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U.S. Out Now! From Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and all U.S. bases around the world; End all U.S. Aid to Israel; Get the military out of our schools and our communities; Demand Equal Rights and Justice for ALL!
TAX THE RICH NOT THE POOR! MONEY FOR HUMAN NEEDS NOT WAR!
Bay Area United Against War Newsletter
Table of Contents:
A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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A. EVENTS AND ACTIONS
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DEMONSTRATE! Demand that the US denounce the coup in Honduras! Monday afternoon, August 3, 4pm - to 6pm at the Federal Building, 450 Golden Gate. Ave, SF.
The new Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition (BALASC) is demonstrating to demand that the United States refuse any recognition of the coup government in Honduras and refrain from interfering in Honduras' internal affairs.
At this week's meeting of BALASC, it was generally agreed that this is an indirect attack on the ALBA (the Bolivarian Alternative for Latin America and the Caribbean), a new model of co-operative regional economic integration that rejects U.S. and neo-liberalism's Free Trade agenda in the Americas.
There is fear that, if this coup succeeds and the U.S. continues to promote it, other countries, like El Salvador, will be next. We will be regressing to the bad old days and bloodshed of the 1980s and before.
A letter will be delivered to Nancy Pelosi. Please call your representatives and the White House and tell them what you think.
Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition
"We are a broad-based grassroots volunteer organization- our goal is to educate the communities on the popular process in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to mobilize people in defense of democracy and against US aggression, destabilztion and coups d'etat."
Emergency Delegation (August 7-17) to Honduras sponsored by Global Exchange, endorsed by the Bay Area LASC and led by Andres Conteris of Nonviolence International and Democracy Now!.
August 07, 2009 - August 17, 2009
Global Exchange's emergency delegation to Honduras seeks to bring attention to the June 28th military coup d'etat against democratically-elected President Manuel Zelaya and the continuing human rights abuses by the military government. Facilitated by Democracy Now and Nonviolence International's Andres Conteris, we will highlight the socio-political and economic circumstances leading to the forced exile of the constitutional government and the efforts by civil society, indigenous, religious, labor, non-governmental and human rights organizations in resisting the de facto military regime of Roberto Michelletti.
Based out of Tegucigalpa and the surrounding countryside, the delegation will ensure an international presence to accompany Honduran community leaders at risk of persecution and document human rights abuses to disseminate to media outlets. Given the increasing political and economic volatility on the ground, coupled with the repression of constitutional rights such as freedom of expression and assembly, this program will offer participants the opportunity to exercise citizen diplomacy and solidarity with the people of Honduras and their democratic process.
Cost: $900
Price Includes:
The $900 cost is a rough amount, subject to change depending on the conditions on the ground. This fee will cover accommodation, food and honorariums to the organizations with which we meet, as well as facilitation and interpretation costs. It will also cover preliminary reading materials.
How to Register:
We must receive your application and a non-refundable deposit of $400 ASAP. Payments by Mastercard or Visa are welcome.
In some cases, a limited number of partial scholarships are available for low-income applicants.
Make your reservation online now!
Contact Sneh with any questions about this trip, or call toll-free 1-800-497-1994 ext. 221.
Trips on related issues:
Labor and Economy
Peace and Conflict
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National Call For Action And Endorsements at the
G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh, PA
Sept. 19 - 25, 2009
Endorsers (list in formation): Iraq Veterans Against the War Chapter 61, Pittsburgh; PA State Senator Jim Ferlo; Veterans for Peace Chapter 047, Pittsburgh; National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations; Thomas Merton Center Pittsburgh; Codepink Pittsburgh Women for Peace; Bail Out The People; Green Party of Allegheny County; World Can't Wait; ISO (International Socialist Organization); WILPF (Women's International League for Peace and Freedom) Pittsburgh; Socialist Action; Ohio Valley Peace
Activists from Pittsburgh, the U.S., and across the globe will converge to protest the destructive policies of the G-20 - meeting in Pittsburgh this September 24-25.
The Group of Twenty (G-20) Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors represents the world's economic leaders, intimately connected to the most powerful multi-national corporations that dominate the global economy. Their neo-liberal policies have squandered billions on war, plunged economies into deep recessions, worsened social, economic and political inequality, and polluted the earth.
We believe a better world is possible. We anticipate involvement and support from like-minded people and organizations across the country for projected actions from September 19-25:
People's Summit - Sept. 19, 21-22 (Saturday, Monday, Tuesday)
A partnership of educators and social justice groups is organizing a People's Summit to discuss global problems and seek solutions that are informed by the basic principles of genuine democracy and human dignity. This will bring together informed speakers and panels to discuss problems we face and possible solutions, also providing interactive workshop discussions.
Mass March on the G-20 - Friday, Sept. 25:
Money for human needs, not for war!
Gather at 12 noon, march to the City County Building downtown
A peaceful, legal march is being sponsored by the Thomas Merton Center, an umbrella organization that supports a wide variety of peace and justice member projects in Pittsburgh. We will hold a mass march to demand "Money for human needs, not for war!"
WE SEEK THE BROADEST RANGE OF SUPPORT, PARTICIPATION, AND ENDORSEMENTS FOR THE MASS MARCH AND PEOPLE'S SUMMIT
To endorse, E-mail: info@pittsburghendthewar.org
Or contact: Thomas Merton Center AWC, 5125 Penn Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15224
Several other events are being planned by a wide variety of community and social justice groups in Pittsburgh.
For more information and updates please visit:
http://www.thomasmertoncenter.org/g20action.htm
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NATIONAL MARCH FOR EQUALITY
WASHINGTON, D.C. OCTOBER 10-11, 2009
Sign up here and spread the word:
http://www.nationalequalitymarch.com/
On October 10-11, 2009, we will gather in Washington DC from all across
America to let our elected leaders know that *now is the time for full equal
rights for LGBT people.* We will gather. We will march. And we will leave
energized and empowered to do the work that needs to be done in every
community across the nation.
This site will be updated as more information is available. We will organize
grassroots, from the bottom-up, and details will be shared on this website.
Our single demand:
Equal protection in all matters governed by civil law in all 50 states.
Our philosophy:
As members of every race, class, faith, and community, we see the struggle
for LGBT equality as part of a larger movement for peace and social justice.
Our strategy:
Decentralized organizing for this march in every one of the 435
Congressional districts will build a network to continue organizing beyond
October.
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B. SPECIAL APPEALS, VIDEOS AND ONGOING CAMPAIGNS
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This is a must-see video about the life of Oscar Grant, a young man who loved his family and was loved by his family. It's important to watch to understand the tremendous loss felt by his whole family as a result of his cold-blooded murder by BART police officers--Johannes Mehserle being the shooter while the others held Oscar down and handcuffed him to aid Mehserle in the murder of Oscar Grant January 1, 2009.
The family wants to share this video here with you who support justice for Oscar Grant.
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/21/18611878.php
WE DEMAND JUSTICE FOR OSCAR GRANT!
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U.S. national anti-war assembly calls for freedom for Ahmad Sa'adat and Palestinian prisoners
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org/
The July 10-12, 2009 U.S. national conference of the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations unanimously approved a major resolution in support of freedom for Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners.
Over 250 anti-war and progressive activists attended the conference in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, representing dozens of organizations and groups across the United States. The National Assembly includes trade unionists, veterans, students, local antiwar coalitions, women's organizations, national leaders of the major antiwar coalitions, immigrant rights activists, racial justice activists and organizations, and many others.
Monadel Herzallah, a Palestinian organizer, president of the Arab American Union Members' Council and national coordinator of the US Palestine Community Network - Popular Conference presented the resolution at the conference, where he spoke at the major Saturday evening panel. In his presentation, he called for an end to U.S. aid to Israel and called for trade unions, churches, universities, cultural centers and other institutions to cut all ties with Israel and Israeli entities, and stressed the need to confront racism and oppression facing the Palestinian and Arab communities and other racially and nationally oppressed communities within the United States. He concluded by stressing the need to support Palestinian political prisoners, highlighting the growing campaign of solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat and all prisoners. He discussed Sa'adat's hunger strike against prison repression as well as his leadership in the Palestinian national movement, and the direct involvement and responsibility of the U.S. for the imprisonment of Sa'adat.
Ahmad Sa'adat is the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. A Palestinian national leader, he is one of 39 Palestinian Legislative Council members and government ministers imprisoned by Israel, and one of thousands of Palestinian activists, students, workers, trade unionists, men, women and children held in the prisons and detention centers of the occupier. He was imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority since 2002 under U.S. and British guard before being kidnapped in an Israeli military raid on the PA prison where he was held. He has since been sentenced to 30 years in Israeli prison for his political activity and has remained a strong leader of the prisoners' movement as well as a national and international symbol of the Palestinian struggle for justice and freedom. Over 400 international organizations and individuals recently signed on to a letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urging freedom for Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian prisoners.
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat congratulates the National Assembly for its important resolution, that passed with the unanimous approval of the delegates. Only one other resolution passed with such unanimous support - a resolution to condemn the military coup in Honduras and stand in solidarity with the Honduran people against the coup and U.S. imperialism. We welcome such resolutions from organizations around the world. Please send your resolutions and statements in solidarity with Ahmad Sa'adat to the Campaign at info@freeahmadsaadat.org.
The full text of the resolution is below:
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF THE CAMPAIGN TO FREE AHMAD SA'ADAT AND ALL PALESTINIAN POLITICAL PRISONERS
for the National Assembly National Conference, July 10-12, 2009
WHEREAS, Israel currently holds over 11,000 Palestinians as political prisoners, including men, women and children, and one out of every four Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza has been subject to political arrest or detention, including 40% of Palestinian men from the West Bank and Gaza, and
WHEREAS, the arrest, detention and imprisonment of Palestinians is directed by a series of over 1500 Israeli military regulations that can be changed at any time by the regional military commander, and Palestinians arrested by the Israeli military are often relocated to Israeli military prisons outside the West Bank and Gaza, in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, and as the Israeli military continues to abduct Palestinians on a daily basis and imprison them in these military prisons, and
WHEREAS, Palestinians abducted by the Israeli military are subject to psychological and physical torture and abuse, especially during the period of interrogation, which can last for up to 180 days, including up to sixty days in which a Palestinian prisoner may not be seen by an attorney, and
WHEREAS, over half of all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees have not been tried, and
WHEREAS, nearly one thousand Palestinians are held in "administrative detention," a system of detention without charge or trial, that is indefinitely extensible for successive six-month periods, confronted only by secret evidence that is impossible to refute, and
WHEREAS, those Palestinian detainees that are tried are brought before an Israeli military court, in which Palestinians' rights to a fair trial are systematically violated, presided over by three judges, only one of which is required to have any legal training, and
WHEREAS, the Israeli military courts exist only as a function of the illegal military occupation, and thus can never provide a legitimate or fair trial to Palestinian political prisoners, and
WHEREAS, Palestinian national leaders, including Ahmad Sa'adat, General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Marwan Barghouti, and 37 other members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, are systematically targeted for political arrest and imprisonment, and
WHEREAS, the most basic of political activities, including simply being a member of most Palestinian political parties, are sufficient to serve as "charges" against Palestinian political prisoners and are met with substantial sentences, and
WHEREAS, Ahmad Sa'adat and five other Palestinian political prisoners were arrested by the Palestinian Authority in 2002, and were transferred to Jericho Prison under U.S. and British guard as a condition of a settlement between then PA President Yasser Arafat and Israel in May 2002, and
WHEREAS, during his time in PA prison, Sa'adat was never charged with any crime nor tried for any offense; his release was ordered by the Palestinian High Court, and supported by numerous international organizations, including Amnesty International, and
WHEREAS, on March 14, 2006, the U.S. and British monitors at Jericho Prison left their posts, shortly before the inception of a ten-hour siege of the prison by the Israeli military that ended in the death of two Palestinians, the injury of twenty-three more, and the abduction of Ahmad Sa'adat and five other political prisoners from Jericho to Israeli military prisons, and
WHEREAS, Ahmad Sa'adat was sentenced by an illegitimate military court to 30 years in prison for 19 political offenses, including membership in a prohibited organization, holding a post in a prohibited organization, and incitement, for giving a speech after the Israeli assassination of his predecessor, Abu Ali Mustafa, in 2001, and
WHEREAS, Ahmad Sa'adat and his attorneys consistently refuse and refused throughout his trial to recognize the authority of a military court that is an instrument of occupation, and
WHEREAS, political imprisonment has been one part of a deliberate strategy to deprive Palestinians of their leaders, educators, writers, journalists, clergy, unionists, and popular activists from all political orientations, as part of the dispossession and repression of the Palestinian Arab people in the interests of colonialism and occupation for over sixty years, including the denial of millions of Palestinian refugees' right to return home, and
WHEREAS, as Ahmad Sa'adat said in his statement to the court of January 14, 2007, " This trial cannot be separated from the process of the historical struggle in Palestine that continues today between the Zionist Movement and the Palestinian people, a struggle that centers on Palestinian land, history, civilization, culture and identity," and
WHEREAS, Ahmad Sa'adat has been a leader among Palestinian prisoners and recently completed a nine-day hunger strike against Israeli policies of isolation and solitary confinement against Palestinian prisoners, and is currently in isolation until September 17, has faced serious health problems, and has been denied family visits from his wife for months and from his children for years, and
WHEREAS, the United States government bears direct responsibility for the situation of Ahmad Sa'adat, and oversaw his imprisonment in PA prison for four years and was complicit in his abduction and kidnapping by the Israeli military during its attack on Jericho prison, and
WHEREAS, there is an international campaign to free Ahmad Sa'adat, and all Palestinian political prisoners, and as the National Assembly has a history of supporting struggles for justice and freedom, and
WHEREAS, the political imprisonment of thousands of Palestinians is made possible by the billions of dollars in economic and military support as well as the vast political and diplomatic support given to Israel by the United States,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations calls for the immediate freedom of Ahmad Sa'adat and all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the National Assembly shall actively support the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat and all campaigns to free all Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the National Assembly shall endeavor to issue statements and publicize the cases of Palestinian political prisoners and detainees, and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that the National Assembly shall endeavor to support the struggles and organizing of Palestinian political prisoners, and the work of activists and organizations on the ground working for justice and freedom for Palestinian political prisoners and the cause of freedom for which these thousands of prisoners are held - of self-determination, liberation and return for all Palestinians in exile and in all of historic Palestine
The Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa'adat
http://www.freeahmadsaadat.org
info@freeahmadsaadat.org
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Condemn Honduran Coup and Restore Honduran President Zelaya NOW!
Sign the Emergency Petition!
http://www.iacenter.org/honduraspetition/
To: President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
CC: Vice President Joe Biden, Congressional leaders, U.N. General Assembly President d'Escoto-Brockmann, U.N. Secretary General Ban, and major media representatives including the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, and Reuters.
I demand that the Barack Obama administration and the U.S. Congress unequivocally condemn the unconstitutional and anti-democratic military coup in Honduras and insist that the military regime and the newly appointed but illegitimate president of Honduras restore President Zelaya to office, free all the imprisoned popular leaders and remove the curfew. I further demand that the U.S. Ambassador to Honduras be recalled immediately until such time as President Zelaya is restored to office.
Sincerely,
(Your signature will be appended here based on the contact information you enter in the form)
Sign the Petition Online
http://www.iacenter.org/honduraspetition/
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Troy Anthony Davis is an African American man who has spent the last 18 years on death row for a murder he did not commit. There is no physical evidence tying him to the crime and seven out of nine witnesses have recanted. New evidence and new testimony have been presented to the Georgia courts, but the justice system refuses to consider this evidence, which would prove Troy Davis' innocence once and for all.
Sign the petition and join the NAACP, Amnesty International USA, and other partners in demanding justice for Troy Davis!
http://www.iamtroy.com/
For Now, High Court Punts on Troy Davis, on Death Row for 18 Years
By Ashby Jones
Wall Street Journal Law Blog
June 30, 2009
http://blogs.wsj.com/law/2009/06/30/for-now-high-court-punts-on-troy-davis-on-death-row-for-18-years/
Take action now:
http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ActionItem.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&aid=12361&ICID=A0906A01&tr=y&auid=5030305
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Committee To Save Mumia Abu-Jamal
P.O. Box 2012
New York, NY 10159-2012
New videos from April 24 Oakland Mumia event
http://abu-jamal-news.com/article?name=jlboak
Donations for Mumia's Legal Defense in the U.S. Our legal effort is the front line of the battle for Mumia's freedom and life. His legal defense needs help. The costs are substantial for our litigation in the U.S. Supreme Court and at the state level. To help, please make your checks payable to the National Lawyers Guild Foundation (indicate "Mumia" on the bottom left). All donations are tax deductible under the Internal Revenue Code, section 501(c)(3), and should be mailed to:
It is outrageous and a violation of human rights that Mumia remains in prison and on death row. His life hangs in the balance. My career has been marked by successfully representing people facing death in murder cases. I will not rest until we win Mumia's case. Justice requires no less.
With best wishes,
Robert R. Bryan
Lead counsel for Mumia Abu-Jamal
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Short Video About Al-Awda's Work
The following link is to a short video which provides an overview of Al-Awda's work since the founding of our organization in 2000. This video was first shown on Saturday May 23, 2009 at the fundraising banquet of the 7th Annual Int'l Al-Awda Convention in Anaheim California. It was produced from footage collected over the past nine years.
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kTiAkbB5uC0&eurl
Support Al-Awda, a Great Organization and Cause!
Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, depends on your financial support to carry out its work.
To submit your tax-deductible donation to support our work, go to
http://www.al-awda.org/donate.html and follow the simple instructions.
Thank you for your generosity!
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KEVIN COOPER IS INNOCENT!
FLASHPOINTS Interview with Innocent San Quentin Death Row Inmate
Kevin Cooper -- Aired Monday, May 18,2009
http://www.flashpoints.net/#GOOGLE_SEARCH_ENGINE
To learn more about Kevin Cooper go to:
savekevincooper.org
LINKS
San Francisco Chronicle article on the recent ruling:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/05/13/BAM517J8T3.DTL
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and dissent:
http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/05/11/05-99004o.pdf
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COURAGE TO RESIST!
Support the troops who refuse to fight!
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/
Donate:
http://www.couragetoresist.org/x/content/view/21/57/
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C. ARTICLES IN FULL
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1) Military Weighs Private Security on Front Lines
Firm Could Have Broad Protection Authority in Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/25/AR2009072501738.html
2) As Charter Schools Unionize, Many Debate Effect
By SAM DILLON
July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/education/27charter.html?hp
3) Israeli Officials: No Option Off Table on Iran
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/27/world/AP-ML-Israel-US.html?ref=world
4) Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country
By DAN FROSCH
July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/us/27navajo.html?ref=us
5) Of Banks and Bonuses
Editorial
July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/opinion/27mon1.html
6) Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
May 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?scp=1&sq=Imperial,%20Calif%20May%2014&st=cse
7) 12 and in Prison
Editorial
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/opinion/28tue1.html
8) Homeless Families Could Face Eviction Over Rules
By JULIE BOSMAN
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/nyregion/28homeless.html?hp
9) A President Kicked Out, but Not Alone in Defiance
By BLAKE SCHMIDT
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/world/americas/28honduras.html?ref=world
10) Military Criticized in Report on Soldier Electrocuted in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/world/middleeast/28iraq.html?ref=world
11) Young Japanese Women Vie for a Once-Scorned Job
By HIROKO TABUCHI
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/business/global/28hostess.html?ref=world
12) Wronged Juveniles May Lose Right to Sue
By IAN URBINA
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/28juvenile.html?ref=us
13) Dead Zone in Gulf Is Smaller Than Forecast but More Concentrated in Parts
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/science/earth/28zone.html?ref=us
14) Rural Medical Camp Tackles Health Care Gaps
Monday 27 July 2009
By Howard Berkes
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111066576
15) The Financial Truth Commission
Editorial
July 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/opinion/29wed1.html?_r=1
16) How Firms Wooed a U.S. Agency With Billions to Invest
By ERIC LIPTON
July 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/29pensions.html?hp
17) Witness Tells of Doctor's Last Seconds
By MONICA DAVEY
July 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/us/29tiller.html?ref=us
18) House Panel Approves Executive Pay Restraints
By STEPHEN LABATON
July 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/29pay.html?ref=business
19) How Kidneys Are Bought And Sold on Black Market
By Rebecca Dube
July 29, 2009
http://www.forward.com/articles/111027/
20) Casualties of War, Part I: The hell of war comes home
DAVE PHILIPPS
July 24, 2009
http://www.gazette.com/common/printer/view.php?db=colgazette&id=59065
Casualties of War, Part II: Warning signs
DAVE PHILIPPS
July 24, 2009
http://www.gazette.com/common/printer/view.php?db=colgazette&id=59091
22) Urgent Report on Upcoming Antiwar Activity
By Bonnie Weinstein, giobon@comcast.net
July 31, 2009
bauaw.org
23) Living in Tents, and by the Rules, Under a Bridge
By DAN BARRY
This Land
PROVIDENCE, R.I.
July 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/us/31land.html?ref=us
24) Farm Workers' Union Sues California Agency Over Rules on Heat Safety
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
July 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/us/31farm.html?ref=us
25) Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts
By LOUISE STORY and ERIC DASH
July 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31pay.html?ref=business
26) When Auto Plants Close, Only White Elephants Remain
By BILL VLASIC and NICK BUNKLEY
July 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31factories.html?ref=business
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1) Military Weighs Private Security on Front Lines
Firm Could Have Broad Protection Authority in Afghanistan
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/25/AR2009072501738.html
The U.S. military command is considering contracting a private firm to manage security on the front lines of the war in Afghanistan, even as Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates says that the Pentagon intends to cut back on the use of private security contractors.
On a Web site listing federal business opportunities, the Army this month published a notice soliciting information from prospective contractors who would develop a security plan for 50 or more forward operating bases and smaller command outposts across Afghanistan.
Although the U.S. military has contracted out security services to protect individuals, military bases and other facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan, this contract would award a commercial company unusually broad "theater-wide" authority to protect forward operating bases in a war zone.
"The contractor shall be responsible for providing security services, developing, implementing, adequately staffing, and managing a security program," the notice said, adding that the contractor would have to be available "24 hours a day, seven days a week."
The U.S. military currently has 72 contracts that provide 5,600 civilian guards, mostly local Afghans, at forward bases across Afghanistan, according to Lt. Cmdr. Christine M. Sidenstricker, chief of media operations for U.S. Forces-Afghanistan. The intent of the proposed contract is to bring all "disparate and subordinate contracts" under single, theater-wide management at a time when the U.S. forces are expanding, she said.
The Army has not issued a formal proposal for a contract, but the notice says that interested companies should reply by Wednesday and that a formal request for proposals should follow. The "anticipated award date" for a contract is Dec. 1, according to the notice.
The request for information comes as Gates is moving to put soldiers back in charge of security roles that contractors have filled in recent years. Drawing on its experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Defense Department recently organized a task force to measure the military's dependence on contractor support in training and security, with the goal of determining an appropriate mix.
Lawmakers, too, have raised concerns about the cost of contractors and about outsourcing what have traditionally been government roles.
The Commission on Wartime Contracting, a bipartisan congressional panel, noted in a recent report that in previous wars, military police protected bases while other service members pursued the enemy. "Contractors are now literally in the center of the battlefield in unprecedented numbers," the commission said, creating "a need to define specific functions that are not appropriate for performance by contractors in a contingency operation."
Meanwhile, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), chairman of the Senate subcommittee on contracting oversight, said her panel had "revealed major concerns about the use of private security contractors in Afghanistan." She added that a hard look needs to be taken "at where we have gone wrong in the past, to ensure that the military does not repeat history."
Afghan forward operating bases are often considered dangerous posts. An American soldier was critically injured this month when insurgents attacked Forward Operating Base Salerno, near the eastern border town of Khost. Two U.S. troops died July 4 at Combat Outpost Zerok, also near the Pakistan border, in an insurgent assault.
In the worst attack on an outpost, roughly 200 insurgents broke through security walls last year at an outpost in Konar province and killed nine American soldiers. Sen. James Webb (D-Va.), a member of the Armed Services Committee, recently asked the Pentagon's inspector general to investigate whether security at the post was adequate.
With Afghan army and police officers totaling roughly 160,000, and the number of U.S. service members in Afghanistan set to grow to 68,000 by year's end, the U.S. military is moving to protect the facilities where personnel will be based. But many experts say commanders do not have enough forces.
"We don't want to waste scarce Afghan army and police, so we must be creative," said Michael E. O'Hanlon, a senior fellow and military expert at the Brookings Institution.
But O'Hanlon also said he is concerned that if contractors were to take over security at forward operating bases, they would be the first to see hostile fire, and they -- not soldiers -- would have to decide whether to employ weapons against an enemy.
Instead of hiring a private firm, O'Hanlon said, the Americans and Afghans could create a local version of Iraq's Facilities Protection Service, the modestly trained but government-paid guard force that was pulled together to provide protection for government ministries in Baghdad and the oil fields. "We should create a different branch of the Afghan security forces that has minimal training," he said.
At a town hall meeting at Fort Drum, N.Y., on July 16, Gates said that the military had let contracting "grow without the kind of controls that we should" have had. The purpose, he said, was "to try and free up as many soldiers for actual combat duty, rather than having them do things that civilian contractors could do."
Contractors, Gates noted, have done a variety of jobs, including running dining facilities and doing laundry, cleaning chores and security work. "So, we're kind of going back through all of these roles, at this point, to figure out where military ought to be doing these things and where civilian contractors can be," he said.
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2) As Charter Schools Unionize, Many Debate Effect
By SAM DILLON
July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/education/27charter.html?hp
CHICAGO - Dissatisfied with long hours, churning turnover and, in some cases, lower pay than instructors at other public schools, an increasing number of teachers at charter schools are unionizing.
Labor organizing that began two years ago at seven charter schools in Florida has proliferated over the last year to at least a dozen more charters from Massachusetts and New York to California and Oregon.
Charter schools, which are publicly financed but managed by groups separate from school districts, have been a mainstay of the education reform movement and widely embraced by parents. Because most of the nation's 4,600 charter schools operate without unions, they have been freer to innovate, their advocates say, allowing them to lengthen the class day, dismiss underperforming teachers at will, and experiment with merit pay and other changes that are often banned by work rules governing traditional public schools.
"Charter schools have been too successful for the unions to ignore," said Elizabeth D. Purvis, executive director of the Chicago International Charter School, where teachers voted last month to unionize 3 of its 12 campuses.
President Obama has been especially assertive in championing charter schools. On Friday, he and the education secretary, Arne Duncan, announced a competition for $4.35 billion in federal financing for states that ease restrictions on charter schools and adopt some charter-like standards for other schools - like linking teacher pay to student achievement.
But the unionization effort raises questions about whether unions will strengthen the charter movement by stabilizing its young, often transient teaching force, or weaken it by preventing administrators from firing ineffective teachers and imposing changes they say help raise achievement, like an extended school year.
"A charter school is a more fragile host than a school district," said Paul T. Hill, director of the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington. "Labor unrest in a charter school can wipe it out fast. It won't go well for unions if the schools they organize decline in quality or go bust."
Unions are not entirely new to charter schools. Teachers at hundreds of charter schools in Wisconsin, California and elsewhere have long been union members, not because they signed up, but because of local laws, like those that extend union status to all schools in a state or district.
Steve Barr, the founder of one large charter network, Green Dot, said his group operates its 17 charter schools in Los Angeles and one in the Bronx with union staff because it makes sense in the heavily unionized environment of public education.
In recent months, teachers have won union recognition at schools including the Boston Conservatory Lab School, a school in Brooklyn that is part of the Knowledge Is Power Program, an Afro-centric school in Philadelphia, four campuses in the Accelerated School network in Los Angeles, and a Montessori school in Oregon. Moves toward unionizing have revealed greater teacher unrest than was previously known.
"I was frustrated with all the turnover among staff, with the lack of teacher input, with working longer and harder than teachers at other schools and earning less," said Jennifer Gilley, a social studies teacher at the Ralph Ellison Campus of the Chicago International Charter School, who said she made $38,000 as a base salary as a starting teacher, compared with about $43,500 paid by the Chicago Public Schools.
The potential for further unionization of charter schools is a matter of debate.
"They'll have a success here and there," said Todd Ziebarth, a vice president of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools. "But unionized charters will continue to be a small part of the movement."
Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called the gains of the past year "a precursor."
"You're going to see far more union representation in charter schools," Ms. Weingarten said. "We had a group of schools that were basically unorganized, groups of teachers wanting a voice, a union willing to start organizing them, and now money in our organizing budget to back that up. And all of that has come together in the last 6 to 12 months."
She quoted Albert Shanker, her union's founder, as saying charter schools should be "incubators of good instructional practice."
"I'm adding to the argument," Ms. Weingarten said. "Let them be incubators of good labor practice."
The largest teachers union, the National Education Association, has no national charter organizing campaign. But some of its state affiliates have helped charters unionize.
Some recently unionized charters say they are feeling their way forward.
The Knowledge Is Power Program, known as KIPP, which operates 82 mostly high-performing charter schools nationwide, is facing first-time negotiations with teachers at its KIPP Amp Academy in Brooklyn, where teachers this spring won affiliation with the United Federation of Teachers.
KIPP is also facing demands for higher pay at its high-performing Ujima Village Academy in Baltimore, which has been unionized under Maryland law since its founding.
