GI Special: thomasfbarton@earthlink.net 12.25.07 Print it out: color best. Pass it on.

GI SPECIAL 5L19:

GEORGE BUSH AND THE U.S. EMPIRE SEND

HOLIDAY GREETING AND GIFTS TO THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ:

FOR THE KIDS:

FOR THOSE SPECIAL GROWNUPS (Some assembly required: gasoline + gel ingredients included.)

(Mike Hastie photo)

AND HERE’S SANTA!

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM A VIETNAM VETERAN

“The Home Of The Brave Used To Refer To Americans Willing To Fight For And Sacrifice Against Foreign Enemies: Tyrants And Those That

Oppress”“These Threats Are Domestic

Now”

[From Ward Reilly, Veterans For Peace. He writes: Pat lives here in Baton Rouge...and I'm proud to be his friend and (a veteran) brother...peace from Ward.]

****************************

A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE FROM A VIETNAM VETERAN

BY PATRICK DOOLEY

Forty years ago, I spent my first Christmas away from home in Viet Nam 1967. I had only been in country for a couple of months; just starting to get adjusted to the Normalcy of the Nam.

Christmas Day we air assaulted (rode helicopters) to a white sand area. I was in Co.D1/8 1st Air Cavalry. I don’t know if the Army thought the white sand would remind us of snow. The common consensus among the troops was that white sand was bad Karma.

Shortly after landing we started to patrol the area. “Get down!” BLAMM! IN RAPID SUCCESSION. The BLAMM was a booby trap, a 105 artillery round exploding.

The guy knew he tripped the booby trap and followed correct Army protocol, hollered and jumped to the ground. The shrapnel blew over him, unfortunately some of it hit the guy next to him. A medi-vac helicopter was called and the Medics helped the injured to the chopper. As they passed by me the guy who had tripped the booby trap was bleeding from both of his ears. Merry Christmas Dude.

Santa Claus arrived on a helicopter riding the skid, with red and green smoke grenades streaming from the sides. Very special Army style.

We went to LZ English (our base) that evening. The mail was waiting for us, I received three packages from home. We were able to go and drink some beer and liquor and watch the TV show Combat at an outdoor screen. We yukked it up and did our best to get drunk. We didn’t have cell phones, laptop computers or even a pay phone. The packages and mail were our connection to the outside world.

The new year of 1968 brought a myriad of adventures. Over 16,000 Americans were killed in Vietnam. Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were both assassinated.

If I could convey any lesson from my experience, it would be to question Authority.

I sure did and still do. Those that lead don’t always know the way.

Look inside yourself, make your own decisions, if your decisions are at odds with the path chosen for you, you owe it to yourself to speak out, to try and change it. You are an American, use your rights and freedoms, don’t take them for granted. Vote, speak out, go to a rally, question why things are like they are.

The Home of the Brave used to refer to Americans willing to fight for and sacrifice against foreign enemies: tyrants and those that oppress.

These threats are domestic now.

Elections are stolen. The media is silent, no one is accountable, people are tortured, US Attorneys are fired for not using their jobs for political reasons, CIA agents are outed, Americans are spied upon, Media conglomerates, billions of dollars more for killing people in Iraq while stopping funding for children’s health insurance.

America is composed of a vast majority of ordinary people who are funding but not benefiting from their hard earned money. We are being driven down the Road of Shame that ends at All Gone Avenue. If you stay quiet you’ll only have yourself to blame.

There are some Brave Americans fighting to get this country back. Join them and support them.

Make this Veteran’s Christmas one to remember.

MORE:

Vietnam: A Soldiers’ Truce“We Left Each Other Alone To Enjoy

A Few Moments Away From The Madness, Despite The Possibility That We Might Take Each Other’s

Lives One Day”

Pin From Vietnam Days

[The “Soldiers’ Truce” referred to below was a Christmas truce between British and German soldiers during World War 1. T]

12.15.07 TO: GI SpecialFrom: Comrade Tribune, World Can’t Wait Chapter Organizer and Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist (VVAWAI) member

******************************

The great story on ‘The Soldier’s Truce: a hidden history from the first world war in GI Special 5L 10 reminded me of a similar incident in Vietnam in 1968.

First, a little background.

My first four months in country was in the Central Highlands with the 173” Abn. Brigade as a fire team leader (Sgt. E-5). After being the first unit in to clean up a company sized massacre by NVA regulars with Chi-Com advisors (we carried a couple of dead ones down the mountain), I was ‘levied’ to go to a LURP unit being formed.

Huh - this was no-fucking brainer! I figured, a line grunt was lower than whale shit on the bottom of the ocean and the LURP unit could only be an improvement.

The levy meant, we could go if we volunteered but they would not order us to go.

