAND TO THE SUPREME COURT Human rights lawyer Jennifer Harbury stood before the Supreme Court Monday to argue her right to sue the government for covering up the murder of her husband, a slain Guatemalan rebel leader, Efrain Bamaca Velazquez. Harbury filed several lawsuits against U.S. government agencies and individual officials, charging that they repeatedly lied to her about what they knew of her husband's death. Among the officials cited in the case are former Secretary of State Warren Christopher, former national security adviser Anthony Lake, and five other White House and State Department officials. While a federal judge dismissed her initial case, an appeals court reinstated parts of the suit, leading the State Department to seek review by the Supreme Court. That review was heard yesterday. GUEST: JENNIFER HARBURY, lawyer and human rights activist 9:20-9:21 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:21-9:40 ON THE EVE OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE ASSASSINATION OF ARCHBISHOP OSCAR ROMERO, GUNNED DOWN BY GRADUATES OF THE FORMER US ARMY SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS, A DEBATE ON THE SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS This Sunday is the 22 year anniversary of the assassination of Archbishop Oscar Romero, gunned down while celebrating Mass at the Divine Providence Cancer Hospital in San Salvador. Oscar Romero was killed by graduates of the US Army School of the Americas, members of death squads allied with US-trained Salvadorean security forces. In early 1990 a US Congressional Taskforce was formed to investigate the massacre of six Jesuit priests and 2 others in El Salvador. The taskforce reported that those responsible were trained at the SOA. Soon after, a group called the SOA Watch formed to piece together a history of the military school they began to call the School of the Assassins. The former School of Americas, based in Fort Benning, Georgia, opened in 1946. It trained Latin American soldiers in combat, counter-insurgency, and counter-narcotics. The schools opponents say SOAs nearly 60,000 graduates are responsible for some of the worst human rights abuses in Latin America. In January 2001, after over a decade of vigils, fasts, and demonstrations against the school, the House voted to cut its funding. The army closed the School of the Americas and a month later, the Department of Defense opened the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHISC), which trains civilian, military, and law enforcement students with a curriculum similar to the SOA. Last year 683 students graduated from the newly-named school. Today we are joined by the founder of SOA Watch, Father Roy Bourgeois, and by Colonel Mark Morgan, a spokesperson for the Department of Defense who works closely with the WHISC, the current incarnation of the former School of the Americas. GUEST: FATHER ROY BOURGEOIS, founder, School of Americas Watch, an organization that works to close the School of the Americas/(WHISC). IN STUDIO CONTACT: www.soawatch.org www.camp-ecuador.de.vu GUEST: COLONEL MARK MORGAN, Department of Defense spokesperson who works closely with the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, the current incarnation of the former School of the Americas CONTACT: www-benning.army.mil/whinsec www.dod.gov 9:40-9:41 ONE-MINUTE MUSIC BREAK 9:41-9:58 AS VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY TOURS ARAB NATIONS TO DRUM UP SUPPORT FOR A US ATTACK ON IRAQ, THE FOUNDER OF PEACE STUDIES TALKS ABOUT THE LESSONS OF WAR We are going to turn now to the final segment of a talk Johan Galtung gave this weekend at Pace University. Galtung says the US assault on so-called terrorism in the six months since September 11th is simply state terrorism. Galtung, who has helped mediate in over 50 international conflicts, has been working on conflict transformation with Afghan leaders in the region. This weekend Galtung was holding a workshop in New York called Deep culture: an approach to conflict and conflict transformation. It was shot by Matthew Akers. GUEST: JOHAN GALTUNG, world renowned founder of the academic discipline of peace research and director of TRANSCEND, a global peace and development network. CONTACT: www.transcend.org MUSIC 6-BURN THE FLAG by Goat from Tricks of the Shade 20-UNDERWORLD Betty from betty3 40-MIND GAMES by John Lennon from The John Lennon Collection END-Prayer-Joy to the World by LTD 9:58-9:59 OUTRO AND CREDITS