"Our schools had largely been left alone," said Steve Mancini, a KIPP spokesman. "Now we're getting all this union attention." One goal KIPP will seek in negotiations in New York and Baltimore, Mr. Mancini said, is to preserve the principals' right to mold their teams.
Whether KIPP can maintain that posture in its negotiations remains to be seen. Another question is whether the strains of unionization will affect the culture of collegiality that has helped charter schools prosper.
Here in Chicago, where students at several Chicago International campuses have scores among the city's highest for nonselective schools, teachers began organizing last fall after an administrator increased workloads to six classes a day from five, said Emily Mueller, a Spanish teacher at Northtown Academy.
"We were really proud of the scores, and still are," Ms. Mueller said. "But the workload, teaching 160 kids a day, it wasn't sustainable. You can't put out the kind of energy we were putting out for our kids year after year."
Some teachers disagreed. Theresa Furr, a second-grade teacher at the Wrightwood campus, said she opposed unionization.
"Every meeting I went to," Ms. Furr said, "it was always 'What can we get?' and never 'How is this going to make our students' education better?' "
For Joyce Pae, an English teacher at Ralph Ellison, the decision was agonizing. Her concerns over what she saw as chaotic turnover and inconsistency in allocating merit pay led her to join the drive. But after school leaders began paying more attention to teachers' views, she said, she voted against unionization in June.
Union teachers won the vote, 73-49.
"If nothing else," Ms. Pae said, "this experience has really helped teachers feel empowered."
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3) Israeli Officials: No Option Off Table on Iran
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009/07/27/world/AP-ML-Israel-US.html?ref=world
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel insisted Monday it will do whatever it must to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, even as the visiting U.S. defense chief promised tougher international sanctions if Tehran spurns an offer of talks.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates tried to reassure Israeli leaders that President Barack Obama is not naive, and he said the offer to bargain with Iran isn't good indefinitely. After meeting with Gates, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak suggested his country's patience is limited, saying -- three times -- that Israel would not rule out any response.
''We clearly believe that no option should be removed from the table,'' Barak said, referring to the unstated possibility that Israel might launch a pre-emptive attack to thwart Iran's nuclear development.
Differences between Israel and the U.S. over how to handle a looming Iranian nuclear threat dominated Gates' brief stop in Jerusalem. And later, in neighboring Jordan, Gates was blunt in describing what Iran might expect if it refuses the offer of international arms control talks this year, or walks away from Obama's wider offer of better relations with Washington.
''If the engagement process is not successful, the United States is prepared to press for significant additional sanctions,'' Gates said. He added that the United States would try to abandon the current policy of gradual international pressure, where layers of generally mild sanctions have been added as each time Iran flouted international demands.
''We would try to get international support for a much tougher position,'' Gates said. He added: ''Our hope remains that Iran would respond to the president's outstretched hand in a positive and constructive way, but we'll see.''
While the United States also reserves the right to use force if need be, the Obama administration is playing down that possibility while it tries to draw Iran into talks. Gates said Washington still hopes to have an initial answer in the fall about negotiations.
''The timetable the president laid out still seems to be viable and does not significantly raise the risks to anybody,'' Gates said in Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he hopes to work out policy disagreements with the U.S. during a series of meetings this week with high-profile American envoys. Gates was the second in a parade of Americans coming to Israel this week, and the only one for whom Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements was not a primary topic.
Netanyahu's office said that during talks with Gates, Netanyahu ''reiterated the seriousness (with) which Israel views Iran's nuclear ambitions and the need to utilize all available means to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability.''
The United States contends that a strike would upset the fragile security balance in the Middle East, perhaps triggering a new nuclear arms race and leaving everyone, including Israel and Iran, worse off.
Iran has long insisted it is merely trying to develop nuclear reactors for domestic power generation. Israeli leaders fear the U.S. is prizing outreach to Iran over its historic ties to Israel and appears resigned to the idea that Iran will soon be able to build a nuclear weapon.
Obama says he has accepted no such thing.
Both Barak and Gates said time is short, and Gates stressed that any negotiations would not become cover for Iran to run out the clock while it perfects a nuclear weapon.
''I think we're in full agreement on the negative consequences of Iran obtaining this kind of capability,'' Gates said. ''I think we are also agreed that it is important to take every opportunity to try and persuade the Iranians to reconsider what is actually in their own security interest.''
Obama pledged a new outreach to Iran during last year's presidential campaign. Aides say the recent election-related political upheaval in Iran has complicated, but not derailed, that effort.
On Sunday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton implicitly urged Israel to set aside any plans it might have for attacking Iran, saying she hopes the Jewish state understands the value of American attempts at diplomacy.
Speaking on NBC's ''Meet The Press,'' Clinton also said she would not reveal any specifics of a possible ''defense umbrella'' to protect Mideast allies against an eventual Iranian bomb.
The umbrella idea, which Clinton offhandedly mentioned last week, has fueled Israel's uncertainty over U.S. policy under Obama even though Clinton later backpedaled.
Iran rejects the idea of a U.S. defensive umbrella to protect Washington's regional allies against a nuclear Iran. Foreign ministry spokesman Hasan Qashqavi told reporters Monday that ''there is no need'' for a U.S. defensive umbrella, just for Washington to tell Israel to ''dismantle its own 200 nuclear warheads.''
Associated Press writers Josef Federman and Matti Friedman contributed to this report.
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4) Uranium Contamination Haunts Navajo Country
By DAN FROSCH
July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/us/27navajo.html?ref=us
TEEC NOS POS, Ariz. - It was one year ago that the environmental scientist showed up at Fred Slowman's door, deep in the heart of Navajo country, and warned that it was unsafe for him to stay there.
The Slowman home, the same one-level cinderblock structure his family had lived in for nearly a half-century, was contaminated with potentially dangerous levels of uranium from the days of the cold war, when hundreds of uranium mines dotted the vast tribal land known as the Navajo Nation. The scientist advised Mr. Slowman, his wife and their two sons to move out until their home could be rebuilt.
"I was angry," Mr. Slowman said. "I guess it was here all this time, and we never knew."
The legacy wrought from decades of uranium mining is long and painful here on the expansive reservation. Over the years, Navajo miners extracted some four million tons of uranium ore from the ground, much of it used by the United States government to make weapons.
Many miners died from radiation-related illnesses; some, unaware of harmful health effects, hauled contaminated rocks and tailings from local mines and mills to build homes for their families.
Now, those homes are being demolished and rebuilt under a new government program that seeks to identify what are very likely dozens of uranium-contaminated structures still standing on Navajo land and to temporarily relocate people living in them until the homes can be torn down and rebuilt.
Stephen B. Etsitty, executive director of the Navajo Nation Environmental Protection Agency, and other tribal officials have been grappling for years with the environmental fallout from uranium mining.
"There were a lot of things people weren't told about the plight of Navajos and uranium mining," Mr. Etsitty said. "These legacy issues are impacting generations. At some point people are saying, 'It's got to end.' "
After a Congressional hearing in 2007, a cross-section of federal agencies committed to addressing the environmental and health impacts of uranium mining on the reservation. As part of that commitment, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Navajo Nation began working together to assess uranium levels in 500 structures through a five-year plan set to end in 2012.
Using old lists of potentially contaminated structures, federal and Navajo scientists have fanned out to rural reaches of the 27,000 square mile reservation - which includes swaths of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah - to measure levels of radium, a decay product of uranium that can cause lung cancer. Of 113 structures assessed so far, 27 contained radiation levels that were above normal.
"In these situations, you have contamination in somebody's yard or in their house," said Harry Allen, the E.P.A.'s section chief for emergency response in San Francisco who is helping lead the government's efforts. "To us, that is somewhat urgent."
Many structures that showed high levels of radiation were vacant; some families had already moved out after hearing stories of contamination in their homes. But eight homes still had people living in them, and the E.P.A. and Navajo officials have worked to convince residents that it would be unsafe to stay.
"People had been told they were living in contaminated structures, but nobody ever did anything about it," said Will Duncan, an environmental scientist who has been the E.P.A.'s main representative on the reservation. "They would tell us, 'We don't believe you are going to follow through.' "
But with a budget of nearly $8 million, the E.P.A. has demolished all 27 contaminated structures and has begun building ones to replace those that had been occupied. Typically, the agency pays a Navajo contracting company to construct a log cabin or a traditional hogan in the structure's stead, depending on the wishes of the occupants. Mr. Allen said the cost, including temporarily relocating residents, ran approximately $260,000 per dwelling and took about eight months.
The agency also offers $50,000 to those who choose not to have an old home rebuilt.
Lillie Lane, a public information officer with the Navajo Nation E.P.A. who has acted as a liaison between the federal government and tribal members, said the program held practical and symbolic importance given the history of uranium mining here.
Ms. Lane described the difficulty of watching families, particularly elders, leaving homes they had lived in for years. She told of coming upon two old miners who died before their contaminated homes could be rebuilt. "In Navajo, a home is considered sacred," she said. "But if the foundation or the rocks are not safe, we have to do this work."
Some families, Ms. Lane said, complained that their children were suffering from health problems and had wondered if radiation were to blame.
The E.P.A. has started sifting through records and interviewing family members to figure out whether mining companies that once operated on the reservation are liable for any damages, Mr. Allen said.
On a recent summer day, Fred and Clara Slowman proudly surveyed their new home, a one-level log cabin that sits in the quiet shadows of Black Rock Point, miles away from the bustle of Farmington, N.M., where the family has been living in a hotel.
Mr. Slowman said he suspected that waste materials from a nearby abandoned mine seeped into his house. The family plans on having a traditional Navajo medicine man bless their dwelling before they move in.
"In our traditional way, a house is like your mom," he said. "It's where you eat, sleep, where you're taken care of. And when you come back from the city, you come back to your mom. It makes you feel real good."
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5) Of Banks and Bonuses
Editorial
July 27, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/opinion/27mon1.html
Earlier this month, when Goldman Sachs reported record quarterly profits - and prepared to pay juicy bonuses - it was widely, and correctly, noted that the firm was leading the way back to a future in which outsized pay for short-term gains could once again foster excessive risk taking.
Sure enough, last week, Morgan Stanley explained its quarterly loss by saying that some of its traders were still "gun shy" after last year's near-death experience in the financial markets, but that the firm now planned to increase its risk taking. To try to stay competitive with Goldman and other banks, Morgan Stanley has also allocated a big chunk of its net revenue for compensation.
This from a couple of firms that 1) probably wouldn't even be around today were it not for ongoing government rescues of the financial system and 2) by dint of being too big to fail, now enjoy an implicit guarantee of future bailouts if their bets go wrong. The financial system may be stabilizing for now, but the danger to taxpayers if markets were to buckle again is at least as great as ever.
Financial regulatory reform is supposed to control that danger. For example, both the Obama administration's proposal and ideas from Congressional committees sensibly call for banks to hold more capital with which to absorb losses. A wise variation on that basic notion is that the bigger the bank, the higher the capital requirement should be. Insurance premiums paid to the government could also increase along with a bank's size. Such provisions would create incentives for banks to limit their size and in so doing, reduce the risk they pose to the system.
The problem is that the bonus-driven risk culture is reasserting itself now, while comprehensive reform will probably take until next year, if it occurs at all. A solution is for Congress to handle bankers' compensation as a stand-alone issue, as the House Financial Services Committee has said it is ready to do. There is no question about the need to end the perverse incentives that helped to set off the financial crisis. There is ample, and justified, anger among Americans about outsized pay - often to the very same bankers who profited from the bubble - to warrant fast-tracking the issue.
Among the needed pay reforms are rules to tie executive payouts to long-term results, like prohibitions against cashing out equity-based compensation until many years after options or shares have vested. Bonuses need to be delayed to ensure that the profits on which they are based do not prove transitory. An insightful reform recommended by Lucian Bebchuk, a Harvard Law professor and director of the law school's Program on Corporate Governance, would require that executive compensation be tied not only to the company's stock performance, but also to the long-term value of the firm's other securities, like bonds. That would encourage executives to be more conservative about using borrowed money to juice returns to capital, because it would expose them to the losses that leverage can exert on all the firm's investors.
Reforming the way bankers and traders are paid needs to be part of a newly regulated financial system. But it needn't and shouldn't wait for comprehensive reform to see the light of day.
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6) Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
May 14, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/14/us/14explorers.html?scp=1&sq=Imperial,%20Calif%20May%2014&st=cse
IMPERIAL, Calif. - Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.
The responding officers - eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 - face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots - BAM! BAM! - fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.
"United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!" screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.
It is all quite a step up from the square knot.
The Explorers program, a coeducational affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America that began 60 years ago, is training thousands of young people in skills used to confront terrorism, illegal immigration and escalating border violence - an intense ratcheting up of one of the group's longtime missions to prepare youths for more traditional jobs as police officers and firefighters.
"This is about being a true-blooded American guy and girl," said A. J. Lowenthal, a sheriff's deputy here in Imperial County, whose life clock, he says, is set around the Explorers events he helps run. "It fits right in with the honor and bravery of the Boy Scouts."
The training, which leaders say is not intended to be applied outside the simulated Explorer setting, can involve chasing down illegal border crossers as well as more dangerous situations that include facing down terrorists and taking out "active shooters," like those who bring gunfire and death to college campuses. In a simulation here of a raid on a marijuana field, several Explorers were instructed on how to quiet an obstreperous lookout.
"Put him on his face and put a knee in his back," a Border Patrol agent explained. "I guarantee that he'll shut up."
One participant, Felix Arce, 16, said he liked "the discipline of the program," which was something he said his life was lacking. "I want to be a lawyer, and this teaches you about how crimes are committed," he said.
Cathy Noriega, also 16, said she was attracted by the guns. The group uses compressed-air guns - known as airsoft guns, which fire tiny plastic pellets - in the training exercises, and sometimes they shoot real guns on a closed range.
"I like shooting them," Cathy said. "I like the sound they make. It gets me excited."
If there are critics of the content or purpose of the law enforcement training, they have not made themselves known to the Explorers' national organization in Irving, Tex., or to the volunteers here on the ground, national officials and local leaders said. That said, the Explorers have faced problems over the years. There have been numerous cases over the last three decades in which police officers supervising Explorers have been charged, in civil and criminal cases, with sexually abusing them.
Several years ago, two University of Nebraska criminal justice professors published a study that found at least a dozen cases of sexual abuse involving police officers over the last decade. Adult Explorer leaders are now required to take an online training program on sexual misconduct.
Many law enforcement officials, particularly those who work for the rapidly growing Border Patrol, part of the Homeland Security Department, have helped shape the program's focus and see it as preparing the Explorers as potential employees. The Explorer posts are attached to various agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police and fire departments, that sponsor them much the way churches sponsor Boy Scout troops.
"Our end goal is to create more agents," said April McKee, a senior Border Patrol agent and mentor at the session here.
Membership in the Explorers has been overseen since 1998 by an affiliate of the Boy Scouts called Learning for Life, which offers 12 career-related programs, including those focused on aviation, medicine and the sciences.
But the more than 2,000 law enforcement posts across the country are the Explorers' most popular, accounting for 35,000 of the group's 145,000 members, said John Anthony, national director of Learning for Life. Since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, many posts have taken on an emphasis of fighting terrorism and other less conventional threats.
"Before it was more about the basics," said Johnny Longoria, a Border Patrol agent here. "But now our emphasis is on terrorism, illegal entry, drugs and human smuggling."
The law enforcement posts are restricted to those ages 14 to 21 who have a C average, but there seems to be some wiggle room. "I will take them at 13 and a half," Deputy Lowenthal said. "I would rather take a kid than possibly lose a kid."
The law enforcement programs are highly decentralized, and each post is run in a way that reflects the culture of its sponsoring agency and region. Most have weekly meetings in which the children work on their law-enforcement techniques in preparing for competitions. Weekends are often spent on service projects.
Just as there are soccer moms, there are Explorers dads, who attend the competitions, man the hamburger grill and donate their land for the simulated marijuana field raids. In their training, the would-be law-enforcement officers do not mess around, as revealed at a recent competition on the state fairgrounds here, where a Ferris wheel sat next to the police cars set up for a felony investigation.
Their hearts pounding, Explorers moved down alleys where there were hidden paper targets of people pointing guns, and made split-second decisions about when to shoot. In rescuing hostages from a bus taken over by terrorists, a baby-faced young girl screamed, "Separate your feet!" as she moved to handcuff her suspect.
In a competition in Arizona that he did not oversee, Deputy Lowenthal said, one role-player wore traditional Arab dress. "If we're looking at 9/11 and what a Middle Eastern terrorist would be like," he said, "then maybe your role-player would look like that. I don't know, would you call that politically incorrect?"
Authenticity seems to be the goal. Imperial County, in Southern California, is the poorest in the state, and the local economy revolves largely around the criminal justice system. In addition to the sheriff and local police departments, there are two state prisons and a large Border Patrol and immigration enforcement presence.
"My uncle was a sheriff's deputy," said Alexandra Sanchez, 17, who joined the Explorers when she was 13. Alexandra's police uniform was baggy on her lithe frame, her airsoft gun slung carefully to the side. She wants to be a coroner.
"I like the idea of having law enforcement work with medicine," she said. "This is a great program for me."
And then she was off to another bus hijacking.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: May 18, 2009
An article on Thursday about Explorer scouts who train to confront terrorism and illegal immigration, and a picture caption with the continuation of the article, misspelled the surname of a scout who said she was attracted to the program because of the use of pellet guns. She is Cathy Noriega, not Noriego.
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7) 12 and in Prison
Editorial
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/opinion/28tue1.html
The Supreme Court sent an important message when it ruled in Roper v. Simmons in 2005 that children under the age of 18 when their crimes were committed were not eligible for the death penalty. Justice Anthony Kennedy drew on compassion, common sense and the science of the youthful brain when he wrote that it was morally wrong to equate the offenses of emotionally undeveloped adolescents with the offenses of fully formed adults.
The states have followed this logic in death penalty cases. But they have continued to mete out barbaric treatment - including life sentences - to children whose cases should rightly be handled through the juvenile courts.
Congress can help to correct these practices by amending the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, which is up for Congressional reauthorization this year. To get a share of delinquency prevention money, the law requires the states and localities to meet minimum federal protections for youths in the justice system. These protections are intended to keep as many youths as possible out of adult jails and prisons, and to segregate those that are sent to those places from the adult criminal population.
The case for tougher legislative action is laid out in an alarming new study of children 13 and under in the adult criminal justice system, the lead author of which is the juvenile justice scholar, Michele Deitch, of the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. According to the study, every state allows juveniles to be tried as adults, and more than 20 states permit preadolescent children as young as 7 to be tried in adult courts.
This is terrible public policy. Children who are convicted and sentenced as adults are much more likely to become violent offenders - and to return to an adult jail later on - than children tried in the juvenile justice system.
Despite these well-known risks, policy makers across the country do not have reliable data on just how many children are being shunted into the adult system by state statutes or prosecutors, who have the discretion to file cases in the adult courts.
But there is reasonably reliable data showing juvenile court judges send about 80 children ages 13 and under into the adult courts each year. These statistics explode the myth that those children have committed especially heinous acts.
The data suggest, for example, that children 13 and under who commit crimes like burglary and theft are just as likely to be sent to adult courts as children who commit serious acts of violence against people. As has been shown in previous studies, minority defendants are more likely to get adult treatment than their white counterparts who commit comparable offenses.
The study's authors rightly call on lawmakers to enact laws that discourage harsh sentencing for preadolescent children and that enable them to be transferred back into the juvenile system. Beyond that, Congress should amend the juvenile justice act to require the states to simply end these inhumane practices to be eligible for federal juvenile justice funds.
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8) Homeless Families Could Face Eviction Over Rules
By JULIE BOSMAN
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/nyregion/28homeless.html?hp
Homeless families can be kicked out of city shelters for repeatedly breaking rules like staying out past curfew or for refusing apartments offered to them, according to a tougher policy that takes effect Tuesday.
The new policy gives the city greater latitude to push families out of the shelter system, which had swelled to a near-high of 9,720 families as of Sunday. Families could always be evicted for illegal behavior like bringing in drugs or weapons, but they can now be ousted for any of 28 violations, including failing to sign in and out or not keeping an active case file with city welfare agencies.
The new policy is also meant to encourage families to more readily accept permanent housing, even if it is not to their liking.
"We would only expect to use this process in the most egregious of situations," said Robert V. Hess, the commissioner for homeless services, in an interview on Monday. "We do have a small number of families where temporary emergency shelter is really being used as permanent housing."
Evictions are for a 30-day period.
The five homeless shelters that are fully operated by the Department of Homeless Services will be the first to test out the new rules, which go into effect there on Tuesday. Shelters operated by the roughly 150 organizations that hold contracts with the city will begin by Aug. 17.
Steven R. Banks, the attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society who has represented homeless families in decades-long litigation against the city, said he believed that the policy would be harmful to children and especially to adults with physical and mental impairments, who might be at risk of sanction.
"With all of the problems that the state has and all of the problems that the city has right now, in the midst of this economic downturn, it's shocking that the state and the city are prepared to invest the resources to put innocent children and their families out of safety-net shelters onto the streets," Mr. Banks said. "You have to wonder who needs this, with all of the other issues that are going on."
Several nonprofit shelter providers, who asked not to be identified because they feared retaliation from the administration, said that they did not intend to evict any families from shelters.
But others said they were grateful for the ability to threaten the most difficult families with ejection.
"If you need a big stick now and then, for certain families, so be it," said Richard Motta, the president and chief executive of Volunteers of America of Greater New York, which runs three family shelters.
The lack of such a threat was a problem, Mr. Motta said.
"There's not a caseworker alive that wants to realize that threat, and as an agency, we don't want to move people to the streets," he said. "That's not what we're in business to do. But if you enter the shelter, if you know there's a threat of being put out of the shelter, you'll be more likely to follow the rules."
The city already has the power to eject single adults from shelters.
State approval was required to put into place the new policies for families. After months of lobbying from city officials, and opposition from local advocates for the homeless, the approval was granted by David A. Hansell, the commissioner of the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance, on June 25, his second-to-last day on the job. Mr. Hansell, a former Bloomberg administration official, resigned from his post to take a job with the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Mr. Hansell decided that the policy would be in effect for only one year as a "demonstration project," a move that Mr. Hess said he supported. Ten months after the policy begins, the city will be required to write a report on the results to that point.
Mr. Hess said it was not clear where families removed from shelter might turn. "The most likely outcome is that the family would demonstrate that they do have a place to go," he said. [So, the logic here is, if you get thrown out then, that means you have demonstrated that you do have a place to go!?!?!?!?! -- bw]
An instructional guide provided to shelter operators appears to leave open the possibility that families will be subject to the elements. It instructs shelter operators that no families should be ejected during a "Code Blue Winter Weather Alert," or when the temperature drops to 32 degrees.
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9) A President Kicked Out, but Not Alone in Defiance
By BLAKE SCHMIDT
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/world/americas/28honduras.html?ref=world
OCOTAL, Nicaragua - When Ángel Hsiky, a farm worker, heard his ousted president's call for supporters to help him return to Honduras, he threw a change of clothes in a knapsack, kissed his wife and 9-month-old boy goodbye and headed to the Nicaraguan border.
Defying a military-enforced curfew, Mr. Hsiky and a caravan of about 200 supporters of the deposed Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya, crossed precipitous hillsides covered with coffee plantations and dense cloud forest, skirting military roadblocks by taking dirt back roads. When that became impossible, the group abandoned cars and trucks and walked through mud and rain to the mountain-ringed outpost of Las Manos, Nicaragua.
"We've come to bring our president back home," said Mr. Hsiky, 23, who is from Mr. Zelaya's Olancho Province in central Honduras.
Since Mr. Zelaya arrived here on Friday to taunt the de facto government that exiled him a month ago, hundreds of Hondurans have answered his call to join him just across the border in Nicaragua.
Arriving here in mud-caked jeans and ripped shirts, after sleeping on soaked mountaintops and hiding among the coffee plants from patrolling helicopters, they have set up camps in the border towns of Las Manos and Ocotal.
They are teachers, students, the self-employed and laborers. Many said they came to support Mr. Zelaya because his policies benefit the poor.
At one of the main encampments in Ocotal, about 20 miles from the border, they eat chicken dinners supplied by a Nicaraguan aid group and listen to revolutionary folk songs on loudspeakers trucked in by the Nicaraguan government, a staunch ally of Mr. Zelaya's. Rules have been posted to keep the place clean: no spitting on the floor.
This is the front line in what Mr. Zelaya calls his "rebellion."
In the weeks after Mr. Zelaya was awakened by soldiers on June 28 and put on a plane to Costa Rica, he tried to regain his presidency through international diplomacy. He jetted around Central America and the United States, addressed the United Nations, attended regional summit meetings and was received with the pomp of a president.
But negotiations with the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti have stalled, and the attention of the international community seems close to spent. Mr. Zelaya is here because he has little place else to go. Hard against the border, he can rally Hondurans here to try to keep some internal pressure on those who ousted him and stage political theater that, laced with an implicit threat of violence, helps keep the crisis from falling off Washington's radar.
When he arrived Friday, after weeks of promising to return to Honduras, he dramatically stepped across the border, but just a few feet, not far enough to allow the government to make good on its pledge to arrest him. On Saturday he returned to the border, taking his supporters with him in three old school buses, followed by a motorcade of reporters and television cameras.
"You've each walked hours with soldiers tailing you and police harassing you, having left your families behind," he told supporters in Ocotal on Sunday night. "You've left everything, and many of you have no money. You've felt all the repression."
Carlos Eduardo Reina, Mr. Zelaya's organizer here, said Mr. Zelaya would ask the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to grant refugee status for the Hondurans who have crossed to Nicaragua. Mr. Reina said that 1,000 protesters had crossed the border, a number that was difficult to verify because they are spread among several encampments.
The de facto government in Honduras responded to Mr. Zelaya's presence by calling for a 24-hour curfew in the border departments that began Friday. At checkpoints on major roads to the border, soldiers stopped traffic to conduct searches while more soldiers and police officers in riot gear blockaded roads before the border.
The soldiers have turned back hundreds of protesters.
"We want to cross the border, but as you can see, we're being oppressed," said one protester, Mario Tercero, standing in front of a military blockade in El Paraíso, Honduras, this weekend wearing a cowboy hat that said, "Mel, the people support you."
Hondurans arriving in Nicaragua said Monday that the military was tightening enforcement of the curfew, telling people to stay in their homes.
About 30 mayors and other political leaders have driven groups of supporters across the border. "We're putting pressure on the acting government until it restores Zelaya," said Marco Antonio Mendoza, the mayor of San Marcos de Colón. "The Micheletti government has no support. It can't sustain itself. It will run out of aid and money to pay government workers."
Tension mounted Saturday morning when the body of a protester from El Paraíso was found near the site of a protest. Mr. Zelaya's supporters accused the authorities of being involved in the death of the man, who had been stabbed in the back and was last seen by friends at protests here in Ocotal on Friday.
The mayor of El Paraíso, Alan Funes, appeared with Mr. Zelaya on Sunday and offered fighting words.
"We will take back El Paraíso," he said. "We won't let the military install itself there. If it's our turn to die, so be it, but the coup leaders will die first."
One protester, Johnny Rodriguez, a teacher who followed a guide on a nine-hour hike across the border, said that, like many others, he would stay as long as he felt he was needed.
"It's frightening to leave behind your family," he said, "but when you're scared, you have to remember what's really best for them and understand that it requires an effort."
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10) Military Criticized in Report on Soldier Electrocuted in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/world/middleeast/28iraq.html?ref=world
WASHINGTON (AP) - Military leaders and a major military contractor failed to protect a Green Beret who was electrocuted while showering in his barracks in Iraq, the Defense Department's inspector general has determined in findings released Monday.
The death of the Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan D. Maseth, in early 2008 set off an investigation that included a review of 17 other electrocution deaths in Iraq. The case also led to inspections of the electrical systems of about 90,000 facilities maintained by the United States in Iraq.
The inspector general said in the findings that "multiple systems and organizations" failed and exposed Sergeant Maseth to "unacceptable risk."
The report said that Sergeant Maseth, 24, was electrocuted while showering when he came in contact with water pipes that had become energized because of the failure of a water pump that had not been grounded. It says that the military contractor KBR, based in Houston, installed the pump and adjacent water tanks.
KBR did not ground equipment during installation or report improperly grounded equipment during routine maintenance, the inspector general said. It also says that KBR did not have standard operating procedures for the technical inspection of facilities.
But it also says military commanders and important decision makers failed to ensure that renovations were properly performed and did not address the maintenance issue.
Heather Browne, a KBR spokeswoman, said the company had not seen the report and would not comment on the contents. But she said in an e-mail message that while Sergeant Maseth's death was tragic, the company maintains that it is not responsible. She said that KBR informed the military of the absence of grounding and bonding in the structure nine months before Sergeant Maseth's death.
"Prior to that incident, the military never directed KBR to repair, upgrade or improve the grounding system in the building in which Maseth resided, nor was KBR directed to perform any preventative maintenance at this facility," Ms. Browne said.
Sergeant Maseth's family has filed a lawsuit against KBR. Cheryl Harris, his mother, said in a statement she read over the telephone that she was pleased that the inspector general had conducted the investigation.
"The results are revealing and contrary to what KBR and its president have continuously stated," her statement said.
