"A GI From Ft. Lewis Walked Out Of The Port, Saying He Was Against The War And Refused To Transport The War Equipment"

November 15, 2007 By Peter Bohmer, Zmag.org [Excerpt]

For 10 days, anti-war activists in Olympia, Washington have slowed down and for two different periods of 12 hours or more, stopped the flow of military weapons and military cargo that were unloaded from a Navy ship that had returned from Iraq. For 24 hours a day, we have used a variety of tactics and actions.

They have included sitting in front of trucks carrying Stryker vehicles and other military equipment from leaving the Port of Olympia, building barricades on the roads where these military vehicles were traveling, anti-war demonstrations through the streets of Olympia and vigils, downtown.

A hearing was held at City Hall, last Sunday, November 11th, 2007 to document the excessive police force used against people who participated   in these actions. We testified at the Olympia City Council and at a hearing of the elected Port Commissioners demanding that they take a stand opposing the U.S. war against Iraq by not letting our Port be used to transport war supplies.  About 500 people have taken part in some or all of these protests.

Tuesday, November 13th will be a day long remembered by many in Olympia.

In the morning about 20 people sat down at the Port entrance blocking military equipment from moving.   For 13 hours no military equipment moved out of the Port. Hence, for a minimum of 30 hours, we stopped Stryker vehicles from returning to Ft. Lewis, a major action and statement.  In the evening about 200 people gathered at the Port of Olympia entrance to resist by various and complementary  means the war and the militarization of Olympia.

In the midst of this action, a GI from Ft. Lewis who was supposed to be involved in the transport of these military vehicles to Ft. Lewis, walked out of the Port, saying he was against the war and refused to transport the war equipment.

This was a really powerful action and reminded me of the increasing resistance to the Vietnam war by active duty soldiers.

Civilian anti-war and GI cooperation and solidarity is a key to ending this war.

MORE:

"Wes Hamilton, A Vietnam Veteran, Was Shot Repeatedly In The Groin With Pepper Spray Bullets"

NOVEMBER 14, 2007 (4:07 am 10/14)

On Sat morning, after detaining any movement of military equipment for 17 hours and successfully forcing a convoy back into the port, a line of demonstrators held hands in front of the port gate in nonviolent resistance as police repeatedly attacked them with close range pepper spray.

As video and witness accounts clearly show, police wrenched the demonstrators apart, struck them with batons and threw them into a nearby ditch.

Shocked onlookers who rushed forward to provide help were subsequently attacked.  Medics trying to gain access to wounded demonstrators were also pepper sprayed and forced back with batons.

Police heavily pepper sprayed, shoved and kicked demonstrators, as well as medics, legal observers, and bystanders, until they retreated to safety.

Police hit Patricia Hutchison, an Olympia student, with pepper spray and then immediately handcuffed her.  She was detained in a police van where she remained for twenty-five minutes.  Her repeated requests for medical attention were ignored. "I thought the skin was literally peeling off my face. I was begging for help and no one would help me."

Across the street, Patricia’s identical twin sister, Kathleen, also an Olympia student, saw her sister needed help. "The hardest thing was seeing my sister in pain. I was begging them to help her."  Police forced Kathleen away from friends and shoved her to the ground before dragging her to the police van.

Both sisters were booked and released without charge.  No explanation has been given for their detainment.

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

Sunday morning a group of women began to lay flowers in the road in front of the port gate in memory of the 48 soldiers from the 3rd Brigade killed in Iraq.  As the women were laying their memorial, the police moved in, trampling the flowers and shoving the women back to the curb with batons.

Wes Hamilton, a Vietnam veteran, was shot repeatedly in the groin with pepper spray bullets as he spoke out against the brutality.

Patricia Imani, a longtime Olympia resident, was shocked by what she experienced.  "It’s unimaginable that police will come in with full riot gear and respond with such violence to women with flowers and shoot a veteran during a Veteran’s Day memorial."  Witnesses report dozens of instances of police brutality across Olympia throughout the past week.

Peter Cooper says, "When I talk to my family who live in Texas, I try to describe what’s been happening, but there’s been so much violence against peaceful demonstrators, so many instances that are so horrible, that I can’t describe it all in one conversation on the phone."

Still, Olympia resident and community activist Anna-Marie Murano says, "Despite the horror of the police response to our peaceful demonstrations, OlyPMR will continue resisting the use of the soldiers and resources of our community to support an unjust, immoral war."

