Military Resistance:
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9.27,15
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Military Resistance 13I12
“U.S. Defense Officials
Increasingly Wary Of White House
Plans To Scale Back The U.S.
Presence In Afghanistan”
“Options Include Keeping Thousands
Of American Troops In The Country
Beyond The End Of 2016”
Sept. 24, 2015 By Julian E. Barnes in Brussels and Gordon Lubold in Washington; Wall
Street Journal [Excerpts]
U.S. and allied defense officials, increasingly wary of White House plans to scale back
the U.S. presence in Afghanistan, are reviewing new drawdown options that include
keeping thousands of American troops in the country beyond the end of 2016, American
and allied officials said.
The top international commander in Afghanistan, U.S. Army Gen. John Campbell, has
sent five different recommendations to the Pentagon and to North Atlantic Treaty
Organization officials in Brussels, each with its own risk assessment, officials said.
The options include keeping the current U.S. presence at or near 10,000; reducing it
slightly to 8,000; cutting the force roughly in half; and continuing with current plans to
draw down to a force of several hundred troops by the end of 2016.
Some officials worry that too large a cut could cause the Afghan government to come
under increased pressure from the Taliban and other militants, officials said. Others
believe a smaller force of several thousand Americans still could be effective at backing
the Afghan government.
If the White House opts to keep a higher number of troops in place, it will fall to Mr.
Obama’s successor to determine the long-term role of the U.S. in Afghanistan.
A larger American presence would allow several NATO allies and partner nations to
maintain their own current force levels, according to allied officials. That, in turn, would
allow the alliance to keep several bases operating around Afghanistan.
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AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
Georgian Soldier Killed In Taliban Attack
On Largest Foreign Base In The Country
September 23, 2015 By AFP & By JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN, New York Times
KABUL:
A Georgian soldier posted in Afghanistan was killed and another wounded when their
patrol came under attack by the Taliban, their government said Wednesday.
Private First Class Vasil Kulijanishvili, 21, “died Tuesday in a clash that took place while
on patrol” at the Bagram Airfield, some 50 kilometres north of Kabul, Georgian Prime
Minister Irakli Garibashvili told a cabinet meeting before ministers observed a moment of
silence.
Officials said in June that Bagram Air Base, which is about 30 miles north of
Kabul, the capital, had been coming under an increasing number of rocket
attacks.
Coalition soldiers began patrolling the surrounding area in search of rocket launch sites,
according to the Afghan police chief for the Bagram area, Col. Masoom Khan
Another Georgian national was wounded in the clash, which the Taliban claimed via their
recognised Twitter account.
“His condition is stable,” Gabribashvili said of the second soldier.
Some 885 Georgian soldiers are deployed in Afghanistan, making the country the
second-largest contributor after the United States to the 12,500-strong U.S.-led Resolute
Support mission.
Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid said the insurgents carried out a rocket attack
on the facility, the largest foreign base in the country, on Tuesday evening.
Their new leader Mullah Akhter Mansoor, in a message marking the Muslim festival of
Eidul Azha, warned the government Tuesday it must cancel a security deal with the US
and expel all foreign troops if it wants peace.
Soldier Who Attacked Afghan Police
Commander For Keeping Child Sex
Slave “Has Been Ordered To Leave
The US Army By November 1”
“Martland, Who Has Served As A Green
Beret For 11 Years, Was Told That “His
Case ‘Does Not Meet The Criteria’ For An
Appeal”
Sergeant Charles Martland has been sacked by the US military
Sep 24, 2015 By Rebecca Perring, The Daily Express [England]]
Sergeant 1st Class Charles Martland, from Massachusetts, has been ordered to leave
the US army by November 1 and has now been refused permission to appeal.
It comes after the 33-year-old and another soldier shoved a local commander,
whom he had trained, accused of raping a 12-year-old Afghan boy. He walked
away with bruising.
The Afghan commander was also said to have attacked the boy’s mother when
she said she was going to report the attack in war-torn Kunduz Province, where
the soldiers were deployed in 2011.
But Sergeant Martland was reprimanded by a senior officer for “flagrant departure from
professionalism and even-tempered leadership” and axed.
Earlier this week Mr Martland, who has served as a Green Beret for 11 years, was told
that his case “does not meet the criteria” for an appeal.
The US Army Human Resources Command wrote in a memo to the soldier:
“Consequently your request for an appeal and continued service is disapproved.
Before the attack, Mr Martland and Captain Dan Quinn confronted the soldier about the
claims, to which he just “laughed about it and said it ‘wasn’t a big deal’”.
The two soldiers shoved him to the ground and he walked away with bruises.
But after the attack the commander complained to the US Army, who reportedly halted
Mr Martland’s mission, put him in a temporary job and sent him home.
Meanwhile, Mr Quinn quit the military and is thought to have secured a job on Wall
Street.
