- INVITE A SPEAKER to Come to Your School to Talk About the
SOA/WHINSEC, Latin America Initiative, Palestine, Iraq, Human Rights... -

Linda Panetta  is a photojournalist and human rights advocate whose work focuses on cultural, environmental and human rights, with a particular emphasis on conflict zones. She lived and worked in Guatemala and Nicaragua in the late 1980's and has since worked in El Salvador, Mexico, Colombia, Panama, Haiti, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay, Afghanistan (2002) Iraq (2003 / 2004) and Palestine (2006 / 2008). 

Linda's photos have been published in books, magazines, and newspapers globally and have been aired on several national TV networks. Her photos have been exhibited throughout the US, Canada, Europe and in Afghanistan's National Museum of the Arts.

In 2008 the Catholic Press Association awarded Linda Best Single Color Photo (2nd place) for one of her photos in “St. Malachy: Philadelphia’s Island of Grace” (published in St. Anthony Messenger). And in 2005 they also awarded her two Honorable Mentions: Best Photo Story for "Iraq Diary" and Best General News Photo for "Iraq's Search for a Future" (published in the National Catholic Reporter). 

Linda is also the founder of School of the Americas Watch Northeast (SOA Watch/NE) and is the producer and director of the award winning documentary "An Insider Speaks Out!"  This 20 min. video highlights the abuses of the military training facility - the School of the Americas (SOA) - now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC), located at Ft. Benning, Georgia; more than 10,000 copies of the video have been sold. 

To contact us to schedule a talk, show slides or to set up a photo exhibit at your college, high school or at another venue, please email: Linda@OpticalRealities.org.

For more information about Linda or her work please visit: www.OpticalRealities.org.

* Award-winning documentary "An Insider Speaks Out!" - available on DVD with the option of Spanish subtitles! Major Joseph Blair talks about how some of his own students at the SOA were responsible for the massacre of the 6 Jesuits and their 2 co-workers.  Over 10,000 copies sold - this is a must buy, especially for veterans, who will hear the first-hand accounts of a former military instructor who taught at the SOA!  Rarely seen footage from Latin America, and music by Bruce Cockburn make this a moving and powerful 18-min documentary.