Print it out: color best. Pass it on.GI Special: thomasfbarton@earthlink.net 2.17.08

GI SPECIAL 6B11:

“The Policy Of Not Letting Medevac Crews

Launch To Save Soldiers Dishonors Their Sacred And Honored Tradition”

Letters To The Editor February 18, 2008 Army Times

I was shocked at the policy that delayed immediate reaction of medical evacuation aircraft. Soldiers have always known that when they give the call, Medevac would be there. This was the great tradition and legacy from Vietnam that gave us such heroes as Maj. Charles L. Kelly, Maj. Patrick H. Brady and Chief Warrant Officer Michael J. Novosel. We often hear of the “golden hour” in which if you can treat the soldier and keep him alive, his chances of survival increase greatly. The Medevac trip may take 20 to 30 minutes, and an additional delay of 25 minutes waiting for gunship support could well put treatment outside of the critical time period. My son was shot through both legs flying an OH-58D over Tal Afar, Iraq, in 2005. His pilot-in-command, who was flying, was shot through the neck and rendered unconscious. He called for Medevac and they coordinated a rendezvous at a landing site. As the Medevac approached, it was met with withering fire and had to alter its approach path. After picking up the wounded crew, the Medevac crew realized the aircraft would not make it to the hospital. They arranged to meet another Medevac and transfer the soldiers. Had it not been for the Medevac crew’s rapid response and their refusal to abandon the approach and mission while under intense fire, my son may well have died. The policy of not letting Medevac crews launch to save soldiers dishonors their sacred and honored tradition: “When I have your wounded.” Chief Warrant Officer 4 James V. Torney (ret.) Huntsville, Ala. MORE:

“There Is A Huge Problem In The Army These Days:

Something I’ve Learned To Call ‘Top-Down Leadership’”

“The ‘I’m Smart, You’re Dumb’ Mentality That So Many Leaders

Assume When They Attain Their Duty Position”

“My Leadership Is Scared To Rock The Boat — Scared To Get A Bad Bullet On An Evaluation Report”

I have spent the last four months of this 15-month deployment in a state of frustration as decisions, which should be mine to make, or should at least have input from the lower echelons of unit leadership, are made by “smarter, more qualified” folks: the brass. After all, how many of these decision makers have been a squad leader in combat? How many have been an infantry platoon leader? Letters To The Editor February 18, 2008 Army Times This letter is in response to Chief Warrant Officer 3 Eric V. Brodeur’s letter (“Deadly Delays,” Feb. 4). There is a huge problem in the Army these days: something I’ve learned to call “top-down leadership.” It’s the inability of today’s Army leadership to effectively receive input from subordinate leaders and base decisions on this information. It leads to inefficiency as a unit and frustration at the lower levels. It is something that hinders today’s fighting men on a daily basis; in Brodeur’s case, with fatal results. I have spent the last four months of this 15-month deployment in a state of frustration as decisions, which should be mine to make, or should at least have input from the lower echelons of unit leadership, are made by “smarter, more qualified” folks: the brass. Maybe they are scared of taking casualties, maybe it’s because they have been to some counterinsurgency or other related course, or maybe it’s the “I’m smart, you’re dumb” mentality that so many leaders assume when they attain their duty position. I’m not too sure. I am an infantry squad leader in a Stryker outfit, and I know with a little more humility, someone might listen to the ideas put out by us at the tip of the spear.

After all, how many of these decision makers have been a squad leader in combat? How many have been an infantry platoon leader? It is very hard to get ideas pushed up to the top because my leadership is scared to rock the boat — scared to get a bad bullet on an evaluation report. I applaud Brodeur’s courage to literally fly in the face of a flawed policy to save his brothers. After all, isn’t it Medevac’s mission to fly into dangerous places to evacuate casualties? As an infantryman, I appreciate more than most in the Army, and more than most of the brass in my unit, the importance of getting a bird in the air to pick up my fallen comrades. I patrol daily in southern Baghdad and dread the day something happens to one of my soldiers, many of whom are married and have children. To tell their families they did not survive due to a flawed policy made by a much “smarter, more qualified” policymaker would break my heart. From his letter, it sounds like a burden that brave pilot will have to bear for the rest of his life. One day soon, these leaders will have to retire, leaving the Army in the very capable hands of today’s best and brightest. Men and women who have served a large part of their careers in Iraq and Afghanistan will be stepping up to take control of these units. They will have the ability to think outside the box, adapt to changing situations and, more important, listen to their subordinates. I thank Brodeur for what he does and what he has done. Staff Sgt. Billy Myers Baghdad

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

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

Quit Whining About Dead U.S. Troops & Iraqis:

The Surge Is A Piece Of Cake

Iraq’s Occupation collaborator Prime Minister al-Maliki (C) cuts a cake during a ceremony marking the first anniversary of the surge in Baghdad February 15, 2008. REUTERS/Iraqi Government Office/Handout

Occupation Forces Give Resistance Another Helping Hand:

U.S. Air Strike Kills More Collaborators 02/16/2008 By Alexandra Zavis, Los Angeles Times BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three neighborhood security guards were killed and two others injured when U.S. attack helicopters fired at their checkpoint south of Baghdad early Friday, Iraqi police said. It was the latest in a series of reports about errant strikes that have stoked tensions between the citizens security groups in central and northern Iraq, and their U.S. backers. Sheik Mohammed Ghuriari, who heads the so-called Awakening Councils that supply fighters to protect neighborhoods in the north of Babil province, said it was the third U.S.-led strike on their checkpoints in less than two months. He claimed 19 people had been killed and 14 injured. “The U.S. forces should learn from their mistakes,” Ghuriari said in a telephone interview.

