Independent Media Centre Ireland     http://www.indymedia.ie

Mother Of Dead US Soldier Protests Bush: Says Emperor has No Clothes: Is Threatened With Patriot Act

category international | anti-war / imperialism | news report author Monday August 08, 2005 20:45author by eeekkkkk

'America's Mom'

A woman called Cindy Sheehan whose son was killed in Iraq is galvanising anti-war opinion in the USA to an arguably greater extent than any previous anti-war protests. She is camped at the side of the road with a small (growing) number of accomplices at Bush's ranch in Crawford (Waco) Texas for the last couple of days and is demanding Bush meet her and explain a few things to her.
cindywatch.jpg

She has now been threatened with arrest on Thursday as a threat to National Security. Some speculate that this could if it happens mean that she may be denied access to a lawyer.

After a slow start the generally liberal and timid 'democratic blogosphere' is starting to realise that this woman is setting an extremely popular and populist anti-war troops out of iraq agenda and is getting eormous response from the American public.

This is her diary from the dailykos website:
http://www.dailykos.com/user/CindySheehan
It documents the progress of the last few days from her decision to head to Bush's ranch to her present tenuous situation at 'Camp Casey' (named for her dead son).

This link was where news first emerged that she was to be arrested as a threat to POTUS and the nation on Thursday.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/8/124941/6758

She gave up on the politcians the day before heading to Crawford and wrote this open letter:

"Dear Elected Officials,
When are you all going to take back your constitutional authority from the maniac in the White House?
If you all won't protect us, who willl?
We are seriously screwed and you all sit back and let the administrative branch take away our freedoms and foist criminals on us: people with no humanity or regard for our American Constitution or humanity. People like Alberto Gonzales and John Negroponte and most recently, John Bolton...torturers and murderers, to name a few. You in fact are complicit in stealing our freedoms by extending the un-Constitutional and un-Patriotic Patriot Act. Have you all lost your minds?  

Please protect us. President John F. Kennedy said (1962): Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. I travel the country and I see a revolution coming...it won't be violent, it will be a peaceful revolution. We don't want to lower ourselves to the level of our government. People are sick and tired of what's going on in America today. We are wondering where we really live.
We have no checks and balances in this government. We don't even have a media to tell us the truth. Please tell me what recourse do We the People have? May we impeach George and Dick and all of the lying cabinet? You all don't follow the Constitution, why should we?
Take back your Constitutional power. Come back rested from your vacations and ready to do your jobs. Earn the obscene amount of money you make. Remember who you work for:
your constituents, not the lobbyists, or George Bush.
Cindy Sheehan

Now she is setting the national agenda in the US with no mobile phone, no computer, little in terms of infrastructural backup. Will she drag the democrats out of their Vichy-like stupor?

Constant Updates at The Lone Star Iconoclast
http://www.iconoclast-texas.com/News/2005/31-40/32news09.htm

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Comments (36 of 36)

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author by The Bush Tribunalpublication date Mon Aug 08, 2005 22:00author address author phone

Bush: "Sorry to Oil The Death Squads but Oil comes first."

author by Reality Checkpublication date Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:35author address author phone

I don't suppose the fact that she originally praised George W Bush takes away from her credibility.

This is courtesy of the Drudge Report:-
PROTESTING SOLDIER MOM CHANGED STORY ON BUSH
Mon Aug 08 2005 10:11:07 ET

The mother of a fallen U.S. soldier who is holding a roadside peace vigil near President Bush's ranch -- has dramatically changed her account about what happened when she met the commander-in-chief last summer!

Cindy Sheehan, 48, of Vacaville, Calif., who last year praised Bush for bringing her family the "gift of happiness," took to the nation's TV outlets this weekend to declare how Bush "killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity."

CINDY 2004

THE REPORTER of Vacaville, CA published an account of Cindy Sheehan's visit with the president at Fort Lewis near Seattle on June 24, 2004:

"'I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis,' Cindy said after their meeting. 'I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith.'

"The meeting didn't last long, but in their time with Bush, Cindy spoke about Casey and asked the president to make her son's sacrifice count for something. They also spoke of their faith.

"The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

"For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

"'That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together,' Cindy said."

CINDY 2005

Sheehan's current comments are a striking departure.

She vowed on Sunday to continue her protest until she can personally ask Bush: "Why did you kill my son?"

In an interview on CNN, she claimed Bush "acted like it was party" when she met him last year.

"It was -- you know, there was a lot of things said. We wanted to use the time for him to know that he killed an indispensable part of our family and humanity. And we wanted him to look at the pictures of Casey.

"He wouldn't look at the pictures of Casey. He didn't even know Casey's name. He came in the room and the very first thing he said is, 'So who are we honoring here?' He didn't even know Casey's name. He didn't want to hear it. He didn't want to hear anything about Casey. He wouldn't even call him 'him' or 'he.' He called him 'your loved one.'

Every time we tried to talk about Casey and how much we missed him, he would change the subject. And he acted like it was a party.

BLITZER: Like a party? I mean...

SHEEHAN: Yes, he came in very jovial, and like we should be happy that he, our son, died for his misguided policies. He didn't even pretend like somebody...

END

On her current media tour, Sheehan has not been asked to explain her twist on Bush; from praise to damnation!

author by Checkedpublication date Tue Aug 09, 2005 12:54author address author phone

Maybe some Black Ops could squeeze some comfort out of the change. But you have a son killed and see the emotional whirlwind unleashed.

Did you see the TV interview with the Vietnam Vet NY fireman so grieved by his child's loss at the twin towers that he had the U.S. military put his name on a bomb to be dropped on Baghdad?

As the interview goes on he reveals how he was ripe for state spin in the time of grief. He now acknowledges his government lied to him, that there was no link between Saddam and twin towers attack and the war is wrong.

This courageous act by this woman is both one of grieving the loss of her child and confronting the state.

author by nyt editorialpublication date Tue Aug 09, 2005 13:37author address author phone

Mr. Bush obviously failed to comfort Ms. Sheehan when he met with her and her family. More important, he has not helped the nation give fallen soldiers like Casey Sheehan the honor they deserve. The administration seems reluctant to have the president take part in events that would direct widespread attention to soldiers' funerals or to the thousands who have returned with serious injuries.
Perhaps most troubling, Mr. Bush is not leveling about where things stand with the war. He continues to stay on message, as he did with the platitude he offered last week: "We will stay the course; we will complete the job in Iraq." The public knows that things in Iraq are not going well on any number of levels, and deserves a fuller, more honest discussion led by the commander in chief.
Just 38 percent of the respondents in a recent Associated Press-Ipsos poll, a new low, approved of Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq. That does not mean the remaining 62 percent agree with Ms. Sheehan that the troops should come home immediately. But it does mean that many Americans are with her, at least figuratively, at that dusty roadside in Crawford, expecting better answers.

Related Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/09/opinion/09tue1.html?n=Top%2fOpinion%2fEditorials%20and%20Op%2dEd%2fEditorials
author by Reality Checkpublication date Tue Aug 09, 2005 15:39author address author phone

Re the following statement:- "Above is a drudge smear where she was quoted out of context"

Show some proof of this. Has she initiated legal proceedings against her local newspaper? Why would a very small publication such as the Vacaville Reporter be involved in a smear?
How was she quoted out of context? The article in question was an interview with her about the visit Bush paid to her.

Everybody has the right to judge people on their past comments, especially when they make a complete about-turn?

Unlike the September 11 fireman who could possibly claim he was mislead, how could she do so?

Everything we now know about the existence or otherwise of WMD, alleged connections between Iraq and Al Qaeda had already been completely discredited by June 24, 2004 when she gave the interview.

author by 22publication date Tue Aug 09, 2005 20:27author address author phone

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Drudge_Report_grossly_misquotes_antiw_0808.html

author by Reality Checkpublication date Wed Aug 10, 2005 01:31author address author phone

He didn't misquote ... he selectively quoted.
The original article suggests that Mrs Sheehan went with doubts about the way the war was being conducted and came away with the belief that George Bush was genuine in his reasons for waging war.

author by cindypublication date Wed Aug 10, 2005 01:40author address author phone

"Why do the right wing media so assiduously scrutinize (and 'selectively' quote) the words of a grief filled mother and ignore the words of a lying president?"

that is what the woman herself asked.

are you a merkeen sent to destroy her reputation on indymedia ireland because you sure sound like one.

