Zombie Soldiers:
“This War Sucks. I Would Have Rather Stayed Dead”

29 June 2006 By Garett Reppenhagen, Veterans for America. [Combat veteran, Iraq & activist, Iraq Veterans Against The War]

The pentagon informed the press today of their latest program that will solve the military man power problem for good. They told reporters this morning that the first all undead infantry unit has already had great success in the combat zone.

“This platoon of walking dead was created using soldiers that have already been killed in Iraq using a sophisticated combination of scientific machines and voodoo magic.” claimed the program designer and mad scientist Dr. Cheney.

The Dark Necromancer Rumsfeld said that the zombies were nearly indestructible, can operate on no sleep and have few personal hygiene concerns. When pressed if they could be killed by removing their heads Rummy stated that it was “a classified voodoo secret.”

Cheney wanted to make it clear that suicide or death in combat would no longer be the easy way out of military service.

“We aren’t getting enough out of these men and women who signed contracts for eight year commitments,” the evil doctor informed journalists. There have been talks about digging up former service members who have died without fulfilling their enlistment obligations and reanimating them.

CENTCOM was hoping that these new soldiers would be the answer to a plummeting morale problem. However, it seems that not even magic can raise the spirits of our deployed personnel.

One zombie who was interviewed after attempting to go AWOL said to a zombie interpreter “This war sucks. I would have rather stayed dead.”

We asked a few still living soldiers, who share a forward operating base with this new platoon, what they thought of these zombies.

Private Snuffy explained that “They keep to themselves and can pull guard duty every shift.” But there seem to be mixed feelings as Specialist Smith told us “These guys creep me out. They are always eating brains in the chow hall, that’s just gross,” although one alive sergeant who tried the brains said that he prefers them to MREs.

No matter if you approve of these undead warriors or not it, seems that we are going to have to get used to them, as zombie soldiers are here to stay.

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

Springfield Soldier Killed

June 20, 2006 By MARY ELLEN LOWNEY, MassLive.com

While growing up, David J. Babineau’s life goal was to be a five-star general, the best the Army had to offer.

Babineau, described by those who knew him as happy and easygoing, made it as far as infantryman. The 25-year-old Springfield native was on his second tour in Iraq when he was gunned down on Friday by insurgents in Iraq.

Here in his hometown, Babineau was remembered as a young man whose dream was to serve his country.

“David was dedicated and focused. He used to say that in 20 years, he wanted to be a five-star general,” said Hunter Short, an assistant principal at the High School of Science and Technology, where Babineau was in the first graduating class in 1998.

Indeed, in the Sci-Tech Class of 1998 “Last Will and Testament,” the class promised to leave behind “computer games talking with Five Star General David Babineau.”

Short said Babineau was a solid student who never caused trouble and who came to class on time – with his homework done.

“He was a joyful kid who liked to joke around. He got along with everyone,” he said. Short called his death “a shame,” saying his heart goes out to Babineau’s family.

“But you couldn’t ask for a better young man to go out and fight for your country. He died doing what he wanted to do,” Short said.

Dawn Babineau, of Springfield, said her son’s tour of duty in Iraq had been scheduled to end in May, but he was extended for a second tour.

“He wanted to make a career out of the Army,” she said.

Babineau was assigned to B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division in Fort Campbell, Ky.

Babineau lived with his family, including wife, Rondi, stepdaughter Samantha Hensley, 8, and sons Dominick, 4, and Donovan, 2, in Oak Grove, Ky. His parents are Paul and Dawn Babineau, of Springfield.

Air Force Member Dies

Jul 1 Associated Press

An Air Force member died Saturday of a non-hostile injury in southern Iraq.

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

Kirkuk IED Wounds One U.S. Soldier

A roadside bomb attack targeting a U.S. convoy wounded one soldier in Kirkuk, about 250 km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, July 2, 2006. REUTERS/Slahaldeen Rasheed (IRAQ)

FUTILE EXERCISE:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW!

A U.S. Navy Hospital Corpsman fires at insurgents in Ramadi, June 6, 2006. (DoD photo by Photographer’s Mate 2nd Class Samuel C. Peterson, U.S. Navy/Handout/Reuters)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Third Attack On Sangin Base Kills Two British Soldiers; Four Wounded

Jul 2 By Robert Birsel, Reuters & AFP

Two British soldiers and their Afghan interpreter were killed in an attack on a base.

The two British soldiers were killed on Saturday night in the Sangin district of the southern province of Helmand, where more than 3,000 British troops are based.

Spokesman Captain Drew Gibson says the base had been under attack for three nights.

“The first two it was fairly minor; last night was a fairly concentrated attack,” he said. Captain Gibson says the force has not yet determined how many of the attackers died.

“We can confirm that two British soldiers … were killed in action in Sangin yesterday when their base came under small arms and rocket-propelled grenade attack,” a spokesman for Britain’s Ministry of Defense in London said on Sunday.

Four British soldiers were wounded in the attack on the base in Sangin town.

British forces were deployed to Helmand this year but are facing much stiffer resistance than expected.

