Friday, March 16, 2007

THIS JUST IN! AP SLIMES VALERIE PLAME AGAIN!

 
 
"I'M NOT LIKE DARLENE," JULIE HIRSHFELD DAVIS TOLD THESE REPORTERS.  "I THINK IT'S FUN TO LIE!"
 
AND THE A.P. 'REPORTER' PROVES IT BY COVERING VALERIE PLAME'S TESTIMONY ON CAPITOL HILL TODAY AND SAYING IT  "REVEALED LITTLE NEW INFORMATION".
 
 
1) SHE WAS A COVERT C.I.A. AGENT UNTIL THE WHITE HOUSE DECIDED TO BLOW HER COVER AND OUT HER.
 
2) THE OUTING HURT HER PERSONALLY.
 
3) THE OUTING RISKED EXPOSING OTHERS WHOM SHE HAD WORKED WITH.
 
4) THE OUTING HURT THE MORALE IN THE C.I.A.
 
5) THE OUTING MIGHT RESULT IN PEOPLE BEING LESS WILLING TO COME FORWARD WITH INFORMATION.
 
6) HER AREA OF EXPERTISE WAS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. 
 
7) SHE HAD BEEN UNDERCOVER OVERSEAS IN THE LAST 5 YEARS PRIOR TO HER OUTING. 
 
FURTHERMORE, THE DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF SECURITY FOR THE WHITE HOUSE, JAMES KNODELL, ALSO TESTIFIED TO THE HOUSE OVERSIGHT AND GOVERNMENT REFORM COMMITTEE TODAY AND HE REVEALED THAT, DESPITE BULLY BOY'S CLAIMS OF A "FULL INVESTIGATION" INTERNALLY, KNODELL REPEATEDLY REPLIED "NOT BY OFFICE" WHEN ASKED OF AN INTERNAL WHITE HOUSE INVESTIGATION -- ONE PROMISED TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE BY THE BULLY BOY. 
 
WHEN ASKED WHY SHE DIDN'T FEEL THE NEED TO LEAD WITH ANY OF THE ABOVE, JULIE EXPLAINED TO US "A.P. STANDS FOR 'ASSHOLE PRESS' AND I LOVE IT!"
 
 
 
Starting with war resistance, today on KPFA's Making Contact, Aaron Glantz addressed the topic of Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq (June 2006) and the first to be court-martialed (last month).  Glantz noted that before the court-martial began, on a rainy Sunday night, people gathered to show their support.  Among those speaking were retired Lt. Col. and retired State Department Ann Wright, "
I have been here so many times and so many times for justice and principle."  Glantz noted how the presiding judge, Lt. Col. John Head (aka Judge Toilet) refused to allow Watada to put foward his best defense -- explaining why he refused to deploy.  A review of the court-martial's second day included Geoffrey Millard's observations (Millard reported on the court-martial for Truthout) that the prosecutions' own witnesses backed up Watada under cross examination.  This point was echoed by Jeff Paterson who told Glantz,  "All the prosecution's witnesses stood up there and said miltary service are important oaths are important but on cross examination they explained how Ehren Watada  was trying to fulfill his oath."  (Paterson covered the court-martial for Courage to Resist.) Glantz noted that the prosecution witnesses had stated that intent was important as the second day ended so there was a belief that Watada might be able to present his motivations when he took the stand the following day. 
 
"On Wednseday morning the court room was filled with anticipation," Glantz noted.  But that quickly changed as Judge Toilet zeroed in on a stipulation where Watada agreed to making public statements.  Judge Toilet had seen the stipulation the week prior, on Monday he had instructed the jury on the stipulation.  On Wednesday, it was suddenly an issue. Judge Toilet declared a mistrail (over the defense's objections).  Eric Seitz, Watada's civilian attorney, notes that double-jeopardy should prevent Watada from being court-martialed again; however, the military has scheduled Juyl 16th for the start of his second court-martial.
 
 
US war resister Joshua Key has told his story in the new book The Deserter's Tale.  In addition, he is also one of the war resisters profiled in Peter Laufer's Mission Rejected: U.S. Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq, from page 14:
 
Joshua still does not understand what he was doing in Iraq in the first place.  "I still couldn't tell you why I was there.  What purpose was it for?  Whose gain was it for?  I don't know the truth to it.  Like I tell my wife, that's the problem with war -- your president, your generals, they send you off to go fight these battles.  And all the way down to your commanding officers, they don't go out there with you.  They send you out there to fight and do the crazy sh*t and do the dirty stuff.  You're the one who has to live with the nightmares from it.  You come back, you're nothing, you know?  Guys are living on the streets that fought in Iraq just as well as I did.  I mean it's horrific."
 