We went to a Special Forces camp for ‘ranger’ training. We worked in 6 man recon teams in war zones c & d; inside Cambodia. Yup, the choppers had devices which tracked where the border was and we had to make it to the Vietnam side to be extracted.

We led search & destroy missions with us leading a company of bad mutha flickin Cambodian mercs.

We also did 12 man recon teams, where two teams would arm up with a couple of M-60 MG’s and we would take heavier weapons; hand-held rocket launchers, etc. We called these ‘hatchet’ teams.

We’d set up on a busy trail or near a base camp and fire up any good size group that came down the trail (if there weren’t too many of them that is, like one night when around 75-100 with ox carts were coming South for Tet 1; we called in artillery only).

We would engage and call in a ready-response team. Our own company teams were the first to come in followed by a light infantry company assigned to us. We had our own chopper unit.

In the LURP unit, we would go out for up to 4-5 days (if we didn’t run into something or were spotted); then we would stand-down for a week or two until our turn came up in the rotation again.

We were housed near Bien Hoa and the Long Binh Airport.

We got passes and would go into Bien Hoa all the time, to get haircuts, visit the bars; massage parlors (houses of prostitution); opium dens. Or just do some shopping and kick back.

When we would go into some bars, you could tell that some of the guys in there were hard core VC.

THEY HAD THE STARE! And when they’d look at us, WE HAD THE STARE!

The first encounter was a little dicey, with our guys and Victor Charlie, doing like some old Cagney gangster flick, making a big production of putting our hands on our pistols or knives. But, after that, it became more amicable.

I will say this straight up, we never socialized with them; they never did with us. We never bought ‘rounds’ for one another.

But, what we did do, knowing fucking a well, who each other were, was TO SIT IN THOSE GODDAMN BARS, DRINK. AND MIND OUR OWN FUCKING BUSINESS AND DIDN’T BOTHER EACH OTHER!

We would be at the bar with the VC or next to them at tables.

We left each other alone to enjoy a few moments away from the madness, despite the possibility that we might take each other’s lives one day.

One time, some South Vietnamese officer in uniform, got into a beef with one of the ‘tea girls’ or bar girls. He whips out his ‘45’ and starts chasing the poor girl around the bar blasting off rounds at her. Us and the VC, didn’t move a bit. We each sat there, took in the show; when it was over, resumed what we were doing.

That was not enough to break our ‘soldiers truce.’

You know, after I was there awhile(and I hope a lot of guys in harms way reading this feel the same way) I had nothing but respect for the VC, Viet Cong or the NVA, North Vietnamese Army.

I could understand then, why GI’s go back to visit German’s they fought in Europe or to visit Japanese soldiers they fought against on some island.

I got it. It clicked.

Like Mike Hastie writes, “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 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.”

Good shit ‘bro Mike.

The highest compliment I can give to activist ladies that I work with is, “you would have been a good Viet Cong.”

ACTION REPORTS

“He Also Told Me There's A ‘Sir No Sir!’ DVD In Their Breakroom For All

To See”

From: Alan Stolzer, The Military ProjectTo: GI SpecialSent: December 23, 2007Subject: [xxxx] Railroad Station

I approached two National Guardsmen at [XXXXX] Railroad Station yesterday and before I was finished introducing myself one of them recognized me as having seen me before.

I had given him a GI Special and other material then. I asked what he thought of it. He paused then said "it's opinionated ... but I agree with it."

He also told me there's a "Sir No Sir!" DVD in their breakroom for all to see.

MORE ACTION REPORTS WANTED:FROM YOU!

An effective way to encourage others to support members of the armed forces organizing to resist the Imperial war is to report what you do.

If you’ve carried out organized contact with troops on active duty, at base gates, airports, or anywhere else, send a report in to GI Special for the Action Reports section.

Same for contact with National Guard and/or Reserve components.

They don’t have to be long. Just clear, and direct action reports about what work was done and how.

If there were favorable responses, say so. If there were unfavorable responses or problems, don’t leave them out.

If you are not planning or engaging in outreach to the troops, you have nothing to report.

NOTE WELL:

Do not make public any information that could compromise the work.

Whether you are serving in the armed forces or not, do not in any way identify members of the armed forces organizing to stop the war.

If accidentally included, that information will not be published.

The sole exception: occasions when a member of the armed services explicitly directs his or her name be listed as reporting on the action.

DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE SERVICE?

Forward GI Special along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, inside the armed services and at home. Send email requests to address up top or write to: The Military Project, Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Troup Soldier Killed In Iraq Was Only Child

December 17, 2007 (AP)

TYLER: A 24-year-old soldier from the East Texas town of Troup has died in combat during his second tour in Iraq, his family and the military said.