“Such repeated attacks will make the Awakening Councils review their stance in the agreements they signed with the U.S. forces.” In Friday’s incident, the U.S. military said attack helicopters fired rockets at a building near Jurf al-Sukr after U.S. forces in the area were attacked with small-arms fire. U.S. commanders have asked them to wear special T-shirts and reflective belts to help distinguish them from the insurgents they fight. But the citizens’ groups, whose members have swelled to more than 80,000 in the past year, say there are not enough of the outfits to go around. Friday’s strike was the second apparent case of mistaken identity in three days. An Awakening Council in Zab said four of its members were killed when attack helicopters fired at a house in the area about 20 miles southwest of Kirkuk during raids late Wednesday and early Thursday. Two women were also killed.

ENOUGH OF THIS SHIT: ALL HOME NOW

US soldiers patrol the Baghdad neighborhood of Jisr Majid on February 9. (AFP/File/Ali

Yussef)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Italian Soldier Killed, Another Wounded Near Rudbar

Feb 13 ROME (AFP) One Italian soldier was killed and another wounded Wednesday in a clash with insurgents in Afghanistan, the Italian defence ministry said in a statement. The incident happened near Rudbar, some 60 kilometres (35 miles) from the capital Kabul, it said. Italian troops “were engaged in civilian and military cooperation and aid to the local population” when they were “targeted with light weapons from hostile elements, to which they responded.” During the exchange, one Italian soldier died and another was slightly wounded,” the defence ministry added.

Resistance Action Feb 12 (AFP) & February 13, 2008 (CNN) & (Xinhua) & 02/14/08 (AFP) A remote controlled roadside bomb struck the vehicle of Afghan militia soldiers hired by NATO forces in eastern Khost province, killing two militiamen, the provincial governor told AFP. The blast killed two soldiers and their vehicle was destroyed in the attack in Alishir district, governor Arsala Jamal said. The Talibans Mujahid claimed responsibility for the blast and said four soldiers were killed in the incident. Three Afghan National Army ‘‘ANA’’ soldiers were killed and three more injured as an ANA vehicle was struck by a roadside mine while patrolling in southern Afghanistan’s Musa Qala district Wednesday morning, the district chief said. Musa Qala, a known Taliban heartland in Afghanistan’s troubled Helmand province, was regained by Afghan government forces during an early December major offensive launched with assistance from foreign troops. Haji Abdul Salam, known as Mullah Salam, a newly appointed district chief of Musa Qala, confirmed the fresh bombing with Xinhua, saying Afghan security forces started a search operation in the area following the incident, but so far they have not made any arrest.

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

On Tuesday, a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan struck a vehicle carrying Afghan security guards working for the U.S. military. Two guards were killed and another wounded, authorities said. The guards were on their way from a district in Khost province to their outpost along the country’s border with Pakistan, said Arsala Jamal, the province’s governor. Mohammad Ayoub, the police chief of the province, said the guards were tribal militia members paid and equipped by the U.S. military to fight alongside coalition forces In recent months, attacks have shot up against coalition and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan -- with militants often using roadside bombs to target them. The ultra nationalist Taliban movement, which governed Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, confirmed it was behind the bomb that struck a truck delivering sand to a construction site in Helmand province, also in the south. Spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi said the bomb killed 10 people working for the Afghan and international military.

Kabul: The Occupiers Live In Fear

February 16, 2008 By Pamela Constable, Washington Post Foreign Service [Excerpts] KABUL, Feb. 15 -- With its fortress-like outer walls and posh interior, its sumptuous brunches and post-sauna massages, the Kabul Serena Hotel was a symbol of both progress and privilege -- a haven for foreign visitors in a harsh, unfamiliar environment and an inaccessible tower for most poor Afghans. Today, a month after a team of bombers penetrated the Serena, killing seven people, the five-star hotel has become a symbol of something else: the deepening perception of lawlessness and insecurity in and beyond the capital that both Afghans and expatriates say has left them more fearful than at any time since the overthrow of Taliban rule in 2001. Several restaurants catering to Western aid workers, diplomats and others have been closed or sold, while those that remain open are mostly empty, nearly all embassies and international agencies having placed their non-Afghan employees under lockdown orders since the Serena attack. Security barricades and roadblocks have been erected throughout the capital, further shielding government and international compounds but also angering the public as traffic jams thicken and traditional sidewalk bazaars, where thousands of poor Afghans buy and sell used clothing and cheap supplies, are pushed out of the city center. Business owners, trying to fend off panic, have taken extraordinary security measures, hiring teams of commando-trained guards and installing multiple barriers. The owners of one artsy bistro, the Kabul Cafe, dragged a massive shipping container across its front

gate, through which guests must now pass en route to the cappuccino bar and WiFi zone. “This is a war, and we cannot give in, or they will have won,” said Sher Dil Qaderi, who returned from two decades abroad to open the cafe. “Everyone is trying to sell, but I refuse to leave. Afghanistan has been facing a violent rural insurgency by revived Taliban forces for the past two years, but the recent increase in bombings in the capital, coupled with a sharp rise in organized crime and the deteriorating security and political situation in next-door Pakistan, has left people here feeling almost as vulnerable as they did during the civil war of the early 1990s. Private investment, which had gradually climbed to about $1 billion by 2006, has now plummeted to half that level, according to the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency. The organization cited lack of security and crime as the major reasons for the drop, followed by corruption and bureaucratic obstacles. In addition to foreigners, Afghans in the capital are also coming under threat, especially those associated with international groups. Employees of foreign aid [translation: occupation] organizations or news agencies have received warnings to quit. Last week, several such Afghans who previously had been willing to be identified asked not to be named now. Others said they had sent their families to Pakistan as a safety precaution. “We are all afraid now,” said one Afghan who works for an international agency. “I have lived here all my life, and now for the first time I am thinking of sending my children out of the country. I have seen a lot of war and violence, and I don’t want them to experience that.” In one highly publicized incident last month, a former militia leader, Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, allegedly broke into the Kabul residence of a former aide while drunk and brutally assaulted the man and his family. Police surrounded Dostum’s home but were later called off after the ethnic Uzbek strongman, a key figure in the power-sharing negotiations that established the U.N.-backed government of President Hamid Karzai in 2002, reportedly complained to friendly diplomats. Karzai, in an interview last week in his heavily guarded palace, expressed anger and frustration at the ability of well-connected criminals to defy the law. “This culture of impunity has to stop,” he said. “I can live with undue influence, because it is part of this arrangement we have. But we cannot tolerate and protect criminals, or the whole arrangement will lose its moral existence. We are running out of options.” Outside the capital, attacks by insurgents have continued despite the unusually harsh winter. In Kabul, there is now a palpable fear that another bomb may explode or another victim may be snatched off the street. The Serena Hotel has reopened, but it is surrounded by more guards, more barricades and a wide police cordon, all sapping the once-teeming area of its spirit.

TROOP NEWS

SUPPORT IRAQ VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR

AT FORT HOOD, TEXAS

House Party To Benefit IVAW Chapter 38 At Ft. Hood:

February 22nd

8:30pm 4107 Wildwood Road,

Austin, TX 78722

Featuring Fort Hood veterans and family members with an appearance by Scott Ritter. $10 suggested donation includes food and soft drinks (please bring other beverages). Music by Bill Passalacqua.

Also:

February 22nd

Scott Ritter: What Mainstream Media Don’t Tell Us About Iran, Iraq and U.S. Foreign Policy

7:30pm Friends Meeting House,

3701 E. MLK, Jr. Blvd. Austin, TX

$10 suggested donation at the door.

Join former UN weapons inspector SCOTT RITTER for a discussion on the corporate media’s coverage of the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the Bush administration’s secret plans for the “War on Terror,” and the need for diplomacy. Event includes remarks by IVAW members, audience question and answer segment, and book signing. http://www.ustourofduty.org. Events sponsored by CodePink Austin and IVAW Chapter 38 For more information email info.@codepinkaustin.com www.codepinkaustin.com

DO YOU HAVE A FRIEND OR RELATIVE IN THE SERVICE?

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

THE NEW ISSUE OF TRAVELING SOLDIER IS OUT!

NEED SOME TRUTH? CHECK OUT TRAVELING SOLDIER

Telling the truth - about the occupation or the criminals running the government in Washington - is the first reason for Traveling Soldier. But we want to do more

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

THIS ISSUE FEATURES: 1. “I, personally, don’t believe in fighting for the profit of a handful of people. I also don’t believe in fighting for a government that is willing, if not eager, to f--- its own people over” says a soldier stationed in Kirkuk, Iraq. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/2.08.halliburton.php 2. “Not us. We’re not going.” – A Unit Revolts http://www.traveling-soldier.org/2.08.revolts.php 3. Moving Forward Together - IVAW member Liam Madden explains why building a grassroots GI movement, not voting for a pro-occupation presidential candidate, will bring the troops home. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/2.08.liam.php 4. “The first time I put on that uniform I hoped I would wear it with honor. On Sept. 15, I finally did,” says Iraq veteran Michael Prysner at an anti-war protest. http://www.traveling-soldier.org/2.08.prysner.php 5. While Bush’s Buddies Cash In On the War, Pentagon Scum Won’t Supply Wounded Female Troops With Clothes, Forcing Them to Beg Civilians for Help http://www.traveling-soldier.org/2.08.female.php 6. Download, print, and distribute this issue at your school, anti-

war group, base, or armory: http://www.traveling-soldier.org/TS16.pdf

Injured Soldiers At Fort Drum “Having To Drag Themselves Up And Down The Hallways, As The Barracks

Were Not Handicapped Or Wheelchair Accessible”