Grenade Attack On Canadian Troops Wounds 3 Afghan Police

July 02, 2006 Xinhua

A hand grenade attack on the Canadian troops in southern Kandahar province Saturday night missed the target and wounded three Afghan police guarding the base, an official of the Canadian troops said Sunday.

“Anti-government militants threw a grenade on the Canadian PRT (Provincial Reconstruction Team) compound in Kandahar city last night injuring three police guards,” Capitan Julianne Robert told newsmen.

45 foreign soldiers have been killed in Taliban-linked militancy in the post-Taliban central Asian state over the past six months.

Zabul Province “Paralyzed” By Resistance

6.30.06 Washington Post

Zabol province has been virtually paralyzed by insurgent attacks and threats despite intensive military operations and U.S. and Afghan efforts to make it a showcase for development projects.

Afghanistan Wipe Out:
“It Was Just Continuous Fire The Whole Time”
“Every Little Village Opened Up On Us”
“There Were Enemy Everywhere”

Within a half-hour of leaving the base, all three French vehicles were disabled, and six Afghan trucks were set ablaze. The dead French soldiers were left behind in the kill zone. So were their trucks, several of which contained the highly sensitive Blue Force Tracker, a digital command-and-control system that shows the location of friendly units. British Apache attack helicopters would eventually be sent to destroy the gear with Hellfire missiles.

July 03, 2006 By Greg Grant, Army Times staff writer

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan

Nearly five years into a counterinsurgency war in this country, Taliban guerrillas are regaining strength. Their springtime offensive has included bolder and bigger attacks by far larger forces than anything seen since 2001, at a time when the U.S. government is trying to reduce its involvement in Afghanistan.

The insurgency’s strength was demonstrated May 20, when a well-organized insurgent force ambushed a 175-man battalion of Afghans supported by French and U.S. advisers in southern Afghanistan’s Helmand province. The insurgents killed two French special forces advisers and 16 Afghan soldiers in a six-hour running gun battle.

The Afghan troops rode into battle in unarmored trucks without heavy weapons, body armor, radios or even sufficient ammunition against a better-equipped insurgent force.

The firefight raises questions about the American commitment to train and supply the fledgling Afghan national army, whose end-strength goal recently was scaled back from 70,000 troops to 50,000. The ANA force now stands at about 30,000.

“We’ve tried to produce an army on the cheap,” said Vance Serchuk, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who just returned from Afghanistan and on-site assessment of the ANA. “Once you build it, you have to stay and continue making the investment.”

Afghan Assembly Member Khalid Pashtoon said his nation’s army suffers from severe equipment shortages and from an American training effort that emphasizes numbers over quality and has rushed inexperienced soldiers to the battlefield.

“The Taliban love to fight the ANA,” said Pashtoon, who is deputy chairman of the Parliament’s Internal Security Committee.

Units in northern Afghanistan, which include substantial numbers of battle-hardened former mujahidin fighters, are exceptions, he said, but in general, for the Taliban, “it’s a pleasure to see the ANA.”

Some units in the Kandahar area have suffered from 60 percent desertion, Pashtoon said.

“Volunteers see their fellow soldiers dying for $100 a month; they ask, ‘Why?’ and leave,” he said.

With patrols limited to the major towns and cities, large groups of Taliban fighters have easily infiltrated Afghanistan’s rural vastness.

Serchuk said the U.S. government is still living off the success of the first two years of fighting in Afghanistan and hopes to reduce its presence.

The former Taliban heartland of Helmand — the enemy’s stronghold in recent months — has seen bold attacks on thinly spread coalition troops and Afghan security forces at isolated and widely scattered bases. One of them took place near the village of Kajaki in northern Helmand.

In early May, a 175-man Afghan army battalion, along with two U.S. soldiers and advisers from France’s elite 1st Marine Parachute Infantry Regiment, was sent to establish an outpost near a dam a few miles upstream from Kajaki.

Government control had all but disappeared in the area. Insurgent checkpoints along the area’s main highway, Route 611, had made the crumbling single lane of blacktop too dangerous for coalition vehicles.

Many people suspected of working with the Americans, including teachers and officials, had been executed.

The Ambush

On May 17, Taliban guerrillas attacked the district police headquarters in Musa Qala, about two dozen miles west of Kajaki. Staff Sgt. Jeffrey Kramlich, another of the American advisers, listened to the desperate radio calls from the village police chief, who said his small detachment was surrounded and taking heavy fire.

The following day, the top U.S. officer in Afghanistan released a statement about the skirmish. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Freakley said insurgents had killed 16 Afghan police, wounded 20 more and torched the police headquarters. But Freakley also praised the Afghan National Police, saying they had killed 60 guerrillas and wounded 20 more as they “rapidly responded to drive them out with great success.”

But to Grant, Kramlich and the rest holed up in mud-walled dwellings near Kajaki Dam, it was clear the insurgents retained their fighting force.

The next day, 200 to 300 of the Musa Qala guerrillas arrived in Kajaki, where they told the people to leave or be killed. Hundreds of villagers promptly packed up what belongings they could and fled toward Kandahar.