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11) Young Japanese Women Vie for a Once-Scorned Job
By HIROKO TABUCHI
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/business/global/28hostess.html?ref=world
TOKYO - The women who pour drinks in Japan's sleek gentlemen's clubs were once shunned because their duties were considered immodest: lavishing adoring (albeit nonsexual) attention on men for a hefty fee.
But with that line of work, called hostessing, among the most lucrative jobs available to women and with the country neck-deep in a recession, hostess positions are increasingly coveted, and hostesses themselves are gaining respectability and even acclaim. Japan's worst recession since World War II is changing mores.
"More women from a diversity of backgrounds are looking for hostess work," said Kentaro Miura, who helps manage seven clubs in Kabuki-cho, Tokyo's glittering red-light district. "There is less resistance to becoming a hostess. In fact, it's seen as a glamorous job."
But behind this trend is a less-than-glamorous reality. Employment opportunities for young women, especially those with no college education, are often limited to low-paying, dead-end jobs or temp positions.
Even before the economic downturn, almost 70 percent of women ages 20 to 24 worked jobs with few benefits and little job security, according to a government labor survey. The situation has worsened in the recession.
For that reason, a growing number of Japanese women seem to believe that work as a hostess, which can easily pay $100,000 a year, and as much as $300,000 for the biggest stars, makes economic sense.
Even part-time hostesses and those at the low end of the pay scale earn at least $20 an hour, almost twice the rate of most temp positions.
In a 2009 survey of 1,154 high school girls, by the Culture Studies Institute in Tokyo, hostessing ranked No. 12 out of the 40 most popular professions, ahead of public servant (18) and nurse (22).
"It's only when you're young that you can earn money just by drinking with men," said Mari Hamada, 17.
Many of the cabaret clubs, or kyabakura, are swank establishments of dark wood and plush cushions, where waiters in bow ties and hostesses in evening gowns flit about guests sipping fantastically expensive wine.
Some hostesses work to pay their way through college or toward a vocational degree, or to save up to start their own businesses.
Hostessing does not involve prostitution, though religious and women's groups point out that hostesses can be pressured into having sex with clients, and that hostessing can be an entry point into Japan's sprawling underground sex industry.
Hostesses say that those are rare occurrences, and that exhaustion from a life of partying is a more common hazard in their profession.
Young women are drawn nonetheless to Cinderella stories like that of Eri Momoka, a single mother who became a hostess and worked her way out of penury to start a TV career and her own line of clothing and accessories.
"I often get fan mail from young girls in elementary school who say they want to be like me," said Ms. Momoka, 27, interviewed in her trademark seven-inch heels. "To a little girl, a hostess is like a modern-day princess."
Even one member of the Japanese Parliament, Kazumi Ota, was a hostess. That revelation once would have ignited a huge scandal, but it has not. She will run for re-election on the leading opposition party ticket, the Democratic Party of Japan, in the national election next month, and the ticket is expected to unseat the ruling party.
It is unclear how many hostesses work in Japan. In Tokyo alone, about 13,000 establishments offer late-night entertainment by hostesses (and some male hosts), including members-only clubs frequented by politicians and company executives, as well as cheaper cabaret clubs.
Hostesses tend to drinks, offer attentive conversation and accompany men on dates off premises, but do not generally have sex for money. (Men who seek that can go to prostitutes, though prostitution is illegal.)
Hostesses are often ranked according to popularity among clients, with the No. 1 of each club assuming the status of a star.
Mineri Hayashi has made it to the top of her club, Celux, six years after coming to Tokyo from northern Japan. One recent evening, she readied herself for an elaborate birthday event her club was throwing in her honor.
Outside the club, bigger-than-life posters of Ms. Hayashi adorned the street. At the club, a dozen men put up balloons and lined up Champagne bottles.
The club's clientele is diverse, including workaday salarymen, business owners and other men unwinding after work.
Celux hopes to make more than $60,000 on Ms. Hayashi's birthday party, which will be attended by scores of regulars.
"Life has been fun, and I want to keep on having fun," Ms. Hayashi said, placing a tiara in her hair. She talks of plans to retire next year and travel abroad.
Her 17-year-old sister, who also wants to be a hostess, may succeed her. Ms. Hayashi is supportive. "I just want her to be happy," she said.
Popular culture is also fueling hostessing's popularity. TV sitcoms are starting to depict cabaret hostesses as women building successful careers. Hostesses are also writing best-selling books, be they on money management or the art of conversation.
A magazine that features hostess fashion has become wildly popular with women outside the trade, who mimic the heavily made-up eyes and big, coiffed hair.
But Serina Hoshino, 24, another Tokyo hostess, is exhausted from the late nights and heavy drinking.
Slumped in her chair at the M.A.C. hair salon, she talked about endless after-hours dates with clients. Stumbling back home at dawn, she sleeps the rest of the day. On her days off, she hardly leaves her apartment.
Her reward is about $16,000 a month, almost 10 times the salary of most women her age.
"It's nice to be independent, but it's very stressful," Ms. Hoshino said, speaking through a cloud of hair spray and cigarette smoke.
In recent months, clubs have also started to feel the squeeze of the bad economy. Hostess wages are starting to fall to as little as $16 an hour. Still, that rate remains above many daytime jobs here.
So, the young women keep coming. The Kabuki-cho district is lined with dark-suited scouts recruiting women. One club recruiter said some women turn up to interviews with their mothers in tow, which never would have happened when the job was less respectable.
"Women are being laid off from daytime jobs and so look for work with us," said Hana Nakagawa, who runs a placement agency for higher-end clubs in Tokyo.
She gets about 40 inquiries a week from women looking for hostess jobs, twice as many as before the downturn.
Atsushi Miura, an expert on the issue, says hostessing will be popular among Japanese women as long as other well-paying jobs are scarce.
"Some people still say hostesses are wasting their life away," he said. "But rather than criticizing them, Japan should create more jobs for young women."
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12) Wronged Juveniles May Lose Right to Sue
By IAN URBINA
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/us/28juvenile.html?ref=us
In a bizarre twist to a closely watched case that rocked the Pennsylvania legal system this year, thousands of youths who had to appear before a corrupt county judge are in danger of losing the ability to sue for damages and court fees.
The potential loss stems from a decision by the State Supreme Court in May that it would help the youths move on with their lives by destroying all documents related to their convictions that it deemed faulty. But doing so would hamper the public's ability to investigate the corruption of the judge, Mark A. Ciavarella Jr., and limit the youths' ability to sue him.
"This is about destroying evidence," Marsha Levick, chief legal counsel for the Juvenile Law Center, a public interest law firm in Philadelphia, said after appearing on Monday before Judge A. Richard Caputo of Federal District Court in Scranton, Pa., to ask that the records be preserved.
"Without these documents," Ms. Levick said, "it would make it nearly impossible for these kids to get justice."
The Supreme Court has argued that under Pennsylvania law, all copies of a youth's criminal record must be deleted for it to be expunged.
But last week the Supreme Court amended its May order and agreed to preserve, under seal, copies of the records for the estimated 400 juveniles who are named as plaintiffs in lawsuits against Mr. Ciavarella and had requested copies of the records by a June 1 deadline set by the court.
Lawyers for the youths, however, said that the amended order would not safeguard the records of about 6,100 remaining youths, who either had not been told of their rights stemming from the judicial corruption case or had yet to request their records.
The records deal with the convictions of more than 6,500 youths who appeared from 2003 to 2008 before Mr. Ciavarella, who ran the juvenile court of Luzerne County for 12 years.
In February, Mr. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan, a judge on the county's Court of Common Pleas, pleaded guilty to tax evasion and wire fraud in a scheme that involved sending thousands of juveniles to two private detention centers in exchange for $2.6 million in kickbacks. They had been removed from the bench that month.
Mr. Ciavarella appeared Monday at the federal courthouse to file a motion to dismiss a federal lawsuit against him. He would not comment on whether the records should be preserved.
"I'm sorry that I brought such shame to the bench," the former judge told a television reporter at the courthouse. "There's a lot of good people who sit on the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas who don't deserve to be tarnished by what I did. And, unfortunately, they do get tarnished by that, and that's wrong because they didn't do anything wrong. I did; they didn't."
Four civil lawsuits, which have been consolidated before Judge Caputo, have already been filed against Mr. Ciavarella and Mr. Conahan.
Lawyers for the juveniles said Monday that the records might be important for them to identify and contact each potential member of the class. They are also needed so that investigators and the public can discern the extent of judicial misconduct, the lawyers said.
Zygmont A. Pines, the Pennsylvania court administrator, wrote in a June 25 letter to Judge Caputo that the main concern of the Supreme Court was "to ensure that tainted convictions of affected juveniles in Luzerne County be undone as expeditiously as possible."
Mr. Pines also wrote that youths who had not joined any of the lawsuits might not want to have their records preserved.
This month, after Judge Caputo was asked to protect the records, the Supreme Court sent him a letter opposing the move.
On July 2, Judge Caputo denied the request to protect the records, citing federalism prerogatives and concluding that the issue was "best left to the Pennsylvania courts."
Appearing before him on Monday, lawyers for the juveniles argued that the Supreme Court's decision last week acknowledged that Pennsylvania law allowed for records to be expunged even if copies were kept under seal for the sake of evidence in later litigation.
"If they are going to preserve the evidence for 400 of the faulty convictions," Ms. Levick said, "then they should preserve it for all of the faulty convictions."
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13) Dead Zone in Gulf Is Smaller Than Forecast but More Concentrated in Parts
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
July 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/28/science/earth/28zone.html?ref=us
Scientists said Monday that the region of oxygen-starved water in the northern Gulf of Mexico this summer was smaller than forecast, which means less disruption of shrimp, crabs and other marine species, and of the fisheries that depend on them.
But researchers found that although the so-called dead zone along the Texas and Louisiana coasts was smaller - about 3,000 square miles compared with a prediction of about 8,000 square miles - the actual volume of low-oxygen, or hypoxic, water may be higher, as the layer is deeper and thicker in some parts of the gulf than normal. And the five-year average size of the dead zone is still considered far too big, about three times a target of 2,000 square miles set for 2015 by an intergovernmental task force.
"It's a smaller footprint," said Nancy N. Rabalais, executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, at a telephone news conference announcing the finding. She said unusual winds and currents this spring had driven much of the hypoxic water to the east, reducing the size of the zone but concentrating it. "In actuality we found quite a severe area that was large in volume," she said. "Organisms were obviously stressed."
Forecasts for hypoxic zones in the gulf are based on measurements of the nitrogen and phosphorus entering the water from agricultural runoff and other sources in the Mississippi River watershed. The forecast earlier this year was for a zone that would come near the record 8,500-square-mile-zone detected in 2002.
"But the model is based on predictions of what the zone would look like in a normal physical environment," said Donald Scavia of the University of Michigan, one of the forecast's preparers. "But this year we didn't have normal physical conditions."
When nitrogen and phosphorus enter the gulf, these nutrients cause an overabundance of algae - too much for other marine organisms to consume. Some of the algae die, sink to the bottom and decompose, and the bacteria that do the decomposing use up most of the oxygen in the water.
Faced with depleted levels of oxygen, fish and other creatures that can swim will leave for other waters. Those that cannot leave often die or show signs of reproductive or other stress. Shrimp and other fisheries in the gulf can be affected for weeks or longer.
In an interview, Dr. Rabalais, who has been mapping the gulf hypoxic zone during summer research cruises for 25 years, said that in the most affected areas, where levels of dissolved oxygen were near zero, she and her colleagues saw crabs, eels and brown shrimp swimming toward the surface, fleeing the low-oxygen water. Predator fish were obviously affected too, she said, as there were none around to eat the smaller escapees. "Any self-respecting fish would have eaten those brown shrimp," she said.
Jane Lubchenco, under secretary of commerce and administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said the gulf dead zone was the most "notorious" of about 250 such regions around the country.
Agricultural runoff, she said, "continues to wreak havoc with life in the gulf." Governments are working to promote programs to reduce nutrient runoff, like "engineered" wetlands that can remove nitrogen, but Dr. Lubchenco added, "Some progress is being made, but not enough."
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14) Rural Medical Camp Tackles Health Care Gaps
Monday 27 July 2009
By Howard Berkes
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111066576
A crowd gathers in the early morning at Wise County Fairgrounds in Virginia to receive medical care at a makeshift field hospital providing free care for those in need. (Photo: Becky Lettenberger / NPR)
It was a Third World scene with an American setting. Hundreds of tired and desperate people crowded around an aid worker with a bullhorn, straining to hear the instructions and worried they might be left out.
Some had arrived at the Wise County Fairgrounds in Wise, Virginia, two days before. They slept in cars, tents and the beds of pickup trucks, hoping to be among the first in line when the gate opened Friday before dawn. They drove in from 16 states, anxious to relieve pain, diagnose aches and see and hear better.
"I came here because of health care - being able to get things that we can't afford to have ordinarily," explained 52-year-old Otis Reece of Gate City, Va., as he waited in a wheelchair beside his red F-150 pickup. "Being on a fixed income, this is a fantastic situation to have things done we ordinarily would put off."
Also see:
Whistleblower Tells of America's Hidden Health Nightmare for Its Sick Poor
http://www.truthout.org/072609R
For the past 10 years, during late weekends in July, the fairgrounds in Wise have been transformed into a mobile and makeshift field hospital providing free care for those in need. Sanitized horse stalls become draped examination rooms. A poultry barn is fixed with optometry equipment. And a vast, open-air pavilion is crammed with dozens of portable dental chairs and lamps.
A converted 18-wheeler with a mobile X-ray room makes chest X-rays possible. Technicians grind hundreds of lenses for new eyeglasses in two massive trailers. At a concession stand, dentures are molded and sculpted.
Desperate for Health Care
The 2009 Remote Area Medical (RAM) Expedition comes to the Virginia Appalachian mountains as Congress and President Obama wrestle with a health care overhaul. The event graphically illustrates gaps in the existing health care system.
"We're willing to sleep in pickup trucks or cars and deal with the elements to at least get some kind of health care," Reece adds. He earned a six-figure income working for an international industrial supply firm until an accident five years ago left him disabled. Joining him for dental, vision and medical checks are his wife, daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to see the doctor to get my ear and my nose fixed!" grandson Jacob shouts excitedly. His nose appears battered and his ear has an oozing scab.
Before the gate opened, Loretta Miller, 41, of Honaker, Va., got four hours' sleep behind the wheel of her parked minivan. She was No. 39 in line for her eighth RAM expedition. Her visit last year saved her life.
"They done an ultrasound and told me that my gallbladder was enlarged and was ready to burst and it could kill me," Miller recalls. "They told me if I hadn't got help when I did, literally I could have died."
Medical, dental and vision help is often elusive for the 2,700 people seeking treatment during the three-day RAM event. Just over half of the people attending this year have no insurance at all, according to a survey of the patients conducted by RAM. Forty-seven percent could be considered underinsured, given unaffordable copays or gaps in coverage provided by Medicare, Medicaid and conventional insurance plans. Only 11 patients have dental insurance, and just seven have vision coverage.
"There's no doubt about it. There is a Third World right here in the United States," concludes Stan Brock, RAM's founder. Brock has organized similar medical expeditions in Asia, Africa and South America. "Here in the world's richest country, you have this vast number of people, some say 47 million, 49 million, that don't have access to the system and that's why [this] is necessary."
About 1,800 volunteers provide the medical, dental and logistical help, including hundreds of doctors, dentists, nurses, assistants and technicians.
Almost 4,000 Teeth
Miller is ecstatic when her number is called. The divorced hairdresser and mother of two is uninsured and in pain. But she had taken the time, even with little sleep, to put on makeup, braid her blond hair and dress in a white lace tunic. She walked briskly through the gate for what would turn out to be five hours in dental chairs, given the extraction of an abscessed tooth, three fillings and a root canal.
More than half of those seeking help sign up for dental exams and procedures. They fill the more than 70 dental chairs while hundreds wait their turn under tents nearby. Hundreds more out in the grassy parking lot hope they'll get their teeth cleaned and fixed before the event ends.
Dental health greatly affects general health, says Dr. Terry Dickinson, who directs the Virginia Dental Association and the RAM dental effort at the Wise fairgrounds.
"The infection in the mouth certainly has been shown to have an effect on systemic diseases," Dickinson explains. "So it's really critical that these folks be able to get infected teeth out and infection treated in the mouth because it's going to help them with their overall health."
The extent of infections is staggering. Dickinson and his team pull 3,857 teeth in 30 hours of work spread over 2 1/2 days. Some patients lose all their teeth. A 4-year-old had cavities filled in every tooth.
Who Is Responsible for Health Care?
Terrible teeth, obesity, smoking, high blood pressure and diabetes are common among the people seeking help here. That raises an important question. Are they at fault for their poor health?
"There's enough blame to go around for everybody. I think patients certainly have to have personal responsibility for what they're putting in their mouth, but we are also trying to create a better access care system. How are you going to get providers, whether it be dentists or physicians or anybody else, into these areas where economically these communities are struggling?" Dickinson asks.
That's a reference to the costs of medical and dental schools and the debts that graduates incur, which can be $100,000 and more. There's pressure to practice in more lucrative places beyond rural regions like Appalachia.
"There are areas of the country, and certainly Wise County is one of them, where there just aren't [enough] physicians," says Dr. Susan Kirk, an endocrinologist and diabetes specialist with the University of Virginia Health System, which provides specialists for the Wise RAM event. "We provide indigent care at the University of Virginia, but that's six hours away."
RAM founder Stan Brock is impatient with those who suggest the people seeking help in Wise are somehow at fault and unworthy of care given poor health habits.
"The rest of the population is not exactly in the best of shape themselves," Brock asserts. "They're eating well and, therefore, they're putting on weight and, therefore, they've got heart disease and the rate of diabetes in this country is going up. But, in the case of the well-to-do and the well-insured, they can afford to take care of it."
At the end of her long day with dentists, Loretta Miller was still numb with Novocain but grateful for the care she could not otherwise afford.
"It's well worth the drive and the wait," Miller said, close to 12 hours after her number was called. "You get tired and stuff. But you think about all the trips and the money it would have cost to have all this done. I couldn't have had it done."
She then laughs about standing in line again at 5 a.m. the next day so she can get eyeglasses to "see what they've done."
RAM organizers say they spent about $250,000 providing care worth about $1.5 million. In 10 years in southwest Virginia, they say, they've treated more than 25,000 people. They have eight more expeditions planned this year, from Virginia to California.
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By the Numbers
A survey of RAM attendees by the event's organizers provides some insight into who is left out of conventional medical, dental and vision care.
What: Health care providers saw 2,715 patients and performed 2,671 medical exams, 1,088 eye tests and 1,850 dental exams. They extracted 3,857 teeth and put in 1,628 fillings.
Who: Patients came from 16 different states; 30 percent were repeat patients.
Of the patients, 51 percent are uninsured, 40.3 percent are on Medicaid or Medicare, and just 7.3 percent have employer or private insurance. Fewer than 1 percent of patients have dental or vision insurance.
Twenty-six percent of the people are employed, 40.6 are unemployed, 4.7 percent are retired and 4.8 percent are children.
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15) The Financial Truth Commission
Editorial
July 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/opinion/29wed1.html?_r=1
Congress has pledged to reform the banking system, but too often over the past year lawmakers have chosen instead to shield the financial industry, a big campaign contributor, from accountability.
So the public has every right to ask whether the newly formed Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission - created by Congress to investigate the meltdown - can be counted on to put the public interest ahead of political loyalties, professional ties and ideological biases.
The men and women on the panel are accomplished in their fields - business, law, economics and academia - and many have past government experience. They have been chosen to perform a service that is crucial to restoring trust in the markets and in the government; their findings will also inform regulatory reform efforts.
The 10 members - six chosen by the Democratic leadership, four by the Republican leadership - also have long partisan histories and at least one has strong ties to the financial industry.
The Democratic chairman, Phil Angelides, a former California state treasurer, has given, together with his wife, nearly $327,000 to Democratic candidates over the past two decades, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The vice chairman, former Representative Bill Thomas, a Republican, received $1.6 million in campaign contributions from financial, insurance and real estate interests during his nearly two decades on Capitol Hill. He is now an adviser to a law firm that represents banking and financial-services clients.
All of this suggests that the commission's efforts bear close monitoring. Here are some early indicators to watch to see whether they are rising to the occasion.
CHOOSING A LEAD INVESTIGATOR It is imperative that Mr. Angelides and Mr. Thomas agree on a strong investigator - with a proven record of exposing deceptive or fraudulent activities - to serve as the commission's director. The director must also be given the resources to assemble a strong team of experts and have the commission's full support to press the investigation.
The law allows the commission to issue subpoenas if the chairman and vice chairman agree or if a majority of the panel agrees, as long as the majority includes at least one Republican. If subpoenas are inhibited by partisan votes, the commission will be hamstrung.
STANDING UP TO THE BANKS The law requires the commission to investigate each failure of a major financial institution during the crisis, such as Lehman Brothers, and each major failure that was averted by assistance from the Treasury. Some banks may try to argue that although they received assistance, they were never in danger of failure, and thus are off limits to commission investigators. But all of the major banks are implicated in the crisis, and none should be outside the commission's purview.
STANDING UP TO THE GOVERNMENT The law requires government agencies and departments to furnish information to the commission upon request. Even though much of what the panel will investigate happened under President Bush, the executive branch tends to guard its secrets. President Obama has already reserved the right to assert executive privilege. The commission must be willing, if necessary, to fight for access to documents.
The commission is expected to hold its first meeting around Labor Day. As its work unfolds, there will be more benchmarks of success, or lack thereof. For now, it is important that it gets started with the right staff and a commitment to use its powers to the fullest.
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16) How Firms Wooed a U.S. Agency With Billions to Invest
By ERIC LIPTON
July 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/29pensions.html?hp
WASHINGTON - As a New York money manager and investment banker at four Wall Street firms, Charles E. F. Millard never reached superstar status. But he was treated like one when he arrived in Washington in May 2007, to run the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, the federal agency that oversees $50 billion in retirement funds.
BlackRock, one of the world's largest money-management firms, assigned a high school classmate of Mr. Millard's to stay in close contact with him, and it made sure to place him next to its legendary founder, Laurence D. Fink, at a charity dinner at Chelsea Piers. A top executive at Goldman Sachs frequently called and sent e-mail messages, inviting Mr. Millard out to the Mandarin Oriental and the Ritz-Carlton in Washington, even helping him hunt for his next Wall Street job.
Both firms were hoping to win contracts to manage a chunk of that $50 billion. The extensive wooing paid off when a selection committee of three, including Mr. Millard, picked BlackRock and Goldman from among 16 bidders to manage nearly $1.6 billion and to advise the agency, which Mr. Millard ran until January.
But on July 20, the agency permanently revoked the contracts with BlackRock, Goldman and JPMorgan Chase, the third winner, nullifying the process. The decision was based on questions surrounding Mr. Millard's actions during the formal bidding process. His actions have also drawn the scrutiny of Congressional investigators and the agency's inspector general.
An examination of thousands of pages of e-mail messages and other internal documents obtained by The New York Times shows the other side of the story: the two firms aggressively courted Mr. Millard, so extensively that they may have compromised federal contracting rules or at least violated the spirit of the law, contracting experts said. The records also illustrate the clash between Washington's by-the-letter rules on contracting and the culture of Wall Street, where deals are often struck over expensive meals.
"Both sides should have known better," said Steven L. Schooner, co-director of the Government Procurement Law Program at the George Washington University, who reviewed some of the material for The Times. "What happened here is wrong, stupid and probably illegal."
BlackRock and Goldman, as well as Mr. Millard, all said that nothing improper happened either before the formal competition for the contract started last July, or while the competition, which concluded in October, was under way.
"Among the reasons that Mr. Millard was selected to head the P.B.G.C. is his understanding of the industry, his extensive background and the quality of his professional relationships," said Stanley M. Brand, a lawyer for Mr. Millard. "He correctly separated his personal relationships from his official actions."
A review of the documents shows that the third winner, JPMorgan Chase, had contacts with Mr. Millard before and during the competition, but did not display the same intensity as the other two.
Goldman and BlackRock saw Mr. Millard's selection as a major business opportunity, the records show.
"This is a very big fish on the line," one BlackRock executive wrote to another, discussing the government official.
Mr. Millard had at least seven meetings with Goldman executives in the year before the bidding started, and 163 phone contacts, the documents show. BlackRock had less frequent contact - 39 phone calls in that 12-month period. But one BlackRock executive told another that Mr. Millard had assured him in April, four months before the bidding, that he wanted to hire the company to help manage some of the money, company documents show.
"It sounds like we may have a tiger by the tail here," one BlackRock executive wrote in an e-mail message.
The agency takes over pension programs when private companies go bankrupt. For years there was talk it might have to be bailed out by the government, and Mr. Millard, like many others, saw shifting from low-yield conservative investments like Treasury bonds to those with higher risks and higher potential returns as a way to solve the problem.
Before coming to Washington Mr. Millard had been a money manager for Prudential Securities and Lehman Brothers, a senior economic development official in New York City while Rudolph W. Giuliani was mayor, a member of the New York City Council and a Republican nominee for Congress.
Within weeks of his arrival at the agency, he told Goldman Sachs about his plans to shake up the agency's portfolio.
"I just became head of the pension benefit guaranty corp in dc appointed by pres bush," he wrote in a June 2007 e-mail message to John S. Weinberg, a vice chairman and a member of the family that has helped run Goldman since the 1930s. Mr. Millard told Mr. Weinberg, a longtime acquaintance, that he wanted to revamp the agency's investment strategy.
"Is there a team at goldman that does this and that would be interested in pursuing this business?"
"Yes, absolutely!" Mr. Weinberg wrote back.
Almost immediately, Goldman started to work informally for Mr. Millard by providing one of its top pension analysts at no charge to prepare at least six reports over the coming year, based on internal agency data, detailing possible investment strategies.
Goldman also coached Mr. Millard as he sought to sway skeptics in the Bush administration.
"Here is the sound bite we discussed in this morning's meeting," wrote Mark Evans, a Goldman managing director, in a January 2008 e-mail message to Mr. Millard, seven months before the formal competition would begin.
Mr. Millard consulted with other industry experts during this period, but none so much as Goldman. George Koklanaris, Mr. Millard's chief of staff, said in retrospect that the detailed analytical work Goldman did for Mr. Millard, and the repeated contacts, might have created an appearance that Goldman had a competitive advantage. Even so, he says he believes Mr. Millard did nothing improper.
Mr. Millard's lawyer and a Goldman spokeswoman disputed that the firm gained any advantage from this work. The spokeswoman, Andrea Raphael, said the firm had no way of knowing that Mr. Millard was giving them more attention than other prospective bidders and that it was the agency's job to identify potential conflicts.
The most important player in BlackRock's attempt to win the business was David Mullane, who had known Mr. Millard since the two attended the same high school. The friendship continues; they both live in Rye, N.Y., and attend the same church.
In his conversations and e-mail messages with the agency head, Mr. Mullane often mixed family and business, talking about his golf game, his vacations, their children, their church ("Great job at Mass again this week," he wrote in one), invariably shifting into a discussion of his interest in the government work.
"Hope to see you at the Beefsteak Dinner tomorrow," he wrote to Mr. Millard, referring to a Friday night gathering at Church of the Resurrection in Rye. "If you're going perhaps we can catch up business for a few minutes before I thrash you in ping pong again."
After a February meeting, months before the contract competition began, Mr. Mullane wrote his bosses: "Money in motion by February."
There were more meetings through the winter and spring of 2008, as Mr. Millard prepared his plans. That April, there was a charity dinner at Chelsea Piers, along the Hudson River. One BlackRock executive wrote to another, "Try to get Larry seated next to Charles Millard," referring to Mr. Fink, the company's chairman and chief.
After the dinner, Mr. Millard wrote to Mr. Fink, "A pleasure meeting you. No need to respond. I will follow up with you briefly in future re our investment policy and with your team re other specifics."
The e-mail messages show that Mr. Mullane, a managing director at BlackRock, understood that the firm needed to move quickly, before the presidential election.
"He is a lame duck political appointee as soon as the November election occurs," he wrote to one BlackRock colleague last June, as the bidding was about to start. "When the new man comes in at P.B.G.C., all bets are off for us."
As he prepared to open the competition, Mr. Millard, working with Mr. Mullane, sought to restrict the bidders to the biggest players by stipulating that the winner must have thousands of employees and a global operation, e-mail messages show. That decision cut out many boutique firms hoping to compete and gave BlackRock, Goldman and other large firms an advantage. "Neither the company nor any of its employees did anything improper or illegal," Bobbie Collins, a BlackRock spokeswoman, said.
Mr. Millard, through his lawyer, denied telling BlackRock that he wanted to select the company even before the competition started. Mr. Millard's lawyer also said he told the agency about his friendship with Mr. Mullane. But Jeffrey Speicher, an agency spokesman, said in a written statement that Mr. Millard "did not disclose his relationship with the BlackRock executive."
While the competition was getting started, Mr. Millard began his job hunt.
He started by contacting Mr. Weinberg of Goldman Sachs, sending him his résumé after meeting with him in New York last June.
Mr. Millard's e-mail messages show that, while the bidding was under way last fall, he also spoke with Rick Lazio, a former House Republican who is now a senior executive at JPMorgan Chase, to discuss career options.
In both cases, spokesmen for the executives said that while Mr. Millard was at the agency, they did not take actions to help him find a new job.
