Back on March 14th, Thus Spake Ortner and I live-blogged Winter Soldier II under the watchful gaze of the Stasi secret police of Veterans for Peace and Vietnam Veterans Against the War. They monitored what we sent out to the internet, they limited our contact with IVAW members and the media. They even followed us to the bathroom and outside to the break area. But they were watching the wrong people.
We didn’t find out Rurik was there until most of the way through the testimony. He blended in well with crowd and hardly anyone noticed him. He carried a legal pad and a pencil and scribbled furious notes. Rurick has spent weeks ciphering and writing out his notes and he’s published them in three installments;
This is much more complete than my comparably incoherent ramblings – and much more damaging to the testimony given on the first day at Winter Soldier II. I commend Rurik and I heartily recommend that anyone who is interested in how history will judge the events go read them all. And in the last installment, Rurik names his candidate to be the next John Kerry. I won’t give it away.
Jason Mattera of Young America’s Foundation and Hot Air went to Winter Soldier II and asked folks who testified if they’d swear to their allegations of atrocities. Jason recorded for posterity the results;
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Of course, without hesitation the consensus is “No!”, and Clifton Hicks, who was on this blog last night calling “Bullshit” said “Oh, Hell no!” I don’t blame you, Clifton – your stories are so full of holes I could fly a C-17 through them.
Jason Hurd who slung snot all over the panel while he tearfully recounted the time he ALMOST shot a woman carrying groceries also said he wouldn’t.
Of course, many of the IVAW members didn’t even want Rurik, TSO and myself at the event – probably one of the reasons it resulted in what one commenter here called a “wet firecracker”.
Michele Malkin declares, “The apples don’t fall far from the Ghengis Khan-invoking tree”.
So, a rational person might ask “What was the point?”
Evan Knappenberger is seen above during the Wednesday, March 19, event organized by Ferndale High School students to protest the fifth anniversary of the Iraq War, where Knappenberger was a guest speaker.
Evan Knappenberger, the Iraq Veterans Against the War lunatic who threatened to blow up the Gathering of Eagles and issued a “fatwa” to assassinate Michele Malkin, then got suspended from the IVAW, gets resurrected in his local newspaper’s (the Bellingham Herald) blog;
Evan Knappenberger, a local Iraq War veteran who did the Stop Loss Tower Guard vigil last summer and started the local Iraq Veterans Against the War chapter was suspended from the group, but reinstated after four days, for making threats online against pro-war activists two weeks ago.
Knappenberger, who initially suffered an indefinite suspension, told me on the phone this morning that he had received an apology from the IVAW board for what he called their “arbitrary decision” to suspend him in the heat of the moment.
Not only did the IVAW restore his membership, they apologized to him for suspending him. I wonder if they’re apologizing to Army Sergeant for the threats she gets from Knappenberger and his ilk. The blogger at the herald continues;
“I’ve been getting death threats for quite awhile now,” Knappenberger told me today. “I just kind of boiled over. Yeah, I slipped up.”
Knappenberger, who suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, said that the issue has been dead for two weeks and it’s not a big deal.
Yeah, he’s been getting death threats. I wonder why.
He said the IVAW is also “redefining” its terms of non-violence after the incident, with the recognition that they have soldiers in the group.
What the Hell does that mean? Does it mean that IVAW is defining what Knappenberger engaged in as “non-violent”? I got news for you guys, there’s soldiers in every group and we all live under the same rules as the rest of civilized society. But the fun is only beginning;
Because Knappenberger was not allowed at the Winter Soldier event, he offered up his testimony to them and he is also offering it up here. *Update* – Knappenberger has asked me to take the testimony down.
So that’s Knappenberger’s story – he would have offered up damning testimony at Winter Soldier, but since he couldn’t attend because of mean ol’ Army Sergeant jumping the gun, he’ll just give it to some fresh-faced journalist-type who couldn’t tell an IED from an IUD.
Quietly reinstating Knappenberger says more about the IVAW than anything I could write about them.
