Print it out: color best. Pass it on.GI Special: thomasfbarton@earthlink.net 3.16.08

GI SPECIAL 6C10:

[Thanks to Phil G, who sent this in.]

Big Surprise! 3.13.08 Wall St. Journal At the five-year anniversary of the Iraq war, the conflict remains as unpopular as ever, despite the military progress of Mr. Bush’s troop buildup of the past year – of which Sen. McCain was the chief promoter.

IRAQ WAR REPORTS

NEW GENERAL ORDER NO. 1: PACK UP GO HOME

A US soldier from the 12th Field Artillery Regiment in the village of Mullah Eid, in

February 2008. (AFP/File/Patrick Baz)

St. Charles High Grad Dies In Iraq

2/22/2008 By Casey Nolen (KSDK) Students and faculty at St. Charles West High School mourned the loss of a recent graduate. On Friday, word came that Lance Corporal Drew Weaver had been killed in action, serving his country in Iraq. Weaver graduated just three years ago and was voted ‘Best Eyes’ in his senior year book. According to Assistant Principal Scott Voelkl, Weaver always supported his friends in whatever they did. “As an easy going young man, as a young man who loved life, loved seeking out adventure, when it came to life and enjoying himself, and everybody here at St. Charles West and in our community will miss him,” said Voekl. As for his own plans, Voelkl remembers as Weaver searched for what he would do after high school. Just before graduation, Weaver made up his mind to join the Marine Corps. Voelkl remembers the young man running on Zumbehl Road in the morning before school, preparing himself for boot camp. Some students at St. Charles West knew Weaver, and school administrators plan on having counselors on hand when school reopens on Monday.

North Carolina SSG Killed Near Kishkishkia

Mar 14: U.S. Army 82nd Airborne Division Paratrooper Staff Sgt. Laurent J. West, 31, of Raleigh, N.C., died of wounds sustained when his vehicle patrol hit an improvised

explosive device near Kishkishkia, Iraq. He was a Cavalry Scout with the 3rd Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team. West joined the Army in July 1993. He first enlisted into the Chemical Corps of the Army, then reclassified his military occupation specialty in August 1998 to a Cavalry Scout. (AP/U.S. Army)

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Hoosier Soldier Dies From Injuries Suffered In Afghanistan

Staff Sergeant Collin J. Bowen

March 14 MARION, Ind. (WANE) A Hoosier soldier has died from injuries recieved fighting the war on terror. Staff Sergeant Collin Bowen died early Friday morning in San Antonio, Texas. According to a posting on a web journal from his brother Justin, Bowen passed away peacefully, with his family holding his hands at his bedside. Back in January, Bowen was badly burned from a roadside bombing in Afghanistan. Since then, his brother has been keeping the web journal describing Collin’s progress and struggle in the hospital. He leaves behind a wife and three daughters. A memorial fund has been set up on his behalf at the Beacon Credit Union in Marion. You can send contributions to: Beacon Credit Union 1603 North Baldwin Ave. Marion, IN 46952.

U.S. Soldier Wounded In Al-Zab

March 14 (Reuters) A female bomber killed two people and wounded one U.S. soldier, in the town of al-Zab, 35 km (20 miles) southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, on Thursday, the U.S. military said.

Foreign Occupation Soldier Wounded Near Khost;

Nationality Not Announced 15/03/2008 Reuters One NATO soldier was wounded in a car bomb attack on a convoy of NATO-led forces in southeastern Afghanistan today on a road outside the town of Khost, close to the border with Pakistan. US troops form the bulk of foreign forces in eastern Afghanistan.

Guess Who’s In Charge In Afghanistan?

Resistance Has Forced Cell Phone Operators To Agree To Close Down Daily

5 PM to 7 AM 14 March 2008 BY PAUL VECCHIATTO , ITWEB CAPE TOWN CORRESPONDENT & MARCH 15, 2008 AlJazeera MTN Group has confirmed that the Taliban has forced cellular operators in Afghanistan to shut off their networks at night, after attacks on networks. Earlier this week, the BBC reported that cellular operators in the war-torn country had acceded to the Taliban’s demands to switch off their networks from 5pm to 7am each day. This was because the Taliban asserted that U.S., NATO and Afghanistan government troops were using the cellular networks to track their fighters. According to those reports, about 10 mobile phone towers belonging to all four of Afghanistan’s mobile phone companies have been destroyed.

