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mtboone
Founder
Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 470
Location: Kansas City, MO.
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 Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 4:38 pm Post subject: Sounds like another jfk puke. |
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Does this sound familar? 
http://www.canada.com/nanaimo/story.html?id=a1a5867d-4b62-4a55-b7b8-f92037031ab6
U.S. killed unarmed Iraqis, war-dodger hearing told
Colin Perkel
Canadian Press
December 8, 2004
1 | 2 | NEXT >>
Jeremy Hinzman speaks in this recent file photo. (CP Archive/Darryl James)
ADVERTISEMENT
TORONTO (CP) - A former United States marine told a refugee hearing for an American war dodger Tuesday that trigger-happy U.S. soldiers in Iraq routinely killed unarmed woman and children, and murdered other Iraqis in violation of international law.
In chilling testimony intended to bolster the asylum claim of compatriot Jeremy Hinzman, former staff sergeant Jimmy Massey recounted how nervous soldiers trained to believe that all Iraqis were potential terrorists often opened fire indiscriminately.
"I was never clear on who the enemy was," Massey, 33, told the hearing.
"If you have no enemy or you do not know who the enemy is, what are you doing there?"
On several occasions, his soldiers pumped hundreds of bullets into cars that failed to stop at U.S. military checkpoints, killing all occupants - who were later found to be unarmed, Massey said.
On another occasion, marines reacted to a stray bullet by killing a small group of unarmed protesters and bystanders, said Massey, who said he suffers from nightmares and post-traumatic stress disorder.
"I was deeply concerned about the civilian casualties," he said.
"What they were doing was committing murder."
Massey's statements echoed earlier testimony from Hinzman, who says he fled the U.S. military because he believed the invasion of Iraq was illegal, and any violent acts he committed there would be unconscionable.
"This was a criminal war," Hinzman said.
"Any act of violence in an unjustified conflict is an atrocity."
Hinzman, 26, deserted his regiment in January just days before being deployed to Iraq, and fears he will be unfairly court-martialled if returned to the United States.
Hinzman told the Immigration and Refugee Board hearing that the U.S. military regarded all Arabs in the Middle East - Iraqis in particular - as potential terrorists to be eliminated.
"We were referring to these people as savages," Hinzman testified.
"It fosters an attitude of hatred that gets your blood boiling."
While a federal government lawyer said U.S. deserters often get about a year in jail, Hinzman countered he would be treated more harshly because of his views on the Iraq war.
"Serving even one day in prison for refusing to comply with an illegal order is too long," Hinzman said.
"I would be prosecuted for acting upon a political belief . . . for refusing to do something that was wrong."
A Washington Post reporter covering the hearings said Americans are extremely sensitive to Hinzman's request for asylum because of parallels to the Vietnam War.
"There's a great deal of worry that Iraq is beginning to look a little like Vietnam," said Doug Struck.
"Americans are very worried when their servicemen start saying, 'No, we're not going to go.' It sends alarms off."
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Terry Boone PCF 90
Qui Nhon 68-69 |
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Sgt-Keeper
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Posts: 96
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| Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 6:39 pm Post subject: |
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Canada can keep all of them. They seem right at home there. Comparison to the Viet Nam war? Only if they quote another famous American trator, JFK. It seems that these boys are reading from JFKs congressional script, just making a few minor changes in order to update the war crimes charges. Bet these two end up in Congress some day! JFK and Teddy could mentor them.
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Fix the problem, not the blame.
USMC E5 Nam vet 65-66 |
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fortdixlover
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 1476
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| Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:15 pm Post subject: Re: Sounds like another jfk puke. |
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YES it does have a familiar ring to it.
As a physician, I detect certain patterns.
Someone on the left (a deserter to boot) makes John-Kerry-1971-like charges about the U.S. military being a bunch of Fedayeen Uncle Sams.
This guy has the means, motive (including escaping courtmartial and jail) and opportunity to slander the U.S. military.