UPDATED April 2, 2008: Michele Malkin must be getting hits from the same story.
i joined the army a proud man. but it seemed the army wasent so proud to have me. the first week of basic everything went ok besides being smoked and drilled to exhaustion there were no out of orinary issues. intil during the secound one of my drill dgt (ds martin) appraoched me in the training bay in front of all the other iet soldiers in my platoon took the quran off my bunk spit in it and threw it across the room yelling “muslims dont belong in my army” and madde me crawl in his words” like the muslim dog i was” to get my holy book. i was upset but again i wanted so bad to be part of something. all my life i was eigther in grouphomes homeless are in jail. i wanted to change that and this was my chance so i took the the racial slurs and religiouse slurs know that it wouold all end in 7 more weeks. but it only got worse during the 3 week of basic
Since I am a professional editor, I got a real headache trying to get through all of that. But, just so Jesse knows, even if what he’s written happened (and I have no reason to believe that it did) it doesn’t excuse him from trying to score hippie chics and veterans benefits for things that he never did – like murdering a mosque full of Iraqis, for example.
I hope he gets some help, or gets his narrow, lying ass beat – either would appease my angry side. In the meantime, Jesse, do yourself a favor and download a Firefox browser that has a spell check built right into it so you at least don’t write like an ignorant turd.
Another day, another protest. Today is ANSWER’s “Day of Action”. Since the Iraq War started five years ago today, all of the organizations that have sprung up to cash in on the war decided to have an eight-ring circus in downtown Washington DC, because as one IVAW member told me, the war is about money – apparently for the moonbats, too. My coverage was abruptly ended when I was ID’d as “one of those Milblog guys at Winter Soldier”, so excuse me for not getting all I should have.
I was there bright and early for the festivities. It must’ve been a little too early because the Code Pink gals were looking especially raggedy;
They even had their own marching band;
Complete with mascot;
Everyone headed out to their respective “actions” and I went looking for the recruiting station, where I figured the action was going to take place. But the Freepers beat me to it;
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The recruiters felt safe enough with moonbats roaming around to come outside for air – thanks to the Freepers and a few ladies from the Second Amedment Sisters who were in town for the Supreme Court doin’s yesterday.
A large police contingent stationed at the recruiting office was helpful, too. This particular officer told us his son is in Iraq with the Air Force.
This kind fellow brought coffee to the Freepers;
Up the street from the recruiting station was the American Petroleum Institute – since the war is about money and oil, it was a good target for the Greens to block people from going to their jobs;
And the most energy efficient way to get your bicycle into the city is to bring it in a U-Haul pickup;
I went several blocks away to the IRS – where apparently they hand out cash for fueling the war machine while starving children. On my way there, I passed a group of guys wearing media passes, ten steps behind them, moving her tiny legs as fast as she could was Code Pink’s head troll Medea Benjamin – I just thought that was funny.
I got to the IRS just in time to see 20 or so people getting packed up for the hoosegow;
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I went back to McPherson Square and was lucky enough to record some poor distraught veteran who had gone into Iraq five years ago today tell us about how he figured out that Bush had lied to him in the first three days and describe some atrocities that didn’t happen – but that we should “imagine” happened anyway.
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You might notice that while I filming that video, the police roared out of the park behind the speakers – they were headed to the recruiting station, so I cut short the video and scurried over the station, but I missed the protest there. I did however get there in time to catch “Barbie” Benjamin riding in her toy bed;
I noticed that it was nearly time for the “veterans” event to begin so I took off for the ten block walk to the National Archives. I passed by the White House and notice that there was no “action” there;
I got to the National Archives just in time to catch the drama queens of the IVAW, Veterans for Peace and their mish-mash bands of friends and enablers. Notice how they show their love for this country.
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And right upfront is every Leftist’s heart throb, Adam Kokesh – so you just know someone’s going to get arrested. I also noticed that the IVAW fellas have stopped wearing military uniforms and they’ve opted for the black sweatshirts these days.
So they arrived at the National Archives and charged up the steps with their upside-down flags;
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And explained to the crowd why they fly the flag upside down (I can’t understand a word of it – so good luck)
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George Bush, Dick Cheney and Condoleeza Rice showed up;
And so did the DC cops to cart off Kokesh and his merry band of trespassers on Federal property;
They read some long speeches about the typical blather “Blood for Oil”, “War for Exxon”, etc…. I lost interest waiting for the police to cart them off.
