GI SPECIAL 4D27

Troops In Uniform Join Wave Of Pro-Immigrant Rallies Across The Country

Soldiers and veterans have been a popular presence at a wave of pro-immigrant rallies across the country in recent weeks. In Houston, speakers at a rally this month repeatedly pointed to people in uniform on a nearby bridge, and they received roaring applause, said Eliseo Medina, a top official of the Service Employees International Union.

April 25, 2006 By Elliot Spagat, Associated Press [Excerpts]

Marcial Rodriguez, a Marine who grew up in a Mexican farming village, is offended that the country he went to war for might deport his relatives who are living here illegally.

Three months after the lance corporal returned to Ohio from the fighting in Iraq, the U.S. House adopted a bill that would make Rodriguez’s cousin a felon for being one of the nation’s 11 million illegal immigrants.

It is unclear how many soldiers find their loyalties similarly divided, but at a time when Pentagon has stepped up recruiting of Hispanics to fill recruiting quotas, experts say a crackdown on illegal immigration would undoubtedly cause resentment in the ranks.

“How do you tell them we’re going to deport their parents and grandparents?” asked Hector Flores, president of the League of United Latin American Citizens, a group that has encouraged Hispanics who do not plan to attend college to join the military. “That’s not America.”

“They stick out like a sore thumb,” Medina said. “When (demonstrators) see people in uniform, it gives them tremendous pride and validates that we are contributing to this country.”

At a pro-immigration rally April 9 that drew 50,000 people in San Diego, Hispanic veterans from World War II carried signs that read “We Fought in Your Wars,” said Jorge Mariscal, a Vietnam veteran.

“After serving our country, to see our relatives now criminalized through this legislation is provoking a lot of people,” said Mariscal, director of Chicano studies at the University of California, San Diego.

Rodriguez enlisted in 2004 after graduating from high school in Painesville, Ohio. Nine months later, he was combing Iraq for insurgents near the Syrian border. He barely escaped death when three friends of his were killed by a roadside bomb last June.

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.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Marine Raised In Palm Springs Dies In Explosion:
“They Need To Come Home,” She Said. “They Need To All Come Home”

April 26, 2006 By Andrew Marra, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

In his decade as a Marine, Staff Sgt. Jason Ramseyer saw battle on some of the world’s toughest frontiers: Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq.

But by the time he turned 28, Ramseyer, born and raised in Palm Springs, had two young daughters. He was ready to put the battlefront behind him.

So when he set out for Iraq last month, the career military man hoped it would be his last deployment.

It was, but for all the wrong reasons. Ramseyer, assigned to a security unit guarding a lieutenant colonel, was killed Thursday while inspecting a remote-controlled roadside land mine, another casualty in what may prove to be the bloodiest month this year for the U.S. military.

Ramseyer spent the first 10 years of his life in the same house in Palm Springs, a village west of Lake Worth in Palm Beach County. He completed elementary school at Kirk Lane Elementary, played Little League baseball on Palm Springs’ diamonds and skateboarded over its quiet streets.

When he turned 10, his family moved to Lenoir, N.C., outside Boone. In high school he wrestled and played on the baseball and soccer teams. He stood 5 feet 8 inches.

“He was small but he was so tough,” said his aunt, Carolyn Applegate of Wellington.

In high school he also met his future wife, Mandy. He dreamed for a time about being a veterinarian. But one day, at the age of 17, he told his mother he had changed his mind.

He wanted to be a Marine.

He pre-enlisted before he turned 18, so young that his mother had to sign for him. Two weeks after his high school graduation, he was off to boot camp, and a decade in the Marine Corps.

He was stationed most recently at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii, where he lived with his wife and daughters.

He never wanted anything but a military career. But by 28, with his daughters growing up, he was ready to stay at home. He and his wife envisioned him becoming a drill sergeant, training new Marines.

Thursday’s explosion ended their plans and destroyed their family.

Ramseyer’s mother, Cindy Hicks, learned of his death when two Marines came to her door in North Carolina. The men sat her down and explained what happened:

Ramseyer was in a convoy of three Humvees traveling through Iraq’s Anbar province, Hicks recalled.

When the convoy spotted something suspicious in the road, Ramseyer and one of his best friends got out to inspect it. If they saw it was a bomb, they knew they could call for a bomb squad.

But this mine was remote-controlled. As they approached, someone was watching from afar. And when Ramseyer was about 30 meters away, a switch was thrown, Hicks said.