“We went down to the village to see for ourselves, and it was like a parade — donkeys and carts, the whole village was emptying,” Kramlich said.

The insurgents were now positioned between Grant’s unit and the nearest friendly forces, at Forward Operating Base Robinson, 30 miles to the south. With too little firepower to hold off a large attack, the Americans, the French and the Afghan commanders decided to withdraw to Robinson.

Robinson commanders sent troops in five up-armored Humvees and five ANA pickup trucks to help the advisers and the Afghan battalion withdraw. The plan called for the American and French advisers, along with Afghan soldiers, to meet the convoy halfway and cover its approach to the camp.

But the convoy arrived early. On the morning of May 19, Kramlich said, an Afghan interpreter burst into Grant’s command post and shouted, “Your convoy is under attack!”

The Americans and the French special forces soldiers grabbed their weapons and jumped into their vehicles. When they arrived at the ambush site, three Afghan pickups were already ablaze and the rest were under heavy fire. As the convoy limped toward the dam compound, the coalition troops recovered two wounded Americans and the body of one Afghan soldier.

After dark, guerrillas probed the position, firing from the shadows. A sense of doom pervaded the small force as it prepared to withdraw to Robinson.

“We had a feeling they were just waiting for us,” Grant said.

At first light, Grant, Kramlich and 10 other U.S. soldiers climbed into six up-armored Humvees. Two of the vehicles mounted .50-caliber machine guns, the unit’s heaviest weapons.

Seven French special forces advisers rode in three Ford pickups; lacking armor, they draped protective vests over the truck doors. About 175 Afghan soldiers piled into 23 more Fords; they had neither vests nor heavy weapons.

At 5:45 a.m., the long column evacuated the compound. The plan was to withdraw to Robinson overland through the desert, avoiding insurgent-controlled Route 611. But the column was on the road for only five minutes before machine-gun rounds and rocket-propelled grenades ripped into the convoy, fired from insurgents hidden in roadside buildings and fields, Kramlich said.

At an intersection, two U.S. Humvees and two ANA trucks made the correct turn into the desert onto the planned route. But everyone else missed it — and headed down Route 611.

Kramlich, in the second group, quickly realized the mistake. But the incoming fire was too fierce to stop and turn around, so the group continued on. The Taliban kill zone went on and on, a miles-long gauntlet of machine-gun, AK47 and RPG rounds.

“It was just continuous fire the whole time,” Kramlich said. “There were little villages all along 611, every time we hit one, it would start up again. Every little village opened up on us.”

‘There were enemy everywhere’

The Afghan soldiers said even women were firing at the column. They’d never heard of that before. The insurgents fired from buildings constructed from thick mud-brick walls, impervious to small arms. The convoy began to break up further.

Some Afghan soldiers dismounted and sought higher ground to fight back — as they had been trained to do.

“But in that situation, that was a bad thing because they didn’t want to come back to their vehicles,” which were under heavy fire, Kramlich said.

Ten Afghan soldiers became trapped, unable to get back to their trucks or call for help. With three or four magazines apiece, they soon ran low on ammunition.

Unaware, Grant and the rest of the convoy continued on.

“There were enemy everywhere,” Grant recalled. “They were on the high ground; it seemed like two or three hundred enemy fighters.”

Radio set in one hand, .50-caliber trigger in the other, the American adviser tried to get everyone off Route 611 and out of the kill zone. But it was maddeningly difficult to coordinate a convoy whose members spoke at least three native tongues.

Grant managed to reach someone who could send air support. Two aircraft were overhead within minutes, and eventually 12 coalition jets, including a B-1 bomber, were on station. But in the chaotic firefight, civilians and fighters were intermixed and combatants were at times separated by only a few yards. Grant was unable to fix targets for the aircraft, and so they dropped no bombs.

The Humvees’ armor proved a stout defense, but the small-arms fire began to inflict damage on the unarmored pickups of the French and Afghan troops. A bullet tore through the side door of one French truck, went through the knee of the soldier in the passenger seat and struck and killed the driver. The vehicle flipped.

Bullets riddled the windshield of another French truck, fatally wounding the driver in the chest. That vehicle also flipped, spilling the colonel who commanded the French detachment.

Within a half-hour of leaving the base, all three French vehicles were disabled, and six Afghan trucks were set ablaze. The dead French soldiers were left behind in the kill zone. So were their trucks, several of which contained the highly sensitive Blue Force Tracker, a digital command-and-control system that shows the location of friendly units. British Apache attack helicopters would eventually be sent to destroy the gear with Hellfire missiles.

The French colonel and a small group of Afghan soldiers fought their way clear of Route 611 and fled to a hilltop out in the desert, where they held out, their ammunition rapidly dwindling.

Grant and another group of survivors found them there. Still under fire, a French medic and Kramlich, a medic by training, did what they could for the large number of wounded. The Afghan soldiers were the toughest troops Kramlich said he had ever seen.

