[Thanks to David Honish, Veterans For Peace, who sent this in.]

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
Mutiny On The Amistad:
July 2, 1839
“53 Slaves Recently Abducted From Africa, Revolted”

Peace History June 26-July 2 By Carl Bunin [Excerpt] Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.

(July 2, 1839)

Amistad Mutiny: slave rebellion that took place on the slave ship Amistad near the coast of Cuba and had important political and legal repercussions in the American Abolitionist movement.

The mutineers were captured and tried in the United States, and a surprising victory for the country’s antislavery forces resulted in 1841 when the U.S. Supreme Court freed the rebels. A committee formed to defend the slaves later developed into the American Missionary Association (incorporated 1846).

On July 2, 1839, the Spanish schooner Amistad was sailing from Havana to Puerto Príncipe, Cuba, when the ship’s unwilling passengers, 53 slaves recently abducted from Africa, revolted.

Led by Joseph Cinqué, they killed the captain and the cook but spared the life of a Spanish navigator, so that he could sail them home to Sierra Leone.

The navigator managed instead to sail the Amistad generally northward. Two months later the U.S. Navy seized the ship off Long Island, N.Y., and towed it into New London, Conn. The mutineers were held in a jail in New Haven, Conn., a state in which slavery was legal.

The Spanish embassy’s demand for the return of the Africans to Cuba led to an 1840 trial in a Hartford, Conn., federal court. New England Abolitionist Lewis Tappan stirred public sympathy for the African captives, while the U.S. government took the proslavery side. U.S.

President Martin Van Buren ordered a Navy ship sent to Connecticut to return the Africans to Cuba immediately after the trial. A candidate for reelection that year, he anticipated a ruling against the defendants and hoped to gain proslavery votes by removing the Africans before Abolitionists could appeal to a higher court.

Prosecutors argued that, as slaves, the mutineers were subject to the laws governing conduct between slaves and their masters. But trial testimony determined that while slavery was legal in Cuba, importation of slaves from Africa was not.

Therefore, the judge ruled, rather than being merchandise, the Africans were victims of kidnapping and had the right to escape their captors in any way they could.

When the U.S. government appealed the case before the U.S. Supreme Court the next year, congressman and former president John Quincy Adams argued eloquently for the Amistad rebels.

The Supreme Court upheld the lower court, and private and missionary society donations helped the 35 surviving Africans secure passage home. They arrived in Sierra Leone in January 1842, along with five missionaries and teachers who intended to found a Christian mission.

Spain continued to insist that the United States pay indemnification for the Cuban vessel. The U.S. Congress intermittently debated the Amistad case, without resolution, for more than two decades, until the American Civil War began in 1861.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Maryland Soldier Killed In Al Asad

Army Pfc. Michael Potocki a soldier from Baltimore, died Monday after his unit came into contact with enemy forces in Al Asad, Iraq. Potocki was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, which is based in Baumholder, Germany. (AP Photo/WBAL-TV)

Soldier Dies Of Non-Combat Injury

07/01/06 Associated Press

BAGHDAD, Iraq: An American soldier in Iraq has died of a non-combat-related injury.

The U.S. military says the soldier was assigned to the 43rd Military Police Brigade. No further details were released.

North Dakota Soldier Killed In Iraq Mourned At Hometown Church

Jun. 18, 2006 JAMES MacPHERSON, Associated Press, BISMARCK, N.D.

Spc. Jeremiah Santos got applause when he spoke to his church congregation this spring about his military service Iraq. On Sunday, church members in Devils Lake were mourning his death.

Santos, 21, who lived in Devils Lake and Minot, died in Baghdad on Thursday in a roadside bomb attack, Army officials said. A roadside bomb detonated near his Humvee during combat, the military said Saturday in a statement.

The Rev. Bruce Dick, of the Bethel Evangelical Free Church, said Santos addressed the congregation in March, while home on leave from Iraq. “Jeremiah really loved serving his country, and told us he was proud of what he did – and he made no apologies for being there,” Dick said. “He said he loved the people there.” Dick said Santos’ speech drew applause from the congregation of about 175 people.

On Sunday, the mood had changed with the news of his death.

“We shed a lot of tears,” Dick said.

Santos also had talked with a youth group at the church, while home on leave this spring. “Even our children are aware of who he is,” Dick said.

The war has brought a U.S. death toll of about 2,500.

