GI SPECIAL 4C12

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME;
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

The vehicle carrying the casket of Army National Guard Sgt. Joshua V. Youmans in Flushing, Michigan March 11, 2006. Youmans died Wednesday at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio where he was being treated for burns he received when the Humvee he was riding in Iraq hit a land mine last year. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

“If You Want To Find Out The Truth About Morale In The Army, You’ll Always Find It In The Shitter”

March 11, 2006 Wayne Madsen Report [Excerpt]

Llewellyn King’s consummate Washington insider newsletter, White House Weekly, never disappoints when it comes to straight and unvarnished reporting from the White House Press Pool.

In the March 8, 2006 issue, the press pool reporter describes an account of what happened when the White House press plane touched down to refuel at Shannon Airport in Ireland on its way back to Washington after Bush’s recent trip to India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Upon deplaning and repairing to the airport bar, the reporters encountered a group of returning GIs from Iraq on their way back home to Colorado.

After a few beers and whiskeys, one of the returning troops spoke on behalf of his colleagues when asked what they thought of Bush’s war in Iraq.

The soldier said, “Well, sir, in the shitter it says, ‘Bush can suck my dick.’”

Upon shouts of approval from his fellow troops, the soldier added, “And sir, if you want to find out about morale in the Army, find out the truth, you’ll always find it in the shitter.”

IT AIN’T THE SHITTER, BUT IF YOU NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER
Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.net)

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Marine With Bedford County Ties Dies

March 10, 2006 David Harrison, Roanoke Times

A Marine who once lived in Bedford County died Tuesday in an explosion in Iraq.

Gunnery Sgt. Justin R. Martone, 31, was killed when a bomb detonated in Iraq’s Al Anbar province, the U.S. Marines said. Martone, a member of the 3rd Marine Expeditionary Force based in Okinawa, Japan, had been in Iraq since early February, according to his father, Agostine Martone.

Martone was riding in the passenger seat of a military vehicle returning from a mission when a roadside bomb went off, killing him instantly, his father said. The other passengers in the vehicle were injured but Martone was the only one killed, his father said.

“My son didn’t know what hit him,” he said.

Justin Martone played football at Staunton River High School when the family lived in Goodview, his father said. After graduating from high school in 1993, Justin Martone fulfilled a lifelong dream and immediately enlisted in the Marine Corps, his father said. The family moved to Arizona and Justin, who was awaiting his orders from the Marines, followed.

His recruiter offered to send him to California for training but Justin Martone refused and insisted on going to Parris Island, S.C., “the biggest and hardest base to go to,” his father said. “He said, ‘I go there or I won’t join the Marines,’ “ the elder Martone recalled.”He was a very determined young man.”

His Marine career took him to Iraq in 2003 when he was among the first Marines to reach Baghdad. His second stint in the country was supposed to last six months, his father said. He was in charge of seven Marines.

“He said, ‘I’ll see you then.’ He said, ‘I’ll call you.’ He didn’t give us a certain time but down the road he was going to give us a call.”

That was the last time Agostine Martone spoke to his son.

“He was one of the hardest-working Marines they’d had in a long time,” Martone said. “Whatever he wanted he always achieved.”

Justin Martone’s wife lives in Okinawa. The couple had no children. “My wife’s spoken to her a couple times” since he died, said his father. “She was pretty shook up.”

Justin Martone is survived by a brother, who works as a firefighter for the Forest Service in Arizona.

“He and his brother got really close,” the elder Martone said. “You couldn’t ask for a better two brothers.”

During Justin Martone’s high school days, his father recalled, his football coach told him to put on some weight to play linebacker. Then, when he signed up for the military, he was told he needed to drop the weight.

As a teenager he had a motorcycle, which he loved, Martone said.

When he grew up, his love of riding turned into a love of flying and he got his pilot’s license.

“When he got out of the service him and his wife were planning on buying him a plane,” his father said.

Martone was a member of a small, elite team of Marines whose job was to dismantle explosives. He was trained to defuse homemade bombs and, in 2004, took part in a demonstration for local public safety officials at the Marine base in Quantico, according to a Marines news release.

Justin Martone is one of at least 28 people with ties to Southwest Virginia who have died in Iraq since the start of the war.

His father said the Marines plan to hold a memorial service for his son at Quantico.

A plane carrying his remains was set to land at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware at 11 p.m. Thursday night.

Hardwick Soldier 21st Vermonter Killed

March 3, 2006 By Wilson Ring, Associated Press

COLCHESTER: A Vermont National Guard soldier was killed when his observation post was attacked by a group of insurgents in the Iraqi city of Ramadi.

Spc. Christopher Merchant, 32, of Hardwick was killed at about 6 a.m. Wednesday (Vermont time) when two rocket-propelled grenades hit his post, a stationary, armored Humvee near an Iraq police headquarters.

The rocket attack was followed by small-arms fire and two vehicle-carried suicide bomb attacks on the police station.

Col. Peter Fagan of Rutland, commander of the 86th Armor Brigade, which oversees the units of Task Force Saber when they’re home, said it was a sad day.

“From what I’ve heard, he was a good soldier,” Fagan said. “Just like every soldier of the Vermont National Guard and just like every soldier in the Army. He proudly represented his state.”

Fagan said the Vermonters serving in Iraq are making a difference there.

