Wikileaks: Efforts to Counter SOA Watch

Leaked U.S. Embassy Cables Document Efforts to Counter SOA Watch

WikiLeaks, the whistle-blower website that has published thousands of classified diplomatic cables, has posted two cables from the U.S. embassy in Costa Rica, that offer insight into the U.S. pressure tactics to keep the SOA/ WHINSEC in business. Read the cables here

A message from Lisa Sullivan:
When we join together as small grassroots groups from around the Americas to resist militarization and promote a culture of peace we are, quite simply, very powerful. So much so, that the world’s largest military giant not only takes notice, but sometimes has to scramble to keep up as we take the lead.

Just days ago, Wikileaks revealed cables from the US embassy in Costa Rica that unveil an all-out six-month campaign by the embassy, in conjunction with the Pentagon’s Southcom and SOA/WHINSEC to subvert one of SOA Watch's major strategies: the appeal to governments to withdraw their troops and police from SOA/WHINSEC.

Specifically, the target was the government of Costa Rica and their decision to withdraw from the SOA in 2007. Coming on the heels of similar announcements by the governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay and Venezuela, this announcement by President Oscar Arias, a Nobel Peace Laureate, was too much for the Pentagon to ignore. {continued}