In a statement released today, Olympia Port Militarization Resistance calls for people everywhere to find the ways that their own communities participate in the war, and to join together to creatively resist that participation: "We are ordinary people who have found a way to organize ourselves in resistance to this unjust war.

"In this way we will act in the interests of the Iraqis, the soldiers, our children, and ourselves."

MORE:

THIS IS AN ENEMY COMBATANT AT WORK IN OLYMPIA, USA:

OUR STREETS ARE INFESTED WITH THEM;

WE NEED OUR TROOPS HOME TO REMOVE THEM, PERMANENTLY

An Olympia Police uses pepper spray on a girl Nov. 15, 2007 during a protest against the shipment of military equipment for the War in Iraq through the port to Fort Lewis, Wash. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

U.S. Soldier Killed In Diyala, Four More Wounded

November 15, 2007 Public Affairs Office, Camp Victory RELEASE No. 20071115-03

TIKRIT, Iraq – A Multi-National Division – North Soldier was killed as a result of an explosion while conducting operations in Diyala Province, Nov. 14.

Four additional MND-N Soldiers were wounded in the blast and evacuated to a coalition hospital.

Soldier From Northern Michigan Killed In Iraq

[Thanks to Dennis Serdel, Vietnam Veteran, who sent this in.]

A soldier from Clare County has been killed while serving in Iraq. 

Pfc. Casey Mason of Lake died on November 13th from wounds suffered during an attack in Iraq. 

Pfc. Mason was assigned to the 728th Military Police Battalion, 8th Military Police Brigade, 8th Theater Sustainment Command, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii.

Local Soldier Clinging To Life

Staff Sgt. Jon Martin

November 15, 2007, By CATHARINE HADLEY, Staff writer; Central Ohio

A soldier from Bellevue lost his leg and is now in a medically induced coma in a German hospital, according to his sister.

Heather Bollinger, of Port Clinton, sister of Staff Sgt. Jon Martin, 33, said her brother was injured by a bomb Saturday while fighting in Iraq.  "They amputated his left leg. That was hit with the most force and he was getting blood clots, so they had to amputate the leg," she said.

Her brother, who had been stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., also suffered a broken nose, pelvis and right arm, Bollinger said.  Doctors removed his spleen because of the blood clots and placed netting over his intestines to battle swelling in the area.

One lung was punctured, and his lungs are not deflating properly.  He is now on dialysis because his kidneys have stopped working, she said.

"He is in a medical-induced coma right now to keep him stable and not moving," the sergeant's sister said.  "He is still in critical condition. The doctors have hope, as well as we do, and he's a fighter. We just try to keep that in the back of our minds at all times."

Bollinger said when she received the first phone call, she only learned her brother's leg was injured and he was unconscious.  "Everything has just gone downhill," she said.

"This is Jon's third tour, and the second tour he was in he's already received a purple heart for," Bollinger said.

She said at one point after his injuries, her brother was able to communicate.  "After the accident he said that he wasn't going to die," she said.  She heard someone covered him with either a blanket or towel with a Superman logo, and that item is still in his hospital room.

Martin's wife, the former Becki Franks of Clyde, and his mother, Laura Martin, of Bellevue, have made the journey to Germany to be by the soldier's side.  They are expected to be there for at least two weeks, Bollinger said.  Don Martin of Bellevue is Martin's and her father.

Martin and his wife are the parents of 8-year-old Allaina, 5-year-old Allie and 10-month-old Trenton.  The girls are staying with their mother's parents, Cindy and Dennie Franks. "The girls are adjusting well, from what I understand," Bollinger said.

Trenton is with Bollinger, her husband, Brad, and their daughter, Taylor, age 2.

Area residents who wish to donate money to the family may do so at a local bank.  "We do have an account with First National Bank right now.  We're taking donations," Bollinger said.  "It's under 'The Jon Martin Fund,' but it's in my name."

She does not know how long the children will be without their parents. "Their birthdays are December, January, February," she said.

If the family does not need to use all the money in the fund, Bollinger said the family will give it to a war veterans fund in Bellevue.  "They've been basically absolutely fantastic to us," she said.