Related Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/9/153217/8547
author by tara skreen valley boyspublication date Wed Aug 10, 2005 02:50author address author phone

The stars of the Right
Are filled with fright
Deep in the heart of Texas
They're hiding from
Somebody's mom
Deep in the heart of Texas
The guy who's boss
Takes five weeks off
Deep in the heart of Texas
Yells "Bring it on"
Yet hides from moms
Deep in the heart of Texas
The President
Sure acts low rent
Deep in the heart of Texas
He's awfully windy
Yet hides from Cindy
Deep in the heart of Texas
The cattle's fat
Imagine that
Deep in the heart of Texas
Yet Bush has none
'Cause he's all hat
Deep in the heart of Texas

Nero fiddled. Bush bicycles.

Related Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/9/175234/1097
author by texpublication date Wed Aug 10, 2005 03:44author address author phone

That thread on dailykos is really taking off. There were 93 comments in the space of three hours, many of them with new verses and suggested adaptations of other songs.
It is bringing out some real talent from members of the American public. Some of these verses will come to be regarded as classics in their own right.

author by eeekkkkpublication date Wed Aug 10, 2005 20:03author address author phone

"He got visits from celebrities, too. Generals came by to shake his hand and ask how he was doing. The Dave Matthews Band visited, as did players from the Washington Nationals and Colorado Rockies.
"I didn't catch their names," he says. "I was kind of high on morphine at the time. And you can't read their autographs."
One day a nurse came in to ask Rodgers if he wanted to meet President Bush, who was visiting the hospital. Rodgers declined.
I don't want anything to do with him," he explains. "My belief is that his ego is getting people killed and mutilated for no reason -- just his ego and his reputation. If we really wanted to, we could pull out of Iraq. Maybe not completely but enough that we wouldn't be losing people -- at least not at this rate. So I think he himself is responsible for quite a few American deaths."
Bill Swisher, a spokesman for Walter Reed, says it's "fairly common" for patients to decline to see visitors. "We've had visitors from Sheryl Crow to Hulk Hogan," he says, but he has no idea how many have refused to see Bush, who has visited the hospital eight times.
Rodgers says he also declined to meet Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice. This wounded soldier has lost faith in his leaders, and he no longer believes their repeated assurances of victory.
"It's gonna go on as long as we're there," he says. "There's always gonna be insurgents trying to blow us up. There's just too many of 'em that are willing to do it. You're never gonna catch all of 'em. And it seems like they have unlimited amounts of ammunition. So I don't think it's ever gonna end."

Related Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/10/13492/4638
author by eeekkkkpublication date Wed Aug 10, 2005 20:19author address author phone

Henry V (Act 4, scene 1)

. . . if the cause be not good, the king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in battle, shall join together at the latter day and cry all 'We died at such a place;' some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will be a black matter for the king that led them to it; whom to disobey were against all proportion of subjection."

author by iconoclastpublication date Wed Aug 10, 2005 20:27author address author phone

(cut/paste because iconoclast server is going on and off due to volume of traffic)

12:35 a.m., Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005

Bill Mitchell, Whose Son Was Killed Same Day As Cindy's,
Flies To Texas From California To Offer Support

Iconoclast Publisher Makes Midnight Visit To Camp Casey

By W. Leon Smith
Publisher, The Lone Star Iconoclast

PRAIRIE CHAPEL ROAD — A distinct calm permeated the grounds of Camp Casey as the midnight hour slipped into Wednesday morning. Crickets sang amid the backdrop of trees on one side, as lights from Waco in the far distance on the opposite side outlined the open prairie in between.

The camp was dark, save the predictable flicker of a thunderhead in the south and the occasional light-up of a cell phone that doubled as a flashlight for a few human night owls seeking a place to get comfortable.

An intermittent sweep of drizzle kept the air muggy, but cool. A few tents and numerous graffiti-scribbled signs were silhouetted as they jutted up from the grass.

In all, about 15 vehicles had made their way to the sanctuary in the ditch where fate decreed an icon of peace to take her stand.

Cindy Sheehan was seated in a lawn chair next to a friend, who had come to Crawford to lend support for her cause. He, too, had felt the pangs of losing a child to a war he didn't believe in.

It had been a long day for Sheehan, whose voice had softened in the wake of seemingly endless interviews. With worldwide attention focused on her quest to expose the war in Iraq as ignoble, the press had become a constant companion.

But she was tired and it was late; and the unknowns of tomorrow would require strength, so she hugged her friend good-night and wandered toward her tent.

Her friend was weary, too, for California is a long way from Texas and the trip can be exhausting, but he agreed to visit awhile with the publisher of The Lone Star Iconoclast to explain his interest in supporting Cindy.

Bill Mitchell, of Atascadero, Calif.— a city that lies along the central coast halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco — said that he came to Crawford to support Cindy Sheehan, with whom he holds a special bond.

Here is the interview:

MITCHELL: My son, Sgt. Mike Mitchell, was killed in Iraq on 04-04-04 in the same battle with Casey Sheehan. My daughter connected up with the Sheehan family shortly thereafter. I was in Germany at the time with my son's fiancée. I started e-mailing Cindy when I was in Germany.

ICONOCLAST: Were you in favor of the war prior to his death?

MITCHELL: In February 2003 there was a worldwide rally against the war and I was in San Francisco with 200,000 other people carrying signs and marching against the war. This was a month before the war started. I haven't seen war myself, but I am a vet and understand the camaraderie and the military mentality.

ICONOCLAST: How are you dealing with this?

MITCHELL: Not very well. My life's been devastated. It's been turned upside down. Very few aspects of my life have a similarity to the past. It just kind of churns you up, shakes you out, and drops you off. I'm doing much better than I have been.

ICONOCLAST: Does it help to bond with other people who have had similar experiences?

MITCHELL: Extremely. Extremely. I come to events like this and I really get empowered from being with other people and working for the cause. I met Cindy shortly after our sons' deaths. We did some military speak-out events together. I realized there was a power in her speaking and in her stories. Even those people who don't agree with the war, or our opinions, see this.

We have a certain credibility. We're not someone up there that's just espousing some ideology or some belief. We're victims of this war like many other people are.

ICONOCLAST: What do you foresee happening with the war?

MITCHELL: Unfortunately, I see it dragging on — unless we are able to put a stop to it. I can tell you that I first spoke out eight weeks after my son's death, on Memorial Day. That was my first speaking event, at a rally. I've pretty much been speaking out since then, just telling my story.

ICONOCLAST: What was he doing in Iraq when he was killed?

MITCHELL: Mike and Casey died on the same day.

Mike was part of the 1st Armored Division and Casey was with the 1st Cav. Mike had been in Iraq for 11 months. He went there in May 2003 after mission had been accomplished. He was there as part of the stabilization force. Up until April 4th — 11 months in Iraq — not one soldier in their company had died.

On April 3rd, my son and all his buddies packed up all their equipment. They were headed to Kuwait the next week because Casey and the 1st Cav. were the reinforcements that came. This was much different than the Vietnam days. In the Vietnam days, you had maybe a thousand guys flying in everyday and a thousand guys flying back, so you had people there who knew the jungle. They had tribal knowledge.

I am relatively confident that Mike and Casey never met until they were in that plane. That picture that was taken in Kuwait on April 7th? Mike Mitchell and Casey Sheehan were in those boxes.

But Mike couldn't tell the new guys how to get by in Iraq — the tribal knowledge you get being there 11 months. For instance, Mike had basic Arabic down.

Forty-five minutes before Casey died, the general from the 1st Armored Division passed over the command to the general in the 1st Cav. So this whole uprising took place on the day when they were transitioning from the 1st Armored to the 1st Cav.

So what happened on April 4th is that 20 soldiers from the 1st Cav. got ambushed in Sadr City. Mike spent eight months at Sadr City. These guys in the 1st Cav., it was their first day there. They'd never seen Sadr City before. Those 20 guys that got ambushed didn't realize when they drove into the city that there were piles of tires and rubbish and junked cars, whatever, blocking the access back out. These guys were stuck there within the city.

Mike had been out running with his buddy, Carl, and they came back into the camp and there was a buzz going on. One of the tank commanders came to my son and said, "Mitch, I need you to ride loader today, in Sadr City." Mike goes, "I'm with you."