Ehren Watada and Joshua Key are part of a movement of resistance within the military that also includes Darrell Anderson, Agustin Aguayo,  Kyle Snyder, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
Joshua Key's statements ("You come back, you're nothing, you know?  Guys are living on the streets that fought in Iraq just as well as I did.  I mean it's horrific.")  are the jumping off point to the realities now more openly addressed: what passes for 'care' that many returning receive (or 'receive').  In light of the recent scandals about Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Gregg Zoroya (USA Today) establishes the point that not all have to deal with mold, rats and roaches -- some quarters are very nice such as the Esienhower Executive Nursing Suite (Ward 72) which "features heightened security, including bullet-proof windows and secure telephone lines.  Among the other touches are flat-panel television and curio cabinets filled with gifts from foreign leaders."  This is the VIP suite but US Rep John Tierney feels "the true VIPs" are the returning service members and not the ones who get the Esienhower Executive Nursing Suite: "the presidents, the vice president, federal judges, members of Congress and the Cabinet, high-ranking military officials and even foreign dignitaries and their spouse.  The only enlisted members of the military who are eligible to stay there are receipients of the Medal of Honor."  Conn Hallinan (Berkeley Daily Planet) observes that the problems with Walter Reed require more than show firings, "'addressing' the problem will require jettisoning former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's high-tech subsidies to the nation's arms makers at the expense of the grunts, as well as the White House's mania for privitaziation.  [Francis] Harvey [Army Secretary until recently] was brought in by Rumsfeld specifically to reduce the federal work force and, as he said in a speech last year, 'improve efficiency.'  A former executive for one of the nation's leading arms producers, Westinghouse, Harvey hired IAP Worldwide Services -- run by two former Halliburton executives -- which promptly reduced the number of people providing service at Walter Reed from 300 to 60.  The cutback and resulting increase in workloads kicked off an exodus of trained personnel, which an in-hospital study just released by the House Committee on Oversight and Governance found could lead to 'mission failure'."
 
One person who has been fighting for better service and for an end to the illegal war is Tina Richards whose son Cloy Richards has served two tours of duty in Iraq and now suffers from PTSD.  Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez (Democracy Now!) spoke with Richards today and she explained what was next for her son in the Veterans Affairs system: "On March 24th, he's supposed to report in with documentation from Veterans Affairs as to his disabilities.  The problem is, is that he doesn't have that documentation, because we've ben fighting with the VA system for close to a year now, just trying to get him treatment.  Recently, I've been sitting in on the hearings, and I was interviewed by a Veterans Affairs Committee on the House.  And it appears that a lot symptoms that my son has is actually from traumatic brain injury, which can sometimbes be confused with PTSD, or it can be a combination of both.  You know, he definitely has undiagnosed traumatic brain injury." 
 
On today's Democracy Now!, Gonzalez and Goodman also spoke with Jean Stentz whose husband, Vietnam vet Willie Dougherty, died last year in a series of injustices that began when he was denied a VA hospital in his area -- Jean Stenz: "Because the VA hospital was full, and they wanted him to go to another one.  And so, Beaumont's two hours away from us, and Houston's an hour away, but they sent him to Beaumont.  And then, when they released him, I took him down by ambulance to the VA hospital emergency room, who refused him at that time, because they said he wasn't sick enough.  He had an infection.  He was perspiring profusely.  I mean, the pillows were wet.  He had fever.  He had trouble breathing.  But he wasn't sick enough.  So we came home.  We called on the phone -- in fact, my daughter and I had two phones going, the cell and the home phone -- trying to find help for him.  Finally, the VA doctor in Lufkin decided that he should be put in a nursing home.  He was in a nursing home in Huntsville less than two days and was very sick, was transferred to the Huntsville emergency room, who transferred him finally to the VA hospital in Houston, where he was in ICU -- very ill -- and transferred to their hospice room and died."
 
 
 

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Thursday, March 15, 2007

THIS JUST IN! DARLENE SUPERVILLE? NOT SO SUPER!

