The GI Movement: From Vietnam Days

Vet Candidate For Congress Says Armed Forces Must Get Ready To Arrest The Traitor Bush:
“Resist All Illegal Orders By Bush Or Cheney, And Take The Gentlemen Into Custody If Necessary”

09/21/06 Information Clearing House

Former Army Lieutenant and a candidate for Congress in VT, Dennis Morrisseau of W. Pawlet, today called for the arrest of President Bush and Vice President Cheney by the American military “if necessary” to prevent an unauthorized attack upon the nation of Iran.

“American forces are apparently already active inside Iran, and Naval forces have received orders to deploy to that country,” Morrisseau said.

“The President has NO AUTHORITY to attack the nation of Iran whatsoever, in the absence of a full, formal Declaration of War on Iran by the sitting Congress,” Morrisseau said.

He said any order for an attack upon Iran or to deploy naval forces to its coastal waters is illegal, and called upon officers of the American military to “First, refuse to obey such an order.

“If the president persists and insists on ordering our forces into combat in or over Iran without a formal Declaration of War, then I call upon you, General Pace, as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and upon such other military officers as clearly see their duty in these circumstances to detain both the President and Vice President, until such time as the Congress shall act.”

Morrisseau, a Congressional candidate who was court-martialled for opposition to the Vietnam War in 1968, said he has written to General Pace to ask for the intervention of the military.

“In spite of my opposition to the Vietnam War and the court-martial which we ultimately defeated, I was a good soldier who had the respect of my superior officers throughout the ordeal. And they had mine!” Morrisseau said.

“There are many many, very, very decent people in the active duty military. I know this,” he said “--- people who love their country and democracy too, and hate war.”

Morrisseau wrote that “Iran is no present threat to us or anyone. Their right to enrich uranium under treaties signed by us for the production of nuclear power is clear: and that is all they have so far done.

“An attack upon that nation now by us, acting alone will constitute an illegal war of aggression under international law. It is illegal under our law as well. I urge you to so advise the President,” Morrisseau wrote to Pace, “and urge that he take no such actions. In particular, he must not act in the absense of a full, formal, responsible War Declaration by Congress.

“That is the Constitutional requirement.”

If he and Cheney persist, Morrisseau wrote, “than the country must rely upon you, Sir, and our armed forces generally, to resist all illegal orders by Bush or Cheney, and take the gentlemen into custody if necessary.”

“Our great nation has suffered a coup. And there is an immediate need for action and for the piercing of illusions. We need to step across old political boundaries and ideas. Who cares about “Democrats” vs. “Republicans”? The leadership of both parties is thoroughly corrupt.”

MORE:

Betrayed:
“When Our Own Politico-Military Hierarchy Sells Our Troops And American Civilians Down The River, They Must Go”

Letters To The Editor
Army Times
October 02, 2006

It is with an extremely heavy heart that I write this.

My opinions will be distasteful to many, revolting to some and even downright disloyal or traitorous to others.

Nonetheless, I feel a very strong personal obligation, duty and responsibility to share them.

In keeping with the fine Army tradition of putting the bottom line first, the majority of our politico-military personnel, primarily in the paygrades of O-6 and above, has betrayed the special faith, trust and confidence given them by the citizens of the United States by not protecting our troops to the maximum extent possible.

They have failed miserably to make a good, honest effort to provide the quality of training, equipment and leadership that is so vital to our troops having a reasonable chance of accomplishing their missions and returning to their loved ones safe and sound, physically and mentally.

It is one thing for the civilian administration to make bad decisions at the strategic level, where the military has little or no control, but it is absolutely criminal for the politico-military hierarchy not to take appropriate actions in a timely manner to correct deficiencies identified at the tactical level that will have a negative effect on the well-being of our troops.

Our duty to support and defend is clearly understood, but when our own politico-military hierarchy sells our troops and American civilians down the river, they must go.

They have done what was expected of them by using our troops to justify anything and everything the current administration wants. But it is pathetic to know that the safety of our troops comes last.

Only the hopeless refuse to believe that everything boils down to money.

Shouldn’t we at least demand that we take care of our troops first: before, during and after their sacrifice for our once-great country?

Lt. Col. Dennis Lee Adams (ret.)
Austin, Texas

MORE:

The Criminals In Command Are Scheming To Betray And Kill Off Our National Guards:
“National Guard Chief Lt. Gen. Steven Blum Is Prepared For His Soldiers To Get The Call Again”
“The Pentagon Would Have To Change Its Policy That Limits Guard Combat Tours To Two Years Out Of Five”

MORE:

[Thanks to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]

Sept 22, 2006 By Jim Miklaszewski, Chief Pentagon correspondent, NBC News

WASHINGTON – A senior military official tells NBC News that five years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have stretched the Army to a dangerous breaking point.

For the Army, the pace of combat has been relentless. Many soldiers are already on their third combat tour. Frequent deployments have cut training time at home in half, which has left two-thirds of all Army combat units rated “not ready for combat.”

“I think, arguably, it’s the worst readiness condition the U.S. Army has faced since the end of Vietnam,” says NBC military analyst and retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey.

So the Army’s looking again to the National Guard for relief.

A year ago, more than one-third of U.S. ground forces in Iraq were National Guard. Guard chief Lt. Gen. Steven Blum is prepared for his soldiers to get the call again.

“If you think the National Guard is busy today, I think we’re going to look back and say these were the good old days in about three years,” Blum says.

But the Guard is also under stress.

Two hundred seventy thousand Guard soldiers, 60 percent of the force, have already hit their limit for overseas combat.

The Pentagon would have to change its policy that limits Guard combat tours to two years out of five.

“More is being asked of them, particularly the National Guard and Reserve components, than they signed up to do,” says McCaffrey, “and in the near term we think it’s going to unravel.”

Blum remains confident, however, that if needed the Guard will answer the call.

[Perhaps, arms in hand, they will, but what call will they answer? The call to die for Bush and the Empire? Or some other call, less pleasing to Blum, some call he can’t conceive of, outside his worst nightmare? Perhaps rushing towards some as yet unknown destination, the call they answer will be, arms in hand, to Guard the Nation, and sweep away Blum and his kind. Such things, unimaginable here and now, have become real in other times, at other places.]

But uprooting Guard soldiers from their families and sending them off to war is politically explosive, so military officials predict there will be no decision to mobilize the Guard until after the midterm elections in November.

[”Politically explosive” the writer says. What kind of political explosion could he have in mind? He may think he means the ballot box, but when a hundred thousand men and women, trained in arms, and having access to them, have had enough of being killed or maimed for the Empire, what kind of “political explosion” can detonate, to the amazement of the world?

[It would appear the fools who profit from the Empire, and think by seizing the government they have mastered the whole of America, are considering lighting the fuse. They are certainly greedy and stupid enough to do so.]

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.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Two Baghdad Soldiers Die In Non-Combat Related Incident

26 September 2006 MNC Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20060926-01

BAGHDAD: Two Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers died in a non-combat incident southwest of Baghdad at approximately 1:45 a.m. today.

Another Kill For Rumsfeld:
Sgt. Died On Extended Iraq Tour;
Medic Expected Return Weeks Ago:
“He Was Mad, Very Disappointed That He Couldn’t Come Home,” His Older Brother, James “Andy” Davis, Said Yesterday.

September 20, 2006 FireFighter

Maryland: Less than a week before he was to return home from Iraq Army combat medic Sgt. David J. “Joey” Davis of Lisbon learned that his one-year tour of duty had been extended until after Thanksgiving, perhaps until February.

Military commanders had selected the sergeant’s heavily armored brigade for a critical crackdown on Shiite militiamen in the epicenter of Baghdad’s sectarian violence: the dangerous, 2 million-person slum of Sadr City.

It was there Sunday that a homemade bomb detonated near Sergeant Davis’ eight-wheel, 19-ton Stryker Armored Vehicle, killing the 32-year-old and injuring two other soldiers, one severely.

“He was mad, very disappointed that he couldn’t come home,” his older brother, James “Andy” Davis, said yesterday. “But he knew they had a job to do. He wanted to stay with the guys he had been with. They needed him if they got hurt.”

The last-minute extension of duty took members of the Alaska-based 172nd Stryker Brigade by surprise.

Sergeant Davis, who married his second wife, Roberta, in Alaska last year, delivered the news in a phone call home to his mother.

She relayed the news to the nearby Lisbon Volunteer Fire Station, where Sergeant Davis began working after graduating from Glenelg High School in 1991.

Yesterday, members of the Lisbon fire company remembered him as an eager volunteer, among the first to arrive in his pickup truck whenever the station’s siren would sound.

“He wanted to get into the military because he wanted to be a career firefighter,” said Capt. Jim Baker, who had been sitting down at the station’s computer to send his friend an e-mail when a fellow volunteer broke the news of Sergeant Davis’ death.

“The fire service looks at the military as something good and could be a deciding factor in getting a job,” said Captain Baker. “It’s good training.”

He said that when Sergeant Davis was just 18 years old, he took him under his wing as a new volunteer, getting him accustomed to the firehouse.

At that time, Sergeant Davis’ life centered around “the firehouse, girls, like all 18-year-old boys, and he was big into rodeos,” Captain Baker said.

“He mostly watched (rodeo). I think he rode a few times and got knocked around,” Captain Baker recalled.

Captain Baker and Andy Davis described Sergeant Davis as a “country boy.” He loved country music and trucks and was most at home in a cowboy hat, boots and jeans, they said.

Before joining the Army, he worked on his brother’s cattle farm in Emmitsburg, did construction work and drove tractor-trailers.

As a “thunderhorse,” or dismount medic in Iraq, Sergeant Davis cared for injured soldiers on the scene of any medical emergency.

“That EMT training he used in the Army, he first received as a volunteer firefighter,” his brother said said.

He said his younger brother rarely spoke about the stress of battle.

The soldier’s e-mail correspondence mostly centered on packages bringing the comforts of home that would make what he planned to be his final year in the Army more tolerable.

From an October 2005 message: “It’s 120 degrees during the day and 60 degrees at night. Thanks for the package. My buddy Ray-Ray gave me some ideas for care packages. I’d like to have some handy snacks, cheese and crackers, Strawberry Twizzlers, gummy bears, Ding Dongs, May Day candy bars, Chex Mix, Planters peanuts and also some more baby wipes.”

Sergeant Davis used the wipes to clean the sweat and sand off his large, black protective goggles.

The family is waiting for the remains to be delivered to Dover, Del.

Funeral arrangements, which are being handled by Stauffer Funeral Home in Mount Airy, were not final yesterday.

In addition to his brother and his wife, he is survived by his parents, Jim and Josephine Davis of Lisbon; and two sisters, Helen Blair of Virginia Beach, Va., and Theresa Hadley of Hagerstown.

MORE:

NEVER FORGET WHAT RUMSFELD DID:

[www.bringhome172nd.org/stryker/]

[Excerpts from: www.bringhome172nd.org/stryker/]

On July 26th, the men and women of the 172nd Stryker Combat Brigade prepared to end their unit’s deployment to Iraq. This unit of 3,800 Americans had endured the fight for a year, distinguishing itself as an essential and effective factor in bringing stability to the North of Iraq. A small number of the brigade had taken the first steps back on U.S. soil, arriving to their base near Fairbanks, Alaska, while many others were already in Kuwait waiting to board homebound planes.

With these successes behind them, their flak vests packed, personal items sent stateside, and their Stryker Armored Vehicles turned over to other newly-arrived units, this battle brigade was able to breathe a sigh of relief and prepare to Go Home.

The following day, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld gave his approval to extend the 172nd Brigade’s deployment in Iraq.

Resistance Attack In Force Hits Newly Opened Jurf As Sakhr IP Station;
8 U.S. Troops Wounded

Sept. 26, 2006 2006 MNC Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20060926-02; 2nd BCT PAO, 4th Inf. Div. & CNN

FOB KALSU, Iraq: The recently constructed Jurf As Sakhr police station in the northern Babil province was damaged at approximately 7:30 a.m. Monday when terrorists [translation: resistance soldiers] detonated a car bomb as it attempted to enter the compound.

Soldiers of Company B, 1st Battalion, 67th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, engaged a white two-door sedan and its occupants as the vehicle barreled through the front gates of the IP station.

Simultaneously, terrorists [translation: resistance soldiers] attacked several guard towers at the patrol base adjacent to the station with indirect and small-arms fire. The vehicle continued toward the station and detonated when it impacted the northwest corner of the structure.

The blast killed three IPs and wounded four. Eight Multi-National Division Baghdad Soldiers on guard duty were wounded, treated for minor injuries on sight and returned to duty. The IPs were medically evacuated to the Musayyib hospital.

Iraqi police officers and leaders conducted an opening ceremony on the $440,000 facility Sept. 12.

Grants Grad Critically Wounded In Iraq

21 September 2006 Written by Bruce Daniels, ABQnewsSeeker

Army Pfc. Michael Brown, 21, a 2004 graduate of Grants High School, was critically wounded Saturday when a roadside bomb hit the Humvee Brown was riding in on patrol in South Baghdad, the Gallup Independent reported on its Web site.

Brown, who attended the University of New Mexico for a year before joining the Army in 2005, was serving as a mortarman with the 10th Cavalry, 4th Infantry Division, the Independent reported.

His father Richard Brown, a Marine combat veteran and longtime officer and detective sergeant with the Grants Police Department, told the Independent that his son had been stationed in southern Iraq until he was transferred to Baghdad in June.

“He wasn’t seeing much action in the south, but his platoon has seen action almost every day since arriving in Baghdad, and they have taken some pretty severe losses,” Richard Brown told the Independent.

Michael Brown was airlifted from Iraq to the Brooks Army Medical Center in San Antonio, where he is in critical condition with 25-30 percent burns to his body and throat, his father said.

“It’s the throat they are worried about … There are no other injuries that I am aware of,” said Brown, who told the paper he was notified by the Army’s casualty unit around 7 p.m. Saturday.

Local Soldier Wounded In Iraq

September 14, 2006 GateHouse Media

The son of Marblehead resident Carol Slavin is reportedly recovering from serious injuries sustained while in combat in Iraq.

According to published reports, Sgt. Thomas Slavin was wounded Aug. 23 when the Humvee he had been traveling in hit an improvised explosive device south of Baghdad. The driver of the Humvee was killed, and another soldier traveling in the vehicle was injured.

After being taken to combat support in Baghdad, Slavin was then transferred to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where he is reportedly recovering.

Area Soldier Wounded In Iraq Battle;
Former Northern Student Shot While Saving Life

September 12, 2006 By SHANNON MURPHY, Times Herald

A former Port Huron resident was injured in Iraq early Monday while helping another wounded soldier.

D.J. Palm, 20, was in eastern Baghdad helping another soldier who had shrapnel in his leg when he was shot in the shoulder, said his mother, Stephanie Lopiccolo of Macomb Township.

Palm is a specialist E4 with the U.S. Army’s 1st Battalion 77th Armored Division of Schweinfurt, Germany.

The bullet, Lopiccolo said, passed through her son’s right shoulder. Palm was not critically injured and is expected to fully recover in about two months.

“I’m in a numb stage,” Lopiccolo said. “I know a lot of kids get hurt worse and don’t make it home.”

Palm, who graduated from Macomb Township’s Dakota High School in 2004, attended Port Huron schools until his final year. He lived most of his life in Port Huron and still has family in the area.

Palm joined the Army after graduation and spent the past 18 months in Germany. He had just started his first one-year tour of Iraq about three weeks ago, Lopiccolo said.

“The shot missed any major areas,” she said. “He definitely had his guardian angel with him guiding (the bullet).”

Ellen Rogers, a government teacher at Port Huron Northern High School, was shocked when she heard Palm had been shot. A close friend of her son, Palm calls Rogers ‘mom.’ He had called her sixth-hour government class Friday and answered questions from students.

Palm attended Port Huron Northern until he moved.

“I have been worried all this time, since I got the call this summer that he was going,” Rogers said.

Rogers said Palm’s Friday phone call excited her class and helped them realize more about the men and women serving overseas.

“He said ‘tell all your students to cherish what they have, they have no idea what it is like in other places,’” Rogers said. “I just keep hoping he comes home safe.”

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

U.S. soldiers from the 4th Squadron, 14th Cavalry Regiment search through homes for a sniper who had fired on them in eastern Baghdad Sept. 24, 2006. (AP Photo/Antonio Castaneda)

“About 75% Now Support The Armed Insurgency Against The Coalition”
“Complete Victory For The Us, Whatever That Might Mean, Is Now Out Of The Question”

22 September 2006 By John Simpson, World affairs editor, BBC News [Excerpts]

Some 147,000 soldiers may seem a large number, and it is more than the US Department of Defense had been hoping to deploy in Iraq by now.

But the overwhelming majority of them are not out on the streets, stopping the bombings and kidnappings and murders.

The total number of fighting soldiers in the American force is probably about 18,000 – quite a small number, given the area they have to cover and the size of the problem.

Even so, more troops does not seem to be the solution. It is probably too late now to introduce different tactics, but in policing hostile towns and cities there is no effective alternative to the foot patrol.

A well-trained platoon can control quite a large area, making it hard for their opponents to gather together and carry out attacks. Of course, armoured vehicles can cover more ground, but as soon as they have passed, the insurgents can come out of hiding again.

The Americans have never put enough foot patrols in the streets, and they long ago lost control of many towns and cities as a result.

The US Department of Defense has now provided another measure of the problem it faces.

Its latest opinion poll carried out in Iraq indicates that, among the five million Sunni Muslims there, about 75% now support the armed insurgency against the coalition.

This compares with 14% in the first opinion poll the Defense Department carried out back in 2003. It is a catastrophic loss of support, and there is no sign whatever that it can be effectively reversed.

The rise in hostility to the US forces is clearly linked to the onslaught against the town of Falluja in 2004. This, we are told, was ordered directly by the White House and the Department of Defense after the bodies of four American defence contractors were hung from a bridge in April 2004.

The ferocity of the attack by the US marines persuaded large numbers of Iraqi Sunnis that the Americans were their enemies.

The situation in the country as a whole has never seriously improved since then, and Falluja itself has still not been entirely subdued.

Last year, President George W Bush said he would accept nothing less than complete victory in Iraq. For many months, as the situation there deteriorated even further, he went quiet about his promise.

But earlier this month, before the fifth anniversary of the attack on the twin towers, he repeated it.

That presumably had more to do with American politics than with the situation in Iraq.

But the latest crop of figures indicate that complete victory for the US, whatever that might mean, is now out of the question.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Italian Soldier Killed Near Kabul, Five Wounded

Sep 26, 2006 (CBC) & AP & (ANSA)

An Italian soldier killed by a remote control bomb planted under a bridge.

A blast south of Kabul damaged a bridge while a small military convoy passed over it. The attack killed Chief Corporal Maj. Giorgio Langella.

The bloodied body of the slain soldier, with his bulletproof vest still on, lay on the ground alongside his weapon shortly after the blast, according to an AP reporter at the scene.

The attack was aimed at three military vehicles passing over the bridge, Ali Shah Paktiawal, Kabul police criminal director, told reporters.

Five other Italian soldiers were injured – two seriously – in the remote-control blast which took place at 8.00 a.m. local time some 10 kilometres to the south of Kabul .

Military sources said the soldiers were part of a convoy which was on patrol duty .

Assorted Resistance Action

Sep 26, 2006 (CBC)

Also on Tuesday, 18 people were killed when a bomber detonated an explosive vest outside the compound of a provincial governor in Lashkar Gah in southern Afghanistan. The explosion wounded 17 people.

The dead included nine Afghan soldiers and nine civilians.

Afghan soldiers stationed at the security gate of the compound stopped the bomber, who then set off his explosives, according to said Ghulam Muhiddin, spokesman for the Helmand provincial governor.

The bomber was walking toward a vehicle of private military contractors who act as security guards for the governor when he was stopped.

The attack did not wound the governor, Mohammed Daoud Safi, who was inside the compound when the bomb went off.

TROOP NEWS

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

The casket of 2nd Lt. Emily Perez during a burial ceremony at the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., Sept. 26, 2006. Perez, the highest ranking black and Hispanic woman cadet in corps history, was buried two weeks after she was killed by a bomb in Iraq. (AP Photo/Tim Roske)

WHY WE FIGHT: A MOTHER’S GUIDE TO CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE

While my son is fighting for his life in Fallujah, under some false pretense that we are “defending democracy” or “killing terrorists”, I decided to take up the fight at home.

September 25, 2006 by Elaine Brower, opednews.com

While my son is fighting for his life in Fallujah, under some false pretense that we are “defending democracy” or “killing terrorists”, I decided to take up the fight at home.

Very few here are left defending our Constitutional rights. Those who are trying are getting exhausted. We have a march after a rally and, then, march again.

Five years later, the war gets worse and the Middle East is on fire. There is extreme rendition, Hurricane Katrina “survivors”, spying on U.S. citizens in the name of preserving our freedoms, domestic economic failures and disasters, higher gas prices, and the global cowboy foreign policies that we have to listen to and witness on a daily basis.

Well, being a true patriot who flies the American Flag and the Marine Corps Flag outside her home in suburban Staten Island, New York, I decided to fight against the rapid whittling down of our rights to free speech.

I made plans to get arrested at the United Nations when the liars and crime bosses were visiting. I’m talking about those from our own Government.

The planning started a few weeks before, and it was done quietly but with great determination. I spoke to only those I knew felt the same hopeless feelings I had. Too many issues to just have a rally and go home. When the world was visiting New York City, we would strike. And so we did.

Sixteen determined citizens from all walks of life, all ages and backgrounds, decided to perform an act of non-violent civil disobedience in front of the United Nations on September 19th when the General Assembly was meeting to decide the fate of the world.

It was the scariest thing I had ever undertaken in my life, including my 3 marriages. Being married to a retired police lieutenant, and having 2 sons who are NYPD officers, I asked myself what in the world was I doing.

But seeing the smirk on the face of George Bush when he visited the site of Ground Zero and using it as his backdrop for a photo op once again, I decided I was doing the right thing.

If he could stand there and humiliate me and this Country, I could walk into the fires of hell to stop him.

The morning of the event came and I had gone sleepless the night before. I showed up at our meeting location and all I could see was my heart pumping right out of my shirt. I kept telling myself “You can’t do this, you can’t do this!”

But then I looked at my son’s picture which I carry with me, and I thought of all those funerals I had attended over the course of his deployment, the sadness in those mothers’ eyes and the questions they had as to why this happened, and I grew calm.

I was no longer afraid of the big bad wolves surrounding the UN in their black suits and earpieces, or the hundreds and hundreds of uniformed officers from every single police unit that could possibly incur overtime on our tax dollars.

I marched down to the gate on 1st Avenue and 44th Street and walked right between the police gate and a police van. The next thing I knew I was flying through the air, picture of my son in hand, and landed on my back about 10 feet from the gate I was trying to get through.

From my viewpoint, I could see a huge melee breaking out.

My friends had succeeded in walking through the barricade. I could see camera crews, uniforms, my friends, black suits, visitors, and onlookers just running into the crowd. There I was lying on the street with people jumping over as I thought, “I can run away and no one will ever know!”

But I couldn’t. My friends, who I have the utmost respect for, were being overwhelmed and abused by the law enforcement types that were there.

Cameras were right in the middle of the crowd filming, so I jumped back up and joined in. I looked to my right and couldn’t believe what I saw.

My friend, Father Luis Barrios, was kneeling on the ground with 4 uniformed police officers holding him down on his shoulders and head. For a moment it looked like he was praying. But as soon as I saw the force with which they were holding him, I knew he was in pain. So I joined the line of our group of protesters and we locked arms. We were all shaking and hurt but we stood firm and chanted “ARREST BUSH”, “PEACE NOW”, “BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW”, and some other things I don’t even remember.

It seemed to me that at that point the police and secret service just totally backed-up. I couldn’t understand it. I was expecting them to immediately cart us off as the “insane criminals” that they thought we were, but they let us chant. And we did. A man from the onlookers joined us and locked arms in solidarity. We smiled at him. We faced a sea of uniforms, suits, cameras and people watching. They looked as shocked as we were.

All the time I was standing there I thought of my son fighting on little sleep, few rations, somewhere out on the Euphrates River and it made me stronger.

Our voices were heard loud and clear. We accomplished our goal, however tiny a step we took towards the massive movement needed in this Country to stop the fascism. We did it!

We were then arrested and carted off in a paddy wagon. Eleven women and 5 men. The women were in one wagon, with cuffs and dirty clothes. Relief and contentment that we did what we set out to do filled up that old dirty wagon. Here we were, 11 women, ranging in ages from 20 to 78, different in so many ways, spanning many generations but sharing the same goal, and having the time of our lives!

Boy, the NYPD was very sorry they kept us locked up for 5 hours. We did more talking and laughing then I have ever done in my life. We bonded and shared the experience of defiance.

All 16 of us decided that afternoon into the evening that we were the core of the underground movement that would spread out and continue to push back against any fascist government that would deny us our First Amendment rights, and any other rights that we have all fought for long and hard over hundreds of years.

So I say to you, when given no other chance to express yourself, don’t feel hopeless or helpless or afraid, get out there and demand to be heard! It is your right as an American citizen, and don’t ever let anyone take that away from you.

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward GI Special 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 RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Assorted Resistance Action

Huge flames from a ruptured gas pipeline, in Beiji Sept. 26, 2006. Insurgents blew up a gas pipeline, which connects the Beiji refinery and a gas field in the Al-Laglag area northeast of Beiji. (AP Photo/Bassim Daham)

26 Sep 2006 Reuters & CNN

A roadside bomb exploded near a car carrying employees of the Finance Ministry, killing one and wounding five, in the small town of Latifiya, 40 km (25 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

A roadside bomb wounded two policemen in Baquba, 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Clashes erupted between gunpersons and police, killing a civilian and wounding three policemen in Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a source in the hospital said.

A car bomb targeting a police patrol wounded a policeman in Kirkuk, police said.

A bomb attached to a booby-trapped body exploded, wounding four policemen in the southern Doura district of Baghdad, police said.

Guerrillas captured Abdul Kareem al-Talgani, the mayor of al-Zuhour district on the northern outskirts of Baghdad, and wounded three of his bodyguards.

They also attacked the convoy of a Baghdad district mayor traveling from the capital to Diyala, killing three bodyguards.

12 policemen were wounded when a car bomb and a roadside bomb exploded in quick succession in eastern Zayouna district of Baghdad, a source in the Interior Ministry said.

The body of an Iraqi soldier was found riddled with bullets in Diwaniya, 180 km (115 miles) south of Baghdad, police said.

A car bomb targeting a police patrol exploded in central Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, killing one policeman and wounding three others, police said.

OCCUPATION REPORT

The Political Economy Of A Failed Occupation

“During the sanctions on Iraq before 2003, we were eager to seethe light at the end of the tunnel, but now we are looking for tunnels to hide from blasts and death squads,” Manie said ironically.

Sept. 24 (Xinhua)

After three years of the U.S.-led invasion, Iraqis feel they have to face more and more troubles with rising prices in amid ongoing inflation.

Um Muhammed, a mother of four children in Baghdad, said she only bought vegetables for her family, because she can’t afford the meat now.

“But even the prices of vegetables are quite high. I sometimes buy onion, potatoes or other thing, but nothing in the market lessthan 1,000 Iraqi Dinars (0.7 dollar) one kilo, three or four times more than the prices six months ago,” the 45-year-old housewife complained while heading home from the market with three small bags.

Like Um Muhammed, many Iraqis find as well as the upsurge violence, they have to face a new foe, the rising prices, as the inflation is spiraling out of control in Iraq.

Fuel and electricity prices are up more than 270 percent from last years, according to Iraqi government statistics. Tea in some markets has quadrupled, egg prices have doubled.

“The price of nearly everything in my shop has increased dramatically during the past several months. Beef now runs as highas 9,000 IDs (6.2 dollars) one kilo, up from 5,000 IDs (3.4 dollars) last year,” said Allaa Hamid, a shop owner in Khadraa neighborhood in western Baghdad.

The price spiral has come as a shock to many Iraqis, who make about 150 dollars to 200 dollars per month on average even if they have jobs. Estimates of unemployment range from 40 to 60 percent. Many Iraqi families have no other choice but to struggle to make ends meet.

“We are buying according to priorities, I mean we buy the minimum of the most needed things,” Um Muhammed said with a sigh.

“Markets are filled with fresh fruit, vegetables and meat but they are very expensive. We even can’t afford to buy the most basic items,” said Mustafa Kamil, 56, a retired government employee who drives a taxi in Baghdad to make a living.

“I used to entirely depend on the ration card which distributed by the government, but now we can’t get it regularly and several items were omitted from the ration cards,” he said.

Though more than three years after the collapse of Saddam regime, the Iraqis still face a severe shortage of electricity.

The government provides electricity only for four to six hours a day, nearly every family turns to substantial power sources, which cost an average of 35 dollars per month.

“I pay 60,000 ID (41 dollars) per month for buying electricity from private generators in my district to gain additional ten-hour electricity supply. The rest of the day I use my small generator,” Adnan al-Sarraf, 43, a government employee said.

“This cost most of my salary because I also have to buy fuel for my generator,” he said, adding the current fuel price was beyond his imagination.

The war-torn country is sporadically facing a ridiculous oil crisis now. Gasoline in state-run gas stations is sold at 350 IDs (0.24 dollar) per liter, but in short supply. Many people have to purchase gasoline 1,500 IDs (1 dollar )per liter in black markets.

Though wild inflation has become the unbearable heavy for Iraqis, some still do not think it is their major problem.

“You see inflation could destroy our life but it can not kill us, so the daily killings and blasts are till our arch foe,” Raad Manie, 49, an engineer said.

“During the sanctions on Iraq before 2003, we were eager to seethe light at the end of the tunnel, but now we are looking for tunnels to hide from blasts and death squads,” Manie said ironically.

Doctors Strike After Collaborator Filth Beat A Doctor

Doctors of Yarmouk hospital look on from their residential building. The Doctors went on strike, after Iraqi police commandos beat up one of the doctors, because they were taking time to treat one of their bleeding colleagues.

Later that colleague was treated and saved.

Doctors said that the strike will continue until Iraqi ministry of Defense takes action against Iraqi police commandos, according to police at the hospital. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

Communist Collaborator Party Headquarters Blown Up

A bomber drove his motorcycle through Baghdad’s Andalus Square into the Communist Party headquarters. Five people have been killed when the bomber blasted the headquarters. The Communist Party serves in the occupation government and is opposed to U.S. troops getting out of Iraq. (AFP/Ali Al-Saadi)

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

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

Anti-Occupation Sadr City Is Safe And Secure

Sep 26, 2006 CBS News [Excerpts]

SADR CITY, Iraq Late into the night, Sadr City is still bustling with life. There’s no sign of the curfew that shuts down the rest of Baghdad in the early evening, CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan reports.

The shops and the market are open, and everybody can go and come back to their homes safely.

The vast Shiite slum of 3 million, which from time to time experiences big bombing attacks like one that killed dozens of people last Saturday, is still one of the most secure areas in a city ravaged by violence.

It’s not because of Iraq’s police or the U.S. Army; it’s because of the local men, with weapons out of sight, who enforce order on every street.

They are the Mehdi army, a militia founded by Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, a man who has twice sent gunmen into battle against the United States.

To Sadr City’s Shiites, the Mehdi army are their protectors.

A young Mehdi army fighter tells CBS News that the Mehdi army is doing everything in Sadr City that the Iraqi government is not doing. The Mehdi army is responsible for security, for justice and for social services, he says.

Moqtada al-Sadr’s local government was in action at a social services office, where officials were handing out supplies to people in need. There were three women outside the office, all desperate and penniless. They said they had nowhere else to go.

“Moqtada is very good with us,” one woman says. “Everything comes from him.”

The more powerful al-Sadr becomes, the more of a problem he is for the United States.

He’s part of the most powerful faction in the Iraqi parliament and now controls four ministries, including health.

“We thank al-Sadr’s department because they help these people,” Dr. Haider says. “They do everything for them.”

The U.S. military has been reluctant to tackle Sadr and his militia head on because of the power he wields both in government and on the street.

One Mehdi Army fighter said that if the Iraqi government were to say they have to give in their weapons, they would talk with the government. But the fighter says it would “never happen” that the government would say there could be no more militias.

OCCUPATION PALESTINE/LEBANON

In Less Than 9 Hours:
Zionists Kill 5 Civilians In The Gaza Strip, Including 3 Children;
Two Bled To Death When Occupation Troops Prevented Ambulances From Rescuing Them

21 September 2006 Palestinian Centre for Human Rights

Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) has used excessive force in the north and south of the Gaza Strip during a 9-hour span today, Thursday, 21 September 2006, resulting in the death of 5 Palestinian civilians and the injury of 7 others, including a father and 2 of his children.

Two of the victims including a woman were killed in cold blood in Rafah. They were left to bleed to death inside their houses. The other 3 victims were children from the town of Jabalia who were killed by a surface-to-surface rocket as they were herding sheep.

PCHR seriously views this latest escalation by IOF, which comes within the context of the open ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip for the past three months, which inflicted hundreds of casualties among the civilian population. In addition, the IOF attacks have inflicted great material damage on civilian property and infrastructure.

PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that at approximately 1:20 on Thursday, 21 September 2006, IOF armored vehicles moved approximately 3 kilometers into the village of Um El-Naser, northeast of Rafah. The forces cut off the Khan Yunis-Rafah section of Salah El-Deen Road in the area.

The force surrounded the house of Nathmi Hussein Zo’rob, a Hamas activist. IOF also fired indiscriminately at houses in the area.

At approximately 2:00, IOF chased a number of youth who gathered in the area. The youth fled into a house; and IOF stormed the house, and beat the house owner who is deaf.

When the man’s wife, Itemad Ismail Abu Mo’ammar (35), protested the attack, one of the soldiers fired directly at her.

She was hit by multiple bullets in different parts of the body.

She was left to bleed death in the house, and died at 6:00.

IOF prevented a Palestinian ambulance from reaching the area to save the woman.

Eight civilians were injured by the indiscriminate firing in the area, including a father and 2 of his children. At approximately 10:00, one of the injured, Mohammad Suliman Abu Mo’ammar (28), bled to death from gunshot wounds in the left thigh and right hand.

Palestinian medical sources informed PCHR’s fieldworker that IOF prevented Palestinian ambulances from entering the area of operations.

In addition, IOF refused to coordinate the entry of emergency services with the Red Cross.

Thus, two of the injured bled for more than four hours, leading to their death.

At approximately 12:30, IOF left the area after completely destroying 13 houses and the infrastructure in the area. In addition, IOF detained 5 civilians, including a 13-year old boy and the wife of the Hamas activist.

In another incident at approximately 8:50, IOF stationed along the Gaza Strip border to the east of Jabalia fired a surface-to-surface rocket at three children herding sheep in the Abu Safeyya area, east of Jabalia town.

The area is located about 2 kilometers away from the border.

The children were killed and their bodies torn to pieces.

They are: Ala Saqer Dahrouj Abu Dahrouj (15); Zeidan Rafiq Mohammad Abu Rashid (16); and Mohammad Selmi Mohammad Masalha (17).

PCHR’s preliminary investigation indicates that, while herding, the children had come near an abandoned rocket stand used earlier by Palestinian gunmen to fire a homemade rocket.

It is noted that another civilian was killed yesterday in similar circumstances. Thus, the number of Palestinian civilians killed under similar circumstances over the past 3 months has reached 15 victims.

PCHR strongly condemns IOF killing of Palestinian civilians, and considers these actions to be a form of reprisal and collective punishment, which violate article 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention. PCHR condemns today’s crimes, and:

Expresses serious concern over the lives of Palestinian civilians due to the escalating use of force by IOF against civilians;

Reminds of the past IOF crimes against civilians, and the continued failure to discriminate between civilians and combatants by IOF during operations; and

Calls upon the international community and High Contracting Parties of the Fourth Geneva Convention to intervene immediately and effectively to protect Palestinian civilians.

[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”]

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

The Traitor & Enemy Domestic Bush Demands Right To Lock Up Any American Citizen Forever Without Trail Or Appeal To Any Court

September 26, 2006 By R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post Staff Writer & Eric Margolis, Sun National Media Canada [Excerpts]

Republican lawmakers and the White House agreed over the weekend to alter new legislation on military commissions to allow the United States to detain and try a wider range of foreign nationals than an earlier version of the bill permitted, according to government sources.

The government has maintained since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that, based on its reading of the laws of war, anyone it labels an unlawful enemy combatant can be held indefinitely at military or CIA prisons.

But Congress has not yet expressed its view on who is an unlawful combatant, and the Supreme Court has not ruled directly on the matter.

As a result, human rights experts expressed concern yesterday that the language in the new provision would be a precedent-setting congressional endorsement for the indefinite detention of anyone who, as the bill states, “has engaged in hostilities or who has purposefully and materially supported hostilities against the United States” or its military allies.

The definition applies to foreigners living inside or outside the United States and does not rule out the possibility of designating a U.S. citizen as an unlawful combatant.

It is broader than that in last week’s version of the bill, which resulted from lengthy, closed-door negotiations between senior administration officials and dissident Republican senators.

That version incorporated a definition backed by the Senate dissidents: those “engaged in hostilities against the United States.”

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said that by including those who “supported hostilities” — rather than those who “engage in acts” against the United States — the government intends the legislation to sanction its seizure and indefinite detention of people far from the battlefield.

Martin noted that “the administration kidnapped an innocent German citizen” and “held him incommunicado for months . . . because the CIA or Pentagon wrongly suspected him of terrorist ties.” She was referring to Khalid al-Masri, who the Bush administration eventually acknowledged was detained on insufficient grounds.

Nothing in the proposed legislation — which mostly concerns the creation of new military panels, known as “commissions,” to try terrorism suspects — directly addresses such CIA apprehensions and “renditions.”

But the bill’s new definition “would give the administration a stronger basis on which to argue that Congress has recognized that the battlefield is wherever the terrorist is, and they can seize people far from the area of combat, label them as unlawful enemy combatants and detain them indefinitely,” said Suzanne Spaulding, an assistant general counsel at the CIA from 1989 to 1995.

“The White House insisted that anyone charged with vague ‘terrorism offenses’ including Americans, could be kidnapped, tortured, and tried in camera using ‘evidence’ obtained by torturing other suspects.

Traditionally, courts have found it reasonable for parties to armed conflicts to seize or try people they encounter on a battlefield, to keep them from returning to the hostilities, added Spaulding, who was also a general counsel for the House and Senate intelligence committees. “The Supreme Court could potentially look at this and say Congress has now defined how anyone anywhere in the world” is subject to detention and military trial, even when far from an active combat zone, she said.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said: “We are satisfied with the definition because it will allow us to prosecute the terrorists, and it also has important limitations that say a terrorist must have purposefully and materially supported terrorism.”

Under a separate provision, those held by the CIA or the U.S. military as an unlawful enemy combatant would be barred from challenging their detention or the conditions of their treatment in U.S. courts unless they were first tried, convicted and appealed their conviction.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) yesterday assailed the provision as an unconstitutional suspension of habeas corpus, which he said was allowable only “in time of rebellion or in time of invasion. And neither is present here.”

He was joined by the committee’s senior Democrat, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), who said that under the provision, legal U.S. immigrants could be held “until proven innocent, not until proven guilty.”

Congressional sources said Specter is unlikely to derail the compromise legislation over those objections.

[Thanks to David Honish, Veteran, who sent this in.]

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

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