A “Soldier Found In The Barracks Who Had Been Bedridden For Three Days

Without A Change Of Clothing Or Meals” [Thanks to Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in.] February 15, 2008 ERIC RUDER, Socialist Worker [Excerpts] [A] four-page document written by one of the VA officials at Fort Drum ….. clearly states that an Army colonel told the VA staff at the meeting that VA support for soldiers filling out their paperwork is “a conflict of interest,” though the nature of the “conflict” is not spelled out. The memo quotes Rosie Taylor--who at the time was Fort Drum’s Disability Program manager and has since retired--saying she witnessed incidents of injured soldiers at Fort Drum “having to drag themselves up and down the hallways, as the barracks were not handicapped or wheelchair accessible.” Taylor also told the story of a “soldier found in the barracks who had been bedridden for three days without a change of clothing or meals.” And she described the general disrepair of the medical-hold barracks, including “non-functional furnaces, shared shower facilities, poor insulation, etc.” In an interview with NPR, Taylor said that before the scandal documenting the harrowing conditions at Walter Reed, no one took any interest in her repeated requests for improving conditions for wounded soldiers at Fort Drum. “Every time I walked into a meeting before, it was like, ‘Oh my God, there goes $70,000,’“ Taylor told NPR. “And after Walter Reed hit the fan, it was like I was getting phone calls, ‘Rosie, we’re doing over a building, and we need your advice on access.’“ The signature injury of the U.S. war on Iraq is traumatic brain injury (TBI)--typically the result of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) going off. In the opinion of many advocates for soldiers suffering these conditions, the military and the VA have a long way to go to address their injuries. “The VA has not implemented ways to properly screen for and treat TBI,” according to [Adrienne Kinne, northeast regional coordinator of Iraq Veterans Against the War]. “The military is not screening for it, and they are sending people back out again and again who have been exposed to concussive forces. This makes it more likely

for them to miss cues in the field that means they could be exposed to additional IED blasts.”

GI SPECIALS BY MAIL FREE FOR ACTIVE DUTY TROOPS

IF YOU WISH TO HAVE A SELECTION OF GI SPECIALS MAILED TO YOU, EMAIL YOUR ADDRESS TO: CONTACT@MILITARYPROJECT.ORG OR DROP A LINE TO: BOX 126, 2576 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10025-5657 USA Please say how many you wish sent. NOTE WELL: They will all be different issues of GI Special to satisfy DOD regs that you may possess copies, provided you don’t have more than one of the same issue. “The single largest failure of the anti-war movement at this point is the lack of outreach to the troops.” Tim Goodrich, Iraq Veterans Against The War “The military are the final, essential weak point of Bush and Cheney.” David McReynolds 9.29.07

NOT ANOTHER DAY NOT ANOTHER DOLLAR

NOT ANOTHER LIFE

An Army honor guard carries the casket of Army Sgt. John Carl Osmolski during funeral services at Arlington National Cemetery Feb. 15, 2008. Osmolski, of Eustis, Fla. was killed earlier this month from an explosive in Muqdadiyah, Iraq. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)

FIGHT HIM NOW, OR HE’LL FOLLOW YOU HOME

Thanks to SSGT N [ret’d] who sent this in. Charles Dharapak/Associated Press

Corps Commands’ Stupidity & Greed Murdered Marines:

“Hundreds Have Been Killed Or Injured By Roadside Bombs

Because Marine Corps Bureaucrats Refused An Urgent Request In 2005 From Battlefield Commanders For Blast-Resistant

Vehicles” “The Existence Of Corrupted MRAP Processes Is Likely, And Worthy Of (Inspector General) Investigation”

“In Late November, The Marine Corps Announced It Would Buy 2,300 MRAPs -

1,400 Fewer Than Planned” [Thanks to Elaine Brower, The Military Project, who sent this in.] Stateside authorities saw the hulking vehicles, which can cost as much as a $1 million each, as a financial threat to programs aimed at developing lighter vehicles that were years from being fielded. Feb 16 By RICHARD LARDNER, Associated Press Writer [Excerpts] WASHINGTON (AP) -- Hundreds of U.S. Marines have been killed or injured by roadside bombs in Iraq because Marine Corps bureaucrats refused an urgent request in 2005 from battlefield commanders for blast-resistant vehicles, an internal military study concludes.