FUNDRAISER PLANNED

A lunch to benefit the family of Staff Sgt. Jon Martin of Bellevue is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 25, at the Sports Hut, 938 W. Main St., Bellevue. All proceeds will go to the injured soldier and his family.

Progress In Baghdad:

"The Attack Occurred In One Of The Most Heavily Protected Areas Of The Capital"

11.15.07 By LAUREN FRAYER, Associated Press Writer

U.S. authorities said penetrators were used in an attack Wednesday against a U.S. Stryker vehicle near an entrance to the Green Zone, killing one American soldier and wounding five others. Iraqi police said two Iraqi civilians also were killed.

It was the first major attack against a U.S. military vehicle in that area in the last four or five months, Simmons said.

Simmons said the vehicle was struck by "an array" of penetrators.

The attack occurred in one of the most heavily protected areas of the capital, raising questions how the explosives could have been planted without collusion from Iraqi police or soldiers.

Southern Iraq:

"All The Population Centers Have Become Virtual Blind Spots For U.S. Forces"

[Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier & Military Project, who sent this in.]

Oct. 08, 2007 By Mark Kukis, Baghdad; Time Magazine [Excerpts]

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown this week announced his plan to reduce the British force around the southern city of Basra from 5,000 to 2,500 by next spring.

Drawing less attention, however, is the extent to which American forces have quietly withdrawn from the rest of southern Iraq.

Small contingents of U.S. soldiers enter Karbala and Najaf only for brief visits with local officials these days, and much of the rest of southern Iraq has no American troops at all.

Focused on saving Baghdad, U.S. forces keep up a regular presence with patrols and combat outposts chiefly around the southern reaches of the capital.  Meanwhile, the drawdown of British forces in Basra — where the troops have relocated to the local airport outside the city — leaves yet another southern city, with a population of roughly 2 million, unattended by the U.S.-led coalition.

That means virtually all of the vast, populous and oil-rich territory stretching from Karbala to Basra is up for grabs.

Since 2004, American soldiers have treaded lightly in southern Iraq, even though all the territory north of Basra has been ostensibly the responsibility of U.S. forces.

An uneasy truce prevailed in the area between U.S. forces and the Mahdi Army, the militia headed by Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr.

Both sides seemed eager to avoid a repeat of the open clashes that erupted in 2004 in Karbala and Najaf, where Sadr's militia holds sway.  So U.S. troops generally stayed away.

In the fall of 2005, U.S. troops handed bases in Karbala and Najaf to Iraqi military units.

As of late 2006, the only U.S. soldiers in Karbala were a small team of Army trainers and civil affairs officers working with local officials and area police.  That ended in January, however, when an attack by unknown gunmen left five U.S. soldiers dead.

Since then, all the population centers in southern Iraq have become virtual blind spots for U.S. forces struggling to keep tabs on the weapons and fighters thought to be moving through the area.

The military's provincial reconstruction teams carry on some work in southern Iraq.  And in Diwaniya, a town east of Najaf, military trainers continue to work with local security forces.

But for all practical purposes the Americans and the British have essentially left a region quickly becoming more turbulent in the wake of their departure.

With no evident plans to reenter southern areas, the U.S.-led coalition leaves the fate of some of Iraq's most important territory to others.

Amazing!

After British Get Out Of Basra, A "Remarkable And Dramatic Drop In Attacks"

Nov 15 By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer [Excerpts]

BAGHDAD: Attacks against British and Iraqi forces have plunged by 90 percent in southern Iraq since London withdrew its troops from the main city of Basra, the commander of British forces there said Thursday.

The presence of British forces in downtown Basra, Iraq's second-largest city, was the single largest instigator of violence, Maj. Gen. Graham Binns told reporters Thursday on a visit to Baghdad's Green Zone.

"We thought, 'If 90 percent of the violence is directed at us, what would happen if we stepped back?'" Binns said.

Britain's 5,000 troops moved out of a former Saddam Hussein palace at Basra's heart in early September, setting up a garrison at an airport on the city's edge.  Since that pullback, there's been a "remarkable and dramatic drop in attacks," Binns said.

"The motivation for attacking us was gone, because we're no longer patrolling the streets," he said.

Last spring, British troops' daily patrols through central Basra led to "steady toe to toe battles with militias fighting some of the most tactically demanding battles of the war," Binns said.  Now British forces rarely enter the city center, an area patrolled only by Iraqis.