When a person with a bad heart who's been on VIOXX comes in to the E.R., ashen, sweating, hypotensive (low blood pressure), with crushing chest pain after shoveling snow, I don't need much more to know they're having a heart attack.
Fiskings of this story (such as at http://armor.typepad.com/bastardsword/2004/06/jimmy_massey.html ) show the story to likely be as reliable as Dan Rather's 'documents' on Bush's Air Natl. Guard service.
Time to call the SwiftVets experts into action -- let's find the holes in John Kerry II's 'testimony' before the leftists try to pull another egregious "American Soldiers are Genghis Khans" Senate hearing - and spit on Iraq War Veterans.
-- FDL
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"Millions For Defense, Not One Cent For Tribute" - Thomas Jefferson on paying ransom to Muslim corsairs (pirates). |
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Sgt-Keeper
Seaman Apprentice
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
Posts: 96
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| Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:41 pm Post subject: |
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Hmmmmm. Marine SSgt. Jimmy Massey referring to soldiers doing this, and soldiers doing that. When was the last time any Marine referred to other Marines as soldiers? This whole story can't pass the smell test.
We can't challenge every story like this, but what we can do is educate the media and general public about fakes. Request all reporters to demand a DD214 when quoting a supposed military speaker. If they can't produce a valid 214, then their entire story becomes fiction. And yes, I have a copy of mine available at all times. That's how important this issue is. It's at least a start. Counteract with truth. That is our strength.
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Fix the problem, not the blame.
USMC E5 Nam vet 65-66 |
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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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| Posted: Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:11 pm Post subject: |
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This Jeremy Hinzman puke will probably use this to follow in the footsteps of his mentor, Hanoi John.
These kind of people make me want to barf.
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71) |
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I B Squidly
Vice Admiral
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 879
Location: Cactus Patch
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| Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:06 am Post subject: |
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In a similar vein find this:
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041207-121848-6449r.htm
| Quote: | Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters
By Mark Benjamin
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Washington, DC, Dec. 7 (UPI) --
U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.
"When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that."
"I drove off in my truck. I packed my stuff. I lived out of my truck for a while," Seabees Petty Officer Luis Arellano, 34, said in a telephone interview from a homeless shelter near March Air Force Base in California run by U.S.VETS, the largest organization in the country dedicated to helping homeless veterans.
Arellano said he lived out of his truck on and off for three months after returning from Iraq in September 2003. "One day you have a home and the next day you are on the streets," he said.
In Iraq, shrapnel nearly severed his left thumb. He still has trouble moving it and shrapnel "still comes out once in a while," Arellano said. He is left handed.
Arellano said he felt pushed out of the military too quickly after getting back from Iraq without medical attention he needed for his hand -- and as he would later learn, his mind.
"It was more of a rush. They put us in a warehouse for a while. They treated us like cattle," Arellano said about how the military treated him on his return to the United States.
"It is all about numbers. Instead of getting quality care, they were trying to get everybody demobilized during a certain time frame. If you had a problem, they said, 'Let the (Department of Veterans Affairs) take care of it.'"
The Pentagon has acknowledged some early problems and delays in treating soldiers returning from Iraq but says the situation has been fixed.
A gunner's mate for 16 years, Arellano said he adjusted after serving in the first Gulf War. But after returning from Iraq, depression drove him to leave his job at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He got divorced.
He said that after being quickly pushed out of the military, he could not get help from the VA because of long delays.
"I felt, as well as others (that the military said) 'We can't take care of you on active duty.' We had to sign an agreement that we would follow up with the VA," said Arellano.
"When we got there, the VA was totally full. They said, 'We'll call you.' But I developed depression."
He left his job and wandered for three months, sometimes living in his truck.
