Author: jimstaro

Endemic torture of prisoners

The discovery last week of starved and tortured prisoners in an Interior Ministry bunker emphasised that detention without due process remains endemic in Iraq, echoing the Saddam era. In Basra, militia elements in the police used cells to imprison and torture their enemies. When the Abu Ghraib abuse scandal broke, it emerged that among the prisoners being maltreated by US soldiers were “undocumented” detainees who had been kept hidden from the Red Cross. And Britain was shamed by the death of Baha Mousa, a Basra hotel clerk, in British military custody.

Use of napalm and phosphorus

Last week the Pentagon admitted using white phosporus as an offensive weapon in last year’s assault on Fallujah. Its official use is to create smokescreens to shield troop movements, but if fired into trenches or foxholes it can burn victims to the bone. The legality of this use is debatable. Last year the US also admitted, after previous denials, that it had used napalm – which Britain has banned – against Iraqi forces during the invasion. There is also controversy over the deployment of cluster munitions, which Britain has said should not be used in or near civilian areas.

Extra-judicial killings

Early in the insurgency, it appeared that Sunnis loyal to Saddam were attacking defenceless Shias – an impression the coalition authorities sought to reinforce. Extra-judicial killings by Shias in the paramilitary groups operated by the Interior Ministry, or in party militias, have become increasingly open. Victims are rounded up in house-to-house raids at night and their bodies, frequently handcuffed, are found dumped later. Sunni civilians are the main target, but Shias seen as collaborators under Saddam, or connected with rival militias, have also “disappeared”.

Indiscriminate ‘spray and slay’

Heavy-handed tactics against the insurgency, dubbed “spray and slay”, have attracted much criticism. The current American offensive in the west and north-west appears to replicate the methods used in Fallujah: the population is ordered to leave before the town is sealed off and subjected to an air and ground assault. Those killed are invariably described as insurgent fighters, even in incidents where there is strong evidence that groups of civilians, including women and children, have been caught up in airstrikes.

By Michael Hirsh and John Barry

Newsweek

Updated: 8:59 p.m. ET Jan. 14, 2005

Jan. 8 – What to do about the deepening quagmire of Iraq? The Pentagon’s latest approach is being called “the Salvador option”–and the fact that it is being discussed at all is a measure of just how worried Donald Rumsfeld really is. “What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are,” one senior military officer told NEWSWEEK. “We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defense. And we are losing.” Last November’s operation in Fallujah, most analysts agree, succeeded less in breaking “the back” of the insurgency–as Marine Gen. John Sattler optimistically declared at the time–than in spreading it out.

Now, NEWSWEEK has learned, the Pentagon is intensively debating an option that dates back to a still-secret strategy in the Reagan administration’s battle against the leftist guerrilla insurgency in El Salvador in the early 1980s. Then, faced with a losing war against Salvadoran rebels, the U.S. government funded or supported “nationalist” forces that allegedly included so-called death squads directed to hunt down and kill rebel leaders and sympathizers. Eventually the insurgency was quelled, and many U.S. conservatives consider the policy to have been a success–despite the deaths of innocent civilians and the subsequent Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal. (Among the current administration officials who dealt with Central America back then is John Negroponte, who is today the U.S. ambassador to Iraq. Under Reagan, he was ambassador to Honduras. There is no evidence, however, that Negroponte knew anything about the Salvadoran death squads or the Iran-Contra scandal at the time. The Iraq ambassador, in a phone call to NEWSWEEK on Jan. 10, said he was not involved in military strategy in Iraq. He called the insertion of his name into this report “utterly gratuitous.”)

And at a news conference on Jan. 11, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said the idea of a Salvador option was “nonsense” and denied that U.S. Special Forces were going into Syria. But when asked whether such a policy was under consideration, he replied, “Why would I even talk about something like that?”

