Disturbing the Peace tells the story of a controversial Cajun priest, a former gung-ho Navy officer injured in a bombing in Vietnam, who’s become an outspoken voice for human rights, a provocateur for justice. The book also profiles the movement he founded to close a notorious U.S. Army school, while documenting the atrocities its graduates have committed across Latin America.

The journey of this spiritual hobo has more twists and turns than the Mississippi River: from love affairs that ended in heartbreak to patriotic impulses that ended in doubts and disillusionment. From dreams of wealth to missionary work among the poor. From protests and prison terms to a cloistered monastery. From confrontations with church hierarchy to political battles on Capitol Hill.

Bourgeois’ opposition to the growing militarism of the United States began after a blind Vietnamese orphan opened his eyes to the realities of war. His human rights work has landed him in half a dozen war-torn countries: In Bolivia, where a U.S.-backed dictatorship kidnapped him after he spoke out against torture. In El Salvador, where he disappeared and two friends were killed by death squads. In Nicaragua and Honduras, where the CIA was helping contra commandos sabotage a democratically elected government. In Colombia, where he witnessed the human toll of the U.S. drug war, escorted by an Army general linked to terrorist bombings. In Iraq, where he met with desperately poor Iraqis just before the country became a bloodbath.

In profiling the movement to close the U.S. Army’s School of the Americas, Disturbing the Peace recounts the Congressional battles as well as the courage of thousands of average Americans who’ve risked arrest to expose the school, while helping to stem the erosion of civil liberties since Sept.11, 2001. In documenting the school’s sordid history, its use of torture manuals and its graduates' links to the CIA, the book shines a light on the dark side of U.S. foreign policy – not only in Latin America, but in Iraq, where Bush administration policies on torture led to the disgrace of Abu Ghraib.