Sergeant Martland, who received a Bronze star for valor actions during a Taliban
ambush, previously wrote in a letter to the Army that he and Mr Quinn “felt that morally
we could no longer stand by and allow our ALP (Afghan Local Police) to commit
atrocities”.
He now has the option to appeal to the Army Board for Correction of Military Records.
POLICE WAR REPORTS
Man Who Investigates Chicago
Police Department For A Living
Beaten By Officers Once They
Discovered What He Did:
“One Of Six Officers Who Stopped
Roberts Found His IPRA
Identification Badge”
“Immediately Afterwards, The Police
Dash Cam Recording The Traffic Stop
Cuts To Black”
09.23.15 By Justin Glawe, The Daily Beast
CHICAGO —
A man who investigates the Chicago Police Department for a living was beaten by
officers once they discovered what he did, according to a lawsuit filed in federal
court.
George Roberts is a supervisor at the Independent Police Review Authority, the
agency responsible for investigating claims of police misconduct and officerinvolved shootings.
On New Year’s Day 2015, Roberts was pulled over after he left a bar.
One of six officers who stopped Roberts found his IPRA identification badge.
Immediately afterwards, the police dash cam recording the traffic stop cuts to
black;
Roberts alleges in his federal lawsuit against the police this is because another
officer intentionally turned off the camera.
Roberts’s attorney says police paperwork did not even note any footage existed.
In fact, police only admitted to its existence when Roberts’s criminal counsel
discovered it during his trial for driving under the influence.
With no footage to contest their account of the incident, police told the media that
Roberts was drunk and swerving his vehicle and that he refused to answer questions or
to take a field-sobriety test.
They arrested him for minor traffic violations and DUI. Police said he fell asleep in the
back of the squad car and he soiled himself.
Roberts was acquitted on the DUI charge in a bench trial and he says police are lying
about what really happened after the dash cam went dark—that he was thrown to the
ground before he was handcuffed and put in the back of a squad car.
Roberts’s wrists were too large for the single pair of handcuffs police slapped on him, his
lawyer says. When Roberts, at 6-foot-3 and 315 pounds, complained that even the
slightest movement caused the cuffs to cut into his wrists, Officer “R. Adams” allegedly
taunted him with Eric Garner’s last words.
“What are you going to tell me next, you can’t breathe?”
Roberts, who is black, claims he was pulled out of the car and thrown to the
ground again—a collision so violent that it made him lose control of his bowels.
From there Roberts was taken to the lock-up, where he stayed overnight in his
soiled clothes.
The only visit from an officer that night was borne not of concern but jubilation, according
to Roberts. A white-shirt officer, which denotes high rank, peered in on Roberts as he
sat defeated on the cell floor, then pointed and laughed.
IPRA is used to getting beat up by Chicago’s cops.
Lorenzo Davis, who along with Roberts was one of just two black supervisors at
IPRA, is also suing the city.
Davis says he was fired after refusing to whitewash investigations of three fatal
shootings carried out by Chicago police officers.
While Davis remains unsure whether police targeted Roberts, he is sure that telling the
truth about cops gets punished.
“Some people seem to think that someone saw him and recognized him, saw him in a
bar and saw him drinking,” Davis says of Roberts. “That was a theory initially—that this
would be a way to get back at someone who worked at IPRA.”
The only time IPRA had the balls to suggest terminating a cop was after the state’s
attorney already charged him in a homicide, which hadn’t happened to any other cops in
IPRA’s lifetime.
In 2012, Detective Dante Servin fired his unregistered handgun from his car, killing
Rekia Boyd. (Servin has maintained he saw a man with a gun near Boyd, but
investigators revealed the man was holding only a cellphone.)
Servin was charged with involuntary manslaughter but was acquitted by a Cook County
judge in April on the novel basis that Servin should’ve been charged with first-degree
murder.
Not only will Servin not do time in prison, he may not even lose his job. That decision
rests with the Chicago Police Board, made up of nine private citizens appointed by the
mayor. Protesters faced off with the board last week to demand Servin be canned. At an
earlier meeting, Boyd’s brother even brought a bag of his sister’s bloody hair to make his
point. Last week, he was joined by more than 200 protesters outside Chicago police
headquarters.
“What they’re trying to do now is to—IPRA as well as the state’s attorney’s office—is to
find one or two high-profile cases to come out against, and get all the press they can and
get the heat off them,” Davis said.
“It’s so political they might go ahead and fire him.”
That’s it: politics, not facts.
Even when cops are caught on tape threatening and manhandling people—and
then trying to steal the evidence—IPRA slaps them on the wrists.
Just this week, video surfaced of two plainclothes officers roughing up an
Chinese-American woman in a salon that was the target of a raid.
“You’re not fucking American. I’ll put you in a UPS box and send you back to wherever
the fuck you came from,” Officer Gerald Di Pasquale tells Jessica Klyzek, which was
captured on surveillance video.