“Until now, the number 2,500 had just become a number to us but now we have a face and a name,” Dick said. “It has touched us here and we will never look at that number the same.”

Dick described Santos as “self-confident, strong and very determined.”

Dick said Santos had turned his life around before joining the military. “Jeremiah had come through some tough times – he made some bad choices as a kid and had come out that,” Dick said. “Everybody was proud of him.”

Santos left school and attended the Quentin Burdick Job Corps Center in Minot, Devils Lake Principal Ryan Hanson said. He earned a GED, and graduated in the facility maintenance program at the Job Corps Center in January 2004, officials there said. He also attended a semester of classes at Minot State University.

Santos’ stepfather, Patrick McGlone, said Jeremiah met his wife, Jessica, in Minot. “He was a great boy who became a very strong man,” McGlone said. “He believed in what he was doing and had strong faith in God.”

Santos was assigned to the 2nd Battalion of 8th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Brigade, 4th Infantry Division of Fort Hood, Texas, officials said.

McGlone said Jessica Santos lives at Fort Hood. He said she originally is from Montana.

Laurie McGlone, Santos’ mother, has been working as a temporary nurse in American Samoa. Patrick McGlone said she was notified there of her son’s death. She was en route to the United States on Sunday, he said.

Santos’ father, Shannon Santos, lives in San Diego.

Dick said a funeral was planned in San Diego, and a memorial service also was slated for Devils Lake, although details were not final, he said.

Santos was the 13th U.S. service member with North Dakota ties who was reported killed while on duty in Iraq. Two other solders were killed this month in Afghanistan.

Car Bomb Hits Checkpoint In Ramadi;
Casualties Not Yet Announced

July 1 (Reuters)

A car bomber attacked a joint Iraqi and U.S. military checkpoint in Ramadi, west of Baghdad, police said. There were no details on casualties and no comment was immediately available from the U.S. military.

Notes From A Lost War:
Ramadi:
The Occupation In Deep Shit

U.S. Army Spc. Anthony Black, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who serves in the 101st Airborne Division, searches for a sniper who fired on an Iraqi home used as an outpost in Ramadi, June 20, 2006. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

[Thanks to PB, who sent this in.]

June 30, 2006 ANTONIO CASTANEDA, Associated Press Writer

RAMADI, Iraq

The hole in the ceiling is just a way to let out steam for the soldiers showering inside a damaged trailer in Ramadi, one of Iraq’s most dangerous cities.

But each knows how that hole was created. A mortar round came through the trailer roof a few weeks ago and could have killed everyone inside had it detonated. Most mortars are not so benign, and there are many here.

The Iraq war for most troops is fleeting; brief ambushes or sudden, powerful roadside bombings. But in this troubled city, the capital of deadly Anbar province, the conflict is nearly constant.

Gunbattles in the streets are common and mortars rain down on the bases every week.

On the eastern edge of town at Camp Corregidor, a base named after a famous World War II battle in the Philippines, U.S. soldiers regularly hunker down during ‘’indirect fire’’ attacks or what they generally call ‘’incoming’’ – military vernacular for inbound rockets or mortars.

The attacks happen at least three times a week, soldiers say, and usually end with explosions that miss their target. Sometimes the mortars hit nearby neighborhoods, maiming and killing civilians.

But the insurgents also have taken a toll on U.S. troops. This week a soldier at an outpost a few blocks from Camp Corregidor was killed by a mortar. Several soldiers have been wounded by shrapnel.

Many soldiers say they have adjusted to this life under regular fire. They say the attacks rarely injure soldiers or hamper operations, although they have many tales of near-misses.

‘’My latrines took two 60 millimeter mortars, my shower trailer has been disabled by 80 millimeter mortars, and it’s not uncommon for us to pick pieces of shrapnel from the side of building,’’ said Capt. Joe Claburn, 29, of the 1st Battalion, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. ‘’We get mortared so much that we don’t even flinch anymore.’’

But others privately acknowledge that the mortars, which thunder throughout the base at all hours, have caused nightmares and took awhile to get used to.

‘’When we first got here it bothered me. We thought every loud sound was a mortar until we got used to it,’’ said Spc. Lemuel Ross, 24, of Richmond, Va., speaking outside a building that was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade earlier in the year.

The regular insurgent attacks have changed the face of this base, which once was an agricultural college. Troops have piled sandbags on the roofs as protection. Latrines and sidewalks are surrounded by thick concrete walls to deflect shrapnel.