“Lets hope this is the last,” he said of Merchant, the 21st soldier with Vermont ties to be killed in the Iraq war. “Let’s hope that at some point soon we turn the proverbial corner so that this is the last one for America.”

Two New Hampshire Guard soldiers – Sgt. Jose Pequeno, 32, of Lisbon, N.H., and Pvt. Richard Ghent, 20, of Rochester, N.H. – were wounded in the same attack. Rainville described Pequeno’s wounds as “critical” while Ghent was less seriously hurt.

Three members of the Iraqi police were wounded. Rainville said three insurgents were killed.

Merchant leaves behind a wife Monica and four children, ages 9 to 14.

In civilian life, Merchant was a custodian at the Peoples Academy in Morrisville. He also previously worked at the Trapp Family Lodge and at Melvin’s Restaurant in Morrisville, where he was a cook.

He was the second Vermont National Guardsman from Hardwick to die in Iraq while serving with Task Force Saber.

Former Brooklyn Soldier Killed

[Thanks to Alan S, who sent this in.]

March 9, 2006 BY HERBERT LOWE, STAFF WRITER, Newsday

A Queens priest said Wednesday that he would pose the hard question — is the war justified? — while officiating the funeral Monday for a former Brooklyn man killed patrolling with his Army unit in Iraq.

At the same time, Msgr. Robert McCourt said he would praise the sacrifice made by Staff Sgt. Dwayne Lewis during the Mass at St. Pascal Baylon Catholic Church in St. Albans.

“Whether or not the war is justified, he did out of sincerity give his life for his country,” McCourt said.

A native of Grenada who grew up in Brooklyn and later became a naturalized U.S. citizen, Lewis, 26, was killed Feb. 27 in Baghdad.

“He really loved the military,” his mother-in-law, Susie Foster, said from her home in Mobile, Ala. “He was a dedicated soldier is the best way I could put it.”

Foster said that they were told Lewis was on foot patrol when he was attacked by insurgents.

Lewis’ wife, Sgt. April Foster Lewis, is also an Iraq war veteran. She learned of his death on Feb. 28 while on leave from Fort Bragg, N.C., and visiting her parents in Mobile, her hometown.

“She is doing about as well as could be expected under the circumstances,” Foster said of her daughter.

Foster said her family first met Lewis on Thanksgiving 2001, while he and her daughter were both stationed at Fort Lee, Va.

After they were married in Mobile in January 2003, he was transferred to Fort Drum, N.Y., and she to an Army base in Germany. Foster Lewis served in Iraq from August 2004 to July 2005. Her husband first served about a year in Afghanistan, returning stateside in May 2004 before heading off to Iraq for a tour that was to have ended in August, his mother-in-law said.

“He was just a wonderful, kind individual who blended right in with our family,” Foster said.

McCourt said he agreed to allow the funeral at his church at the request of Lewis’ aunt, Alice Clement, who worships there.

The funeral Mass will be offered at 9 a.m. Monday at the church, 112-43 198th St., St. Albans. A viewing will be held from 2 to 5 p.m. Sunday at Gilmore’s Funeral Home, 191-02 Linden Blvd. Lewis will be buried at Long Island National Cemetery, Pinelawn, with full military honors.

U.S. Mercenaries Attacked:
Casualties Not Announced

A pick-up truck used by mercenaries from the U.S. burns along a road after it was hit by a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) during a battle with insurgents in Baghdad March 11, 2006. REUTERS/Nur Jamil

Norwalk Marine Injured

03/11/06 World Now

Another Iowa serviceman has been wounded in Iraq. Nineteen-year-old Joel Klobnak is a Norwalk High School graduate and a Marine with the 1st Light Armor Reconnaissance Battalion. He was sitting next to an explosive device when it accidentally detonated.

Klobnak is in critical condition at a hospital in Germany. His parents tell us he’s in intensive care and on a breathing machine.

His injuries include extensive burns and serious damage to his legs. He’ll be flown to Washington D.C. this weekend so doctors can attempt to save his leg His parents, Wes and Lisa Klobnak will fly to Washington D.C. this weekend to be with their son.

THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO COMPREHENSIBLE REASON TO BE IN THIS EXTREMELY HIGH RISK LOCATION AT THIS TIME, EXCEPT THAT A CROOKED POLITICIAN WHO LIVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE WANTS YOU THERE, SO HE WILL LOOK GOOD.
That is not a good enough reason.

U.S. soldier at the site of a car bomb explosion, in Baghdad March 9, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohammed Hato)

TROOP NEWS

British Soldier Quits Army In Disgust At ‘Illegal’ U.S. Tactics In Iraq:
British Official Says Bush Lies:
Iraq Now “A Mess”

Ben Griffin told commanders that he thought the Iraq war was illegal

12/03/2006 By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent, Telegraph Group Limited

An SAS soldier has refused to fight in Iraq and has left the Army over the “illegal” tactics of United States troops and the policies of coalition forces.

After three months in Baghdad, Ben Griffin told his commander that he was no longer prepared to fight alongside American forces.

He said he had witnessed “dozens of illegal acts” by US troops, claiming they viewed all Iraqis as “untermenschen,” the Nazi term for races regarded as sub-human.

The decision marks the first time an SAS soldier has refused to go into combat and quit the Army on moral grounds.

It immediately brought to an end Mr Griffin’s exemplary, eight-year career in which he also served with the Parachute Regiment, taking part in operations in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan.

But it will also embarrass the Government and have a potentially profound impact on cases of other soldiers who have refused to fight.

On Wednesday, the pre-trial hearing will begin into the court martial of Flt Lt Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a Royal Air Force doctor who has refused to return to Iraq for a third tour of duty on the grounds that the war is illegal.

Mr Griffin’s allegations came as the Foreign Office minister Kim Howells, visiting Basra yesterday, admitted that Iraq was now “a mess”.

Mr Griffin, 28, who spent two years with the SAS, said the American military’s “gung-ho and trigger happy mentality” and tactics had completely undermined any chance of winning the hearts and minds of the Iraqi population. He added that many innocent civilians were arrested in night-time raids and interrogated by American soldiers, imprisoned in the notorious Abu Ghraib prison, or handed over to the Iraqi authorities and “most probably” tortured.

Mr Griffin eventually told SAS commanders at Hereford that he could not take part in a war which he regarded as “illegal”.

He added that he now believed that the Prime Minister and the Government had repeatedly “lied” over the war’s conduct.

“I did not join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy,” he said. He expected to be labelled a coward and to face a court martial and imprisonment after making what “the most difficult decision of my life” last March.

Instead, he was discharged with a testimonial describing him as a “balanced, honest, loyal and determined individual who possesses the strength of character to have the courage of his convictions”.

Last night Patrick Mercer, the shadow minister for homeland security, said: “Trooper Griffin is a highly experienced soldier. This makes his decision particularly disturbing and his views and opinions must be listened to by the Government.”

MORE:

“It’s Not Just Wrong, It’s A Major Military Disaster”
“The Government Lied To The Country And Had Deceived Every British Serviceman And Woman Serving In Iraq”

“The Americans had this catch-all approach to lifting suspects. “The tactics were draconian and completely ineffective. The Americans were doing things like chucking farmers into Abu Ghraib or handing them over to the Iraqi authorities, knowing full well they were going to be tortured.”

12/03/2006 By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent, Telegraph Group Limited

As a trooper in the Special Air Service’s counter-terrorist team – the black-clad force that came to the world’s attention during the Iranian Embassy siege in 1980 – Ben Griffin was at the pinnacle of his military career.

He had already served in Northern Ireland, Macedonia and Afghanistan as a member of the Parachute Regiment, and his sharp mind, natural fitness and ability to cope with the stress of military operations had singled him out as ideal special forces material.

Born in London but brought up in Wales, Mr Griffin left school at 18 with two A-levels and six GCSEs and, although he could have become an officer, he preferred life in the ranks.

Within a year of joining the elite force in early 2004 and serving as a trooper in the SAS’s G-Squadron, he learnt that his unit was being posted to Baghdad, where it would be working alongside its American equivalent, Delta Force, targeting al-Qaeda cells and insurgent units.

Unknown to any of his SAS colleagues at their Hereford-based unit, however, Mr Griffin, then 25, had been harbouring doubts over the “legality” of the war.

Despite recognising that Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator and posed a threat, albeit a small one, to the West, he did not believe that the case for war had been made.

The events he witnessed during his three-month tour in Baghdad, and especially the conduct of the American troops, would force him into making the most difficult decision of his life.

During a week’s leave in March 2005 he told his commanding officer in a formal interview that he had no intention of returning to Iraq because he believed that the war was morally wrong.

Moreover, he said he believed that Tony Blair and the Government had lied to the country and had deceived every British serviceman and woman serving in Iraq.

In his first interview since being discharged from the SAS in June last year, Mr Griffin explained why he has decided to speak out about the war.

He said: “I saw a lot of things in Baghdad that were illegal or just wrong. I knew, so others must have known, that this was not the way to conduct operations if you wanted to win the hearts and minds of the local population.

“And if you don’t win the hearts and minds of the people, you can’t win the war.

“If we were on a joint counter-terrorist operation, for example, we would radio back to our headquarters that we were not going to detain certain people because, as far as we were concerned, they were not a threat because they were old men or obviously farmers, but the Americans would say ‘no, bring them back’.

“The Americans had this catch-all approach to lifting suspects.

“The tactics were draconian and completely ineffective. The Americans were doing things like chucking farmers into Abu Ghraib or handing them over to the Iraqi authorities, knowing full well they were going to be tortured.

“The Americans had a well-deserved reputation for being trigger happy. In the three months that I was in Iraq, the soldiers I served with never shot anybody.

“When you asked the Americans why they killed people, they would say ‘we were up against the tough foreign fighters’. I didn’t see any foreign fighters in the time I was over there.

“I can remember coming in off one operation which took place outside Baghdad, where we had detained some civilians who were clearly not insurgents, they were innocent people. I couldn’t understand why we had done this, so I said to my troop commander ‘would we have behaved in the same way in the Balkans or Northern Ireland?’ He shrugged his shoulders and said ‘this is Iraq’, and I thought ‘and that makes it all right?’

“As far as I was concerned that meant that because these people were a different colour or a different religion, they didn’t count as much. You can not invade a country pretending to promote democracy and behave like that.”

On another operation, Mr Griffin recalls his and other soldiers’ frustration at being ordered to detain a group of men living on a farm.

He said: “After you have been on a few operations, experience tells you when you are dealing with insurgents or just civilians and we knew the people we had detained were not a threat.

“One of them was a disabled man who had a leg missing but the Americans still ordered us to load them on the helicopters and bring them back to their base.

“A few hours later we were told to return half of them and fly back to the farm in daylight. It was a ridiculous order and we ran the risk of being shot down or ambushed, but we still had to do it. The Americans were risking our lives because they refused to listen to our advice the night before. It was typical of their behaviour.”

Mr Griffin said he believed that the Americans soldiers viewed the Iraqis in the same way as the Nazis viewed Russians, Jews and eastern Europeans in the Second World War, when they labelled them “untermenschen”.

“As far as the Americans were concerned, the Iraqi people were sub-human, untermenschen.

“You could almost split the Americans into two groups: ones who were complete crusaders, intent on killing Iraqis, and the others who were in Iraq because the Army was going to pay their college fees. They had no understanding or interest in the Arab culture. The Americans would talk to the Iraqis as if they were stupid and these weren’t isolated cases, this was from the top down. There might be one or two enlightened officers who understood the situation a bit better but on the whole that was their general attitude. Their attitude fuelled the insurgency. I think the Iraqis detested them.”

Although Mr Griffin has the utmost respect for his former colleagues and remains fiercely loyal to the regiment, he believes that the reputation of the Army has been damaged by its association with the American forces.

“I had reservations about going out to Iraq before I went, but as a soldier you just get on with what you are ordered to do. But I found that when I was out in Iraq that I couldn’t keep my views separate from my work without compromising my role as a soldier.

“It was at that stage that I knew I couldn’t carry on. I was very angry, and still am, at the way the politicians in this country and America have lied to the British public about the war. But most importantly, I didn’t join the British Army to conduct American foreign policy.”

Mr Griffin said that although he was angered by many of the events he witnessed in Iraq, he waited until he returned to Britain on leave before making his views clear to his commanders.

“I didn’t want to say anything when I was in Baghdad because I still have great respect and loyalty for the soldiers I served with. I didn’t want to cause any unnecessary pressure or discomfort by voicing my opinions.

“When I returned to the UK for a week’s leave I asked for an interview with my commanding officer and told him that what I thought was going on in Iraq was wrong, not just legally but operationally as well.

“Initially, he suspected that I had been offered a job by a private military company in Iraq but when it became clear that was not the case he was very understanding. It was a big decision for me. I put a lot of effort getting into the SAS, so this wasn’t a decision I made on a whim.

“He understood my point of view and his attitude was brilliant, in fact everyone was brilliant about it. I didn’t know what was going to happen. I thought I might be charged or end up in Colchester (the military prison) for refusing to soldier.”

Mr Griffin, who lives in London, denies being a peace activist or a member of any political party, or having an agenda designed to bring down the Government.

But he said: “I do believe passionately in democracy and I will speak out about things which I think are morally wrong.

“I think the war in Iraq is a war of aggression and is morally wrong and, more importantly, we are making the situation in the Middle East more unstable.

“It’s not just wrong, it’s a major military disaster. There was no plan for what was to happen after Saddam went, no end-game.”

(Mr Griffin did not ask for or receive any payment for this interview.)

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top.

U.S. Arrests B.C. Man Who Fled Marines In 1968:
“It’s Been So Long Since My Dad Left The Military. Why Have They Suddenly Decided To Do This Now?”

[Thanks to Clancy Sigal, who sent this in. He writes: It’s obvious that the Marines have suddenly gone gungho on past desertions. You’ve noted this, but I think a warning is called for to any ex AWOL Marines out there who believe they are safe. Clearly it’s a new policy. Clancy]

March 11, 2006 Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun

An East Kootenay man who deserted the U.S. Marine Corps almost 40 years ago is in a California military jail this weekend facing a possible court martial after he was arrested Thursday by U.S. border guards in Idaho on an outstanding warrant dating to 1968.

Allen Abney, 56, of Kingsgate, a small community about 25 minutes south of Creston, was travelling in the U.S. on holiday with his wife at the time of his arrest, his daughter Jessica said in a telephone interview Friday.

Abney, a Canadian citizen, had passed through the border countless times since he deserted the U.S. Marines in 1968, in opposition to the war in Vietnam, Jessica said.

On Thursday, however, he was detained by U.S. border guards after his name showed up on a federal database during a routine records check. He was held overnight by civilian authorities in Idaho before being transferred Friday to U.S. Marine Corps custody and sent to Camp Pendleton, Calif., where he now faces penalties under U.S. military law.

Jessica said the family is in shock over the situation.

“It’s been so long since my dad left the military. Why have they suddenly decided to do this now?” she said in a press release issued Friday by the Canadian War Resisters Support Campaign.

“My dad is not a young man, so of course I’m worried about what’s going to happen to him.”

Born in Louisville, Ky., Abney came to Canada with his family in 1959, when he was 10 years old, Jessica said. He maintained dual citizenship, however, and, in 1968, enlisted in the U.S. Marines. Jessica said her father fled to Canada a few months later, along with thousands of draft-age American men who were opposed to the Vietnam war.

Jessica said Abney didn’t return to live in the U.S. and crossed the border only on short trips.

In 1977 then-U.S. president Jimmy Carter signed a pardon for Vietnam draft dodgers and deserters, but the program required deserters to apply for the special discharge review program. Abney didn’t apply.

On Friday, Lieut. Lawton King, a U.S. Marines spokesman at Camp Pendleton, said Abney’s original arrest warrant was still active when he crossed the border. “Thirty days after a service member deserts his unit, a federal warrant is issued and that warrant is outstanding from there on out,” King said.

King said Abney will be returned to the same unit he deserted in 1968, where charges against him will be processed. “Ultimately, it’s the unit commander who will determine the next course of action,” he said. King said details were not available Friday regarding Abney’s former unit, including the identity of the current commander.

As for possible penalties, King said the commander may opt to convene a court martial, “then again, he may not.” “That decision rests in his hands,” he said.

It’s not the first time a U.S. military deserter has been arrested on decades-old charges.

In 2000, Richard Allen Shields, a truck driver from Castlegar, found himself behind bars in Washington state on an old warrant charging him with deserting the U.S. Army in 1972. Shields left at age 19 during training in Fairbanks, Alaska, following a one-year tour in Vietnam. The Eugene, Ore., native enlisted when he was 17 years old.

National Call-In Day To Defend Free Speech At
Pace University! (3/13)

[Thanks to D, who sent this in.

12 Mar 2006 Campus Action Network www.campusantiwar.net

FORWARD WIDELY!!!

Support Free Expression at Pace University!
Stop the Expulsions of Brian Kelly and Lauren Giaccone!

Two Pace University (NYC) students face the possibility of being expelled for participating in peaceful protest! They need your solidarity now.

Campus Antiwar Network is organizing a national call-in day Monday, March 13. We’ve successfully defended students against repression at CCNY, Kent State, and Hampton University. We can win at Pace too!

TELL PACE UNIVERSITY:
DROP ALL THE CHARGES NOW!

Call Pace University’s President Caputo at 212-346-1097 and tell him to drop all charges against Pace student activists and to change their restrictive policies on student protests, demonstrations, and organizing. Organize a group call-in at your campus or workplace.

Message From Brian Kelly, President Of Pace University CAN

HOW YOU CAN HELP:

1) Sign our online petition: www.petitiononline.com/paceuniv/

2) Join the C.A.N. Call-In to President Caputo- Monday, March 13!

Contact Pace University and Tell Them What You Think:

Pace University President’s Office:
David A. Caputo, President
212-346-1097
president@pace.edu And d.caputo@pace.edu

Pace University Dean for Student’s Office:
Dr. Marijo Russell O’Grady, Dean for Students
212-346-1306 or 212-346-1307
mrussellogrady@pace.edu

Pace University Hotline:
1-866-PAC-E001 (1-866-722-3001)

3) PROTEST In NYC

Protest Pace Repression of Free Speech and Assembly- Monday, March 13

1:00 PM: Press Conference on the Steps of City Hall

2:00 PM: Rally in Front of Pace University
1 Pace Plaza, New York, New York 10038

Send Letters of Support to Pace University Student Activists:
Brian Kelly kelly@leftist.ws
Lauren Giaccone- lg11679n@pace.edu

For the most current information, visit the following sites:

Campus Antiwar Network: www.campusantiwar.net
Pace Students for a Democratic Society: www.newsds.org/pace
Traprock Peace Center’s Pace Blog: www.traprockpeace.org/pace_repression/

Tell Us If You Are Doing or Planning to Do Anything Locally So That We Can Plan The Best Response! E-mail kelly@leftist.ws with comments, questions, or information.

In Struggle,

Brian Kelly
President, Pace University Campus Antiwar Network
kelly@leftist.ws
845-649-2146

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Iraqi Cleric Calls U.S., Britain And Israel A ‘Triad Of Evil’:
“What Is Important Is That The Occupiers Leave”

“The candidate for prime minister must demand the withdrawal of the occupiers, or put a timetable for their pullout. I don’t support any person who does not say that,” al-Sadr declared. “What is important is that the occupiers leave because they are behind what is happening in Iraq.”

11/03/2006 By The Associated Press

In a television interview Friday night, cleric Muqtada al-Sadr described the United States, Israel and Britain as a “Triad of Evil”.

Speaking on state-run Iraqiya television, al-Sadr also said last month’s attack on a Shi’ite shrine in the central city of Samarra was carried “in collusion with the occupiers and the Zionist Entity of Israel,” meaning for the U.S. and Israel.

The Triad of Evil reference was an obvious play on words U.S. President Bush used in his 2002 State of the Union address, when he labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea and “axis of evil.”

“Those who carry arms could be takfiri extremists, Saddamists or others. But those who control arms are the Triad of Evil that are Israel, America and Britain,” said the black-turbaned cleric during the one-hour interview.

“Putting a timetable on foreign troop withdrawal represents a victory for Iraqis not for terrorists,” he said.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

Decided To The Pompous Fools Raving About How Oil Sold In Euros Is Of Concern To Anybody In The Real World

March 10, 2006 by F. William Engdahl, GlobalResearch.ca [Excerpt]

‘As anyone familiar with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will know, the denomination of oil sales in currencies other than the dollar is not a new subject, and as anyone familiar with economics will tell you, the denomination of oil sales is merely a transactional issue: what matters is in what assets (or, in the case of the United States, liabilities) these proceeds are then invested.”

OCCUPATION REPORT

2003: SOWING THE WIND
2006: REAPING THE WHIRLWIND

An Iraqi citizen forced out of her house as U.S. troops raid at Khaldiyah June 16, 2003. Hundreds of US troops backed by tanks and helicopters raided several cities and villages on the second day of ‘Operation Desert Scorpion’. (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)

[Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqis over here to the USA. They can kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses with force and violence, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better and call it “sovereign,” and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in some prison without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.]

[Those Iraqis are sure a bunch of backward primitives. They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country. What a bunch of silly people. How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by George Bush. Why, how could anybody not love that? You’d want that in your home town, right?]

“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Seven Palestinians, Including Five Children Killed This Week

3/10/2006 International Middle East Media Center

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights reported that Israeli soldiers killed seven residents of the Gaza Strip, five of whom were children.

Of the five children who were killed this week, three were killed during an extra-judicial execution gone wrong.

The Israeli military also wounded eighteen civilians, including eight children in the reported period. The Israeli military continued to shell areas of the Gaza Strip, and conducted twenty-nine incursions into Palestinian communities in the West Bank. Houses were raided and thirty-eight Palestinian civilians were arrested. At least one house was occupied by Israeli soldiers and turned into a military post.

“The Heart Of The Matter”

March 11 By John Spritzler Spritzlerj.blogspot.com Via Anti-Allawi Group [Excerpt]

The Israeli, United States and European governments are all threatening to cut off aid to the Hamas led Palestinian Authority “unless it seeks peace by peaceful means.”

Before getting to the heart of the matter, let’s be clear, just for the record, that the media reports on this with deliberately deceptive language: they refer to the Hamas-led “Palestinian government” as if the Palestinians had some kind of sovereign government in Gaza/West Bank, when in fact they do not: the Israeli government controls Gazans from the outside, and it has an outright military occupation of the West Bank.

Israel holds the real sovereign authority in both areas nominally controlled by the Palestine Authority.

Now for the heart of the matter.

For the governments of Israel, the U.S. and Europe to demand that Hamas “seek peace by peaceful means” is morally exactly the same as if, in 1944, the Hitler German government and the “French” Nazi-puppet Vichy government and their Japanese ally had demanded that the French Resistance “seek peace by peaceful means.”

Absolutely the same. The Nazis created an Aryan state in Germany and expanded it outwards to include France. Those deemed to be non-Aryans (whatever the hell “Aryans” are) were treated as sub-humans by the Aryan state. The Nazis demanded that the non-Aryans accept Nazi rule peacefully.

Anybody who thinks that the French Resistance was justified in taking up arms against the Nazis, or that Americans and Brits and Russians had the right idea when they enlisted in armies to take up arms against the Nazis, cannot in all good conscience think differently about the identical rightness of Palestinians taking up arms against Zionists who have imposed a racist Jewish state on 78% of Palestine and who control Palestinians in the remainder of Palestine with a brutal military occupation.

[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by a foreign power, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The foreign army is Israeli; the occupied nation is Palestine.]

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

Worlds’ Most Deadly Terrorist Thugs Infiltrate White House

Bush, Rumsfeld Cheney, leaders of the worlds’ largest international terrorist enterprise, meet in the Roosevelt Room of the White House March 11, 2006. In new evidence of their success, the Department of Defense reported that U.S. casualties in Iraq have reached 2306. Iraqi dead: at least 200,000. REUTERS/Mannie Garcia

Bush’s Approval Rating Falls To New Low

Mar 10 By RON FOURNIER, AP Political Writer

More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush’s performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.

The survey, conducted Monday through Wednesday of 1,000 people, found that just 37 percent approve of his overall performance. That is the lowest of his presidency.

Bush’s job approval among Republicans plummeted from 82 percent in February to 74 percent, a dangerous sign in a midterm election year when parties rely on enthusiasm from their most loyal voters. The biggest losses were among white males.

Welcome To Occupied America:
“If You Protest, It Won’t Be Me Taking You Out, It’ll Be A Sniper”

10 March 2006, Hope Marston, Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee; Truthout Transcript [Excerpt]

I mean, this isn’t just Perrie Patterson, a soccer mom here in Eugene, who shouted “No!” at a Cheney event and was arrested, and this isn’t just the three teachers in Medford, Oregon, who were wearing T-shirts that said “Protect our civil liberties” and were kicked out.

This is also a high school kid in Iowa, who had a ticket to a Bush/Cheney event, and was asked to remove his button, which said “Bush/Cheney ‘04, leave no billionaire behind.”

That wasn’t the scary part. The scary part was when the Secret Service staffer said to him, “If you protest, it won’t be me taking you out, it’ll be a sniper.”

The high school student reportedly said, “That kind of scared the heck out of me.”

Welcome To Occupied America:
Homeland Security Counters Threat From Kindergarteners

February 9 2006, Michael Gill, Free Times

WHILE ATTORNEY GENERAL Alberto Gonzalez assures the U.S. Senate that the Bush Administration’s domestic eavesdropping program is a vital “early warning system” for terrorists, another homeland security measure strikes at a local elementary school.

The kindergarten class at Lakewood’s Taft Elementary was planning a field trip to NASA Glenn Research Center. It’s a popular trip because it’s free, because the NASA staff already has age-appropriate tours that fit well with school curriculum, and, well, it’s outer space, for pete’s sake. They’ve got rocket ships.

And NASA works the education angle hard. According to the agency, “A major part of the NASA mission is ‘To inspire the next generation of explorers . . . as only NASA can.’” And of course they talk about math and science. NASA says about 400 school groups took tours last year.

But school principal Margaret Seibel says this year’s trip for Taft kindergarteners, we’re talking 6-year-olds here, had to be canceled due to homeland security concerns.

Since new security regulations went into effect in May 1, 2005, access to the Visitor Center is restricted to United State citizens. All others might be terrorists.

No tourists from France, no exchange students from Tokyo and, no foreign national kindergarteners on field trips.

“I was told they would not make any exceptions,” Seibel says.

Because two kids in the kindergarten class are not U.S. citizens, the teacher had to cancel the trip.

“It was just a policy that came down from the Homeland Security Department,” said Chief Community and Media Relations Officer Linda Dukes-Campbell. “We are a federal reservation, and we have to work within those ramifications.”

Dukes-Campbell says, though, that the agency is “looking at a policy revision” that might allow kindergarteners onto the federal reservation for field trips. She says they’re “hoping to have language” in order in a couple of weeks.

Get your permission slips ready.

Welcome To Occupied America:
Homeland Security Shitheads Target T-Shirt Seller

March 4 2006 Laura Parker, USA TODAY

Ridiculing the Federal Emergency Management Agency is high art in the Gulf Coast areas where Hurricane Katrina hit last year.

Many parade floats in New Orleans’ Mardi Gras were decorated in themes that skewered the relief agency.

George Barisich, president of the United Commercial Fisherman’s Association, has been selling anti-FEMA T-shirts since last fall, a reflection of his frustration with the federal government’s response to the storm that left him homeless and unemployed.

But on Feb. 1, when he handed a shirt to a fellow Katrina victim as he was picking up canned goods at a charity’s relief tent, Barisich found himself in trouble with the government.

He was cited by a group of Homeland Security officials for selling a T-shirt on federal property, in this case, near a FEMA center in the parking lot of a Wal-Mart in Chalmette, La.

Barisich, 49, says he didn’t sell the shirt, which said: “Flooded by Katrina! Forgotten by FEMA! What’s Next, Mr. Bush?” He says he gave it away.

The government is sticking to its guns. “If we ignored this violation, you could have potentially 20 to 30 people standing out in front of the (FEMA) center, obstructing things,” says Dean Boyd, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesman. “We’ve got a duty and a job under the law.” [Where do they dig up these brain-dead assholes?

Boyd says the message on Barisich’s shirt isn’t the issue. Barisich says he intends to fight the $75 ticket in court.

Word of Barisich’s plight is circulating around battered St. Bernard Parish, where 22,000 of the 26,000 homes were destroyed by flooding. Larry Ingargiola, the local emergency operations chief, calls it “totally ridiculous.”

“I’ve tried to work with them,” he says of the federal government. “But some of the rules they’ve got down here are unbelievable. For God’s sake, everybody knows George. They’re pushing the buttons a little bit too far.”

Barisich says he was ticketed after six DHS officers gathered at his truck. Boyd says he can’t confirm the number. Barisich says he was told he would be arrested if he did not take the ticket. “I said, ‘Do you really want to arrest me? Am I the only one here who thinks this is asinine? You’re harassing a person who just lost everything.”

Barisich’s extended family lost 14 of its 17 houses in St. Bernard. Three of his fishing boats vanished. Two other boats survived but can’t get to sea because they’re in a canal filled with debris and silt. And he doesn’t have enough cash to rebuild his oyster beds.

He says he’ll fight the ticket because “if you do something wrong, you pay for it. If you didn’t, you don’t ever say you did.”

Welcome To Occupied America:
“Since When Has Standing Outside A Building In A Peaceful Protest Been ‘Criminal Trespassing’”?

March 7 2006 Steve Watson, Prisonplanet

Cindy Sheehan, who drew international attention when she camped outside President Bush’s ranch to protest the Iraq war, was arrested again yesterday during a demonstration demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Sheehan and company were participating in a march to the US mission to the United Nations in order to deliver a petition with more than 60,000 signatures urging the “withdrawal of all troops and all foreign fighters from Iraq.”

Ann Wright, a former U.S. Army colonel and U.S. diplomat, said in a statement issued by the Women Say No to War group that the U.S. Mission refused to send someone to meet with the women “whose lives and families have been shattered by this destructive and immoral war.”

The protesters refused to leave without delivering the petition, she said.

So the police arrested Miss Sheehan and three other women for “criminal trespassing”.

Since when has standing outside a building in a peaceful protest been “criminal trespassing”?

Sheehan was also arrested for “resisting arrest”.

Welcome To Occupied America:
FBI & Local Cop Buddies Harass Teacher For His Political Beliefs

Mar 09, 2006 Elena Shore, New America Media, News Report

A Pomona College professor who is an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Venezuela was questioned Tuesday by two agents from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in what he calls an act of intimidation.