 
TODAY WAS NOT A SLOW NEWS DAY BUT THESE REPORTERS SPENT MOST OF THE DAY ASSURING THE ASSOCIATED PRESS' DARLENE SUPERVILLE THAT THERE HAD TO BE SOMEONE MORE STUPID THAN HER.
 
DARLENE HAD ONE HAND GRIPPED AROUND A RAZOR AND ANOTHER AROUND A BOTTLE OF SLEEPING PILLS DUE TO HER 'REPORTING' TODAY.  SHE'D THOUGHT BEING SNARKY ABOUT VALERIE PLAME WOULD BE EASY.
 
CERTAINLY MOST OF THE D.C. PRESS HAS SNARKED WITHOUT FEAR OF ACCOUNTABILITY.  BUT THEY WEREN'T AS IDIOTIC AS DARLENE.
 
VALERIE PLAME IS THE UNDERCOVER C.I.A. AGENT WHOSE CAREER ENDED WHEN THE WHITE HOUSE DECIDED TO OUT HER.  HER HUSBAND IS JOE WILSON. 
 
DARLENE KNEW THAT MUCH BUT NOT A LOT MORE.  IN HER FIRST PARAGRAPH, SHE REFERRED TO PLAME HAVING "A MAGAZINE COVER IN HER PAST."  LATER IN THE ARTICLE SHE 'EXPLAINED,' "THE COUPLE FAMOUSLY POSED IN HIS JAGUAR FOR THE JANUARY 2004 COVER OF VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE."
 
 
DARLENE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE EASY.  DARLENE THOUGHT IT WOULD BE FUN.  CERTAINLY MOST REPORTERS GETTING SNARKY ABOUT PLAME DON'T FACT CHECK.  BUT DARLENE WENT BEYOND NORMAL STUPID.
 
ANY IDIOT KNOWS VANITY FAIR ISN'T VANITY FAIR WITHOUT A CELEBRITY COVER AND JOE WILSON AND VALERIE PLAME AREN'T STARS.  THE COVER OF THE JANUARY 2004 ISSUE WAS VIGGO MORTENSEN OF LORD OF THE RINGS FAME.  PLAME AND WILSON HAD BEEN A STORY INSIDE THE MAGAZINE. 
 
DARLENE ASKED US IF WE THOUGHT SHE SHOULD PACK IT IN?  WE REMINDED THAT THE BULLY BOY MADE IT TO THE OVAL OFFICE SO WHO KNOWS WHAT LIES IN HER FUTURE?
 
"C'MON, DARLENE," WE SAID, "PUT DOWN THE RAZOR, PUT DOWN THE PILLS.  YOU'VE STILL GOT A TON OF LIES IN YOU WAITING TO BE RELEASED IN PRINT."
 
.
 
 
Starting with news of war resistance.  Dean Kuipers (LA City Beat) examines the war resistance within the military and notes AWOL figures (8,000 since the start of the illegal war according the US Defense Department), desertion figures (40,000 since 2000) and that: "Several hundred of those soldiers have fled to Canada, according to unconfirmed reports, but only a few have identified themselves and thus face prosecution."  On the issue of the sentencing of war resisters who go public, attorney Jim Feldman, who represents Agustin Aguayo among others, sees the sentencing as encouraging, noting that, "People who really are sincere, the Army judges are not going to come down hard on 'em.  The judges seem to recognize that as a mitigating circumstance."  Agustin Aguayo's recent court-martial in Germany found him sentenced to eight months and the time he had been in custory already (since turning himself in at the end of September 2006) was credited to his sentence.   Iraq Veterans Against the War's Kelly Dougherty shares her view with Kupier, "At the same time, I think they are taking a tough stand because eight months in prison is still a long time in prison, especially for refusing to serve in a war because your conscience says it's wrong to kill people, or because you reel that this particular war is illegal.  They could certainly be prosecuting people more.  But the sentences that they are giving are being handed down as a message to others serving in the military not to apply for CO status and not to refuse to go to Iraq." 
 
Ehren Watada, the first commissoned officer to publicy refuse to deploy to Iraq, is but one example of the attempt to "send a message."  His second court-martial is scheduled to begin July 16th.  The double jeopardy issue (a Constitutional issue) is something the military seems determined to ignore.  Courage to Resist is asking that a mail campaign (snail mail) be used to demonstrate to Lt. Gen. James M. Dubik how much support there is for Watada.  Dubik "has the power to drop all charges and let Lt. Watada out of the army". You can write to Lt. Gen. Dubik at: Bldg 2025 Stop 1, Fort Lewis, WA 98433.   
 