Mike had spent two years at Fort Hood. He was part of the 1st Cav. when he was at Fort Hood. I'm sure he felt a certain camaraderie to those new guys that had been ambushed in there.

They send young men to war because they think they're invincible. My son thought he was Mighty Mouse. He kind of laughed when anyone expressed too much concern about his well-being. He told his older sister, Terri, he goes, "There's 35,000 of the 1st Armored here. What's the chance of getting me?" particularly my son being a mechanic. The loader on the tank is a guy sitting there with an M16 machine gun. So that's what my son was doing the last day of his life.

So, eight soldiers were killed that day, seven from the 1st Cav., one from the 1st Armored. That was the first death in Mike's company in 11 months.

We were all back in the states, having suffered through 11 months of Mike being there in Iraq and... he was on his way home. He was a week from going to Kuwait, two weeks in Germany, and three months from his wedding date. He had a fiancéee in Germany who was just crushed. But I pretty much adopted her and am helping her continue on.

So, anyway, I'm here in Crawford, Texas today to support my friend, Cindy Sheehan. I appreciate what she's doing. I was against the war beforehand. I wish I could sit here and tell you how much you should appreciate my son for your liberty and freedom, but, you know, I didn't believe that before the war, and when my son died I surely couldn't grab that and cherish that feeling, because I know it's lies that got us there.

We have no reason to be in that country. There's no reason that Mike or Casey or that the other 1,800 men and women should have died.

ICONOCLAST: You drove here from California?

MITCHELL: I was going to drive, but I ended up getting a plane ticket because Cindy said, "I need you here now." So I flew down to be here and support her and the work she's doing. She's just incredible.

I don't know whether Americans just have too many distractions or are too busy with their own lives, but, you know, this war doesn't touch that many people in America.

ICONOCLAST: What do you think it would take to fix things?

MITCHELL: The mothers of America to all stand up.

It may take the draft. If the recruiting continues to fall short and they are forced to bring the draft back, maybe that might wake people up. But people aren't affected by it. Sometimes, we'll tell people that our sons died in the war, and they go, "What war?"

Every morning when I wake up, it's — hopefully it's my first thought. If I go through five minutes of the morning without thinking about Mike, and all of a sudden I see one of his pictures hanging on my wall, it's kind of a shock again. I'm really kind of happy when I wake up and I have Mike there in my mind because it's not such a shock, a jolt that you go through again.

He was the baby of the family, Casey was the big brother of the family. It's like a little pebble into a pond. There's a ripple effect. There's brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles.

One of my biggest fears while Mike was in Iraq was that he would never see his grandmother again. (pause) Mike's grandmother had to go to his funeral. She's devastated still by it. My mother's a very sentimental, a very emotional woman. She's having some health issues in her life. I was afraid she would die before Mike got home.

ICONOCLAST: Is there anything you'd like to add?

MITCHELL: I'm sure Cindy has said it, but we know what it feels like to lose a child — to have a child killed in this war. And we're just doing whatever we can to end it so quickly that no one else has to experience that same pain and devastation, the same upset in their lives.

My life has not been the same since my son was killed.

I have three other daughters. I have eight beautiful grandchildren. I was at a very good point in my life. Life had been very good to me. And then this just came and turned it upside down.

I had been hanging out, waiting for Mike to get back from Germany. I was going to jump on a plane after he and Bianca had a few weeks together, fly to Germany, spend a few weeks with him, travel around Spain and Portugal a little bit.

I was back to Germany in August, for Mike and Bianca's wedding and the only other plan I had in my life at that point was Mike and Bianca coming home for Christmas together. Mike was bringing his new wife home.

(long pause)

This is the work I do now — to tell my story and to bring the reality, the pain of this war, back to people in America.

It doesn't so much matter whether I'm out speaking in the name of peace and my son's name or whether I'm out camping having a good time, when I come home to my little four walls, my son's still dead. The death of any child is a devastating event for a parent. A piece of your heart dies when your child dies. So I just want to stop this. I don't want to hear about anybody else dying, American or Iraqi.

When Cindy wrote the couple of quotes about Bush, about him wanting to honor the fallen, I don't want any more blood in my son's name. My son wouldn't want any more blood in his name either. My son was a very sensitive, very caring young man. He'd been with these guys for 11 months. There's a real camaraderie that develops. It was about his buddies. It's not about democracy in Iraq, it's not about freedom and liberty in America. It's his buddies, that develops in a military unit, especially in a war zone.



Bill Mitchell (left) is interviewed by Iconoclast publisher W. Leon Smith.
— Iconoclast Photo By Allison Smith

8 a.m., Wednesday, Aug. 10
Nathan Diebenow reporting for the Iconoclast:

Rumors still flying as to if and when Cindy Sheehan might get arrested.

Cindy told Lakshmi Chaudhry of AlterNet in a interview posted this morning that “a Texas state legislator for Crawford” said she might be arrested if you doesn’t leave by Thursday as a national security threat (www.alternet.org/waroniraq/23984/). Other reports have indicated that she might be arrested Wednesday.

Nathan Diebenow, the Iconoclast’s Associate Editor, received an email from a member of CodePink Austin, asking him if Cindy had been arrested by the Sheriff Tuesday night. She said while she was out earlier in Tuesday evening, she had received a phone call from an anonymous source asking if Cindy had been arrested.

Ann Wright, former U.S. foreign service officer and member of CodePink, however, said Wednesday morning that Cindy has not been arrested, but has laryngitis and is located in a dryer place in Crawford than Camp Casey. “Everything is flooded,” said Wright, who suggests that Cindy’s supporters on their way to Crawford gather at the Crawford Peace House (www.crawfordpeacehouse.org), not Camp Casey.

Wright said that two more members of the Gold Star Families for Peace (Celeste and Bill) have arrived and are available for interviews.

Today, the sun rose above Camp Casey behind rain clouds at 6:52 a.m. The expected High today is 86° with a Low of 71° and more thunderstorms. Tomorrow, weather reports say, there will be isolated thunderstorms with a High of 93° and a Low of 72°.

Cindy said to her supporters over the weekend here — when it was hot as hell and fire ant infested — that they should remember that the U.S. soldier in Iraq have it a lot worse.

Indeed, in a letter of support for Cindy obtained by the Iconoclast Tuesday night, Leuren Moret, an international radiation specialist, notes that the depleted uranium weapons the U.S. military has used in Iraq since the first Gulf War in 1991 have made Iraq literally “uninhabitable.” Here is a copy of Moret’s letter:

Dear Cindy,
Seeing you camped this week at the gate of George Bush's Texas ranch in Crawford is a very powerful statement to the world. Major change begins often with a single person.

We are standing beside you as you stand your ground and gain the sympathy of the world - as a grieving parent - who has lost her only son because of a "Texas longhorn" size pile of lies. Your courage and unrelenting national and international campaign to stop the Iraq war has made a big impact on the conciousness of Americans. How can anyone not be sympathetic to your message?

Thanks again to the two men, Leon and Nathan, at the Lone Star Iconoclast for putting this story on the front page this week: (www.iconoclast-texas.com). Here is my latest on DU in the Battle Creek Enquirer.

The "posse of Colonels" riding bareback out of the Pentagon are already attacking me! As my grandfather, Colonel Edwin Joseph McAllister would say "You can tell where the shots hit by the way the feathers fly..."

So keep on Cindy, and continue putting the truth out there, because more and more people are listening. Gandhi said "Even a small lamp dispels the darkness..."

Leurenhttp://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050809/OPINION02/508090332/1014/OPINION
Depleted uranium is WMD
Leuren Moret


My grandfather, U.S. Army Col. Edwin Joseph McAllister, was born in Battle Creek in 1895. He does not know that his first grandchild is an international expert on depleted uranium. I have worked in two U.S. nuclear weapons laboratories, and in 1991 I became a whistleblower at the Livermore lab. Depleted uranium is very, very, very nasty stuff:

# Depleted uranium (DU) weaponry meets the definition of weapon of mass destruction in two out of three categories under U.S. Federal Code Title 50 Chapter 40 Section 2302.

# DU weaponry violates all international treaties and agreements, Hague and Geneva war conventions, the 1925 Geneva gas protocol, U.S. laws and U.S. military law.

