Update [2005-7-13 12:26:43 by Steven D]: Good News! Leonard’s blog now reporting he’s been released.
(cross posted at Daily Kos)
For the first time, a print publication, the Arizona Republic, has published a story about the liberal soldier in Iraq, Leonard Clark, about whom Armando, Jim Staro and I have posted diaries about here at Daily Kos. Leonard allegedly was placed under arrest by his commanding officer for matters related to his emails and voicemails from Iraq which had been posted for him at this blog created by Kevin Spidel, political director for Progressive Democrats of America. Leonard’s blog has sinced been scrubbed of all emails and audio files pursuant to his commander’s order. Some of Leonard’s emails can still be found here.
More about the Arizona Republic story and other news stories about Leonard after the break . . .
The Arizona Republic story is significant for several reasons. Obviously, it’s good to see any print newspaper covering the story, even one who’s circulation is primarily limited to the Phoenix, AZ locale. It is significant for another reason, however. The Republic is reporting that Leonard has not been arrested (as was previously reported at Leonard’s blog prior to it being scrubbed) but he is under investigation for activities related to the emails and voicemail audio files posted on the internet:
Military investigating Arizona soldier in Iraq
Billy House
Republic Washington Bureau
Jul. 13, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON – An Arizona Army National Guardsman whose Web log comments have criticized the Iraq war and who has filed papers to run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Jon Kyl, is the subject of a military investigation in Iraq, the Army said Tuesday.
“Specialist Clark is under investigation, but not under arrest,” confirmed Army Capt. Patricia Brewer, a spokeswoman with the military’s combined press information office in Baghdad. She said no other details were available regarding Clark from the 42nd Military Police Brigade’s Judge Advocate General’s office.
. . . on April 7, the Federal Election Commission officially received Clark’s “statement of candidacy” to run next year for the Senate seat now held by Republican Kyl. In that filing by mail, Clark designates his principal campaign committee as “Arizonans for Leonard Clark.”
This report contradicts earlier statements by Kevin Spidel that Leonard had not filed any formal papers to run for Kyl’s seat. It also contradicts an earlier post at Leonard’s blog (by the blog’s administrators) that Leonard had been arrested. It is not apparent from the Republic report that Billy House, the reporter for this story, spoke to either Leonard himself or to Kevin Spidel specifically about these contradictions. For the earlier report about Leonard’s arrest, see Jim Staro’s diary of July 10th.
The report goes on to say this about Leonard’s “blogging activities”:
Clark’s case also illustrates how the military is wrestling with an explosion of opinionated soldier Web logs or “blogs,” and their content at a time when polls show rising public opposition to the war.
A “blog” is a Web page maintained as a journal for personal comments. The military recently has adopted a rule requiring soldiers to register their blogs with their chain of command, and subject these sites to regular review. Clark has been critical in his posted blog comments of the Bush administration, saying he believes U.S. soldiers are being killed needlessly.
“Fight non-violently for the just and righteous cause of Not One More American Soldier’s Life Being Lost. N.O. M.A.S.!” he urged in a June 30 e-mail posting.
Go read the rest of the article. House’s report also quotes local Guard and Pentagon officials about the Army’s investigation, and also Kevin Spidel about the fact that “he [i.e. Kevin Spidel] was abruptly advised by Clark in an e-mail on Monday [July 11th] that he’d been ordered by his commander not to publish any more comments on the Web.” Mr House also makes mention of the coverage of Leonard’s story at Daily Kos, as follows:
Whatever the specific focus of the Army’s investigation – and regardless of whether Clark intentionally may have instigated this controversy to gain more attention for himself – the intensity of the Internet chatter about his situation is giving him some national notice.
For instance, the online magazine Daily Kos has been providing updates.
I’m sure Markos will be delighted to know that Daily Kos is now being cited as an online magazine, and not just a blog.
The good news is that the story is starting to receive more media attention. Yesterday, Eric Alterman posted my email about Leonard’s situation at his MsNBC sponsored blog, Altercation. In addition, Jim Staro posted a diary this morning that NPR and Air America had been in contact with Kevin Spidel about Leonard. And stories have appeared at Antiwar.com and at AlterNet about Leonard, as well.
Let me remind everyone, this story isn’t just about Leonard, it’s about the silencing of dissent in the ranks. Here’s a quote from a soldier’s blog, in a diary I previously filed, that lays out what is going on, and how soldiers are being intimidated by the Pentagon:
Boots on the Ground
Friday, July 01, 2005
Final Note
This is one of my last posts I will put on my blog. I don’t intend to convert this blog to a political blog. It will just stay unchanged for a long time for maybe some historian interested in getting information from soldiers from the front has access to my site.
Another blow to the military blog community. A 3 star General approved an “order” that all milbloggers have to tell their chain of command about their blog. This is very unfortunate obviously that alot of people want to see the soldier’s side and plus see alot of what is going on that the news cannot and will not cover. I think the news papers do a better job at revealing US military tactics and strategy to insurgents than our blogs could ever do. I, and many other people, even many civilians I know say there shouldn’t be any reporters embedded with US troops or that they don’t even belong there.
The Bush administration doesn’t want us to know that morale is poor, that soldiers are being coerced to re-enlist or face stop loss call ups, and that not every soldier thinks the invasion Iraq had anything to do with going after the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11. The Pentagon doesn’t want us to know that the insurgents aren’t being defeated, or that soldiers are (to paraphrase Leonard) needlessly dying for oil or for the vanity of one man who can’t admit he made a mistake.
So keep those cards and letters, phone calls and emails going to the media. The more we demand they cover this story the sooner our soldiers in Iraq will get back their free speech rights and will once again be allowed to provide us back in the States with a truer picture of the war Iraq, rather than being limited to propaganda issuing from the Department of Defense.
Postscript: Leonard has apparently been released. Here is the entry from his blog:
July 13th, 2005
Leonard UpdateI just spoke with Leonard’s wife (Wednesday morning, July 13, ‘05) and she informed me that Leonard called her last night and told her he was released from his arrest. This is good news and thanks to all of you that helped get the word out! I have no other details right now, but will keep you posted.
Esther Duran Lumm