Some soldiers, desensitized to the attacks, speak of them with fatalistic phrases common in military ranks.

‘’Mortars are the least of my worries. We look at it this way: If it’s going to happen, it’s going to happen,’’ said Spc. Milton O’Neal, 20, of Chicago, as he dribbled a basketball during a break between missions.

‘’Sometimes it’s an annoyance if you’re in the latrines with your pants down,’’ said Staff Sgt. David Rogers, 26, of Cleveland.

Some attacks seem linked to outside events. For example, shortly after terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed on June 7, soldiers said more than 10 mortars fell on Camp Corregidor.

Other times, insurgents often fire during hours when they think soldiers are congregated for lunch or dinner.

Soldiers walking on the base are required to wear their protective vests and helmets, even for short distances to latrines and shower stalls.

After mortars strike, soldiers are required to account for all members of their units.

While soldiers say that they’re so used to explosions that they hardly stir from their sleep anymore, some attacks can hardly be ignored.

‘’When you hear a 120 (millimeter mortar), you can feel it, not just hear it,’’ said O’Neal. ‘’You know you can’t just lie in bed for that one.’’

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Resistance Rocket Attack Hits Key Base:
7 Occupation Troops Wounded;
Nationality Not Announced Yet

Jul. 01, 2006 Associated Press

Military officials say two rockets fired by insurgents slammed into the main coalition military base in southern Afghanistan, wounding seven foreign soldiers and three civilian contract workers.

Officials said more than 20 rockets have been fired at the Kandahar base since February, but Friday’s attack was the first to cause casualties.

British Officers Demand More Troops:
Of 3,300, Only 600 Are Infantry;
They Are Wearing Out Fast

As recently as April, John Reid, the former defence secretary, appeared to believe that British troops faced little or no threat from insurgents. During a visit to Kabul, he said that British soldiers “would be happy to leave in three years’ time without firing a shot because our job is to protect reconstruction”.

02/07/2006 By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent, Telegraph Group Limited & 1 July 2006 By Alastair Leithead, BBC News, Kabul

British troops are now fighting a “major and highly organised insurgency” in Afghanistan, senior Army officers have revealed.

Commanders have told The Sunday Telegraph that troops are working at “full stretch in difficult and dangerous conditions” and fighting in temperatures of up to 50C.

Senior officers have demanded extra infantry as fears grow that the fighting capability of those soldiers already in Afghanistan will soon begin to suffer unless they are given time to rest and recover from the mental and physical demands of combat. [Especially when it’s about 5,000 to 600. 5,000 warriors that is. They don’t need all that backup shit. They live there.]

The lack of infantry troops has lead to British commanders using even members of 7th (Parachute) Regiment Royal Horse Artillery (7RHA) in an infantry role. The reinforcement is an embarrassment for the Ministry of Defence, which capped the number of troops being deployed to Afghanistan at around 3,300, a figure widely viewed by many senior officers as being far too low.

As recently as April, John Reid, the former defence secretary, appeared to believe that British troops faced little or no threat from insurgents. During a visit to Kabul, he said that British soldiers “would be happy to leave in three years’ time without firing a shot because our job is to protect reconstruction”.

Following an urgent briefing from Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the Chief of the General Staff, who returned from a trip to Afghanistan last week, Tony Blair appears to have been stung into action.

He is said to be concerned that the mission is escalating and has urged Western governments to send more troops, planes and helicopters.

British troops have been involved in an almost continuous series of bloody battles against Taliban and al-Qaeda forces since they arrived in the dangerous province of Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, six weeks ago.

Ten British servicemen have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001 when British troops first entered the country. Three of those have been killed in the past two weeks, two of them members of the newly formed Special Reconnaissance Regiment, an under cover unit which specialises in covert surveillance.

Three weeks ago, Capt Jim Philippson, 29, an officer with 7RHA, was killed when he joined a quick reaction unit sent to the aid of troops who had been attacked by insurgents.

An investigation into his death will look at why Capt Philippson was allowed to take part in the operation when his primary role was meant to be training members of the Afghan army.

Of the 3,300 in Helmand, only about 600 are infantry troops, the remainder members of attached units, such as artillery, mechanics, engineers, medics and signallers.

Up to 100 soldiers of 1RIR, who are currently stationed in Inverness, will begin arriving in Afghanistan by the end of the month. It is understood that they will be the first of several troop reinforcements over the next few months.