Klyzek told him that she’s a citizen.
“No you’re not! You’re here on borrowed time,” Pasquale tells Klyzek.
“So mind your fucking business before I shut this whole fucking place down. And
I’ll take this place and whoever owns it will fucking kill you because they don’t
care about you, OK? I’ll take this building. You’ll be dead and your whole family
will be dead.”
After realizing they were being recorded, the officers talk about how they could
obtain the footage, not realizing it was stored off site.
For implying an innocent woman would die, allowing another officer to punch her in the
face, then talking about hiding the evidence, IPRA recommended a 25-day suspension
for Di Pasquale and an eight-day suspension for the officer who punched Klyzek.
Klyzek, Roberts, and Davis have all demanded that juries hear their cases, which would
put Chicago, its police, and its police watchdogs all on trial.
“Cops Should Be Killed”
Black Woman Arrested And
Charged With “Dissemination Of
Information To Facilitate
Terroristic Threats” For
Expressing An Opinion On
Facebook;
“Judge Forced Her To Post $10,000
Bond And ‘Banned Her From Social
Media’ As Condition For Releasing
Her From Jail”
“It Is Clear That The Criminals Here Were
The Cops”
In the 1969 Brandenburg decision, the Supreme Court said:
“Freedoms of speech and press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe
advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is
directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or
produce such action”
May 2, 2015 by Cacique Hatuey, hatueysashes.blogspot.com/
Once upon a time there was a country where the constitution said you have
freedom of speech.
In face of the continuing murder of Blacks by police, a 33-year-old Black woman
expresses her anger by writing a status on her Facebook page the Monday night
of the Baltimore rebellion saying that cops should be killed.
It was, obviously and transparently, an expression of rage, for she adds, “I
condone black on white killings. “Why? Because “they condone crimes against
us.”
She even pulls out the Constitution to defend her right to express her anger in
such extreme terms.
She says that police are “reading this ... right now” and adding “Freedom of
speech, tho. So when you can absolutely show me in the 1st amendment where it
explicitly says you can’t say ‘kill all cops’ then I’ll delete my status. Other than
that.... NOPE.”
Still, on Tuesday, the next day, she deletes the post.
My guess is she thought better of how she expressed her anguish.
The fairy tale:
end of story.
The reality:
acting as part of a widespread multi-agency effort, cops raid the woman’s home
on Tuesday, April 28.
They confiscate all sorts of property including three computers and a cellphone,
and arrest her on some sort of terrorism charge(s).
Press reports say the agencies involved included: the Federal Bureau of Investigations,
the Georgia Bureau of Investigations, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, the Department of
Homeland Security, the Fulton County District Attorney, the Atlanta Police, the East
Point Police, the Fulton County Sheriff and the New York Police Department.
(No explanation is given for the NYPD, but it is listed with the rest.)
WSB-TV channel 2 credited itself with an assist, saying the station had “reported it (the
post) to Atlanta Police and our FBI contacts,” according to the corporate outlet’s own
news story. Channel 2 is part of Cox, the dominant news operation in Atlanta, which also
owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and six radio stations, including the main news
and talk station.
According to 11 Alive, Gannet’s Atlanta TV station, the woman, Ebony Dickens “was
charged with dissemination of information to facilitate terroristic threats.”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution said she was “charged with making terroristic threats,”
adding that “Police said Wednesday they would try to get charges upgraded to a felony,
because a gun found during a search showed she had the means to carry out the
threats.”
Channel 2 claims: “Dickens has been charged with disseminating information related to
terrorist acts.”
CNN, a national outlet based in Atlanta, agreed with Channel 2: “Dickens, 33, appeared
in court Wednesday on a charge of disseminating information related to terrorist acts.”
But CNN seems to think there was an aggravating factor.
Their story begins, “A fake name on a Facebook post can still get you in real
trouble,” adding that “Ebony Dickens of East Point, Georgia, posted her Facebook
rant under the name Tiffany Milan, police said.”
And then there is what a judge did. Instead of apologizing to her and raking the cops and
prosecutors over the coals for violating the woman’s constitutional rights, the judge
forced her to post a $10,000 bond and “banned her from social media” as a condition for
releasing her from jail.
This was a clearly illegal, nay, despotic, order.
You can’t tell someone they have to shut up or remain in jail.
The prosecutor who pushed for this and the judge who granted it should be fired
immediately, for they are a menace to our rights and liberty.
What the judge ordered is known as a prior restraint of publication. This was precisely
what the 1971 Pentagon Papers case was about. The New York Times started
publishing excerpts from a secret, classified government history of the Vietnam War that
showed how one administration after another lied to the public. The Nixon administration
sought a court order to stop publication.