Sgt. Samuel E. Kelsey died Thursday in Tunnis, Iraq, from wounds he suffered in an explosion, the U.S. Department of Defense said in a release.

Denina Kelsey said her son had run to help a fellow soldier whose legs were injured in an explosion. The second improvised explosive device went off while Kelsey was trying to help the soldier.

"He felt strongly about wanting his men, every one of them, to come home," Denina Kelsey said. "He was saving somebody else's life, and my child lost his life."

Denina Kelsey said she was devastated by the loss of her only child.

"He was my life, my breath, everything I did in my life I did for my child," she said. "He was my only child, and I am his only parent."

Samuel Kelsey graduated from Troup High School in 2001. He was part of an active and tight-knit class, family friend Ava Johnson said.

"They were every teacher's favorites, and they just were all there for each other — still very close," Johnson said.

She said Kelsey's friends and classmates were calling each other for support.

"We all celebrate together, and we all grieve together," Johnson said of Troup, which has about 2,100 residents and is located 105 miles southeast of Dallas.

The women said Kelsey had a good sense of humor and made friends easily.

"What anybody else would call friends, Sam called family," Denina Kelsey said.

Kelsey was assigned to 3rd Battalion, 7th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.

Funeral services were pending.

WELCOME TO IRAQNAM:HAVE A NICE DAY

U.S. soldiers from the 3rd Brigade combat team of 101st Airborne Division in the town of Owesap, Iraq, south of Baghdad, Nov. 21, 2007. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Resistance Action

December 22, 2007 The Associated Press & December 24, 2007 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS & Tobi Cohen, THE CANADIAN PRESS & (AFP)

An attacker blew himself up near an Afghan army convoy in the southern city of Kandahar, killing one person, said the provincial police chief, Sayed Agha Saqib. Two soldiers and four civilians were wounded, he said.

KABUL - A roadside blast hit a police vehicle in eastern Afghanistan, killing one officer and wounding three others, an official said Monday. The explosion happened in the Wata Pur district of Kunar province Sunday, said provincial police chief Abdul Jalal Jalal.

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan - Coalition forces in Afghanistan are being warned to look out for a gruesome and unusual tactic being used by insurgents.

The International Security Assistance Force said bombmakers in Kandahar province, where Canadian troops have been stationed for the past two years, have twice in recent days used human corpses to hide IEDs.

The first such IED was planted on the body of a decapitated Afghan man found in a cemetery Dec. 21, ISAF spokesman Brig.-Gen. Carlos Branco said Monday from Kabul.

The bomb under the body killed a policeman and a villager in the Panjwayi district west of Kandahar city, senior police officer Mohammad Omar said.

NATO Wing Cmdr. Antony McCord added the man was wearing an Afghan National Army uniform

TROOP NEWS

An Honorable Office Resigns;

Col. Wants No Part Of “A Rigged Process Stacked Against The Accused”

At Guantanamo

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

December 10, 2007 By Morris D. Davis [Col., United States Air Force]; L.A. Times [Excerpts]

Col. Morris D. Davis is the former chief prosecutor for the Office of Military Commissions. The opinions expressed are his own and do not represent the views of the Department of Defense or the Department of the Air Force.

****************************************

I was the chief prosecutor for the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, until Oct. 4, the day I concluded that full, fair and open trials were not possible under the current system.

I resigned on that day because I felt that the system had become deeply politicized and that I could no longer do my job effectively or responsibly.

In my view – and I think most lawyers would agree – it is absolutely critical to the legitimacy of the military commissions that they be conducted in an atmosphere of honesty and impartiality.

Yet the political appointee known as the “convening authority” – a title with no counterpart in civilian courts – was not living up to that obligation.

In a nutshell, the convening authority is supposed to be objective – not predisposed for the prosecution or defense – and gets to make important decisions at various stages in the process. The convening authority decides which charges filed by the prosecution go to trial and which are dismissed, chooses who serves on the jury, decides whether to approve requests for experts and reassesses findings of guilt and sentences, among other things.

Earlier this year, Susan Crawford was appointed by the secretary of Defense to replace Maj. Gen. John Altenburg as the convening authority. Altenburg’s staff had kept its distance from the prosecution to preserve its impartiality.

Crawford, on the other hand, had her staff assessing evidence before the filing of charges, directing the prosecution’s pretrial preparation of cases (which began while I was on medical leave), drafting charges against those who were accused and assigning prosecutors to cases, among other things.

How can you direct someone to do something – use specific evidence to bring specific charges against a specific person at a specific time, for instance – and later make an impartial assessment of whether they behaved properly?

Intermingling convening authority and prosecutor roles perpetuates the perception of a rigged process stacked against the accused.