Ramseyer didn’t die immediately. He was flown to a hospital. By then he had lost too much blood. His friend survived the explosion, although he may lose a leg.

Hicks said Ramseyer never questioned his duties or his chosen profession.

But Hicks, who said she is writing a letter to President Bush, said there’s nothing her son or any other service members can do to defend themselves against a hidden enemy.

“They need to come home,” she said. “They need to all come home.”

Hicks said she is suffering through the days without grieving. There will be time for that later, she said.

Now is the time to tell the story of her only son.

“That’s what gets me out of bed every day,” she said. “I have to tell everybody about how great he was.”

Corporal Who Grew Up In Alton Area Killed

April 26, 2006 The Associated Press

(COTTAGE HILLS, Ill.) A 21-year-old soldier who grew up near downstate’s Alton community has died in Iraq.

Family members say Army Corporal Shawn Thomas Lasswell Junior died in a roadside bombing outside of Baghdad on Sunday.

His stepmother said Lasswell lived downstate until he was about eleven years old. He and his mother then moved to Las Vegas.

His stepmother said he last visited her in Cottage Hills last June before being deployed to Iraq in December.

Lasswell was the eighth solider from the metro-east area to die in Iraq.

His funeral is to be held at the Staten-Fine Funeral Home in Alton.

(Cottage Hills is about 20 miles northeast of St. Louis.)

Marines Mourn The Loss Of A Light-Hearted Friend

Apr. 8, 2006 Story by Lance Cpl. Stephen Holt, 1st Marine Logistics Group

CAMP TAQADDUM: “He could take the worst job in the world and make it ok,” said Sgt. Nicholas Cunningham with a somber look and grief in his eyes.

Cunningham is just one of the many Marines mourning the loss of Cpl. David A. Bass who was killed April 2, 2006, when the vehicle he was riding in rolled over during a flash flood in western Iraq near Al-Asad Air Base.

A memorial service for Bass, complete with a 21-gun salute, was held here April 8, 2006, in the main chapel of Camp Taqaddum.

Bass, a disbursing pay agent who paid military contracts and servicemembers in Iraq, is remembered as the guy with a big heart, even though he only stood around 5 feet, 3 inches.

“He was the guy who would bring a smile to your face and could turn anything into a joke. He also made sure no one was left out of the group,” said Cpl. Charles Lovern, who has served with Bass every step of his Marine Corps career, from boot camp to this deployment in Iraq.

A native of Nashville, Tenn., Bass used the Marine Corps to gain life experience, travel, and blend in with the natives of southern California.

“When we first got to Camp Pendleton (Calif.), he wouldn’t stop talking about surfing so he bought a $500 surfboard. Only after he strutted down the beach and jumped in the water, did he think of buying a training board. The first time he surfed he couldn’t even get his knee onto the surfboard and kept wiping out. My wife never let him live that down,” said Lovern.

Bass’ character touched everyone, not just his friends. The commanders he worked for appreciated his demeanor and professionalism on the job.

He always wore a genuine smile and was known for having a positive attitude, along with a quick-witted sense of humor. He was a true professional and was quick to help anyone regardless of rank, said Bass’ commanding officer, Capt. Lisa Doring.

Not only was Bass good at his job, but handling large sums of money seemed to be the right job for the Marine.

“He always talked about how he wanted to be a millionaire and have a huge house just like Hugh Heffner. I guess disbursing was the perfect job for him” added Lovern, budding a smile on his face.

Just as the Marine Corps trusted him with thousands of dollars, his friends trusted him with their closest treasures.

“He never had any bad intentions, I’d trust him to watch after my 19-month-old daughter Alyssa,” said Lovern.

Bass is a graduate of John Overton Comprehensive High School in Nashville, Tenn. He joined the Marines in 2003 and graduated boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island in November that year.

After attending the Marine Corps’ financial management school he was assigned to Camp Pendleton’s disbursing office, was promoted to the rank of corporal on January 1, 2006, and deployed less than two months later to Al Asad Air Base where he provided disbursing support to Marines in the Hadithah area.

He is survived by his mother, Tammy Delle, father, John Bass, and brother.

Modesto Marine Killed In Iraq

Marine Lance Cpl. Aaron W. Simons

4.26.06 By ROSALIO AHUMADA, BEE STAFF WRITER

A Marine from Modesto thought to be in a secure area was killed Monday after two rockets struck his forward combat base in Iraq, according to the military.

Lance Cpl. Aaron William Simons, 20, had returned from patrol when the rockets hit his protected base in al Qaim, Iraq, said Marine Capt. Donn Puca.