In his opinion as part of the 6-3 majority rejecting the Nixon Administration’s request,
Justice Hugo Black wrote:
(T)he injunction against the New York Times should have been vacated without oral
argument when the cases were first presented ... . (E)very moment’s continuance of the
injunctions ... amounts to a flagrant, indefensible, and continuing violation of the First
Amendment. ... In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the
protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy.
“The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to
censor the press was abolished so that the press would remain forever free to censure
the Government. ... To find that the President has ‘inherent power’ to halt the publication
of news ... would wipe out the First Amendment and destroy the fundamental liberty and
security of the very people the Government hopes to make ‘secure.’
And remember, that was the publication of classified government documents in wartime
about a war that was still going on.
And still the Supreme Court said you can’t get an order to stop them from publishing,
even if you might be able to charge and convict them of a criminal offense later for doing
so. At the end of the day the Nixon administration decided it could not get away with
prosecuting major newspapers, and focused instead of leaker Daniel Ellsberg.
It is unclear from the press reports whether Dickens is being charged under Georgia
Code Title 16, Section 16-11-37, for “the offense of a terroristic threat” or under the
following section, 16-11-37.1 “Dissemination of information relating to terroristic acts.”
My guess is both, and in keeping with the complete, utter incompetence of today’s
mainstream journalists, none of those covering the story figured it out.
At any rate, the second section, banning “information relating to terroristic acts” is clearly
an unconstitutional law in violation of the First Amendment. It says:
“It shall be unlawful for any person knowingly to furnish or disseminate through a
computer or computer network any picture, photograph, drawing, or similar visual
representation or verbal description of any information designed to encourage,
solicit, or otherwise promote terroristic acts.”
Why only through computers? Who knows.
The other section, on terroristic threats, applies only when there is a threat with intent to
terrorize, like, for example, burning crosses on people’s lawns.
Ms. Dickens’s post was clearly an expression of anger and rage. But even if some
twisted mind really believed that she intended to encourage people to shoot cops or do
so herself, that would still be constitutionally protected speech.
In the 1969 Brandenburg decision, the Supreme Court said:
“Freedoms of speech and press do not permit a State to forbid or proscribe
advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is
directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or
produce such action” (emphasis added).”
In addition, the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that people have a right to speak
anonymously:
“Protections for anonymous speech are vital to democratic discourse. Allowing
dissenters to shield their identities frees them to express critical minority views . . .
Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority. . . . It thus exemplifies the purpose
behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular
individuals from retaliation.” (McIntyre v. Ohio, 1995)
Moreover, the United States has a tradition of anonymous speech older than the country
itself.
Like Thomas Paine, whose January, 1776, pamphlet “Common Sense,” published with
no name attached, is credited with playing a central role in sparking the American
revolution.
One historian described it as “the most incendiary and popular pamphlet of the entire
revolutionary era.”
Or the Federalist Papers, written by Alexander Hamilton and friends 12 years later under
the collective pseudonym Publius that pushed through the adoption of the Constitution.
The suggestion that there is something wrong or sinister with using a pseudonym is
downright Orwellian. That is an adjective derived from the last name of the author of the
novel 1984, George Orwell. His real name was Eric Blair.
It is clear that the criminals here were the cops.
There was a multi-jurisdictional interstate law-enforcement conspiracy to violate
Ms. Dickens’s constitutionally-protected rights, not just to express herself, but to
do so anonymously.
In addition to the dismissal of all charges against her, I hope there will be a civil suit and
substantial financial penalties imposed on all the police agencies involved.
This is important, not just to compensate Ms. Dickens for her ordeal and vindicate her
rights, but also to counter the chilling effect of this police action and to dissuade the cops
from ever pulling a stunt like this in the future.
MILITARY NEWS
VA Whistleblowers Say
Investigations Of Wrongdoing
“Half-Assed And Shoddy”
VA OIG “Working With VA To Do
Damage Control, White Wash And
Intimidate Truth-Tellers And
Potential Whistleblowers”
Shea Wilkes, Social Worker At The
VA, “Criminally Investigated By The
Inspector General After He Reported
Hidden Wait Lists For Care At The
Facility”
“A Clinical Psychologist At The VA
Committed Suicide When He Was
Fired In 2009 After Reporting
Concerns About Over-Prescribing Of
Medication To Veterans
“He Was Retaliated Against And He Paid
With His Life”
September 23, 2015 By Donovan Slack, USA Today [Excerpts]
The chief watchdog at the Department of Veterans Affairs investigates less than 10
percent of the nearly 40,000 complaints it receives annually about problems at the
agency, even when they concern potential harm to veteran health, Deputy Inspector
General Linda Halliday said Tuesday.
The Office of Inspector General, which is responsible under federal law for rooting out
mismanagement and abuse at the agency, simply doesn’t have the resources, Halliday
said at a hearing of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
Committee.
But that explanation was not good enough for VA whistleblowers at the hearing,
who said that even the investigations her office does conduct are cursory and
often target the VA employees who report problems — rather than the problems
they are reporting.