The latest attack on a mobile phone tower came just before dawn on Saturday in the southern province of Kandahar, a mobile telephone company official said. MTN Group issued a statement saying: “We can confirm that there were incidents at Areeba Afghanistan’s sites in Kandahar and Zabul. However, our staff members are safe and we are monitoring the situation.” The group does not define what it meant by “incidents”. “During the day, we have problems with some Afghan forces who close down our operations because they say we shut down for the night,” the official who declined to be named said. The official said the network would continue to operate round the clock if they were guaranteed security and protection by Afghan forces. Residents from parts of Kandahar and Helmand province in the south, as well as the northern provinces of Zabul and Ghazni, say their mobile telephones do not working at night. Residents in parts of southern Afghanistan have also reported that their mobile telephones no longer work at night. The Taliban fighters, ousted from power in 2001, rely on mobile and satellite phones for communicating with each other and the media in their campaign to oust the pro- Western Afghan government. Mobile phones are virtually the only means of communication in Afghanistan. The four mobile phone operators in Afghanistan, three of which are foreign firms, have invested millions of dollars in the country since the removal of the Taliban.

TROOP NEWS

“As Soldiers, We Saw It Wasn’t About Helping Iraqis. And The

Iraqis Certainly Know That” “This War Is About Controlling Iraq’s

Oil Resources”

“Not About Liberating Anyone”

March 14, 2008, Phil Aliff, Iraq Veterans Against The War, interviewed by Socialist Worker, “Voices of the Winter Soldiers” Stationed in Baghdad; recently discharged from the 10th Mountain Division; co-founder of the IVAW chapter at Fort Drum in Watertown, N.Y.

******************************************* WHEN I was in Iraq from 2005 to 2006, we did an operation in western Baghdad, during which the Iraqi army unit we were working with was digging up a weapons cache and came under fire. One of the Iraqi army soldiers was wounded, and they fired back and wounded the Iraqi firing at them. I went into the tent to help out with any medical needs, and my first sergeant is yelling at everyone in the tent that we don’t have to treat the wounded Iraqi because we didn’t shoot him. He’s sitting there yelling about this while this guy is just laying on the table. Finally, they decide to treat him, and when the helicopter comes in to take him to the hospital in Baghdad, we’re running out to the landing zone with a stretcher. One of the flight medics jumps off and says we can’t put him on yet because we have to get the proper identification on him before we take him to Baghdad. I looked at the Iraqi guy, and he was going into shock because of a loss of blood. Because of the delays and arguing about whether to even treat him, he died. The experience really showed all of us that there is a systematic assault on the Iraqi people--and that this policy of not treating the Iraqis we don’t shoot is just one part of that. We invade a country under the banner of liberation, and we’re being told as soldiers that we’re going over there to improve these people’s lives, and then we see that we are not even treating them when they are wounded.

This isn’t the real motivation. As soldiers, we saw it wasn’t about helping Iraqis. And the Iraqis certainly know that. It leaves only one conclusion. This war is about controlling Iraq’s oil resources. Not about liberating anyone.

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

Remembering Chevy; One Year Later

March 10, 2008 by Alex, Army of Dude After being in Baghdad for a few months, it started to feel easy. Routine. We’d clear hundreds upon hundreds of houses and walk a few miles collectively and go in for the night to sleep. And do it all over again the next day. Glancing up at the fortress of Sadr City was a normal day at the office. Strolling through Arab Jabour could only be described as boring. Apart from a few firefights and the downing of a Blackwater helicopter, Baghdad was a bust. We had suffered two deaths in ten months, both in other companies. I didn’t know them except for their names. In that regard we were luckier than most other units. I thought to myself often, this isn’t bad. We’re going to make it out of here okay. It was still routine in March 2007, but we were in Baqubah instead of Baghdad. On March 14 we started searching through abandoned houses and dirt lots. Two Army combat journalists were with us to cover the story of Strykers in Diyala for the first time since the war began.

