Military Resistance 12E6
The Enemy Attacks At Camp Pendleton:
“Military Criminal Investigators Raid Marine Corps Defense Counsel Offices”
“Lawyer Says ‘Just Think Of The U.S. Federal Marshals Or FBI Raiding A Public Defender’s Office, That’s What This Is The Equivalent To’”
“They Searched Every Attorney’s Office”
May 9, 2014 By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press
SAN DIEGO (AP) —
In a rare move, military criminal investigators raided Marine Corps defense counsel offices at Camp Pendleton and opened case files during a 2½-hour search that could compromise scores of military criminal cases if confidential and privileged information was seen, the attorney who oversees the branch’s defense lawyers for the western United States said Friday.
Investigators raided the offices last week in search for a cellphone tied to a case being tried at the base, north of San Diego, Lt. Col. Clay Plummer told The Associated Press.
"This is just unacceptable," Plummer said. "Just think of the U.S. federal marshals or FBI raiding a public defender’s office, that’s what this is the equivalent to. It’s crazy."
Marine Corps officials say they plan to conduct an independent review of the evidence seized.
Marine Corps spokesman Jeffrey Nyhart called it a rare but lawful and valid search. Nyhart was working on getting details of the circumstances before commenting further.
The search’s authorization was granted by the area commander, Plummer said, but investigators did not limit their check to the attorney’s office for the case with the cellphone.
They searched every attorney’s office, he said.
Plummer said his lawyers will be filing motions with the courts against the action. The seven lawyers in his offices will be contacting hundreds of clients whose cases may have been opened by government investigators.
"Our intent is we are going to fight this behavior through litigation in our courts with the hope our courts can do something so this never happens again," Plummer said.
Lawyers in the offices are handling cases for offenses ranging from an unauthorized absence to murder.
AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS
Rondout Valley Grad Shawn Farrell, 24, Killed In Action In Afghanistan
04/29/14 By Paula Ann Mitchell, Daily Freeman
STONE RIDGE
Heather Stokes heard on a public radio broadcast Monday that two soldiers had been killed over the weekend in the eastern province of Afghanistan, where their Army unit was ambushed.
On Monday night, she learned the unthinkable.
One of those killed was her 24-year-old son, Sgt. Shawn Farrell, an infantryman with the 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, N.Y.
“I didn’t know it was him,” she said by phone on Tuesday from her Stone Ridge home, sobbing. “I didn’t even think about it when I heard it. I just heard two soldiers had died.”
Farrell, a 2008 graduate of Rondout Valley High School, was shot twice Sunday in the surprise attack, said Stokes, who lives in Accord.
The family still did not have all the information about the attack and was awaiting a visit from Army representatives, and the public affairs office at Fort Drum did not respond to an inquiry from the Freeman.
Stokes said serving in the Army was something Farrell wanted to do ever since he was a child.
“I have pictures of him as a little kid dressed up in camouflage,” she said.
“As soon as he turned 17, he signed up and went in,” Stokes said. “In his senior year, he served with the Army National Guard reserve unit in Bullville, and after he graduated, he went in to active duty in Fort Riley, Kan.”
Farrell left for his second tour of duty in Afghanistan on Nov. 18, 2013, his mother said. He first was deployed there in 2010.
Through tears, Stokes said her son had the sort of personality that drew people to him.
“He was great. He was funny. He just laughed at everything. He had the biggest heart,” she said.
Farrell’s father, also named Shawn, of Accord, said his son felt privileged to serve his country.
“He loved life. He loved his family. He loved to fish,” the elder Farrell said.
“Up until the day he went in, he had hair down in the middle of his back. He donated it to Locks of Love (a charitable agency that helps people with cancer and other diseases that result in hair loss). He always helped other people. Shawnie was the happiest-go-lucky person in the world.”
Other family members also were taking the news hard on Tuesday.
“Ever since Sept. 11, (2001), he wanted be a soldier,” said Holly Downie, Farrell’s aunt who lives in West Shokan. “He gave 150 percent to be the best that he could be, and he will be so missed.”
Farrell’s step-grandmother, Sharon Vavolizza of Stone Ridge, said Farrell got married a little more than a year ago.
Vavolizza said the family was told Farrell was flown to Germany after the attack but doctors there could not revive him.
“We were all so proud of him,” she said. “It’s such a sad day.”
The Rondout Valley school district, in a statement posted on its website, said: “This is an extremely sad day for the entire Rondout Valley community as we learned that Rondout Valley graduate Sgt. Shawn Farrell was killed while serving his country in Afghanistan. The district would like to send its condolences to his family.”
Farrell is survived by his wife, Allison, who lives in Fort Drum; his parents; his stepfather, David Stokes; three brothers and two sisters; and other relatives.
Funeral arrangements still were pending on Tuesday.
POLITICIANS REFUSE TO HALT THE BLOODSHED
THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE WAR
“The CIA Has Made Plans To Close Its Network Of Secret Bases In Afghanistan”
U.S. Military Fears “Unexpectedly Abrupt Withdrawal Will Deprive It Of Vital Intelligence While Thousands Of American Troops Remain In The Country”
“The Plan Has Strained Relations Between The Agency And Military Commanders In Kabul”
May 10, 2014 By DAVID S. CLOUD, Tribune Washington Bureau [Excerpts]
WASHINGTON — The CIA has made plans to close its network of secret bases in Afghanistan and pull its personnel back to Kabul this summer, an unexpectedly abrupt withdrawal that the U.S. military fears will deprive it of vital intelligence while thousands of American troops remain in the country, U.S. officials said.
CIA Director John Brennan informed U.S. military commanders in March that his agency would start to shutter Afghan operations outside Kabul, the capital, removing CIA clandestine officers and analysts as well as National Security Agency specialists responsible for intercepting insurgents’ communications, which have been a rich source of daily intelligence, the officials said.
