The origins of terrorism -- before 9/11


By RAY CONLOGUE
Wednesday, November 19, 2003 - Page R4

Hidden in Plain Sight

Written and directed by John Smihula

Classification: 14A

Rating: ***

Anybody who wants to know how much the world has changed since Sept. 11,
2001, should take a look at Hidden in Plain Sight, a documentary that tells the
tale of the School of the Americas (or, as critics would have it, the School of
Assassins).

This controversial school, located on an army base in Fort Benning, Ga., has
trained 60,000 Latin American soldiers in the fine art of quelling civilian
opposition to dictatorial regimes. Its graduates have been implicated in some of
the most horrific acts of terrorism committed in countries such as El
Salvador and Guatemala.

In one typical scene, a nun, Sister Dianna Ortiz, recounts how she was
gang-raped by SOA-trained Guatemalan soldiers while a U.S. military adviser placidly
looked on. Countless weeping mothers and fathers in various Latin American
countries recall the arrest and "disappearance" of their children by soldiers
wielding advanced U.S. weaponry. "Who is going to punish the government of the
United States for doing this to my country?" asks one such mother.

The school's mission was always defended by the Cold War necessity of
opposing communism in Latin America. But that cause, whatever validity it once
possessed, was pretty thin by the late 1990s. Thousands of demonstrators mounted an
annual siege of the SOA, and it became such an embarrassment to the U.S.
government that it was shut down on Dec. 15, 2000.

A triumph for popular democracy? According to filmmaker John Smihula, not at
all. Four weekslater, an identical school, renamed the Western Hemisphere
Institute for Security Co-operation (WHISC), opened in the same buildings, with
the same teachers, and the same courses. A few additional courses in "democracy"
were added. But, as Major Joseph Blair, a teacher in the old SOA, recounts,
the democracy courses "are offered but not taught. Most of the officers being
trained are taking army combat courses."

One thing that marks Hidden in Plain Sight as a historical curiosity is that
it has a clear liberal bias. Various officials of the school, and
Congressional representatives who support it, are interviewed on camera, but the
interviews are cut in such a way as to make them appear either gullible or mendacious.
Much more time, and sympathetic background music, is given to people like
Father John Bourgeois, a priest who is also a decorated Vietnam combat veteran,
and a staunch leader of the fight to close the SOA.

The film was completed shortly after the attack on the World Trade Center on
Sept. 11, 2001, an event that has changed the political climate in the United
States completely. In the film, you can see the fiercely liberal journalist
Christopher Hitchens denounce the School of the Americas as a "terrorist"
institution. After Sept. 11, Hitchens changed sides and now supports the U.S. "war
on terrorism" even where it involves the invasion of sovereign countries.

The producers of Hidden in Plain Sight decided that they couldn't deal with
Sept. 11 in the film without losing focus on its principal subject. The result
is that the film stands as a testimonial to the world as it existed before
that date, a world very different from the one we now live in. In Hidden, for
example, you can see George Bush the elder being confronted by demonstrators
calling him to account for the murder of priests in Latin America by U.S.-trained
soldiers. The democratic process was still vital enough at that time that the
president of the United States felt obliged to face his critics in person. His
son, the current U.S. President, never does this, and there is little
pressure for him to do so.

It is not in spite of its liberal bias, but because of it, that this film
should be seen during its brief run at the Bloor Cinema in Toronto. Although the
U.S. media have become much more conservative since Sept. 11, and rarely give
coverage to the kind of dissidence represented in this film, it seems likely
that they will soon have to do so. This is because the annual demonstration
against the School of the Americas (under its new name) has once again gained
steam. This year's demonstration will take place this weekend at Fort Benning.
Organizers estimate it will attract 10,000 people.