Court weighs releasing names of U.S.-trained military leaders

Catholic priest Roy Bourgeois stands outside the main gate to Fort Benning on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005., in Columbus, Ga. Critics blame the Fort Benning school for Latin American human rights abuses. They’ve gone to court to force the government to disclose the names of Latin American military leaders it has trained at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, formerly known as the School of the Americas. (AP Photo/Elliott Minor) less Catholic priest Roy Bourgeois stands outside the main gate to Fort Benning on Tuesday, Nov. 15, 2005., in Columbus, Ga. Critics blame the Fort Benning school for Latin American human rights abuses. They’ve ... more Photo: ELLIOTT MINOR, AP Photo: ELLIOTT MINOR, AP Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Court weighs releasing names of U.S.-trained military leaders 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A federal appeals court panel appeared to be divided Friday on whether the government must disclose the names of Latin American military leaders it has trained at the installation formerly known as the School of the Americas, whose graduates include some who have been implicated in human rights abuses.

The Defense Department facility at Fort Benning, Ga., now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, provides training in combat and counterinsurgency techniques. The Obama administration has maintained President George W. Bush’s refusal, starting in 2004, to make the names public, saying their privacy and safety could be threatened.

But in the preceding 10 years, the government had released the names of 60,000 present and past trainees, dating to 1946. Among them were Salvadoran officers linked to the 1989 killings of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper and her daughter. Another graduate was the late Roberto d’Aubuisson, a rightist Salvadoran politician accused by opponents of organizing death squads.

There have been no reports that any trainees had been harmed by the past disclosures, as U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton of Oakland noted in her April 2013 ruling requiring release of the post-2004 trainees’ names to SOA Watch, whose members have protested at the school for more than two decades. Her ruling has been blocked while the government appeals.

At Friday’s hearing of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Judge Andrew Kleinfeld said it seems plausible that Latin American officers identified as U.S. military trainees “could be tortured or shot.” But “I can’t find the evidence,” he told Justice Department lawyer Steve Frank.

“We don’t have to wait until someone is killed,” Frank replied. He said the Freedom of Information Act, invoked by advocates of disclosure in this case, allows the government to maintain secrecy based on its assessment that release of the names would create a likely risk of harm.

Judge Paul Watford seemed unconvinced. Noting that U.S. military officials had agreed with the decision to release the names between 1994 and 2004 of past trainees, he said the court was “entitled to be somewhat skeptical” of the government’s about-face.

But Frank said the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were “a game changer” that created a new awareness of the potential dangers.

Judge Sandra Ikuta, the third panel member, said rulings in other cases supported the government’s argument that disclosure isn’t required if future harm seems likely. And Kleinfeld told a lawyer seeking release of the names that since terrorist groups have “declared war on the U.S. ... it seems obvious it’s pretty risky” to reveal U.S. connections to foreign military leaders.

The attorney, Duffy Carolan, replied that disclosure “allows the public to have an informed debate on significant foreign policy” issues, such as U.S. involvement in Latin American military coups. She said four Honduran generals involved in the overthrow of the nation’s government in 2009 had trained at the school.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: begelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko