Thursday,
July 31, 2008. Chaos and violence continue, the US military announces
two deaths, the White House fakes-out the press, Barack's support
continues to be revealing, and more.
Starting with war
resistance. Yovany Rivero ("Geo") is an Iraq War veteran who has been
twice deployed to Iraq. While serving, his faith deepened and he
applied for Conscientious Objector status -- please note, CO status
does not depend on religious status (a fact noted in the US military's
own written guidelines -- but one those 'determining' frequently
ignore). June 14th, he received a peace prize from The Rheinland-Pfalz
Peace Adovacty Group. Early this month, John Vandiver (Stars and Stripes) reported on Rivero "who enlisted in the Army in 2001 when he was 18" and notes:
Michael Sharp, who works closely with Rivero as an adviser with the Germany-based Military Counseling Network,
said the soldier wants to keep a low profile and isn't looking to bring
attention to his case. In particular, Rivero doesn't want his fellow
soldiers, whom he respects, to misinterpret his position as a sign of
disrespect, Sharp said.
Though Sharp
also declined to discuss Rivero's case in detail, citing Rivero's
desire to avoid publicity, MCN has been working closely with numerous
soldiers since the start of the Iraq war.
Perhaps
the best-known case connected with MCN was that of Agustin Aguayo, a
combat medic who was found guilty in 2007 of deserting the Schweinfurt,
Germany-based 2nd Brigade, 1st Infantry Division as it prepared to
deploy to Iraq in 2006. Aguayo returned to California last year after
serving a brief prison sentence. Others, however, have found their
conscientious objector claims supported: In 2006, seven soldiers who
worked with MCN had their requests approved.
Last month Courage to Resist interviewed Iraq War veteran and war resister William Shearer.
Shearer enlisted at 17-years in 2002 and ended up with a non-deployable
unit ("teaching units what they needed to know before they went over to
a combat area, we pretty much put them through a month long simulation
of combat") but that changed in 2004. Asked about his time in Iraq,
Sharer responded, "It was more of like -- There wasn't a lot of
action. It was more of -- It's hard to explain down there. Action
over there is like getting IED or maybe getting shot at a few times or
a car bomb goes off. It's not exactly what you're expecting. It's more
like hunting season, you're the deer."
While serving in
Iraq, Shearer faced a number of problems, "In my case I had lost a lot
while I was over there. And it just started -- The more you lose and
the less they do for you the more you start to see how jacked up things
really are." The problems included his new wife having a semi-public
affair "with an MP on post" and he was hearing about it from his
platoon sergeant who heard about it from his wife who lived across the
street from Shearer's wife. "And the army did nothing," Shearer
states. "And there's plenty they could do. And they just they did
nothing. I lost a lot of money, I lost my family while I was there you
know pretty much. And when I get back, I'd lost so much, it was
like I needed to start over." He returned from Iraq "like two days
later . . . I got served divorce papers".
William
Shearer: And the more things that pile up, it would just start
detiriorating me as a soldier. It would make me look worse and worse
It would get harder and harder. They didn't care. That's what I'm
trying to get across. They don't care. And if they don't care and
nobody's helping you out, you start to not care. You start to -- you
just look at everything as bad, you have no positive whatsoever coming
in. And so me and the military is pretty much diminishing quick.
Courage
to Resist: So you're saying that not only didn't you get support while
you were in a combat zone, you didn't get any support when you were
back home either?
William
Shearer: No, not really. I was checked out for PTSD. I got -- when I
got home -- They put you through all of these tests, talk to a bunch of
doctors I was diagnosed with PTSD, depression and a couple like sleep
disorders and other things. And pretty much all they did was just
start throwing me pills. Kind of like to shut me up, put me in a
I-don't-care vegetative state. Pretty much just to have me there.
His
PTSD 'counseling' was completely lacking in targets, goals or medical
supervision. It was pair him up with an over-sixty-years-old retired
military person and 'rap.' Someone who had not served in Iraq.
William
Shearer: They give you this idea they're going to take of you and
things are just one big family you know So I was thinking to myself
"Man, I got to have a reset. I got to find a way to get myself out of
this and start over -- start my life over, you know. I have nothing to
work with." So I pretty much started going through the things, asking
around 'Hey, what happened to this guy for doing this?' when he -- you
know -- did he get an article 15? I was mainly not so worried about the
disciplinary actions but the discharge that's what I was really
worried about. I was asking around and AWOL was one of the things, I
heard a couple of things. But the one thing that came up for me was
failing the urinalysis. I-I- I just couldn't fathom anybody you deploy
with or anybody who says they care about you so much -- like your
batallion commanders do -- would put you out with a bad discharge after
you showing for four years all the honorable deeds you've done. So it
seemed to me that that was the best route for me. I wasn't so sure
about AWOL. So I knew -- I knew for a fact that if I failed the
urinalysis, I would be able to get out and I was pretty confident that
I wouldn't get anything less than a general discharge
Courage to Resist: And your concern about the type of discharge had to do with veterans' beneifts?
William
Shearer: That and how am I going to live the rest of my life, you know,
how am I going to have a career? I just -- I -- There was a lot of
things going through my head. You know -- as a matter of fact -- the
very reason I was worried is actually what I'm doing now. You know.
I'm not -- There's nothing I have no options really. It's survival.
Courage to Resist: So you made a decision to fail a urinalysis test, is that right?
William
Shearer: When I went home on leave I was just like "This is how I'm
going to do it." Because as soon as you come back from leave you know
that the very next day you're going to get a urinalysis test.
He no longer supports the war and his thoughts on it today are:
I
feel like they're exploiting those healthy young bucks that are just
getting out of high school or going to be getting out of high school,
you know They're telling these guys all these things they want to hear
about how glorious and how fun and how good the military is. Granted,
there's something that are good about it but it's not going to last
forever. It doesn't last forever. And when you do go in everything
changes and one thing I can tell you, they tell you, you know you could
end up in a war zone, okay? When you sign up, you know all this
stuff. But what they don't tell you is that you're going to be driving
around and you have rules on you that the people you're fighting don't
use or go against -- They don't use any of those rules. They don't
abide by any rules. So you're pretty much a pawn. You do what they
need you to do regardless of how dangerous it is, you know? For
instance, you're just driving up and down a road expecting to get blown
up. We -- we covered a mile -- a good strip of highway -- it was the
most used transport highway in Iraq. It linked the north and south
together. And that's where all the supplies went up and down while we
were there. And our job for about two weeks was to patrol that strip
of highway and eliminate all threats of IEDs whether that be they be
blow you up or you find them first . They just don't want IEDs there
They don't tell you that you're going to be the person that they pick
to walk up to a suspected IED and give it a little nudge to see if it's
a bomb, you know? They don't tell you these things. And these aren't
things that these kids are thinking about -- they don't know that this
stuff's there, they don't know it's like this. They're thinking
they're going to go into the army, they're going to get take care of,
and they're going to get put into a huge combat situation when it's
not. The only people that's getting to fire anything is the enemy.
There
is a growing movement of resistance within the US military which
includes Yovany Rivero, William Shearer, Michael Thurman, Andrei
Hurancyk, Megan Bean, Chris Bean, Matthis Chiroux, Richard Droste,
Michael Barnes, Matt Mishler, Josh Randall, Robby Keller, Justiniano
Rodrigues, Chuck Wiley, James Stepp, Rodney Watson, Michael Espinal,
Matthew Lowell, Derek Hess, Diedra Cobb, Brad McCall, Justin Cliburn,
Timothy Richard, Robert Weiss, Phil McDowell, Steve Yoczik, Ross
Spears, Peter Brown, Bethany "Skylar" James, Zamesha Dominique,
Chrisopther Scott Magaoay, Jared Hood, James Burmeister, Jose Vasquez,
Eli Israel,
Joshua Key,
Ehren Watada,
Terri Johnson, Clara Gomez, Luke Kamunen, Leif Kamunen, Leo Kamunen,
Camilo Mejia, Kimberly Rivera, Dean Walcott, Linjamin Mull,
Agustin Aguayo, Justin Colby, Marc Train, Abdullah Webster, Robert Zabala, Darrell Anderson,
Kyle Snyder, Corey Glass,
Jeremy Hinzman,
Kevin Lee, Mark Wilkerson, Patrick Hart, Ricky Clousing, Ivan Brobeck,
Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Stephen Funk, Blake LeMoine,
Clifton Hicks, David Sanders, Dan Felushko,
Brandon Hughey,
Logan Laituri, Jason Marek, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Joshua
Casteel, Katherine Jashinski, Dale Bartell, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell,
Jimmy Massey, Chris Capps, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake,
Christopher Mogwai, Christian Kjar, Kyle Huwer, Wilfredo Torres,
Michael Sudbury, Ghanim Khalil, Vincent La Volpa, DeShawn Reed and
Kevin Benderman. In total, at least fifty US war resisters in Canada
have applied for asylum.
Yesterday in headlines on
Democracy Now!,
Juan Gonzalez explained,
"In other Iraq news, the British government has announced there will be
no prosecutions over the death of journalist Terry Lloyd, despite an
investigation that blamed US troops. Terry Lloyd was shot dead in Iraq
in March 2003 along with a French cameraman and an Iraqi interpreter.
Two years ago, a British coroner ruled that US troops should be
prosecuted for the unlawful killing of Lloyd, who was a well-known
foreign correspondent for the British television network ITN. The
coroner ruled that Lloyd was shot in the back by Iraqi soldiers. Then,
as he was being driven to a hospital in a civilian minivan, Lloyd was
shot in the head by US troops."
Jenny Booth (Times of London) quotes
ITN's spokesperson stating, "Coroner Andrew Walker concluded just under
two years ago that Terry Lloyd was unlawfully killed by American troops
and ITN has done everything it could to try and ensure Terry's killer
is brought to justice. We are disappointed that the CPS has decided
they cannot take this matter further, and that despite the coroner's
call on the Attorney General and the Director of Public Prosecutions to
demand that the Americans bring the perpretator of a possible war crime
before a British court of law, the US authorities remain
unco-operative." Meanwhile,
AP reports that journalist Ali al-Mashhadani is being held by the US military at Camp Cropper. al-Mashhadani works for
Reuters, BBC and NPR.
Dean Yates (Reuters) reports
that (as usual) no charges have been brought against Ali and quotes
David Schlesinger (Reuters Editor-in-Chief) explaining, "Any
accusations against a journalist should be aired publicly and dealt
with fairly and swiftly, with the journalist having the right to
counsel and present a defense." From
Monday's snapshot, "
Sabrina Tavernise (New York Times) reported
. . . 'Also on Friday, the American military acknowledged that it
unintentionally killed the son of an editor for an American-financed
newspaper in the northern city of
Kirkuk on Thursday.
The military said soldiers had been fired at from a taxi and shot back,
hitting Arkan al-Naiemi, 14, in the taxi'." Saturday,
Leila Fadel (McClatchy Newspapers) wrote about Arkan at
Baghdad Observer
noting that he "often stayed late at his father's newsroom in Kirkuk.
The editor-in-chief of the weekly Voice of Villages, Ali Taha, treated
his son as a journalist in training. . . . The teen listened to pop
music and was obsessed with computer games. He loved the weekly trips
he took with his father to sites in the area. The most recent trip was
to the Dokan Dam, the primary water source in Kirkuk. He loved to stay
late into the night at the Voice of Villages newsroom, a U.S. supported
weekly, and help in any way he could. Who knows what he would've been
when he grew up. Who knows what life he would've lived. God had other
plans, his father said."
"This has been a month
of encouraging news from Iraq," declared the delusional Bully Boy in DC
today. He gave his usual lies and spin. Progress -- blah, blah,
blah. He was most transparent when declaring, " This week, the Iraqi
government is launching a new offensive in parts of the Diyala province
that contain some of al Qaeda's few remaining safe havens in the
country. This operation is Iraqi-led; our forces are playing a
supporting role." Yes, it is a for-show effort. But first, reporters
were led to believe that today's speech from Bully Boy would include
something major and that it would include news of the treaty the White
House wants with their puppet, Nouri al-Maliki, in Baghdad.
Alissa J. Rubin and Steven Lee Myers (New York Times) teased out
whispers and gossip of a draft treaty about to be final so much in this
morning's paper, it was practically a beehive. And they noted that the
White House's "unofficial deadline for the deal has long been July 31.
. . . Also, the White House announced late on Wednesday that President
Bush would make a statement on Iraq on Thursday morning." The press
got played. It was the first question in the US State Dept press
briefing today (Dana Perino -- doing White House gaggles -- was
peppered about a "staff wedding" -- way to work White House press
corps). It was pointed out that the agreement was wanted by July 31st
which is today and there is no agreement. State Dept spokesperson Sean
McCormack immediately insisted he'd never said a deadline (no, he
personally did not) and then had difficulty keeping a straight face.
Still chuckling, he referred reporters to the morning speech and
finally finishing with, "In terms of negotiations, those are ongoing
and I won't go into detail on those." Asked again about this topic, he
referred to the White House statements. From Iraq,
Alexandra Zavis (Los Angeles Times) reports on Diyala Province. The for-show action goes on. Zavis goes with a number of 30,000 Iraqi troops in Diyala and yesterday,
Jim Lehrer (PBS' NewsHour) worded it this way, "
In
Iraq today, a military offensive in Diyala province moved into a second
day. Some 50,000 Iraqi troops backed by U.S. forces went door-to-door,
hunting al-Qaida fighters. An Iraqi regional leader said the operation
was expected to last about two weeks." Hint, when the numbers being given out do not match, it's a hype action. In the real world, violence continued . . .
Bombings?
Sahar Issa (McClatchy Newspapers) reports 2
Baghdad roadside bombings that left 2 Iraqi civilians wounded and 2
Iraqi soldiers wounded, a Mosul car bombing that killed the driver as
well as 3 police officers with four others wounded, 2 other Mosul car
bombings that left nine wounded.
Corpses?
Today the
US military announced:
"A U.S. Soldier died in a non-combat related incident while conducting
operations in Ninewah Province July 31. Additionally, two other U.S.
Soldiers were injured in the incident." And
they announced: "The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt.
James A. McHale, 31, of Fairfield, Mont., died July 30 at the National
Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., of wounds suffered July 22 in
Taji, Iraq, when his vehicle encountered an improvised explosive
device. He was assigned to the 40th Engineer Battalion, 2nd Brigade
Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany. "
Turning to the US race for president. January 16, 2007 Barack Obama declared his intention to run for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. Interesting. Before Barack told the American people he was running, months before, he met with a rapper. Deanne Bellandi (Chicago Sun-Times) reported November 29, 2006
on Barack's meet up with "rapper Ludacris . . . Obama declined to
comment after their meeting but walked with [Chris] Bridges [Ludacris'
legal name] to the elevator as he left." Nearly two months before
Barack would tell the American people that he had decided to run for
president, he was sounding out Ludacris. By that time Ludacris was
already gutter trash with a long history of misogny. It got him kicked from the Jackson County Fair in 2003
-- three years prior to Barack's first known 'counseling' with
Ludacris. That wouldn't stop Barack from praising him to Rolling Stone
and bragging that he had Ludacris on his iPod. Presumably the feminist
manifesto "Move Bitch"? Ludacris is in the news and a complete
reflection on the gutter trash campaign Barack has run. And Barack's praised him as among the "great talents and great businessmen." [See Cedric's "Gutter Trash you can smell" and Wally's "THIS JUST IN! THE LEADER TRIES TO CONTROL THE CULT!"]
The Guardian of London has long been in the tank for Barack. They're a
laugh and not real journalism. It's only on this side of the ocean
that they're taken seriously. In England they're seen as the party
organ for the Labour Party. So let's see how they lie. Ewen MacAskill
'informs' that: "Obama, seeking to become the first African-American
president, was not helped by a song by the Grammy award-winning rapper
Ludacris endorsing him and abusing McCain, George Bush and Clinton."
To be clear, Rev. Jesse Jackson is disrespected in the song. In a rap
song, that's not surprising. In one attempting to help out Ludacris'
lover-man Barack, it's appalling. Way to pimp that 'unity.' The
remark about John McCain would have people screaming if anyone had said
it about Barack. But what does Ewen Pig leave out? Hillary.
Laura Yao (Washington Post) explained
it this way, "On YouTube yesterday, rapper Ludacris released a song
called 'Politics,' in which he denigrates President Bush, Sen. Hillary
Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) -- all in the
space of about two minutes. . . In the next line, the three-time Grammy
Award winner calls Clinton an 'irreleveant [slur for female]'." It's a
campaign song for Barack and it's recorded by the man Barack's not only
praised but sought out for 'counsel' since November 2006. What was
Barack's response? As usual NOT A DAMN WORD. His campaign flack was
sent out. A detail Foon Rhee (Boston Globe) and many others fail to grasp. Barack's not condemned a thing. Feminist Wire Daily finally decides they can call out sexism. Of course, they fail to connect it to Bernie
Mac's sexist routine at Barack's campaign event earlier this year which
led to boos and heckling -- and to Barack finding it so delightful, he
had to 'joke' too. WomenCount PAC (which FWD doesn't even think to link to) "is
calling for an apology as well as a blanket condemnation by the Party
leadership. . . . These lyrics are outrageous, offensive, and
unacceptable. In an e-mail this afternoon to its membership,
WomenCount states, 'It is another example of hateful, sexist language
being used on the campaign trail, and now is our moment to make it
clear: not on our watch! The leadership of both parties must step up
to condemn such hateful speech and demand apologies. The Obama
campaign has criticized the lyrics, but we call on the presumptive
party nominee, who is the celebrated subject of the new song, to go
even further: Publicly condemn the song. Demand an apology on behalf
of the targets. Now." Now? And where our the little girls of NOW? The same useless 'leadership' that could insist The New Yorker
DESTROY copies of their magazine bound for overseas (while ignoring the
Bernie Mac event) can't seem to say a DAMN THING. Did Kim sleep in
this morning? If you're missing it, check the news coverage and note
how ha-ha and 'minor' this is being treated. CBS News online? Could Scott Conroy explain
how calling Hillary a "bitch" doesn't strike him as "harsh"? Are our
'leaders' going to stay silent again? Are they going to betray women
again? And when does CBS plan to public respond to what they allowed
online? As Ava and I noted in "CBS 'cares' enough to promote sexism,"
the network's news site shut down comments on Barack stories when they
felt racist comments were being left ("too many" was actually how it
was worded -- apparently CBS will accept an undefined number of racist
comments) but they didn't do a damn thing about the sexism and, in
fact, their online policy does not even name sexism as being off
limits. It does name comparisons to Hitler off limits (no surprise
after CBS' problems with the mini-series earlier this decade) but they
waived that rule repeatedly to allow Barack's gutter trash to post that
Hillary was Hitler. Feminist leaders, if they're really leaders, will
get off their asses and call this out because we don't need you as
leaders if you don't. Women have been trashed -- this isn't just about
Hillary -- non-stop for months now. Leaders either show they can lead
or face the threats of boycotts that are already rumbling in the
grassroots. (If a boycott is called, Ava and I will do our part to get
the word out on it when we speak to women's groups.)
Ralph Nader is running for president. Doug G. Ware (KUTV) notes
that Nader speaks tonight to a group at the University of Utah and that
the former mayor of Salt Lake City (and Nation magazine cover boy)
Rocky Anderson will introduce him.
Team Nader notes:
We're up against it here in Ralph's home state --- Connecticut.
I'm Ken Krayeske, the state coordinator, and I promised Ralph I would get him on the ballot here.
We have only 7,000 signatures in hand. And we need to get to 15,000 in five days.
We
have 30 to 40 people on the ground collecting in Connecticut and we
need to pay for their gas, transportation, copying costs.
You get the picture.
To do that, we need your donations now -- $10, $20, $50, $100 -- whatever you can afford.
Why are we busting it so hard every day to get Ralph on the ballot here?
Because it's not just about Ralph.
It's about you and me and a young man named Derek O'Kanos. (Check out Derek's short video here about why he likes Ralph --- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cfltpogno6c)
Last Friday, Derek phoned me.
"I want to help petition," he said.
"How old are you?" I asked.
"Sixteen," he said.
"Wow!
That's fantastic, but you need an adult to help you out, because you
have to be a registered voter," I said. "But before we get into
logistics, I don't often get calls from 16-year-olds. Can you tell me
how you know about Ralph?"
"Two years ago, Mr. Nader came to my high school," Derek said.
"What school is that?" I asked.
"Enrico Fermi in Enfield," Derek said.
"No way," I said. "I helped organize that. There was a standing room only crowd. What did you think of Ralph's speech?"
"I
didn't see it," Derek said. "I was a freshman, and I was in World
History class, and my class didn't go. I guess they thought that Ralph
didn't fit with world history."
"Bummer," I said.
"Yeah, but I've been interested in Mr. Nader since then, reading about him, and I want to help him," Derek said.
So we discussed strategies for him to convince adults in his life to go out and petition with him.
Derek recruited his uncle's girlfriend to transport him and witness signatures at grocery stores.
Next,
he corralled his grandfather to drive him around neighborhoods in
suburban northern Connecticut. (Above is a photo of Derek and his
grandfather)
Shortly after, I got this email from Derek:
"Today
was truly amazing. No more than a few days ago I felt an overwhelming
feeling of worthlessness. I felt that there was nothing that I could do
due to my age and transportation issue. Then we talked and I went out
and did something. I truly felt like I was a part of something, that I
was making history. I could have volunteered for many other political
campaigns, but it was the Nader/Gonzalez campaign that truly inspired
me. I can openly support every policy of the campaign and sleep at
night. This is a campaign that puts national interest before personal
interest. We the people -- not for sale! Gives me chills. It is truly
amazing to see an entire organization of everyday people working
towards one beautiful common goal and putting power back into the hands
of the people."
Let's not let Ralph, Derek and all our supporters down in Connecticut.
Donate now whatever you can afford.
Hit the contribute button.
Together, we are making a difference --- in Ralph's home state and beyond.
Onward
Other news. Republican US Senator Ted Stevens is in the news (due to his indictment). NOW on PBS earlier probed the story of that corruption. BIll Moyers Journal have been exploring Capitol Crimes and this Friday on the program will explore the continuation of thes Capitol Crimes:
Like
the largesse he spread so bountifully to members of Congress and the
White House staff -- countless fancy meals, skybox tickets to
basketball games and U2 concerts, golfing sprees in Scotland -- Jack
Abramoff is the gift that keeps on giving.
The notorious lobbyist
and his cohorts (including conservatives Tom Delay, Grover Norquist and
Ralph Reed) shook down Native American tribal councils and other
clients for tens of millions of dollars, buying influence via a
coalition of equally corrupt government officials and cronies dedicated
to dismantling government by selling it off, making massive profits as
they tore the principles of a representative democracy to shreds.
iraq
john vandiver
mcclatchy newspapers
leila fadel
the new york times
sabrina tavernise
alexandra zavis
the los angeles times
the new york times
alissa j. rubin
steve myers lee