The second reason I resigned is that I believe even the most perfect trial in history will be viewed with skepticism if it is conducted behind closed doors.

Telling the world, “Trust me, you would have been impressed if only you could have seen what we did in the courtroom” will not bolster our standing as defenders of justice. Getting evidence through the classification review process to allow its use in open hearings is time-consuming, but it is time well spent.

Crawford, however, thought it unnecessary to wait because the rules permit closed proceedings. There is no doubt that some portions of some trials have to be closed to protect classified information, but that should be the last option after exhausting all reasonable alternatives. Transparency is critical.

Finally, I resigned because of two memos signed by Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England that placed the chief prosecutor – that was me – in a chain of command under Defense Department General Counsel William J. Haynes.

Haynes was a controversial nominee for a lifetime appointment to the U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, but his nomination died in January 2007, in part because of his role in authorizing the use of the aggressive interrogation techniques some call torture.

I had instructed the prosecutors in September 2005 that we would not offer any evidence derived by waterboarding, one of the aggressive interrogation techniques the administration has sanctioned.

Haynes and I have different perspectives and support different agendas, and the decision to give him command over the chief prosecutor’s office, in my view, cast a shadow over the integrity of military commissions.

I resigned a few hours after I was informed of Haynes’ place in my chain of command.

MORE:

Pentagon Traitors Silence Col. Davis And Defy Congress

12.8/9.07 By JESS BRAWN, Wall St. Journal [Excerpts]

WASHINGTON:

A military prosecutor said the Bush administration blocked him from testifying before a congressional committee examining the treatment of Guantanamo Bay detainees — the second such incident.

Air Force Col. Morris Davis was slated to testify next week that recent policy changes had left the military-commission system, set up to prosecute Guantanamo prisoners for war crimes, open to improper political influence, including possible pressure to use information obtained through Waterboarding.

Col. Davis planned to say that he considered information obtained through the interrogation technique, which simulates drowning, unreliable and that he had ordered his staff to exclude such evidence from their cases.

But other government officials disagreed about waterboarding and other issues, Col. Davis said in a draft of testimony reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Col. Davis said he was told Thursday night that the Defense Department wouldn’t permit him to appear before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security.

Col. Davis was prosecutor from 2005 until October, when he resigned in protest.

The move comes a month after Pentagon Officials blocked another former Guantanamo prosecutor, Marine Lt. Col. V. Stuart Couch from testifying before a House Judiciary sub-committee examining interrogation methods at Guantanamo.

Pentagon officials said then that it would be inappropriate for Col. Couch to testify about matters that could be the subject of future legal proceedings.

Col, Couch had declined to prosecute a Guantanamo detainee after concluding that he had been subjected to interrogation methods the prosecutor considered to be torture.

NOT ANOTHER DAYNOT ANOTHER DOLLAR

NOT ANOTHER LIFE

Nov. 23, 2007 Peter van Agtmael, ABC News

Wounded soldier is checked for vital signs on the mountainous flight out of the Hindu Kush to Bagram, Afghanistan. The U.S. soldier, who had been shot in the arm and suffered a severed artery and nerve damage, realized he could not move his fingers. Concentrating, he was finally able to stir them slightly, and dropped his head with a look of enormous relief.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Resistance Forces “Have Every Intention Of Continuing Their

Operations And In An Ever More Sophisticated Manner”

“Biding Their Time And Training Hard With An Array Of New Weapons In

Order To Drive Foreign Forces Out”

"One Shot, One Soldier Killed Is The Rule," Says The Instructor, A Former

Army Officer

The fighters are adapting to the changing nature of the battlefield [Al Jazeera]

[Thanks to Michael Letwin, NY City Labor Against The War, who sent this in.]

They say Iraq is the best market for any kind of weapon, including new Glock pistols which belong to the newly formed Iraqi security forces.

DECEMBER 24, 2007 Al Jazeera

Foreign forces in Iraq are hoping that a much heralded drop in violence in Iraq will continue into the new year.

However, in exclusive images obtained by Al Jazeera, fighters from the Islamic Front for Resistance in Iraq (Jami) say they are biding their time and training hard with an array of new weapons in order to drive foreign forces out as soon as possible.

Al Jazeera's Iraq correspondent Hoda Abdel Hamid reports.

Deep in the groves north of Baghdad, a group of fighters are shown on camera participating in an afternoon workshop on the making and use of weapons.

It includes a step-by-step lesson on how to turn an old tank shell into a roadside bomb. It took only 20 minutes to put together a device powerful enough to blow up an armoured vehicle. Two will destroy a tank, the instructors say.

Countless videos of these devices' devastating effects are shown on military websites.