“VA OIG investigations have been half-assed and shoddy,” said Shea Wilkes, a
social worker at the Shreveport, Louisiana, VA who was criminally investigated by
the inspector general after he reported hidden wait lists for care at the facility.
“The VA OIG has not been independent, but is working with the VA to do damage
control, white wash and intimidate truth-tellers and potential whistleblowers.”
Wilkes co-founded VA Truth Tellers, a group of more than 40 whistleblowers from VA
medical facilities in more than a dozen states — including Arizona, Alabama, Delaware,
and Wisconsin — that provide care to more than 650,000 veterans annually.
He said many have had similar experiences with the inspector general’s office.
“The overwhelming majority would answer the VA IG is a joke,” he said.
Halliday took over the inspector general’s office in July after the previous leader, Deputy
Inspector General Richard Griffin, abruptly retired amid criticism from the whistleblowers’
group.
“I made it a high priority and my first priority to reinforce that the OIG values
whistleblowers and that we are hearing and learning from the more recent complaints,”
Halliday said.
She did not have any answers, though, for the family of whistleblower Christopher
Kirkpatrick, a clinical psychologist at the Tomah, Wisconsin, VA who committed
suicide when he was fired in 2009 after reporting his concerns about the overprescribing of medication to veterans treated at the facility.
The Office of Inspector General, in an effort to defend an earlier finding that there
was no retaliation against Tomah employees who reported problems, including
Kirkpatrick, issued a report in June suggesting Kirkpatrick was a drug dealer and
another whistleblower, a pharmacist, was a bad employee.
“For my parents to have to read this document after everything they’ve been
through is outrageous and unconscionable,” his brother, Sean Kirkpatrick,
testified at Tuesday’s hearing.
Halliday, when asked by Committee Chairman Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., what she
planned to do to make amends with the Kirkpatrick family, said only, “I did not prepare
that document.”
A spokeswoman for Halliday, Catherine Gromek, declined to answer questions afterward
about the report, saying she first had to provide the information to the committee.
Johnson called the report’s insinuations about Kirkpatrick “reprehensible.”
“That sounds like reprisal to me, to a dead person,” he said. “I want that sinking
in.”
Johnson said he appreciated Halliday saying she values whistleblowers, but he said her
office’s actions don’t reflect that.
“That’s not the record,” he said.
Kirkpatrick said after the hearing he is eager to hear what Halliday’s office plans
to do in his brother’s case.
“One thing we want is Chris to have a clear name and people to understand that
he was a whistleblower,” Sean Kirkpatrick said.
“He was retaliated against and he paid with his life.”
YOUR INVITATION:
Comments, arguments, articles, and letters from service men
and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box
126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or email
contact@militaryproject.org: Name, I.D., withheld unless you
request publication. Same address to unsubscribe.
FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had
I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of
biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they
oppose.”
Frederick Douglass, 1852
Nothing has more revolutionary effect, and nothing undermines more the
foundations of all state power, than the continuation of that wretched and
brainless régime, which has the strength merely to cling to its positions but no
longer the slightest power to rule or to steer the state ship on a definite course.
-- Karl Kautsky; The Consequences of the Japanese Victory and Social
Democracy
A Demonstration In Portland, Oregon
From: Mike Hastie
To: Military Resistance Newsletter
Sent: September 25, 2015
Subject: A Demonstration In Portland, Oregon
A Demonstration In Portland, Oregon
Yesterday, I held a banner with an activist friend
marking the first year anniversary of the U.S.
bombing Syria.
Over 300,000 people have been killed in Syria.
Cause and effect are Missing In America (MIA),
as Americans constantly wonder why terrorism
is committed against U.S. corporate interests.
There is a mass exodus of refugees leaving Iraq
and Syria for Europe, and most Americans are
blaming it on the Islamic State.
If you bomb countries to hell year after year,
you give rise to extremism.
The disconnect is beyond the intellect.
As activists, we are affected by U.S. terrorism
around the world like a harpoon to the heart.
It has been a thousand cuts to the soul.
Horror quotes by politicians are important to me,
because it gets me out of bed in the morning.
It absolutely drives me to bear witness for those
who cannot speak, or will not speak, as it does for
countless antiwar activists I know around the U.S.
This is what George W. Bush once said:
“The casualties of Iraq will be seen as a comma in
history.”
Makes you wonder why the Pope said:
“God Bless America.”
Mike Hastie
Army Medic Vietnam
September 24, 2015
Photo and caption from the portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam
1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at:
(hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)
One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head.
The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a
so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen
of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.