# Since 1991, the U.S. has released the radioactive atomicity equivalent of at least 400,000 Nagasaki bombs into the global atmosphere. That is 10 times the amount released during atmospheric testing which was the equivalent of 40,000 Hiroshima bombs. The U.S. has permanently contaminated the global atmosphere with radioactive pollution having a half-life of 2.5 billion years.

# The U.S. has illegally conducted four nuclear wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and twice in Iraq since 1991, calling DU "conventional" weapons when in fact they are nuclear weapons.

# DU on the battlefield has three effects on living systems: it is a heavy metal "chemical" poison, a "radioactive" poison and has a "particulate" effect due to the very tiny size of the particles that are 0.1 microns and smaller.

# The blueprint for DU weaponry is a 1943 Manhattan Project memo to Gen. L. Groves that recommended development of radioactive materials as poison gas weapons - dirty bombs, dirty missiles and dirty bullets.

# DU weapons are very effective kinetic energy penetrators, but even more effective bioweapons since uranium has a strong chemical affinity for phosphate structures concentrated in DNA.

# DU is the Trojan Horse of nuclear war - it keeps giving and keeps killing. There is no way to clean it up, and no way to turn it off because it continues to decay into other radioactive isotopes in over 20 steps.

# Terry Jemison at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs stated in August 2004 that over 518,000 Gulf-era veterans (14-year period) are now on medical disability, and that 7,039 were wounded on the battlefield in that same period. Over 500,000 U.S. veterans are homeless.

# In some studies of soldiers who had normal babies before the war, 67 percent of the post-war babies are born with severe birth defects - missing brains, eyes, organs, legs and arms, and blood diseases.

# In southern Iraq, scientists are reporting five times higher levels of gamma radiation in the air, which increases the radioactive body burden daily of inhabitants. In fact, Iraq, Yugoslavia and Afghanistan are uninhabitable.

# Cancer starts with one alpha particle under the right conditions. One gram of DU is the size of a period in this sentence and releases 12,000 alpha particles per second.

Before my grandfather died, he told me that his generation had made a mess of this planet. I wonder what he would say to me now I would tell him to see "Beyond Treason" (www.beyondtreason.com), a new documentary about the history of treason by the U.S. government against our own troops: Atomic veterans, MK-Ultra, Agent Orange and DU. After Vietnam, Henry Kissinger said, "Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy. . ." (from Chapter 5 in the "Final Days" by Woodward and Bernstein).

Loren Moret is an international radiation specialist with a B.S. degree in geology from University of California at Davis, a M.A. degree in Near Eastern studies from University of California at Berkeley and has done post-graduate work in the geosciences at UC-Davis. She is environmental commissioner for the City of Berkeley, Calif.

8:10 a.m.
At noon today, there will be a press conference and rally in support of Sheehan's actions at the Federal Building in downtown Austin, at 8th and San Jacinto. Organizers are asking for donations of the following items, which they will deliver to Crawford: food and water, coffee, tarps/ canopy, flashlights and batteries, wet wipes, bug spray, ice chests/ ice, camcorders, Gatorade or Emergen-C, and spray misters.
The organizers include he American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), Code Pink, United for Peace and Justice, and Veterans for Peace.

8:15 a.m.
Sixteen Democratic House members sent a letter Tuesday to President Bush urging him to meet with Cindy Sheehan and make sure that she and her supporters there are not arrested as they continue their vigil peacefully. The Representatives who signed the letter include John Conyers; George Miller; Maxine Waters; Corrine Brown; Dennis Kucinich; Carolyn Maloney; Jim McDermott; Jim McGovern; Barbara Lee; Zoe Lofgren; Peter Oberstar; John Lewis; Bernie Sanders; Bob Filner; Micheal Honda; Raul Grijalva.

8:20 a.m.
Media reports indicate this morning that four U.S. soldiers were killed from insurgency attacks in Iraq. Six other soldiers were wounded. Six people --- Iraq civilians--- were also killed and other wounded due to a car bomb on a joint U.S.-Iraqi patrol in Baghdad.

On Tuesday, one American soldier and seven other people were killed when a suicide bomber hit a U.S. convoy in Baghdad. More than 90 people were also wounded. Many more people died in other attacks in Baghdad Tuesday.

Editor's Note: Permission is granted to reprint the information and photographs appearing in this feature about Cindy Sheehan's visit to Crawford and activities at The Peace House. Attribution would be appreciated. — W. Leon Smith, publisher, The Lone Star Iconoclast

Mitchell being interviewed by iconoclast
Mitchell being interviewed by iconoclast

author by agcspublication date Thu Aug 11, 2005 13:59author address author phone

I've heard the folks say there's an ornery hombre
holed up on a ranch down by ol' Crawford way
And I guess it's come the time that we all crossed the line
And hung him on high for his henious war crime

Chorus:
Hang that Bush from a tree !Hang that Bush from a tree!
Get him afore he gets us
Hang that Bush from a tree ,round up the posse
We'll all go down to Texas

We will trail the Craw Creek 'til we come to Crawford
We will liberate it's people from their cruel overlord
He's a tool of financiers oil barons too
There ain't nothin' for money this knave will not do

Hang that Bush from a tree give him a necktie party
Get him afore he gets us
Hang that Bush from a tree round up the posse
We'll all go down to Texas

Come good citizens ,ladies and gentlemen
We'll give that ol' varmit a fair trial and then
As the preacher does pray and the town band does play
From a high Texan pine for his crime he must pay

author by eeekkkkkpublication date Fri Aug 12, 2005 15:04author address author phone

No mention in Irish papers? Correct me if I'm wrong. Front Page news In France.

"This diary is a collection of news clippings to celebrate some of those who've heard the bell toll, and are now answering its call by descending on Camp Casey."

Related Link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/12/0819/13912
author by eeekkkkpublication date Fri Aug 12, 2005 15:07author address author phone

"Day 6 of the Peaceful Occupation of Iraq began early this morning when people in cars drove by our camp a few times and blasted on their horns. I just assume they were blaring their approval of us.
Before we get to the less than negative things that are happening out at Camp Casey and in the world at large today, over 700 people showed up at the Camp today. There were more people, flowers, cards, mail, interviews, laughter, heartache, comraderie, excitement, and just sheer work.
We had the first birthday party tonight at our little event. Alicia from Austin turned 17 today and they came to Crawford to celebrate with a cake. Alicia said that she wanted to be out here for her birthday. So many great people from so many parts of the country and our world are here.

Today is kind of a blur to me. From running around from interview to interview, to getting a visit from Viggo Mortensen, today was a whirlwind of activity. I have discovered that the White House press corps is always looking for something to do and someone to cover. We have been happy to oblige them. We had a press conference today with Gold Star Families for Peace and Military Families Speak Out members. It was very effective when people who actually have skin in the game ask the president to be held accountable for the words he has actually said."

Cindy's most recent diary at link below

Related Link: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/12/2161/64863
author by eeekkkkkkpublication date Fri Aug 12, 2005 15:23author address author phone

Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, California, Gold Star Families for Peace and mother who lost her son, U.S. Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan, among dozens of crosses representing Iraqi war dead during her vigil near the Bush ranch August 11, 2005. (Jason Reed/Reuters)

cindy.jpg

author by Johnny cash Ap. Soc. (hardcomhairle)publication date Fri Aug 12, 2005 15:26author address author phone

Plastic Cowboys ain't easy to love and they're harder to mold.
They'd rather give you a war than diamonds or gold.
Lonestar belt buckles and old faded flyless levis,
And each night begins new nightmare
If you don't understand him, an' he don't die young,
He'll prob'ly just flip you a Bird.
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be like Dubya.
Don't let 'em make Koolaid or drive home them old shams.
Let 'em be day labours and felons and such.
Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be like Dubya.
'Cos they'll never really there and they're always alone.
Even with someone they thought they loved.
Plastic Cowboys like smokey old oil booms and clear mountain mornings,
Little warm hiding places and megaphones and sleazy girls of the night.
Them that don't know him won't like him and them that do,
Sometimes won't know how to take him.
He ain't wrong, he's just different but his pride won't let him,
Do things to make you think he's right --- "TALK TO CINDY, DUMBA$$!"
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be like Dubya.
Don't let 'em make Koolaid or drive home them old shams.
Let 'em be day labours and felons and such.
Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be like Dubya.
'Cos they'll never really there and they're always alone.
Even with someone they thought they loved.

author by eeekkkkpublication date Fri Aug 12, 2005 17:51author address author phone

(their server is whack a lot of time so reposting)


10:35 a.m.