MR. MEHLMAN: In fact, Tim, the Robb-Lieberman commission–excuse me, the Robb-Silverman Commission looked at this and they found something very different. The president got briefed every single day. The members of Congress had access to information. The information was basically the same, except what the Robb-Silverman Commission found was that the information the president got was more dramatic. In other words, the argument here says that if somehow they saw what he saw, they wouldn’t have believed the case for war was made. In fact what the commission who looked at it found out was the opposite was true, which was that the evidence for war was more dramatically presented to the president than it was to Congress.

Veterans ask if they’re getting the benefits they deserve
05:13 PM EST on Friday, November 11, 2005
By TIFFANI HELBERG / 6NEWS
6NEWS
The Disabled American Veterans broke ground on a new service center that could help many who have risked their lives for freedom.
The Disabled American Veterans broke ground on a new service center Friday. It could help many local veterans who said they’ve risked their lives for our freedom. Yet some veterans said they’re not getting the benefits they deserve.
Vietnam veteran Sterling Grier said the government has turned its back on him. Medical experts said the war left him with a debilitating mental disorder that makes him incapable of working. Yet the government only pays back his service to his country with ten dollars a month.
“I wanted to be a soldier. I figured it was my job and my duty,” said Grier.
Grier has a sad story to tell. A story about a 19-year-old turned sharpshooter who was sent to the heart of combat in Vietnam.
“Everyday when we go out somebody wasn’t coming back,” he said. “And you wondered ‘was it your day?'”
Grier watched dozens of friends and enemies die. At the end of his service he returned home to a life of crying spells and isolation.
“I think about the guys that was hurt and wounded and I can hear the voices,” said Grier. “I still can hear them… at night I think about them.”
He was diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder of PSTD. It’s a psychological problem created by a traumatic event like war. Symptoms include flashbacks and nightmares. The federal government pays benefits to veterans who suffer from PSTD, but not Grier.
“They’re saying it’s non-service connected which is crazy… he wasn’t suffering from war trauma before he went,” said Sam Gordon a veteran and a claims officer. “They just keep denying his claims.”
He’s helped organize a book of Grier’s paperwork. It’s a record of the more than 30 years that Grier has been trying to get his military benefits.
“He has all the required evidence. It just doesn’t make sense. The short answer is he just fell through the cracks,” Said Gordon.
A letter from Grier’s psychologist said he is totally disabled and suffers from PTSD related to his service in Vietnam.
That’s proof Gordon said that Grier should be entitled to almost $2,400 a month today and at least $300,000 in back benefits. Gordon said Grier’s case is not unusual.
“A lot of them feel like they’ve been discarded like they’re second class citizens,” said Gordon.
“I hope that one day I’ll get what’s entitled to me,” said Grier.
Almost two out of every 10 combat soldiers returning from Iraq are expected to suffer from PSTD and other problems. That’s according to a New England Journal of Medicine Study.
Because of the holiday, we could not reach federal officials for comment.

ABSTRACT
Background The current combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have involved U.S. military personnel in major ground combat and hazardous security duty. Studies are needed to systematically assess the mental health of members of the armed services who have participated in these operations and to inform policy with regard to the optimal delivery of mental health care to returning veterans.
Methods We studied members of four U.S. combat infantry units (three Army units and one Marine Corps unit) using an anonymous survey that was administered to the subjects either before their deployment to Iraq (n=2530) or three to four months after their return from combat duty in Iraq or Afghanistan (n=3671). The outcomes included major depression, generalized anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which were evaluated on the basis of standardized, self-administered screening instruments.
Results Exposure to combat was significantly greater among those who were deployed to Iraq than among those deployed to Afghanistan. The percentage of study subjects whose responses met the screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety, or PTSD was significantly higher after duty in Iraq (15.6 to 17.1 percent) than after duty in Afghanistan (11.2 percent) or before deployment to Iraq (9.3 percent); the largest difference was in the rate of PTSD. Of those whose responses were positive for a mental disorder, only 23 to 40 percent sought mental health care. Those whose responses were positive for a mental disorder were twice as likely as those whose responses were negative to report concern about possible stigmatization and other barriers to seeking mental health care.
Conclusions This study provides an initial look at the mental health of members of the Army and the Marine Corps who were involved in combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our findings indicate that among the study groups there was a significant risk of mental health problems and that the subjects reported important barriers to receiving mental health services, particularly the perception of stigma among those most in need of such care.