In other news, Vue Weekly reports: "Toronto hip-hop artist Mohammad Ali is about to release his new album at an event here in Edmonton for the War Resisters Support Campaign, a coalition of indivduals supporting US soldiers seeking asylum in Canada because they refuse to fight in Iraq.  The self-proclaimed in-your-face activist ('I write about names, events and dates -- specifics.') is highlighting some of the controversial politics behind the war in Iraq, drawing some examples from the experiences of Darrell Anderson, an Iraq combat veteran."  Darrell Anderson is the US war resister who served in Iraq, was awarded a Purple Heart and then self-checked out in January 2005 and moved to Canada.  In September of last year, Anderson announced that he was returning to the US to turn himself in.  On October 3rd, he turned himself in at Fort Knox. He was released by the military on October 6th and, as expected, he was not charged and was given an other-than-honorable discharge.
 
Darrell Anderson, Agustin Aguayo and Ehren Watada are part of a movement of resistance within the military that includes Joshua Key*, Kyle Snyder, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
 
 
[*Yesterday, the third time I mentioned Joshua Key, I wrongly called him Josh Wolf.  Wolf is a reporter who has been imprisoned for refusing to roll over on the First Amendment -- imprisoned "longer than any other reporter in U.S. history for refusing a federal grand jury subpoena" as Howard Vicini notes.]
 
 
Turning to the selling of the illegal war, a wave of Operation Happy Talk hit big media and they suited up, grabbed the Sticky Bumps and rushed to ride that wave. The talking point was that the ongoing crackdown in Baghdad (which began in June of last year and has been beefed up and juiced up ever since) had achieved real results!  It was a success!  This was true because they were told it was true!  One of the few who remembered he was a reporter and that the occupation entails more than mere stenography was Damien Cave (New York Times) who noted problems with the announcement that violence had declined: "But the degree of improvement was unclear, partly because of the continued confusion over casualty counts here, and an American general cautioned against reading too much into optimistic reports, given that January and February were two of the worst months for car bombings since the invasion. The Iraqi review came from Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, a military spokesman, who said at a news conference that civilian deaths since the start of the plan on Feb. 14 were counted at 265 in Baghdad, down from 1,440 in the four weeks before. He said 36 car bombings struck the capital over the past four weeks, down from 56. [. . .] It was not clear what his statistics were based on, though, and they may not have taken into account the bodies found strewn around the capital each day. An analysis by The New York Times found more than 450 Iraqi civilians killed or found dead during the same 28-day period, based on initial daily reports from Interior Ministry and hospital officials."  While Cave reported, many of his cohorts were at the beach (mentally, if not physically). 
 
 

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Wednesday, March 14, 2007

THIS JUST IN! BULLY BOY'S TOUR ENDS LIKE IT STARTED!

 
JUST AS ON EVERY OTHER STOP OF HIS 5 NATION TOUR, BULLY BOY'S FINAL 'CONCERTS' WERE GREETED WITH NONSTOP VIOLENCE AND PROTESTS.
 
AS THE BULLYING THE WORLD (LEG TWO) TOUR CAME TO A CLOSE IN MEXICO, PEOPLE THREW CONCRETE BLOCKS AT HIS HOTEL, SMASHED A TOWN HALL AND HAD A THROW DOWN WITH RIOT POLICES.
 
WHEN ASKED BY THESE REPORTERS IF HE WAS EMBARRASSED OR MORTIFIED, BULLY BOY CHUCKLED, "HELL NO! THIS IS CINCINNATI, DECEMBER 3, 1979!  IT'S MY OWN PERSONAL ALTAMONT!"
 
 
 
Staring with news of war resistance, Joshua Key's book The Deserter's Tale receives a favorable review from Peter Darbyshire (The Vancouver Provence) who concludes it is "a documentary" while War Pornographer Michael Gordon's Cobra II is a "feature film."  Considering the estranged relationship with the truth that Gordo's writing has, that pretty much says it all.  Key is in Canada with his wife Brandi and his children after self-checking out of the US miliary.  Eric Ruder (Socialist Worker) draws links between the historic resistance within the military during the Vietnam era and with the resistance today, noting that "more than 20,000 soldiers have gone AWOL".  Iraq Veterans Against the War's Kelly Dougherty states: "I think there probably are a lot of soldiers who left because they don't want to participate in the war in Iraq.  The reason that only a handful have come out publicly is that it's really hard to put yourself in that position.  If you come forward, you are exposing yourself to criticism and more extreme punishment from the military.  One friend told me that he went AWOL because he didn't want to go to war in Iraq, and when he later turned himself in, he didn't tell anyone that he felt that way."
 