Simons is the 16th person from the Northern San Joaquin Valley to die in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.

John Widick, a family spokesman, said Simons was not wearing his helmet or Kevlar vest when the rockets hit the base. He was inside a reinforced and secure area where protective gear was not required.

His family described Simons as a sensitive, guitar-playing teenager who grew up to be a loyal Marine.

“There’s been laughter from stories today interspersed with tears,” Widick said. “But there’s been a lot of silence, too. Nobody knows what to say.”

Simons was with the 1st Battalion, 7th Regimental Combat Team in his second tour of duty in Iraq. His home base was at Twentynine Palms in Southern California.

Simons trained Iraqi soldiers and was part of a four-man fire team, which conducts security patrols, said Widick, who is Simons’ cousin.

“He was really dedicated and took his work and his training seriously,” Widick said. “He was a very proud Marine.”

Friends and family stopped by the family’s north Modesto home to offer condolences and support.

The Marine made sure to keep in touch with family and friends through e-mails and several cell phones, even though he had trouble hanging on to them.

“He kept losing them. The last cell phone he had was run over by a tank,” Widick said.

His father, John Simons, his mother, Charlotte, and his sisters, 24-year-old Michelle and 31-year-old Rachael, gathered Tuesday to share memories.

They remembered a shy teenager with a thick mane of dark hair that flowed to his shoulders when it wasn’t tied in a ponytail.

However, he changed rapidly after enlisting in the Marines in December 2003.

“He grew up fast in the Marines,” Widick said. “It turned him into a leader people looked up to.”

Simons enlisted soon after graduating from Elliott Alternative Education Center.

“He did not want to be a minimum-wage laborer,” said Michael Simons, his 30-year-old brother.

Simons grew up with a talent for music and formed a garage band as a teenager. He practiced his guitar playing everywhere, including his church.

Simons took his guitars to Iraq, where he put them to good use teaching other Marines how to play.

The brothers shared that passion for music and spent a lot of time hanging out when Simons returned home in December.

The pair played a bunch of blues songs together and just goofed around before Simons returned to Iraq.

“I had him laughing at my jokes,” Michael Simons said. “I didn’t want him to go back.”

SA Native Dies In Iraq

Cpl. Jason Daniel

April 25, 2006 KAST

SAN ANTONIO: A 21-year-old San Antonio native was killed Sunday in Iraq.

Cpl. Jason Daniel died from injuries he suffered after a roadside bomb went off while he was riding in a Humvee outside of Baghdad, family members said.

Daniel, who later grew up in Crowley, is survived by his wife, who is an Army reservist based at Fort Sam Houston.

Funeral arrangements are pending, but family members said Daniel will be laid to rest at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery.

A Daniel’s brother-in-law is scheduled to deploy to Iraq in two weeks, family members said.

Fall River Soldier Killed In Iraq

April 25, 2006 By Associated Press

FALL RIVER: A 19-year-old soldier from Fall River has been killed in combat in Iraq, the Defense Department announced Tuesday.

Friends and teachers at Diman Vocational-Technical High School, where Pvt. Michael E. Bouthout had studied culinary arts and graduated in 2004, remembered him as a well-liked student and a leader.

Bouthot and three other soldiers from the 1st Squadron, 67th Armored Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, were killed when a bomb exploded near their military vehicle in Baghdad on Saturday, the Pentagon said.

Paul Bertoncini, a baking teacher at Diman, told the newspaper that even when his former student acted up, “you couldn’t stay mad at him.”

Bouthot is the second soldier from southeast Massachusetts killed in Iraq this month. On April 2 Lance Cpl. Patrick J. Gallagher, 27, of Fairhaven was one of six marines killed when their truck rolled over in a flash flood in Al Asad, Iraq.

U.S. Home Invasion Patrol Blown Up At Haqlaniyah:
Three Wounded

April 25. 2006 By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

In Haqlaniyah, a village 140 miles northwest of the Iraqi capital, a roadside bomb exploded near a foot patrol of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers, said Younis Al-Azawi, the director of a school near the site of the blast. He said three American soldiers were wounded and evacuated from the scene, but the U.S. military could not immediately confirm that.

Al-Azawi said the explosion occurred about 7:30 a.m. as the soldiers were finishing an operation during which they had raided homes in the village and detained three Iraqis.

Area Soldier Wounded in Iraq

April 24, 2006 Reporter: Danner Evans, WSET

Lynchburg, VA: Doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center are trying to save the leg of a soldier from Lynchburg. The hospital says Richard Blanchard had two surgeries in Germany and got back to Maryland last Wednesday.