High-ranking British officers in Afghanistan say they need more air power to assist ground troops, who are facing increasing violence.

The calls come after a week of intense clashes with Taleban fighters in the southern province of Helmand.

Sources have told the BBC that more transport and attack helicopters and medical evacuation planes are needed.

The Chinook transport helicopters are running to their limits and often beyond, operating in very high temperatures for long hours. There has also been a call for more Apache attack helicopters.

This week in Helmand around 50 soldiers were ambushed on three sides by Taleban militia.

The troops had to fight intensively at close quarters for two hours because the air support was already in use in another part of the province.

More worrying is the lack of aircraft for medical evacuations, when demand has been high.

“For Each Taliban You Kill, I Can Find 20 More To Fill His Place”

02/07/2006 By Massoud Ansari, Telegraph Group Limited [Excerpts]

With his neat moustache and casual clothing, Hafiz Ihsanullah is the new face of the Taliban. The 28-year-old former fighter has eschewed the trademark turban and prayer beads of the ultra-conservative Islamic group since he took on a new and powerful role.

“Every time you bring one dead, you will find 20 more volunteers willing to join the fighting,” he boasted to The Sunday Telegraph.

He visits religious seminaries in Balochistan, in effect the main enlisting centres for insurgents, and collects lists of new recruits whom he subsequently dispatches to the front line. His only concession to his own security is his insistence that he must not be photographed.

In the Balochi district of Pasheen alone, 24 corpses have been returned for burial in the past two months, according to Ikramullah Khan, a local resident. They included the body of Molvi Azizullah Agha, a Taliban commander who was among several dozen killed by a US airstrike on their Kandahar safe house in May.

His funeral was attended by several thousand Taliban supporters, including six local and national Pakistani politicians from Balochistan, all of whom vowed to avenge Agha’s “martyrdom”.

He outlined the Taliban’s propaganda campaign, aimed at galvanising potential recruits.

Markets across the region have been flooded with cheap DVDs, sold for as little as 30p, in which Taliban militia are shown fighting Americans. Meanwhile, Taliban preachers have stepped up their promotional strategy through broadcasts on low-frequency FM radio, inciting listeners to take up the fight against the “infidel army”.

REALLY BAD IDEA:
NO MISSION;
HOPELESS WAR:
BRING THEM ALL HOME NOW

US soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 10th Mountain Division, carry supplies to their mountaintop post in south Afghanistan, June 22, 2006. U.S. troops had to carry food and water, air dropped by plane, from the valley floor to the ridge top as part of operations in support of Operation Mountain Thrust. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

TROOP NEWS

“Asked If It Was Time For All U.S. Troops In Iraq To Be Sent Home, She Hesitated, Then Said, ‘I Want To Say Yes’”

Christina Menchaca, 18, center, joins other family members in placing roses on the casket of her husband, Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, at his funeral in Brownsville, Texas, Wednesday, June 28, 2006. Menchaca was one of two soldiers killed by insurgents earlier this month in Iraq. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

[Thanks to Anna Bradley, who sent this in.]

June 19, 2006 (CNN)

HOUSTON, Texas

Relatives of a 23-year-old Army private reportedly abducted Friday from a checkpoint in Iraq expressed dismay Monday over his predicament and hope that he would be released.

“I’m still kind of, like, in shock,” said Julio Cesar Vasquez of Houston, younger brother of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca. “It doesn’t look good.”

The Army has identified the two soldiers who went missing after an attack on the checkpoint near Yusufiya as Menchaca and Pfc. Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, of Madras, Oregon.

Vasquez said his brother returned to their home north of Houston a month ago on a 10-day leave, and appeared changed by the war.

“He just said how pretty bad it was over there,” Vasquez said. “He wasn’t the same on the inside anymore. I guess that’s what war does to you.”

Vasquez, fighting to hold back tears, described his brother during the visit as “cold and quiet,” and largely uncommunicative.

“He said he didn’t care any more if he were to get killed. I noticed that change in him. He got a little cold in the inside.”

Asked what he would tell his brother’s captors, Vasquez offered nothing.

“I don’t think they care,” he said. “They’re insurgents to us. We’re probably insurgents to them. They don’t care. They’re probably happy at this.”

And to his brother?

“Just hang in there. Just pray to the Lord … and that we all love him and hope to see him again. But I don’t know. I don’t know if I ever will,” Vasquez said.