There's a lot of excitement at Camp Casey. Law enforcement officers have been swarming the place, getting ready for the Presidential motorcade to pass through the camp on the way to a fund-raiser about a mile up the road, at the Broken Spoke. The pass-through is expected in about an hour and 20 minutes. Campers will be allowed to stand on the infamous triangular piece of ground while the motorcade passes by. Five highway patrol, three Secret Service in bullet-proof vests, two county officers are seen at the moment. A lot of plain-clothes people not seen here earlier are milling around.

Protestors are being instructed on what types of signs they can carry. For instance, if some want to carry crosses left over from yesterday's planting, the metal portions that are inserted into the ground have to be removed; otherwise, they might be considered a weapon.

One officer said, "You all have worked with so well, and we want to keep that going."

Looks like they are going to move us all back 50 ft. From 11:50 a.m., then an hour-and-a-half until the motorcade comes back by, no one may leave or come to the camp

Cindy has been doing interviews this morning, NBC, public radio, at 10 a.m. she called a press pool and at that time, the man that wrote a book, an Iraqi veteran also protesting, said, "Your losses is a drop in the bucket."

 

12:05 a.m.

Late Night; Nathan Diebenow reporting for the Lone Star Iconoclast:

People have been visiting at the Peace House. They have been checking their e-mails, calling their relatives in other parts of the world, and celebrating birthday parties.

After receiving a foot massage, Cindy Sheehan retired to the "nap room" a little while ago to prepare for Friday while the rest of the people are talking outside. She just left to spend the night at Camp Casey.

Earlier in the evening, there was a meeting of the Crawford Peace House. The main discussion points were parking and shuttle service from the Peace House and Pirate Field parking lot to Camp Casey..

The organizers suggest that people stop by the Crawford Peace House prior to going to Camp Casey and they will be directed to the football field parking lot.

By the end of the day Thursday, over 600 people are estimated to have walked through the doors of the Crawford Peace House.

Various gifts were given to the Peace House and supporters of Cindy, a few being six shuttle buses from radio personality Randi Rhodes, free wireless service for the Peace House, a barbecue grill being brought in by a man from Texarkana, and a few cases of beer (Jim Hightower would be proud).:-)

There have been thousands of other phone calls of support, as well as requests for rides from the airport to Crawford. One woman has paid the way for a Navajo activist to come to Crawford, said Kay Lucas, a member of Friends of Peace and Crawford Peace House supporter.

Johnny Wolf, the owner of the Peace House, returned from a meeting with Crawford's new mayor, David Poston, and Chief Donnie Tidmore about securing Tonkawa Falls Park for a rally there on Saturday. The outcome of the meeting was that the Crawford Community Center and the park area have been tentatively granted to the supporters of Cindy for a rally. The officials are checking the schedule for any conflicts, as of this evening.

I interviewed Hadi Jawad, one of the directors of the Peace House, Kay Lucas, a member of Friends of Peace Waco, and Johnny Wolf. I will try to have these ready to post later today. Topics included depleted uranium weapons, the Iraqi constitution, the attitudes of the local Crawford people, and the significance of soccer moms speaking out.

I also just finished interviewing two recent graduates of Crawford High School. They asked that their names remain anonymous. One indicated he supports the President, but both said that they themselves would not want to go into the military because they do not know what this war is about.

author by Reality Checkpublication date Fri Aug 12, 2005 18:44author address author phone

Posted purely for balance and to give both sides of debate.

FAMILY OF FALLEN SOLDIER PLEADS: PLEASE STOP, CINDY!
Thu Aug 11 2005 12:56:21 ET

The family of American soldier Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004, has broken its silence and spoken out against his mother Cindy Sheehan's anti-war vigil against George Bush held outside the president's Crawford, Texas ranch.

The following email was received by the DRUDGE REPORT from Casey's aunt and godmother:

Our family has been so distressed by the recent activities of Cindy we are breaking our silence and we have collectively written a statement for release. Feel free to distribute it as you wish.

Thanks, Cherie

In response to questions regarding the Cindy Sheehan/Crawford Texas issue: Sheehan Family Statement:

The Sheehan Family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the the expense of her son's good name and reputation. The rest of the Sheehan Family supports the troops, our country, and our President, silently, with prayer and respect.

Sincerely,

Casey Sheehan's grandparents, aunts, uncles and numerous cousins.

Developing...

author by Bob Ketlerpublication date Sun Aug 14, 2005 23:12author email mediagy at aol dot comauthor address author phone

Bravo to you. If I were NOT 70 years old and if I lived within 500 miles of your demonstration I would be there.

I have been at times a registered Republican, a Democrat, and an Independent.. I have come to believe that MOST politicians are self-serving scum who are willing to send OTHER children to DIE for their greed....but NOT their own. Yes, there ARE a few "Mr Smiths" out there...but the vast majority spend our tax money on their pet pork and vacation in the beds of industry.

If Bush's daughters were sent to the front lines....along with the sons of ALL those who voted for attacking Iraq the war would end at once.

He is without a doubt the lowest of the low that I have EVER witnessed in my lifetime.

I lost a cousin in the collapse of the Twin Towers. I was a LITTLE "queasy" about going into Afghanistan because the COUNTRY of Afghanistan had not attacked us...and I believed then AND now....that we were setting an EXTREMELY dangerous precedent by unilaterally (and that is what that action was) attacking a sovereign nation. How can we THEN condemn ANY country that decides to attack US unilaterally. Our actions WILL come back to haunt us, I fear. BUT...I could support that invasion, queasy though I was about it, to a degree because we were told by Bush that Bin-Laden and the major movers in Al Qaeda were there in that country. (I am coming to believe...as many of my neighbors...that perhaps Bush let Bin-Laden escape from Tora Bora because of his Saudi buddies putting pressure on him to allow one of their own to escape.)

Doesn't he realize that MOST thinking Americans today...ordinary people who are blue collar as well as white.....DO believe that he is in the pocket of the Saudis and no longer cares about capturing and executing the man who is head of Al Qaeda. His poll numbers are going down...to ever-increasing lows because now...we ORDINARY Americans see the TRUTH behind his lies. This is NOT an anti-war movement like Vietnam which was organized by radicals and the young. Bush is losing the support of the ORDINARY American. WE are increasingly seeing him as either stupid beyond belief....or EVIL beyond belief. YOUR SON IS DEAD.....because of HIM!!!!!

I could NOT and DO NOT support the war in Iraq. There is NO difference between our attacking a sovereign nation (REGARDLESS of whether its leader is a murdering dictator or not) and the Japanese attacking us in 1941. THEN...as NOW....it was about oil. Roosevelt was strangling the emerging industrial power of Japan with sanctions against the oil they desperately needed from Indonesia (THE big foreign oil producer in THOSE days!), in reality because he wanted to get us into the European war and probably rightly knew that the Nazi's would never attack us until they had conquered Russia AND Britain...and because he needed SOME way of ending the Depression which had continued for almost THIRTEEN years! The Japanese warned us....as Bush did Iraq....and ultimately attacked as we did. We CANNOT whine about OUR sovereignty being attacked in 1941 when WE do the same to others today...........WHATEVER the exuse.

How IRONIC....that the religous right.....supports a president who MURDERS people!

He has made us the most hated nation on earth! And now....he's got Iran in his sights.By his actions....a "RELATIVE" handfull of terrorists has now blossomed into an ENTIRE WORLD-WIDE movement and we are on the edge of a cataclysmic RELIGIOUS WAR between the two cultures. ALL thanks to this IDIOT who hides from you on his ranch!!! In reality....he is the BIGGEST coward of all. He is INCAPABLE....like most drunks....of taking personal responsibility and admitting his mistakes. He can NEVER apologize for HIS actions.

The terrorists were virtually ALL SAUDI ARABIANS........of nineteen....FIFTEEN were Saudi. Bin-Laden CONTINUES to be funded by SAUDI money....his own...and underground sources. WHY didn't Bush attack SAUDI ARABIA...the home of the TRUE terrorists? It wasn't the Iraqis who attacked us....it was SAUDIs. Why? Because they are his bed-partners in making money in oil! I have NEVER witnessed anything so disgusting or heinous in my life.

Why is Bin-laden still free? Are we REALLY THAT POOR at hunting down and capturing someone? If so....then every gung ho war movie ever made is a LIE...about our brilliant intelligence.