The military has not released any information about how he got hurt. The 21-year-old is now in good condition. His pastor at Heritage United Methodist Church says Blanchard’s parents, Whitt and Lisa Eberhardt, are with him right now.

Blanchard is a graduate of Heritage High School.

Notes From A Lost War:
“Unfortunately Nothing In Army Doctrine Teaches You To Fight An Enemy Like This”

A U.S. Marine from the 3rd Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment’s Kilo Company runs down a street as Iraqi boys watch him and an approaching U.S. platoon April 6, 2006 in Ramadi. In a city beset by roadside bombs, rocket-fire, and, Marines here say, the worst sniper threat on the planet, standing still is rarely an option. (AP Photo/Todd Pitman)

Asked why U.S. or coalition forces didn’t pursue the attackers, Claburn – whose radio call sign is “Gunfighter 6" – said it wouldn’t be prudent. Insurgents often try to lure troops into danger, he said, exposing themselves in hopes they would be chased down a street where explosives had been laid.

April 26, 2006 (AP)

RAMADI, Iraq

As U.S. and Iraqi troops marched through alleyways and families retreated indoors, Army Capt. Joe Claburn glanced at his watch and predicted exactly how long it would take for insurgents to attack.

“Within 15 minutes the spotters usually come out and they’ll identify your position,” Claburn said at the start of a patrol in this troubled Iraqi city, explaining that guerrillas were probably maneuvering unseen in the surrounding villas.

“Within 30 minutes the weapons get brought in,” he said. “And usually about 45 minutes after being on the ground, you can pretty much guarantee that you’re going to get shot at.”

Claburn, it turned out, was three minutes off.

“Did I call it or what?” the 29-year-old asked with a grin as automatic weapons-fire snapped overhead. “Forty-two minutes on the ground. It’s a science.”

Lt. Col. Ronald Clark, commander of the 101st Airborne Division’s 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, said his units average “five or six” firefights with insurgents per day in eastern Ramadi.

And that’s not counting roadside bombs, mortar attacks or the Marine-patrolled western part of town, much less the suburbs of this city 70 miles west of Baghdad.

“It’s surreal,” said Clark, 39, of Leesville, La., using a green laser pointer to tick off recent engagements on a large satellite map of Ramadi on the wall of his office.

“Here we have an enemy that does not mind coming out and fighting with us,” he said. “We always have the advantage when that happens. They take heavy losses, but the bottom line is it doesn’t change things.”

Estimates differ on how long it typically takes for insurgents to start shooting. Claburn’s Charlie company figures 45 minutes is the norm. Delta company reckons they’ll be fired at within 37 minutes, Clark said. Some Marines in western Ramadi say attacks can come in eight minutes.

That doesn’t mean there’s a gunbattle every time troops go out.

One Marine tasked to help train the Iraqi army, Lt. Ryan Brannon, said he’s been on 30 to 40 patrols in central Ramadi in the past three months. Asked how many times there had been gunbattles, the 26-year-old native of Gulf Breeze, Fla., shrugged and said: “Oh, about half.”

Guard towers at the U.S. Army’s Camp Corregidor base are shot at daily – yesterday, one was hit by rocket-propelled grenades and small-arms fire. Across the city, Army and Marine observation posts – entire buildings taken over by U.S. forces – are regularly attacked.

Ramadi is “a lot more kinetic than what we see or read about other areas. It’s just very violent,” Clark said, adding that even trips to check on U.S.-funded projects to refurbish schools attracted violence.

“We’ll go on school visits … and be involved in direct fire almost every time,” he said. “A lot of it is based on the fact that there’s a lot of lawless behavior, no Iraqi police on this side of town.” [Well, he got that right. Ordering our troops to invade somebody else’s country because a bunch of crooked thieving politicians want to grab their oil is just about as “lawless” as it gets. It’s called treason.]

As U.S. and Iraqi forces moved in Friday for a sweep of a troubled district, residents ran inside.

“Hmmm,” noted Claburn, who grew up as an orphan and calls Alabama home. “You see all those people clearing out? That’s usually a bad sign.”

U.S. Navy SEALs and Iraqi soldiers carrying rockets and boxes of ammunition walked slowly, eyes alert for insurgents, clearing house after house.

Forty-two minutes into the operation, a man in a white sedan at the end of one alley fired off a round from his rifle, retreating immediately under a return volley from Iraqi soldiers on a nearby rooftop.