The e-mail messages show that within two weeks of the selection of the winners, Mr. Millard sought help from Karen Seitz, a Goldman executive involved throughout the process, in getting interviews with prominent industry players.
"I spoke with Dennis Kass after our meeting," Ms. Seitz wrote last November, referring to the chief executive of a $60 billion asset management firm, one of half a dozen interviews she arranged. "He would love to meet with you in N.Y."
To date, Mr. Millard remains unemployed. His lawyer noted that Mr. Millard had honored the one-year prohibition in federal law against negotiating a job with a firm that he helped select as a contractor. While still at the agency, his lawyer said, Mr. Millard also paid his own bill whenever he dined out with industry officials, including Ms. Seitz.
But Mr. Schooner, the government contracting expert from George Washington University, said even asking for career help from a company he had just picked as a contractor raised serious questions.
"As a federal official you are not supposed to be discussing, bartering or leveraging a new job while you are involved with parties in a procurement," he said. "It is a clear black-and-white rule."
Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin, plans to seek legislation to require more intense oversight of the agency by an expanded board.
"The whole process was flawed," said Mr. Kohl, the chairman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, which oversees the agency.
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17) Witness Tells of Doctor's Last Seconds
By MONICA DAVEY
July 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/us/29tiller.html?ref=us
WICHITA, Kan. - Dr. George R. Tiller was standing beside a refreshment table inside his church, discussing his fondness for doughnuts, when a man walked up, pressed a gun against the doctor's head and fired, a fellow church member recalled Tuesday.
"I wasn't sure if it was a cap gun or what," Gary Hoepner, the church member, testified in a hearing here that offered the first significant details of what happened the morning Dr. Tiller, one of the nation's only doctors to perform late-term abortions, was killed.
"And then George fell," said Mr. Hoepner, who testified he had been standing within touching distance of Dr. Tiller in the church foyer and who, like Dr. Tiller, had been serving as an usher that Sunday, May 31, at Reformation Lutheran. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing," added Mr. Hoepner, a member of the church for 52 years.
At the end of the hearing, a judge concluded that there was sufficient evidence to try Scott P. Roeder, an abortion opponent from Kansas City, Mo., for first-degree murder in the death of Dr. Tiller, whose clinic had been firmly at the center of the nation's battle over abortion for more than three decades.
A lawyer for Mr. Roeder entered a not-guilty plea on his behalf. Mr. Roeder made no public comments at the daylong hearing but appeared to listen closely to the testimony against him, at times gazing up at elaborate diagrams of the church foyer and jotting notes. Afterward, Mr. Roeder's lawyers declined to comment on their defense plans, noting that the hearing had presented only witnesses for the prosecution. The trial has been set for Sept. 21.
Balding and considerably slimmer after nearly two months in jail, Mr. Roeder, 51, wore a jacket and a tie and leg shackles.
In testimony, several church members said that Mr. Roeder had come to the church occasionally in the weeks and months before the shooting. Because of Dr. Tiller's presence, the church had been the target of occasional outbursts by abortion protesters, the church members recalled, so congregants were sensitive to new faces.
"He didn't seem in place," said Keith Martin, a church member of 25 years who said he had repeatedly seen Mr. Roeder, but had not spoken with other church members about him. "I was suspicious of him," he said, adding that Mr. Roeder had drawn particular notice because of a pungent, overwhelming odor around him, something akin to ammonia.
Mr. Roeder attended the service one week before the shooting, Mr. Hoepner said, and left a written note (with a reference to tax policy) in the collection plate. As it happened, Dr. Tiller had not attended church that Sunday, though he was listed in an insert in the church bulletin, handed out each week to all who come, as an usher for the entire month of May.
Crowds have nearly always materialized in this city for anything to do with Dr. Tiller or his opponents, whether rallies, court cases or simply gatherings outside his clinic, now closed.
But only a small cluster of observers sat in the courtroom on Tuesday, and at least seven were uniformed law enforcement authorities in the tightly screened gallery. Dr. Tiller's family was not seen there, nor were the best-known leaders of Operation Rescue and other anti-abortion groups here, which have denounced the killing.
If convicted, Mr. Roeder could face life in prison. Prosecutors have said the case does not meet certain circumstances required for the death penalty under Kansas law, including, for instance, the killing of a law enforcement officer or more than one person.
He is also charged with two counts of aggravated assault, accused of threatening to shoot Mr. Hoepner and Mr. Martin, who was also volunteering as an usher that Sunday.
The shooting occurred just as the service was starting. Dr. Tiller and Mr. Hoepner, as ushers, had lingered in the foyer to hand out bulletins to latecomers. The two stood beside a table of juice and doughnuts, Mr. Hoepner said, exchanging small talk. It was then, he said, that Mr. Roeder emerged from the sanctuary through a door often used for those slipping off to the restroom, stepped into the foyer and shot Dr. Tiller.
Mr. Hoepner said he followed Mr. Roeder outside toward the parking lot, but stopped when the man turned and called out, "I've got a gun, and I'll shoot you." Mr. Martin ran after Mr. Roeder, too, he testified, and at one point called out to him, "How could you do that?" The man yelled back something, Mr. Martin said, like, "he was a murderer" or "he was a killer."
When the man reached his car, Mr. Martin was about 10 feet away, blocking the car's exit. Mr. Roeder yelled "Move!" Mr. Martin recalled, but he stayed put. At that, Mr. Martin said, the man pulled out the gun, pointed it at him, and said, "I'll shoot you."
Mr. Martin stepped aside, but flung the cup of coffee he was still carrying - cup and all - through an open window in the man's car as he drove away. Mr. Roeder, whose license plate had been spotted by another church member, was arrested a few hours later along a Kansas highway about 170 miles away.
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18) House Panel Approves Executive Pay Restraints
By STEPHEN LABATON
July 29, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/business/29pay.html?ref=business
WASHINGTON - In an important victory for the White House, a Congressional committee approved legislation on Tuesday that closely resembled an Obama administration proposal seeking to impose new restraints on executive pay.
The approval by the House Financial Services Committee, on a party-line vote of 40 to 28, clears the way for the measure to be considered by the full House later this week, when it is likely to be adopted.
The bill does not set pay limits. Instead, it gives shareholders the right to vote on pay and requires that independent directors from outside of management serve on compensation committees.
The shareholder votes would not be binding on company management.
The measure tries to reduce the potential conflicts of interest involving compensation consultants who play a central role in blessing pay packages. Many of those consultants also provide other services to the companies, putting them in a conflicting role for issuing fairness opinions about pay.
The measure also gives regulators the authority to prohibit inappropriate or risky compensation practices for banks and other regulated financial institutions.
The Senate is not expected to consider the legislation until this fall, at the earliest.
The Obama administration's executive pay proposal, embodied in legislation sponsored by Representative Barney Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, is part of its larger package of regulatory changes intended to reduce the chances of another economic crisis.
While the measure still faces political obstacles in the Senate, it has not encountered as much resistance as two other cornerstones of the administration's proposal - a greater role for the Federal Reserve in monitoring large institutions that could pose risks to the financial system and the creation of a new agency to protect consumers from deceptive or ill-suited mortgages, credit cards and other kinds of loans.
The legislation comes as the Obama administration is separately examining the pay practices of seven big companies that have received significant taxpayer assistance in recent months. The administration's top official for compensation, Kenneth R. Feinberg, has been in discussions with the companies as he considers whether to approve the compensation of top executives at American International Group, Citigroup, Bank of America, General Motors, Chrysler and the financing arms of those two automakers.
The legislative debate over the pay measure pits two powerful political forces against each other. One is the public's growing outrage at skyrocketing pay packages, particularly at troubled companies that have needed billions of taxpayer dollars to survive. The other is a coalition of senior executives of large corporations and their lobbyists who have succeeded in the past in blocking or diluting meaningful restrictions on pay practices.
That tension was clear at a legislative drafting session, where Republicans who opposed the legislation sought to scale it back sharply, while also decrying the high pay at many troubled institutions. In one colloquy between the two senior members of the committee, Representative Spencer T. Bachus III of Alabama, the ranking Republican, said he had privately told Mr. Frank that "executive compensation was a very difficult matter for all members of this committee."
"I said doing something about executive compensation would be very popular with the American people," Mr. Bachus said. "I said opposing this would put our members in a very difficult position."
Still, Mr. Bachus and his Republican colleagues offered numerous amendments to weaken the legislation, most of which were defeated either by voice or party-line votes.
But the Democrats led by Mr. Frank also agreed to some modest changes in the legislation to reduce its scope. They agreed to give the Securities and Exchange Commission the authority to exempt smaller companies from shareholder votes on pay. And they reduced the authority of regulators by giving them power to restrict only incentive-based pay arrangements instead of any kind of compensation.
The panel adopted an amendment proposed by Representative Mary Jo Kilroy, Democrat of Ohio, to require large institutional investors to reveal how they vote the shares that they own on pay proposals affecting companies that issued those shares.
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19) How Kidneys Are Bought And Sold on Black Market
By Rebecca Dube
July 29, 2009
http://www.forward.com/articles/111027/
Six months ago, Ronen came to the United States from Israel on a life-or-death mission. He needed a kidney transplant, or he would die.
[ Extract: "...Scheper-Hughes did not respond to interview requests; however, she told the New York Daily News and WNYC public radio that Rosenbaum recruited impoverished kidney sellers from Moldova - where, she said, she visited a village where 20% of the men had sold a kidney..." ]
Soon after he arrived and moved into a donated basement apartment in Brooklyn, a man approached him and offered to give him what he wanted most in the world - for a fee. Ronen would have to pay $160,000 for a kidney; the "donor" would get $10,000.
Ronen is 35, and he has endured nightly dialysis sessions for 15 years. The Forward is not publishing his last name to protect his privacy. Because of his failing health, he cannot work. His rabbi raised money to get him to New York because organ donations are so rare in Israel. Today, his dream is simple: to get a kidney transplant and "to live a normal life, to marry and to work, and to make a family."
But there were two problems with the broker's offer: He could promise only that the black market kidney would match Ronen's blood type, not his antibodies, and Ronen didn't have anywhere near the asking price. So he turned down the man - but not without some regrets.
"He says to me, 'Even if you are nice, even if you make a lot of contacts, you need a kidney, Ronen, not just talking,'" Ronen said. "And he's right."
Ronen is still looking for a donor. The man who, by all indications, approached him, Levy Izhak Rosenbaum, is looking at a possible five-year federal prison sentence.
Rosenbaum was arrested July 23, and charged with conspiracy to transport human organs. It is perhaps the most bizarre subplot of the FBI's massive money laundering and corruption investigation that yielded 44 arrests in New Jersey and Brooklyn, including the mayors of Hoboken, Secaucus and Ridgefield; two state assemblymen; five rabbis, and numerous other public officials.
According to the criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, Rosenbaum told an undercover federal agent on July 13 that he'd been brokering kidney sales for 10 years from his home in Brooklyn.
"I am what you call a matchmaker," Rosenbaum said, according to the complaint, before assuring the undercover agent that he'd brokered "quite a lot" of kidney transplants, including one two weeks prior to their conversation.
Rosenbaum is the first person charged in the United States with trafficking in live human organs, medical ethicist Arthur Caplan said. His arrest has illuminated a dark side of the medical world, where the desperately poor sell body parts to the desperately ill, brokers make a profit and medical centers turn a blind eye.
"There is probably more of this going on," said Caplan, who serves as director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania and is co-directing a United Nations task force on international organ trafficking. "It is a very lucrative business."
The exposure of the organ-trafficking operation surprised most of the medical establishment, who knew of such activity happening overseas but not in the United States. But Rosenbaum's alleged business was an open secret for years among a certain community of Jewish transplant seekers.
"Over the years, dozens of people have asked me to help them get in touch with 'Isaac - the organ broker from Brooklyn.' I always refused to do so," said Robert Berman, founder and director of the New York-based Halachic Organ Donor Society, which encourages organ donation among observant Jews in the United States, Israel and other countries.
Berman said that while he personally supports the idea of changing the law to allow people to get paid for giving someone else a kidney - after all, he noted, doctors get paid for doing the operation - he does not condone any illegal activity.
"The black market is obviously not ideal. People get ripped off," he said.
Berman founded the Halachic Organ Donor Society to combat the notion that Jewish law does not permit organ donation. Because of that misperception, he said, Israel has one of the lowest organ donor rates in the world, which is why many Israelis travel to the United States in hopes of finding a match.
"Jews have no problem putting themselves on the list to get an organ, but when it comes to donating, they have a lot of religious reasons not to," Berman said.
An expert in the organ black market said that Rosenbaum was America's main broker for an international trafficking network. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, a professor of medical anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, said she told the FBI about Rosenbaum's operation back in 2002.
Scheper-Hughes did not respond to interview requests; however, she told the New York Daily News and WNYC public radio that Rosenbaum recruited impoverished kidney sellers from Moldova - where, she said, she visited a village where 20% of the men had sold a kidney. According to the criminal complaint, Rosenbaum told potential clients that the kidney sellers came from Israel.
Scheper-Hughes said that the kidney sellers described Rosenbaum as a thug who threatened them with a pistol if they expressed hesitation once they arrived in the United States for the operation.
But to potential clients, Rosenbaum presented a kind and caring face.
"He tried to help me," Ronen said of his would-be broker. Ronen related that even after he turned down the offer, the broker called and gave him advice on how to find a volunteer kidney donor. "My feeling is that he is a good person, I can trust him," Ronen said.
Medical centers interview potential transplant donors to make sure they are suitable matches, and a psychological screening is usually included, as well. Because paying for organs is illegal, Rosenbaum would create fictional relationships between the recipient and the seller, according to the criminal complaint, and would coach both of them on what to say.
"I put together the story," Rosenbaum said, according to the complaint. "Could be neighbors, could be friends from shul, could be friends from the community, could be friends of his children... business friends."
More careful screening probably would expose fake relationships, Caplan said, but clearly that didn't happen, as Rosenbaum allegedly operated his trafficking ring successfully for a decade without detection.
"Some hospitals just don't care," Caplan said, noting that medical centers make about $100,000 per kidney transplant. "They want to make the money and do the transplant - they're not picky."
Caplan opposes legalizing the sale of human organs, saying that exploitation is inevitable no matter what the legal status. Medical centers should standardize and tighten their donor screenings, he said. According to Caplan, the going rate for kidney sellers ranges from $500 in India to $10,000 in Israel.
"The people who sell are almost always incredibly poor. They're usually up to their eyeballs in debt," Caplan said. "The people who are involved in this are past the point of desperation. They're not making some sort of calculated decision."
The black market for kidney donation is thriving because demand far outstrips supply. More than 80,000 people are on the kidney transplant waiting list in the United States, and every year about 4,500 die while waiting, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Last year, 16,517 transplants were performed in the United States: 10,550 with cadaver organs from people who died, and 5,967 from living donors.
For people like Ronen, who have been playing by the rules, there's not much to do but wait and hope - even though time is running out.
"It is very difficult," Ronen said. "We need a miracle."
Contact Rebecca Dube at dube@forward.com
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20) Casualties of War, Part I: The hell of war comes home
DAVE PHILIPPS
July 24, 2009
http://www.gazette.com/common/printer/view.php?db=colgazette&id=59065
Casualties of War, Part II: Warning signs
DAVE PHILIPPS
July 24, 2009
http://www.gazette.com/common/printer/view.php?db=colgazette&id=59091
Before the murders started, Anthony Marquez's mom dialed his sergeant at Fort Carson to warn that her son was poised to kill.
It was February 2006, and the 21-year-old soldier had not been the same since being wounded and coming home from Iraq eight months before. He had violent outbursts and thrashing nightmares. He was devouring pain pills and drinking too much. He always packed a gun.
(A word of caution about the language and content of this story: Please see Editor's Note)
"It was a dangerous combination. I told them he was a walking time bomb," said his mother, Teresa Hernandez.
His sergeant told her there was nothing he could do. Then, she said, he started taunting her son, saying things like, "Your mommy called. She says you are going crazy."
Eight months later, the time bomb exploded when her son used a stun gun to repeatedly shock a small-time drug dealer in Widefield over an ounce of marijuana, then shot him through the heart.
Marquez was the first infantry soldier in his brigade to murder someone after returning from Iraq. But he wasn't the last.
Hear the prison interviews with Kenneth Eastridge.
Marquez's 3,500-soldier unit - now called the 4th Infantry Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team - fought in some of the bloodiest places in Iraq, taking the most casualties of any Fort Carson unit by far.
Back home, 10 of its infantrymen have been arrested and accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter since 2006. Others have committed suicide, or tried to.
Almost all those soldiers were kids, too young to buy a beer, when they volunteered for one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Almost none had serious criminal backgrounds. Many were awarded medals for good conduct.
But in the vicious confusion of battle in Iraq and with no clear enemy, many said training went out the window. Slaughter became a part of life. Soldiers in body armor went back for round after round of battle that would have killed warriors a generation ago. Discipline deteriorated. Soldiers say the torture and killing of Iraqi civilians lurked in the ranks. And when these soldiers came home to Colorado Springs suffering the emotional wounds of combat, soldiers say, some were ignored, some were neglected, some were thrown away and some were punished.
Some kept killing - this time in Colorado Springs.
Many of those soldiers are now behind bars, but their troubles still reach well beyond the walls of their cells - and even beyond the Army. Their unit deployed again in May, this time to one of Afghanistan's most dangerous regions, near Khyber Pass.
This month, Fort Carson released a 126-page report by a task force of behavioral-health and Army professionals who looked for common threads in the soldiers' crimes. They concluded that the intensity of battle, the long-standing stigma against seeking help, and shortcomings in substance-abuse and mental-health treatment may have converged with "negative outcomes," but more study was needed.
Marquez, who was arrested before the latest programs were created, said he would never have pulled the trigger if he had not gone to Iraq.
"If I was just a guy off the street, I might have hesitated to shoot," Marquez said this spring as he sat in the Bent County Correctional Facility, where he is serving 30 years. "But after Iraq, it was just natural."
More killing by more soldiers followed.
In August 2007, Louis Bressler, 24, robbed and shot a soldier he picked up on a street in Colorado Springs.
In December 2007, Bressler and fellow soldiers Bruce Bastien Jr., 21, and Kenneth Eastridge, 24, left the bullet-riddled body of a soldier from their unit on a west-side street.
In May and June 2008, police say Rudolfo Torres-Gandarilla, 20, and Jomar Falu-Vives, 23, drove around with an assault rifle, randomly shooting people.
In September 2008, police say John Needham, 25, beat a former girlfriend to death.
Most of the killers were from a single 500-soldier unit within the brigade called the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, which nicknamed itself the "Lethal Warriors."
Soldiers from other units at Fort Carson have committed crimes after deployments - military bookings at the El Paso County jail have tripled since the start of the Iraq war - but no other unit has a record as deadly as the soldiers of the 4th Brigade. The vast majority of the brigade's soldiers have not committed crimes, but the number who have is far above the population at large. In a one-year period from the fall of 2007 to the fall of 2008, the murder rate for the 500 Lethal Warriors was 114 times the rate for Colorado Springs.
The battalion is overwhelmingly made up of young men, who, demographically, have the highest murder rate in the United States, but the brigade still has a murder rate 20 times that of young males as a whole.
The killings are only the headline-grabbing tip of a much broader pyramid of crime. Since 2005, the brigade's returning soldiers have been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, DUIs, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides.
Like Marquez, most of the jailed soldiers struggled to adjust to life back home after combat. Like Marquez, many showed signs of growing trouble before they ended up behind bars. Like Marquez, all raise difficult questions about the cause of the violence.
Did the infantry turn some men into killers, or did killers seek out the infantry? Did the Army let in criminals, or did combat-tattered soldiers fall into criminal habits? Did Fort Carson fail to take care of soldiers, or did soldiers fail to take advantage of care they were offered?
And, most importantly, since the brigade is now in Afghanistan, is there a way to keep the violence from happening again?
Maj. Gen. Mark Graham, who took command of Fort Carson in the thick of the murders and ordered marked changes in how returning soldiers are treated, said he hopes so.
"When we see a problem, we try to identify it and really learn what we can do about it. That is what we are trying to do here," Graham said in a June interview. "There is a culture and a stigma that need to change."
Under his command, nearly everyone - from colonels to platoon sergeants - is now trained to help troops showing the signs of emotional stress. Fort Carson has doubled its number of behavioral-health counselors and tightened hospital regulations to the point where a soldier visiting an Army doctor for any reason, even a sprained ankle, can't leave without a mental health evaluation. Graham has also volunteered Fort Carson as a testing ground for new Army programs to ease soldiers' transition from war to home.
Eastridge, an infantry specialist now serving 10 years for accessory to murder, said it will take a lot to wipe away the stain of Iraq.
"The Army trains you to be this way. In bayonet training, the sergeant would yell, 'What makes the grass grow?' and we would yell, 'Blood! Blood! Blood!' as we stabbed the dummy. The Army pounds it into your head until it is instinct: Kill everybody, kill everybody. And you do. Then they just think you can just come home and turn it off. ... If they don't figure out how to take care of the soldiers they trained to kill, this is just going to keep happening."
Satan's throne
The violence started to take root in Iraq's Sunni Triangle, where the brigade landed in September 2004.
"It was actually beautiful. There were lots of palm trees," said Eastridge, who is a working-class kid from Kentucky who had never really been anywhere before he joined the Army.
But, he said, "the situation was ugly."
It was a little more than a year after President George W. Bush had landed on an aircraft carrier in front of a "Mission Accomplished" banner to announce the end of major combat operations. But the situation was growing worse. Rival militias of Sunnis and Shiites were gaining strength. Looting had crippled cities. And in a war with no clear front or enemy, the average monthly body count for U.S. soldiers was up 25 percent from a year earlier.
The brigade was in the worst of it.
None of it bothered Marquez.
In high school, he had been a co-captain on the football team and had run track. After graduation, he joined the infantry because the Army commercials full of guns and helicopters looked like the coolest job in the world.
Eastridge felt the same way. He was the closest thing to a criminal in the group of soldiers later arrested for murder. He was trying to get his life together after growing up with a mother addicted to cocaine. He had been arrested for reckless homicide when he was 12, after he accidentally shot his best friend in the chest while playing with his father's antique shotgun. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to counseling. After that, his record had been clean.
Felons cannot join the Army unless they get a waiver from a recruiter. Eastridge said he called a dozen until one told him, "Son, it looks like you just need someone to give you a chance."
Like Marquez, Eastridge wanted to join the infantry because, he said, "that's where you get to do all the awesome stuff."
After basic training, the Army sent both men to South Korea.
They were in different battalions of what became the 4th Brigade Combat Team. Marquez was in the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment; Eastridge, the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment. Both were foot soldiers. Both were surrounded by other young, gung-ho GIs with no battle experience. And both learned in the spring of 2004 that they were going to Iraq.
"We thought it would be cool. It was what we signed up for," Marquez said.
It turned out not to be cool at all.
Ramadi, where Marquez landed, had a population the size of Colorado Springs but had no dependable electricity, let alone law and order. Sewage ran in rubble-choked streets. The temperature sometimes rose to 120 degrees.
And when roadside bombs blew civilians to bits, soldiers said, packs of feral dogs fought over the scraps.
Pat Dollard, a documentary filmmaker embedded in the area at the time, wrote that it looked like "Satan had punched a hole in the Earth's surface, plopped down his throne, and set up shop."
Marquez was assigned to hunt terrorists in the city. Eastridge patrolled the highway between Ramadi and Fallujah. With him was Bressler, a quiet, friendly gunner later arrested with Eastridge for murder.
Going on a mission usually meant tramping house to house in dust-colored camouflage, loaded down with rifles, pistols, body armor, ammo, grenades and water to fight the incessant heat.
Soldiers went out day and night, knocking on doors - sometimes kicking them in. They set up checkpoints. They seized weapons. They clapped hoods over suspected insurgents. They rarely found terrorists, but the terrorists found them.
A few days into the deployment, a sniper's bullet killed Marquez's lieutenant. Then another friend died in a car bombing. Then another.
Combat brigades always take higher casualties than the rest of the Army because they fight on the front lines, but, even by those standards, the 3,500-soldier brigade got pummeled. Sixty-four were killed and more than 400 were injured in the yearlong tour, according to Fort Carson - double the average for all Army brigades that have deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.
As the insurgents learned their craft, attacks became more gruesome.
A truck loaded with explosives careened into Eastridge's platoon, killing his squad leader, blowing fist-size holes in his platoon sergeant and pinning the burning engine against the baby of the unit, Jose Barco.
Bombs meant to kill soldiers shredded anyone in the area. Women had their arms ripped off. Old men along the road were reduced to meat.
"It just got sickening," said David Nash, a then-19-year-old private and Eastridge's best friend. "There was a massive amount of hate for us in the city."
One of the jobs of the infantry was to bag Iraqi bodies tossed in the streets at night by sectarian murder squads.
"First thing in the morning, all we would do is bag bodies," Eastridge said. "Guys with drill bits in their eyes. Guys with nails in their heads."
Eastridge said he was targeted by snipers twice. Both bullets smashed against walls so close to his face that they peppered his eyes with grit. He laughed at his luck. He loved being a soldier.
In February 2005, Eastridge was in the gun turret of his Humvee when it drove over an anti-tank mine. A deafening flash tore off the front end. Eastridge woke up a few minutes later, several feet from the smoking crater.
He sucked it up. He was bandaged up and sent back on patrol. He said cerebral fluid was leaking out of his ear.
That was the job of the infantry. Eastridge's battalion was created in World War II and became known as the "Band of Brothers." It parachuted into Normandy on D-Day and fought in the Battle of the Bulge. In Vietnam, it helped turn back the Tet Offensive and take Hamburger Hill.
Men who heard the stories of past glory almost never got a chance for their own in Iraq. The enemy was invisible. The leading cause of death was hidden roadside bombs.
Sometimes, Marquez felt his only purpose was to drive up and down roads in an armored personnel carrier called a Bradley to clear away hidden bombs.
To unwind, soldiers spent hours playing shoot-'em-up video games. They even played one based on their own unit in Vietnam. They said it offered a release. They could confront a clearly defined enemy. They could shoot, knowing they had the right guy. They could win.
In Ramadi, Marquez and other soldiers said, it felt like they were losing.
"It just seemed like the longer we were there, the worse it got," said Marquez's friend in the 1st Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, Daniel Freeman.
Freeman was knocked unconscious by a roadside bomb, but the most rattling thing, he said, was driving through the eerie calm, knowing an improvised explosive device, or IED, could kill every soldier in a Humvee without warning, or maybe just smoke one guy in the truck, leaving the others to wonder how, and why, they survived.
Hatred and mistrust simmered between soldiers and locals. Locals who waved to them one day would watch silently as they drove toward an IED the next.
"I'm all about spreading freedom and democracy and everything," said Josh Butler, another soldier in the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment. "But it seems like the Iraqis didn't even want it."
Soldiers said discipline started to break down.
"Toward the end, we were so mad and tired and frustrated," Freeman said. "You came too close, we lit you up. You didn't stop, we ran your car over with the Bradley."
If soldiers were hit by an IED, they would aim machine guns and grenade launchers in every direction, Marquez said, and "just light the whole area up. If anyone was around, that was their fault. We smoked 'em."
Other soldiers said they shot random cars, killing civilians.
"It was just a free-for-all," said Marcus Mifflin, 21, a friend of Eastridge who was medically discharged with PTSD after the tour. "You didn't get blamed unless someone could be absolutely sure you did something wrong. And that was hard. So things happened. Taxi drivers got shot for no reason. Guys got kidnapped and taken to the bridge and interrogated and dropped off."
Soldiers later told El Paso County sheriff's deputies investigating Marquez for murder that, in Iraq, he got his hands on a stun gun similar to the one he later used on the Widefield drug dealer. They said he used it to "rough up" Iraqis.
Stun guns are banned by the Geneva Conventions. Using one is a war crime, but four soldiers interviewed by The Gazette said a number of soldiers ordered the stun guns over the Internet and carried them on raids. The brigade refused to make other soldiers who served during the tour available for interviews. The Army said it destroys disciplinary records after two years, so it has no knowledge of whether soldiers in the unit were punished.
After 10 months, Marquez said, all he wanted to do was go home.
In June 2005, with a month to go, his platoon was walking across a field when a sniper's bullet smashed through his best friend's skull under the helmet.
The platoon circled its guns and grenade launchers, Marquez said, and "tore that neighborhood up."
That night, Marquez got hit. His squad had just finished hosing his friend's blood out of their Bradley when they were called out on another mission. They loaded into two Bradleys and rolled toward downtown Ramadi.
Marquez was riding in the dark, cramped rear of the lead Bradley. In a flash, a blast tore through the floor. The engine exploded. Diesel fuel spewed everywhere in a plume of fire. Marquez said he watched the driver scramble out screaming, flames leaping from his clothes.
Marquez and the others clambered into the dark street, rifles ready. Another bomb slammed them to the ground.
Then came a flurry of bullets spitting across the dirt. Marquez was hit four times in the leg.
As blood spurted from his femoral artery, Marquez said, he raised his grenade launcher to return fire and realized the storm of bullets had come from the heavy machine gun on the other Bradley, which had just come around the corner.
"They must have seen our Bradley on fire, figured it was an attack and thought we were all dead," he said this spring, shaking his head, "then just started shooting."