Vasquez said he learned that his brother had gone missing from his sister-in-law, who, after a two-week courtship, married Menchaca last year, just a month before he was deployed to Iraq.

The two were planning to live together at Fort Campbell when Menchaca returned, Vasquez said.

‘He was numb’

An older cousin, Gabriela Garcia, said Menchaca — with whom she grew up — told her during his leave that he thought many of his fellow soldiers were suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I asked him if he was, and he said ‘No.’ But that’s not true,” she said. “He was numb. He had to survive.

“He needed to go numb to survive. He couldn’t allow himself to feel the fear. It seemed like he was in survival mode.”

Still, his time in Iraq appeared to have imbued him with a sense of confidence and self-assurance that he hadn’t had before, she added. “He was not so timid, but he was still very caring,” she said.

Asked what she would tell her cousin if he were watching, she said, “To not give up, that we love you, we want you home.”

And to those who are holding him, she said, “Let him go. What’s one person going to do for them? What’s this going to prove?”

Asked if it was time for all U.S. troops in Iraq to be sent home, she hesitated, then said, “I want to say yes.”

Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, Texas, went missing after a checkpoint attack near Yusufiya, Iraq.

Slovakia Announces Immediate Withdrawal Of All Troops From Iraq

July 01, 2006 AP, BRATISLAVA, Slovakia

Robert Fico, whose Smer-Social Democracy party is expected to form the new Slovak Cabinet next week, said Saturday that his government will immediately pull the country’s troops out of Iraq.

“The (new) government should immediately prepare the timetable of the withdrawal,” Fico said in an interview with state-run radio.

Slovakia has 104 troops in Iraq, stationed in Hillah in the Polish sector. The troops were deployed in 2003 with an open mandate, and are mostly involved in dismantling land mines. Three Slovak soldiers died two years ago in an explosion at an ammunition dump in Iraq.

“Our presence will not contribute a tiny bit to the security in Iraq … we do not belong there,” Fico said.

Slovakia’s outgoing government had planned to keep its troops in Iraq and shift their mission to help train Iraqi soldiers.

“If I Had Seen This Film While I Was In Iraq, Things Would Have Been Much Different”
“A Film That Threatens The War Movement With Every Showing”

From: David Zeiger, Director of Sir! No Sir! – Displaced Films
To: GI Special
Sent: June 30, 2006 4:32 PM
Subject: Spread the word—Sir! No Sir! will be available July 15th on DVD!!

If I had seen this film while I was in Iraq , things would have been much different.
-Garett Reppenhagen, Army Sniper and OIF Veteran, Iraq Veterans Against The War.

This is powerful stuff, offering us not only a new look at the past, but unavoidably relevant insights into the present. —Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News

A film that threatens the war movement with every showing, the Bush administration should outlaw it from all theatres within fifty miles of an armed forces recruiting station.— Ron Wilkinson , Monsters and Critics

On July 15, Sir! No Sir! will be available on DVD**

Over the last three months, Sir! No Sir! has played in theaters in over 50 cities, generating excitement, controversy, and rave reviews. All reviews are posted at www.sirnosir.com/home_filmpress_main.html

Thousands have seen it, but millions need to.

Now, in response your calls to get this film out everywhere, a limited edition DVD of Sir! No Sir!, along with the powerful flash animation by Not Your Soldier and Ruckus Productions, Punk Ass Crusade, will be available starting July 15 for $19.95 plus shipping and handling.

EXCLUSIVELY AT WWW.SIRNOSIR.COM.

From the beginning, word-of-mouth and the internet have been the main way news of this film has spread.

Over the holiday weekend, please help spread it even farther. Please send this email out to your own lists, and download the flyer available at:
sirnosir.com/home_filmdownloads_dvd_poster.html to hand out at your events this weekend and beyond!

And starting July 15 you can…

Buy the DVD

Host house parties to show and spread it further

Register online to set up activist screenings

Use the film to support the growing number of soldiers who are resisting the Iraq war, and

Turn this summer into The Summer of Sir! No Sir!

And that’s only the beginning.

Also for sale will be a CD Soundtrack of the film with the stirring and innovative score written by Buddy Judge, and all of the songs in the film including Soldier We Love You by Rita Martinson.

This is the only CD available with Rita Martinson’s incredible tribute to GI resisters that stirs audiences at every screening of the film. The unstoppable pirate DJ Dave Rabbit of “Radio First Termer” fame also makes several appearances.