One street over, another insurgent sprayed machine-gun fire that cracked over Claburn’s head as he stepped into a courtyard with other troops. A U.S. Humvee shot back with a heavy .50-caliber gun.

Minutes later, Claburn and a dozen SEALs scrambled to the roof, laid their guns on a chest-high wall and began firing toward another insurgent team – four gunmen in a blue truck.

Two Iraqi soldiers on another rooftop also opened fire.

The SEALs’ fire riddled the truck, and 40 mm grenades destroyed its engine as the gunmen fled. Job done, rooftop littered with spent shell casings, the Americans withdrew.

Asked why U.S. or coalition forces didn’t pursue the attackers, Claburn – whose radio call sign is “Gunfighter 6" – said it wouldn’t be prudent.

Insurgents often try to lure troops into danger, he said, exposing themselves in hopes they would be chased down a street where explosives had been laid.

“You have to out-insurgent the insurgent. You have to think about what he’s trying to make you do … and do the complete opposite,” the Army captain said, riding in a Humvee along a road lined with palm trees as two helicopters clattered overhead.

“Unfortunately nothing in Army doctrine teaches you to fight an enemy like this.”

[Got that right too. English troops had the same problem in the USA in 1776.]

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

The Great Afghan OpSec Fiasco Rolls On:
“Secrets” From U.S. Base Are Still For Sale In The Bazaar

4.25.06 Los Angeles Times

Just days after U.S. troops were ordered to plug a security breach at Bagram in Afghanistan, the black market trade in computer memory drives containing military documents was thriving again.

Documents on flash drives for sale at a bazaar contained U.S. officers’ names and cell-phone numbers and instructions on using pain to control prisoners who put up resistance.

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)

TROOP NEWS

Sir! No Sir!
“Blazingly Eloquent GIs And Veterans Challenging The Conduct Of The Vietnam War In Wider And Wider Ripples Of Dissent”

Vietnam Days [Thanks to John Gingerich, who sent this in.]

[Thanks to James Starowicz, Veterans For Peace, who sent this in.]

22-Apr-2006 Jan Barry – Newsletter [Excerpt]

“Sir! No Sir!” is a brash new documentary by David Zeiger.

It shows via interviews, period film clips and photos, blazingly eloquent GIs and veterans challenging the conduct of the Vietnam war in wider and wider ripples of dissent: speaking out, marching in peace parades, refusing military orders to Vietnam, refusing to go on combat patrols in Vietnam, conducting their own war crimes inquiries, cheering Jane Fonda’s “Free The Army” counter-war tours, and publishing dozens of underground GI newspapers that blew superiors’ stacks and raised the issue of free speech in the military.

While I was involved in Vietnam Veterans Against the War in some of the actions featured in this documentary, I learned a lot from Zeiger’s detailed reporting on a movement that spread across the country and throughout the military, in what The New York Times called “one of the most memorable chapters of the Vietnam War” and “one of the least revisited.”

Ebert & Roeper, the widely syndicated film critics for the Chicago Sun-Times, gave the antiwar flick, which recently opened at theaters across the country, “two thumbs up!”

The New York Times review is headlined “A Salute to Dissenters in Uniform.”

Among the array of dissenters featured in the film is Louis Font, a West Point classmate of mine, who refused to serve in Vietnam.

He stood up to the threat of a court-martial and is now an attorney representing GIs challenging the war in Iraq.

Sir! No Sir!:
Showings Extended Until Next Week At The
IFC Center!!
322 Sixth Avenue, at West Third Street, New York City

Advance tickets on sale NOW through the IFC box office
Recording: 212-924-7771
Live box office: 212-924-5246
Online at www.ifccenter.com

Check out the trailer at www.sirnosir.com

Please contact max@riseup.net or celia@riseup.net for posters, postcards and flyers to help promote this event!

ACTS OF WAR

A festival of one act plays about the war in Iraq

GET YOUR TICKETS TODAY! SEATING LIMITED

APRIL 21st – MAY 6th 2006
PERFORMANCES: 8 p.m. Fridays, 1:30 and 8 p.m. Saturdays, and 1:30 p.m. Sundays.

SACRED HEART CHURCH
1739 Ferry Ave @ BROADWAY & FERRY
CAMDEN, NJ

Directions: www.sacredheartcamden.org/Masses.htm

In Issues of a Sergeant, an ex-National Guard Army Sergeant and his wife grapple with the effects of war.

In Make War Not Love, young pro-war demonstrators deal with the issues they support and oppose.