According to the Army, two soldiers died. Marquez said three others were wounded. Brigade commanders didn't make anyone familiar with the incident available.
Marquez was flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
He was still bleary on morphine on the Fourth of July weekend that he was told Bush was coming to award him a Purple Heart.
Marquez's sister, who was visiting, didn't want to see the president because she was so angry about the war and her brother's wounds, but Marquez was honored.
"I had gotten hurt, but it is part of the job. I wasn't mad at nobody," Marquez said.
He was in the hospital for three months and had 17 surgeries so he could keep his leg. Marquez was being medically discharged from the Army and could have stayed at the hospital, but he transferred to Fort Carson on Sept. 13, 2005, to spend his remaining months with his war buddies, who had just returned from Iraq.
He eventually learned to walk without a cane, but other wounds proved harder to heal. He started having nightmares about the war. He felt worthless and crippled, depressed and angry. On a visit home to California, he made his mom put away all his high school sports trophies.
The only things that made him feel better were the pain pills the doctors prescribed for him - and only if he took too many.
'Kumbaya period'
Post-traumatic stress disorder is like a roadside bomb.
The symptoms can remain hidden for months, then explode. They can cripple some soldiers and leave others untouched. And just like bombs disguised as trash or ruts in the road, PTSD can look like something else.
In many cases, it looks like a bad soldier. In addition to flashbacks and nightmares, Army studies say, symptoms can include heavy drinking, drug use, domestic violence, slacking off at work or disobeying orders.
You can often see it coming, said the most recent commanding general of Fort Carson, if you know what to look for.
Soldiers usually go through a jubilant high for a few months after they come home, Graham said. He calls this time "the Kumbaya period."
"Soldiers have served their country, they've made it back, they're home. It's all great. It's later that problems start to surface," Graham said.
Usually, problems don't show up for three to six months, he said.
When the brigade landed in Colorado Springs, most soldiers had spent a year in Iraq and a year in South Korea. Most had saved several thousand dollars. Many were old enough to legally drink in the United States for the first time. They had survived the worst of Iraq, and they were jonesing to blow off steam.
All they had to do was go through a few post-deployment debriefings that Fort Carson still uses.
Soldiers sit through classes that warn them that troops often have unrealistically rosy notions of home. They are told to be understanding with spouses and loved ones. They are cautioned to be careful with drinking and driving, and they are warned that the time for carrying a gun everywhere ended in Iraq.
All personal guns must be stored in the post's armory - not in soldiers' barracks, not in their cars and not tucked in their belts.
Then Fort Carson screens every soldier for PTSD and other combat-related problems.
If there are no red flags, the soldier can go on leave. If there are, they are referred for further diagnosis, officials at Fort Carson's Evans Army Community Hospital said.
The screening asks soldiers a long list of questions about the deployment: Do you have trouble sleeping? Are you depressed? Did you clear houses or bunkers? Were you shot at? Did you witness brutality toward detainees? Did you have friends who were killed?
"Did you shoot people? Did you kill people? Did you see dead civilians? Did you see dead Americans? Did you see dead babies? No. No. No. No." Eastridge said, mimicking how he answered the questionnaire.
"I had seen and done all that stuff, but you just lie to get it over with."
Several soldiers said the same: They lied because they didn't want the hassle of more screening.
When the young infantrymen were set free in Colorado Springs, many packed Tejon Street bars such as Rendezvous Lounge and Rum Bay. When the bars closed, soldiers said, they often picked fights in the street.
By 2006, the police were being called to break up bar brawls almost every night. Extra police were assigned to the area.
The Colorado Springs Police Department doesn't track the crime statistics of individual units, but according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office, jail bookings of military personnel as a whole increased 66 percent in the 12 months after the brigade returned.
The "Kumbaya period" lasted about six months, soldiers said.
Eastridge said he blew through almost $27,000, mostly drinking at bars, but the first thing he did was buy guns: pistols, shotguns and an assault rifle similar to the one he carried in Iraq.
"After being in Iraq, it feels like everyone is the enemy," he said. "You feel like you need a gun so they don't come to get you."
His friends all felt the same way.
Nash slept with a loaded .45 under his pillow.
Butler kept a Glock .40-caliber with him all the time, even when he rocked his newborn baby.
Marquez bought three pistols, a riot-style shotgun and an assault rifle like the one he carried in Iraq. He carried a pistol constantly, he said, even when he went to church.
His buddy, Freeman, said he bought himself a "big, scary" snub-nose .357 revolver.
"I couldn't go anywhere without it," he said. "I took it to the mall. I took it to the bank. I even had it right next to me when I took a shower. It makes you feel powerful, less scared. You have to have it with you every second of every day."
Some returning soldiers, especially those with family members to notice their behavior, went into counseling.
More than 200 Fort Carson soldiers have been referred to First Choice Counseling Center, a private counseling service in Colorado Springs. Davida Hoffman, the director, said her counselors were unprepared for what they heard.
"We're used to seeing people who are depressed and want to hurt themselves. We're trained to deal with that," she said. "But these soldiers were depressed and saying, 'I've got this anger, I want to hurt somebody.' We weren't accustomed to that."
In units that have seen the toughest combat in Iraq, one in four soldiers can screen positive for PTSD, the director of psychiatry at Walter Reed, Dr. Charles Hoge, said in an e-mail interview.
"Many soldiers continue to be able to perform their duties very well despite having significant symptoms," Hoge wrote. But others show what he called "serious impairment," and the worse the combat and the longer units are exposed, the worse the effects.
The affliction is as old as war itself.
Eric Dean, an author in Connecticut who specializes in war's psychological toll, reviewed records from the Civil War for his 1997 book, "Shook Over Hell," and found the same surge of crime and suicide that Fort Carson has seen.
"They have been in every war," he said. "They never readjusted. They ended up living alone, drinking too much."
They were "the lost generation" of World War I. They are the veterans of Vietnam who disproportionately populate homeless shelters and prisons today.
The psychological casualties may be particularly heavy in Iraq, he said.
"In the Civil War, if you experienced really traumatic fighting, chances are you didn't make it," he said. "Today, you can be blown up multiple times and go right back into the fight."
In Vietnam, most draftees did one yearlong tour. Since the start of the Iraq war, some soldiers have been deployed three times for 12 to 15 months each.
When a soldier faces constant threat of attack, studies suggest, the brain is flooded with adrenaline, dopamine and other performance-enhancing chemicals that the body naturally produces in a fight-or-flight response. Over time, the brain can crave these stimulants, like a junkie for his fix.
When the stimulant of combat is taken away, soldiers often have trouble sleeping, said Sister Kateri Koverman, a social worker who has counseled people in war zones for almost 40 years. They can feel irritable, numb and paranoid, she said. They can sink into depression.
And they can search for another substance to replace the rush of war.
"Often they'll use booze or drugs to mask their symptoms until they become explosive," said Koverman, who moved to Colorado Springs from her convent in Ohio this year to help with the wave of PTSD. "We have a public disaster here, and no one really knows how to deal with it."
Men from the unit mostly dealt with it on their own.
Mifflin got deep into smoking pot to ease his nerves.
Nash was mixing pills and booze.
Eastridge got blotto on whatever.
Butler said he and a lot of guys started doing Ecstasy and cocaine.
Marquez started destroying himself with the pills that were supposed to help him.
For his injuries, he said, doctors at Evans prescribed him 90 morphine pills, 90 Percocets, and five fentanyl patches every three weeks.
"They were for pain," he said. "And I still had pain. But, mostly, I was using them to get high."
He could not get Iraq out of his head. Doctors prescribed antidepressants and sleeping pills, but he said they didn't help. He was saving up Percocet, then downing a handful on an empty stomach.
He said he started trading his morphine with other soldiers for an antipsychotic called quetiapine and an anti-anxiety drug called clonazepam. Improper use of either can cause psychotic reactions, anxiety, panic attacks, aggressiveness and suicidal behavior, but, Marquez said, injured soldiers traded them like children in a lunchroom swapping desserts.
"It was real common among the guys who were hurt," Marquez said.
At one point, Marquez said, he ate his three-week supply of meds in half the time, then went back to Evans claiming he had lost his pills.
He said a doctor told him security measures prevented him from giving Marquez more narcotics, but he could write the soldier a paper prescription he could fill in Colorado Springs.
Marquez agreed.
Fort Carson said privacy laws prohibit commenting on medical treatment.
Marquez's mother is a police officer in Southern California. She said when her son came home to visit at Christmas 2005, six months after being shot, she knew something was seriously wrong. He would stay in his room all day in a daze and try to down old pain pills in the medicine cabinet. He would have dreams so violent that she was afraid to wake him.
In February 2006, she said, she called his sergeants and told them he was a danger to himself and others and needed help.
She said the sergeants told her that her son would have to seek treatment on his own.
An Army spokesman said there is no Army policy on how to handle such calls. It is up to individual commanders.
The response didn't make sense, she said. As a law enforcement officer, if she shot someone, she was required to go through counseling, she said. Her son had weathered a long, gruesome combat tour, yet he had no such requirement.
Few of the young infantry soldiers felt like they needed counseling.
"We were just partying," Butler said. "Some guys went in for PTSD, but we thought that was just a bullshit excuse to get out of the Army."
Those who did seek treatment faced obstacles.
Six months after getting back from Ramadi, Marquez's friend, Freeman, who had been injured by a roadside bomb, said he started to feel "shell-shocked" and depressed and decided to go to Evans.
"I did it on the down-low because I didn't want my unit to know," he said.
The psychiatric ward was overwhelmed by soldiers, he said. Cases of PTSD at Fort Carson had climbed from 26 in 2002 to more than 600 in 2006, according to the hospital. Getting an appointment could take weeks, soldiers said. Counseling in the ward, in most cases, was in group settings only.
Freeman said the hospital staff prescribed him antidepressants and told him they were so busy that he wouldn't receive counseling for a month.
A few weeks later, on Feb. 22, 2006, Freeman got in a fight with a man he had never met, Kenneth Tatum, in the China Express restaurant on B Street. Freeman pulled out his .357 and, before he knew it, he said, Tatum was bleeding on the ground. He had shot him through the thigh.
Freeman was arrested for attempted murder and pleaded guilty to felony menacing. He served two years and got out in January. He is unemployed, living at his mother's house in Alabama. He said he still has headaches and memory problems and is getting therapy for PTSD at a nearby Veterans Affairs hospital.
Because of his crime, he is not eligible for most Army benefits.
"I was a good soldier before this," he said. "Now I'm a screwed-up Iraq vet with a felony conviction. I don't have many prospects. I was good at what I did in the infantry. . . . Too bad it followed me home."
The Army spends millions of dollars to help soldiers such as Marquez and Freeman. It has programs to mentally prepare soldiers for deployment, treat them overseas and rehabilitate them when they return. Top brass, including the highest-ranking officer in the Army, Gen. George Casey, have said taking care of returning soldiers' mental health is a top priority.
But sentiments and programs at the top sometimes don't reach the trenches, soldiers and experts said.
In infantry units such as the Lethal Warriors, soldiers said, toughness and bravery are prized above all else. Anyone who says he has PTSD is immediately thought of as not worthy of wearing the uniform, soldiers said. In Army slang, they said, he is deemed a "shit bag."
When the brigade returned home from the Sunni Triangle, sergeants sometimes refused to let soldiers seek help for PTSD and taunted them for being weak or faking it, said Andrew Pogany, a former Fort Carson special forces sergeant who now investigates complaints for the advocacy group Veterans for America
"They just don't want to deal with it," Pogany said.
Some commanders punished soldiers for displaying PTSD symptoms, soldiers said.
Mifflin, who is now unemployed and lives in his mother's house in Florida, went to a Fort Carson psychiatrist for counseling because he said he sometimes wanted to kill civilians in Colorado Springs. The psychiatrist checked him into Cedar Springs, an inpatient mental hospital in Colorado Springs. He stayed for about a week, he said.
"As soon as I got out, I had a scheduled bitching session with the sergeant so he could yell at me about what a liar I was," he said. "After they found out a guy was getting evaluated for PTSD, they would try to find any little thing to kick him out."
Dozens of soldiers who screened positive for PTSD received an "other than honorable" discharge from the Army - the equivalent of being kicked out - for infractions such as missing duty and drug use, Pogany said. If soldiers are kicked out, they often aren't eligible for free health care, counseling or other benefits that soldiers who are medically discharged with PTSD receive. Often, Pogany said, that means veterans who need help the most don't get it.
Some soldiers coming back to Colorado Springs seemed fine. Bressler, who later murdered two soldiers, seemed as nice and mellow as ever, soldiers said. He got married, always showed up for training and seemed to be doing well.
Others fell apart.
Eastridge, who had been awarded medals for achievement and good conduct, started having nightmares and mouthing off to his commanders. In March 2006, he got in a drunken fight with his girlfriend and was arrested for putting a gun to her face. After that, he said, he stopped showing up for work. He said he was AWOL on and off for six months.
"I started slapping my wife around, too," Butler said. "She just never called the police."
Butler said he was emotionally numb some days and ready to explode others. He couldn't understand why he was so angry, but he still thought PTSD was just a lame excuse.
One night, he called Eastridge and told him to come over to his house. He wanted his buddies to shoot him in the leg so he wouldn't have to go back to Iraq.
"We were all excited we were going to get to shoot him," Eastridge said.
When he got to the apartment, Barco, the platoon baby who had been burned by the exploding Humvee in Iraq, was there.
They found a dark parking lot, Eastridge said, and Barco shot Butler through the calf with a .32. Butler screamed. Blood went everywhere.
"It was hilarious," said Mifflin, who saw him shortly afterward. "He only ended up getting out of duty for a few days, but that's only part of why he did it. He also wanted the Percocets they prescribed him at the hospital."
After a number of 4th Brigade soldiers got in trouble for DUIs and drugs, the brigade increased the number of random drug tests soldiers have to take, troops said. The rate of Fort Carson soldiers testing positive in 2006 was 16 times what it had been in 2004, according to the post. Twenty percent of them were enrolled in substance-abuse programs. Most, soldiers said, were just given the boot. Nash and Butler were kicked out of the Army for snorting cocaine in the summer of 2006.
Eastridge was supposed to be kicked out too, soldiers said, but he wasn't around to be discharged.
More than 400 soldiers have been kicked out of the brigade for misconduct since the start of the war, according to Fort Carson. Only 57 were discharged for mental health reasons.
Butler went to prison for beating his wife, who was pregnant at the time. He said their child was born with severe birth defects and died. He blames it, in part, on their fights.
There is no easy way to track how many Butlers are out there - soldiers who didn't commit violent crimes until after they were kicked out of the Army and left Colorado Springs.
"That's the shadiest thing about the Army. They just throw these guys away," said Nash, now a pipeline welder in Louisiana. He said he still struggles with the effects of combat. He can't go to bars because he gets into fights, and his car is loaded with what he called "enough guns for World War III."
"The Army neglected their responsibility to take care of soldiers they trained to be this way," he said. "Most of these guys were ordinary people put in really shitty situations - the side effect is you turn good people into ravenous beasts."
So many soldiers were leaving or getting kicked out of Eastridge's company in 2006, Eastridge said, that commanders created a new platoon for them.
Marquez's battalion created a similar company, called Echo Company, soldiers said. Soldiers called it the "Shit-Bag Brigade."
An Army spokesman said it "is unknown" whether these units existed.
Marquez was assigned to the Shit-Bag Brigade even though his only offense was being too physically disabled to train with the rest of his unit. He said he had to do the menial tasks designed to punish the others, such as pull weeds along the road.
He started not showing up for duty. He took more pills. He bought more guns and kept them his in his car, he and other soldiers said.
It was no secret. Sergeants later told police that Marquez had showed off his stash of weapons. His mother said they did nothing.
Sergeants also told sheriff's deputies they thought he was abusing pills.
"Maybe if they had punished him like they were supposed to, he would not be in for murder," his mother said.
On Oct. 22, 2006, three days before Marquez was scheduled to be honorably discharged, he limped down to the Widefield drug dealer's basement, carrying a .45-caliber pistol in one hand and a 500,000-volt stun gun in the other. He shocked the dealer - 19-year-old Smith - with the stun gun and grabbed his stash of marijuana, according to witness statements to El Paso County sheriff's investigators. When the dealer tried to fight back, investigators say, Marquez shot him through the heart, picked up the shell casings, grabbed the weed and walked out.
Prosecutors said he was planning a robbery. Marquez said he was just there to buy some weed and, when a fight started over the price, his infantry reflexes took over.
"When someone grabs you or something, you're going to light 'em up," he said. "It probably won't even be that hard because it's not like it's your first time."
Marquez didn't respond to letters asking him why he used a stun gun and whether he used it in Iraq.
A week after the murder, sheriff's deputies questioned his commanders at Fort Carson in search of a motive.
Capt. David Larimer, the soldier's company commander, told detectives that Marquez had been diagnosed with PTSD, but Larimer didn't believe it. According to the detectives' written summary, Larimer said he thought Marquez was just a "whiny bitch."
'Heart of Darkness'
The day Marquez was arrested, his brigade was on its way back to Iraq.
They were sent to tame the one spot in the country that was more dangerous than their first assignment: downtown Baghdad.
"Violence is probably as bad as I've seen it, in Baghdad in particular," Gen. John Abizaid, commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East said just weeks before the soldiers arrived. "If not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war."
In the warren of city streets, terrorist bombs killed scores of civilians. Sunni and Shiite murder squads massacred one another by the thousands. The United Nations estimated that 3,000 Iraqis were being murdered a month.
The Lethal Warriors were assigned to one of the deadliest corners of the city, a bullet-riddled neighborhood called Al-Doura. The Warriors' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Stephen Michael, called it the "Heart of Darkness."
Eastridge showed up for duty shortly before the brigade shipped out. He was happy to be there. He never felt more alive than when he was in a war zone.
"It's almost like a religious experience to see a battlefield," he said. "To hear the explosions - to see a person bleeding out and die - see everything on fire and smell the smoke and burning flesh. It makes you truly realize what it is to be alive. Combat is the biggest rush you can have."
Since the start of his first deployment, he had covered himself in tattoos.
On his arm was a memorial to his sergeant killed by a car bomb. On his wrists were red dotted "kill lines" marking where, if needed, he could slit them. On his arm were the twin lightning bolts of the Nazi SS. Wrapping his neck like a collar were the words "BORN TO KILL, READY TO DIE."
If the Army had followed its own rules, he would not have returned to Iraq for another tour.
Army regulations bar anyone with a pending felony from deploying.
Eastridge was awaiting trial for putting a gun to his girlfriend's head. He said his commanders knew it.
But when the young soldier showed up and begged his sergeant to let him go back to Iraq, they did. The Army was evasive about if, and why, commanders knowingly deployed Eastridge with a felony hanging over his head.
Eastridge said there was a reason the unit wanted him back. He was one of the best gunners in the battalion.
Soldiers said he was "surgical" with a machine gun and utterly fearless.
"He was really good. If I had 10 Eastridges, my job would be a lot easier," said his platoon sergeant, Michael Cardenaz.
Eastridge had the most kills of anyone in his company, Cardenaz said.
He was exactly the type of soldier to have in the Heart of Darkness.
Only a few of Eastridge's buddies from the last tour were still with him. Louis Bressler, a cool, unflappable gunner, was there. So was Jose Barco, who, soldiers said, had persuaded commanders to let him return to Iraq even though he was so burned from the explosion in his previous tour that he had trouble sweating.
Many of the unit's other soldiers had been kicked out for drugs, or discharged with PTSD or other disabilities, soldiers said. The Army would not provide numbers. But for every missing soldier, there was a new kid.
Jomar Falu-Vives had signed up because his mother was a nurse stationed in Baghdad, and he wasn't going to let her go without him.
John Needham was a surfing champion from California who signed up because, with the insurgency raging, it looked as if his country needed him.
Bruce Bastien was a skinny, red-cheeked guy from Connecticut who was assigned as the new medic for Eastridge's platoon.
Not even the veterans were prepared for how bad Baghdad would be, Eastridge said.
At one point, the unit was losing a soldier a day to the hospital or the morgue.
At first, Eastridge said, he enjoyed the intensity of it. He had a competition going with Bressler to see who could kill more bad guys. His final count, he said - and his sergeant confirmed - was about 80.
But after a few months, the raids, gore and constant threat of roadside bombs started to get to him. He couldn't sleep. He was on edge all the time. Doctors at the base diagnosed him with PTSD, depression, anxiety and a sleep disorder. They gave him antidepressants and sleeping pills and put him back on duty.
When he went back to the doctors a few weeks later saying the pills were not working, his medical records show, they doubled his dose.
In the spring of 2007, as part of the surge to take back Baghdad, the 500 Lethal Warriors were moved out of their central base into 100-soldier Combat Outposts, known as COPs, scattered in the neighborhoods.
"Once we got to the COPS, it was way worse," Eastridge said. "We would have mortars and rocket fire and drive-bys every single day."
With the wounded list mounting, noncombat soldiers were pulled in to fill combat positions when guys got hit, soldiers said, and even they couldn't fill the holes. By summer 2007, the company was so depleted that Humvees designed to be manned by five soldiers were going on patrol with three, said Eastridge and his sergeant.
There was no time for mental health care in the COPs, Eastridge said. Often, his squad would come in from an all-night mission, pull off their body armor, get attacked and have to slap their armor right back on and go out. Sometimes, he said, they wouldn't sleep for days.
Eastridge's Iraqi translator introduced him to Valium as a way to relax. At first, he would just take a couple before missions. Then he was taking a couple all the time. Then he was taking a lot more.
Winning and losing it
The surge worked.
Lethal Warrior commanders designed a victory strategy based on intensive foot patrols and strong community ties, where soldiers were assigned to patrol small neighborhoods and ordered to get to know every neighbor. They built a Baghdad version of Neighborhood Watch, where locals could be the eyes and ears of the Army. Cardenaz, who started the tour carrying a cell phone so he could call his wife to say goodbye if he got shot, began handing out his number to locals as a hot line on where to find the bad guys.
During the first six months of the 15-month deployment, soldiers were attacked multiple times every day, according to an ARMY magazine article by a Lethal Warrior captain.
By the end, he wrote, they were not getting attacked at all.
In the first six months, soldiers had to collect mutilated Iraqi bodies left by murder squads every morning.
By the end, there were no bodies to retrieve.
Bomb attacks dropped to near zero.
But the victory came at a price.
Under the strain of daily violence, Eastridge, Bastien and Bressler started to lose it.
Needham did, too. A few weeks after arriving in Baghdad, he was on foot patrol when a sniper's bullet shattered his friend's head, splattering Needham with brains. In the months that followed, he was hit by six IEDs, Needham wrote in letter to his father. One blast made him hit the roof of his truck so hard that he cracked his spine.
On every occasion, his father, Michael Needham, said, his sergeant's response was to "suck it up."
For the most part, Needham did. When a rocket-propelled grenade blew a fellow soldier, Thomas Woolly, out of the gun turret of a Humvee in their convoy, Needham jumped behind the gun and started firing, Needham's father said.
"He wasn't giddy about being there," his father said. "But he was secure in what he was doing, fighting as an infantryman in an honorable way."
Then something began gnawing at him, his father said.
In the quest to win, John Needham said, some in his platoon turned ugly.
The soldier said some loaded their rifles with hollow-point bullets designed to expand on impact, making them more lethal. These bullets are banned by international treaties.
It wasn't just one platoon, either. Eastridge said soldiers in his platoon, including himself, used hollow-point bullets, too. It was easy to get them sent from home, Eastridge said. Both soldiers said some guys in their units carried illegal stun guns, as soldiers had in the first deployment.
The Army said it investigated Needham's claims and found no evidence.
But there was more to the platoon's tactics.
In a December 2007 letter to the Inspector General's Office of Fort Carson, which investigates crimes within the Army, Needham told of the atrocities he saw. His father provided a copy to The Gazette.
One sergeant shot a boy riding a bicycle down the street for no reason, John Needham said. When Needham and another soldier rushed to deliver first aid, the sergeant said, "No, let him bleed out."
Another sergeant shot a man in the head without cause while questioning him, Needham said, then mutilated the body, lashed it to the hood of his Humvee and drove around the neighborhood blaring warnings to insurgents in Arabic that "they would be next."
Other Iraqis were shot for invented reasons, then mutilated, Needham said.
The sergeants particularly liked removing victims' brains, Needham said.
Needham offered a photograph of a soldier removing brains from an Iraqi on the hood of a Humvee and other photos as evidence. His father supplied copies to The Gazette.
The Army's criminal investigation division interviewed several soldiers from the unit and said it was "unable to substantiate any of his allegations."
"Those guys were seriously whacked," Needham's father said. "And it began to grate on him."
In March 2007, Needham went to the battalion's doctor, saying he was "losing it" and needed a break, according to a summary of his service that he wrote. He was prescribed the antidepressant Zoloft and sent back to work. In May, Needham said, he went back to the doctor and was again sent back to work. In June, according to medical records, he went again. And in September. Commanders always sent him back out on patrol, he said.
Around that time, he posted a note on his MySpace page: "I'm falling apart by the seams it seems the days here bleed into each other I have to find the will to live man I miss my brothers. These walls are caving in my despair wraps me in its web, I feel I'm sinking in, throw me a lifesaver throw me a life worth living. I'm a part of death I am death this is hard to admit but this shits getting old."
A few nights later, on Sept. 18, Needham and a fellow soldier bought a contraband can of whiskey and tried to drink away their sorrows. Then Needham took out a gun and fired a shot at his head, his father said. The bullet missed. Needham was detained by his commanders for illegally discharging a firearm. After a few weeks of arguing by phone and e-mail, Needham's father convinced the unit to let his son see a doctor. The soldier was diagnosed with severe PTSD and flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
"What led him to the point of such deep despair that he would attempt suicide?" his father, a retired Army officer, asked. "I understand it. He was trained as a soldier. He was a good soldier, and his group was doing things he knew was wrong. And he was in this prolonged combat situation where they have all this armor and lifesaving technology to keep them alive, but mentally, they are in pieces."
The breaking point
Eastridge started to crumble around the same time.
He had been a decorated soldier during his first tour. But in the second, his judgment melted away.
He started searching medicine cabinets for Valium while raiding houses.
Then he started stealing cash and weapons from civilians, which he said he would sell back to the Shiite militia.
He was disciplined by his battalion for stealing once, he said, after he ransacked a house, but only because it belonged to a well-connected man. Most of the time, he got away with it.
He was disciplined again when he flipped out on patrol. Someone shot at his squad from a nearby farmhouse. Eastridge fired about 20 grenades into the house, then stormed in and said he found a farmer and his two dogs in the back and spotted a shell casing from an AK-47 on the ground.
Eastridge demanded to know where the shooter was.
The man said he didn't know.
Eastridge shot one of the man's dogs, then asked where the shooter was.
The man said he didn't know.
Eastridge shot the man's other dog.
His lieutenant told him he needed to cool off and go sit in the truck.
On the way out, Eastridge passed the man's herd of a dozen goats. He leveled them with a machine gun. Then he ordered a private to shoot the man's two cows. Then he shot his horse.
"I was really (expletive deleted) losing it," Eastridge said, shaking his head.
The Army hasn't supplied disciplinary records for Eastridge or several other soldiers requested under the Freedom of Information Act, but Eastridge's account was confirmed by his platoon sergeant.
Bressler and Bastien started losing it, too.
In May 2007, Bastien went home on leave. While there, the medic was thrown in jail for beating his wife, according to police records. Bastien, who is in prison, declined to be interviewed for this story. After his arrest, the Army kept him in Colorado Springs.
In June 2007, Bressler saw his best friend killed in a firefight, according to soldiers. After that, Bressler, who had always been a mellow, stable guy whom soldiers could find at the poker table in the COP, started to withdraw, soldiers say.
In July 2007, Eastridge said, Bressler went crazy and attacked his commanding officer, threatening to kill him.
Bressler, who is in prison, declined to be interviewed. He was diagnosed with PTSD, according to his wife. The Army decided he was too unstable and dangerous to be in Iraq, so they sent him back to Colorado Springs.
Eastridge went on one more mission.
He was the gunner manning the M240 machine gun on a Humvee - a big gun that shoots 600 rounds per minute. He said he was ordered to guard the street while the rest of his platoon searched a house.
Eastridge said he told his lieutenant he was going to kill people as soon as the officer was out of sight. Then he asked the driver to put some heavy-metal "killin' music on."
His lieutenant laughed and walked off, Eastridge said.
Families were out playing soccer and barbecuing. Eastridge said he just started shooting. He pumped a long burst of rounds into a big palm tree where a few old men had gathered in the shade.
People started running. They piled into their cars and sped away. There was a no-driving rule in effect in the neighborhood, so, Eastridge said, he put his cross hairs on every car that moved.
"All I could think of was car bombs, car bombs, car bombs, and I just kept shooting," he said.
Orders came over the radio to cease fire, he said, but he kept yelling, "Negative! Negative!"
Eastridge said he shot more than 1,700 rounds. When asked how many people he killed, he said, "Not that many. Maybe a dozen."
He was court-martialed a short time later on nine counts, including drug possession and disobeying orders. Killing civilians wasn't one of them.
For that, he said, he was put on guard duty.