Source Information&References are found at Site

Matthew J. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D.
The data presented by Hoge and associates in this issue of the Journal1 about members of the Army and the Marine Corps returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan force us to acknowledge the psychiatric cost of sending young men and women to war. It is possible that these early findings underestimate the eventual magnitude of this clinical problem. The report is unprecedented in several respects. First, this is the first time there has been such an early assessment of the prevalence of war-related psychiatric disorders, reported while the fighting continues. Second, there are predeployment data, albeit cross-sectional, against which to evaluate the psychiatric problems that develop after deployment. Third, the authors report important data showing that the perception of stigmatization has the power to deter active-duty personnel from seeking mental health care even when they recognize the severity of their psychiatric problems. These findings raise a number of questions for policy and practice. I focus here on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), because there is better information about this disorder than about others and because PTSD was the biggest problem noted in the responses to an anonymous survey among those returning from active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan.
The rigorous evaluation of war-related psychiatric disorders is relatively new, having begun with the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study.2 This national epidemiologic survey of male and female veterans of Vietnam was conducted in the mid-1980s. The veterans were therefore assessed 10 to 20 years after their service in Vietnam. The prevalence of current PTSD was 15 percent among men and 8 percent among women. The lifetime prevalence of PTSD was higher — 30 percent among male veterans and 25 percent among female veterans.
A retrospective cohort study of veterans of the Gulf War that was conducted between 1995 and 19973 showed a prevalence rate of 10.1 percent for PTSD among those who had experienced combat duty, in contrast to a prevalence rate of 4.2 percent in a matched cohort of Gulf War-era veterans who had not seen combat. The adjusted odds ratio for PTSD for those who had been in combat was 3.1; this is similar to the odds ratios in the present study of 2.84 for soldiers and 2.66 for Marines after deployment to active duty, as compared with soldiers before deployment.
In a longitudinal study of New England veterans of the Gulf War, the prevalence of PTSD more than doubled between the initial assessment performed immediately after their return to Fort Devens, Massachusetts, and the follow-up assessment performed two years later. The rates increased from 3 percent to 8 percent among male veterans and from 7 percent to 16 percent among female veterans. Higher levels of symptoms have been reported among members of the National Guard and the Reserves than among active-duty personnel.4
Finally, a retrospective survey of American male and female soldiers deployed to Somalia between 1992 and 1994 showed an estimated prevalence of PTSD of approximately 8 percent, with no difference according to sex.5 When the focus of this mission shifted from a United Nations’ humanitarian peacekeeping operation to a more traditional military deployment to subdue the Somali warlords, there was greater exposure to traumatic situations and a higher prevalence of PTSD among the American troops.6
It is unclear at this time whether the prevalence of PTSD among those returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom will increase or decrease. On the one hand, it is encouraging that the Department of Defense has been active in providing mental health care in the war zone and psychiatric resources in the United States and has demonstrated a commitment to monitor psychiatric disorders, as reflected by the present report. Furthermore, the findings of the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study suggest that considerable recovery from PTSD among veterans is possible, as shown by the difference between the lifetime and the current prevalence of this disorder.
On the other hand, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study cannot tell us whether the onset of PTSD occurred while Vietnam veterans were still in uniform or at some time later, during the 10 to 20 years between their exposure to war and the survey for the study. Indeed, there is reason for concern that the reported prevalence of PTSD of 15.6 to 17.1 percent among those returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom will increase in coming years, for two reasons. First, on the basis of the findings of the Fort Devens study,4 the prevalence of PTSD may increase considerably during the two years after veterans return from combat duty. Second, on the basis of studies of military personnel who served in Somalia, it is possible that psychiatric disorders will increase now that the conduct of war has shifted from a campaign for liberation to an ongoing armed conflict with dissident combatants. In short, the estimates of PTSD reported by Hoge and associates may be conservative not only because of the methods used in their study but also because it may simply be too early to assess the eventual magnitude of the mental health problems related to deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom.