Next is Tours of Duty, where two brothers sort through the issues of heroism and painful experience.

The second act begins with A Community of Two, where a captor and a prisoner gain insight into each other.

We’ll close with a meeting between two old friends that takes an unexpected twist in Furlough.

Musical numbers interspersed between the pieces knit them all together. Thanks for joining us and enjoy the show!

Matthew Mezzacappa, an actor from Philadelphia, is directing A Community of Two, one of the five Acts of War plays. He has worked with Paprzycki before, but this is his first time directing a play.

Mezzacappa joined the company, he said, because of its unique mission.

“It’s really powerful doing theater in Camden,” he said. “We’re talking about violence and poverty and weapons and hatred, and these are issues that are here every day. Camden is always a character in the play.”

Tickets $10-$15

Call 856.456.2850 Or Email: CAMDENTHEATRE@aol.com

JCS Chief Qualifies As A “Potted Plant”

April 24, 2006 By George C. Wilson, Army Times [Excerpt]

In 1986, Congress tried mightily to make it easier for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to speak loud and clear to the president about what he really thought about the military issues of the moment.

But here we are, 20 years later in the middle of a divisive war, and the Joint Chiefs chairman [Marine Gen. Peter Pace] still looks like a potted plant as he stands beside Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld month after month, seemingly agreeing with everything he says.

Iraq Chewing Up The Imperial Army

April 26, 2006 By William Matthews, Special to the Army Times [Excerpts]

The Army needs $9 billion this year and $16 billion in 2007 to replace and repair equipment damaged or destroyed in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to a civilian think tank. The wars, particularly in Iraq, are wearing out equipment at a greatly accelerated rate.

Abrams tanks, for example, are driving 5,000 miles a year in Iraq, more than six times the 800 miles they typically drive during training at home.

Bradley fighting vehicles and Humvees are logging similar usage, while helicopters are operating between two and five times more than normal, the report says.

Heat, fine sand and the strain of added armor are taking their toll on Army war machinery. And driving on paved roads rather than soft ground is damaging to the treads and other parts of tracked vehicles…

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Resistance Mounts 469 Attacks In One Week

April 25, 2006 (AFP)

Insurgents carried out 469 attacks over the course of the week, of which 17 were car bombs, including four suicide car bombings.

NO FLOWERS TODAY

Photos : THE CHILDREN OF IRAQ

Assorted Resistance Action

April 25. 2006 By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer & (Reuters) & (KUNA) & 4.26 Daily Times & Reuters & CNN & Thomas Crosbie Media

Three policemen were wounded by a roadside bomb in Mahmudiya.

Guerrillas on Tuesday killed a truck driver who was delivering material to U.S. forces, in Nibai, a small town near al-Dujail.

Near the town of Balad, two Iraqi army soldiers, who were guarding an oil pipeline, were shot dead by armed men in two vehicles.

In Mosul, a roadside bomb seriously wounded an Iraqi policeman,

In Baghdad’s northern neighborhood of Azamiya, a roadside bomb exploded near an Iraqi police patrol, wounding two policemen and a bystander, said police Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohamadawi.

Four policemen were wounded when a car bomb exploded near a police checkpoint near Yarmouk hospital in western Baghdad, police said.

Four Iraqi policemen and two insurgents were killed on Monday when insurgents attacked a police station in Tal Qasir, 200 km ( 125 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Guerrillas shot dead two soldiers and a policeman who were out of duty on Monday near Kirkuk.

A policeman was killed and three others were injured when a car bomb exploded West of Kirkuk in northern Iraq, a source in the Ministry of Interior told KUNA.

The source said unknown militants captured an engineer who work for Moscow company. His vehicle was left on the road in Kirkuk.

Meanwhile, an oil institutions protection personnel was shot dead on the road connecting Kirkuk and Tikrit. He was hit in different parts of his body, the source added.

Resistance forces killed a senior judge in Baghdad on Tuesday, Interior Ministry sources said.

The sources said judge Ibrahim al-Hindawi was head of the main court responsible for the western Karkh sector of Baghdad. He was shot in the insurgent stronghold of Amiriya in the capital.

Near the town of Balad, two Iraqi army soldiers, who were guarding an oil pipeline, were shot dead by armed men in two vehicles,

About 15 miles south of Baghdad in Mahmodiya, three police officers were wounded when a bomb blast hit their vehicle.

In Baghdad, five roadside bombs, two mortars and an attack by guerrillas wounded six policemen.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“The Truth Is Like A Bounty Hunter, It Can Scare You To Death”

Photo from the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)

From: Mike Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent:, April 26, 2006

War is coming home to America in ways that are insidious every day.