The detectives visited Miguel Tinker-Salas during his office hours at about 2:40 or 2:45 pm Tuesday. They questioned him for about 20 minutes in his office at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif. The detectives identified themselves but their names are being withheld at the request of the FBI. [And he stood still for this? Nobody has to speak to these shitheads. Never say a word. Get witnesses immediately. They hate witnesses. Traitors always prefer to do their rat work without them.]

According to Tinker-Salas, the agents told him they were interested in the Venezuelan community and concerned that it may be involved in terrorism.

They asked him if he had relationships with the Venezuelan embassy or consulate, and if anyone in the Venezuelan government had asked him to speak out about Venezuela-related matters.

“They were fishing,” says Tinker-Salas, “to intimidate and silence those who have a critical analysis of U.S. foreign policy.”

After they left, several students outside Tinker-Salas’ office told him the detectives had asked them about his background, his classes and his politics, and even took note of the cartoons on his door.

Tinker-Salas says the detectives told him this was part of a larger policy to interview people on various campuses. He does not know if other professors have been questioned. He says the agents who visited him did not interview the other Venezuelan-born professor at Pomona College.

The FBI declined to comment on the incident.

A Latin American and Chicano histories professor, Tinker-Salas believes he was targeted as a result of his outspoken politics regarding the U.S. policy toward Venezuela and Latin America. Tinker-Salas was born in Venezuela and is a U.S. citizen, having lived in the United States since high school. A noted historian and commentator on CNN en Espa–ol, he has been open about his conditional support for the democratically elected government of President Hugo Chavez and critical of the U.S. attempt to “undermine democracy” in Latin America.

According to the ACLU of Colorado, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which operates across the country, is violating First Amendment rights by equating nonviolent protest with domestic terrorism.

“The FBI is unjustifiably treating nonviolent public protest as though it were domestic terrorism,” said Mark Silverstein, Legal Director of the Colorado ACLU, following the release of new documents obtained from the FBI under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) on Dec. 8, 2005.

Welcome To Occupied America:
Borrowed Some Money?
You May Be With Al-Qaeda!
Another Victim Of Stupid “Homeland Security” Bullshit:
“When Will We Get Some Relief From These Morons?”

Upon calling the credit card company, Booth was told that Homeland Security would not allow her to make two payments from two different sources in the same day.

March 7 2006, Paul Joseph Watson, Prison Planet.com

Last week’s story about a retired Texas school teacher who came under Homeland Security’s microscope for paying off a $6,522 credit card debt has been trumped by a similar case involving an amount of just $650.

Previously, Walter Soehnge made national headlines when he attempted to pay off debt on his MasterCard. The payment was rejected and automatically triggered an investigation by Homeland Security.

Now we have the story of Edie Booth, a community college professor in East Texas.

Trying to pay off her February credit card bill, Booth found her funds short and so asked to borrow $650 from her sister to avoid an interest overcharge of $140.

Booth made a $3,500 payment from her own account and then sent the other $650 with permission from her sister’s electronic account.

I watched the status of these two payments on line, since I am not the ‘trusting’ type, when it comes either to banks, credit card companies, OR government,” says Booth.

“The $650 was pending one day and then showed funded the next. All seemed fine. However, I continued to check the status on-line for the next 5 days.

“On the 6th day I found the extra $650 payment CANCELLED.”

Upon calling the credit card company, Booth was told that Homeland Security would not allow her to make two payments from two different sources in the same day.

Booth was then slapped with the $140 overcharge for causing the hard working boys at Homeland so much inconvenience.

This is a monumental waste of time and if there were any real terrorists out there Homeland Security is more interested in your spending habits than Al-Qaeda.

As Edie Booth points out, this is “such insanity, I mean, if you are paying your credit card, you have already obtained the explosives or whatever some time before.”

“Where is the leadership? When will we get some relief from these morons?”

[We’ll get some relief when our troops come home and terminate their activities by appropriate ways and means. Troops know what to do with domestic enemies, especially armed domestic enemies. They’ve taken an oath to protect us from them. And they have the requisite skills to do the job.]

Received:

Another Candidate For Immediate Withdrawal From Iraq

From: Tim Goodrich
To: GI Special
Sent: March 11, 2006 5:18 PM

Please feel free to publish this.

Regarding Jim Smith as a congressional candidate in California’s 36th district, I think another candidate deserves some mention as well.

Marcy Winograd is running as a Democrat against Jane Harman. Having worked with Marcy on many issues, she has my support as a candidate that will bring the troops home. Marcy was instrumental in getting a resolution passed at last years California Democratic Convention that calls for the troops to be brought home.

Also, from her website at www.winogradforcongress.com:

Marcy supports immediate withdrawal of our troops from Iraq, cessation of air strikes over Iraq, an end to no-bid reconstruction contracts for war profiteers, no permanent US military bases in Iraq, war reparations so that Iraqis can reconstruct their own country, and diplomatic efforts to involve regional Arab stakeholders in fostering peace and unity in Iraq. Marcy calls for an end to Bush’s first-strike pre-emptive nuclear war policy, secret detentions, suspension of due process and torture, and illegal wiretaps of Americans.

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to thomasfbarton@earthlink.net. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER

Telling the truth – about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington – is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance – whether it’s in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you’ve read, we hope that you’ll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! www.ivaw.net

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