For more than an hour, Grant and Kramlich drove between the hilltop and the ambush zone on Route 611, rounding up stragglers. The survivors piled into the available vehicles, which limped into the security of Robinson around noon. It was only then that Grant learned the group of Afghan soldiers had been left behind on Route 611. Grant dispatched helicopters and at least one Predator drone to the grid coordinates where he thought the Afghan troops might be, but they spotted nothing.

Villagers later reported the Afghan soldiers fell back into some houses and were quickly surrounded. They fought off their attackers for two to three hours, until their magazines were empty.

Days after the battle, Grant remained bitter. The veteran trainer felt there was too little effort made to rescue the Afghan troops.

“If there had been reports of 10 Americans or French pinned down, surrounded and running out of ammunition, there would have been a hell of a lot more effort to go looking for them than just some overflights,” he said.

“They’re always used in the most dangerous roles, but they don’t get any of the credit. They’re used as cannon fodder a lot of times, and it’s not right.”

Kramlich praised the French special forces soldiers, but he said they were too lightly equipped for a toe-to-toe battle with the heavily armed Taliban.

“They didn’t have the equipment they needed,” he said. “If they would have been in up-armoreds that day and had crew-served weapons, they would still be here, and would have done much better.”

U.S. officials at Kandahar said the ambush on Route 611 was under investigation and declined to comment. No official statement has been released about the battle.

French special forces soldiers present at the battle were asked to comment, but they were told not to talk to the media.

The week after the ambush, the French special forces at Kandahar were loaned six U.S. up-armored Humvees. The ANA soldiers continue to drive unarmored Ford pickup trucks.

TROOP NEWS

THIS IS HOW BUSH BRINGS THE TROOPS HOME:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW, ALIVE

The remains of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca are unloaded off an airplane at the Brownsville-South Padre Island International Airport in Brownsville, Texas, June 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Sailors Training To Be Soldiers:
Then Off To Bush’s Imperial Slaughterhouse

6.30.06 Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Veteran Navy offices and senior enlisted personnel are getting Army training at Fort Jackson. This includes a compressed version of Army basic training before they ship overseas. The training is meant to give them combat skills that could be needed if they deploy to a war zone. [The “if” is lying bullshit. They’ve already been sent to ground duty in Iraq, more every month. Sorry about that.]

British Brassholes Fear “The Creation Of An Independent Military ‘Trade Union’”

04/06/2006 By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent, Telegraph Group Limited & June 29, 2006 Philadelphia Church of God [Excerpts]

Defence chiefs fear that the creation of an independent military “trade union”, being launched tomorrow, will lead to soldiers voting on whether or not they should go to war.

Senior commanders have told MPs that any independent organisation designed to “fight for the rights” of British troops is unnecessary and would lead to a dangerous breakdown of military discipline.

However, supporters of the new body say that they have become victims of a misinformation campaign by Ministry of Defence officials who are trying to discredit the fledgling organisation.

The creation of the British Armed Forces Federation (BAFF) follows claims that many of Britain’s 250,000 troops no longer believe that their best interests are represented by “an increasingly politicised chain of command”.

Writing in The Sunday Telegraph today, Col Tim Collins, who resigned from the Army after being wrongly accused of war crimes, gives his support to a federation.

Arguing that the armed forces have been failed by the Government and the “top brass”, he writes: “Today’s British Army is evidently unhappy with its lot. Overstretched on operations, wounded by the endless rounds of cuts and economy drives, suffering from a number of problems, ranging from inadequate medical care to a lack of good quality accommodation, there is a real crisis.

“The crisis can be summed up as a lack of respect for the men and women who are expected to lay down their lives for their country by the very people who expect them to make that sacrifice – the politicians and the top brass.”

Soldiers also contend that accommodations are substandard, that they are being placed in harm’s way without adequate military hardware and protection leading to needless deaths and injuries, that their pensions are being undermined by a drive for economic savings, and that medical care has slipped below acceptable levels.

The federation hopes to improve the armed forces’ internal complaints procedure, which many regarded as slow and ineffective. In the latest Army Continuous Attitudes Survey, 60 per cent of officers and soldiers questioned said they were either “fairly dissatisfied or very dissatisfied” with how grievances were dealt with by the chain of command.

Baff will also campaign for better housing and medical care for ex-servicemen and will offer advice on how to deal with bullying, sexual harassment and racism.

Slime In Command At Guantanamo Caught In Another Stupid Lie:
“Unavailable” Witnesses For Prisoner Found In Three Days By Reporter

[Thanks to Phil Gasper, who sent this in.]

July 1, 2006 Declan Walsh. The Guardian, in Gardez, Afghanistan

The United States government said it could not find the men that Guantánamo detainee Abdullah Mujahid believes could help set him free.

The Guardian found them in three days.

Two years ago the American military invited Mr Mujahid, a former Afghan police commander accused of plotting against the US, to prove his innocence before a special military tribunal.

As was his right, Mr Mujahid called four witnesses from Afghanistan.

But months later the tribunal president returned with bad news: the witnesses could not be found.

Mr Mujahid’s hopes sank and he was returned to the wire-mesh cell where he remains today.