Joshua Wolf is a part of a movement of resistance within the military tha includes Agustin Aguayo, Ehren Watada, Kyle Snyder, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Darrell Anderson, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
 
Yesterday on KPFA's Flashpoints, Dennis Bernstein again spoke with Tina Richards whose son Cloy has already served two tours of duty in Iraq.  Richards: "My son can't face a third tour there.  He barely made it home alive after the second tour."  Cloy Richards suffers from PTSD.  Richards is currently in DC and those wishing to join her or find out more information can click here for her website.  She's not sure what her son will do but noted that he might decide to self-check out and due to his medical needs that would mean the threat that he would lose his benefits and health care.  Noting the 'actions' of the US Congress on Iraq, Richards stated, "What confuses me is that George Bush's bill was not dead on arrival when it showed up at Congressman [David] Obey's office?  Why his supplemental wasn't thrown in the trash and rewritten so that it would really benefit our troops and that it would  bring them home.  And the fact that they're looking like, that they're acting like they have to work off of President Bush's bill is just wrong.  This is what a lot of political analysts have said -- that they can write their own bill."
 
Bernstein asked her if she felt that elected officials were putting "politics before humanity"?  Richards noted that some members of Congress were standing up; however, "there's a lot of other ones that are so disappointing because they are not standing up for what is right but they are working around what is going to make sure that they get a president in '08 and how are they going to increase their majority?  And it's coming directly from the leadership of the Democratic Party.  And other Congress people have told me, this is being run like a hierarchy, it's not run like a democracy and that to me is just . . . Every single one of those represenatives needs to stand up and represent the people in their district  not get told by the leadership of the Democratic  party what and how to vote to me any congress that does not stand up to their leadership and speak to truth to power then I just cannot, I don't think that they should be re-elected."
 
David Swanson (AfterDowningStreet.org) notes: "The House Appropriations Committee is taking up the 'Supplemental' spending bill for the war at 9 a.m. on Thursday.  Whatever comes out of that committee will go to the full House for a vote.  Please call 202-224-3121 today and ask for your congress member's office.  Or find their number" here.
 
 

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THIS JUST IN! BAD DAY FOR ALBIE!

 
IT WASN'T A GOOD DAY TO BE THE CHAMPION IN THE INTERNATIONAL BILLIE JEAN KING LOOKALIKE CONTEST OR THE ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR ALBERTO GONZALES TODAY.
 
SECRETARY OF STATE AND ANGER, CONDI RICE, EXPLAINED TO THESE REPORTERS THAT ALBERTO HAD BEEN GIFTED WITH A DIAMOND TENNIS BRACLET FROM FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL JOHN ASSCROFT AND WAS PLANNING TO WEAR IT IN HIS RECREATION OF THE BILLIE JEAN KING AND BOBBY RIGGS MATCH IN SEPTEMBER (WITH BULLY MOMMA BARBARA BUSH PLAYING THE BOBBY RIGGS PART) BUT HE LOST IT WHILE RUNNING A SNAKE DOWN DICK CHENEY'S TOILET THIS MORNING. 
 
SO HE WAS A LITTLE OF SORTS ALREADY BEFORE HE HELD HIS PRESS CONFERENCE AND THAT EXPLAINS WHY HE MADE ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE AS HE ISSUED ONE CONTRADICTORY STATEMENT AFTER ANOTHER.
 
FOR INSTANCE, HE STATED, "I STAND BY THE DECISION AND I THINK IT WAS THE RIGHT DECISION."  THE DECISION WAS TO CONSPIRE TO FIRE ATTORNEY GENERALS AROUND THE NATION AND TO MISLEAD CONGRESS ABOUT IT.  THAT WAS THE DECISION.  SO ONE THE ONE HAND HE SAID HE STOOD BEHIND IT.
 