Pentagon officials warn that the CIA drawdown is coming at a time when insurgent attacks normally intensify, after a winter lull.
As a result, the plan has strained relations between the agency and military commanders in Kabul, the officials said.
"They are beginning their own retrograde and they kind of sprung it on the military, which is raising concern," said a senior military official, who asked for anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss classified CIA plans.
The CIA also plans this summer to stop paying the salaries of Afghan paramilitary forces that it has armed and trained for more than a decade to help fight the Taliban-led insurgency in the country’s east, near the Pakistani border.
It is unclear what will happen to the militias.
About 33,000 U.S. troops remain in Afghanistan, down from a peak of 100,000 in 2011.
Dunford [U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the top commander in Afghanistan] is continuing to push for keeping more than 10,000 American troops to continue training and advising the Afghan military and police, as well as for counterterrorism operations, officials said.
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FORWARD OBSERVATIONS
“At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nation’s ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke.
“For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder.
“We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake.”
“The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose.”
Frederick Douglass, 1852
The Social-Democrats ideal should not be the trade union secretary, but the tribune of the people who is able to react to every manifestation of tyranny and oppression no matter where it appears no matter what stratum or class of the people it affects; who is able to generalize all these manifestations and produce a single picture of police violence and capitalist exploitation; who is able to take advantage of every event, however small, in order to set forth before all his socialist convictions and his democratic demands, in order to clarify for all and everyone the world-historic significance of the struggle for the emancipation of the proletariat.”
-- V. I. Lenin; What Is To Be Done
What American Soldiers Didn’t Know
A recent album cover from Rage Against The Machine. Photograph by Mike Hastie
From: Mike Hastie
To: Military Resistance Newsletter
Sent: May 08, 2014
Subject: What American Soldiers Didn’t Know
What American Soldiers Didn’t Know
On June 11, 1963, a Buddhist monk by the name
of Thich Quang Duc, set himself on fire at a busy
intersection in Saigon.
He was protesting the religious discrimination against
Buddhists by the Catholic regime of dictator Diem,
who was America’s political puppet in what was then
South Vietnam.
99.9% of the American people thought this monk was
insane for what he did.
Fast forward 10 years, and the United States of America
would drop 400,000 tons of Napalm on Vietnam, killing
and seriously injuring three to four generations of Vietnamese,
often in the same household.
How in the world did I travel halfway around the world
as a young soldier, and participate in such madness?
The truth of the matter is, I didn’t know anything about
Vietnam, and America’s long history of imperialism.
And, not knowing anything, was the beginning of a long
journey that led me to the annihilation of my beliefs.
Obedience was the path I trusted.
I thought America was the greatest country in the world.
400,000 tons of Napalm dropped on a country that had
a two thousand year history of fighting foreign invaders.
Napalm, was just one of countless weapons used by the
most powerful country in the world against one of the
poorest countries in the world.
Day after day, it was David against everything the United
States Military had.
Just maybe... that was one of the reasons that monk set
himself on fire.
What Americans didn’t know, would eventually play out as
one of the greatest lies of American history.
A so-called insane monk sets himself on fire,
while America drops 400,000 tons of Napalm on his country.
One small ball of fire for one man, tens of thousands killed
and injured by a highly explosive gasoline jelly that reaches the
temperature of 1,200 degrees Celsius.
The price of freedom for Vietnam’s independence was unfathomable.
Mike Hastie
Army Medic Vietnam
May 7, 2014
Photo and caption from the portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: () T)
One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions.
Mike Hastie U.S. Army Medic
Vietnam 1970-71 December 13, 2004
Navy Accidentally Appoints Career Counselor Who Helps Sailors Advance Their Careers
Career counselor students learn how to effectively ruin someone’s career. (Photo Credit: US Navy)
April 30, 2014 By drew, The Duffle Blog
NORFOLK, Va. — The officers and crew of the USS George H.W. Bush were shocked when the aircraft carrier was appointed a Command Career Counselor who wanted to help sailors advance their careers, Duffel Blog has learned.
Navy Counselor Senior Chief Michael Jones has angered several people in the three months he’s been onboard.
“Senior Chief Jones has been working hard as our career counselor,” Command Master Chief John Walsh said, noting that he always does paperwork on time, responds to emails, and even learned the names of the sailors he works with.
“This is unacceptable. He disobeyed orders and transferred 12 hard-working sailors off the ship for training and career development. His job is to keep people onboard for as long as possible to ensure our decks remain swept.”
Noting that Jones had actually made her show up to training yesterday, Boatswain’s Mate First Class Amanda Lee was incredulous.
“It’s unbelievable,” Lee said. “He told me I had to attend because I was the departmental career counselor. He expected me to know my collateral duty.”
“I mean, jeez. What a slave driver,” she added.
While Chief Jones told reporters he “just wanted to help people” when asked why he wanted to be a career counselor, a Duffel Blog investigation found that type of comment was borderline insubordination, according to Navy regulations.
Navy Instruction KFGKSBT38958747.156D states the proper reason for sailors to cross-rate to Navy Counselor is to have a job that has little oversight, no accountability, and a way to blame all mistakes on other people.
“The Navy’s greatest asset is its sailors, and if I can further their careers, everyone benefits,” Jones said, completely flouting his duty to the Navy and the U.S. Constitution.
“I miss our last counselor, Chief Landers,” said Airman Cynthia Hope.
“He was great, and the reason I’ve been an E-3 for two years. I tried to submit an officer packet four times, and each time I did he held onto it until the deadline passed, then blamed me for turning it in on time. Every six months or so he’d meet with the entire department, list off a bunch of jobs in the Navy, and then walk off. What a great guy.”