A recent reanalysis of the data from the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study2 and the Hawaii Vietnam Veterans Project7 suggests that after the development of PTSD, the risk factors for persistent PTSD are “primarily associated with variables relating to the current time frame: current emotional sustenance, current structural social support, and recent life events.”8 This information is clearly useful for mental health policy and planning, because it raises the hopeful possibility that PTSD may be reversible if patients can be helped to cope with stresses in their current life.
There are obviously important distinctions between the period after the Vietnam War and the present. Americans no longer confuse war with the warrior; those returning from Iraq or Afghanistan enjoy national support, despite sharp political disagreement about the war itself. In addition, the field of study of PTSD has matured to the point where effective evidence-based treatment and practice guidelines are available for use by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and by civilian mental health practitioners. Cognitive-behavioral therapies have been successful in the treatment of PTSD, and two selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitors have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration.9,10,11 Practitioners in the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are sophisticated and strongly motivated to continue to improve their skills in treating PTSD. Collaboration between mental health professionals in the Department of Defense and those in the Department of Veterans Affairs is at an all-time high. For example, the Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD and the Defense Department’s Walter Reed Army Medical Center collaborated to develop the Iraq War Clinician Guide (available at www.ncptsd.org/topics/war.html ) and to conduct a multisite, randomized trial of cognitive-behavioral therapy for PTSD among female veterans and female active-duty personnel.
In a best-case scenario, active-duty, Reserve, and National Guard personnel as well as veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom with symptoms of PTSD will take advantage of the many mental health services available through the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Educational initiatives will be implemented to help veterans and active-duty personnel recognize that the loss of social support or the effect of recent adverse life events may precipitate a return of the symptoms of PTSD. Veterans and active-duty personnel will also be encouraged to monitor their psychological health and to seek treatment if and when it becomes necessary.
Alas, there is also a worst-case scenario that demands immediate attention. Hoge and associates report that concern about possible stigmatization was disproportionately greatest among the soldiers and Marines most in need of mental health care. Owing to such concern, those returning from Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom who reported the greatest number or the most severe symptoms were the least likely to seek treatment for fear that it could harm their careers, cause difficulties with their peers and with unit leadership, and become an embarrassment in that they would be seen as weak.
These findings are consistent with those in an earlier report that showed low use of mental health services among Navy and Marine Corps personnel.12 In contrast to a rate of 28.5 percent among male civilians with a psychiatric disorder who sought treatment,13 only 19 percent of servicemen with a psychiatric disorder sought treatment. Furthermore, among military personnel with PTSD, the rate of seeking treatment was only 4.1 percent, which is substantially lower than that for other psychiatric disorders. This finding may indicate that within the military culture, “succumbing” to PTSD is seen as a failure, a weakness, and as evidence of an innate deficiency of the right stuff.
Hoge and associates suggest that the perception of stigmatization can be reduced only by means of concerted outreach — that is, by providing more mental health services in primary care clinics and confidential counseling through employee-assistance programs. The sticking point is skepticism among military personnel that the use of mental health services can remain confidential. Although the soldiers and Marines in the study by Hoge and colleagues were able to acknowledge PTSD-related problems in an anonymous survey, they apparently were afraid to seek assistance for fear that a scarlet P could doom their careers.
Our acknowledgment of the psychiatric costs of war has promoted the establishment of better methods of detecting and treating war-related psychiatric disorders. It is now time to take the next step and provide effective treatment to distressed men and women, along with credible safeguards of confidentiality.
Dr. Friedman reports having served as a paid speaker for GlaxoSmithKline, Ortho-McNeil, and AstraZeneca.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Source Information&References are found at Site

We Are Non Profit Corporation Developing Community of Compassion and Understanding.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be caused by many life threatening situations, which are: Domestic Violence, Rape, Adult Survivors of Childhood Abuse, Public Trauma, Terrorism, Public Servants, Families of PTSD Survivors, Combat and many more.