The chivalrous side of me was my downfall though. One of the IVAW guys (I don’t know which one – one of the little loud mouths) started yelling at the female security guard because she wouldn’t let him go up the steps and I told him to calm down that she was just doing her job. Then he yelled out “I know you! You were at Winter Soldier – one of those milbloggers”.
As the crowd pressed in on me, I beat a hasty retreat – but another one of the IVAW guys started following me up the street calling me names – he had a buddy with a video camera to get it all on film in the event I knocked the little halfpint out. But they got nothing – except I left the event just as the DC cops arrived to arrest Kokesh, so I didn’t get pictures of that little theater.
Most of the protesters were the same demographic as attendees at Winter Soldier – old hippies reliving their hey-day.
While you’re in the mood to look at Moonbats, zip over to the Left Coast at Zombie and see if you can spot the spelling error on Cindy Sheehan’s sign.
The Freepers wanted me to remind you all that March 29th is the third anniversary of their Freep at Walter Reed every Friday night and if you’re in town – make it.
UPDATE: The Washington Post (that neocon rag) estimates protest numbers at a thousand – tops. The Washington Times concurs. I’d thought it was a little more, but we can use their number.
I’ve been ruminating how I would close out this weekend after focusing on Winter Soldier for the last few days. I thought a point-by-point refutation of the testimony, but I figured that’d be disingenuous of me, since the testimony lacked context – there were no dates or times or places (other than general references) or even participants in some cases. So, just like the participants, I can only give general impressions – only I’ll do it without playing to the applause.
First, my personal experience with the IVAW/Veterans for Peace and the other and sundry people was professional. I wasn’t especially pleased that I was escorted everywhere I went, or that we spent the day surrounded by security people, or that our blogs were being monitored – however, it does lend what I wrote a measure of credibility. But there were news outlets like the Guardian and al Jazeera wandering around without security and writing what they want. I’ll grant that my readership is somewhat less than theirs, but the product I created was under much more scrutiny while it was being released to the public.
I commend Army Sergeant for her hard work in getting access to the event for us. I’m sure she burned off more than a few calories running in circles making sure we weren’t overly-harassed or confined. Without her support, we’d have been stuck watching the streaming video from our homes like everyone else. We were instructed to only photograph the panels and that we couldn’t photograph the audience. When one member of the audience took a snap shot of TSO and me, I brought it to the attention of one security member and she deleted the picture from his camera.
However, I do condemn them for tackling from behind Gerry Kiley whom I reported stood up and yelled “Kerry lied and good men died”. I don’t agree with what Mr. Kiley did – it certainly didn’t remove any scrutiny from what we were doing – but tackling a frail 61-year-old from behind was just as cruel as any testimony from the panel. I’m sure they could have easily pulled him from the room without the drama. But then the whole day was about over-reaction, wasn’t it?
But to the testimony; War sucks. It’s sucked since the beginning of the invention of the rock as a weapon. Innocent people die in war, and that sucks, too. But not since the beginning of warfare has any Army taken such care to minimize innocent deaths as the United States armed forces. Never. That’s indisputable.
But, the people who testified Friday glossed over that fact. Take Kelly Dougherty’s testimony that Kellog, Brown and Root prevented scavengers from taking the diesel fuel from their disabled vehicles by firing beanbag rounds at them. What other military entity in the world uses beanbag rounds in a combat zone?
Jason Hurd testified that the ROE ALMOST forced him to shoot a woman carrying home groceries – he broke into tears and slung snot all over the panel because he ALMOST shot a woman. I guess the fact that escaped him was that the ROE worked – he didn’t have to shoot her.
Hurd also tearfully testified that his unit, when fired upon from a building turned a 50-cal on the building and unleashed 200 rounds on the masonry structure. The firing stopped and the unit continued their mission. Hurd went into great detail explaining the size of the rounds and the brass (by the way, Jason, a fifty-cal is a half-inch in diameter, you missed that) and how much ammo is in the metal container – but I fail to see how that reflects on the Bush administration or that Pentagon entity he was trying to blame. Hurd admitted that he doesn’t know how many people were in the building, that he knows of no casualties resulting from that action – so one is left to wonder what was his point?