With an overwhelmingly Shiite population, Basra has not seen the level of sectarian violence that has torn Iraq apart since the Feb. 2006 bombing of a Shiite shrine north of Baghdad.

But it has seen major fighting between insurgents and coalition troops, as well as between Shiite militias vying for control of the city and its security forces.

British officials expected a spike in such "intra-militia violence" after they pulled back from the city's center, and were surprised to find none, Binns said.

"That's because the Sadrist militia is all powerful here — more powerful than Badr.  If Badr was allowed to take on JAM in Basra, they'd lose pretty quickly," he said, using the Arabic acronym for the Mahdi Army, a militia loyal to radical cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

BEEN ON THE JOB TOO LONG:

COME ON HOME, NOW

U.S. army soldier with Alpha Company 1-64 after a patrol in the neighborhood Adl in Baghdad November 7, 2007.  REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Resistance IED Attacks Setting New Record;

"They’ve Gone Back To Guerrilla Warfare ... Because It Works," Rubin Said

Nov 15, 2007 Jim Michaels of USA Today

Taliban militants have staged more roadside bomb and suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year, raising concerns that the insurgents are gaining strength and countering U.S. and NATO tactics.

Through October, the number of improvised explosive devices, including car and suicide bombs, totaled 1,932, up from 1,739 for all last year, according to military statistics. There were 782 such attacks in 2005.

Barnett Rubin, an Afghan expert at New York University, said the greater use of bombs in Afghanistan shows the Taliban is gaining momentum. The militants have recently moved back into some areas of the country, particularly those where Afghanistan’s lucrative opium crop has grown.

"They’ve gone back to guerrilla warfare ... because it works," Rubin said.

SOMALIA WAR REPORTS

Resistance Opens Offensive On Occupation Troops In The Capital

14 November 2007 By Jean-Philippe Rémy, Le Monde [Excerpts]

Unlike the preceding days, Mogadishu did not experience any significant battles Tuesday, November 13, between insurgents holed up in the Somali capital and their enemies, the Ethiopian troops and their allies from President Abdullahi Yusuf's Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

The truce has little chance of lasting before the new phase of a war with no front and no rules resumes in Mogadishu, the second battle conducted by the insurgents who unite militias from the majority clans in the capital and fundamentalist groups from the Shabab (youth) galaxy.

They've thrown themselves into a fight to the death against the Ethiopian forces that penetrated Somalia about a year ago to drive out the Islamic Tribunals that had taken power.

The previous battle, in April, left several hundred dead and did not spare the city's residents.  Whole sectors of Mogadishu had been ravaged by the crush of Ethiopian heavy artillery.

Then the insurgents, after being flattened under a deluge of fire, withdrew from the capital.

After re-infiltrating it, they have, with several hundred fighters supported by mortars and little cannons, in the course of the last few weeks, resumed frontal attacks in crescendo against the bases and positions of the Ethiopian Army and the TFG.

In response, the Ethiopians have launched a vast search operation that affects at least a third of the city.  Its principle is both simple and devastating.  

Everywhere the insurgents are suspected of taking shelter, whether in north or in south Mogadishu, the Ethiopian troops and their TFG allies have undertaken a complete emptying out, driving out residents to search houses door-to-door and gleefully looting anything that might be inside.

Those who have the means have already fled to the Mogadishu environs or other neighborhoods in the city, now overcrowded. The most destitute, who have nowhere to go, just as prices for everything are skyrocketing, remain outside their homes: risking death.

In recent weeks, targeted and blind assassinations have charged in as the new tactics in the dirty urban warfare. Cases of decapitation have been reported.

Several sources confirm the existence of elite Ethiopian snipers who cut down anyone who passes through their sights in the neighborhoods the TFG allies want to empty, without respect to age or gender.

Ever since the crowd dragged the bodies of several of their own through the streets of Mogadishu, the Addis-Ababa troops have dispensed with all restraint.

Ethiopian soldiers fire on passersby and have opened tank fire on residential neighborhoods and the Bakara market.

That quarter, the economic lung of a dynamic that inundated all East Africa with products from South-east Asia just a year ago, is deserted and its storehouses looted, according to the scant news that filters in from there. Whoever approaches the area risks finding himself in the sights of a sniper, as happened just this Tuesday.