We are here to help, not as professionals, but as peers.

Messages From Founder
No one knows what PTSD really is, until they walk in our shoes. We are hidden from the society because of our own fear. If it comes from war, the government want to keep us a less then honorable discharge so we are not a liability. We are wounded… but they do not give purple hearts for pain that lasts a life time. Society is interested in the rapist. The victim, male or female, is lost. No one cares about them. Wives are beaten daily and are subject to emotional trauma without hope. Children grow up in homes where they are physically or emotionally damaged for life. Whatever the cause, and there are many more, we are real people. Our pain is real. We do not want pity. Just the help we need to lead a better quality of life. Is that asking too much? God be with us All.

— Gregory A. Helle —
Chaplain and Founder

I founded the PTSD Alliance for veterans

I am a veteran of Vietnam

I am 100% disabled with PTSD

I honor all those who have given their lives for freedom

I honor all those who have given of their bodies for freedom

And I honor those who have given their minds for freedom

Our country does not understand that freedom is not free

That so many of us have been willing to die for the freedoms we enjoy

While those at home enjoy the freedom without thoughts of us who served

We served proudly and we do not feel anger for our physical and mental ailments

We are proud Americans

We just do not want to be forgotten

Dying for freedom is not the worst thing that can happen

Being forgotten is

To live in poverty because we cannot adjust to society

Or cannot find jobs

This is a shame for America

To allow those who serve be denied the freedom they served for

To be denied the basic human dignities

This is wrong America

Veterans gave you the right to have what you have

You owe it to veterans to give them the ability to enjoy the freedom

They were willing to give their lives for

Chaplain Gregory A. Helle
Founder, PTSD Alliance International

Disclaimer: This web site is not maintained by professionals, i.e., psychologists, psychiatrists, or other professionals in the psychiatric field. The advice given is from personal experiences and is not professional counseling. This not a VA site. The site is maintained by a Vietnam veteran disabled with PTSD with support from veterans, wives, children, etc. who are affected by PTSD.
Neither this site nor this organization is political. Although some articles will have political overtones out of necessity, this organization does not support any political party. This organization will not accept any manner of discrimination.
Please Note: The Alliance does not endorse or recommend the use of any specific treatment or medication for people with PTSD. Information on this web site is not meant to take the place of advice from qualified professionals. While visiting this site can help you gain a greater understanding of PTSD, it cannot provide a diagnosis or treatment. As you determine the best course of action for yourself, you are encouraged to share this information with your doctor(s), mental health care provider(s), family, and friends.

Veterans

Generations of Valor
Pearl Harbor Survivor Houston James of Dallas embraced Marin Staff Sgt. Mark Graunke Jr. during a Veterans Day commemoration in Dallas yesterday. Graunke lost a hand, a leg and an eye when he defused a bomb in Iraq last year. This week’s Images of U.S. troops in combat in Falujah deepened the day’s significance for many who attended tributes held in San Diego and across the nation. — Associated Press

This is an appeal from Stan Goff on behalf of Iraq Veterans Against the
War.  It is an appeal for money, so let me get that right out front.

IVAW has never had a lot, but after the expenses incurred to support
Cindy Sheehan, the Crawford to DC Bus Tour, and the September 24
antiwar demonstration, there is not enough money in the bank right now
to even make payroll for the part-time staff that keeps the
organization afloat.