The Guardian’s search for Mr Mujahid’s witnesses proved successful within three days. One was working for President Hamid Karzai, another was teaching at a leading American college and the third was living in Kabul. The fourth was dead.

Each witness said he had never been approached by the Americans to testify in Mr Mujahid’s hearing.

But by the time the review tribunals ended last year the US government had located just a handful of the requested witnesses. None was brought from overseas to testify.

The military lawyers simply said they were “non-contactable”.

That was not entirely true.

Abdullah Mujahid was originally identified by Washington-based reporters from the Boston Globe after trawling through pages of testimony from the military trials. American forces arrested Mr Mujahid in the southern Afghan city of Gardez in mid-2003, claiming that he had been fired as police chief on suspicion of “collusion with anti-government forces”, according to official documents. Later, they alleged, he attacked US forces in retaliation.

In the military tribunal Mr Mujahid protested his innocence. He enjoyed good relations with American soldiers and had been promoted, not fired, he said.

The three living witnesses he requested were easily located with a telephone, an internet connection and a few days’ work.

Shahzada Massoud was at the presidential palace, where he advises Mr Karzai on tribal affairs. Gul Haider, a former defence ministry official, was found through the local government in Gardez.

The interior ministry gave an email address for the former minister, Ahmed Ali Jalali, although he could as easily have been found on the internet – he teaches at the National Defence University in Washington DC.

The witnesses corroborated Mr Mujahid’s story with some qualifications. Mr Jalali, the former interior minister, said Mr Mujahid had been fired over allegations of corruption and bullying – not for attacking the government.

Mr Haider, the former defence official, said Mr Mujahid had contributed 30 soldiers to a major operation against al-Qaida in March 2002. “He is completely innocent,” he said.

In Gardez, Haji Muhammad Hasan, 65, keeps a stack of Red Cross letters as the only proof of his son’s whereabouts.

“I feel completely helpless,” he said in despair. Beside him the detainee’s shy sons – aged three, four and five – waited for news of a father they could hardly recall.

[Thanks to David Honish, Veterans For Peace, who sent this in.]

An Appeal From Iraq Veterans Against The War

Hello all, if anyone is interested in volunteering this summer in Louisiana, please let me know and I’ll give you more info.

All help towards this project is greatly appreciated and please pass this on to all listserves and individuals you may know who would like to help.

Peace,
Kelly Dougherty

Iraq Veterans Against the War
P.O. Box 8296
Philadelphia, PA 19101
Tel: (215) 241-7123 Fax: (215) 241-7177
www.ivaw.net
Email: admin@ivaw.net

June 27, 2006

Dear Friend,

I am writing you today because I know you are committed to supporting the veteran’s anti-war movement.

I want to tell you about an exciting opportunity to support a veteran-led reconstruction project in the Gulf Coast.

March 19, 2006 was the third anniversary of the war of aggression against Iraq. March 2006 also marked seven months after Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast, killing, injuring, and displacing hundreds of thousands of people. To show our continued opposition to the war in Iraq and the mistreatment and abandonment of our own citizens by the government, we marched for six days from Mobile, AL to New Orleans, LA.

For many veterans, the complete destruction and devastation along the Gulf Coast brought back memories of the ruin we witnessed while deployed in war zones. Seeing mile after mile of complete destruction in our own country was shocking and has moved many of us to actively help in whatever way we can.

We witnessed American families living in mold-infested houses, camp tents, and FEMA trailers, dealing with an ongoing crisis that the news media and federal government have been all too silent about.

This summer, Iraq Veterans Against the War, along with other veterans, military families, and students will be returning to the Gulf Coast July 1 – August 7 to work together with local communities and rebuild in the wake of one of our nation’s worst natural disasters. If we can build bases in the desert for war, we can rebuild cities in the U.S. for justice. This is the message we will be focusing on as we work in solidarity with our fellow citizens who have lost so much during the ten months following Hurricane Katrina. We must demand that our government bring our troops home and direct its resources to caring for returning veterans and giving the people of the Gulf Coast the help needed to return and rebuild their communities.

We need your help to make this happen! It’s been ten months since Hurricane Katrina, yet in many areas it looks as though the hurricane and flooding happened days, not months, ago.

Your contribution of $35 will help supply ten volunteers with shower and restroom facilities for a month, $60 will feed a volunteer for a week, $100 will help pay for transportation to and from the work sites.

Your continued support and encouragement means everything to the veterans of IVAW and the residents of the Gulf Coast we will be working with. Thank you.

With Gratitude,

Kelly Dougherty
Sgt U.S. Army National Guard 1996-2004
Coordinator, Veterans Gulf Reconstruction Project
Co-founder Iraq Veterans Against the War

All donations are tax-deductible to the fullest extent of the law.

Mail checks to: Iraq Veterans Against the War, PO Box 8296, Philadelphia, PA 19101
Phone: 215.241.7123 Fax: 215.241.7177 Email: admin@ivaw.net

Coward In Marine Officers Uniform Goes After Unarmed Demonstrators With Baseball Bat:
Next, This Disgusting Recruiting Office Freak Steals Their Cell Phone:
Police Participate In The Theft:
ACT NOW TO SUPPORT FREE SPEECH AND WAR RESISTERS!