Mike Hastie
U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71
December 13, 2004
“Syria Is The 21st Century Paris
Commune” “It Is A Flash Of
Lightning That Illuminates A
Furious Global CounterRevolution”
“Assad Has Grasped Where The
World Is Today”
“None Of His Adversaries, Not
Turkey, Nor The US, Nor Israel,
Would Risk His Downfall If It Meant
An Opening For Popular
Empowerment”
“The More He Murders, The More He
Destroys, The More Impossible It Is It
Remove Him Without Conceding The
Revolt”
Sep 25, 2015 by Gabriel Ash via Marxmail
The immediate problem is indeed Assad.
But that is the tip of the iceberg.
Assad has been a stellar prince. He has fully grasped the potential of the current
historical moment, the fortuna that opens possibilities for virtù, and acted on that
understanding singlemindedly.
Bombing one’s own country to the stone age and expelling the majority of the
people is a very high risk strategy, and few tyrants have survived it.
But Assad has grasped where the world is today.
He has correctly understood that defeating the threat of expanding democracy,
everywhere, but especially in the Middle East, is not only the point of unity of all
the world’s powers, but even the dominant intellectual and cultural mood, and if
he positions himself at that very point, he will be untouchable.
He understood that none of his adversaries, not Turkey, nor the US, nor Israel,
would risk his downfall if it meant an opening for popular empowerment.
And the more he murders, the more he destroys, the more impossible it is it
remove him without conceding the revolt.
Syria is the 21st century Paris Commune.
It is a flash of lightning that illuminates a furious global counter-revolution.
Even hundreds of thousands of refugees are unlikely to change that.
The EU would much rather build new concentration camps for them than risk
inadvertently helping a popular victory against tyranny.
WHEN SOLDIERS STOPPED A
WAR:
THE QUASI-MUTINY
From: SOLDIERS IN REVOLT: DAVID CORTRIGHT, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden
City, New York, 1975
In July of 1970 at the pre-Vietnam jungle-operations training center in Fort Sherman,
Canal Zone, forty combat officers sent a remarkable letter to their Commander-in-Chief.
The soon- to-be combat leaders were not seeking to degrade the service or join
the growing peace movement. Their letter did not directly criticize the war, and no
copies were sent to the press. Rather, they wished to inform the President of “the
extent of disaffection among the American troops” and the grave threat this posed
to the military.
The young commanders relayed the perception that “the military, the leadership
of this country—are perceived by many soldiers to be almost as much our enemy
as the VC and the NVA” and cautioned that if the war continued, “young
Americans in the military will simply refuse en masse to cooperate.”
The warning came too late, though, for by the time it was sent, the Army was
already in an advanced state of decay, with many grunts in virtually open
rebellion.
The currents of unrest and dissension undermining American forces throughout
the world surged together and were magnified in the crucible of Vietnam combat,
effectively crippling U.S. military operations. Without resorting to outright
insurrection, much of the American army in Vietnam refused to fight and staged a
“quasi-mutiny.”
Subtly and without heroics, soldiers improvised means of shirking a despised
mission and engaged in their own unofficial troop withdrawal.
The grunts’ rebellion seldom reached the stage of formal mutiny, assuming
instead less-visible forms: “search and avoid” missions, with patrols intentionally
skirting potential enemy clashes or halting a few yards beyond the defense
perimeter for a three-day pot party; threats against commanders, often forcing
officers and NCOs to worry more about their own men than the Vietnamese;
defiance of authority, with GIs blatantly disregarding dress and hair regulations
and military custom, and covert obstruction, ranging from intentional inefficiency
on the job to major acts of sabotage.
The full story of the breakdown of the infantry has never been told, partly because
its diffuse and anonymous nature defies precise definition and partly because
reliable documentation is so difficult to obtain. Our examination will portray the
world’s mightiest military force paralyzed by internal resistance.
MORE:
FREE TO ACTIVE DUTY:
A Vietnam Soldier Wrote The Book All
About How An Armed Forces Rebellion
Stopped An Imperial War
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RECEIVED FROM READERS
Open Letter Re Ads Soliciting
Members Of Air Force To Defy
Direct Orders From Command:
“The Sponsors Of The Ad Who
Openly Advocate Disobedience, Who
Urge Disobedience, Should First
Have Resources In Place To Assist
Any Airman/Woman Who Refuses To
Fly”
“The Resources, At A Minimum, Should
Include Counseling, Financial Support
For The Airmen/Women Who Refuse To
Follow Orders, And For Their
Dependents, To Include Legal Fees”
[The ad discussed in this open letter is reprinted below the open letter. T.]
From: Sandy Kelson [mailto:sandkel@windstream.net] [Veteran & Military Initiatives
Organization]
Sent: Sunday, September 20, 2015 12:14 PM
To: ‘nickmottern@earthlink.net’ <nickmottern@earthlink.net>;
‘michaelvfp@gmail.com’ <michaelvfp@gmail.com>; ‘info@worldcantwait.org’
<info@worldcantwait.org>; ‘media@ivaw.org’ <media@ivaw.org>
Subject: Open Letter Re: Drone ads
The ad is fine as far as it goes. However, I think it is insufficient.