In point of fact....the LAST MAJOR war that we won ALL BY OURSELVES......was 1812. We LOST in Vietnam. We had a stalemate in Korea. We were only one of a TRUE coalition in WWII..and without the Russian front in Germany's East could NEVER have won....and we were only BRIEFLY involved in WWI which ended in an armistice. The Spanish-American War was a fake....and was hardly a MAJOR war.....in ANY event.

Thus...the ONLY major war since Independence that we have won BY OURSELVES....was 1812. WHEN....will we wake up to the fact that we don't win wars by ourselves? This is NO coalition as everyone knows.

Your son died needlessly for the GREED of oil companies, of a president and vice-president who are as evil as we have EVER known.

As a 70 year old man who USED to be virtually INORDINANTLY proud of this country....I am today ashamed of it beyond words.

This will be CHINA's Century.....and by actions such as Bush has taken....deservedly so! We are FINISHED! Your son died in vain for evil, corrupt politicians and industrialists.

How I HATE having to say that.....but it is true. My dreams of America the Great have been destroyed by these evil, evil men.

author by blog the madrapublication date Tue Aug 16, 2005 20:42author address author phone

"Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but it felt to me as if with Bush's latest remarks about Sheehan over the weekend, the clownish lightweight his critics know and despise was beginning to shine through for all to see. If you haven't already, take a moment to ponder what he told Cox News about why he could find time for a bike ride on Saturday but not to meet with Sheehan:

"I think it's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But I think it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life ... I think the people want the president to be in a position to make good, crisp decisions and to stay healthy. And part of my being is to be outside exercising. So I'm mindful of what goes on around me. On the other hand, I'm also mindful that I've got a life to live and will do so."

You don't have to be Cindy Sheehan to think that yammering on about "staying healthy" and living a "balanced life" while so many are suffering and dying in Iraq is unthinkably cruel, as well as unbelievably politically tone deaf. When I read Bush's quote -- I read it over and over -- I found myself wondering not just about his character but about his fundamental emotional health. It's as if he's confessing he couldn't stay "balanced" if he had to confront Sheehan's grief, and even worse, her questions about why her son died.

And yet, even as Sheehan's public relations victories give people reason to be optimistic about the administration's unraveling in Iraq, liberals and war opponents have to be careful not to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. It's important to understand why Sheehan matters, and how she's gained traction on the war. Yes, it's the uptick in violence in Iraq, and the decided downturn in optimism, even among war supporters, who are continually defining success downward. Sunday's Washington Post had a great account of how the war architects are ready to declare victory -- not a Democratic Iraq but "some form of Islamic republic" -- and get out of Vietnam, I mean, Iraq. And yes, it's also true that August is a slow news month, giving Sheehan more room to tell her story. (I'd add that karma required that the president's stubborn monthlong vacation in Texas -- whether it's after he got a warning about terrorists using airplanes as weapons in 2001, on the eve of 9/11, or during one of the bloodiest months yet in Iraq -- would come back to bite him.)

But mainly it's the sincerity and humanity of Sheehan's core message. The anecdotes coming out of Camp Casey tell the story: Sheehan's quiet discussion with a soldier who opposes her views, which ended in a hug. Another Camp Casey activist had a respectful talk with a trucker who supports the war but stopped by to see if his dead son was listed among the casualties there. (He was, and the visit reportedly ended with him declaring his love for Sheehan.) Against the backdrop of an administration that refuses to acknowledge the dead, that prohibits photos of coffins and flies the wounded home under cover of darkness, that lets the president vacation and "stay healthy" instead of talking to the mother of a dead veteran, Sheehan and Camp Casey can get attention and win converts just by bearing witness to the violence and despair of a war whose goal nobody really understands anymore, in which victory seems less and less likely."

Related Link: http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0816-22.htm
author by about lady who knows how to 'Fall into the arms of America' - where's bono?publication date Wed Aug 17, 2005 01:14author address author phone

Reality Hits Camp Casey

The last 10 minutes have been very difficult here. I am at the Peace House editing video. First came a phone call that someone drove their vehicle over the Arlington West Crosses at the camp. I will head out to the camp now to get more details.

Within minutes one of the volunteers logged on to a website and learned that her friend was killed in Iraq. She burst into tears, Cindy was sitting across the room and immediately moved over to comfort her. What a reality check.

Here is more reporting on it, courtesy Japhet Els and Emily Sharpe at Crawford Update :

"About an hour ago, we got a phone call from our friends up at Camp Casey saying that the line of gravemarkers along the road (Arlington West) had been run over. People there said that as they were talking to a few members of the press, a pick-up truck came down the road and stopped at the fork by the edge of the tents. The driver then jumped out and attached a pipe to the undercarriage with a chain and began to "swerve into the line of crosses," said Tammara Rosenleaf from Montana. "Then we heard the pipe being dragged over the gravemarkers and the pick-up's wheels crushing them."

Out of the 800 crosses, 500 were knocked down and 100 are irreperable. However, the driver was arrested by the local authorities. This is a prime example of how the Crawford sheriff's department has helped to protect us and our freedom of speech over the past week and a half. A big thank you to them!

Regardless of who did this, the fact is that respect for this country's dead is not a partisan issue. Putting up memorials of our country's fallen is not a "liberal" act. It is an American act. Even a group of counter-protestors from Dallas last week draped flags and flowers over many of the gravemarkers, and many were moved to tears at the sight of the long line of dead soldiers. It's too bad that someone else who disagrees with Cindy felt they needed to wipe out the memory of our fallen in such an obscene manner."

brokecross4.jpg

brokecross3.jpg

brokecross1.jpg

Related Link: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/8/15/233811/409
author by Justin Morahan - Peace Peoplepublication date Wed Aug 17, 2005 05:09author address author phone

I don't know Crawford
have never been there
but Cindy
you poor dear mother
of a dear son
Casey
killed in Bush's war-revenge
against the man
who tried to kill his Daddy
courage to you Cindy

courage to stand
and give challenge
courage to succeed
where kings and presidents
prime ministers
have failed like cowards
where the great ones
of the nations
prostrated themselves
before a lie
courage to you Cindy
courage to stand up to Bush

broken crosses in texas
like burning crosses
in mississippi
courage to you Cindy
to your co-sufferers
to all who stand with you

courage to you Cindy
across the sea and sky
we send you
courage
love
solidarity
peace
friendship
hugs
tears
hope
oneness
empathy

author by Herbpublication date Wed Aug 17, 2005 14:46author address author phone

The person who destroyed those crosses should be tried with treason. They also destroyed American flags. It was a calculated insult to the soldiers who have been killed, and who will be killed in Iraq.

author by Comley Beattiepublication date Wed Aug 17, 2005 20:30author address author phone

M O R E   N E W S   F R O M   
 • George Bush
Iraq war: tragedy of errors

Honorable Marine died in dishonorable war
By Missy Comley Beattie


He is number 1,828, 1,829 or 1,830. We don't know for sure, because so many died last week.

Marine Lance Cpl. Chase Johnson Comley died when his vehicle was hit head on by a suicide bomber. His death admits his family to a club no one wants to join: the grieving, questioning families who have heard the dreaded ring of the doorbell followed by a messenger's words, "We regretfully inform you that your son ..."

You realize that nothing you've thought, done or felt has prepared you for this reality. The feeling is so much worse than a broken heart. It is an evisceration.

As I write, Chase is being flown to Dover Air Force Base. His 6-foot-4 body is in a coffin draped with the American flag. He loved his family, his country, his Sayre classmates and his life, but we don't think he loved his mission in Iraq.

When he was recruited, he told us he would be deployed to Japan. He called every week when he wasn't in the field to tell us he was counting the days until his return. He tried to sound upbeat, probably for our benefit, but his father could detect in Chase's voice more than a hint of futility and will never say, "my son died doing what he loved."

For those of you who still trust the Bush administration -- and your percentage diminishes every day -- let me tell you that my nephew Chase Johnson Comley did not die to preserve your freedoms. He was not presented flowers by grateful Iraqis, welcoming him as their liberator.

He died fighting a senseless war for oil and contracts, ensuring the increased wealth of President Bush and his administration's friends.

He died long after Bush, in his testosterone-charged, theatrical, soldier-for-a-day role, announced on an aircraft carrier beneath a "Mission Accomplished" banner that major combat was over.