Last week in Vancouver, Washington, seventeen year old Anna Svidersky was stabbed to death outside of a McDonald’s restaurant while she was on a break as an employee. The man who killed her had a long history of mental illness.

These are the kinds of things that happen everyday across America because social services have been drastically cut in this country.

The war in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, and a pending war in Iran, is draining the U.S. economy. It is a bending stick that will eventually break. And, when it finally breaks, it will be like a tidal wave across America.

If the Bush Administration is not stopped very soon, Americans and people around the world who have been brutalized by U.S. Imperialism, will all be in lifeboats.

By the time I left Vietnam in 1971, the U.S. war machine had left a trail of tears in every minute corner of Southeast Asia. The U.S. had killed at least one million innocent civilians. The U.S. government had dropped bombs and artillery rounds on everything. Nothing, absolutely nothing was off limits when it came to killing people.

The U.S. government committed atrocities EVERY SINGLE DAY IN VIETNAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Any American who does not believe this, is living in a very small room with loud music on.

The truth is like a bounty hunter, it can scare you to death.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran
April 26, 2006

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

OCCUPATION REPORT

Doing It The American Way:
“I Can Get Anything You Can Think Of, Even An American Humvee If The Price Is Right”

4.25.06 Mussab Al-Khairalla, Reuters

Car salesman Abu Mohammed will sell a customer anything they want, including a range of bullet-proof cars costing up to $340,000.

“There is a possibility some people buy these cars with violent intent, but we can’t go around checking after them,” he says.

“Our job is to sell cars and make money.

“I can get anything you can think of, even an American Humvee if the price is right.”

MORE ELECTRICITY BEFORE THE OCCUPATION

April 25, 2006 By Pamela Hess, UPI Pentagon Correspondent [Excerpt]

Iraq’s peak generation capacity prior to the war was 4300 megawatts.

As of March, electrical generation was 4,092 megawatts, with a peak in July 2005 of 5,387 megawatts.

The national average of electricity per day was 12.3 hours in the last week of February 2006, and 11.7 hours per day in the last week of March. In Baghdad, the average was 8.1 and 5.7 hours, respectively.

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

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Teen Throwing Rocks Gets Bullet Through His Brain

April 25th, 2006 Posted in Press Releases, Nablus Region, ISM Media Alerts

Nablus, Occupied Palestine

According to Dr. Samir Abu Zarour, at the emergency room in Rafidia Hospital, a 17 year-old boy “has multiple skull fractures on the right side of his head. A rubber-coated metal bullet made a tract through brain tissue and is now lodged in the left side. there is a grave risk to his life.”

Mohamed Saqer, from Askar refugee camp, and his friend Habesh were throwing stones at a jeep (registration number 611046) driving on Aman Street, the main thoroughfare between Nablus and Balata. Habesh reported that the jeep pulled up to the corner and stopped. A soldier then fired one bullet directly at Saqer’s head from 15 meters away.

Israeli Open-Fire Regulations require a minimum range of forty meters for firing “rubber” bullets. The Regulations also stipulate that the bullets be fired only at a person’s legs.

[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

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Hundreds Of Mexican Steelworkers Beat The Shit Out Of Killer Cops:
“Police Were Forced To Leave Through The Same Door From Which They Entered”

26 April 2006 Written by UpsideDownWorld.org

Five-hundred striking Steel workers who have occupied the SICARTSA steel mill in Michoacan, Mexico repelled 800 armed policemen dressed in riot gear who tried to overtake the plant.

On April 20 two workers, JosŽ Luis Castillo Zœ–iga and HŽctor Alvarez G—mez, were killed when police entered the plant through a back door at daybreak and began firing tear gas and live ammunition at surprised workers. Forty one workers were injured, mostly by gun shots.

The SICARTSA workers, who have been on strike since April 2, did not give up easily. As news of the police attack got around, union workers from nearby MITTAL Steel arrived and fought back police with sticks. Police were forced to leave through the same door from which they entered.

Later, a video tape surfaced that showed Police Ministry Director Jaime Liera Alvare giving orders to fire at protesters’ “feet.” Liera Alvare resigned the next day. Michoacan State Police retired from the mill, leaving 400 Federal Preventative Police (PFP) on the Mill’s perimiter.

Workers are demanding the re-installation of union leader Napolean Gomez Urrutia, who was removed by government fiat in February and accused of embezzlement.

He was replaced by a former union official who now supports the company.