We searched through one house and were preparing to move to another next door. It had a padlock on the other side. I shed my backpack and climbed over to cut the lock. I was just about there when my squad leader called to me, “Fuck it, fuck the lock. We gotta mount back up.” I jumped back over the gate and sprinted back into the Stryker to join our three other vehicles.

The only picture taken that day

What followed in the next several minutes shattered the belief that we’d be okay, when Cooter, his faced covered in dust and grime, said to me “Chevy was killed on impact.” Brian Chevalier was one of the newer guys. He came to the platoon right before we did our training in California in February of 2006. He was quieter than most, a Georgian father of a little girl he was raising with his mother. His late introduction to the platoon made him the driver, the less coveted position in a squad. Almost immediately he earned the nickname of Chevy, a shorter version of his last name. It was hard to tell how clever he really was. Introverted and sporting a southern drawl, he was brighter than most perceived. I fancied myself as one of the best debaters in the platoon, as debates and arguments were frequent in tight living quarters. But he could always poke holes in my positions when I faced off against him.

He was a lover of poker. He rarely won but always was willing to play. In the barracks and in Mosul, games of Texas Hold ‘Em were almost as common as debates. Once, Chevy and I were facing off in a massive pot. I held a King of Diamonds with five diamonds out there. The board read 3-4-Ace-10-7. I had the best flush with my king. Chevy had an impossibly wide grin on his face the whole time. When the seven came out, he shouted, “Ohhh, shit!” Once he collected himself, he pushed all his chips in. He couldn’t stop smiling and his face grew red hot. He put his hand to his mouth and bit his thumbnail, showing overwhelming nervousness. Seeing his not so subtle poker face, I folded the King-high flush. He rolled over 5-6 of diamonds, revealing the straight flush. I couldn’t believe it. The only solace I found was that Chevy was killed instantly when the IED exploded beneath him. He went like he lived: quietly. His impact on us was not as muted. Every single person that knew him cried at his memorial service. Our emotions were bottled up after he was killed; we had no time to grieve in between missions. For two hours, we reflected on his loss. And we went back out into the night. This Friday, the remaining members of second platoon will get together on the anniversary of his death to celebrate his life.

We miss you, Chevy.

NOT ANOTHER DAY NOT ANOTHER DOLLAR

NOT ANOTHER LIFE

3.10.08: The casket of a US soldier killed in Iraq last month. Insurgents have killed eight US soldiers in two separate attacks in 24 hours in Iraq. (AFP/Paul J. Richards)

Shit-Eating Rat Scum In Command;

“‘Traditional’ Officers Continue To Insist That PTSD Is Just An Excuse For Cowardice, Weakness, Or The

Old Stand-By, Malingering”

“If You Kick The Guy Out, You’ll Get Somebody To Replace Him. So That’s The Incentive For The Commanders”

“Traditional” Officer At Work: [laurafreberg.com]

March 14, 2008 By Penny Coleman, AlterNet [Excerpt] As of December 2006, new Pentagon guidelines give commanders the right to decide whether or not a soldier with a “psychiatric disorder in remission, or whose residual symptoms do not impair duty performance” may be sent back to Iraq or Afghanistan. Aside from the obvious question of commanders’ qualifications to make decisions about the mental health of the soldiers in their charge, there is something truly insidious lurking behind the new guidelines. According to Dr. Katherine Scheirman, a retired Air Force colonel who served as chief of medical operations in the Air Force’s European headquarters from July 2004 to September 2006, a medical discharge can take months, sometimes longer, and all the while the commander is stuck with an undeployable soldier. An administrative separation usually takes a few weeks, at most. So commanders have a choice. They “can send him to the hospital and say, ‘Hey, this guy isn’t able to do his work. Would you look at him for PTSD?’ Or they can just kick the guy out. “If you kick the guy out, you’ll get somebody to replace him. So that’s the incentive for the commanders.” That incentive conveniently merges with beliefs of the many “traditional” officers who continue to insist that PTSD is just an excuse for cowardice, weakness, or the old stand-by, malingering. “I’ve never had a guy in my unit develop PTSD,” one senior general from Iraq recently told CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier. “It’s nonsense.”

Such Neanderthal attitudes are encouraged by a cabal of conservative culture warriors in Congress who believe that PTSD is faux science, touted only by a bunch of anti-war activists to justify their liberal politics. And they are using that reasoning to justify this administration’s astonishingly callous health care policies for active and veteran service members.

Greedy Asswipes In Congress Have No Problem Drawing A Full Pension

After Only Five Years In Office: “But They Continuously Attack The

Meager Retirement Benefits That Service Members Receive After 20 Years Of

Service” Our elected leaders in Congress have no problem drawing a full pension after only five years in office, with full medical and dental coverage that they never contributed to, but they continuously attack the meager retirement benefits that service members receive after 20 years of service. March 17, 2008 Letters To The Editor Army Times Isn’t it amazing how, in the midst of a lengthy war and difficult recruiting and retention problems, there would be a proposal to drastically alter the military retirement program? There are three serious flaws to this plan. First, why would people enlist in the military if they understand that they would be ineligible for retirement benefits until age 60? While they are experiencing the dangers, hardships and stresses of military service, their peers are working on careers that will provide lifelong income. Second, how does the military plan to limit the exodus of many service members at the 10-year mark? There are already complaints about service members retiring at 20 years. The Army will lose vast numbers of mid-career soldiers if they have the option of retiring at 10 years, thus leaving a leadership void. There will be little, if any, incentive to stay past 10 years, since that will only place the service member further behind his civilian peers in regard to employment opportunities.

Lastly, this will likely be viewed as a betrayal. Our elected leaders in Congress have no problem drawing a full pension after only five years in office, with full medical and dental coverage that they never contributed to, but they continuously attack the meager retirement benefits that service members receive after 20 years of service. Staff Sgt. Joseph Brauchle Killeen, Texas

FORWARD OBSERVATIONS At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. Frederick Douglas, 1852 “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. 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

“There Was A Very Widespread Opposition Movement In The Military

In Bases All Over The World, In Ships, In Aircraft Carriers”

“We’re Seeing A Similar Experience”

SOLDIERS IN REVOLT: DAVID CORTRIGHT, Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York, 1975. Now available in paperback from Haymarket Books. March 14, 2008 Democracy Now! Interview with David Cortright, Vietnam war veteran and author of the Soldiers in Revolt: GI Resistance During the Vietnam War. He is a professor of peace studies at the University of Notre Dame. [Excerpts]

************************************** AMY GOODMAN: When did the tide turn for soldiers? When was the voice—when did it become the loudest in the Vietnam War? DAVID CORTRIGHT: Well, if you look at the history of the GI movement, it really began to take off in 1968, and I think it was the whole Tet experience, when we had been told that there was going to be progress, we were achieving the light at the end of the tunnel in Vietnam, and then along came Tet. The worst year of the war was 1968. AMY GOODMAN: Explain Tet. DAVID CORTRIGHT: Tet was the uprising, the offensive of the Vietnam resistance to the United States in late January, early February 1968, massive attack all across South Vietnam. It put the lie to what the administration had said about how we’re winning this war. And it was the worst period for the American military. At one point, there were as many as 500 American soldiers dying every week in combat in Vietnam during this period right after Tet in the first half of ‘68.

So it was the worst period, and it really brought forward to all of us the lie that we had been told and the — we saw the experience. So the GI movement really took off in ‘68 in the Army and the Marine Corps, in particular. And then later on, in ‘69 and ‘70, when the government shifted to an intensified air war, then we saw growing resistance in the Navy and in the Air Force. So from the period ‘68 to ‘72, there was a very widespread opposition movement in the military in bases all over the world, in ships, in aircraft carriers. It was really a very widespread phenomenon. AMY GOODMAN: David Cortright, the significance of what’s happening today, Winter Soldier II, I guess you could say? DAVID CORTRIGHT: We’re seeing a similar experience. The soldiers and veterans who have been there to Iraq and Afghanistan can see the lie of what we’ve been told.