The organization needs around $10,000 a month cash flow to support its
recent expansion in membership and the next year’s organizational
development and objectives.  Those objectives include organizer
training for members, chapter concentration to develop local
self-sustaining nuclei, Katrina survivor self-determination support
work, and counter-recruitment initiatives.  These are the IVAW
priorities for the next year, in addition to the primary mission — to
stop the war against Iraq.

IVAW is the only organization of its kind, with its membership drawn
from armed services veterans who were on duty after September 11, 2001,
the day of the event upoon which the Bush administration built it’s
so-called Global War on Terror.  IVAW could seek a lot of foundation
money if it were to change one thing in its mission statement, and that
is the demand for immediate and unilateral withdrawal of all American
forces from Iraq.  Calls for indefinite plans of “phased” withdrawal
are much more popular with foundations who are reluctant to endanger
quietly favored elected officials who have been less than sterling on
the war by confronting them with their complicity in letting the Bush
administration have its way.  IVAW could change that mission and have
access to more money.  But it will not.

IVAW will not take money that  has these kinds of unstated strings
attached.  So it needs the support of independent antiwar activists who
share IVAW’s core beliefs that the occupaiton must leave as a moral
imperative and that the Iraqis will be better off without the
occupation — that the occupation itself is the catalyst for most of
the violence there, including attacks by Iraqis against other Iraqis.

The way this movement becomes independent and stays independent is
through the support of people who share its core mission and values.

Please, please help us build a sustianing financial floor under this
extremely important organization.  They need to be focused on their
work, not on finances.

Thanks so much for your support of my work, and for whatever you can
commit to IVAW.

Yours very sincerely,

Stan Goff

What: Vigil – with signs and banners – We will line the corners of Trade and Tryon, in the center of Charlotte NC, to connect with commuters and pedestrians leaving work on Veterans Day. Candle lighting at sunset (Approximately 6:15PM)

Where: Corner of Trade and Tryon, at the “Future” statue of Mother and Baby

Why: To honor all those who have served our country through the military – Veterans and current military personnel

Theme: Support the Troops – Bring them Home Now, And Take Care of them When They Get Here

Don’t Let Veterans Pay the Price for War

Banner/Sign Ideas:

Love the Troops – Hate the War

Support the Troops – Bring them Home Alive

Don’t Cut Veteran’s Benefits Support Veteran’s Benefits

Don’t Let Vets Pay the Price for War Fund the Vets – Not the War

Real Support = Better Benefits Support Them Once Their Home

Fund Disablility Benefits for Vets

Bring: Signs, Banners, Candles with Cups to protect them from wind; Lighters Statements/Songs/Poems to share during candle-lit “circle” portion of vigil.

Download Here
Check back regularly for new fliers!

CHARLES SHEEHAN-MILES; 1991 Gulf War veteran and executive director, Veterans for Common Sense.

[CONTACT: Charles Sheehan-Miles, 202-558-4553
INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE]

FRANK GREGORY FORD is an Iraq War veteran who will describe incidents of prisoner abuse he witnessed and attempted to report to the military chain of command.

DAVID DEBATTO is an Iraq War veteran and intelligence specialist who will discuss interrogation practices in Iraq.

GARRETT REPPENHAGEN is a recently returned Iraq War veteran and Army sniper who will discuss the impact of the Abu Ghraib on the Iraqi insurgency in the spring of 2004

COLONEL RICHARD KLASS is a Vietnam veteran and Silver Star winner who will discuss the role and responsibilities of combat commanders.

JEAN AYLWARD is a former Air Force Judge Advocate General officer and former attorney in the Office of Intelligence Policy Review at the U.S. Department of Justice, and currently serves as Senior Associate for Government Affairs at HUMAN RIGHTS FIRST.

ERIK K. GUSTAFSON is a 1991 Gulf War veteran and founded of the EDUCATION FOR PEACE IN IRAQ CENTER, an organization promoting human rights in Iraq since 1988.

INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE

WHAT: Press Conference to release Open Letter for an Independent Commission on Torture

WHEN: November 11, 2005; 10 AM (Veterans Day)

WHERE: Edward R. Murrow Room at the National Press Club; 529 14th St. NW, 13th Floor – Washington, DC 20045

VETERANS FOR COMMON SENSE is an organization of 14,000 veterans from World War II to the War on Terror working to preserve American values and defend U.S. national security.

View the Congressional Quarterly advertisement (Acrobat PDF)

Read the Open Letter (Acrobat PDF)

Iraq Veterans Against the War

IRAQ VETERANS FORUM:
VETS SAY NO TO WAR
Friday, Nov. 18, 2005, 8 pm

<strongGEORGIA TECH
Stamps Student Center
Student Center Complex Stage – Commons
350 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta, GA, on the Georgia Tech campus

(See Directions copied below)
(Flyers attached)

IRAQ VETERAN SPEAKERS:

MICHAEL HOFFMAN
Marine lance corporal who served honorably
in the initial invasion of Iraq and later
co-founded Iraq Veterans Against the War.

ADAM REUTER
Trained in military intelligence and
sent to Iraq 3 days after his son was born;
served in the cavalry with no training for his job.
Was injured in war and medically discharged.

JUSTIN GORDON
West Point graduate who served honorably
as a field artillery captain in Iraq and
subsequently concluded that the war and
occupation of Iraq is counter-productive to
keeping America safe from terrorism.

CAMILO MEJIA
One of the first Iraq war resisters imprisoned –
former infantry Staff Sergeant who served in Iraq
and refused to return. Subsequently served
9 months in prison, released in Feb. 2005.

ALSO SPEAKING:
Evelyn Allen, mother of Sgt. Jonathan R. Shields,
killed in action (KIA) in Fallujah, Iraq 11/12/04.

“People join the military to defend their country, not lies”
– Adam Reuter, former Army specialist and Iraq veteran

“As a nation, we have to ask ourselves if what we’re doing is right.
Are we having a positive impact in Iraq? Is our presence there
protecting American citizens? The answers are overwhelmingly
no, and this is why I cannot support the war.”
– Captain Justin Gordon, West Point officer and Iraq veteran

DIRECTIONS TO THE STAMPS STUDENT CENTER ON THE GEORGIA TECH CAMPUS:

Coming from the South: Take I-75 North to Exit 250, turn left onto 10th St., left onto State Ave., right onto Ferst Ave., and go straight. Go over some speed bumps, then turn left into a pay parking lot at the Stamps Student Center at 350 Ferst Ave.
The Commons Stage is located on the 1st floor of the Stamps Student Center.
If coming from the North: Take I-75 South to Exit 250, turn right onto 10th St., then continue as above.

This forum on the Iraq war is sponsored by:

Georgia Tech Chapter of Amnesty International,
Veterans For Peace, Atlanta Chapter 125, http://www.veteransforpeace.org
Iraq Veterans Against the War, http://www.ivaw.net
and the Georgia Peace & Justice Coalition/Atlanta, http://www.georgiapeace.org

Media contact: Debbie Clark, Veterans For Peace, Greater Atlanta Chapter 125, 770-855-6163, dclark@antiwar.com.

LINKS TO ARTICLES:

MICHAEL HOFFMAN:

http://www.motherjones.com/news/feature/2004/11/10_400.html

http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/03/1728893.php

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050328/houppert

ADAM REUTER:

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0508/17/acd.01.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/24/AR2005092401615_2.html

http://www.commondreams.org/cgi-bin/print.cgi?file=/headlines05/0924-06.htm

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=64439

JUSTIN GORDON:

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/jgordon.php?articleid=7277

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/_/id/7683877

CAMILO MEJIA:

http://www.freecamilo.org/

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/29/60II/main609216.shtml

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/03/28/1434222

http://www.globalexchange.org/getInvolved/speakers/132.html

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/ellsberg.php?articleid=2597

http://traprockpeace.org/camilo_mejia_28july05.html

Veteran admits: Bodies melted away before us.