The study, written by a civilian Marine Corps official [actually a former Marine Corps officer who spent six months in Iraq] and obtained by The Associated Press, accuses the service of “gross mismanagement” that delayed deliveries of the mine-resistant, ambush-protected trucks for more than two years. Cost was a driving factor in the decision to turn down the request for the so-called MRAPs, according to the study. Stateside authorities saw the hulking vehicles, which can cost as much as a $1 million each, as a financial threat to programs aimed at developing lighter vehicles that were years from being fielded. The study’s author, Franz J. Gayl, catalogs what he says were flawed decisions and missteps by midlevel managers in Marine Corps offices that occurred well before Gates replaced Donald Rumsfeld in December 2006. An urgent February 2005 request for MRAPs got lost in bureaucracy. It was signed by then-Brig. Gen. Dennis Hejlik, who asked for 1,169 of the vehicles. The Marines could not continue to take “serious and grave casualties” caused by IEDs when a solution was commercially available, wrote Hejlik, who was a commander in western Iraq from June 2004 to February 2005. Gayl cites documents showing Hejlik’s request was shuttled to a civilian logistics official at the Marine Corps Combat Development Command in suburban Washington who had little experience with military vehicles. As a result, there was more concern over how the MRAP would upset the Marine Corps’ supply and maintenance chains than there was in getting the troops a truck that would keep them alive, the study contends. The Marine Corps’ acquisition staff didn’t give top leaders correct information. Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, was not told of the gravity of Hejlik’s MRAP request and the real reasons it was shelved, Gayl writes. That resulted in Conway giving “inaccurate and incomplete” information to Congress about why buying MRAPs was not hotly pursued. The Marine Corps’ acquisition staff didn’t give top leaders correct information. Gen. James Conway, the Marine Corps commandant, was not told of the gravity of Hejlik’s MRAP request and the real reasons it was shelved, Gayl writes. That resulted in Conway giving “inaccurate and incomplete” information to Congress about why buying MRAPs was not hotly pursued. The Combat Development Command, which decides what gear to buy, treated the MRAP as an expensive obstacle to long-range plans for equipment that was more mobile and fit into the Marines Corps’ vision as a rapid reaction force. Those projects included a Humvee replacement called the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle and a new vehicle for reconnaissance and surveillance missions. The MRAPs didn’t meet this fast-moving standard and so the Combat Development Command didn’t want to buy them, according to Gayl. The study calls this approach a “Cold War orientation” that suffocates the ability to react to emergency situations. An inquiry should be conducted by the Marine Corps inspector general to determine if any military or government employees are culpable for failing to rush

critical gear to the troops, recommends Gayl, who prepared the study for the Marine Corps’ plans, policies and operations department. “If the mass procurement and fielding of MRAPs had begun in 2005 in response to the known and acknowledged threats at that time, as the (Marine Corps) is doing today, hundreds of deaths and injuries could have been prevented,” writes Gayl, the science and technology adviser to Lt. Gen. Richard Natonski, who heads the department. “While the possibility of individual corruption remains undetermined, the existence of corrupted MRAP processes is likely, and worthy of (inspector general) investigation.” Gayl cites a March 1, 2007, memo from Conway to Gen. Peter Pace, then the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in which Conway said 150 service members were killed and an additional 1,500 were seriously injured in the prior nine months by IEDs while traveling in vehicles. The MRAP, Conway told Pace, could reduce IED casualties in vehicles by 80 percent. He told Pace an urgent request for the vehicles was submitted by a Marine commander in May 2006. No mention is made of Hejlik’s call more than a year before. One section of Gayl’s study analyzes a letter Conway sent in late July 2007 to Sens. Joseph Biden, D-Del., and Kit Bond, R-Mo., two critics of delays in sending equipment to Iraq. More heavily armored Humvees were determined to be the best response to the 2005 MRAP request, the commandant told the senators. He also said the industrial capacity to build MRAPs in large numbers “did not exist” when the request was submitted. Additionally, although the trucks had been fielded in small numbers, they were not adequately tested and exhibited reliability problems, the letter said. The letter to the senators is evidence of the “bad advice” senior Marine Corps leaders receive, Gayl contends. The letter, he says, portions of which were probably drafted by the Combat Development Command, omitted that the urgent 2005 request from the Iraq battlefield specifically asked for MRAPs - and not more heavily armored Humvees. It also ignored the Marines’ own findings that armored Humvees wouldn’t stop IEDs. Conway’s assertion there was a lack of manufacturing capacity to build MRAPs is “inexplicable,” Gayl says. Manufacturers would have hurried production if they knew the Marines wanted them and any reliability issues would have been resolved, he says.

In late November, the Marine Corps announced it would buy 2,300 MRAPs - 1,400 fewer than planned. A former Marine officer, Gayl spent nearly six months in Iraq in 2006 and 2007 as an adviser to leaders of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force. Gayl filed for whistle-blower protection in May with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. He said he was threatened with disciplinary action after meeting with congressional staff on Capitol Hill.

“More Than Half Who Took Their Own Lives After Returning From Iraq Or Afghanistan Were Members Of The

National Guard Or Reserves” February 12, 2008 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS [Excerpts] WASHINGTON:- More than half of all veterans who took their own lives after returning from Iraq or Afghanistan were members of the National Guard or Reserves, according to new government data that prompted activists on Tuesday to call for a closer examination of the problem. A Department of Veterans Affairs analysis of ongoing research of deaths among veterans of both wars -- obtained by The Associated Press -- found that Guard or Reserve members accounted for 53 percent of the veteran suicides from 2001, when the war in Afghanistan began, through the end of 2005. At certain times in 2005, members of the Guard and Reserve made up nearly half the troops fighting in Iraq. Overall, they were nearly 28 percent of all U.S. military forces deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan or in support of the operations, according to Defense Department data through the end of 2007. Many Guard members and Reservists have done multiple tours that kept them away from home for 18 months, and that is taking a toll, Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said in a statement Tuesday. Suicide among the newer veterans is comparable to the same demographic group in the general population. Among the total population of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who have been discharged from the military, nearly half are formerly regular military and a little more than half were in the Guard and Reserves, according to the VA.