“One Of The Most Important Documentaries Made About War

Resistance”

The Sir! No Sir! DVD is on sale now, exclusively at http://www.sirnosir.com/home_dvd_storefront.html

Also available is a Soundtrack CD (which includes the entire song from the FTA Show, “Soldier We Love You”), theatrical posters, tee shirts, and the DVD of “A Night of Ferocious Joy,” a film about the first hip-hop antiwar concert against the “War on Terror.”

BUY SIR! NO SIR! FOR ACTIVE DUTY SOLDIERS NOW

HELP GET SIR! NO SIR!

INTO THE HANDS THAT NEED IT MOST Dear Sir! No Sir! supporters, As George Bush escalates the war on Iraq and resistance in the military grows, I am writing to ask you to help us continue getting Sir! No Sir! into the hands of active duty soldiers. Displaced Films, Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), and a growing number of organizations have been working to distribute free DVDs to soldiers. Hundreds have been distributed and we want to see that number grow into the thousands. The response has been tremendous.

David Zeiger and Jade Fox Displaced Films

jadefox@sirnosir.com

********************************************************* To Whom it May Concern: I just wanted to say thank you for this film, for raising my awareness, I never even knew some of these things happened. I think this probably is one of the most important documentaries made about war resistance. My whole work this deployment (my second) has been awareness and I thank you for giving me yet another tool to spread that awareness.

Thank you again, SGT Spencer Batchelder

Vietnam GI: Reprints Available

Vietnam: They Stopped An Imperial War

Not available from anybody else, anywhere Edited by Vietnam Veteran Jeff Sharlet from 1968 until his death, this newspaper rocked the world, attracting attention even from Time Magazine, and extremely hostile attention from the chain of command. The pages and pages of letters in the paper from troops in Vietnam condemning the war are lost to history, but you can find them here. The Military Project has copied complete sets of Vietnam GI. The originals were a bit rough, but every page is there. Over 100 pages, full 11x17 size. Free on request to active duty members of the armed forces. Cost for others: $15 if picked up in New York City. For mailing inside USA add $5 for bubble bag and postage. For outside USA, include extra for mailing 2.5 pounds to wherever you are. Checks, money orders payable to: The Military Project Orders to: The Military Project Box 126 2576 Broadway New York, N.Y.

10025-5657 All proceeds are used for projects giving aid and comfort to members of the armed forces opposed to today’s Imperial wars.

OCCUPATION REPORT

U.S. OCCUPATION RECRUITING DRIVE IN HIGH GEAR;

RECRUITING FOR THE ARMED RESISTANCE THAT IS

A foreign occupation soldier from the USA orders an Iraqi citizen to stand up against a wall for a photograph holding a placard with his personal data after he is forced to swear not to oppose the occupation. The public humiliation took place in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad. (AFP/David Furst) [Fair is fair. Let’s bring 150,000 Iraqi troops over here to the USA. They can kill people at checkpoints, bust into their houses with force and violence, butcher their families, overthrow the government, put a new one in office they like better

and call it “sovereign,” and “detain” anybody who doesn’t like it in some prison without any charges being filed against them, or any trial.] [Those Iraqis are sure a bunch of backward primitives. [They actually resent this help, have the absurd notion that it’s bad their country is occupied by a foreign military dictatorship, and consider it their patriotic duty to fight and kill the soldiers sent to grab their country. [What a bunch of silly people. [How fortunate they are to live under a military dictatorship run by George Bush. [Why, how could anybody not love that? You’d want that in your home town, right?]

OCCUPATION PALESTINE

Unconquered Unconquerable

A Palestinian hurls stones at Israeli soldiers during a protest near the West Bank city of Ramallah, Occupied Palestine, on March 7, against Israel’s separation barrier and the raids on the Gaza Strip that have killed more than 120 Palestinians. (AFP/File/Abbas Momani) [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.”]

