[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 873 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 873

        To close the United States Army School of the Americas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 22, 1999

Mr. Durbin (for himself, Mr. Schumer, Mrs. Boxer, Mrs. Feinstein, Mrs. 
  Murray, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Kerry, Ms. Landrieu, Mr. Feingold, and Mr. 
  Wellstone) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Armed Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
        To close the United States Army School of the Americas.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. FINDINGS.

    Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The United States Army operates a military education 
        and training facility known as the United States Army School of 
        the Americas, which is currently located at Fort Benning, 
        Georgia, and is used to train military personnel of Latin 
        American armed forces.
            (2) The United States Army School of the Americas has a 
        history of having had graduates who were abusive of human 
        rights, and the continued operation of the school stands as a 
        barrier to United States efforts to establish a new and 
        constructive relationship with Latin American armed forces 
        after the Cold War.
            (3) Closing the United States Army School of the Americas 
        would not prevent the United States from providing appropriate 
        training for military personnel of Latin American armed forces.
            (4) The United States Army School of the Americas is only 
        part of the United States' extensive training relationship with 
        Latin American armed forces, which includes--
                    (A) the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies, the 
                United States Air Force's Inter-American Air Forces 
                Academy, and the United States Navy's Small Craft 
                Instruction and Technical Training School;
                    (B) courses taken by Latin American military 
                personnel with members of the United States Armed 
                Forces at numerous institutions in the United States; 
                and
                    (C) training with some of the more than 50,000 
                members of the United States Armed Forces who serve on 
                active duty in Latin America each year.
            (5) Graduates of the United States Army School of the 
        Americas include some of the worst human rights abusers in the 
        western hemisphere, including--
                    (A) 19 Salvadoran soldiers linked to the 1989 
                murder of six Jesuit priests and their housekeeper and 
                her daughter;
                    (B) two of the three officers prosecuted by 
                Guatemala for being intellectual authors of the killing 
                of anthropologist Myrna Mack in 1992, as well as 
                several leaders of the notorious Guatemalan military 
                intelligence unit D-2;
                    (C) one-half of the 247 Colombian army officers 
                cited in the definitive work on Colombian human rights 
                abuses, El Terrorismo de Estado en Colombia, 1992;
                    (D) El Salvador death squad leader Roberto 
                D'Aubuisson;
                    (E) Panamanian dictator and drug dealer Manuel 
                Noriega;
                    (F) Argentinian dictator Leopoldo Galtieri, a 
                leader of the so-called ``dirty war'', during which 
                some 30,000 civilians were killed or disappeared;
                    (G) Haitian Colonel Gambetta Hyppolite, who ordered 
                his soldiers to fire on a provincial electoral bureau 
                in 1987;
                    (H) two of the three killers of Archbishop Oscar 
                Romero of El Salvador;
                    (I) 10 of the 12 officers responsible for the 
                murder of 900 civilians in the El Salvadoran village El 
                Mozote; and
                    (J) three of the five officers involved in the 1980 
                rape and murder of four United States churchwomen in El 
                Salvador.
            (6) Despite sustained congressional and public pressure, 
        the United States Army School of the Americas has implemented 
        only limited reforms of its curriculum.
            (7) The continued operation of the United States Army 
        School of the Americas continues to associate the United States 
        with the abuses of its graduates.

SEC. 2. CLOSURE OF UNITED STATES ARMY SCHOOL OF THE AMERICAS.

    (a) Closure Required.--Not later than 30 days after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of the Army shall close the 
military education and training facility known as the United States 
Army School of the Americas located at Fort Benning, Georgia.
    (b) Repeal of Statutory Authority.--(1) Section 4415 of title 10, 
United States Code, is repealed.
    (2) The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 407 of such 
title is amended by striking out the item relating to such section.

SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING ALL OTHER TRAINING OF FOREIGN 
              MILITARY PERSONNEL BY THE UNITED STATES.

    (a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that, in each 
training activity undertaken by the United States with foreign security 
forces, the Secretary of Defense (or any other executive branch 
official who may be overseeing the training activity) should--
            (1) substantially increase emphasis upon respect for human 
        rights, the proper role of a military within a democratic 
        society, and accountable and transparent management of defense 
        and security policy; and
            (2) vigorously implement Department of Defense regulations 
        regarding the screening of foreign candidates for inclusion in 
        the training activity to ensure that the United States does not 
        train individuals implicated in human rights abuses, illegal 
        drug trafficking, or corruption.
    (b) Training Activity Defined.--In subsection (a), the term 
``training activity'' means any activity in which the United States 
provides military education and training for foreign security forces, 
whether conducted in the United States or abroad, including 
international military education and training under chapter 5 of part 
II of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2347 et seq.), 
international narcotics control under chapter 8 of part I of such Act 
(22 U.S.C. 2291 et seq.), activities under section 1004 of the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (10 U.S.C. 374 note), 
and activities under the major force program for special operations 
forces of the United States.
                                 <all>