IRAQ RESISTANCE ROUNDUP

“Long Live Azamiyah’s Rebels” [Get The Message?]

Iraqi soldiers stand by a graffiti in neighborhood of Azamiyah in Baghdad, Iraq, Saturday, Feb. 16, 2008. The graffiti reads: ‘Long live Azamiyah’s rebels.’ (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed )

Resistance Action Feb. 11, 2008 AP & Reuters & 12 Feb 2008 Reuters & 14 Feb 2008 Reuters & Feb 16 Reuters & DPA A couple claiming to be journalists was stopped by police at the checkpoint Sunday and who detonated the car after police demanded to search it. Three policemen were killed and five were wounded, police in Fallujah said. One policeman and seven insurgents were killed in clashes in Shirqat, 300 km (190 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Three neighbourhood patrol policemen were wounded. A car bomb wounded three policemen and two civilians on Monday when it exploded near a police station in the Doura district of southern Baghdad, police said.

A member of the U.S.-funded Anbar awakening council, Ahmed Mahmoud al-Nattah, survived an assassination attempt when guerrillas opened fire and wounded two of his guards near Ramadi, 110 km (68 miles) west of Baghdad, police said. One Iraqi soldier was wounded in clashes in western Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a military spokesman in Nineveh province said. The head of the U.S.-funded Rapid Reaction Forces in Wasit Province was wounded when nationalists attacked his convoy near the city of Kut, 170 km (105 miles) southeast of Baghdad, police said. They also shot dead a member of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood police patrol in a drive-by shooting in the town of Hawija, 70 km (40 miles) southwest of Kirkuk, police said. A roadside bomb exploded near the convoy of the police chief of the town of Baaj, 150 km (90 miles) west of Mosul, wounding him along with three of his security guards, police said. A car bomber at a checkpoint manned by U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol policemen killed one and wounded four others including two civilians on Friday in Ghazaliya district, in western Baghdad, police said. A parked car bomb struck at a passing police patrol injuring two police officers in Baghdad. Guerrillas killed a member of a U.S.-backed neighbourhood patrol in central Samarra, 100 km (62 miles) north of Baghdad, police said. Militants killed the army officer in Mafraq district in Baquba, some 60 kilometres north of the capital, the Voices of Iraq (VOI) news agency said. In southern Baquba, two policemen were injured when an explosive device was detonated targeting a military vehicle. In Kirkuk, some 250 kilometres north of Baghdad, two police officers were injured when an explosives-laden vehicle detonated targeting their patrol, VOI reported.

IF YOU DON’T LIKE THE RESISTANCE END THE OCCUPATION

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS “What country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.” Thomas Jefferson to William Stephens Smith, 1787.

“The mighty are only mighty because we are on our knees. Let us rise!” -- Camille Desmoulins One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions. Mike Hastie U.S. Army Medic Vietnam 1970-71 December 13, 2004

February 15, 2003: The Anniversary Of The Single Largest

Day Of Protest In World History

Carl Bunin Peace History February 11-17 In the single largest day of protest in world history, millions on 6 continents demonstrated against the U.S./U.K. plans to invade Iraq.

Reported totals included 1 to 2 million in London and Rome; 1.3 million in Barcelona, Spain (a city of 1.5 million); 500,000 each in Berlin, Paris, Madrid, and New York. Smaller demonstrations were held in over 600 cities and towns across the US, including tens of thousands in several cities, and 150,000 the following day in San Francisco. Totals estimated: 25 million in more than 100 countries.

OCCUPATION REPORT

60% Of Iraqis Want U.S. Troops Dead:

Big Surprise

Women mourn by the bodies of an Iraqi man and wife killed when foreign occupation soldiers from the U.S. stormed their house in the village of Adwar, 15 kilometers (10 miles) south of Tikrit, Feb. 5, 2008. Couples teenage son was killed also and two daughters were wounded , one of them died later on. (AP Photo/Hameed Rasheed) [61% of Iraqis say they approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces in their country, up from 47 percent in January. A solid majority of Shiite and Sunni Arabs approved of the attacks, according to the poll. 9/27/2006 By BARRY SCHWEID, AP & Program on International Policy Attitudes

[Iraqis feel about U.S. troops trampling them in the dirt the same way Americans felt about British troops trampling them in the dirt in 1776. They are right to resist by any means necessary. T]

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

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Welcome To The Occupied USA: “The Authorities Have Become

Accustomed To Treating Disadvantaged Young People In New York City Like Dirt And Getting Away

With It” “They Refused To Plead Guilty To

Something They Hadn’t Done. Ten Of Them Are Still Paying The Price For

Standing Up For Themselves” It was not the kids who were out of control, it was the criminal justice system, which can’t seem to tell the difference between right and wrong, between the truth and deliberate lies, or between justice on the one hand and gratuitously cruel behavior by public officials on the other. February 16, 2008 By BOB HERBERT, The New York Times Company It happened last spring. The police commissioner’s office and a New York City police captain tried to convince the public that a marauding band of kids had gotten out of control and terrified residents, motorists and pedestrians on a street in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn. The cops were wrong.