ON THE OTHER, HE SAID, "I ACKNOWLEDGE THAT MISTAKES WERE MADE HERE.  I ACCEPT THAT RESPONSIBILITY."  BUT OF COURSE IF IT WAS "THE RIGHT DECISION" THAN NO MISTAKES WERE MADE BECAUSE THE DECISION WAS TO TAKE PART IN A CONSPIRACY TO FIRE PEOPLE, TO FORCE THEM TO PRETEND IT WAS THEIR DECISION, AND TO MISLEAD CONGRESS AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED.  THAT IS ALL PART OF THE DECISION, ALL PART OF THE MISTAKES.
 
SECRETARY RICE SAID IT SHOULD ALL BLOW OVER TOMORROW, "HARRIETT MIERS IS SENDING ABLIE A TENNIS BRACELET WITH MATCHING EAR RINGS.  AND SHE'S PURCHASED A SIMPLICITY PATTERN TO MAKE HIM A REALLY ATTRACTIVE TENNIS OUTFIT."
 
 
 

Turning to news of war resistance, Amy Goodman (Democracy Now!) noted today that Helga Aguayo, the wife of Agustin Aguayo, has stated they will "continue to fight for her husband's release from a military prison" and quotes Helga Aguayo stating: "What I do want now is my husband to be released which will happen in 40-45 days. We pursue it legally and that he is found to be a conscientious objector, one, that his conviction of desertion is overturned, two, and that he is given an honorable discharge. That's all I hope for." Agustin Aguayo was court-martialed March 6th in Germany and was sentenced to 8 months in prison but given credit for the 161 days he had already served while awaiting his court-martial.

Another US war resister, Ehren Watada was the subject of a short film noted by Jeff Yang (San Francisco Chronicle) today:


CAAM's evolutionary throughline might be visible in its production of Curtis Choy's "Watada, Resister," an 18-minute mini-film documenting the historic conversation between Lt. Ehren Watada, the Japanese American soldier who is facing court martial as the first U.S. commissioned officer to refuse deployment to the Iraq War, and Frank Emi and Yosh Kuromiya, Nisei resisters of a generation before, who rejected service in the U.S. military as a protest against the internment of their friends and family.
By connecting Watada with these moral forebears, the work connects yesterday to today, bringing the legacy of history to the dynamic, shifting playing field of the present. The medium is as much a message as the content: "Watada, Resister" was released directly to the Internet as a streaming and downloadable video.
"Curtis came to us saying, 'We have to tell this story, but I don't want to wait two years to do this for PBS, and I don't want to raise a lot of money,'" says [Stephen] Gong. "We pulled together a few thousand dollars to cover the costs of a crew up in Seattle and in L.A., and Curtis did his own editing, while our staff pulled together the contextual narrative to give people a way to understand the material. And literally, that was it. This was a story that needed to be told now, and this gave us a way to tell it."


Agustin Aguayo, Ehren Watada are part of a movement of resistance within the military that includes Kyle Snyder, Joshua Key, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart, Ivan Brobeck, Darrell Anderson, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"

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Monday, March 12, 2007

THIS JUST IN! 'DO I LOOK LIKE A WALTER REED SCAPEGOAT?'

 
AWARD WINNER IN THE INTERNATIONAL BILLIE JEAN KING LOOKALIKE CONTEST ALBERTO GONZALES IS COMING UNDER NEW HEAT WITH REGARDS TO HIS DAY JOB AS U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL.
 
 
REACHED FOR COMMENT TODAY, GONZALES STATED HE WAS NOT TAKING THE "SUGGESTIONS" SERIOUSLY. 
 
"BLAH BLAH PATRIOT ACT, BLAH BLAH VIOLATIONS," GONZALES MOCKED.  "STEP DOWN?  DO I LOOK LIKE A WALTER REED SCAPEGOAT?"
 
THESE REPORTERS ASKED HIM WHAT HE PLANNED TO DO IF HE WAS NOT GOING TO STEP DOWN.
 
"OH, I AM SO BUSY!"  GONZALES EXPLAINED.  "BARBARA BUSH, BULLY MOMMA, HAS AGREED TO BE BOBBY RIGGS WHEN WE STAGE THE HISTORIC REMATCH OF THE BILLE JEAN KING AND BOBBY RIGGS MATCH THIS SEPTEMBER.  YOU KNOW, IT IS THE 25TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MATCH."
 
THESE REPORTERS POINTED OUT THAT SEPTEMBER 20, 2007 WOULD, IN FACT, BE THE 24TH ANNIVERSARY.
 
