Iraq Town Hall Meeting Will Be Web Cast!

Every participant in this event has valuable information to share. I urge you to log in or if you're in Neu Yawk, get to Town Hall in NYC!

True Crimes
The Untold Story Behind the Devastation of Iraq
June 3, 2008

LIVE WEBCAST!

7:00 PM

On June 3, 2008, join bestselling author JEREMY SCAHILL, Pulitzer Prize-winning writer
CHRIS HEDGES, journalist LAILA AL-ARIAN, and the New Yorker's SEYMOUR HERSH, as they go behind the headlines to tell the untold story of the occupation of Iraq, the daily plight of Iraqi civilians, and the ongoing role of private mercenaries in America's "War on Terror."
The event is a dual book launch for COLLATERAL DAMAGE: AMERICA'S WAR AGAINST IRAQI CIVILIANS by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian, and the updated paperback edition of BLACKWATER: THE RISE OF THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL MERCENARY ARMY by Jeremy Scahill.
The conversation will be followed by audience questions and a book signing.
Tickets are available for the event at the Town Hall Box Office, 123 W. 43rd St., New York City (www.the-townhall-nyc.org / 212-997-6661) or at Ticketmaster (212-307-4100/ www.ticketmaster.com)
Cosponsored by The Nation, Public Concern Foundation, Democracy Now!, The Indypendent, CERSC, Democrats.com, Peace Action New York, Alternet, Tricycle, The Armenian National Committee, Center for Constitutional Rights, and Veterans for Common Sense.
http://ccrjustice.org/live-webcast-true-crimes

Army Redefines "Borderline"

Just a little drinking problem, eh? Wait till these folks come home, trained and ready to fight any evil, real or, in a desperate state, imagined:
Ill GI says he was deployed from hospital
By Erin Emery, The Denver Post, 02/10/2008
A Fort Carson soldier who says he was in treatment at Cedar Springs Hospital for bipolar disorder and alcohol abuse was released early and ordered to deploy to the Middle East with the 3rd Brigade Combat Team.
The 28-year-old specialist spent 31 days in Kuwait and was returned to Fort Carson on Dec. 31 after health care professionals in Kuwait concurred that his symptoms met criteria for bipolar disorder and "some paranoia and possible homicidal tendencies," according to e-mails obtained by The Denver Post.
The soldier, who asked not to be identified because of the stigma surrounding mental illness and because he will seek employment when he leaves the Army, said he checked himself into Cedar Springs on Nov. 9 or Nov. 10 after he attempted suicide while under the influence of alcohol. He said his treatment was supposed to end Dec. 10 but his commanding officers showed up at the hospital Nov. 29 and ordered him to leave
[...] Late last year, Fort Carson said it sent 79 soldiers who were considered medical "no-gos" overseas. Officials said the soldiers were placed in light-duty jobs and are receiving treatment there. So far, at least six soldiers have been returned.
An e-mail sent Jan. 3 by Capt. Scot Tebo, the brigade surgeon, says the 3rd Brigade Combat Team had "been having issues reaching deployable strength" and that some "borderline" soldiers were sent overseas.
[...] Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, was outraged.
"If he's an inpatient in a hospital, they should have never taken him out. The chain of command needs to be held accountable for this. Washington needs to get involved at the Pentagon to make sure this doesn't happen again.
"First, we had the planeload of wounded, injured and ill being forced back to the war zone. And now we have soldiers forcibly removed from mental hospitals. The level of outrage is off the Richter scale."
[...] The Dec. 14 e-mail from the brigade surgeon says two health care professionals evaluated the soldier and arrived independently at a diagnosis of bipolar disorder.
"The soldier stated . . . that he did not know what he might do if he had ammunition for his weapon. He was given a no weapon profile, but I have heard that it was not being followed," Tebo said in the e-mail.
The soldier said he was sent to the range twice to practice shooting with live rounds. At the end of the training, his weapon was taken from him.
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_8219520

Knowledge is Power

Charles Sheehan-Miles served in the U.S. Army in the 1991 Gulf War and is a founding member and executive director of Veterans for Common Sense. Here he blogs about a previously out of print book which recounts a remarkable struggle by WWI veterans to get what they were owned by our government. Sound familiar? Knowledge of our history is critical to our survival and advancement! Read it! http://www.sheehanmiles.com
Bonus Army
The is the story of the 1932 march on Washington by tens of thousands of World War I veterans who were eventually driven out of the Capitol by the U.S. Army at the order of President Hoover.
Walter W. Waters was an Army sergeant who had served in Europe during the first World War. Like millions of other Americans during the great depression, he struggled to find a livelihood for his family, with little luck.
In 1932, he led 300 veterans in a cross-country odyssey to petition Congress for release of the promised bonus for World War I veterans. Eventually, more ten thousand veterans gathered in DC.
They were driven out. From Waters’ account of the tragedy:
“The troops stopped at the buildings in the Pennsylvania Avenue area and took them one at a time. Each one housed forty to a hundred men. The men were chased out with drawn bayonets and gas bombs. The men of the B.E.F. had come to Washington, hoping to get something from the Government. They were getting it—the most modern type of tear gas.”
While a number of accounts of the Bonus March exist, this is one of the only first-hand accounts, written by one of the leaders of the movement.
http://www.bonusmarch.info/
FBI FOIA Documents The FBI has released under the Freedom of Information Act a number of documents related to its investigation into the Bonus marchers and whether or not the march was dominated by communists. Downloads required Acrobat Reader.
Wikipedia - Bonus Army
National Public Radio: Soldier Against Soldier, The Story of the Bonus Army
Eyewitness to History
Library of Congress - The Bonus Army March
Amazon.Com’s Book Description:
In the summer of 1932, General Douglas MacArthur led regular United States Army troops into the streets of Washington, D.C. to evict more than ten thousand veterans of the Great War from the streets of Washington. This is the story of those veterans, told by one of their number.