Refusal to fly will probably lead to negative personnel actions, including discipline
with loss of pay/benefits, destruction of his/her career, legal fees, imprisonment
and financial ruin for dependents, maybe poverty.
Thus, I believe, the sponsors of the ad, those who openly advocate disobedience,
who urge disobedience, should first have resources in place to assist any
airman/woman who refuses to fly.
The resources, at a minimum, should include counseling, financial support for the
airmen/women who refuse to follow orders, and for their dependents, to include
legal fees.
The sponsors of the ad are soliciting funds to cover the cost of the ads, $5000 each.
Well, this amount is insignificant compared to the financial losses one airman/woman
would likely suffer.
When people advocate for somebody to do such a brave and moral act for all of
us, they must, I submit, stand in solidarity with the airmen/women. Solidarity to
me includes sharing the risk and/or pain.
Emerson visited Thoreau in jail. Emerson asked Thoreau what he was doing in jail and
Thoreau replied by asking Emerson why he was not in jail. (Thoreau was incarcerated
for refusing to pay taxes that would fund the war with Mexico)
Lt. Watada, who refused orders to ship to Iraq because he believed the war was illegal,
gave a speech at a VFP convention. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj0hI4OyF3A In
relevant part Watada said:
“Finally, those wearing the uniform must know beyond any shadow of a doubt
that by refusing immoral and illegal orders they will be supported by the people
not with mere words but by action.”
Thank you for considering this email.
Sanford Kelson
Attorney-at-Law
**********************************************************************************
The Ad Advocating Disobedience:
September 23, 2015 By Courage to Resist
On Monday, September 14, the Air Force Times, a weekly newspaper with a circulation
of over 65,000 subscribers who include active, reserve and retired U.S. Air Force, Air
National Guard and general military personnel and their families, published the
advertisement below (select “read more”), carrying a message from 54 veterans urging
US drone pilots to refuse to follow orders to fly surveillance and attack missions, citing
international law.
DANGER: CAPITALISTS AT WORK
OCCUPATION PALESTINE
Zionist Settlers Assault, Injure
Unarmed Palestinian, As Usual:
“One Of The Fanatic Settlers Fired At
Saeed’s Car”
17-9-2015 PIC
TULKAREM -- Jewish extremist settlers assaulted Wednesday night a Palestinian man
near Nablus city in the northern West Bank.
He was injured and bruised all over his body.
The family of the injured young man Saeed Anabtawi, 20, from Anabta town east of
Tulkarem, revealed that the settlers attacked him when he was on his way to visit to his
fiancée in a town near Nablus.
He was assaulted when he reached a road nearby Sahvei Shomron settlement. A
Jewish vehicle crossed his way with four armed settlers who attacked him by severe
beating.
The family said that one of the fanatic settlers fired at Saeed’s car, and then the other
three forced him to go out of his car and violently attacked him.
He was transferred to Rafidia Hospital in Nablus and his condition was described as
moderate.
Nablus Police Chief, Three-Year-Old
Daughter Shot By Occupation Forces
In Kafr Qaddoum:
“When Her Father Attempted To Aid Her
And Take Her To The Hospital In His Car,
Israeli Forces Opened Fire, Injuring Him
In The Head”
September 25, 2015 by IMEMC News & Agencies
The chief of police in the Nablus district and his three-year-old daughter were injured
after being shot by Israeli forces with rubber-coated bullets, on Friday, during a raid in
the village of Kafr Qaddoum, in the northern West Bank district of Qalqilia.
Coordinator of the Popular Committee Morad Eshteiwy said that Israeli forces directly
shot at seven-year-old Maram Abdul-Latif al-Qaddoumi, injuring her with a rubber-coated
steel bullet in the head while she was standing on a balcony in her home.
Eshteiwy added that when her father, Colonel Abdul-Latif al-Qaddoumi, attempted to aid
her and take her to the hospital in his car, Israeli forces opened fire, injuring him in the
head.
They were both taken to the Rafidia Governmental Hospital in Nablus where their
injuries were reported as moderate. Both are currently in a stable condition.
Eshteiwy said that Israeli forces had raided the area and set up several ambushes inside
of the town in an attempt to prevent the weekly Kafr Qaddoum march.
The invasion led to clashes between the soldiers and dozens of local youths, who hurled
stones and empty bottles on them, while the army fired more live rounds, rubber-coated
steel bullets and gas bombs, in addition to using trucks to spray homes with wastewater
mixed with chemicals.
On September 11th, Israeli military forces raided the house of al-Qaddoumi, and turned
his home into a military outpost after evicting his wife and children.
Days earlier, Israeli forces held al-Qaddumi for more than an hour near the entrance of
Hijja village, west of Nablus.