By RAI

The Americans are responsible for a massacre using unconventional weapons, the
identical charge for which Saddam Hussein stands accused. An investigation by
RAI News 24, the all-news Italian satellite television channel, has pulled the
veil from one of the most carefully concealed mysteries from the front in the
entire US military campaign in Iraq.

The investigation will also broadcast documentary proof of the use in Iraq of a new napalm formula called MK77. The use of the incendiary substance on civilians is forbidden by a 1980 UN treaty. The use of chemical weapons is forbidden by a treaty which the US signed in 1997

* U.S. Broadcast Exclusive – “Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre” on the U.S. Use
of Napalm-Like White Phosphorus Bombs *

Democracy Now! airs an exclusive excerpt of “Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre,”
featuring interviews with U.S. soldiers, Iraqi doctors and international
journalists on the U.S. attack on Fallujah. Produced by Italian state
broadcaster RAI TV, the documentary charges U.S. warplanes illegally dropped
white phosphorous incendiary bombs on civilian populations, burning the skin
off Iraqi victims. One U.S. soldier charges this amounts to the U.S. using
chemical weapons against the Iraqi people.

Listen/Watch/Read

* A Debate: Did the U.S. Military Attack Iraqi Civilians With White
Phosphorous Bombs in Violation of the Geneva Conventions? *

We speak with a former U.S. soldier who witnessed orders being given to drop
white phosphorous bombs over Fallujah; a Pentagon spokesperson in Baghdad
who admits such bombs were used but denied they were used as a chemical
weapon; and the news director of RAI TV, the Italian TV network that
produced ³Fallujah: The Hidden Massacre.²

Listen/Watch/Read

10PM-1AM Tonight 11-08-05 Stream It If You Don’t Have A Local Radio Connection To ‘Air America’

The Independent UK:
“Powerful new evidence emerged yesterday that the United States dropped massive quantities of white phosphorus on the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the attack on the city in November 2004, killing insurgents and civilians with the appalling burns that are the signature of this weapon.
Ever since the assault, which went unreported by any Western journalists, rumors have swirled that the Americans used chemical weapons on the city.
On 10 November last year, the Islam Online website wrote: ‘US troops are reportedly using chemical weapons and poisonous gas in its large-scale offensive on the Iraqi resistance bastion of Fallujah, a grim reminder of Saddam Hussein’s alleged gassing of the Kurds in 1988.'”
The full story — accompanied by a very graphic and disturbing video produced by Italian television and scheduled for broadcast tonight can be found HERE:
Once again, the rest of the world is shown graphic proof of US troops, acting on orders from George W. Bush, committing war crimes; incinerating civilians, destroying hospitals, bombing neighborhoods, obliterating whole sections of a city in a mad act of revenge against “terrorists” who have the temerity to resist the invading US military.
This is all — the war, the political corruption, the inability to function in the aftermath of natural disasters at home, the ruining of our financial resources, the domestic criminality of the ruling clique, the sanctioning of torture (!) — becoming much worse than the inability to perform even the most basic functions of government (which is an incompetence the Bush Crime Family demonstrates daily).
It is taking on the nightmarish feel of a horrific dream from which one struggles to escape.
The most recent example of the uselessness of Bush himself was the so-called economic summit of hemispheric leaders in Argentina. Bush walked out after making one of his useless press conference cum photo op appearances. No meetings, no discussions, no plans made for regional economic security. Nothing. Bush arrives. People violently protest his presence in their country. Bush struts for the cameras. Bush leaves and flies to a fund-raiser in Virginia after a quick stopover for another photo-op, this one in Panama.
It is all appalling.
It is disgusting.
And we have another 39 months of this.<br Or do we?
Join me tonight for the discussion.