School of Americas head, protest-group founder to debate

COLUMBUS - The head of a controversial Army school and the founder of a group protesting its alleged atrocities will debate next week. <br> <br> Colonel Richard Downie, commandant of the camp that replaced the School of the Americas, and the Reverend Roy Bourgeois, founder of School of the Americas Watch, a protest group, will meet publicly for the first time on November sixth. <br> <br> The forum will be held at Columbus State University at 7:30 p.m. <br> <br> School of Americas Watch blames the Fort Benning center for human rights abuses by its graduates in Latin America. <br> <br> The training school for Latin American soldiers, now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, closed in 2000 under pressure from protesters. It reopened under the control of the Department of Defense. <br> <br> The new school has a congressional mandate to focus on 21st century challenges such as drug interdiction, disaster assistance, anti-terrorism and human rights.