[Thanks to PB, who sent this in.]

June 30, 2006 From Elizabeth Wrigley-Field, Campus Antiwar Network [Excerpts]

URGENT:

Two peaceful anti-war protesters were assaulted by a baseball-bat wielding Marine [officer] at the Orange St. recruiting station in New Haven, CT on Wed. June 28th. They were attending a non-violent demonstration in support of war resisters Lt. Ehren Watada and Suzanne Swift.

Read below under “Take Action” for how you can help!

On June 27th at 5pm five anti-war activists heeded the National Call to Action in support of Lt. Ehren Watada (www.thankyoult.org/) and Suzanne Swift (www.suzanneswift.org/) who are soldiers who are facing punishment for refusing to deploy to Iraq.

They peacefully chanted and held signs while passing out information on the resisting soldiers and counter-recruitment literature. Although an officer called the police, they engaged in civil discussions with various soldiers and pedestrians and were invited back for the next day when the colonel would be in town. They left chanting “We’ll be back! See you tomorrow!

The activists kept their word and returned the following day with four times as many people.

Things started out peacefully but that quickly changed when an aggravated marine officer began yelling and sent a young recruit to retrieve a baseball bat. He lunged wildly at the protesters with the bat in their faces while threatening physical violence.

The activists did not respond in any way and tried to diffuse the situation peacefully. One activist pulled out their cell phone to take a picture. The marine pushed two activists off the curb into the street and knocked the phone out of the other activists hand. He picked up the phone, erased the picture and only after police arrived at the scene did he back down.

When the police arrived, the marine was still holding the bat. Yet the police approached the protesters immediately.

The marine was allowed to leave the scene with the phone he had taken and returned to his duties, training the Junior Marine Corps.

Meanwhile the police insisted that protesters had provoked this reaction from the marine by exercising their free speech rights. He insisted that they move their protest to the opposite side of the street.

When asked politely by protesters why they were required to do this, pointing out that they were on a public sidewalk, he declared “This is MY sidewalk.”

He implied that if they did not move they would be arrested when he said “You can do whatever you want, but in the end I’ll win.” He then proceeded to call in police paddy wagons to intimidate. After 45 minutes, the phone was returned but the police refused to divulge the identity of the marine.

Throughout this outrageous incident, the activists maintained composure and did absolutely nothing to aggravate the situation. They immediately called a member of the National Lawyers Guild and other allies.

Upon some discussion and legal advice, the protesters moved to the opposite side of the street to avoid escalating the situation. At this point the news cameras arrived and the protesters continued to chant loudly until the soldiers went home and their offices closed.

This is not over. They are holding a press conference this Wednesday July 5th at 5pm in front of the Orange St. recruiting station. We can’t let the government intimidate us!!

Demands:

1. A public apology from both the US Marine Corps and the New Haven Police Department.

2. That the officer that assaulted us be removed from his duties and provided appropriate counseling but NOT jail time.

3. That our free speech rights are guaranteed in all public places including in front of the recruiting station.

4. Free Lt. Ehren Watada, Specialist Suzanne Swift and all other jailed war resisters!

5. Fund GI healthcare!

6. Bring the TROOPS HOME NOW!

TAKE ACTION!

Call the US Marine Corps Recruiting Command
Orange St, New Haven, CT – 203-789-4484
Regional Office, Springfield, MA – 413-594-4623 or 2033
Major Lawrence Coleman, Sergeant Major Cevet Adams

Call the New Haven Police Department
Chief Francisco Ortiz – 203-946-6333
General – 203-946-6316 or 6120
“Internal Values and Ethics” – 203-946-6249 or 6250
Officers Ratti (#463), Hartnett (#4), Knickerbocker (#80)

Come to the Press Conference and Rally
Wednesday, July 5 – 5PM
157 Orange St. New Haven, CT 06511

For More Info/directions/get involved call Todd 203-506-2414

For every emotionaly disturbed Marine desperately in need of treatment, and hypocrite thug of a cop we meet, we meet ten people who are glad we’re there.

Now it’s time to get those supporters into the streets with us for next time.

The following is a statement that is being circulated regarding an incident at the military recruiting station on Orange Street in New Haven on Wednesday, June 28.

A baseball bat-wielding Marine recruiter engaged in an unprovoked assault on two demonstrators outside the recruiting center and then seized the cellphone belonging to another demonstrator who had witnessed and photographed the assault.

There are plans for a rally and press conference outside the recruiting center for July 5 at 5PM.

The National Lawyers Guild was contacted immediately after the incident by organizers who were looking for legal assistance because, among other things, the New Haven police were trying to discourage the victims from making a complaint against the recruiter — apparently at least one officer expressed the opinion that having an anti-war demonstration outside a military recruiting center was a “provocation.”

The question that this incident must raise is this: if a US Marine recruiter, while safely ensconced behind a desk in an air-conditioned office in New Haven, working in a position that plainly keeps him in the public eye, feels free to use a baseball bat to beat a protester . . . then how much restraint do we imagine that his compatriots use against Iraqis?

