Phil Gingrey: “Yes, Mr. Chairman, there is a security fence around Fort Benning, but I would not describe the home of the Infantry as a…”

“Yes, Mr. Chairman, there is a security fence around Fort Benning, but I would not describe the home of the Infantry as a fortress by any stretch of the imagination, as my colleague just referred. Mr. Chairman, here we go again. Once more, my good friend, and he is my good friend, from Massachusetts has so confused the record that it's really tough to know where to begin. But let me try. He argues that we need to shut down WHINSEC because nearly 30 years ago, several graduates of a different program, the School of the Americas, were found to have committed atrocities in their home countries, a tenuous conclusion indeed. I wonder if he would argue that we should shut down Harvard because the Unabomber actually took some classes there. Mr. Chairman, of course he wouldn't. Because my friend knows that when a student does something awful years after graduating, you can't reasonably hold the school accountable. And to do so would let one man's action deny thousands more the opportunity to grow and to learn. Essentially it would be throwing the baby out with the bath water. So let's set the record straight, Mr. Chairman. Over 60,000 members of Latin American security forces have trained at WHINSEC and its predecessor since the inception of the school; 99.99 percent have served their countries with honor and distinction. This is the fact.…”