Roadside bombs are lethal devices that cause the bulk of US soldier casualties to this day

The Pentagon has upgraded military equipment in Iraq to counter this kind of attack, but the enemy has remained relentless, and is swiftly adapting to the changes on the field.

"We have experts who are in charge of researching and developing new methods continuously," one of the men says.

"We need to find new ways all the time, in case we run out of chemicals."

He also says the Americans are now using jamming devices, but their engineers have already managed to crack the code.

The fighters are part of Jami and describe themselves as a resistance group. They vow that all their firepower is directed at foreign soldiers only.

"One shot, one soldier killed is the rule," says the instructor, a former army officer.

The disbanding of the former Iraqi army and the controversial de-Baathification law were two monumental mistakes the US is still paying for.

Disgruntled former officers with no future prospects sowed the seeds of the resistance and offered up their knowledge of warfare to young recruits.

They say Iraq is the best market for any kind of weapon, including new Glock pistols which belong to the newly formed Iraqi security forces.

In another set of images, the instructor explains how an old rifle used by the British nearly a century ago was recently upgraded.

"Our enemies won't take such a weapon seriously," he says, "but with the changes we made, it has become very effective for snipers - equal to the modern sniper guns."

Rocket launchers, now with aiming sights welded on top, are also regularly used to fire at military convoys.

Over the past four years, groups such as Jami have grown into organised war machines, with fighters divided in combat cells, snipers, anti-aircraft gunners, bomb makers and artillery experts.

One man displays a new weapon in the video.

"This has a range of 1.4km," he says. "It is best aimed at bases which are not heavily fortified and individuals because the rounds are small.

He instructs his students to fire the weapon at targets who are training or taking a break.

The recent announcement that Washington and the Iraqi government are drawing up plans for long-term US military bases is for many Iraqis proof of an open-ended occupation.

The fighters have every intention of continuing their operations and in an ever more sophisticated manner.

"Our researchers are developing remote-controlled explosive devices," one man says.

"Soon we will be able to wage a battle with as little as two fighters - we will minimise our losses."

Almost five years after the start of the war in Iraq, the US still has not acknowledged the existence of a fighting force hostile to the presence of foreign troops on Iraqi soil.

And despite a decrease in US casualties over the past two months, the fighters warn they are in this battle for the long haul.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCEEND THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

“Even Military Guys Who Support The War Are Pretty Comforting Sometimes”

From: Nancy F [Excerpt]To: GI SpecialSent: December 04, 2007

You folks are pretty amazing for my morale.

There are days when I feel like we're the only ones "watching the show".

Us, the military families with the injured and dead, the Iraqi's . . .

Frankly even military guys who support the war are pretty comforting sometimes.

At least they seem to care about the Iraqi's we might have to leave behind, the folks who have fallen, and have sincere fear that nothing will be rebuilt if we leave.

They're in the game at least.

There's some 'context' for discussion

I have no idea what to do with people who just don't care.

REPLY:

Every word you write rings true; especially about feeling closer to the soldiers who are for the war than most civilians for exactly the reasons you express.

Members of the Military Project doing face to face outreach to troops in this area for almost two years have never been yelled at, cussed at, or otherwise condemned by those who frankly say they are for the war, although there are not many left now.

Both women and men in service have ever been polite, and simply said, "No thanks" to publications from IVAW, etc, many adding in various words, "but you have every right to be here and advocate for what you believe."

The kind of civilian loud, raving assholes for Bush have not, so far, been encountered one time among troops.

Don't lose sleep over those civilians who don't care, otherwise knows as neutral. Best research indicates only about a half of people here gave a shit who won in 1776, either way.

It's the active that make history, one way or another.

T

Troops Invited:What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send email contact@militaryproject.org:. Name, I.D., withheld unless you request publication. Replies confidential. Same address to unsubscribe.

OCCUPATION REPORT

U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;

RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

Iraqi citizens forced to line up on the floor in their living room by foreign occupation soldiers from the U.S. army as others search their belongings during a home invasion the village of Walush, in Diyala province Dec. 9, 2007. (AP Photo/Marko Drobnjakovic)

Iraqi citizens have no right to resist home invasions by occupation soldiers from the USA. If they do, they may be arrested, wounded, or killed.

[There’s nothing quite like invading somebody else’s country and busting into their houses by force to arouse an intense desire to kill you in the patriotic, self-respecting civilians who live there.

[But your commanders know that, don’t they? Don’t they?]

"You get the interpreter and you get the man of the home, and you have him at gunpoint, and you'll ask the interpreter to ask him: 'Do you have any weapons? Do you have any anti-US propaganda, anything at all--anything--anything in here that would lead us to believe that you are somehow involved in insurgent activity or anti-coalition forces activity?'

"Normally they'll say no, because that's normally the truth," Sergeant Bruhns said.

"So what you'll do is you'll take his sofa cushions and you'll dump them. If he has a couch, you'll turn the couch upside down.

“You'll go into the fridge, if he has a fridge, and you'll throw everything on the floor, and you'll take his drawers and you'll dump them.... You'll open up his closet and you'll throw all the clothes on the floor and basically leave his house looking like a hurricane just hit it.

"And if you find something, then you'll detain him. If not, you'll say, 'Sorry to disturb you. Have a nice evening.'

“So you've just humiliated this man in front of his entire family and terrorized his entire family and you've destroyed his home. And then you go right next door and you do the same thing in a hundred homes."

Sgt. John Bruhns

“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood, 42, from Iowa, who did not accompany Halladay’s Charlie Company, from his battalion, on Thursday’s raid. “Here, there are no lawyers. Their resources are limited, so they plant IEDs (improvised explosive devices) instead.”

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATIONBRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Write to Box 126, 2576 Broadway, New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 or send to contact@militaryproject.org:. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential. Same to unsubscribe.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER

Telling the truth - about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington - is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more than tell the truth; we want to report on the resistance - whether it's in the streets of Baghdad, New York, or inside the armed forces. Our goal is for Traveling Soldier to become the thread that ties working-class people inside the armed services together. We want this newsletter to be a weapon to help you organize resistance within the armed forces. If you like what you've read, we hope that you'll join with us in building a network of active duty organizers. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/ And join with Iraq War vets in the call to end the occupation and bring our troops home now! (www.ivaw.org/)

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Welcome To The Occupied USA:New Orleans Cop Scum Use Tasers And Gas On Unarmed Citizens At City Council Meeting Voting To

Destroy Public Housing;

“We’re Just Going To Continue On In Using Our Resistance Measures And

Galvanizing The People And Mobilizing The People”

AMY GOODMAN: Police cited fire marshal regulations to bar many protesters from attending the meeting, but many housing advocates say there were empty seats inside the council chambers. Some protesters began banging on the gates to City Hall to try to get in. They were met with pepper spray and tasers. Eyewitnesses said one woman tasered in the back collapsed in a seizure on the ground.

December 21, 2007 Democracy Now! [Excerpts]

AMY GOODMAN: The New Orleans City Council has unanimously voted to move ahead with the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing. Under the plan, the city’s four largest public housing developments will be razed and replaced with mixed-income housing.

On Thursday, hundreds of people were turned away from the City Council meeting. Some of the protesters were shot with pepper spray and tasered.

Inside the City Council chambers, the scene turned chaotic when police began making arrests.

*******************************************************

PROTESTERS: Let the people in! Let the people in! Let the people in!

PROTESTER: Let those people in! Let them in! Let them in! This is not Germany! Let those people in! Let those people in!

There’s seats right there! There’s seats right there! Let those people in! What is wrong with y’all?

PROTESTERS: Let the people in! Let the people in!

PROTESTER: Ain’t no order until the rest our people get in here.

PROTESTERS: Let the people in! Let the people in!

AMY GOODMAN: New Orleans police also tasered protesters inside the New Orleans City Council chambers.

PROTESTER: They’re tasering us! They’re tasering! Stop it! Stop it!

AMY GOODMAN: Police cited fire marshal regulations to bar many protesters from attending the meeting, but many housing advocates say there were empty seats inside the council chambers.

Some protesters began banging on the gates to City Hall to try to get in. They were met with pepper spray and tasers. Eyewitnesses said one woman tasered in the back collapsed in a seizure on the ground.

PROTESTERS: Let us in now! Housing now! Let us in now! Housing now! Let us in! Let us in! Let us in! Let us in! No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! No justice, no peace! What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! What do we want? Justice! When do we want it? Now! Let us in! Let us in! Let us in!

PROTESTER: Stop pushing my people!

PROTESTER: (screams)

PROTESTER: Let us in!

POLICE OFFICER: Get back!

PROTESTER: Let us in!

JUAN GONZALEZ: Police say at least fifteen people were arrested on Thursday.

During the hearing, members of the City Council defended their decision to approve the demolition of public housing.

Councilmember Shelley Midura described some of the protesters as “demagogues and terrorists.” [This piece of shit is for destroying the public housing, of course. The filth using gas and tasers on unarmed citizens are not “terrorists,” of course. Fuck no.]

AMY GOODMAN: We’re joined by three guests right now in New Orleans. Kali Akuno is the executive director of People’s Hurricane Relief. We are also joined by Sess4-5, a community activist.

And we’re joined on the telephone as well by Howard Robertson; he is a retired major with the New Orleans Police.