He died in a country erupting into civil war and turned into a hellhole by Bush, a place where democracy has no chance of prevailing, a country that will become a theocracy like Saudi Arabia.

Have we won the hearts and the minds of the Iraqi people? Apparently not.

Have we spent more than half a trillion dollars -- an amount that continues to rise -- in a war that King Abdullah advised Bush against because it would disrupt the Middle East? Apparently so.

Consider what the money spent on this could have done for health care, our children's education or a true humanitarian intervention in Sudan. And then think about Bush's inauguration. Picture the lavish parties, the couture gown worn by Laura Bush. And imagine the cost of the security for the event.

And then think about Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when he visits our troops. Picture his heavily armored vehicle, a machine impregnable to almost anything the insurgents toss in its path, while our troops are not provided sufficient armor to survive an improvised explosive device.

Think of the mismanagement of this entire war effort. Consider what we've lost. Too much. Think of what we've gained. Nothing.

And think of someone who says, "We will not cut and run," but who did just that years ago when he was called.

Think about a man who speaks about a culture of life when the words fit a wedge issue such as abortion or the right to die when medical effort has failed.

Then think about this war, Bush's not-so-intelligently designed culture of death.

Think, too, about naming a campaign "Shock and Awe" as if it's a movie and, therefore, unreal. And then think that this, perhaps. is one of the problems.

For many Americans, the war is an abstraction. But it is not an abstraction for the innocent Iraqis whose lives have been devastated by our smart bombs. And it certainly is not an abstraction for those of us who have heard the words that change lives forever.

So think of my family's grief -- grief that will never end. Think of all the families. Think of the wounded, the maimed, the psychologically scarred.

And then consider: The preservation of our freedom rests not on U.S. imperialism but on actively changing foreign policies that are conquest-oriented and that dehumanize our own young who become fodder for endless war as well as people in other countries who are so geographically distant that they become abstract.

The answer is not Bush's mantra: "They're jealous of our freedoms."

And, finally, think about flowers: The flowers for Chase Comley will be presented not by grateful Iraqis but by loved ones honoring him as he's lowered to his grave and buried in our hearts.


Missy Comley Beattie of New York is the aunt of Marine Lance Cpl. Chase J. Comley of Lexington who was killed in Iraq last weekend.

Related Link: http://www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/12364399.htm/
author by .publication date Thu Aug 18, 2005 14:05author address author phone

.

spaceball.gif

Related Link: http://flickr.com/photos/search/text:vigil/sort:date
author by stupid american radio talk show hostpublication date Fri Aug 19, 2005 13:04author address author phone

Rush Limbaugh is an American right wing very popular radio talk show host....
----

Rush Limbaugh regarding Cindy Sheehan's Iraq war protest:

"Frankly, I'm also fed up -- not fed up. I retract that.
I'm weary, ladies and gentlemen, of even having to
express sympathy. 'Oh, she lost her son!' Yes, yes,
yes, but (sigh) we all lose things."

http://www.suntimes.com/output/quicktakes/cst-nws-qt18.html

author by Henk Ruyssenaars - Foreign Press Foundationpublication date Fri Aug 19, 2005 15:18author email fpf at chello dot nlauthor address author phone

A tsunami of dissent rolls...
'Convenient' heart attack of mother gets Sheehan off Bush's back: there's certainly no conspiracy - it's only facts we don't have yet. Facts like this MSNBC poll showing 94% of the people thinking that Bush with his cabal's pack of lies steered the United States into the Iraq war disaster.
by Henk Ruyssenaars

FPF - August 19th 2005 - The by now world famous grieving mother Cindy Sheehan had to leave the protest camp near the Bush clan's Crawford house, after the bad news that her 74 year old mother, Shirley Miller, had had a stroke and was in the intensive care unit of a Los Angeles hospital.

In some comments, the stroke which the mother of Cindy Sheehan has suffered, is called 'convenient', and it of course is a - by all neocons much wished for (temporary) - solution of a protest movement against Bush and the cabal's war in Iraq, a protest which has started engulfing the United States.

In a poll today in a US newspaper, concerning the protest, it shows that sixty-three percent (63) of the people voting 'does agree with Cindy Sheehan and her actions', which is as usual contrary to what the neocon's mainstream media keep saying.

THE QUESTION IS: DO YOU AGREE WITH CINDY SHEEHAN?

POLL RESULTS - URL. BELOW.

YES - 63%

NO - 33%

NOT SURE - 5%

It's logical to assume that Bush and his cabal wanted Sheehan and her group to disappear as fast as is possible, especially since a global poll - on conservative pundit Ron Reagan's MSNBC on Internet - shows a whopping ninety-four percent (94%) of the people thinking that Bush - with his cabal's pack of lies - steered the United States into the Iraq war disaster: MSNBC Poll: "Do you believe that President Bush mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq?" Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/

CONVENIENT HEART ATTACK?

Voices are raised that - to one way or the other 'break' the protest movement, one has to 'take out' the core - and thus 'the stroke might be induced'. A question which is as difficult to answer, without proof, as the methods are easy. Among much other, there's this information concerning the possibilities: "Who could have chance to become such kind of assassin/murderer to create leaks on a victim's blood/brain barrier to cause cerebral hemorrhage? [] That's because inducing cerebral hemorrhage is a method to quickly eliminate a victim. The victim will either have a stroke and become disabled, or immediately die. - (end quote) - [Url.: http://tinyurl.com/avawn]

Since the FPF always 'checks and double-checks', and only deals with the often hard facts of life, more information showed to be available from the globally abhorred propaganda mouthpiece "US News & World Report", a product of the PR people at the US Military (not so) Intelligence Service, the CIA, and other ''Lie Factories" - http://tinyurl.com/2rg5o - It's an article written a long time ago, so one can only wonder and use Internet to see and read what the spooks can do now. - Reference: US News and World report on the 'Wonder Weapons' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cr7bh

CINDY SHEEHAN'S TRAGIC CRITICS

In the US publication 'The Nation', it's perfectly described by John Nichols* writing about 'Cindy Sheehan's Tragic Critics': "The rapidly dwindling minority of Americans who continue to search for some rationale for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq has been driven to the brink of breakdown by the success of Sheehan's protest.

Go to the web site of William F. Buckley's National Review magazine and you will find Sheehan described in headlines as "nutty," dismissed by columnists as "the mouthpiece... of howling-at-the-moon, bile-spewing Bush haters" and accused of "sucking up intellectual air" that, presumably, would be better utilized by Condoleezza Rice explaining once more that it would be wrong to read too much into the August 6, 2001, briefing document that declared: "Bin Laden determined to attack inside the U.S."

IN BED WITH THE RADICAL LEFT

Human Events, the conservative weekly newspaper, dismisses Sheehan as a "professional griever" who "can claim to be in perpetual mourning for her fallen son" -- as if there is some time limit on maternal sorrow over the death of a child. Fox News Channel spinner-in-chief Bill O'Reilly accuses Sheehan of being "in bed with the radical left," including -- horrors! -- "9-11 families" that are still seeking answers about whether, in the first months of 2001, the Bush administration was more focused on finding excuses to attack Iraq than on protecting Americans from terrorism.

And Rush Limbaugh was on the radio the other day ranting about how, "(Sheehan's) story is nothing more than forged documents. There's nothing about it that's real..." (Just to clarify for Limbaugh listeners: Cindy Sheehan's 24-year-old son Casey really did die in Iraq, and his mother really would like to talk with President Bush about all those claims regarding WMDs and al-Qaida ties that the administration used to peddle the "case" for war.)

The pro-war pundits who continue to defend the occupation of Iraq are freaked out by the fact that a grieving mother is calling into question their claim that the only way to "support the troops" is by keeping them in the frontlines of George W. Bush's failed experiment. Bush backers are horrified that Sheehan's sincere and patriotic anti-war voice has captured the nation's attention."

Nichols ironically refers to the neocon's newspeak megaphone 'Newsweek', but finishes with a well heeded warning: "According to the latest Newsweek poll, 61 percent of Americans disapprove of Bush's handing of the war, while just 26 percent support the president's argument that large numbers of U.S. military personnel should remain in Iraq for as long as it takes to achieve the administration's goals there.

The supporters of this war have run out of convincing lies and effective emotional appeals.
Now, they are reduced to attacking the grieving mothers of dead soldiers.