As a special bonus, my film A Night of Ferocious Joy will also be available—a film that chronicles an audacious, in-your-face concert held on Mother’s Day, 2002, to confront the “war on terror” that brought together Ozomatli, The Coup, Blackalicioius, Dilated Peoples, Saul Williams, Mystic and many others. A film for everyone looking for inspiration and hope in a dark world.

In coming months, additional great films, music and books relevant to GI resistance then and now will be added to the list of products available at the site.

And while you’re there, take some time to roam through the newly completed stunning archives featuring thousands of underground papers, cartoons, audio recordings and photographs illustrating the depth and breadth of the GI Movement.

And in the fall, an expanded DVD of Sir! No Sir!, with a wealth of additional material included, will be available at stores and on web sites everywhere.

Included will be several additional stories from that GI Movement, an exclusive interview with pirate radio DJ Dave Rabbit, the court-martial of Iraq war resister Camilo Mejia, and presentations by Jane Fonda, Cindy Sheehan, and many more.

Finally, I want to thank all of you once again for the support you have given to Sir! No Sir! and hope you will continue to spread the film far and wide.

David Zeiger
www.sirnosir.com
Displaced Films
www.displacedfilms.com

David Zeiger’s superb documentary about the Vietnam War era’s GI protest movement is jammed with incident and anecdote and moves with nearly as much breathless momentum as the movement itself. ~ Chuck Wilson, L.A. Weekly

“Sir! No Sir!” combines exceptional artistry and insightful analysis with great story telling. This is no facile agitprop piece, but a careful dissection of a growing military rebellion that permanently altered American society, but has largely been forgotten. ~ International Documentary Magazine

TWO THUMBS UP!® Ebert & Roeper

Nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Documentary

Audience Award Best Documentary—Los Angeles Film Festival

Jury Award Best Documentary—Hamptons International Film Festival

Seeds of War Award—Full Frame Documentary Film Festival

Jury Award Best Film on War and Peace—Vermont International Film Festival

Nominated for a Gotham Award and International Documentary Association Award

Sir! No Sir! will be opening in theaters in Canada this July, beginning July 5 in Toronto. During the theatrical run our limited edition DVD release will be available everywhere EXCEPT Canada. Canadians will be able to buy the film on DVD at a later date.

Thanks again and have a great 4th of July holiday,

David Zeiger

Sir! No Sir!:
At A Theatre Near You!
To find it: www.sirnosir.com/

Do you have a friend or relative in the service? Forward this E-MAIL along, or send us the address if you wish and we’ll send it regularly. Whether in Iraq or stuck on a base in the USA, this is extra important for your service friend, too often cut off from access to encouraging news of growing resistance to the war, at home and inside the armed services. Send requests to address up top.

States Defy Bush:
National Guards Not Deployed

June 30, 2006 By Aaron C. Davis, Associated Press, SACRAMENTO, Calif.

The Bush administration has been unable to muster even half the 2,500 National Guard troops it planned to have on the border with Mexico by the end of June, officials in the border states said.

As of Thursday, fewer than 1,000 troops were in place, according to military officials in Texas, California, New Mexico and Arizona.

President Bush’s plan called for all 50 states to send troops. But only 10 states, including the four border states, have signed commitments.

Bush’s plan called for 2,500 troops to be on the border in support roles by June 30, and 6,000 by the end of July. But officials in the border states said the Guard won’t reach the 2,500 target until early to mid-July and will likely need longer to meet the 6,000 mark.

“The magical numbers coming out of Washington are not going to happen, definitely not by Friday,” said Maj. Paul Ellis, a spokesman for the Arizona National Guard.

Only six non-border states; Arkansas, Delaware, Kentucky, Montana, Tennessee and Wisconsin; have officially joined the mission.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

Al-Sadr Says No Reconciliation:
“We Demand That The Occupiers Leave”

[Thanks to PB, who sent this in.]

Jun 30 AFP

Iraq’s fiery Moqtada al-Sadr has demanded the reconstruction of a revered Shiite shrine that was allegedly bombed by Al-Qaeda and the withdrawal of US troops from the country.

“We have said previously that the Iraqi government should rebuild the Shiite shrine in Samarra, but we have not seen anything but talk,” he said in a sermon in the southern Shiite town of Kufa.

“I strongly reject reconciliation with three groups — first the US, the nawasib (the killers of Shiites), and the Baathists” of the deposed Saddam Hussein regime, Sadr said.