Then, in August 2007, sergeants found him with 463 Valium pills in his laundry and a naked female soldier in his bed, according to court testimony. His staff sergeant confronted him about the woman, and Eastridge lashed out, according to his mother, Leanne Eastridge, screaming that he would kill the sergeant, suck out his blood and spit it at his children. Eastridge was court-martialed for disobeying orders and drug possession and sent to a prison camp in Kuwait for a month.
This spring, Eastridge said it was funny that sex and drugs were what got him court-martialed, considering the things he did in Iraq, "Things that can never be told, but that everybody knew about and approved of - basically war crimes."
He got a health screening as part of the court-martial. Doctors diagnosed him with chronic PTSD, antisocial personality disorder, depression, anxiety and hearing loss. In late September 2007, his commanders decided he was too unstable and dangerous to stay in Iraq, so the Army sent him back to Colorado Springs.
Casualties of War, Part II: Warning signs
DAVE PHILIPPS
July 24, 2009
http://www.gazette.com/common/printer/view.php?db=colgazette&id=59091
After coming home from Iraq, 21-year-old medic Bruce Bastien was driving with his Army buddy Louis Bressler, 24, when they spotted a woman walking to work on a Colorado Springs street.
Bressler swerved and hit the woman with the car, according to police, then Bastien jumped out and stabbed her over and over.
(A word of caution about the language and content of this story: Please see Editor's Note)
It was October 2007. A fellow soldier, Kenneth Eastridge, 24, watched it all from the passenger seat.
At that moment, he said, it was clear that however messed up some of the soldiers in the unit had been after their first Iraq deployment, it was about to get much worse.
"I have no problem with killing," said Eastridge, a two-tour infantryman with almost 80 confirmed kills. "But I won't just murder someone for no reason. He had gone crazy."
Hear the prison interviews with Kenneth Eastridge.
All three soldiers belonged to the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, part of Fort Carson's 4th Brigade Combat Team. The 500-soldier infantry battalion nicknamed itself the "Lethal Warriors."
They fought in the deadliest places in the war twice - first in the Sunni Triangle, then in downtown Baghdad. Since their return late in 2007, eight infantry soldiers have been arrested and accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter. Another two soldiers from the brigade were arrested and accused of murder and attempted murder after the first tour. Others have committed other violent crimes. Others have committed suicide.
Many of the soldiers behind bars and their family members say the violence at home is a consequence of the violence in Iraq. They came home angry, confused, paranoid and depressed. They had trouble getting effective mental heath care. Most buried their symptoms in drugs and alcohol until they exploded.
The Army is seeking new ways to care for returning soldiers and keep the violence from returning - crucial now, because the unit shipped out in May to Afghanistan, where the monthly coalition casualty rate has doubled since the beginning of the year. Soldiers are scheduled to return to Colorado Springs in spring 2010.
The first step toward solving the problem, the post's most recent commander said, is to understand it.
Maj. Gen. Mark Graham took command of Fort Carson in September 2007, just before the worst of the violence. He said that after studying the murders, he saw that soldiers rarely snap without warning. Guys who get in big trouble often get in little trouble first, and the problem grows until it explodes.
Graham calls this pattern "the crescendo."
It may start with a soldier showing up to work reeking of booze, getting arrested for domestic violence, or mouthing off to an officer.
"When a guy who had it together starts showing little problems, it could be a sign of something much bigger," he said.
Most of the soldiers now behind bars back up Graham's theory of the crescendo.
Before Bastien stabbed a woman in 2007, he was arrested three times on suspicion of beating his wife and burning her with cigarettes.
Before Bressler shot two soldiers in Colorado Springs in 2007, Eastridge said, he assaulted his commanding officer and tried to kill himself.
Before Jomar Falu-Vives, 23, allegedly gunned down three people in Colorado Springs in two drive-by shootings in 2008, his wife said she called his sergeants to warn he was liable to "take someone's life."
Before John Needham, 25, allegedly beat a woman to death in 2008, his father said, he tried repeatedly to get treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder.
The pattern of trouble is clear in hindsight, Graham said, but hard to spot when it is developing.
"Our challenge is to catch it early, so we can help these soldiers," he said. "We are educating young commanders on taking care of their soldiers. But it's a very tough problem."
Graham, who had one son killed by a roadside bomb in Iraq a year after his other son committed suicide while training to be an officer, made mental health a focus after taking command of Fort Carson.
He said suicide and homicide are "different reactions to the same or similar problem. You treat both in the same way."
Under his watch, Fort Carson more than doubled the number of mental health counselors. A new Army program will soon give each brigade a "master resiliency trainer" to strengthen troops' psychological fitness the way drill sergeants strengthen their muscles. A special unit has been created to track soldiers who are too physically or psychologically wounded to stay with their battalions. Soldiers visiting a doctor at Fort Carson for even a sprained ankle are now screened for symptoms of PTSD and depression. And perhaps most important, Graham said, in the Army, where mental illness has long been taboo, commanders at Fort Carson are being trained to tell soldiers it is OK to seek treatment.
"There is a culture and a stigma that need to change," Graham said.
It is unclear if the new measures can counter the entrenched Army culture or the effects of repeated deployments. Though some of the new programs have been in place for two years, the violence has not stopped.
Colorado Springs police arrested a Fort Carson soldier from the Lethal Warriors in May in the killing of a 19-year-old woman. Another soldier shot himself in the head this year. Another was arrested on suspicion of breaking a civilian's jaw in March. Another is awaiting trial in the shooting of a pregnant woman.
Graham, who handed over command of the post last week, said Fort Carson is doing everything it can to help its soldiers. "I wish I could predict how all this is going to go," he said. "I can't say it is not going to happen again."
"All I know how to do is kill people"
For Bastien, the Army medic, the crescendo started to peak just after midnight on Aug. 4, 2007, when he was driving his silver Audi to get cigarettes after a night of drinking at Bressler's apartment.
The rest of their battalion was still fighting in Iraq.
Bastien was in Colorado Springs because he had been arrested and accused of beating his wife while on leave in May 2007.
Bressler was in town because the Army had sent him back from Iraq early, in July, with PTSD, according to his wife. He was awaiting a medical discharge because, Eastridge said, he attacked an officer in Iraq.
Bastien and Bressler declined requests for interviews.
According to court documents, that night the pair spotted a drunk 23-year-old Fort Carson private they didn't know named Robert James, who was walking home from a bar, and pulled the Audi over to give him a ride.
Bastien later told police that he and Bressler decided to rob James. They drove to a dark parking lot.
Bressler pointed a .38 revolver at James and demanded his money. James pulled a few rumpled bills from his pockets - about $25. Bressler shot him twice and gathered the scattered bills.
The random crime left cops with no leads.
A little over a month later, in late September, Eastridge landed under Army escort at the Colorado Springs Airport.
The once-decorated soldier had been court-martialed in August 2007 on suspicion of possession of drugs, disobeying orders and threatening an officer. Medical records show that, after two bloody deployments, the Army diagnosed him with paranoia, depression, insomnia, antisocial personality disorder, PTSD, homicidal thoughts and hearing loss caused by constant shooting and explosions.
His Army escorts were taking him to Fort Carson - not for treatment, he said, but to get kicked out of the Army.
From there, he was going to jail. In Colorado Springs, there was a warrant waiting from a year before, when he skipped a court date on charges of putting a gun to his girlfriend's head.
At the baggage claim, Eastridge said, while his escorts waded into the crowd to grab their bags, he ran. He said he hopped in a cab, took it to a cheap hotel and called the only people in town he knew: Bastien and Bressler.
"When I met up with those guys, they were weird," he said. They were paranoid and aggressive, he said.
"They kept saying, 'Do you want to go rob someone? Do you want to go kill someone? I just thought they were kidding, but they had gone a little crazy."
Eastridge did have plans to rob someone. Compared with Iraq, it would be easy.
He wanted to do it alone, but he had no car and no gun. Bressler and Bastien had both, Eastridge said, and they insisted on coming along.
On Oct. 29, 2007, wearing all black, they attempted to rob a nightclub manager as she emerged from a club. When they botched that, they drove off and spotted a young woman named Erica Ham walking down the street. Bressler hit her with the car and she crashed onto the hood. Then Bastien jumped out to grab her bag and started stabbing her. When she tried to fight back, Eastridge pulled out a pistol and yelled for her to get on the ground.
Ham was unable to identify her attackers, and police had no leads.
The stabbing sobered Eastridge up, he said. He turned himself in for his year-old domestic violence charge and spent most of November in the El Paso County jail. He bonded out on Nov. 27. A few days later, he returned to Fort Carson, where he received an "other than honorable" discharge for possession of drugs in Iraq.
After two tours in Iraq, Eastridge was depressed, paranoid, violent, abusing drugs and haunted by nightmares. But because he was other-than-honorably discharged, he said, he was ineligible for benefits or health care. He was no longer Uncle Sam's problem. He was on his own.
"I had no job training," he said. "All I know how to do is kill people."
A few days later, on Nov. 30, 2007, Eastridge went drinking with Bastien and Bressler. According to court documents the three ran into a fellow soldier, Kevin Shields, who was celebrating his 24th birthday.
They downed shots at the downtown bars until closing, then drove around, smoking a joint, until they were lost on the west side.
In the first, dark hours of Dec. 1, 2007, Bressler and Shields got in a fight when Shields teased the tough gunner for throwing up in the car. Bressler told Bastien to pull over because he needed to puke again. Bressler leaned against a pole like he was sick, then turned around and shot Shields in the head. The soldier fell to the ground, and Bressler shot him four more times.
Bressler fished a few things out of Shields' pockets to make the shooting look like a robbery, and they sped away.
Soldiers who saw the trio drinking with Shields at Rum Bay helped police tie them to the crime, court documents said.
Bressler was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to 60 years.
Bastien pleaded guilty to the same charge and also got 60 years.
Eastridge pleaded guilty to accessory to murder and got 10 years.
None used their experiences in Iraq as a defense.
"When I was sentenced, the judge told me 'Look at how many people go to Iraq, and how few come back and commit crimes," Eastridge said, "But that's not fair. A lot of the soldiers who go to Iraq just drive trucks or check IDs or sit in the Green Zone. Look at combat troops. And look at what kind of combat they did. My unit was in the worst neighborhood in the bloodiest part of the war. Even in my platoon, there were guys that stayed in the truck and guys that did most of the fighting. Look at that tiny number. It's not the hundreds of thousands that go, it's the few hundred that see heavy, heavy combat. It changes lives."
"Give me the gun"
The rest of the Lethal Warriors returned home from Iraq in December 2007.
Some went wild in the bars, overflowing with the same pent-up jubilation troops experienced after the first tour. Then the crescendo started.
Jose Barco, who was burned so badly in the first tour that, soldiers said, he had to beg commanders to allow him back for the second tour, was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence. Then drunken driving. Then burglary with a deadly weapon. Then he got divorced. Finally, he was arrested and accused of taking a pistol to a house party.
On April 25, 2008, he was with a crowd in the basement of a friend of a friend's house, police say, when he got in an argument, pulled out the gun and shot a round through the ceiling. There was a fight. He was thrown out. A few minutes later, when the party crowd was still standing on the front lawn, he drove by, spraying bullets. Police say one hit 19-year-old Ginny Stefanic, who was six months pregnant, in the thigh. Stefanic suffered minor injuries.
Barco, who declined to be interviewed, was arrested Jan. 7. He posted $25,000 bail and is awaiting trial for attempted murder.
It was a classic case of the pattern that Graham said most soldiers follow when they spiral out of control. Before the big stuff, there is little stuff. Catching it in time can save lives.
Fort Carson has trained key leaders to spot the warning signs.
When a soldier is drinking too much or acting out, instead of punishment, they are supposed to get help.
"But it's a very tough problem," said Graham, who ordered the new programs. "If a soldier is showing all the risk factors, what can you do? You can't lock them up. They haven't done anything. But what we can do is provide them every opportunity to get the care they need and try to break down the stigma against seeking help."
Like Barco, Jomar Falu-Vives started hitting his wife.
Soldiers say the lifelong Army brat seemed to handle Baghdad OK. Back home, Falu-Vives would go out to sing karaoke with other soldiers and go shooting at the firing range off Rampart Range Road, according to fellow soldiers.
But his ex-wife, Jolhea Vives, said he had turned mean.
He always liked to party and had a short temper, she said. But when he got back from Iraq, it was worse. Soon after, they filed for divorce.
Falu-Vives' lawyer did not respond to a request for an interview.
His ex-wife said he had episodes where he "went into combat mode." At one point, she said, he stuck a loaded .45 in her mouth.
She said she called his sergeant, saying that he was violent and was going to kill somebody, but the Army did nothing.
An Army spokesman said, "There is no specific Army policy that provides guidance on these types of situations. It is up to the soldier's chain of command."
The soldier's commanders declined to be interviewed.
On May 26, 2007, Falu-Vives was riding in the back seat of his friend and fellow soldier Rodolfo Torres-Gandarilla' Chrysler sedan on the way back from a bar, according to his arrest affidavit. Near South Circle Drive, he allegedly saw two men standing in front of a house on the corner of Flintshire Street and Monterey Road, lifted an AK-47 and started shooting. One of the men in front of the house, Army Capt. Zachary Szody, collapsed with a bullet in his knee and another in his hip.
Ten days later, Falu-Vives was cruising in his black Chevy Tahoe with Torres-Gandarilla and two other Army buddies, according to the affidavit.
Near midnight, he pulled up to an intersection five blocks from the first shooting. Amairany Cervantes, 18, and her boyfriend, Cesar Ramirez-Ibanez, 21, were setting up signs for a yard sale the next morning, the affidavit said.
"Give me the gun," police said he told a friend sitting in the back seat. He shot the woman in the back five times, police said, her boyfriend, four times. Both died almost instantly. Falu-Vives sped back to his apartment, where he stood on the balcony watching the red and blue lights converge on the spot.
He listened to sirens wailing in the night and, according to what witnesses told police, held up his hands and said, "I love that sound."
Falu-Vives' mother, Lt. Col. Marta Vives, is an Army nurse in a Combat Stress Team. She helps soldiers in war zones who are starting to lose it. It is one of a number of programs the Army has created since the war began.
When her son was patrolling Baghdad, she was stationed just a few miles away.
Reached at Fort Hood, Texas, she said the Army has many programs to help troops, but soldiers often avoid the counseling and medication offered, and leaders sometimes don't give GIs time or permission to visit.
"There is still a stigma behind getting help," she said. "That is the hardest part. It is still seen as a sign of weakness."
She said she has talked to the battalion commander of the Lethal Warriors and the commander of Fort Carson to tell them that many efforts to treat troops' mental problems are not trickling down to privates like her son.
Falu-Vives was arrested July 30, 2008.
Torres-Gandarilla pleaded guilty to accessory to murder in April and is expected to testify against Falu-Vives in August.
Falu-Vives' mother said she never saw evidence of her son having problems.
"He isn't a criminal," she said. "He never killed a fly - except when it was his job."
Before Falu-Vives could be charged with first-degree murder, another Lethal Warrior was arrested for the same thing.
"Pushed them until they broke"
John Needham struggled to find normalcy after trying to kill himself in Iraq in September 2007.
The tall California surfer had been hit by six roadside bombs before getting drunk one night in Baghdad and putting a gun to his head, his father, Michael Needham, said.
The soldier was diagnosed with PTSD, flown to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. and put on antipsychotics, an antidepressant, an antiseizure drug used to calm PTSD soldiers and a potent blood-pressure drug used to silence nightmares. Side effects of the cocktail can include hangover-like symptoms, short-term memory loss, irritability, aggression, hallucinations, sleepwalking, paranoia and panic attacks. So many of the side effects were like the symptoms of his PTSD that his father said it was hard to know if they were making him better or worse.
For a month, Needham stayed at the hospital. On Nov. 9, 2007, according to orders provided by his father, Needham's battalion commander had him transferred to Fort Carson so he could be sent back to Iraq.
"It's just bizarre, we couldn't figure out why they were doing this to him," his father said.
Needham's father and Andrew Pogany , a veterans' advocate and former Fort Carson sergeant, persuaded commanders to keep Needham from going back to Iraq so he could continue psychiatric treatment.
But, his father said, his son didn't get it.
Laws prevent the Army from discussing medical treatment of soldiers. Needham's father said his son was kept on the drugs but never received counseling.
Instead, he said, his son was berated by sergeants.
"They would write things on the chalkboard in his barracks like 'John Needham is a shit bag cry baby PTSD boohoo,'" his father said.
It was so bad that when Needham went home for Thanksgiving in 2007, his father refused to let him return to the Army.
"We basically kidnapped him," his father said. He took his son to Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, and argued with Fort Carson until the soldier was reassigned to Balboa.
Needham was honorably discharged from the Army on July 18, 2008, with chronic PTSD and moved back to his father's house in San Clemente, Calif. But, his father said, he was not better.
"He was severely different," his father said.
John Needham was groggy and vacant from the pills. He had lost much of his hearing from bomb blasts. He often drank himself to oblivion. He was paranoid and afraid of crowds.
He begged his father to buy him an assault rifle like the one he carried in Iraq. Eventually, they compromised on a toy pistol that shot rubber BBs. Needham carried it almost everywhere, his father said.
The former soldier was going to regular counseling at a local Veterans Affairs hospital, but, his father said, it wasn't enough.
His son had frightening flashbacks. Late one night, he rummaged through the bathroom naked, smearing his face and body with cosmetics as if they were camouflage paint. He sharpened one end of a broom handle to make a weapon. His father said he found him crouching silently behind the couch. His father said his son always took off his clothes when he had a flashback.
"He needed to be committed," his father said. "He needed serious psychiatric help. I tried to put him in the hospital, but the VA said they could only treat him as an outpatient . . . I could see the train wreck coming."
On the night of Sept. 1, 2008, Needham was at home hanging out with a girlfriend in his bedroom on the ground floor. His father was two floors above, taking a shower.
A 19-year-old woman named Jacqwelyn Villagomez, whom the soldier had recently broken up with, came in. The women fought,his father said. Needham's girlfriend called the police. They arrived a few minutes later, and Needham answered the door naked and bleeding, his father said.
Villagomez's body lay in his bedroom, he said.
His father said he heard a ruckus, went downstairs and watched the police tackle his son. The soldier fought back as they put him in cuffs. Michael Needham said he stared, weeping, as his naked son lay bleeding and struggling, incoherent on the driveway as the police tasered him again and again.
John Needham is awaiting trial on suspicion of murder. In May, family members mortgaged their houses to bail him out. He is now getting inpatient treatment at a VA hospital, Michael Needham said.
"I know the Army would like to say it is not responsible for this, that it didn't train them to do this. But that is bullshit," Michael Needham said. "They trained them to kill, then when they didn't have enough men for the surge, they pushed these guys until they broke, then threw them away."
Resiliency
This spring, Lethal Warriors sprawled on the floor of a Fort Carson conference room, learning to take deep breaths.
They lazed on their backs in full camouflage. In. Out. And relax.
"The media says war will (expletive) you up, but that stress can also make you stronger. You just have to learn to mentally metabolize the experience," Dan Taslitz, a former Marine, told a group of sprawling soldiers.
Taslitz was there as part of a new "resiliency training" called "Warrior Optimization Systems," or WAROPS, that the 4th Brigade was testing to try to counter mental illness, violence and suicide in the ranks.
If the Army likes the results, it may take the program Army-wide, commanders said.
In the four-hour class, soldiers learn how the brain and body react to combat stress, and talk about healthy ways to respond, such as relaxation breathing, exercise and visualizing a positive outcome to a mission.
Sometimes, instructors said, controlling emotions is as simple as stepping back, identifying the feeling and saying it out loud. They call the process "name it and tame it."
The brigade plans to hold refresher courses in Afghanistan and again when soldiers return home.
Fort Carson also created a task force late in 2008 to hunt for "common threads" in the killings committed by Fort Carson soldiers.
The investigation, conducted by a team of 27 behavioral health and Army professionals, concluded with a report released July 15. The findings echo what guys in the ranks said: Their tour was bloodier than most; violence in Iraq messed them up; they started abusing drugs and alcohol; treatment for substance abuse and mental health at Fort Carson was inadequate; stigma kept soldiers from getting help; and when those so-called "risk factors" came together, guys got in serious trouble.
The report did not address other issues, such as soldiers carrying guns once they return from deployments, alleged war crimes by the unit, or the Army's deployment of soldiers with pending civilian felonies.
The study recommended better mental health care and training, programs to "ensure there is no humiliation or belittling" of soldiers seeking mental health care, and more studies to "assess a possible link between deployment, combat intensity, and aggressive behavior."
But Graham said the report does not offer a simple cure.
"We didn't see any one thing that we could identify and say, yes, this is the reason these soldiers do this," he said.
Instead, he said, Fort Carson and the Army have instituted a wide array of changes.
Evans Army Community Hospital has increased the number of behavioral health care workers from 37 to 71. Many are assigned to mobile teams within brigades, so soldiers don't have to go to the hospital to seek help.
Fort Carson also has added 16 "military family life consultants," whom soldiers and their families can visit anonymously for help with everything from relationship problems to financial concerns.
Fort Carson started referring soldiers to private counselors in Colorado Springs in 2006. The number seeking private counseling surged from 11 in 2006 to 2,171 in 2008, according to Evans Army Community Hospital.
"We see that as a sign of strength, not weakness," said Roger Meyer, Evans spokesman. "It shows we are having success in our efforts to educate soldiers on the signs of stress."
In Colorado Springs, lawyers and law enforcement agencies have created an experimental veteran's court to catch returning soldiers who get in trouble with the law and steer them toward help instead of jail. Soldiers charged with felonies will be sentenced to counseling and substance abuse treatment. The court is expected to take its first cases in August.
The Army has created Warrior Transition Units to manage the care of soldiers, like Needham, who are too mentally or physically disabled to stay with their units.
Colorado's senators urged the Army last week to include Fort Carson in a pilot alcohol abuse program.
Graham said the Army is also trying to change the culture.
All low-level leaders, he said, are now taught to treat mental illness like any battlefield injury.
"If a soldier is shot or injured, other soldiers know how to give him care," Graham said. "We need to get soldiers to understand the signs of combat stress so they can do the same thing - get their buddy the care he needs."
Staff Sgt. James Combs, with the Lethal Warriors, said in June that the combat stress education is more comprehensive than when he was a private in the late 1990s.
Now, he said, sergeants teach soldiers that "You may be able to pull the trigger on our M4 or M16, but you have to understand what it is doing to you mentally, and you need to be prepared for that."
"We don't just throw them to the wolves like we used to," he said.
It is not clear how effective the changes will be.
The current commanders of the Lethal Warriors, who would implement many of the changes, declined repeated requests for interviews.
And Fort Carson's new programs have not prevented more occurrences of destructive behavior.
On May 10, Thomas Woolly, the soldier Needham replaced in a blown-out Humvee turret in Baghdad in 2007, was drinking with friends after midnight at an apartment just a few blocks from Fort Carson.
Woolly had done two tours with the Lethal Warriors and was in the new Warrior Transition Unit, about to be medically discharged because, his grandmother, Gladys Woolly said, "He was blowed up so many times until it damaged his brain."
Woolly, 24, had a drink in one hand and a loaded .45 Long Colt revolver in the other, according to his arrest affidavit, when a friend's husband, who had been arguing with the group, banged on the door.
Police say Woolly cocked the gun's hammer. After the husband left and Woolly went to uncock the gun, the hammer slipped. The bullet killed 19-year-old Lisa Baumann, who was standing on the other side of the room.
Woolly was charged with manslaughter. He is out on bail and is scheduled for arraignment in August. He did not respond to interview requests.
Two weeks later, Roy Mason, 28, another Lethal Warrior who had served two tours and landed in the Warrior Transition Unit, went AWOL, drove to California, parked at the beach, called 911 from his car, asked them to clean up the mess quickly "before kids see," then shot himself in the head, media reports said.
Civilian mental health professionals caution that the Army programs treat the symptoms but do not address the underlying cause.
"There are some good things going on," said Davida Hoffman, the director of First Choice Counseling, a private clinic that treats about 250 Carson soldiers.
But counseling can do only so much, she said. The quality of treatment is not the cause of the problem. Combat is.
The more combat soldiers see, she said, the more problems they will have. The more problems soldiers have, the more problems Colorado Springs has.
"Soldiers simply cannot handle repeated deployments," she said. "If these guys keep seeing deployments like the stuff they saw in Iraq, we could have a very dangerous situation."
Graham agreed that repeated deployments are tough on soldiers. But the Army has a job to do, he said, and the rate of deployment is not expected to slow for at least 12 to 18 months.
On the same day Mason put a gun to his head at the beach, his old brigade was deploying to Afghanistan.
Most of the guys from the first deployment had left the Army, transferred to a different unit, been kicked out, wounded or killed. But for every one gone there is a new recruit. And while some attitudes in the Army are changing, the day-to-day reality of the foot soldier is not. Since June, insurgent attacks have killed three in the brigade.
No one may have a better view of the Army's challenges than Sgt. Michael Cardenaz. In many ways, he is the battle-worn face of today's soldier.
The solid, bald-headed Lethal Warriors staff sergeant and father of two was the platoon commander for Eastridge, Barco and Bastien in Baghdad. He often played Texas Hold 'em with Bressler at the base. He went bowling with Falu-Vives just days before Falu-Vives was arrested in the yard sale sign shootings. He has done three tours in Iraq and two in Kosovo. He said he has had close scrapes with 35 IEDs, scores of rocket-propelled grenades and one 500-pound bomb. He has taken shrapnel twice. He describes himself as an "old-school career soldier." He is 29.
With every arrest of a fellow soldier, he was shocked, he said, but he does not think it is just coincidence that so many guys in the unit are now in jail.
"These are all younger guys. They are just kids, straight out of high school, from mom's house to basic training to Iraq. You throw them in a tour like this, and there is going to be an aftermath," he said. "Time was, before I really understood it, my reaction would have been 'fry 'em.' But now I can empathize. . . If they did what they did, fine, they have to answer to the justice system, but these guys like Eastridge who tried so hard and loved the Army . . . they are a casualty of war. Their psyches are casualties of war."
He agreed that the deployment to Afghanistan will be different from the ones that he said screwed up his friends.
"There is much more attention to the mental side," he said. "I've been trained to do stress debriefings and suicide prevention. I remember a time in the Army when mental health was taboo. It was career over. That's not the case anymore."
But, he said, the stigma is alive and well, especially among infantrymen.
"There's still a feeling that if you got to go see the doc, you're a punk. There are a lot of people who still feel that way. I'm not going to lie to you, I do," he said.
Real soldiers, he said, "just suck it up."
"That's what I do. I think I was given a God-given talent to suck it up. Horrible things happen, I suck it up. I don't let it bother me."
In March Cardenaz was arrested in a felony assault.
He was walking with his wife past The Thirsty Parrot on Tejon Street, in full dress uniform after the Lethal Warriors' annual ball, when some civilians hanging out in front of the bar said something. Or maybe Cardenaz said something to them. Witnesses say the sergeant dropped one with a single punch. When another guy came after him to ask why he did it, police say, Cardenaz broke his jaw.
The soldier posted bail and did not show up for his court hearing July 15.
His lawyer told the judge that Cardenaz had deployed to Afghanistan.
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21) Murder, Suicide, Kidnappings by Iraq Vets
Interview by Amy Goodman
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/7/30/the_hell_of_war_comes_home
A startling two-part series published in the Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs titled "Casualties of War" examines a part of war seldom discussed by the media or government officials: the difficulty of returning to civilian life after being trained to be a killer. The story focuses on a single battalion based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, the 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment. Soldiers from the brigade have been involved in brawls, beatings, rapes, drunk driving, drug deals, domestic violence, shootings, stabbings, kidnapping and suicides. The Army unit's murder rate is 114 times the rate for Colorado Springs. We speak with the reporter who broke the story and get the Army's response.
Guests:
Dave Philipps, reporter with the Colorado Springs Gazette. He wrote the two-part series "Casualties of War."
Colonel Jimmie Keenan, Commander of the Evans Army Community Hospital in Colorado Springs. She is the former chief of staff for the Army's Warrior Care and Transition Office in Arlington, Va.
Military Hotline: 1-800-342-9647
Website: Militaryonesource.com
Amy Goodman: We turn now to a startling two-part series that has just been published in the Gazette newspaper of Colorado Springs called "Casualties of War." It examines a part of war seldom discussed by the media or government officials: the difficulty of returning to civilian life after being trained to be a killer.
The story focuses on a single battalion based at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, the 2nd Batallion, 12th Infantry Regiment. The battalion's nickname is the "Lethal Warriors." In Iraq, the unit fought in some of the war's bloodiest battles, in Ramadi on its first tour, downtown Baghdad on its second. In May, the unit deployed again, this time to Afghanistan.
For some of the unit's soldiers, the killing didn't end when they returned home. The Gazette reports that since 2006 ten infantry soldiers have been arrested and accused of murder, attempted murder or manslaughter. Others have committed other violent crimes. Some of the veterans have committed suicide. In a one-year period, from the fall of 2007 to the fall of 2008, the murder rate for members of the Army unit was 114 times the rate for Colorado Springs.
In late 2006, twenty-one-year-old Anthony Marquez killed a small-time drug dealer by shooting him repeatedly with a stun gun and then shot him in the heart.
In August of 2007, twenty-four-year-old Louis Bressler robbed and shot a soldier he picked up on a street in Colorado Springs.