OCCUPATION TIBET

Rebellion In Tibet Against Chinese Government’s Imperial

Occupation: “Protesters Were Waving Traditional White Scarves And Shouting, ‘Free

Tibet’”

Buddhist monks marched in Xiahe, Gansu Province, on Friday. Photo: Agence France-Presse — Getty Images March 15, 2008 By JIM YARDLEY, New York Times & By Chris Buckley and Benjamin Kang Lim, Reuters Violence erupted Friday morning in a busy market area of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, as Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans brawled with Chinese security forces in bloody clashes. Witnesses said angry Tibetan crowds burned shops, cars, military vehicles and at least one tourist bus. Radio Free Asia reported that Tibetan protesters were waving traditional white scarves and shouting, “Free Tibet.” News agencies also reported clashes between monks from Ramoche Temple and military police officers. “The monks are still protesting,” one witness told The Associated Press. “Police and army cars were burned. There are people crying. Hundreds of people, including monks and civilians, are in the protests.” Friday’s sharp escalation in violence, and the sense of dread described by several residents, came a day after China’s Foreign Ministry told reporters that the situation in Lhasa had stabilized. The protest started Monday when Buddhist monks began peaceful protests against religious restrictions by Chinese authorities. The police arrested 50 or 60 monks, but other protests followed Tuesday and Wednesday as monks in two different monasteries took to the streets. The apparent epicenter of Friday’s protests was the Tromsikhang Market, a large, concrete structure built in the Barkhor area by the Chinese authorities in the early 1990s. “It’s chaos in the streets,” said a person who answered the telephone at a bread shop near the market. Monks from the Ramoche Temple, a short walk from the market, reportedly began to march in the Barkhor area. The Ramoche monks intended to protest the rough treatment of monks who had marched earlier in the week, according to a Tibetan rights advocate in the United States who has communicated with people in Lhasa. When police officers began beating the monks, Tibetans rioted in the Barkhor area, the advocate said. Angry Tibetans set fire to a police car and a store owned by a Chinese shopkeeper, said the advocate, who refused to be publicly identified for fear of reprisals. The chaotic scene was the latest, and most violent, confrontation in a series of protests that began on Monday and now represent a major challenge to the ruling Communist Party as it prepares to play host to the Olympic Games in August.

Thousands of Buddhist monks and other Tibetans clashed with the riot police in a second Chinese city on Saturday, while the authorities said they had regained control of the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

Tibetans throw stones at army vehicles as a car burns on a street in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, after protests against Chinese occupation broke out on Friday. Photo: Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Conflicting reports emerged about the violence in Lhasa on Friday. The Chinese authorities denied that they had fired on protesters there, but Tibetan leaders in India told news agencies on Saturday that they had confirmed that 30 Tibetans had died and that they had unconfirmed reports that put the number at more than 100. Tibetan crowds in the remote mountain city attacked government offices, burnt vehicles and shops and threw stones at police on Friday in bloody confrontations that left many injured. A Reuters picture showed a protester setting afire a Chinese national flag. Another depicted security personnel shielding themselves against rocks hurled by protesters. Danish tourist Bente Walle, 58, said Lhasa was like a ghost town on Saturday. “Today Lhasa is completely closed and there is Chinese military all over,” she said, adding that many people were tying white prayer scarves on doors. “The Tibetans put them on their doors to tell everybody: here is a Tibetan.” Demonstrations erupted for the second consecutive day in the city of Xiahe in Gansu Province, where an estimated 4,000 Tibetans gathered near the Labrang Monastery. Local monks had held a smaller protest on Friday, but the confrontation escalated