While the city suffocates, hospitals overflow with the wounded. In Medina, the bodies tell the tale of a war that spares no civilian.  One family exhibits a bullet removed from the body of Abdinur Uluso.  The projectile's point had been chewed by the shooter, a technique that makes the wounds even more horrible. Not far away, a teenager stares at the ceiling, dazed by sedatives.  A rocket launcher has taken away his right arm.

"The Ethiopians come into our houses and shoot at us, treating us like terrorists," the women in the hallway scream.  One man, wounded in the head, still finds the strength to curse the TFG troops.

TROOP NEWS

NOT ANOTHER DAY

NOT ANOTHER DOLLAR

NOT ANOTHER LIFE

Hearse carrying Army Sgt. Daniel Shaw at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Church in Orchard Park, N.Y., Nov. 13, 2007.  Shaw, of West Seneca, N.Y. was with the 2nd Brigade Combat Team in the 2nd Infantry Division based in Fort Carson, Colo. and was killed in an explosion in Iraq on Nov. 5, 2007. (AP Photo/David Duprey)

The New Issue Of

Traveling Soldier Is Out!

This issue features:

1. "After four and a half years ... Iraq is still just keeping your fingers crossed and praying that you don’t die or end up permanently disabled from an IED" says a soldier stationed in Baghdad, Iraq.

http://www.traveling-soldier.org/11.07.ivaw.php

2. "We risked our lives so the Army ... could throw a rose colored lens onto a news camera" says recent Iraq vet Alex Horton:

http://www.traveling-soldier.org/11.07.horton.php

3. "The Army is worn out" says an army public affairs officer in Baghdad:

http://www.traveling-soldier.org/11.07.worn.php

4. National Guardsmen Like Impeach Bush/Cheney T-Shirts!

http://www.traveling-soldier.org/9.06.choice.php

5. Download the new Traveling Soldier to pass it out at your school, workplace, or at a nearby base:

http://www.traveling-soldier.org/TS15.pdf

Army Desertions Highest Since 2001

November 15, 2007 Army Times Daily News Roundup

In a likely reflection of the continued strain of multiple deployments to a 4½-year war, the number of soldiers deserting the Army skyrocketed during the past fiscal year to its highest level since 2001.

All told, 4,698 soldiers were declared deserters, according to Lt. Col. Darryl Darden of the Army’s office of the deputy chief of staff for manpower and personnel.

That is a 42.3 percent increase over the previous fiscal year, and the highest annual total since fiscal year 2001, when 4,399 troops deserted.

Rejection Of Appeal By Canada Supreme Court Clears Way For AWOL U.S. Soldiers’ Immediate Deportation:

"If I Was Talking To A Soldier Considering Canada Right Now, I Would Tell Him To Research Every Other Available Place To Go"

Nov. 15, 2007 By Kari Huus, Reporter; MSNBC

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to hear an appeal by two U.S. military deserters who sought refuge in the country to avoid deployment to Iraq, a conflict they argued is "immoral and illegal."

The announcement ends a bid by American soldiers Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, the plaintiffs in the case, to win refugee status and opens the way for them to be deported to the United States, where they could face court martial for going AWOL and missing troop movements. 

It also could lead to deportation of dozens of other American soldiers who have filed formal applications for refugee status.  "Theoretically they (are) facing immediate removal," said Jeffry House, a Toronto lawyer who represents most of the U.S. refugee applicants, including Hinzman and Hughey.

The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case, "vastly advances the government’s agenda to remove them," he said.

The rejection also closes off that legal avenue for other U.S. military personnel who have gone to Canada and remained illegally.  House estimates there are at least 300 AWOL U.S. soldiers living in Canada.

[T]he current exodus to Canada is small in comparison to the Vietnam era, when an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 Americans moved to Canada to avoid military duty, many of them settling there permanently.

In June, a poll in Ontario found that 64.6 percent of 605 respondents said U.S. soldiers should be allowed to settle in Canada, while 27.2 percent favored sending them home.

For Brad McCall, a 20-year-old American soldier who applied for refugee status after arriving in Canada in September, Thursday's rejection was a surprise and a blow.

"If I was talking to a soldier considering Canada right now, I would tell him to research every other available place to go … that would accept him as a war resister, because it’s still not safe enough here," McCall told msnbc.com, speaking from Vancouver where he is staying with sympathizers.  "The Canadian government is obviously not on our side."