The point of the whole testimony, for the entire day I spent there was that the war is illegal from the get-go. They offered no evidence that the war is illegal – but when there’s room full of aged bobbleheads nodding on cue – who needs evidence? All of these terrible things that happened could have been avoided if George W, Bush and the evil neo-cons hadn’t invaded Iraq in the first place. No one had stories of torture or atrocities – they only described the horror of being in war. You could only accept these things as atrocities if you accepted at the beginning that war is illegal. Without that admission, you were left to wonder what everyone was talking about.
That was one of the problems – I was probably one of the youngest people in the room and I’m nearly 53 years old. The audience were a bunch of old hippies who’d never served in the military and had never seen a war outside of the context of the politics of war. They tch-tched their way through the hearings without understanding the pains the military had to suffer to avoid real atrocities. Their only solution to the war was ending it – today with no real thought of the consequences. The only victory they sought was a victory of Democrats over Republicans regardless of what the nation would be forced to deal with when their solution was enacted.
Almost everyone testified that they were confused as to the ROE – but then they all testified to a measure of restraint they all knew was present. Um, the ROE. The confusion came when they actually had to apply their own common sense in relation to the ROE and their circumstances.
Jon Michael Turner started telling us how he shot people, he showed us pictures of his kills (dare I say trophies?) – but he neglected to fill in the part about why he shot those people in the first place. I’m pretty sure he didn’t just indiscriminately shoot “the fat man” or the guy in the bicycle. Why didn’t he tell us about the events leading up to his pulling the trigger instead of beginning his stories with the death of his targets? He referred to his “choking hand” and his bracelet on his choking hand – but he failed to tell us if he ever used his “choking hand” to choke anyone that didn’t deserved to be choked. Just that he had a “choking hand”. And then he went on to tell us that he’s not the monster he once was. Well, fellow Vermonter, what made you a monster – the fact that you designated one of your hands a “choking hand”?
His testimony has changed somewhat since January when this video was posted on YouTube and Turner announced that atrocities against innocent civilians was the policy of the military in Iraq.
From his testimony Friday, it seems the only policy of committing atrocities against Iraqi civilians was his own.
James Gilligan’s claims were funny. Some troops stole a few gold coins they found (wasn’t that in the movie “Three Kings?) – what about the troops who found billions of US currency and didn’t take even a George Washington? His first sergeant threatened a boy with a pistol – he didn’t kill the boy, he didn’t harm the boy, he just threatened him. hardly an atrocity. Oh, and he outright lied about witnessing someone being waterboarded – but then he was playing to the crowd. More detractors of the practice have been waterboarded to demonstrate it to the masses than have been actually waterboarded to extract information. But as soon as he said “…and of course they were waterboarded”, all of the bobbleheads in the audience went to nodding.
While we’re on the subject of lying, Adam Kokesh began his testimony with a lie – that’s why I switched on the video – so I didn’t have to listen to him and then get dragged out like Gerry Kiley. He claimed that he’d opposed the war before it began but joined because he thought it was his duty – his website used to claim he joined because he was a real hoo-ah guy and supported the war against terrorists and he’d been influenced by recruiters but the horrors of war turned him against it. So now that he’s established that he’s a liar. when was he lying – on Friday or on his blog? Kokesh depends on people to forget what he’s said in the past.
The real atrocity stories were being told out by the ashtray, though. I don’t know how many of the IVAW kids I heard relating their tales to the belly-shirt, hip-hugger wearing college aged chickies while I took my smokebreaks. But I don’t want to c***block on any of those guys who might still be laid up with their airhead honeys today – that’d be a neocon atrocity.