Saturday afternoon, according to witnesses and Tibetans in India who spoke with protesters by telephone. Residents in Xiahe, reached by telephone, heard loud noises similar to gunshots or explosions. A waitress described the scene as “chaos” and said many injured people had been sent to a local hospital. Large numbers of military police and security officers fired tear gas while Tibetans hurled rocks, according to the Tibetans in India. Beijing is facing the most serious and prolonged demonstrations in Tibet since the late 1980s, when it suppressed a rebellion there with lethal force that left scores, and possibly hundreds, of ethnic Tibetans dead. In the past China has not hesitated to crush major protests in Tibet or to jail disobedient monks. President Hu Jintao, who is also the general secretary of the Communist Party, served as party boss in Tibet during a violent crackdown in 1989. His support for the bloody suppression of unrest that year earned him the good will of Deng Xiaoping, then the paramount leader, and led directly to his elevation to the Politburo Standing Committee and eventually to China’s top leadership posts. The tumult also undercuts a theme regularly promoted by China’s propaganda officials — that Tibetans are a happy minority group, smoothly integrated into the country’s broader ethnic fabric. “What we see right now, what is happening in Tibet, blows the whole propaganda strategy in Tibet wide open,” said Lhadon Tethong, an official with the advocacy group Students for a Free Tibet. The Tibetan government in exile said at least 30 Tibetans died in the protests, according to Agence France-Presse. Witnesses told Radio Free Asia, the nonprofit news agency financed by the United States government, that numerous Tibetans were dead. A 13-year-old Tibetan boy, reached by telephone, said he watched the violence from his apartment and saw four or five Tibetans fall to the ground after military police officers fired upon them. The demonstrations in Lhasa began Monday and continued through Wednesday as peaceful protests by Buddhist monks from three different monasteries. Some monks protested against religious restrictions while others demanded an end to Chinese rule and even waved the Tibetan flag. The police arrested scores of monks and then reportedly tightened security around the three monasteries so that monks could not leave. Witnesses in Lhasa on Saturday reported seeing large numbers of military police, armored vehicles and, according to a few reports, tanks. Several residents, reached by telephone, said that an uneasy calm had settled over the city. Tibetans living in the suburbs said officers were blocking people from entering the city center. Local television broadcast instructions. Power and telephone service, suspended in some neighborhoods on Friday, were being restored on Saturday. Traffic was light on city streets, while most shops were closed.

The extent of the violence was evident in photographs and video shown on the Internet: fires raging from rooftops and from charred vehicles, shattered storefronts and huge crowds trolling city streets. The unexpected demonstrations in Lhasa are the largest Tibetan protests against Chinese rule since 1989. Military police officers and soldiers are now reportedly surrounding the three monasteries that were at the center of the protests earlier this week. Two monks have reportedly tried to kill themselves, while pro-Tibetan groups say others have started a hunger strike.

DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

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/)

Bush Says Fighting In Afghanistan “Romantic”

[Thanks to SSG N (ret’d) & Pham Binh, Traveling Soldier, who sent this in. N writes: So sad. Binh writes: I wonder why he didn’t say the same thing about Iraq? Oh yeah, because it’s VIETNAM ALL OVER AGAIN, but this time he wouldn’t be able to hide stateside in the Texas Air National Guard.] ] March 14, 2008 By Tabassum Zakaria in Washington, Herald and Weekly Times US President George W Bush says he would fight in Afghanistan if he was younger. President Bush spoke of his dream to work on the frontline in Afghanistan during a video conference with US military and civilian personnel in the war-torn country. “I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed. “It must be exciting for you ... in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” President Bush said.

LIAR TRAITOR

TROOP-KILLER DOMESTIC ENEMY

UNFIT FOR COMMAND

UNWORTHY OF OBEDIENCE

The traitor Bush at the White House in Washington, Feb. 28, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles

Dharapak)

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.