Former Labor Secretary Carlos Abascal, who is Mexico’s current Interior Secretary, was tapped by President Fox to spearhead negotiations between mill owners and the union. The union has demanded the resignation of current Labor Secretary Francisco Xavier Salazar and the impeachment of Fox.

(Abascal drew attention as Labor Secretary when he claimed that women who work outside the home threatened femininity.)

Early last week, the Labor Secretariat«s arbitration board ruled the strike illegal, precipitating Thursday«s police action.

The second of the two victims of Thursday«s clash was buried Saturday in the port city of L‡zaro C‡rdenas, home of the conflicted mill.

Baghdad On The Mississippi:
“Don’t Come Back To New Orleans If You Don’t Intend To Fight!”

26 April 2006 Bill Quigley, Truthout Perspective [Excerpts]

New Orleans has lost 77% of its primary care doctors, 70% of its dentists and 89% of its psychiatrists since Katrina.

National Public Radio reported that the few hospitals in New Orleans are dangerously overburdened, especially emergency rooms.

Nationally, it takes an average of 20 minutes to take a patient from an ambulance waiting in front of a hospital to the emergency room. In the New Orleans area, according to one surgeon at the East Jefferson Hospital, load times are usually 2 hours, but sometimes more. The longest time he’s seen is 6 hours, 40 minutes, of a patient waiting in ER driveway to receive care.

Non-emergency care in New Orleans is also in crisis. With the closure of Charity Hospital and most public health clinics, it is very difficult to get a child tested for lead poisoning or other toxins – even though recent reports indicate there are 46 environmental “hot spots” in the city.

One corner, Magnolia and First in Central City, showed lead levels of 3,960 parts per million – nearly 10 times the acceptable level. Dr. Howard Mielke, of Xavier University, says 40 percent of the city soil has elevated lead levels.

New Orleans has become the national experiment for charter schools. Pre-Katrina, 60,000 students attended over 115 New Orleans public schools. Now, about 12,000 students attend public school in New Orleans.

However, only four public schools are operated by the elected school board – the rest are now privately operated public charter schools or operated directly by the state. State authorities recently approved opening 22 more charter schools in the fall.

Still, many children in New Orleans are not in school at all because no schools have opened in their neighborhoods.

People are already living in damaged houses all over the city, many without electricity. A night trip through New Orleans neighborhoods shows people on porches surrounded by candles.

Mildred Battle is 70 and gets around in a wheelchair. She is one of more than 1000 families who have been displaced from their apartment in the St. Bernard Housing Development in New Orleans since Katrina.

Despite coming back three times, she was never allowed to retrieve her belongings. Her apartment has heavy metal sheets locked into place over the windows and a new heavy metal door for which she is not allowed a key. The ramp to her building that allowed her to roll up to her apartment is blocked by a block-long chain link fence to keep all residents out.

This month, Ms. Battle’s wheelchair was the first one through the gate in the chain link fence as dozens of residents passed the lone security guard and broke back into their own homes.

Friends of Ms. Battle helped her retrieve a picture of her dead son and a broken glass Martin Luther King award she received in the 1990s.

She clutched them to her breast and cried saying, “This has been my home for decades. I want to come home.” She and the other residents, along with veteran public housing organizers and activists from C3, a local anti-war organization, vow there will be more direct actions to enforce the rights of public housing residents to return home.

Before this action, veteran organizer Endesha Jukali yelled through a bullhorn to the crowd outside the St. Bernard Housing Development. “Those who attack public housing refuse to understand that we are talking about poor women and children, the poorest of the poor. Why attack them?

“Some people say do not come back to New Orleans if you don’t intend to work. We say something else. Don’t come back to New Orleans if you don’t intend to fight!

“The only way that we are going to be able to come back is to fight for justice every step of the way!”

He then dropped the bullhorn and started pushing Ms. Battle in her wheelchair across the street and through the gate so she could break into her own home.

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

All GI Special issues achieved at website
www.militaryproject.org/
The following have also posted issues; there may be others:

gi-special.iraq-news.de
www.notinourname.net/gi-special/
www.williambowles.info/gispecial
www.traprockpeace.org/gi_special/
www.albasrah.net/maqalat/english/gi-special.htm
www.uruknet.info/

GI Special distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed without charge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. GI Special has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is GI Special endorsed or sponsored by the originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research, education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice Go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

If printed out, this newsletter is your personal property and cannot legally be confiscated from you. “Possession of unauthorized material may not be prohibited.” DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2