“We demand that the occupiers leave and offer a timetable for their withdrawal and not extend their stay here,” Sadr said, adding that de-Baathification must be activated fast and “their leader executed”.

He also called for the release of detainees from Najaf who had fought the US forces during a rebellion in the summer of 2004.

U.S. Military Vehicle Retreats “In A Hail Of Stones”

07-01-2006 AFP

At least 66 people have been killed by a car bomb in a busy Baghdad market in a Shiite neighbourhood Saturday, despite a massive security crackdown in the Iraqi capital.

A US military vehicle which attempted to approach the blast scene withdrew in a hail of stones thrown by angry residents.

Assorted Resistance Action

Jul 1, 2006 By KIM GAMEL (AP) & Reuters & MIL

Iraqi soldiers found the bodies of four soldiers who were captured Friday near the northern city of Kirkuk. Two other soldiers were still missing.

Guerrillas killed a policeman in a drive-by shooting in the center of Kirkuk.

A car bomber killed two policemen when he attacked a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul, police said. Clashes between police and insurgents killed one civilian and wounded a policeman in Mosul, hospital sources said.

Guerrillas killed a traffic policeman in Kirkuk. Police said they had distributed leaflets in Kirkuk warning police to resign.

Resistance fighters shot dead a policeman in Falluja.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE
END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

Camp Casey

From: Richard Hastie
To: GI Special
Sent: July 01, 2006

A mother who’s son was killed in Iraq.

Photo taken at “ Camp Casey,” in
Crawford, Texas, August 13, 2005.

Mike Hastie
Vietnam Veteran

Bring Them Home Before There Is Only Remains.

Photo from the I-R-A-Q (I Remember Another Quagmire) portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T)

Bush “Making The USofA More Like Iraq Everyday…”

From: JF
To: GI Special
Sent: June 30, 2006
Subject: RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

Dear GI Special,

An Iowan in uniform had this to say about US armed forces’ operations in Iraq :

“In the States, if police burst into your house, kicking down doors and swearing at you, you would call your lawyer and file a lawsuit,” said Wood..

While Wood was in Iraq under orders from George Bush, George W Bush was busy back in the United States making the USofA more like Iraq everyday…

‘In a major victory for the government, the Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a search warrant may enter homes and seize evidence even if they don’t knock.

“In previous rulings citing centuries-old common law tradition, the Court had held that except in cases of “no-knock” warrants, police must generally knock and announce their presence or risk violating the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches.

‘The decision came on a 5-4 vote. The deciding vote came from Bush appointee Justice Samuel Alito.’

The Constitution of the United States is becoming as “quaint” an historical document as the criminal Alberto Gonzales would have us believe the Geneva Conventions have.

Even Bush’s handpicked court choked on his criminal gulags.

No help for US citizens however.

“Perhaps The Whitehouse Should Pay More Attention To History Than To Their Oil Industry Lobbyists?”

From: David Honish, Veterans For Peace
To: GI Special
Sent: June 23, 2006
Subject: Chickenhawks, Present and Past

The term ‘chickenhawk’ has been applied to politicians without combat experience, who for the economic benefit of their oil industry pals, use the military as their pawns.

Specifically the term was applied to President Bush who deserted his Air National Guard unit in 1972. Also included is Vice President Cheney who obtained FIVE draft deferments during the Viet Nam War.

When questioned about his numerous deferments Cheney stated, “I had other priorities at the time.” Really? I wonder how many Pfc’s in Iraq would be able to return home after telling their C.O. that they also had other priorities?

The chickenhawks sought plausible lies about nonexistent WMD’s to justify their war of greed in Iraq.

When tasked with planning the war, Army Chief of Staff General Eric Shinseki honored his oath to The Constitution, and gave his honest professional military assessment. Gen. Shinseki told the Whitehouse that war with Iraq would violate international law, require hundreds of thousands of troops, and take several years.

For his honesty, Gen. Shinseki was asked to retire early.

The next SIX guys in line for Army Chief of Staff turned it down, citing agreement with Gen. Shinseki.

The Whitehouse had to pull a guy out of retirement in order to have an Army Chief of Staff willing to quietly do as he was told.

Now even their hand picked yes man states that the war in Iraq will likely take at least another decade. He does not specify if he means another decade to win, or just another decade of mounting losses before the US finally withdraws the troops?