The Traitor Bush At It Again; Acts To Cripple Citizens’ Protection

Against “Domestic Spying, Assassination Operations, And Other

Abuses By Intelligence Agencies” March 14, 2008 By Charlie Savage, Boston Globe Staff

Washington - Almost 32 years to the day after President Ford created an independent Intelligence Oversight Board made up of private citizens with top-level clearances to ferret out illegal spying activities, President Bush issued an executive order that stripped the board of much of its authority. The White House did not say why it was necessary to change the rules governing the board when it issued Bush’s order late last month. But critics say Bush’s order is consistent with a pattern of steps by the administration that have systematically scaled back Watergate-era intelligence reforms. Ford created the board following a 1975-76 investigation by Congress into domestic spying, assassination operations, and other abuses by intelligence agencies. To blunt proposals for new laws imposing greater congressional oversight of intelligence matters, Ford enacted his own reforms with an executive order that went into effect on March 1, 1976. Among them, he created the Intelligence Oversight Board to serve as a watchdog over spying agencies. “I believe (the changes) will eliminate abuses and questionable activities on the part of the foreign intelligence agencies while at the same time permitting them to get on with their vital work of gathering and assessing information,” Ford told Congress. But Bush downsized the board’s mandate to be an aggressive watchdog against such problems in an executive order issued on Feb. 29, the eve of the anniversary of the day Ford’s order took effect. The White House said the timing of the new order was “purely coincidental.” Under the old rules, whenever the oversight board learned of intelligence activity that it believed might be “unlawful or contrary to executive order,” it had a duty to notify both the president and the attorney general. But Bush’s order deleted the board’s authority to refer matters to the Justice Department for a criminal investigation, and the new order said the board should notify the president only if other officials are not already “adequately” addressing the problem. Bush’s order also terminated the board’s authority to oversee each intelligence agency’s general counsel and inspector general, and it erased a requirement that each inspector general file a report with the board every three months. Now only the agency directors will decide whether to report any potential lawbreaking to the panel, and they have no schedule for checking in. Suzanne Spaulding, a former deputy counsel at the CIA who has worked as a congressional staff member on intelligence committees for members of both parties, said the order “really diminishes the language that calls on the Intelligence Oversight Board to conduct independent inquiries,” leaving the panel as potentially little more than “paper pushers.” Some analysts said the order is just the latest example of actions the administration has taken since the 2001 terrorist attacks that have scaled back intelligence reforms enacted in the 1970s.

In his 1976 executive order, for example, Ford also banned foreign intelligence agencies, such as the National Security Agency, from collecting information about Americans. The Bush administration bypassed that rule by having domestic agencies collect information about Americans and then hand the data to the NSA, The Wall Street Journal reported this week. Ford’s order also banned assassination. But Bush authorized the CIA to draw up a list of Al Qaeda suspects who could be summarily killed. The administration decided that such targeted killings were an exception to the rule because it was wartime. In 1978, Congress enacted a law requiring warrants for all wiretaps on domestic soil. But now spies are free to monitor Americans’ international calls and e-mails without court supervision if the wiretaps are aimed at targets overseas. In 1980, Congress enacted a law requiring that the full House and Senate intelligence committees be briefed about most spying activities. The Bush administration asserted that it could withhold significant amounts of information from the committees, briefing congressional leaders instead. Finally, executive orders were once widely understood to be binding unless a president revoked them, an act that would notify Congress that the rules had changed. But the administration has decided that Bush is free to secretly authorize spies to ignore executive orders - including one that restricts surveillance on US citizens traveling overseas - without rescinding them. Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr., the former chief counsel to the Senate committee that undertook the 1975-76 investigation into intelligence abuses, said that by rolling back the post-Watergate reforms, the Bush administration had made intelligence abuses more likely to occur. “What the Bush administration has systematically done is to try to limit both internal oversight - things like the Intelligence Oversight Board - and effective external oversight by the Congress,” Schwarz said, adding, “It’s profoundly disappointing if you understand American history, and it’s profoundly harmful to the United States.” GI Special distributes and posts to our website copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of the invasion and occupation of Iraq. We believe this constitutes a “fair use” of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law since it is being distributed without charge or profit for educational purposes to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for educational purposes, in accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107. GI Special has no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor is GI Special endorsed or sponsored by the originators. This attributed work is provided a non-profit basis to facilitate understanding, research, education, and the advancement of human rights and social justice. Go to: www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml for more information. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. If printed out, this newsletter is your personal property and cannot legally be confiscated from you. “Possession of unauthorized material may not be prohibited.” DoD Directive 1325.6 Section 3.5.1.2.