In an attempt to constantly remind American policymakers of the atrocities committed at the behest of leaders trained at the School of the Americas (SOA), a watchdog group named “SOA Watch” in 1998 came to practice the tactic called “Haunting” (or sometimes Bird-Dogging) to force candidates to speak publicly about the School of the Americas. The SOA Watch website details their tactic as follows: “Basically, you show up at the candidates’ events, ask them to commit to defund the SOA, and ask them questions they don’t want to answer in order to get them on the record and to educate those present about the SOA and U.S. militarization in the Americas.” By elevating the SOA to the forefront of American political discourse, the SOA Watch made themselves and the SOA known to a greater number of possibly-sympathetic Americans.