Gen. Shinseki’s honesty was in direct conflict with Bush administration lies. In FEB 2003 Defense Secretary Rumsfeld was quoted in the press as saying that US troops in Iraq “would be greeted with flowers.” When asked how long it would take to win the war he said, “…it might be two weeks, it might be two months, we just don’t know.” Rumsfeld was also off the mark when he predicted that the cost of the war would be paid for by Iraqi oil production.

Forty months later and the war drags on at an estimated cost of seven billion dollars a month!

The cost in blood is much higher, with no end in sight.

The big lie used as an excuse to continue the Viet Nam War was, “there is a light at the end of the tunnel.” The new lie updated for the 21st century is, “progress is being made.” It would seem that General Shinseki was correct, and that Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are lying bastard chickenhawks.

This is nothing new in US history.

At the outset of the American Civil War there was another truth teller who was ridiculed for his honesty. General William Tecumseh Sherman’s estimates of death and destruction were thought so unreasonably high that he was said to be insane.

As the Civil War progressed, it was evident that Sherman’s estimates had been low, but were still more accurate than any others. The first half of the Civil War went poorly for the Union due to incompetent military leaders. Even handicapped with poor leaders, the outcome was mathematically inevitable with a Union population of 22 million vs. only 6 million in The Confederacy.

Once events began to favor the Union, former pessimists began to clamor for the total destruction of The Confederacy. They were in effect, the 19th century chickenhawks.

To them Gen. Sherman had this to say. “It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”

Perhaps the Whitehouse should pay more attention to history than to their oil industry lobbyists?

What do you think? Comments from service men and women, and veterans, are especially welcome. Send to contact@militaryproject.org. Name, I.D., withheld on request. Replies confidential.

OCCUPATION REPORT

U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;
RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

Foreign fighter from the U.S. Army occupying an Iraqi citizen’s home in Ramadi, June 21, 2006. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)

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

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

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

9000 To 1

National Council of Arab Americans (NCA) [Excerpt]

The Israeli government claims to be “searching” for one occupying soldier – what about the nearly 9,000 current Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prison camps?

Under its illegal occupation, the Israeli government continues to imprison over 9,000 Palestinians, all systematically jailed, tortured or held hostage – the majority without even a farce of a trial.

Since 1967 alone, over 650,000 Palestinians have been detained, amounting to 40% of the male population of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza Strip. Who in the international community is searching for them?

The Israeli government, a nuclear power with an unmatched US-supplied arsenal, is claiming to seek “security”. From whom, we ask?

The population under attack is the most impoverished in the region.

Nearly all were made refugees at least once as a result of their expulsion by Zionist forces from their homes in 1948, when 75% of the Palestinians were made homeless and Zionist colonists occupied 78% of Palestine.

Many are refugees twice, the second time when they were dispossessed in 1967. Some are three and four times refugees, as they are made homeless by U.S.-supplied and sanctioned bulldozers time and time again, up to this very day as they continue to face the Zionist colonial occupation of their land.

[To check out what life is like under a murderous military occupation by foreign terrorists, go to: www.rafahtoday.org The occupied nation is Palestine. The foreign terrorists call themselves “Israeli.”]

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

BUSH OPPOSES MARRIAGE BETWEEN A MAN AND A FLAG

June 30, 2006 Borowtiz Report

In what many political observers believe could become an effective wedge issue in the 2006 midterm elections, President George W. Bush today proposed a constitutional amendment banning marriage between a man and a flag.

In a nationally televised address from the Oval Office, the president said that the proposed amendment was intended to protect two embattled American institutions: traditional marriage, and the American flag.

“We must define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, and not between a man and a flag,” Mr. Bush said. “Additionally, just as we seek to protect flags from being burned, we must protect them from being married.”

The president’s proposal seemed intended to cause trouble among congressional Democrats, many of whom have no stated opinion on the issue of man-flag unions.

But 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry was quick out of the box in response to the president’s speech, telling reporters, “Before the end of the day, I intend to have at least three or four different positions on this issue.”

On the other side of the aisle, Mr. Bush’s proposed amendment received immediate support from Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Penn), who suggested expanding its scope to ban marriage between a man and any inanimate object.

“We should not only forbid marriage between a man and a flag, we should also forbid it between a man and an inflatable love-doll,” he said, adding quickly, “Not that I know about that sort of thing.”

[Thanks to David Honish, Veterans For Peace, who sent this in.]

OCCUPATION ISN’T LIBERATION
BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

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

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