In December of 2007, three soldiers from the unit-Louis Bressler, Bruce Bastien and Kenneth Eastridge-left the bullet-riddled body of a soldier from their unit on a Colorado Springs street. Two months earlier, the same group intentionally drove into a woman walking to work. One of the soldiers then repeatedly stabbed her.
In May and June of 2008, police say Rudolfo Torres-Gandarilla and Jomar Falu-Vives drove around with an assault rifle, randomly shooting people.
In September of 2008, police say John Needham beat a former girlfriend to death.
Josh Butler was sent to prison for beating his pregnant wife. Months later, his child was born with severe birth defects and died. Butler blames himself, in part, for the child's death.
While Fort Carson has instituted a number of new policies and programs to help returning soldiers adjust to civilian life, the killing has continued. In May, Thomas Woolly was charged with manslaughter after shooting a nineteen-year-old woman. Two weeks later, another member of the unit committed suicide in California.
Well, right now we're joined by David Philipps. He is the reporter at the Gazette in Colorado Springs who authored the two-part series, "Casualties of War." We'll also be speaking later in the show with Colonel Jimmie Keenan, commander of the Evans Army Community Hospital in Colorado Springs. Dave Philipps joins us now from KTSC, Rocky Mountain PBS in Pueblo, Colorado.
Welcome to Democracy Now!, Dave Philipps. Why don't you lay out the scope of this remarkable exposé? Extremely frightening and painful.
Dave Philipps: Well, what we wanted to do is talk to some of the soldiers who are now in prison and really find out the whole story, starting in Iraq and following it all the way to where they are now in their prison cells.
We focused one brigade, the 4th Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division. And what we found is the murders you mentioned, but they were just sort of the tip of an iceberg of violent crime. There's been assaults. There have been rapes. There have been fights. There have been kidnapping. There's just a-there's a lot of things that happened back in town, and we wanted to follow up on what was causing this.
What we found is that this unit has been sent to what was the deadliest place in Iraq in 2004. They went to the Sunni Triangle around Ramadi. And then they came home after a year tour there, had a year off, and then they were sent to what became the next deadliest place, downtown Baghdad. Both times, they had an almost impossible task of putting down an insurgency with no clear enemy, and they took heavy, heavy casualties. This one brigade makes up almost half of the casualties at Fort Carson, even though it's just a fraction of the population there. And then what we found is, when they came home, a lot of them, not surprisingly, had problems, emotional and mental problems, that came out of this combat.
Amy Goodman: Dave, I'd like to go through some of these stories. It's not only about what happened here in the streets of Colorado Springs in the United States, but it's also the warning signs when these soldiers came home, family members who were pushing to get help for their loved ones. For example, talk about Anthony Marquez and his mother.
Dave Philipps: Well, Anthony Marquez joined the infantry when he was nineteen. He had always been a pretty good kid before that. He was captain of the football team and ran track. He joined the Army because he thought it looked cool. He did one tour in Ramadi, during which he saw several friends get killed. He was also wounded, himself, pretty severely. He was flown back to the United States, where he almost lost a leg from his wounds. He was personally decorated with a Purple Heart by President George Bush.
But then, when he came back to Colorado Springs to convalesce, he started having PTSD, and he wasn't getting what he felt was effective treatment from Fort Carson. And so, he fell into a pattern of treating his PTSD by abusing the pain pills they were giving him for his leg.
His mother, who's a police officer in Los Angeles, saw this odd behavior in him, that he was abusing pills, that he had terrible nightmares and rage, and also that he was always carrying a loaded weapon with him everywhere he went. She called his sergeant at Fort Carson, she told me, and she told them that he was a ticking time bomb and someone had to help him. And her sergeant basically told her, "Well, you know, there's nothing I can do. If he doesn't want to go get help, we can't force him to get help." But then, she told me, her sergeant started taunting her son, saying, "Hey, your mama called, and she says you're going crazy."
Well, eight months after this call is when he shot a Colorado Springs drug dealer over about an ounce of marijuana.
Amy Goodman: So, his mother called. She's a cop. She sees the warning signs in her son. And not only don't they do something about it, but his commanding officer starts to make fun of him that his mother had called.
Dave Philipps: And that's something that's fairly-I don't know if I can say "typical" at Fort Carson, but it certainly wasn't rare in these returning soldiers. There is a stigma, many people in the Army told me, against getting help for mental health, behavioral health issues. It's seen as weak. It's often seen as just an excuse to get out of the Army if you can't hack it.
But even for soldiers who went against that stigma and did try to get help, there was not necessarily enough resources for them, especially early on in the war, when Marquez was injured in 2005. And not only that, but even if there were resources to help these soldiers, a lot of their lower-level commanders, sergeants primarily, wouldn't give them the time to go and get help and often would make fun of them.
One of my soldiers that I talked to said he was-kept having thoughts about killing civilians in Colorado Springs, so he checked himself into a civilian mental hospital in Colorado Springs. When he got out a week later, he was ordered to come stand in front of his sergeant and be berated about what a liar he was.
Amy Goodman: And you also talked about Anthony Marquez getting honored by President Bush, and his sister, so disturbed at what had happened, refusing to meet the President.
Dave Philipps: Well, that's true, but Anthony didn't. He was sitting injured in his Army-in his bed in Walter Reed Army Medical Center. And he told me, "You know, I wasn't mad at anybody. It was my job, and I had signed up for it."
And that's what I found with a lot of these soldiers that I talked to in prison. They actually, despite everything that has happened to them, they love the Army. Even though they're-told me that combat really mentally messed them up, that they see it as absolutely what led them to their prison cells, what they told me is-a lot of them-is they're mad that they screwed up and got caught for a crime, because if they could, they would go back and deploy again.
Amy Goodman: You also talk about, in the case of Marquez, how in Iraq he had used stun guns and that, ultimately, he used a stun gun repeatedly on this man before he killed him, back in Colorado Springs or back in the United States.
Dave Philipps: Right. When we started this story, which took about six months to report, we thought this would be a story of inadequate healthcare and civilian problems at home, or problems in the administration of the base at home that led to these guys falling through the cracks.
What we started to find when we talked to them in prison is that there were widespread-I guess you would call them violations of the rules of war. They start with some small things, like several soldiers I talked to used hollow-point bullets. These are bullets that people usually use for deer hunting that spread when they hit their target, and so they can damage more flesh. These are banned by international treaties, but a number of soldiers I talked to said that they were getting them sent from home through the mail and that while it wasn't openly talked about, it was sort of something that they did without fear of retribution.
The other things that they were ordering from-getting through the mail include drugs, liquor, although people said that liquor was easy to get in Iraq, as well, but if you wanted good liquor, you'd get it mailed to you. They were also ordering stun guns, 500,000-volt stun guns, through the mail and getting them sent to them. And soldiers told me that a number of soldiers would carry them on raids. Now, this isn't just one bad platoon. We talked to soldiers in multiple platoons in two battalions that reported the use of these stun guns.
It goes on from there. Soldiers talked to me about randomly shooting cars driven by civilians. They talked to me about interrogating suspected insurgents and dropping them off of bridges.
I want to stress here that we don't know how widespread this is. This could be a severe minority, and certainly there are a lot of people in this brigade that probably, when they hear about this behavior, are disgusted with it. They're honest, good people who are doing an almost impossible job.
But what these soldiers told me is they were stuck in an insurgency fight they were not trained for, where there was no clear enemy. The main killer of these soldiers in this brigade was, by far, the improvised explosive devices, essentially roadside bombs. They were getting blown up without ever getting to try and fight back at the people that were killing their friends. And so, what they told me is that this anger and distrust for the entire population just burgeoned, and they thought that anyone was a potential enemy. And so, that's why you saw them lashing out at the civilian population.
Amy Goodman: Dave Philipps is our guest, has written this remarkable two-part series for the Gazette of Colorado Springs called "Casualties of War." Dave, tell us about Kenneth Eastridge.
Dave Philipps: When I first started this story, one of the things that the Army told me is, well, a lot of these guys had criminal records before. From my research, what I found was that Kenneth Eastridge was the only person who had a criminal background. When he was twelve years old, he and a friend were playing with his father's antique shotgun, and he accidentally shot his friend in the chest and killed him. He pleaded guilty, was sentenced to counseling. And since then, his mother said his record had been clean. He had to get a special waiver to get into the Army, which he found after calling twelve different recruiters. One finally let him in. And for the first two years of his Army career, he was a good soldier. He was decorated with good conduct and achievement medals. There's no record that I found of any discipline problems.
When he came back from his first tour in Iraq, he started abusing drugs and alcohol. He told me he had had nightmares and paranoia. Like almost every soldier that I talked to, he always carried a loaded pistol with him everywhere he went. And he picked up a domestic violence felony charge for getting in a fight with his girlfriend and putting a gun in her face. Now, he was awaiting trial for that charge, when the Army sent him back to Iraq for a second time. He wanted to go. He voluntarily skipped out on his charge. But the Army has rules. They have to go through a checklist before they deploy all soldiers, and one of the things they must check off is whether they have any pending civilian felonies. If so, they can't go. Someone, and I'm not sure who, checked that box and sent him anyway.
Now, all the things that he was doing-abusing drugs, anger issues, paranoia-were signs of PTSD. He probably should have gotten treatment. Instead, he got more combat exposure. They went to an absolutely terrible neighborhood of Baghdad called Al Dora, where his battalion at one point was losing a soldier a day to either the morgue or the hospital. And there he started to lose it, as he-that's how he termed it.
I'll tell you about three things that he told me he got officially disciplined for when he started to lose it.
First, he did a raid on a house, where he was searching for guns. And they did this all the time. They're trying to take guns away from the insurgents. And when he started to find guns that the man there hadn't told him about, he trashed the entire house, broke everything in it, stole the guns, kept them to sell. And he said he did this type of thing all the time, but that he got reported this time because the man whose house he raided was a well-connected man with friends in the United States government. And so, he was put on punitive guard duty back at the base. But he said that he would regularly go into civilians' houses looking for guns, he would keep some of the guns that he found, sell them back to the Iraqi police, who would, he said, sell them back to the Shiite militia. He would also steal any prescription drugs that he found and cash. Now, that was the first time.
The second time he was disciplined, he was on another patrol, when they received fire from a nearby farmhouse. He fired about twenty grenades into the farmhouse, then went in and found a farmer there in a back room. He started asking the farmer who had fired on them, and the farmer said he didn't know. So he shot one of the farmer's dogs. When the farmer said he still didn't know, he shot the farmer's other dog. At that point, his lieutenant intervened and said, "Hey, you need to go sit in the truck and cool off." When he walked out of the building, he killed the farmer's entire herd of goats with his machine gun. Then he ordered a private to kill his two cows, and then he shot his horse. For that, he was put on guard duty again.
After that, he went on one more combat mission, where he was sitting in the large machine gun on top of a Humvee, guarding the street while his lieutenant and some other soldiers went to check out a building around the corner. Kenneth Eastridge told me that he just started shooting for no reason. It was a nice day on a civilian neighborhood street, and there were lots of people out and about, just barbecuing, playing soccer, things like that. When he started shooting, everybody rushed to their cars and tried to speed away, because they wanted to get away from the fire. He said there was a vehicle driving ban on, and so as soon as people got in their cars, he started panicking, because all he could think about is car bombs, and he started shooting cars left and right. He told me, over about thirty minutes, he shot something like 1,700 rounds from this large machine gun. I asked him how many people he thought he killed. He said, "Not that many. Maybe twelve." He was court-martialed a short time later, but not for killing all those civilians. He was court-martialed for possession of drugs and disobeying orders.
Once he was court-martialed, the Army decided that he was no longer fit to be in Iraq, so they sent him back to Colorado Springs, where they kicked him out of the Army. So, essentially, they put this guy who they had trained to be a killer and who had obvious mental health problems back on the streets of Colorado Springs. And actually, right before they kicked him out, they had diagnosed him with PTSD, paranoia, severe depression and antisocial personality disorder. But they didn't treat him. They just sent him free.
Amy Goodman: And so, Kenneth Eastridge ends up-infantry specialist-now serving ten years in jail for accessory to murder, not for what happened in Iraq, but for the death of a man here in the United States. He said his kill rate in Iraq, is the number he killed, was eighty, and that was confirmed by his sergeant.
We only have a minute, because we're then turning to the military. I'm sorry they couldn't join you together on this broadcast. But, Dave Phillips, very quickly, the military says they've put in place a new regime at Fort Carson since that time, though yet another murder of a man in this unit-by a man in this unit. What are the concerns of the new regime? And we'll put that to the military.
Dave Philipps: Well, I'll let them answer that, but I would like to say, if you'd like to see this, read this, in more detail, and there are a lot of shocking details, you can read the "Casualties of War" series at gazette.com.
Amy Goodman: Dave Philipps, I want to thank you for joining us. We're going to go to break and come back, and we'll be joined by a spokesperson from Fort Carson. Stay with us.
Amy Goodman: Today we're working with Rocky Mountain PBS, as we go to Colorado Springs. We're joined now by Colonel Jimmie Keenan. She's the commander of the Evans Army Community Hospital in Colorado Springs, former chief of staff for the Army's Warrior Care and Transition Office in Arlington, Virginia. Colonel Keenan entered the Army as a Nurse Corps Officer in July 1986, also joins us from Rocky Mountain in Pueblo, Colorado, the PBS station there.
We only have almost a minute to go, but your response to the-it's really the list of atrocities that Dave Philipps has laid out, and how you're dealing with this at Fort Carson?
Colonel Jimmie Keenan: Thank you, Amy.
You know, these are tragedies, and what Dave Philipps was talking about are the wounds that we cannot see. And that is a very huge focus for us in the military, not only here at Fort Carson, but across the Department of Defense and the Army.
And what I will tell you that we are doing is that we are all working to reduce that stigma on seeking behavioral health. Behavioral health should be just like going to your doctor to get your blood pressure taken if you're not feeling well. It is part of what we call our comprehensive total fitness. And so, what we are doing with our soldiers, as you know, we did stand up our Warrior Transition Units in June of 2007. They've been in place now a little over two years. We have increased at Fort Carson our behavioral health assets by over 40 percent just in the last year. And one of the things that we're doing with soldiers before they deploy, like we did with 4-4, who just deployed to Afghanistan, is we're providing them additional training on resiliency and how to cope with stress before they deploy, as well as during deployment and after they deploy.
Another key component here is the family. And when we go back and we talk with families, what we try to do with the families is encourage them to come in, because we want to train them to help us look-
Amy Goodman: Colonel Jimmie Keenan, we only have a few seconds.
Colonel Jimmie Keenan: -for those signs of when a soldier's in trouble.
Amy Goodman: A few seconds, last comment?
Colonel Jimmie Keenan: Yes?
Amy Goodman: We're going to have to leave it there. I want to thank you for being with us, speaking to us from Fort Carson.
-Democracy Now!, July 30, 2009
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22) Urgent Report on Upcoming Antiwar Activity
By Bonnie Weinstein, giobon@comcast.net
July 31, 2009
bauaw.org
Dear activists:
The following are three important messages for the whole antiwar movement. I hope you will read these messages and act to endorse the upcoming Fall antiwar activities and help to organize, build and support antiwar activities in your area. The wars are not over. The death and destruction continues in our name and with our dollars that could be put to far healthier, humane and peaceful use.
The time to begin organizing for a unified expression of opposition to these wars is now. We, here in the belly of this war-mongering beast, are under the greatest obligation to organize massive opposition to these wars and crimes. Here are the three documents, please pass them along:
1. Urgently Needed: United Antiwar Demonstrations in the Fall, by Jerry Gordon, Secretary, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
2. An Assessment of the First Year of the National Assembly to end the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations. Address given by Marilyn Levin, member, National Assembly Administrative Body, and Planning Committee, Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace Coalition.
3. Keynote Address by Zaineb Alani delivered to the National Antiwar Conference held July 10-12, 2009 at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Thank you for taking the time to read these important documents.
In solidarity,
Bonnie Weinstein, Bay Area United Against War, bauaw.org
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1. Urgently Needed: United Antiwar Demonstrations in the Fall, by Jerry Gordon, Secretary, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
Greetings:
This posting is being sent to endorsers of the founding conference of the National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations, held in Cleveland in June, 2008. We are writing to underscore why we feel that the antiwar demonstrations scheduled for this fall are of such critical importance.
We are all keenly aware of the U.S. escalations in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the acknowledgement by al-Maliki that the U.S. occupation of Iraq could continue indefinitely past 2011, and how Washington's support for Israel's occupation of Palestine continues unabated, despite the inhuman siege of Gaza, the accelerating spread of Israeli settlements on Palestinian territory, and the repression and jailing of Palestinian leaders becoming more brutal and widespread.
Meanwhile, the threats against Iran are extremely menacing. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates declared on July 27 that the Obama administration's diplomatic outreach to Iran is "not an open-ended offer" and that the U.S. wants "a clear response from Tehran" by late September. He added that Iran will not be allowed to "run out the clock." Vice President Joe Biden asserted on national TV that Israel has the sovereign right to attack Iran if it chooses to do so. Israeli officials emphasize that they will use all means at their disposal to shut down Iran 's nuclear facilities and they do not intend to wait much longer.
Under these circumstances, it is imperative that the U.S. antiwar movement be out in the streets in unified mass actions in September and October.. There is no time to waste in getting plans off the ground for such actions. The whole world will be watching to see whether our movement will mount the necessary response to Washington 's wars and occupations policies.
We're off to a good start. The national antiwar conference held July 10-12, 2009 at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, attended by 255 people representing dozens of organizations, voted unanimously in favor of an action program calling for building the September 25 march in Pittsburgh as part of the G-20 events, demonstrations in D.C. on October 5 and other dates in early October, and all of this culminating in nationally coordinated local and regional actions on Saturday, October 17.
Support for and endorsement of October 17 is sought on the following basis: that it will be a date owned by the entire movement, that specific demands for the actions will be decided locally and regionally, and that coalitions and organizations will participate on the basis of their own programs and with their own banners and placards. The important thing is that we march in unity and bring the full weight and power of the U.S. antiwar movement to bear in the cause of peace and justice.
October 17 will also commemorate the 40th anniversary of one of the largest antiwar turnouts this country has ever seen: the October 15, 1969 Vietnam Moratorium, with millions participating throughout the world.
Attached please find a form for endorsing the October 17 protests. Three important national organizations have endorsed so far - U.S. Labor Against the War, Progressive Democrats of America, and the Iraq Moratorium Committee - and we hope that many more will do so in the weeks ahead. A number of local antiwar coalitions and formations have also signed on (see the National Assembly's website at natassembly.org for weekly listings starting August 3) and mobilizing by these groups is key to the success of October 17.
Also attached is a talk delivered by Zaineb Alani to the Pittsburgh conference, which should dispel any illusions that the U.S. occupation of Iraq will end any time soon, and one by National Assembly leader Marilyn Levin, who emphasized the need for the movement to build the scheduled mass actions in the weeks and months ahead.
Here is what you can do: First, please take the time to read the attachments. They help explain why it is so vitally necessary that we be highly visible in the period ahead and bring the power of united mass protests into the streets. Second, urge your organization to endorse the October 17 actions (the attached form can be filled out and returned electronically). And, third, join with others in your community in organizing and building the September and October demonstrations.
In peace and in solidarity,
Jerry Gordon
Secretary, National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations
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2. An Assessment of the First Year of the National Assembly to end the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations. Address given by Marilyn Levin, member, National Assembly Administrative Body, and Planning Committee, Greater Boston United for Justice with Peace Coalition.
July 10-12, 2009, 255 people representing diverse organizations and constituencies from all over the country came together in Pittsburgh:
1) To look at where we are today,
2) To articulate our long range goals to rejuvenate the antiwar movement towards building a massive movement capable of forcing an end to their wars and occupations, to take our money back from the war machine to meet pressing social needs, and to save our planet for our children, and
3) To develop and vote for action plans as steps to realize these objectives.
All of our major objectives were accomplished and we leave today with a comprehensive action agenda to carry us through to next spring. Everyone had a chance to speak and differences were aired without rancor or splits to achieve unity in action.
Friday night's speakers, along with many conference participants, grappled with how to unify and broaden the movement. Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, we presented a great roster of workshops covering the major issues we face today. Saturday night's rally was dynamic and inspiring.
There were two highlights of the conference for me. First was the international component where activist comrades joined us from Canada and courageous labor leaders of powerful mass movements in Haiti and Guadaloupe reminded us that imperialism and the struggle against it are global. There was a statement by members of the Viva Palestina aid convoy detained in Egypt. We passed motions in solidarity with the struggles of the people of Haiti, Honduras, and Palestine.
The second highlight was the discussion on Iran, where, in spite of strong passions stirred up by the rapidly evolving events there, we were able to illuminate the issues and debate our differences. Finally, we were able to agree on a unity position that all could embrace, as well as meeting the foremost call of the Iranians - US Hands off! No Sanctions! No interventions! Self-determination for the Iranian people! A wonderful example of a united front -- as inclusive as possible and taking principled positions that most will accept and act on.
So what is the National Assembly? What you saw this weekend explains who we are and how we function.
Democracy. All were invited and all perspectives welcomed. There was acceptance of the will of the conference even when it diverged from the proposals put forward by the leadership body. We were especially gratified that representatives from all the major antiwar coalitions came and addressed our conference.
Our willingness to struggle for unity and compromise when needed in order to move forward, as evidenced by a leadership that did not impose personal political views on others in service to unity.
An organization that admits to and learns from its mistakes and accepts its limitations when the unity we seek can't yet be achieved.
An organization that has built a growing cadre of leaders that has developed trust, a structure that works, and a strong working relationship.
And finally, confidence, vision, and optimism. Confidence that we can provide leadership in rebooting our movement. A vision regarding how to accomplish that and an understanding of the necessity for these kinds of conferences leading to action. Optimism that masses of people will move in opposition to these horrendous policies that bring death and destruction and that they will have the power to change the world.
I've been asked to give an assessment of the first year since our initiation as an ongoing network with a mission, from our first conference in June, 2008 until today. Last year, we weren't sure anyone would come and lo and behold 400 people came together in Cleveland to inaugurate a year of activities and set up a structure to maintain our work. A lot has transpired in that year and the National Assembly is well on its way as an established organization recognized throughout the movement as providing leadership and promoting a direction towards growth.
I need to start a little earlier and go back to why the National Assembly was called into existence in the first place.
What we saw, in the spring of 2008, was a movement at a low ebb - one that was shrinking rather than growing in spite of the war dragging on -- this while the antiwar sentiment couldn't be higher, and the disapproval rating for the Bush Administration couldn't have been lower. From the high point of the largest action against the Iraq War in September, 2005 which drew 700,000 people, there was a pulling away from mass action by significant sections of the movement which supported electoral politics as the central strategy, in spite of a recurring pattern of disappointment when Democratic "antiwar" candidates voted again and again for war and war funding, and a split between the two major national coalitions, UFPJ and ANSWER, one that continues to this day. For the first time in five years, there was not enough unity or mass action perspective for any national demonstrations to take place marking the 5th year of the occupation of Iraq. Fundamentally, there was a vacuum of leadership.
Some far-sighted people like Jerry Gordon and Jeff Mackler, with experience gained from leadership in the last powerful antiwar movement that ended the Vietnam War, felt impelled to act. They began to organize a base of diverse but like-minded activists committed to building and expanding an effective antiwar movement in this country. The vehicle to accomplish this was the first national assembly, a national conference to pull activists together, to analyze the present state of the movement, to discuss where we needed to go and the actions that were needed to get us there.
We developed a unity statement with five basic principles that we hold today as the basis for where we stand:
1) Unity - all sections of the movement working together for common goals and actions;
2) Political Independence - no affiliations or support to any political party;
3) Democracy - decision-making at conferences with one person, one vote;
4) Mass Action - as the central strategy for organizing while embracing other forms of outreach and protest; and
5) Out Now - the central demand to withdraw all military forces, contractors, and bases from the countries where the U.S. was waging war on the people.
It seems simple but no one else saw it that way. Our conference was unique in the history of the present movement.
The organizers didn't know what the mood and composition or strength of the conference would be, so we were cautious and minimal in the program we posed to the conference. We focused on Out Now from Iraq and modest action proposals, not being strong enough to initiate national actions on our own. The conference participants were ahead of us and ready to tackle the larger issues. Proposals were passed to add "Out Now from Afghanistan", "End U.S. Support for the Occupation of Palestine", and "Hands off Iran" to our set of demands, and given what has transpired in these areas, we were well prepared to take on a major role.
October 10th actions held in 20 cities were endorsed as well as a call for December actions building towards what we hoped would be unified, nationally coordinated bicoastal mass actions in the spring of 2009, the 6th year of the Iraq occupation. When Gaza was brutally assaulted, we joined with ANSWER and others to march in Washington and to demonstrate in the streets all over the country, and we're still working under Palestinian leadership to bring justice and relief to a beleaguered population.
We made a concerted effort to find a common date for spring bi-coastal mobilizations. As you know, ANSWER chose March 21st as a day of united protests which we endorsed, while UFPJ called for a national march on Wall St. on April 4th. A number of National Assembly supporters who were also delegates to the UFPJ conference in December formed a mass action unity caucus and went to the conference with a resolution to allow delegates to vote for one or both actions but this was rejected. We'll keep trying for 2010. The National Assembly endorsed and built both actions and marched behind our signs with our demands. The demonstrations were small (but spirited) and still of major importance.
For us, it's quality, not quantity, as we position ourselves to be in the forefront as the pendulum swings in our direction once again.
Some take the position that mass demonstrations are not effective, unless we can pull 100,000 protestors into the streets. This is short-sighted and does not address how we get from small to large. Any successful movement for change doesn't start with 100,000 people, and there has never been significant social change without mass actions. I remember my first anti-Vietnam war demonstration was in 1963 in Detroit and we had 15 people. In 1965, SDS called the first national march against the war in Washington. 25,000 people turned out and we thought it was huge!
Everyone talks about reaching out to the thousands of young people who mobilized to elect Obama. We agree, but we say the way to do this is by offering education and action. Action beyond calling, and emailing, and faxing the politicians they placed in office.
Why are mass demonstrations so important to building a powerful movement? It is because they accomplish so much in the process of building them. They provide:
Continuity. You can't build anything by starting anew each time. Each action should lead to the next action or open national conference, with success building upon success. We need a continuity of leadership that builds trust and a reputation for integrity, and that learns lessons to improve. We need a continuity of organization and structure that can implement the tasks before us.
Visibility. Actions in the street give heart to the people the U.S. is attacking and occupying, letting them know that they are not alone. Mass actions create solidarity, offering support to anti-war soldiers, vets and their families, and a counter-force to the economic draft facing our youth, and they strengthen and deepen the antiwar sentiment of the people.
Inspiration. New people are brought into the movement, especially the youth, through activism. Have you ever talked to young people coming to a mass demonstration for the first time? They are inspired and thrilled to hear powerful speakers who are leaders of social justice movements and soldiers resisting the wars. They see they are not alone and get a taste of the power of large numbers of people marching together. They are energized to go home and join with others to continue to organize opposition to brutal U.S. wars and occupations. This is the way to reach out to the Obama supporters.
Explanation. An analysis of what is going on is offered along with tying together what seem at first to be disparate elements, i.e., war is tied to the economy, the war budget, bail-outs of the rich, the lack of basic needs being met, justice denied, and the impoverishment of the people.
Pressure on Government. People in this country are taught to be quiet. We're told that our job is to elect officials whom we agree with periodically and then go home and wait while they fix things. This conveniently maintains the status quo but it sure doesn't put pressure on them, or scare them, or force social change. Mass actions provide the most effective way to make significant change happen.
Let's look at the present period. Obama's election was based in large part on the hopes and aspirations of Americans for peace and a better life based on the promises and assumed promises that were made of peace, justice, and prosperity, which have not and will not be met.
Contrary to expectations, the previous administration's policies are continued with a more handsome and articulate face. We all know that rather than winding down, wars and interventions are escalating and the rapacious greed of this immoral system knows no bounds.
Simultaneously, the economic crisis is causing terrible hardship for working people and for people who are no longer able to find work and their families. They are using this self-created financial disaster to further cut the standard of living and eliminate a secure future for older people and the young.
It was very moving and yet appalling to see this visually demonstrated when Robin Alexander of the United Electrical Workers Union asked people in the audience to stand who were unemployed, personally knew of soldier casualties, lived in communities where services were being cut, or who were otherwise negatively impacted by the wars and the failing economy. Nearly the entire room, a microcosm of the wider society, was standing by the end of that exercise.
It is inevitable that the present period of quiescence and hanging on to the hope that Obama and the new Congress will save us will come to a crashing end. People will not sit idly by forever while the world around them collapses. We are already seeing the beginnings of stirring. There is a greater willingness to go out in the streets to protest. There is more organizing taking place on campuses, more young people joining the movement. The many proposals for October actions are an indication that there is a widespread awareness of the need for actions this fall and the conviction that the movement must find common dates.
Brian Becker, National Coordinator of ANSWER, urged that we all work together to mount nationally coordinated actions next spring. Michael McPhearson, Co-Chair of UFPJ and Executive Director of Veterans for Peace, announced his support for October 17 and his willingness to do what he could to spur unified actions in the spring of 2010. We must have the faith and confidence that the people have the power to end the atrocities resulting from U.S. wars and occupations, and that they will recognize and utilize this power. As this happens, we must build a stronger antiwar movement that is able to provide leadership and the optimism to forge ahead no matter what the opposition throws at us.