And they must have known that they were wrong, that the picture they were creating of youngsters climbing on top of cars and blocking vehicular and pedestrian traffic was completely false. The Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, carried the canard further. That had to have been deliberate, too. He went on the Brian Lehrer radio program on WNYC and said that his office had investigated the matter — had conducted what he described as an “independent inquiry.” “We had many, many interviews with local store owners and people who live in the neighborhood who are, frankly, scared to death of these kids,” he said. “And they were not just walking on one car; they were trampling on all sorts of cars. It was almost as if they were inviting their arrest.” Thirty-two people were arrested on that Bushwick street last May 21, including young women and children. They had been walking along a quiet, tree-lined block of Putnam Avenue on their way to a subway station where they had hoped to catch a train to attend a wake for a friend who had been murdered. The police, who have said that the friend was a gang leader, surrounded the group and closed in. The youngest person arrested was 13. All of the kids were handcuffed, cursed at and humiliated, and several spent 30 hours or more in jail. To date, there has been no evidence produced — no witnesses, no photographs or videotapes, no dented vehicles or broken mirrors, nothing whatsoever — to indicate that any of the youngsters had done anything at all that was wrong. How is it that you can have a rampage in broad daylight on a street in New York City and not be able to show in any way that the rampage occurred? At least 22 of the 32 people arrested have had their charges dismissed or were never formally charged at all. No one has been convicted of anything. The case against 18-year-old Zezza Anderson was dropped last month after his lawyer, Ron Kuby, filed a motion demanding that Mr. Hynes’s office produce documentary evidence of the youngsters misbehaving. No evidence was produced. Instead, an assistant district attorney moved to have the charges against Mr. Anderson dismissed, acknowledging that the case against the defendant could not be proved. I’d like to know why, after the better part of a year, the authorities are still tormenting some of these kids. Why are charges still hanging over 10 of them? Why should it take more than nine months to resolve charges of unlawful assembly and disorderly conduct?

A number of the kids have missed days at school to show up for court dates at which nothing of consequence happens. Asher Callender, a senior at Bushwick Community High School, had to go to court on Friday, only to have his case postponed again until March 3. These are not gangsters. These are not drug dealers. These are kids who were trying to go to a wake for a friend. It was not the kids who were out of control, it was the criminal justice system, which can’t seem to tell the difference between right and wrong, between the truth and deliberate lies, or between justice on the one hand and gratuitously cruel behavior by public officials on the other. All the charges in this case should be dropped and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who apparently wants to be mayor of this city, and District Attorney Hynes should offer the kids a public apology. The authorities have become accustomed to treating disadvantaged young people in New York City like dirt and getting away with it. In this case, local school officials, community residents and the civic group Make the Road New York rallied to the youngsters’ cause. Neither the police nor the district attorney expected to be confronted in any kind of sustained way over their treatment of these kids. Mr. Hynes said on the radio program: “None of these kids are going to be prosecuted. They’re not going to go to jail ... We are going to offer every one of them community service.” What he meant was that he expected the kids to go quietly, to plead guilty and passively accept the blot on their records and what he thought of as mild punishment. But the kids had a surprise for him. They refused to plead guilty to something they hadn’t done. Ten of them are still paying the price for standing up for themselves.

Super-Rich Polo-Loving Banker Rolling In Money Thanks To

Chavez Regime:

“I Am A Socialist In The Real Sense Of The Word,” He Says: “Mr. Vargas’s Success Highlights The Durability Of The Country’s

Elites No Matter Who Is In Power” “Despite His Socialist Rhetoric, Mr. Chavez Has A Lot In Common With Leaders Past”

Mr. Vargas’s high-level government contacts have attracted critics who say he’s suddenly become rich as Mr. Chavez’s banker. January 29, 2008 By John Lyons, Wall Street Journal Victor Vargas is a polo-playing banker who zips between his six homes in a fleet of luxury jets. So you might expect him to be struggling in today’s Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez has vowed to build a classless society. But Mr. Vargas, 55 years old, hasn’t missed a beat. His Banco Occidental de Descuento is expanding amid an oil-fueled economic surge. Like other bankers, he snares profits dealing in a flood of government-issued debt. And the Chavez years have done little to damp Mr. Vargas’s exuberance for the trappings of wealth. People write stories about me saying I have a Ferrari, a plane, a yacht, he said during an interview at one of his homes, in the posh Country Club neighborhood of Caracas. But it’s not true. I’ve got three planes, two yachts, six houses. I’ve been rich all my life! Mr. Vargas, a dapper, meticulous man, is thriving without even a nod to Mr. Chavez’s socialist nostrums. At the wedding party he threw for his daughter at his Dominican Republic mansion in 2004, more than 1,000 guests dined on platters prepared by New York’s Le Cirque restaurant and grooved to a show by Grammy-winning Latin pop artist Juan Luis Guerra. The groom, Luis Alfonso de Bourbon, is the great-grandson of the Spanish fascist Francisco Franco. Tracing his fathers bloodlines, Mr. de Bourbon claims he is the rightful