No matter how hard the panels tried, they tried to make it about the Bush Administration, but their testimony all boiled down to the actions of the soldiers. They claimed to support the troops, but their supposed atrocities were all the result of small unit leaders’ actions (yes, guys, your captains and lieutenants are “troops”, too). No matter how hard they tried to deflect their criticism away from the troops, it hit all of our service members square in the forehead. Registering your gun with willie pete isn’t a decision made by some faceless neo-con in the Pentagon, calling for fire on a village is a company commander’s decision, not Dick Cheney’s. Bragging about firing up a civilian car isn’t coming from the Defense Department. George Bush wasn’t pushing down on the 50-cal’s butterflies or reloading the gun.
I may have some more thoughts as the day goes on, but I’m going to spend the day with my grandson. Keep an eye on The Sniper, TSO is supposed to be live-blogging the media portion of the testimony.
Rules of Engagement part II – we’re warned of graphic language and graphic images.
Vincent Emmanuel (second from left in photo) complained that troops took “potshots” at “property, cars, people…I remember myself firing indiscriminately without knowing what I was shooting at…” “We punched, kicked and mistreated innocent Iraqis being released from interrogation” “It’s standard procedure to run over dead bodies in the road”
Sergio Kochergian (third from left in photo) Saw friends getting killed and blown up everyday. ROE changed from calling in suspicious activity to engaging armed non-Americans. ROE changed again to just kill anyone with a sack over their shoulder digging along the road. ROE changed again to individuals’ discretion. “I don’t know what’s going on over there, but I want to apologize to all of the people in Iraq”
Hart Viges (fourth from left) fired up an old lady carrying groceries. Butt-stroked people for no reason as a matter of policy. Beat a group of Iraqis for no apparent reason – as a matter of policy. Shot up cars for not obeying US troops at checkpoints – calls them innocents. Shot up the mayor of a village who didn’t obey traffic – squad members bragged about tight shot group on car window. Digging near roads got Iraqis killed (wonder why). “Not a public announcement of the policy – it was policy behind closed doors”.
Jason Lemieu (sp?) (fifth from left) Three tours. “ROE in Iraq is broadly defined and loosely enforced – anyone saying otherwise is either a fool or a liar”. ROE from commander: “Kill those who need to killed, save those that need to be saved”. Commander; everyone in a black headscarf is a legitimate target. “I can only guess at how many innocent people were killed”. Heard that one Marine refused to shoot a woman carrying groceries, so commander shot her.
Not the marines’ fault – extreme incompetence of leaders.
John Michael Turner (Burlington, VT – fourth from right) tears off medals and tosses them to loud applause from crowd. Showed videos of Marines celebrating effective use of firepower and pictures of destroyed buildings (nothing about casualties). Shot people with .50 cal. Troops had no respect for dead bodies as a matter of policy. Enjoys showing grotesque pictures that have nothing to do with the panel. “I shot a guy I call the fat man. When I didn’t kill him with the first round, I shot him again”. Was congratulated for first kill – was promised a four day pass if he could kill someone with a knife.
He has pictures of his confirmed kills (we’re up to number three – a man on bicycle). When reporters were embedded, ROE changed drastically – “by the book”. The implication is that the media isn’t getting the whole story.
Some blather about a bracelet and his “choking hand” which was somehow part of the ROE. Shows video of destroying a minaret “because we were angry and taking out our aggression”. “There are many more stories that I don’t have time to tell them all.” “I’m sorry for the hate and destruction I’ve inflicted on other people.” “I’m no longer the monster that I once was.”
Logan Laituri Army 82d Abn. Volunteered for Afghanistan. Went to Iraw w/1/14th INF 25th Infantry Div. from Hawaii. “Came to my faith and applied for Conscientous Objector status”. Claims he was infantry, but that his duty was that of Forward Observer in Iraq. Claims “no concrete ROE”. Didn’t know that Willy Pete couldn’t be used against personnel. Claims commander instructed that an unarmed dead body would be given a weapon – two troops charged with murder had charges dropped. Blames combat triage policy for death of an Iraqi. “I’m here because I love America”
James Gilligan (second from left) marines – no unit given. (Sorry I missed the story – we got jerked out for a minute and I missed it). Complains that Afghan police had a private weapons cache. His first sergeant threatened with a pistol a young Iraqi boy who’d hit an Iraqi girl. Stopped a scavenger and was ordered to make his vehicle inoperable. A picture of him in his boxer shorts in the desert (WTF?). Troops stole gold coins and made crank calls to wives of troops deployed. Claims he witnessed waterboarding (he might want to read the news ). “We ignored procedures”.