The National Assembly to End the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and Occupations is helping to provide that leadership and the vision that is needed. Although young and small, in one short year, we are now a force to be taken seriously and negotiated with, and by our persistent call for unity and mass action, our demonstrated ability to organize, and our coordinated strategy for revitalizing the movement, we are having an impact larger than our forces would indicate. In some ways, we too are a product of (and some say an antidote to) the 2008 election. To counter the malaise of the movement, we have quietly been building a solid core of activists and leaders around the country that understand the importance of a united front organized around principled demands and mass actions, not just calling Washington politicians when bills come up and crises happen.
At this conference, we have laid out an ambitious program of action that will take us through the spring of 2010. We are proud that we could provide the kick off for national organizing to bring a massive turnout to Pittsburgh for the G-20 protests September 25. Homeland Security is already making preparations to keep protesters hidden and stifle our right to speak out, but we won't be silenced.
Following that, are a series of October building actions, culminating in large local and regional demonstrations on October 17 marking dates of significance related to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and occupations and remembering the legacy of the anti-Vietnam war movement. Throughout the year, we will organize educational programs, support various forms of protest and organize around the inevitable emergencies caused by our government's unholy interventions and threats to other nations.
We have initiated a Free Palestine Working Committee to ensure this work, which includes the growing boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns and the efforts to break the siege of Gaza, continues to be in the forefront and fully integrated in our work until justice and self-determination and return is in the hands of the Palestinians.
And lastly, we will continue to advocate for unity of the movement and once again bring thousands to Washington and the West Coast in the spring, to let our government and the world know that the U.S. movement against wars and occupations is alive and will not be quiet.
We will march and continue to march until all U.S. forces come home, bases are dismantled, and the sovereign people of the world have the right to control their own resources and determine their own futures, and the war budget becomes the peace budget.
Don't sit on the sidelines and watch history being made. We urge all organizations to join the National Assembly and to play your part in building and shaping the powerful movement that is coming.
All out for the September 25 G-20 march in Pittsburgh! All out for the actions in early October! All out October 17!
To join the National Assembly to End the Iraq And Afghanistan Wars And Occupations, an organization must subscribe to the five points in the National Assembly's structure memo -- immediate withdrawal, mass demonstrations, unity, democratic decision making, independence from political parties - submit an application form, and select a representative to the Continuations Body, the highest decision-making and action implementation body of the National Assembly between conferences. Go to the website www.natassembly.org for information and an application or email natassembly@aol.com or call 216-736-4704.
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3. Keynote Address by Zaineb Alani delivered to the National Antiwar Conference held July 10-12, 2009 at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
On July 4 of this year, Vice President Biden celebrated American Independence day in occupied Iraq, in one of the presidential palaces of the former regime, now an integral part of the US-run 'Green Zone'. Four days earlier, PM Nouri Al-Maliki's US-installed puppet government declared a 'victory' signaled by the pullout of US troops from major Iraqi cities, and the beginning of the 'restoration of sovereignty'. Nothing could have been more hypocritical or comical.
When the late Robert McNamara paid a visit to the Independent country of Vietnam that he had previously 'sought to conquer' and failed, he said to their foreign minister, "We wanted to give you Democracy." The reply was, "We wanted our Independence first." Why do American policy-makers never learn from history?
I'm amazed by the number of Americans who are 'hurt' that the Iraqis are celebrating US troop withdrawal with no 'word of thanks'. The sad truth is that there is no withdrawal and there is NOTHING to thank for. For the Iraqis the list of war reparations is not one that the US can dream to even begin to fulfill. How can you bring 1.2 million people back to life? How can you render 2 million war widows married wives again? And how can you give back a lost parent to 5 million Iraqi orphans?
The celebrations of 'independence' in Iraq today are a circus where the primary clowns are the same thugs that count on US presence to survive. And how can anyone question the status of continued US military presence when the largest embassy in the world, the size of 80 football fields, lies in one of the most beautiful locations in the heart of Baghdad. The current troop level dispells the myth of the 'SOFA' agreement. Even after the June 30th deadline, 134,000 US soldiers will be left behind. This number is reminiscent of troop levels in 2003, when the invasion began and before the so-called 'Surge'. Further, and to take it straight from the horse's mouth, the first US military commander in Iraq openly announces 'a longer stay in Iraq for US troops'. In fact, General Odierno, insists "It's not going to end, OK? There'll always be some sort of low-level insurgency in Iraq for the next 5, 10, 15 years..." If so, then what are we celebrating? And what form of 'crystal ball' has General Odierno asserting that there will ALWAYS be a need for US troop presence? Unless, it's the world's second largest oil field.
To the average Iraqi citizen, and rightly so, the Americans are there for the oil, and the puppet-government with its 'no-bid' to 'selective-bid' oil contract policy is there to serve this very purpose. In fact, the common sentiment in Baghdad today is that we went from living under the rule of a tyrannical Ali Baba to that of 40 hundred ruling thieves. According to Transparency International, Iraq is among one of the top countries showing the highest levels of perceived corruption. Jabbar Al-Luaibi, former head of the South Oil company in Basrah, describes the process of the Iraqi's Oil Ministry of maintaining oil production records like 'driving a car without any indicators on the dashboard.'
In Iraq today, there is a detention nightmare, very much reminiscent of Abu-Ghraib under US authority, and very similar to the type of torture chambers that this very occupation claimed to wage war against! 300 Iraqi detainees went into a hunger strike at the Risafa prison in mid-June. The world did not hear them.
Never in the history of Iraq have there been elections established on sectarian and ethnic platforms, thus further reinforcing the birth and growth of 'militias', and paving the way to US-backed mercenary groups. The concept is 'foreign' in Iraq's modern history. Even when the people of Iraq voted, a large majority believed that by voting they were expediting the process of US troop withdrawal. Sadly not.
The recent escalation of bombings in Iraq is NOT due to the temporary US withdrawal from the major cities, but rather a statement against a continued foreign occupation. Bombings will continue as long as there is foreign presence on Iraqi soil. The foremost expert on the logic of suicide terrorism, Robert Pape, states that it is NOT primarily motivated by fundamentalism but by the occupation. This motivation is further aggravated when there is a fundamental difference in faith and culture between the occupier and occupied people.
Today, Iraq is a nation of 2 million war widows, 5 million orphans, 2 million internally displaced, and 4 million refugees surviving under the meanest living conditions in neighboring countries, topping the UNHCR World Refugee Statistics for the region. Today 80% of Iraqis civilians have witnessed shootings, kidnapping and killings (per UN statistics). Refugees who have relocated to the US find it extremely difficulty to adapt to 'normalcy'. I teach refugees English as a Second Language in Columbus, Ohio. The trauma these people have witnessed is unimaginable. There is not ONE family who has not suffered their child being kidnapped, or lost a loved one to sectarian 'revenge' killings. I have personally witnessed the struggle of a ten year old to adapt to a school system and the concept of normal life where people are not necessarily out there to 'kill him!' Jewad, whose soccer ball rolled onto a corpse in a Baghdad dumpster when he was 9, can never look at a soccer ball the same way again. Needless to say, he now has no interest in any ball game.
In neighboring countries where there is a huge Iraqi refugee population, there also exists a thriving sex trade where the majority of the victims are female minors as young as 13 years old. The text book term for this tragic phenomenon is 'survival sex'. My cousin who is a refugee in Syria has been insulted time and time again, when the women in his family were referred to as 'refugee sluts' despite the fact neither he nor his family had set foot in the red light areas that the Syrian authorities have now turned into an 'unofficial' lucrative tourist attraction.
Unemployment rates in Iraq today fluctuate between 27-60% depending on the region and whether or not a curfew is in effect. 40% of Iraq's professionals and technocrats have left the country. 2000 + physicians have been murdered since 2005 and the health infrastructure is in tatters. Disease is rampant where approximately 10,000 are inflicted with cholera. AIDS which was a not even significant statistic prior to the invasion is now at 75,000 cases (WHO). Ten years ago, there were only 12 known cases.
Today Baghdad is a city of walls. Neighborhoods are segregated like never before and...Baghdad is finally 'ethnically segregated'. The 2 million internally displaced have learned to adapt to their new 'environment', but traveling from one neighborhood to another can still cost one his/her life if they do not carry an ID card. My mother's childhood friend who needed a kidney dialysis died on the way to hospital because the ambulance was stopped multiple times between neighborhood checkpoints with some delays amounting to over an hour. Even if he had made it to hospital, the possibility of his getting the appropriate treatment in a sanitary environment would have been negligible. Three months before the invasion my mother underwent an angioplasty and despite the imposition of sanctions then and the lack of non-expired materials, her surgery was successful. Early, this year, my brother's father-in-law had to be flown into neighboring Amman for the same treatment because the best Iraqi hospitals could not provide it. He could afford the flight; other Iraqis in his condition would just perish. My own uncle, only 6 months ago, was wheeled out of an operation room three times because the dying hospital generators could not take care of the recurrent power outages. Power outages are still very frequent with the population receiving only 50% of the power supply they used to have prior to the invasion. Water, which was not potable prior to the invasion, is still dangerously contaminated in a lot of areas where people are dependant on well-water because the pipes that connect them to the general water network that was bombed during 'shock and awe' have still not been repaired.
When I was growing up in Iraq, and up until the last day before the invasion, had I been able to visit, I would have been able to walk the streets dressed as I am now or drive my car in the streets of Baghdad. I went to school and completed my graduate degree there; I was one of 12 women who graduated from my department in 1991. Then, if I had wanted to pay a water bill, for instance, I would stand in a long line, but I would not have to bribe the clerk at the register to have my transaction completed. For every SINGLE government transaction today, you need to know somebody and that somebody is dependent on your money to survive. Otherwise, you can consider it lost in red tape for up to six months! When my mother ventured to renew her passport; she was given two choices; wait for 8 months, or pay $600.00 (US) to have it delivered in 2 weeks. When I used to drive in Baghdad, I was rarely required to carry an ID. Today, if I don't, and I fall in the hands of the wrong militia, I'm potentially looking at a death sentence.
What caused this nightmare 6 years ago, and continues to cause it has not and is not going away soon. The occupation seems to be there to stay, and the silence of the American people in the midst of an unprecedented economic crisis has left them confused and misguided as to what has brought about all this, namely, America's foreign wars and imperialism.
The Iraqi, Afghan, and Pakistani people cannot win against the American war machine. On their own, they are helpless. They have only one hope, YOU. We need to build a movement so strong that our voices are heard as ONE, so loud that we force the occupiers to leave the Middle East and elsewhere where they impose their colonial occupations and plunder the natural resources and wealth of weaker nations. American, Iraqi, Afghan and Palestinian peoples are paying a dear price in blood and treasure for the continuation of these wars and occupations.
My hope is that this movement unites, that our minor differences are diminished by our bigger cause, and that this conference will pave the way for agreement on united actions in the months ahead that will tell the whole world when we hit the streets this fall, that we are raising high the banners of "Out Now!" "Out Now from Iraq!" "Out Now from Afghanistan!" "Out Now for Israeli Troops from Palestine!" The world needs to know that the U.S. antiwar movement is not only alive and kicking, but is determined to end the nightmares in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Palestine.
To join the National Assembly to End the Iraq And Afghanistan Wars And Occupations, an organization must subscribe to the five points in the National Assembly's structure memo -- immediate withdrawal, mass demonstrations, unity, democratic decision making, independence from political parties - submit an application form, and select a representative to the Continuations Body, the highest decision-making and action implementation body of the National Assembly between conferences. Go to the website www.natassembly.org for information and an application or email natassembly@aol.com.
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23) Living in Tents, and by the Rules, Under a Bridge
By DAN BARRY
This Land
PROVIDENCE, R.I.
July 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/us/31land.html?ref=us
The chief emerges from his tent to face the leaden morning light. It had been a rare, rough night in his homeless Brigadoon: a boozy brawl, the wielding of a knife taped to a stick. But the community handled it, he says with pride, his day's first cigar already aglow.
By community he means 80 or so people living in tents on a spit of state land beside the dusky Providence River: Camp Runamuck, no certain address, downtown Providence.
Because the two men in the fight had violated the community's written compact, they were escorted off the camp, away from the protection of an abandoned overpass. One was told we'll discuss this in the morning; the other was voted off the island, his knife tossed into the river, his tent taken down.
The chief flicks his spent cigar into that same river. There is talk of rain tonight.
Behind him, the camp stirs. Other tent cities have sprung up recently around the country, but Rhode Island officials have never seen anything like this. A tea kettle sings.
A heavily pierced young person walks by without picking up an empty plastic bottle, flouting the camp compact that says everyone will share in the labor. The compact may be as impermanent as this sudden community by the river, but for now it is binding. The chief speaks, the bottle is picked up.
The chief, John Freitas, is 55, with a gray beard touched by tobacco rust. He did prison time decades ago, worked for years as a factory supervisor, then became homeless for all the familiar, complicated reasons.
Layoffs, health problems, a slip from apartment to motel room. His girlfriend, Barbara Kalil, 50, lost her job as a nursing-home nurse, and another slip, into the shelter system. A job holding store-liquidation signs beside the highway allowed for a climb back to a motel, but it didn't last.
Weary of shelters, the couple pitched a pup tent in Roger Williams Park, close to a plaque bearing words Williams had used to describe this place he founded: "A Shelter for Persons in Distress." But someone complained, so Mr. Freitas set off again in search of shelter. The March winds blew.
Down South Main Street he went, past the majestic court building and the upscale seafood restaurant, over a guardrail to a gravelly plot beneath a ramp that once guided cars toward Cape Cod. Foul-smelling and partially hidden, a place of birds and rodents, it was perfect.
He and Ms. Kalil set up camp with another couple in early April. Word of it spread from the shelters to Kennedy Plaza downtown, where homeless people share the same empty Tim Hortons cup to pose as customers worthy of visiting that doughnut chain's restroom. The camp became 10 people, then 15, then 25. No children allowed.
"I was always considered the leader, the chief," Mr. Freitas says. "I was the one consulted about 'Where should I put my tent?' "
By late June the camp had about 50 people. But someone questioned the role of Mr. Freitas as chief, so he stepped down. Arguments broke out. Food was stolen.
"There was no center holding," recalls Rachell Shaw, 22, who lives with her boyfriend in a tidy tent decorated with porcelain dolls. "So everybody voted him back in."
The community also established a five-member leadership council and a compact that read in part: "No one person shall be greater than the will of the whole."
It is now late afternoon in late July, a month after nearly everyone signed that compact. The community remains intact, though the very ground they walk on says nothing is forever. Here and there are the exposed foundations of fish shacks that lined the river long ago.
Some state officials recently stopped by to say, nicely but firmly, that everyone would soon have to leave. The overpass poses the threat of falling concrete, and is scheduled for demolition. The officials have shared the same message with a smaller encampment across the river.
For now, a game of horseshoes sends echoing clanks, as outreach workers conduct interviews and raindrops thrum the tent tops. The chief lights another cigar and walks the length of the camp to tell residents to batten down, explaining its structure as he goes.
Here at the end, nearest the road, are the tents of young single people and substance abusers; this way, rescue vehicles won't disrupt the entire compound.
Here in the center are a cluster of couples, including two competing for the nicest property, with homey touches like planted flowers. Here too are the food table, the coolers, the piles of donated clothes - what can't be used will be taken by camp residents to the Salvation Army - and the large tent of the chief. Plastic pink flamingos stand guard.
Farther on, the recycled-can area (the money is used for ice and propane); the area for garbage bags that will be discreetly dropped in nearby Dumpsters at night; and, behind a blue tarp hung from the overpass, a plastic toilet. The chief says the shared task of removing the bags of waste tends to test the compact.
Finally, near some rocks where men go to urinate, live a gay couple and some people who drink hard. Timothy Webb, 49, who says he used to own a salon in Cranston called Class Act, cuts people's hair here. Then, at night, he and his partner, Norman Trank, 45, sit at a riverside table, a battery-operated candle giving light, the moving waters suggesting mystery.
"It's what you make of it," Mr. Trank says.
Dark clouds have brought night early to Providence. Heavy drops thump against tarp. Water drips from the overpass, onto the long table of food.
In the last couple of hours the chief has resolved a conflict about tarp distribution, hugged a pregnant woman who mistakenly thought she had been kicked off the island, conferred with outreach workers and helped with dinner preparations. He is also thinking about tomorrow.
Tomorrow, an advance party for the chief will leave to claim another spot across the river that turns out not to be on public property. Many in the camp will decide it's time to move on anyway, to a spot under a bridge in East Providence. Camp Runamuck will begin its recession from sight and memory.
At least tonight there is a communal dinner: donated chicken, parboiled and grilled; donated corn on the cob; donated potatoes. People line up with paper plates.
The rain falls harder, pocking the river's gray surface, surrounding the dark camp with a sound like fingers drumming in impatience. The chief hears it, but what can he do? He finishes his dinner and lights another cigar.
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24) Farm Workers' Union Sues California Agency Over Rules on Heat Safety
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
July 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/us/31farm.html?ref=us
The United Farm Workers union sued California's occupational health and safety agency on Thursday, accusing it of doing too little to prevent farm laborers' deaths from heat illness.
The lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Los Angeles, says 11 farm workers have died from heat illness since California adopted regulations in 2005 aimed at stopping such deaths. It says that the regulations are too weak and that the safety agency has too few investigators and inspects too few farms, where laborers often work in heat exceeding 100 degrees.
Six farm workers died from heat illness last year, according to the lawsuit. State officials say three did. None have died this year, but several were taken to the hospital, lawyers for the union said.
Last year, the state found that more than 35 percent of the growers it had investigated violated the regulations.
Officials with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health said they have increased efforts to prevent heat-related illnesses.
They said that since a heat wave began on July 11, the agency had conducted 167 inspections of outdoor workplaces and found more than 200 violations.
"We have done more enforcement this year than we have over all in past years," said Dean Fryer, a spokesman for the Department of Industrial Relations, who said the enforcement has resulted in more compliance. The agency, he said, has taught more than 5,000 growers and farm labor contractors about the requirements of the heat regulations.
State inspectors ordered 10 employers to suspend operation because of violations, including one grower who had less than one gallon of water for 15 employees working in 116-degree heat.
The lawsuit maintains that the regulations wrongly place the burden on the workers to say they need a break and some shade when they start to suffer from the heat. By then, the lawsuit says, some workers might be in grave danger.
"It's extremely difficult for workers to step forward, especially because they often work at piece rates, and they're not paid when they take a break," said Catherine Lhamon, assistant legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which helped file the case.
The lawsuit says California should require that growers set triggers at various temperatures at which point growers would have to give workers a rest in the shade. It says that the regulations require growers to give just a five-minute break to workers who complain about the heat.
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25) Bankers Reaped Lavish Bonuses During Bailouts
By LOUISE STORY and ERIC DASH
July 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31pay.html?ref=business
Thousands of top traders and bankers on Wall Street were awarded huge bonuses and pay packages last year, even as their employers were battered by the financial crisis.
Nine of the financial firms that were among the largest recipients of federal bailout money paid about 5,000 of their traders and bankers bonuses of more than $1 million apiece for 2008, according to a report released Thursday by Andrew M. Cuomo, the New York attorney general.
At Goldman Sachs, for example, bonuses of more than $1 million went to 953 traders and bankers, and Morgan Stanley awarded seven-figure bonuses to 428 employees. Even at weaker banks like Citigroup and Bank of America, million-dollar awards were distributed to hundreds of workers.
The report is certain to intensify the growing debate over how, and how much, Wall Street bankers should be paid.
In January, President Obama called financial institutions "shameful" for giving themselves nearly $20 billion in bonuses as the economy was faltering and the government was spending billions to bail out financial institutions.
On Friday, the House of Representatives may vote on a bill that would order bank regulators to restrict "inappropriate or imprudently risky" pay packages at larger banks.
Mr. Cuomo, who for months has criticized the companies over pay, said the bonuses were particularly galling because the banks survived the crisis with the government's support.
"If the bank lost money, where do you get the money to pay the bonus?" he said.
All the banks named in the report declined to comment.
Mr. Cuomo's stance - that compensation for every employee in a financial firm should rise and fall in line with the company's overall results - is not shared on Wall Street, which tends to reward employees based more on their individual performance. Otherwise, the thinking goes, top workers could easily leave for another firm that would reward them more directly for their personal contribution.
Many banks partly base their bonuses on overall results, but Mr. Cuomo has said they should do so to a greater degree.
At Morgan Stanley, for example, compensation last year was more than seven times as large as the bank's profit. In 2004 and 2005, when the stock markets were doing well, Morgan Stanley spent only two times its profits on compensation.
Robert A. Profusek, a lawyer with the law firm Jones Day, which works with many of the large banks, said bank executives and boards spent considerable time deciding bonuses based on the value of workers to their companies.
"There's this assumption that everyone was like drunken sailors passing out money without regard to the consequences or without giving it any thought," Mr. Profusek said. "That wasn't the case."
Mr. Cuomo's office did not study the correlation between all of the individual bonuses and the performance of the people who received them.
Congressional leaders have introduced several other bills aimed at reining in the bank bonus culture. Federal regulators and a new government pay czar, Kenneth Feinberg, are also scrutinizing bank bonuses, which have fueled populist outrage. Incentives that led to large bonuses on Wall Street are often cited as a cause of the financial crisis.
Though it has been known for months that billions of dollars were spent on bonuses last year, it was unclear whether that money was spread widely or concentrated among a few workers.
The report suggests that those roughly 5,000 people - a small subset of the industry - accounted for more than $5 billion in bonuses. At Goldman, just 200 people collectively were paid nearly $1 billion in total, and at Morgan Stanley, $577 million was shared by 101 people.
All told, the bonus pools at the nine banks that received bailout money was $32.6 billion, while those banks lost $81 billion.
Some compensation experts questioned whether the bonuses should have been paid at all while the banks were receiving government aid.
"There are some real ethical questions given the bailouts and the precariousness of so many of these financial institutions," said Jesse M. Brill, an outspoken pay critic who is the chairman of CompensationStandards.com, a research firm in California. "It's troublesome that the old ways are so ingrained that it is very hard for them to shed them."
The report does not include certain other highly paid employees, like brokers who are paid on commission. The report also does not include some bank subsidiaries, like the Phibro commodities trading unit at Citigroup, where one trader stands to collect $100 million for his work last year.
Now that most banks are making money again, hefty bonuses will probably be even more common this year. And many banks have increased salaries among highly paid workers so that they will not depend as heavily on bonuses.
Banks typically do not disclose compensation figures beyond their total compensation expenses and the amounts paid to top five highly paid executives, but they turned over information on their bonus pools to a House committee and to Mr. Cuomo after the bailout last year.
The last few years provide a "virtual laboratory" to test whether bankers' pay moved in line with bank performance, Mr. Cuomo said. If it did, he said, the pay levels would have dropped off in 2007 and 2008 as bank profits fell.
So far this year, Morgan Stanley has set aside about $7 billion for compensation - which includes salaries, bonuses and expenses like health care - even though it has reported quarterly losses.
At some banks last year, revenue fell to levels not seen in more than five years, but pay did not. At Citigroup, revenue was the lowest since 2002. But the amount the bank spent on compensation was higher than in any other year between 2003 and 2006.
At Bank of America, revenue last year was at the same level as in 2006, and the bank kept the amount it paid to employees in line with 2006. Profit at the bank last year, however, was one-fifth of the level in 2006.
Still, regulators may have limited resources for keeping pay in check. Only banks that still have bailout money are subject to oversight by Mr. Feinberg, the pay czar. He will approve pay for the top 100 compensated employees at banks like Citigroup and Bank of America as well as automakers like General Motors.
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26) When Auto Plants Close, Only White Elephants Remain
By BILL VLASIC and NICK BUNKLEY
July 31, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/business/31factories.html?ref=business
WIXOM, Mich. - The sheer size of the sites has inspired grand visions for redevelopment - a $1 billion football stadium, a huge Hollywood movie studio, even the world's largest indoor tennis complex.
But for the communities saddled with a huge, empty auto plant, the reality is dismal.
Abandoned car factories, sprawling over hundreds of acres, often stand vacant for years awaiting demolition, environmental cleanup and a willing developer.
Since 2004, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have closed 22 major auto plants in the United States. Only eight of those have found buyers. And in the wake of the G.M. and Chrysler bankruptcies, another 16 plants will be shut by 2011.
The most optimistic redevelopment proposals, like a football stadium for the Atlanta Falcons or a movie studio in the small Michigan town of Wixom, a Detroit suburb, are long shots at best.
"The plants, whether they're still standing or reoccupied, are always going to be a haunting reminder of what we were, what we've gone through, and where we still need to go," said Representative Thaddeus McCotter, Republican of Michigan, whose district includes an old Ford plant in Wixom and a G.M. plant that will soon close.
Even sites in attractive locations are hard to sell in the weak economy. With so many companies being squeezed financially, there is a glut of available commercial real estate.
"Even if you only go back three or four years, it was easier than today," said Phil Horlock, head of Ford's land development division.
The loss to the local community when a plant closes goes well beyond jobs. Tax revenue evaporates and related businesses vanish.
Industry analysts estimate that each job in a plant helps create another five to seven jobs.
"Some of those are direct suppliers, but then there are places that workers spend money, like grocery stores, restaurants and day care," said Kristin Dziczek of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Ford's 4.7-million-square-foot Wixom factory, which closed in 2007, was the company's largest assembly plant in the United States. More than six million cars were built there over 50 years.
At its peak in the late 1980s, the factory employed nearly 4,000. Now it's an empty shell of rusting corrugated metal, surrounded by desolate parking lots and a barbed-wire fence.
The plant fronts an Interstate highway, and stretches almost a mile along Wixom Road. It once provided 40 percent of the town's property taxes, but now accounts for less than 15 percent.
The town has about 13,000 residents, and relied heavily on the paychecks of plant workers.
"When it closed, a lot of businesses around us closed too," said Moe Leon, owner of the Bullseye Sports Bar and Grill on Wixom Road. "We're fighting night and day to stay above water."
Last year, a team of executives from Warner Brothers toured the plant as a potential site for a new studio. Other developers have floated proposals for a hotel, an ice hockey arena and a business district devoted to green technology.
Ford officials said several ideas were under consideration, but there was no timetable for a sale.
Mr. Horlock said Ford had sold five large factories in the last five years. He said the company generally did not raze a plant, or begin to clean up any toxic wastes, until a deal was sealed.
The auto company sold one assembly plant, in Lorain, Ohio, to a developer who leases out space to small industrial firms. Honda, a competitor of Ford's with two assembly plants in Ohio, recently started storing excess inventory of cars and minivans in the plant's parking lots. But most closed plants languish.
After G.M. closed a factory in Doraville, Ga., last year, there was an initial rush of interest from developers. One of them suggested the site be used for a new stadium for the National Football League's Falcons, but the team's owners have so far shown little enthusiasm for that idea.
Luke Howe, an assistant to Doraville's mayor, said other proposals for the 165-acre site range "from the ridiculous to the sublime," and no developers had come forward with adequate financing.
"We knew it would be a lengthy process," he said. "It just happened to fall during one of the worst economic times."
But some factory sites have remained vacant through good times as well - a sign of just how difficult it is to create a second life for them.
G.M. demolished most of its giant Buick City manufacturing complex in Flint, Mich., a decade ago. The 200-acre property appeared to finally have a future as a transportation hub for long-haul trucks and rail cars, but G.M. could not complete a deal before filing for bankruptcy on June. 1.
The Flint site, along with dozens of other factories and properties, is part of the old G.M. that is still in bankruptcy and will most likely be sold, eventually, in the liquidation process. The company's best assets were transferred to a new corporate entity that now operates as General Motors. Auto companies sell their old plants for a song, compared to what they put into them. The government in Oklahoma County, which covers much of Oklahoma City, for example, paid $55 million last year for a four-million-square-foot plant that will be leased to the United States Air Force to expand a nearby base. Just eight years ago, G.M. invested $700 million in the plant to modernize it.
Environmental problems can also hamper a sale. While every plant has different pollution issues, G.M.'s restructuring chief, Albert A. Koch, estimated in bankruptcy court that the company's liabilities for all its closed sites was $530 million.
One old G.M. plant that has found a new life is in Linden, N.J. The company shut down the factory in 2005, demolished it two years ago, and sold it to a developer for a mixed-use project called Legacy Square.
The 104-acre site will be anchored by a Super Wal-Mart store, and ultimately will pay more taxes to the city than G.M. did.
But the 2,400 permanent jobs will fall far short of the 6,000 workers that G.M. once employed in the city.
"The United Auto Workers had very high-paying jobs there, and those will not be comparable to the jobs that are going to be in the shopping mall," said Linden's mayor, Richard J. Gerbounka.
But, he added, "We're better off than having 104 acres of vacant property sitting there."
The worst of the empty auto plants is located, perhaps fittingly, on the downtrodden east side of Detroit.
The 3.5-million-square-foot factory has been crumbling since the Packard Motor Car Company closed its doors more than 50 years ago. Trees grow on the plant's roof, and chunks of concrete regularly fall from the bridge that connects two of its buildings.
Trespassers often explore its rotted interior, and photographs and videos of the ruins are easily found on the Internet.
Vandals have set fires several times this year in the piles of wooden pallets, tires and garbage that litter the complex. It is not unusual to see clouds of thick smoke pouring from the building on a summer evening.
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