I would strongly urge people to participate in the rally on July 5. The movement needs to respond in a strong and clear voice to violence against demonstrators, and all the more so when it comes from government personnel and is calculated to discourage political opposition.

Peter Goselin
National Lawyers Guild-Connecticut

Army Launches Website to Assist Soldiers and Veterans Whose Personal Data May Have Been Stolen From VA

Jun 30, 2006 U.S. Army & The Indy Channel

The Department of the Army has activated a secure web site at https://ID-Theft.army.mil that will enable current and former servicemembers to determine if their personal information was potentially compromised as a result of the May 3 theft of a laptop from the Department of Veterans Affairs containing personal data on millions of veterans.

The lost data includes identifying information (name, social security numbers and dates of birth) on as many as 20 million veterans, including active and reserve-component servicemembers. No evidence currently indicates that the data has been used illegally, but all Soldiers and former servicemembers should be extra vigilant regarding their financial well-being.

A backup tape with more than 16,000 records from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Counsel Office in Indianapolis is missing.

The revelation came Thursday during a hearing of the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs in Washington.

The tape, missing since May 5, had records of 16,537 legal cases and 12,349 records containing personally identifiable information of individuals.

The records contain dates of birth, medical records and social security numbers for an unknown number of veterans.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

The scene of a car bomb attack on a passing police patrol, July 2, 2006, in the Karradah district of Baghdad, killed Col. Muthanna Faeq Abdul-Razzaq, the assistant commander of the Iraqi army’s seventh division, and wounded his driver, police said. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

July 2 (Reuters) & (KUNA) & By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

Mortar and gunfire boomed across a Sunni district in Baghdad on Sunday evening, police and a witness said. U.S. armoured vehicles were seen entering Adhamiya, which has seen considerable insurgent activity.

Adnan Imad and seven colleagues had just sat down for breakfast at a popular Baghdad restaurant on Sunday morning when a bomb blew in the windows and sent glass shards slicing through the packed restaurant.

Imad said there were no policemen in the Baghdadi at the time of the blast but he knew of a number of government employees who ate there.

The police chief of Muqdidiya, Hussein al-Jubouri, was seriously wounded when insurgents stormed his house in the town north of Baquba, police said.

An Iraqi soldier was wounded when a roadside bomb went off near his patrol in Buhriz, just south of Baquba, police said.

Two policemen were killed and two wounded in clashes with militants in Rashad, a small town 40 km southwest of Kirkuk, police said.

A booby-trapped car exploded in Arsat area at the passing by of the motocade of parliament member Iyad Jamaluldin. Two civilians were killed and nine people including four body guards of the deputy were wounded.

In a Baghdad shootout between guerrillas and Iraqi police, two policemen were killed and six were wounded, Lt. Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said.

Attacks with molotov bombs and machinguns were reported in a number of cities in Diali today. An army officer was killed.

Militants killed a man accused of collaborating with the American forces in Garma, west of Baghdad.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

Deputy Prime Minister Admits There Is A “Patriotic Resistance” To U.S. Occupation

July 2 By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA, Associated Press Writer

Deputy Prime Minister Salam Zikam Ali al-Zubaie said the interior minister and several other security chiefs decided to hold a comprehensive review on Wednesday of a security operation launched last month.

He said they also broached the problem of Shiite militias blamed for the rampant sectarian and ethnic violence.

“We will confront any unlawful groups,” he said. “There are some groups that try to make use of the patriotic resistance in order to carry out terrorist acts and such groups are rejected.”

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

Not In My Name

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: July 01, 2006

“The world is a dangerous place to live,
not because of the people who are evil,
but because of the people who don’t do
anything about it.” Albert Einstein

Richard Hastie
Vietnam Veteran

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)

“Guilty Until Proven Guilty”
“The Road To Guantanamo” Questions U.S. Treatment Of Wartime Prisoners

Film Review:
July 03, 2006, By Matt Hevezi, Army Times staff writer

One possible answer to the question of why many Muslims around the globe both hate and fear America is presented in “The Road to Guantanamo.”

Three young British men, all Muslims, share a dark and disturbing story in the 95-minute film that is part documentary and part re-enactment. Their experience evolves from being in the wrong place at the wrong time to being captives in a war they say they never intended to join.

Directors Mat Whitecross and Michael Winterbottom combine studio interviews with the men and on-location re-enactments in Pakistan and Afghanistan to tell their story.

Documentaries are inherently designed to present a certain point of view, although some do so more forcefully than others.

This film is told from the intensely singular perspective of the men who say they endured harsh imprisonment and accusations of involvement with terrorist groups as it traces their path from Pakistan to the infamous prison camp at Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Four men; Asif Iqbal, Ruhal Ahmed, Shafiq Rasul and Monir Ali; travel from their hometown in Tipton, England, to Pakistan to attend Iqbal’s family-arranged wedding. But after just a few days there, they end up in Afghanistan in October 2001.