King of France (Luis XX, to be exact), according to his biography, A King Without a Throne. The weddings guest list illustrated Mr. Vargas’s skill for nurturing contacts across Venezuela’s polarized society. There were senior Chavez officials as well as opposition figures, such as Manuel Rosales, who ran against Mr. Chavez in 2006. Mr. Vargas’s success highlights the durability of the country’s elites no matter who is in power. Despite his socialist rhetoric, Mr. Chavez has a lot in common with leaders past. In office since 1999, Mr. Chavez is the latest in a long line of Venezuelan presidents who have spent heavily to build populist support, and then needed to use economic tactics like price controls. Venezuelan elites have learned to profit amid repeated volatility. Venezuelan government officials didn’t respond to interview requests. Venezuela has developed a special business culture, where the game is played amid high inflation and other distortions, says Venezuela-born Latin America specialist Gilbert W. Merkx, who directs the Duke University Center for International Studies. You can either get very rich or lose a lot of money playing the game, and it always gets more complicated as the distortions get worse. Right now, the game is on. Venezuela’s 22.5% inflation rate is the highest in the Western Hemisphere. Its currency has lost half its value in the past year on a thriving black market for dollars. To prevent capital flight, Mr. Chavez banned overseas money transfers and has barred Venezuela’s media from mentioning the black market. Some now call it the market that cannot be mentioned. Bankers have made money playing the huge gap between the official and the black-market exchange rates. One common way, which is legally permitted: buying dollar-bonds from the government at the official rate of 2.15 strong bolivars per dollar, and reselling them to investors for a price close to the black-market rate of 5.50 per dollar. In an economic boom, net income at Mr. Vargas’s bank has more than doubled to $150 million since 2002. Of course, making money isn’t always easy under Mr. Chavez, and it carries risk. The populist former army officer has expropriated majority stakes in oil concerns -- including one owned by Mr. Vargas -- and other assets, and routinely threatens to seize other industries. Mr. Vargas says his survival strategy is remaining agnostic about politics.

In 2002, he helped convince other bankers not to join strikes led by businesses that were aimed at ousting Mr. Chavez. As president of the banks industry association, he helps negotiate banking regulations. A businessman has to deal with his government, no matter how far to the right or left it is, he says. Mr. Vargas’s high-level government contacts have attracted critics who say he’s suddenly become rich as Mr. Chavez’s banker. Mr. Vargas says he’s only met Mr. Chavez twice, and besides, he’s always been wealthy, having owned his Dominican Republic home and others for decades. Juan Luis Guerra played at my first daughters wedding (at the start of Mr. Chavez’s presidency) too, and no one made a big deal about it, he says. Mr. Vargas is the son of a doctor and Venezuela’s first female Supreme Court justice. As a young man, he married into one of the country’s most connected families, the Santaella clan. Fellow law students at Andres Bello Catholic University remember him cruising campus in a 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra. His passion for top-of-the line toys has hardly slowed in the Chavez years. An avid pilot since his 20s, Mr. Vargas flies his ultra-long-range Gulf stream 550 when shuttling between homes. His massive yacht, Allegro, attracts society magazines when it docks at the Spanish resort of Soto Grande, where the polo team he founded and plays for sometimes competes. A reason for Mr. Vargas’s wealth is his ability to time Venezuela’s booms and busts. In 1992, he sold a small bank he helped form to Banco Latino, one of Venezuela’s biggest banks. The sale came just weeks after a young Mr. Chavez launched a failed coup attempt that marked the beginning of a volatile year. A year later, flush with some $50 million from the sale, Mr. Vargas bought a small regional bank, Banco Occidental de Descuento, known for its A-list of oil-services clients. In 1994, Banco Latino collapsed as a run on deposits exposed questionable loans. Venezuela’s currency crashed and the country fell into recession. But Mr. Vargas was fine. His new banks chief regional competitor also collapsed, and he later snapped up its customers, bringing them to Banco Occidental de Descuento. I am an intuitive guy, he says. Mr. Vargas had less success with a banking venture in New York. In the 1980s, he bought at least 21% of New York-based CapitalBanc Corp. In the early 1990s, banking authorities seized the bank and jailed several executives after discovering fraud. Mr. Vargas wasn’t accused of fraud. Authorities alleged, however, that he lied about when he discovered the misdeeds. He paid a $1.15 million fine and signed an order agreeing not to invest in U.S. banks again without written permission from U.S. authorities.

He didn’t admit or deny guilt. Mr. Vargas described the episode as the worst business of his life, the product of being naive. He has put it behind him. In October, he moderated a panel on corporate governance at a Miami conference of the Florida International Bankers Association and the Latin American Banks Federation, where he is vice president. Despite his wealth, Mr. Vargas says he is a humble man who cares deeply about Venezuela. He operates three foundations to help the poor. He says he talks to his chauffeurs and bodyguards, who he has employed for decades, in the same tone he uses with business associates. Employees at his bank get raises every year -- except for those who should be fired, he says. I am a socialist in the real sense of the word, Mr. Vargas says.

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