Samuel Johnson suggested that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

But, with their attacks on Cindy Sheehan, the apologists for George Bush's
infamy have found a new and darker refuge."

JUST CONNECT THE DOTS...

HR

Footnotes:

Cindy Sheehan answers Drudge smear - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/7vwy3

Nichols article in 'The Nation' - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/al67u

'San Mateo Daily Journal' - Poll Results - URL.: http://tinyurl.com/dlf9g

* 'The war in Iraq is illegal' - BBC video & text - Interview United Nation's Secretary General Kofi Annan - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/5pl2v

* MSNBC Poll: "Do you believe that President Bush mislead the nation to go to war with Iraq?" - Url.: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/

* Corporate News Media: Incompetent, Criminally Negligent or Complicit? - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/cqpfe

* Saturday, September 24 - 2005 - Massive March, Impeachment Rally & Anti-war Fair, Gather 11:00 AM at the Washington Monument - Info - Url.: http://tinyurl.com/bnw4c

* Help the troops come home! Url.: http://www.bringemhome.org - We need them badly to fight our so called 'governments' - Url.: http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/

FOREIGN PRESS FOUNDATION
http://tinyurl.com/8zhvo
Editor : Henk Ruyssenaars
http://tinyurl.com/amn3q
The Netherlands
FPF@Chello.nl
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Related Link: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8248969/
author by Ali H.publication date Fri Aug 19, 2005 18:13author address author phone

there are other parents and families who are just as angry as Cindy Sheehan. If even one of them picks up the baton Bush & Co. will have no respite. In fact it could actually be a benefit to the campaign in that it prevents Cindy from becoming the focus of the campaign and rather forces focus back onto the real issue of those who are dying because of the illegal war waged by Bush and his poodle.

Don't know if anybody saw the BBC coverage yesterday evening but there seemed to be pretty much a straight split in Texas with men against Cindy and women for.

There was even one deluded individual who'd served in Vietnam, lost a son in Iraq and said he'd be prepared to loose the other for victory in the "war on terror".

Well if that's the sort of genes the guy is carrying perhaps its not a bad idea that he select himself and his line for extinction as the poor sod probably doesn't believe in evolution either!

author by Margaretpublication date Fri Aug 26, 2005 13:43author address author phone

There's an interesting piece with links in this blog about Casey Sheehan at Shannon airport.
One of the 1,874 US military personnel who have died - most of whom would have stopped off at Shannon on the way to Iraq.

http://aliveinlimerick.blogspot.com/

also
http://icasualties.org/oif/

author by directpublication date Fri Aug 26, 2005 13:50author address author phone

The precise url for that is:
http://aliveinlimerick.blogspot.com/2005/08/passing-through.html

author by The Bush End Times Cult on Dissentpublication date Fri Aug 26, 2005 20:31author address author phone

Bush: "Y'All help me Bear False Witness against Cindy and you'll get to Heaven."

author by Reality Checkpublication date Sat Sep 17, 2005 15:16author address author phone

CINDY SHEEHAN CALLS FOR U.S TO 'PULL OUR TROOPS OUT OF OCCUPIED NEW ORLEANS'
Mon Sep 12 2005 12:42:11 ET

Celebrity anti-war protester, fresh off inking a lucrative deal with Speaker's Bureau, has demanded at the HUFFINGTON POST and MICHAEL MOORE'S website that the United States military must immediately leave 'occupied' New Orleans.

"I don't care if a human being is black, brown, white, yellow or pink. I don't care if a human being is Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or pagan. I don't care what flag a person salutes: if a human being is hungry, then it is up to another human being to feed him/her. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power. The only way America will become more secure is if we have a new administration that cares about Americans even if they donÕt fall into the top two percent of the wealthiest."

Sheehan is in the middle of a bus trip across America in support of her cause.

author by Michael - Irish Anti war Movementpublication date Sat Sep 17, 2005 15:39author address author phone

The devastation in New Orleans has overshadowed it. But these are critical days in the political future of Iraq.
Iraqis are supposed to get ready for an Oct. 15 vote on a new constitution. The draft, unfortunately, is incomplete at this late date. The United Nations was scheduled last week to print and distribute five million copies of the proposed constitution across the country, for prospective voters to look at and discuss.
That didn't happen, because Kurdish and Shiite groups gave the UN different versions of the document to print. They could do so because, remarkably, the Iraqi parliament had never actually voted on the document. Shiites reasoned that since they had a controlling majority in parliament, there was no need for a vote -- a little like our governments asserting no need for votes in order for their decisions to become law – only thing is this is a nation's entire constitution at stake. And, just as remarkably, the U.S. has signed off on this arrangement, figuring that if minority Sunnis had no chance to register their dissent by voting "no" (or, worse, by walking out on the proceedings entirely), there would be no challenge to the myth of "national unity" the Bush administration would so like to portray. Not a whisper of this in our media either.
That day of reckoning may come. Sunnis have been registering to vote in record numbers. The way the law is currently written, if voters in any three provinces -- the number controlled by the Sunnis and Kurds respectively -- reject the constitution by a two-thirds majority, the process starts all over, with elections for a new parliament and negotiations from scratch for a new constitution. Whether the Americans pulling the strings on this process will allow the law to be applied is another question. They may try to come up with a more creative method of getting their way.
The U.N., which wants to print those copies, is pressuring the U.S. to allow parliament to vote on the constitution; so far, the Bush administration has refused - so much for democracy in the Middle East! The copy of the draft constitution released to reporters on Aug. 22 is one dreadful document.
Part One, Article Two of the draft constitution states, "Islam is the official religion of the state and is a basic source of legislation... No law can be passed that contradicts the undisputed rules of Islam." After 35 years of secular rule under Saddam, this is a prescription for theocracy, for an Iranian or Taliban-style reliance on Sharia law. Notably, the current US ambassador/viceroy in Iraq is Zalmay Khalilzad, who helped write the new constitution of Afghanistan, which provides for religious courts that are only slightly less conservative than the Taliban variety.
There's more. Part Three, The Judiciary, Article 90 says, "The Supreme Court will be made up of a number of judges and experts in Sharia and law, whose number and manner of selection will be defined by a law that should be passed by two-thirds of Parliament members." This is an all-too common feature of the draft; repeatedly, phrases pop up like "will be defined by a law that should be passed by two-thirds of Parliament members." It speaks to a document that isn't really finished, but that is being rammed though to meet the Americans' artificial deadlines.
Part Five of the draft constitution is another can of worms, devoted to the "authorities of the Regions." It says that a simple majority of voters in any two or more provinces can form a region, which can then write its own constitution, which will overrule the federal constitution in any matter where the two conflict. The region can set up its own government, courts, and security forces. This section doesn't just cover the Kurds; it applies to the entire country, including the Shiite south, a collection of nine provinces (with 80% of Iraq's oil reserves) that the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq wants to organize into an autonomous region.
This is nothing short of a prescription for civil war. Part Three of the draft constitution takes this a step further with wording that sets up a "Council of Unions" for the representatives of the regions to "examine bills related to regions or provinces." The organization and powers of the Council of Unions are left deliberately vague. Again, it's left to a future parliament to decide, in a matter where the Council could literally supersede the power of the parliament.
What it all adds up to is a nightmare: an unfinished document where women's rights are in severe jeopardy, where Islamic law and theocracy is ascendant, where the Bush administration will have replaced a brutal dictator, at a cost of hundreds of thousands of lives, with a potentially equally brutal theocracy. Perhaps to some this represents "democracy" and "progress." But for true democracy to blossom in Iraq, it's clear that the process needs to start over -- with international help, and without American troops or "advisers" leading the way.
The Crusading Coalition has made a horrible mess of things. Hard to see how things can now be put right. Stopping the war, stopping killing and arresting people, agreeing a ceasefire may be some of the steps that may have a chance of success. 200- 300 people have been killed every single week over the past couple of months. This is a situation of an embryonic civil war - and it doesn’t take a nuclear physicist to figure out who is really responsible. Saddam and his ilk must be chuckling happily in their holes these days.

17th September

author by Noelpublication date Sat Sep 17, 2005 19:50author address author phone

As surely as the hapless Ms Sheehan does not represent the gold star families - the angry left should consider jettisoning her before she says something really stoooopid.
Eh..too late:
'pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans'
Occupied New Orleans? Bwahahahahahaha


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