We turn first to Kali of Hurricane Relief. Describe what happened yesterday and why you were outside and inside the New Orleans City Council.

KALI AKUNO: [People’s Hurricane Relief Fund] Yeah, well, Amy, I was outside, because I was barred entry to the inside. They made an arbitrary decision yesterday to cut off the inside, when there were clearly seats that were still available.

I was getting minute-by-minute reports as the events were starting, as the proceedings were starting, that there were still seats available, and they just made an arbitrary decision to keep those of us — there were probably about a hundred of us still outside at that particular point in time — to close the gates and to keep us outside.

And from there, events just really escalated, as they particularly — as the folks who were on the inside, from what I can see — and Sess can give you a more detailed account —as the folks on the inside started advocating for us to be able to actually enter into the building.

So, you know, they made a situation of trying to control it and basically stifle and cut off any vocal dissent or opposition to their decision.

We knew when we walked in, based on their comments the past several days and based on how they had been treating this issue the past two years, that we were going to lose the vote on the basis primarily of Clarkson’s new addition to the City Council and that at the very least it was going to be a four-to-three vote along racial lines. So we knew what we were walking into.

And we just clearly wanted to make sure that our point was heard, that we disagree with the plan towards demolition and that we were going to stand fast and fight this through the courts and through other means as we moved forward.

So they made a decision to basically shut everything down and shut everybody else down.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Sess, what was happening inside? Obviously, it was a seven-zero vote, but could you talk a little bit about what was happening inside?

SESS4-5: [a New Orleans Hip Hop artist and a member of the Coalition to Stop Demolition]

Well, I’ll definitely start with just the process of entering the City Council chambers. They changed the whole process for this particular vote. And, you know, upon entering the building, you know, they just made it hard for all the Africans who was coming in the gate, who was clearly identified as, you know, not supportive of demolition.

And so, they took other measures of, you know, just searching people and putting you through metal detectors and just winding different people. And so, we just had problems just entering the building. You know, they closed the building — they locked the gates at 10:30, so that the proceedings started at 10:00.

AMY GOODMAN: Sess4-5, were you tasered inside?

SESS4-5: Yes, I was tasered. But just get inside the building before the proceedings started, you know, we just noticed they had a lot of seats available, and the number of Africans in there just were very few.

And they just closed it off right after we entered the building.

So we was asking, before they started the proceedings, to let more people in, because they had a number of seats that was identified inside of the council chambers, and clearly there are more — if you can see from the video, you know, it was — they had run all inside, all on the walls.

And so, when Reverend Sanders, you know, made a plea, after Arnie Fielkow tried to start the proceedings, he made a plea to let the people in. And that’s when everything really started, by Arnie Fielkow trying to start the meeting without properly letting all the people supporting us, you know, opposing, inside of the chambers.

KALI AKUNO: The woman who was tasered and who went into a seizure never made it inside. She was outside. And she was tasered in the back, unaware.

She was one of the hundreds of people who were trying to get inside at that particular point and was omitted from coming. It had nothing to do with seats being available or anything of that nature. They made that decision to cut that off.

Now, in terms of myself being there, my interest is basically trying to — you know, for lack of a better term, Amy — stop this neoliberal destruction that we see taking place in New Orleans and the complete privatization of all of the different services within the city, housing being, I think, the most critical of them, public housing being kind of the cornerstone of that.

But there’s an affordable housing crisis in New Orleans, of which the public housing is just one particular element of it. It’s the most critical element, because public housing will stabilize rents in New Orleans. And folks should know their rents have gone up three times since the storm, and it’s basically pricing, you know, working people and African people, on the whole, out of the city

But this is just one particular piece of this whole program.

Public hospitals are also being shut down and set to be demolished and destroyed in New Orleans.

And they’ve systematically dismantled the public education system and beginning demolition on many of the schools in New Orleans — that’s on the agenda right now —and trying to totally — excuse me, totally turn that system over to a charter and a voucher system, to privatize and just kind of really go forward with a major experiment, which was initially laid out by the Heritage Foundation and other neoconservative think tanks shortly after the storm.

So this is just really the fulfillment of this program.

And I think—you know, I always want to call people’s attention back to the statements that Baker made shortly after the storm, that we finally cleaned up public housing; you know, we couldn’t do it, but God did. This is just really the fulfillment of that program.

AMY GOODMAN: He was a state legislator, a Louisiana state legislator who said that.

JUAN GONZALEZ: But I’d like to ask Kali Akuno: but isn’t the number of low- income units that will result from this far lower than what existed under currently with these public housing units?

KALI AKUNO: Yes, it’s far lower.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s interesting that for the first time in the last election, the New Orleans City Council was voted — is now a majority-white City Council.