"GOOD THINK I'M NOT IN CHARGE OF THE TREASURY!" GONZALES CHUCKLED BEFORE HANGING UP THE PHONE.
 
 
 
Starting with the latest news in the continued scandal that is Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Tony Capaccio and Ken Fireman (Bloomberg News) report that the U.S. Army's surgeon general, Kevin Kiley, is "the third official to lost his job after disclosures last month of substand care for injured soldiers at Walter Reed Medical Center" following in the footsteps of Secreatry of the Army Francis Harvey (March 2nd) and George Weightman (March 1st).  CNN reports that although the official explanation is the Kiley wanted to retire, he was, in fact, asked to resign.  Andrew Gray (Reuters) reports, "A senior U.S. defense official said surgeon general Lt. Gen. Kevin Kiley had been asked to request retirement by acting Army Secretary Pete Geren."  Last month, reporting by Dana Priest and Anne Hull (Washington Post) and Bob Woodruff (ABC News) shined a spot light on the long ignored problem of the medical services for veterans.  At the Post, Josh White notes, "Kiley had faced intense scrutiny during hearings on Capitol Hill during the past two weeks, when numerous members of Congress asked him directly if he should resign either because he failed to notice horrid living conditions and a tangled bureaucracy at Walter Reed or because he failed to fix them. Kiley had said he wanted to stay on the job and lead the Army's medical community through systemic change, but he also acknowledged that he was in a tenuous position."  The position is no longer "tenuous," he has left after being asked to do so.
 
Across the Atlantic, similar problems with medical care are being noticed.  Mark Townsend and Ned Temko (The Observer) report that Selly Oak Hospital in Brimingham is providing questionable care and note that British soldier Jamie Cooper recently begged repeatedly (in front of his parents) for a nurse to empty his colostomy bag but, despite requests to three nurses, he had to continue begging before his very basic need could be met and notes that Cooper "may as well have begged for his dignity."  Kevin Sullivan (Washington Post) also examines the situation and speaks with Cooper's father, Phillip, who tells him that he and his wife have twice had to empty their hospitalized son's colostomy bag because nurses wouldn't,  "We didn't mind doing it -- he's our son -- but we shouldn't have had to."  The Royal British Legion's Sue Freeth calls the care "a national disgrace" and tells Sullivan, "They are not getting what they expect, nor are their family members getting what they expect."
 
Turning to news of war resistance, US war resister Joshua Key was interviewed on Australian TV last week.  Key, who remains in Canada, is the author of The Deserter's Tale.
 
TONY JONES: Now of the numerous raids and other incidents you participated in you've written, "It struck me that the American soldiers themselves were the terrorists." Now people back home, your own family, are going to be horrified to hear you say that.

JOSHUA KEY: I'm sure they will be, but the way I look at it, that was the truth. We had no justification after all them homes that I raided, there was no justification. I felt that we were more antagonising, causing in my picture to myself, we had become the terrorists. I wasn't getting terrorised. I was more doing the terrorising.

TONY JONES: In what regard? What do you mean by that?

JOSHUA KEY: Raiding the homes, taking their sons and their husbands. If they were over five foot tall they were sent off regardless of whether anything was found in that house or not. Through everyday night raids, of course, illumination rounds - used to do the rounds all night long, complete patrolling of the streets non-stop. It was more antagonising. We weren't -- we would go out on a patrol it's not -- we would be saying derogatory names even to the Iraqi women. We antagonised, we brought it -- we made it the way it was.

 
Key is a part of a movement of resistance within the military that includes  Agustin Aguayo,  Ehren Watada, Kyle Snyder, Agustin Aguayo, Mark Wilkerson, Camilo Mejia, Patrick Hart,  Ivan Brobeck, Darrell Anderson, Ricky Clousing, Aidan Delgado, Pablo Paredes, Carl Webb, Jeremy Hinzman, Stephen Funk, David Sanders, Dan Felushko, Brandon Hughey, Corey Glass, Clifford Cornell, Joshua Despain, Katherine Jashinski, Chris Teske, Matt Lowell, Jimmy Massey, Tim Richard, Hart Viges, Michael Blake and Kevin Benderman. In total, thirty-eight US war resisters in Canada have applied for asylum.


Information on war resistance within the military can be found at Center on Conscience & War, The Objector, The G.I. Rights Hotline, and the War Resisters Support Campaign. Courage to Resist offers information on all public war resisters.
 
 
 
RECOMMENDED: "Iraq snapshot"

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