Last week Israeli forces shot and injured a 14-year-old with live fire in Kafr
Qaddoum during a demonstration.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that there was a “riot” in Kafr Qaddoum, where
protesters threw rocks and rolled burning tires at Israeli forces, who opened fire
“using .22 caliber rounds towards the extremities of the main instigator and a hit
was confirmed.”
A weekly average of 39 Palestinians have been injured by Israeli forces since the start of
2015. The majority of injuries sustained by Palestinians occur during nonviolent protests.
Rights organizations have argued that methods of crowd control used by Israeli forces
often result in excessive, and sometimes fatal, use of force.
Residents of Kafr Qaddoum carry out weekly demonstrations in protest of the now 13year closure of the main street out of the village, which leads to nearby Nablus -- the
area’s economical hub.
Kafr Qaddoum has also lost large swathes of its land to Israeli settlements, outposts and
the separation wall, all illegal under international law.
Thousands March In Khatatbeh’s
Funeral:
“Clashes Erupted At The Beit Furik
Checkpoint Between Israeli Forces
And Dozens Of Youth Following The
March”
“26 Palestinians Have Been Killed By
Israeli Forces Since The Start Of 2015”
September 25, 2015 by IMEMC News & Agencies
Thousands of Palestinians marched in the funeral of Ahmad Izzat Khatatbeh, 25, who
died on Thursday from wounds sustained by Israeli forces at the Beit Furik checkpoint, in
the occupied West Bank, last week.
The procession set off from the Rafidia Government Hospital to Khatatbeh’s family home
located near the village’s entrance. His body was carried on the shoulders of fellow
residents to the cemetery, as they shouted slogans calling for revenge.
Mourners waved Palestinian flags as well as the flags of Palestinian factions during the
funeral. Palestinian security sources told Ma’an that clashes erupted at the Beit Furik
checkpoint between Israeli forces and dozens of youth following the march.
Israeli forces fired tear-gas bombs and stun grenades at youths causing severe tear-gas
inhalation.
Medical sources said that a youth identified as Hammudeh Walid Hanini was injured with
live bullets in the leg before being taken to the Rafidia Government Hospital for
treatment.
Israeli forces also fired rubber-coated steel bullets at youths who responded with rocks
and set several tires on fire.
An Israeli army spokesperson told Ma’an News Agency that she was unaware of any
Palestinian injuries during the clashes, adding that an Israeli soldier had been lightly
injured.
Khatatbeh had died from his wounds after being shot three times in the shoulder, chest
and abdomen, medical sources said on Thursday.
An Israeli army spokesperson said at the time that a petrol bomb was thrown at an
Israeli army patrol in the area, near the illegal settlement of Itamar, with soldiers
responding by shooting a Palestinian suspect and arresting another.
He was the third Palestinian to die at the hands of Israeli forces in the occupied
Palestinian territory this week.
Diya Abdul-Halim Talahmah, 21, was killed during clashes with Israeli forces in Hebron
on Monday.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces shot Hadeel al-Hashlamon, 18, several times at a Hebron
checkpoint and she died from her wounds shortly after.
At least 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of 2015,
as rights groups criticize the excessive use of force used by soldiers in the
occupied Palestinian territory.
The procession set off from the Rafidia Government Hospital to Khatatbeh’s family home
located near the village’s entrance. His body was carried on the shoulders of fellow
residents to the cemetery, as they shouted slogans calling for revenge.
Mourners waved Palestinian flags as well as the flags of Palestinian factions
during the funeral. Palestinian security sources told Ma’an that clashes erupted at
the Beit Furik checkpoint between Israeli forces and dozens of youth following the
march.
Israeli forces fired tear-gas bombs and stun grenades at youths causing severe tear-gas
inhalation.
Medical sources said that a youth identified as Hammudeh Walid Hanini was
injured with live bullets in the leg before being taken to the Rafidia Government
Hospital for treatment.
Israeli forces also fired rubber-coated steel bullets at youths who responded with rocks
and set several tires on fire.
Khatatbeh had died from his wounds after being shot three times in the shoulder, chest
and abdomen, medical sources said on Thursday.
An Israeli army spokesperson said at the time that a petrol bomb was thrown at an
Israeli army patrol in the area, near the illegal settlement of Itamar, with soldiers
responding by shooting a Palestinian suspect and arresting another.
He was the third Palestinian to die at the hands of Israeli forces in the occupied
Palestinian territory this week.
Diya Abdul-Halim Talahmah, 21, was killed during clashes with Israeli forces in
Hebron on Monday.
On Tuesday, Israeli forces shot Hadeel al-Hashlamon, 18, several times at a
Hebron checkpoint and she died from her wounds shortly after.
At least 26 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since the start of 2015, as
rights groups criticize the excessive use of force used by soldiers in the occupied
Palestinian territory.
To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation commanded
by foreign terrorists, go to: http://www.palestinechronicle.com/
The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”
DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK
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