Left unclear is the men’s motivation for crossing into Afghanistan. It appears they decided on a whim, something akin to an American road trip, to see for themselves what was unfolding in Afghanistan and to try to help a Muslim nation in turmoil.

This incomplete aspect of the story leaves open the possibility that the men may have had plans beyond curiosity and humanitarian intent. That, in turn, underscores a central challenge of the war on terrorism; that it’s difficult, if not impossible, to identify an enemy who doesn’t wear a uniform until he pulls out a weapon.

When American bombs begin to fall in Afghanistan, the already chaotic country erupts into a lawless panic. The four British Muslims realize they’ve made a mistake and desperately attempt a hasty return to Pakistan.

They don’t make it.

Ali becomes separated from the group and is presumed killed. The remaining three end up in an Afghan prison run by ruthless U.S.-backed Northern Alliance soldiers who believe the men are Taliban sympathizers.

They describe enduring arduous conditions; extreme overcrowding and a diet consisting largely of bread; before U.S. forces discover their British identities and English language skills. They are then bagged, tagged and placed on a military cargo jet to Cuba.

They were locked in outdoor cages at Camp X-Ray and remained in prison for two years. They describe receiving beatings and solitary confinement for weeks or months at a time as punishment for refusing to confess to being terrorists, and being bound hand and foot to floor-mounted rings as they endured flashing strobe lights and heavy-metal music at ear-splitting levels.

They are eventually cleared of terrorist affiliations and freed in March 2004 to return to Britain.

As in most productions that chronicle true stories during armed conflict, this film seeks to be an indictment of the human character in war. “The Road to Guantanamo” is politically charged and presents a damning portrayal of the brutality of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance soldiers toward suspected Taliban captives.

It also casts the U.S. military prison operation in Cuba in a very ugly light. There are repetitive and difficult-to-watch examples of the alleged tactics and behavior of U.S. military prison guards and government interrogators working to extract intelligence from detainees at Guantanamo.

In the view of Whitecross and Winterbottom, the essence of the British trio’s experience during their two-year stint at the prison is “guilty until proven guilty.”

One of the very few uplifting moments comes at the end, when the three men return to Pakistan after their release and Iqbal marries.

But it’s not enough.

As portrayed here, the totality of the men’s suffering leaves a much deeper imprint of the dark side of the war.

[Thanks to David Honish, Veterans For Peace, who sent this in.]

OCCUPATION REPORT

U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;
RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

Foreign fighters from the U.S. armed forces occupying an Iraqi citizens home in Ramadi, June 26, 2006. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg) (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

[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, butcher their families, 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 PALESTINE

“Please Let Your E-Mail List And Friends Know About What’s Going On Here”

From: Mohammed
To: GI Special
Sent: July 02, 2006 6:30 AM

Please let your e-mail list and friends know about what’s going on here
www.rafahtoday.org

Mohammed

[To fins out what’s going on, under a murderous military occupation by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”]

“Israel’s Logic”

July 01, 2006 Martin Chulov, The Australian

ISRAEL last night threatened to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh if Hamas militants did not release a captured Israeli soldier unharmed.

Israel’s logic:
“if you imprison one of my soldiers,
I shall assassinate your Prime Minister.”

Raja Chemayel
Second of July 2006

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

“You’re Killing Palestinians, We’re Killing Servers”
750 Israeli Websites Hacked In Recent Hours

06.28.06 Gal Mor, Ehud Kinan, Ynetnews.com

Unprecedented number of Israeli websites hacked: Hundreds of websites were damaged by hackers in recent hours, following IDF activity in the Gaza Strip.
The hackers are members of the Moroccan “Team Evil” group, responsible for most of the website damage in Israel in the past year.

This is the largest, most concentrated attack on Israeli websites in recent years.

A Ynet investigation revealed that more than 750 Israeli websites, on a number of different domains, were hacked into and damaged in recent days. Prominent among them were the Soldier’s Treasury Bank, Bank Hapoalim (not the main page), Rambam Hospital, the Society for Culture and Housing, BMW Israel, Subaru Israel, Jump Fashion, non-profit organization “Yedid,” Kadima’s youth website, and the Globus Group ticket center. Many of these sites have not yet returned to normal.

Hackers left the message: You’re killing Palestinians, we’re killing servers.

In the past, Team Evil succeeded in hacking into several sites of medium-sized but recognized Israeli companies. In April, they hit tens of sites, including those of the “Shilav” children’s store, “The Blue Square” supermarket and McDonald’s.

The group’s spokesman previously told Ynet that “we are a group of Moroccan hackers that hack into sites as part of the resistance in the war with Israel. We attack Israeli sites every day. This is our duty…hacking is not a crime.”

Added another group member: “We want Israel to stop fighting. Stop killing children and we’ll stop hacking.” According to the spokesman, the group’s members are all Moroccan youths, under the age of 20.

The increase in hacking of websites following military operations is a well-known phenomenon, in Israel and in the rest of the world. A similar increase was seen in attacks on both Israeli and Arab websites in the first days of the second intifada, pursuant to military operations that took place in Gaza, Judea and Samaria at that time.

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

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/

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