Garret Reppenhagen (1st on left) 2/63 Armor “Scout Sniper”. Killed two unarmed guys with .50 cal. for being out after curfew. Claims used 40mm on personnel, too. Claims was never clear on ROE for entire tour. Claims all headquarters pogues are derelicts – “thrown out of their units”. An inexperienced intel major commanded his security detail to shoot a couple of civilian vehicles who turned out to be body guards of a deputy minister. “This kind of confusion goes on every day in Iraq”. “The war is the atrocity”.
Videos from Iraqis inserted here with subtitles – I’m sure whoever took the videos were looking for good stories about the troops from among the millions of Iraqis and not just a few disgruntled civilians.
That’s going to do it for me – but Thus Spake Ortner plans on blogging some tomorrow and Sunday so keep your eye on him this weekend. Tomorrow I’m going to the rally for troops on the National Mall, so look for pictures and videos tomorrow night.
Thank you note: Thanks to all of you for your attention today. And thanks to those numerous other bloggers who sent you here. You’re all in my blogroll – you all rock.
The third portion is has to do with the evil corporations and the evil contractors.
Kelly Doughtery (a former MP, second from right in the photo above) testified that (Kellog, Brown and Root) contractors fired beanbag shotgun indiscriminately at Iraqi scanvengers while defending a broken down truck. She was then instructed to destroy the vehicle because it couldn’t be recovered. No one was injured or killed but she’s sure that being hit with beanbags hurts. It wore on her nerves because the Iraqis weren’t allowed to get the diesel fuel from the truck. I guess it really is a war for oil.
She just doesn’t like war – it made her clothes smell.
Louis Montalvan, who wore all of his medals on his sports jacket and sits third from the left in the photo, complained about Iraqi corruption, i think. He’s so long winded, I uploaded and posted the pictures in the GOE/EU thread above. I think he’s trying to make the point that we’re being lied to by the Iraqi government. I don’t know – he’s pretty full of himself and in love with sound of his own voice – I’m about ready to fall asleep. TSO and I arrived at the same conclusion separately – just before we both dozed off.
Oh, well, there he goes finally – Petraeus is lying about Iraqi forces. Whew – he could have said that in the first two minutes and spared us the dreary voice.
Antonia Juhasz (second from right in photo), intends to give testimony that supports the brave troops deployed in Iraq, let’s see if she does. Well, since she just told us that the war is illegal from beginning and that the troops have an obligation to the Constitution to refuse to serve in the war. So I guess that support for the troops deteriorates if they don’t mutiny. That only took minutes to go from support to disdain. Oh, God, more big words (oh, she’s a minority, so that gives her more credibility).
Iraq is unsafe for Iraqis. Oh, Haliburton gets mentioned – how did I know that? She’s complaining about Bremer – how long has Bremer been gone? Iraqis were hostile to the reorganization of Iraq because they’d gotten fired. But corporations like Bechtel were just there for the money, so they dragged out rebuilding the infrastructure. 2 1/2 million Iraqis are urged not to return to Iraq – because the infrastructure hasn’t been restored. Of course, the whole war was about oil and about making money for US corporations – and you have to admit that or you just won’t see it all her way. Snooze time!
Jeremy Scahill (first on right) is upset that Blackwater security aren’t getting thrown in prison. Only two have been convicted he says. 170 companies provide Blackwater-type services in Iraq. He’s upset that private companies supporting US troops are making money – that they’re taking advantage of Iraqis and they poison water they provide for US troops (seems their contract would abruptly end if they did that – there’s no evidence, just believe what they’re telling us).
“Don’t drink the koolaid of Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama” (energetic applause- finally something we all have in common – I found a home)
Oh, I see we have to make them stand for immediate withdrawal – not support John McCain – I must’ve misunderstood where he was going.