But I wanted to end with Sess4-5. You grew up in public housing in New Orleans. What are your plans now? It was a unanimous vote. They say that the public housing units, as they stand now, will be destroyed in New Orleans. What are you planning to do as a community activist?

SESS4-5: Myself, I’m going to continue to fight. We don’t honor or validate the decision made by the City Council.

And just the whole proceedings was illegal by locking, you know, the people out of—locking people out from having access to even enter the building and speak their piece. So a lot of those things that transpired today—yesterday were illegal.

And so, we don’t honor that vote or that decision. We don’t validate that in any shape or form. And so, we’re just going to continue on in using our resistance measures and galvanizing the people and mobilizing the people.

And just like we got a lot of national attention on it, we’re going to keep pressing this issue.

And it’s not over. That’s my biggest pledge, is to let the people know it’s not over.

The Wrecking Balls Come To BW Cooper Public Housing: by D, Dec. 19, 2007, New Orleans Indy Media

MORE:

Merry Christmas From FEMA:Finally “Testing” Trailers For

Hurricane Survivors That Everybody Else Knew Two Years Ago Contained

Toxic Fumes That Cause Cancer

December 24, 2007 by AP

NEW ORLEANS - This holiday season, hundreds of Gulf Coast hurricane victims will make room in their cramped trailers for a belated gift from the Federal Emergency Management Agency: a tripod with an air tube and thermometer.

Starting Friday, government scientists will use those devices to measure formaldehyde emissions in hundreds of FEMA trailers. Preliminary results of the air-quality tests are due in February. A final report is expected to be released in May.

More than a year has passed since FEMA started fielding complaints from ailing trailer dwellers who suspected the trailers were emitting hazardous levels of formaldehyde, which can cause respiratory problems and has been classified as a carcinogen.

The Sierra Club started testing the air quality in FEMA trailers in April 2006. So why has it taken FEMA so much longer to respond?

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., posed that question to deputy FEMA administrator Harvey Johnson during a recent Senate Homeland Security hearing in Washington, D.C.

"I don't get it, why it takes that long," Levin said. "It seems to me this is totally unacceptable that it takes all this time to do a test on trailers, which were known to FEMA a year and a half ago to contain unacceptable levels of formaldehyde."

In March 2006, FEMA started issuing notices advising trailer occupants in Mississippi to ventilate their units. However, the formaldehyde problem may have come to the agency's attention months earlier.

Jesse Fineran, a FEMA employee who supervised trailer site inspections in Hancock County, Miss., said he raised concerns about formaldehyde emissions in October 2005. Fineran claims FEMA demoted him in December 2006 for speaking out on the issue.

"They had the information for a long time," Fineran said. "The federal government apparently has a 'don't want to know' attitude."

Hundreds of trailer occupants in Mississippi and Louisiana are suing companies that manufactured the units for FEMA after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

FEMA has "spent a ton of money — over $2 billion — on trailers that are not only unsafe but worthless," said Tony Buzbee, a Galveston, Texas-based lawyer for many of those plaintiffs. "They can't even resell them."

Buzbee said his firm commissioned its own tests on about 760 occupied FEMA trailers.

In all but nine of those trailers, he said, formaldehyde levels exceeded limits set by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

"It's almost ridiculous that they would wait two years" to test trailers, Buzbee said of FEMA. "I don't expect to learn anything new from their testing."

Anthony Bruno Jr., 58, whose home in Westlake was destroyed by Rita in September 2005, has been living in a trailer for nearly two years. Bruno, who is represented by Buzbee's firm, blames his respiratory problems on fumes in his trailer.

"I don't want to sound ungrateful at all, but I do welcome the testing," he said. "I'm concerned about cancer and the long-term (health) effects down the road."

Received:

“WTF America”

From: Dave R To: GI SpecialSent: December 24, 2007 Subject: Re: GI Special 5L18: Imperial Business As Usual

Just another thank you for doing such a great job with GI Special.

I read and forward it all the time. It is exactly what my activist friends in the Democratic Party need to see.

WTF America.

REPLY: Delighted to be of service. The bulk of the thanks go to everybody who sends in the articles and graphics that make GI Special possible. Eyes and ears everywhere count for more than merely assembling the publication.

And more and more people see the Democratic Party for what it is: another collection of political hacks up to their necks in blood, just doing their job promoting the Empire. Their leadership is teaching that lesson every day.

T

GI Special distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed without charge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. GI Special has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is GI Special endorsed or sponsored by the originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research, education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice. Go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

If printed out, this newsletter is your personal property and cannot legally be confiscated from you. “Possession of unauthorized material may not be prohibited.” DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2.