Nearly 300,000 veterans are homeless on any given night, and almost half served during the Vietnam era, according to the Homeless Veterans coalition, a consortium of community-based homeless-veteran service providers. While some experts have questioned the degree to which mental trauma from combat causes homelessness, a large number of veterans live with the long-term effects of post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse, according to the coalition.
Some homeless-veteran advocates fear that similar combat experiences in Vietnam and Iraq mean that these first few homeless veterans from Iraq are the crest of a wave.
"This is what happened with the Vietnam vets. I went to Vietnam," said John Keaveney, chief operating officer of New Directions, a shelter and drug-and-alcohol treatment program for veterans in Los Angeles. That city has an estimated 27,000 homeless veterans, the largest such population in the nation. "It is like watching history being repeated," Keaveney said.
Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that as of last July, nearly 28,000 veterans from Iraq sought health care from the VA. One out of every five was diagnosed with a mental disorder, according to the VA. An Army study in the New England Journal of Medicine in July showed that 17 percent of service members returning from Iraq met screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety disorder or PTSD.
Asked whether he might have PTSD, Arrellano, the Seabees petty officer who lived out of his truck, said: "I think I do, because I get nightmares. I still remember one of the guys who was killed." He said he gets $100 a month from the government for the wound to his hand.
Lance Cpl. James Claybon Brown Jr., 23, is staying at a shelter run by U.S.VETS in Los Angeles. He fought in Iraq for 6 months with Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 2nd Marines and later in Afghanistan with another unit. He said the fighting in Iraq was sometimes intense.
"We were pretty much all over the place," Brown said. "It was really heavy gunfire, supported by mortar and tanks, the whole nine (yards)."
Brown acknowledged the mental stress of war, particularly after Marines inadvertently killed civilians at road blocks. He thinks his belief in God helped him come home with a sound mind.
"We had a few situations where, I guess, people were trying to get out of the country. They would come right at us and they would not stop," Brown said. "We had to open fire on them. It was really tough. A lot of soldiers, like me, had trouble with that."
"That was the hardest part," Brown said. "Not only were there men, but there were women and children -- really little children. There would be babies with arms blown off. It was something hard to live with."
Brown said he got an honorable discharge with a good conduct medal from the Marines in July and went home to Dayton, Ohio. But he soon drifted west to California "pretty much to start over," he said.
Brown said his experience with the VA was positive, but he has struggled to find work and is staying with U.S.VETS to save money. He said he might go back to school.
Advocates said seeing homeless veterans from Iraq should cause alarm. Around one-fourth of all homeless Americans are veterans, and more than 75 percent of them have some sort of mental or substance abuse problem, often PTSD, according to the Homeless Veterans coalition.
More troubling, experts said, is that mental problems are emerging as a major casualty cluster, particularly from the war in Iraq where the enemy is basically everywhere and blends in with the civilian population, and death can come from any direction at any time.
Interviews and visits to homeless shelters around the Unites States show the number of homeless veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan so far is limited. Of the last 7,500 homeless veterans served by the VA, 50 had served in Iraq. Keaveney, from New Directions in West Los Angeles, said he is treating two homeless veterans from the Army's elite Ranger battalion at his location. U.S.VETS, the largest organization in the country dedicated to helping homeless veterans, found nine veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan in a quick survey of nine shelters. Others, like the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training in Baltimore, said they do not currently have any veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan in their 170 beds set aside for emergency or transitional housing.
Peter Dougherty, director of Homeless Veterans Programs at the VA, said services for veterans at risk of becoming homeless have improved exponentially since the Vietnam era. Over the past 30 years, the VA has expanded from 170 hospitals, adding 850 clinics and 206 veteran centers with an increasing emphasis on mental health. The VA also supports around 300 homeless veteran centers like the ones run by U.S.VETS, a partially non-profit organization.
"You probably have close to 10 times the access points for service than you did 30 years ago," Dougherty said. "We may be catching a lot of these folks who are coming back with mental illness or substance abuse" before they become homeless in the first place. Dougherty said the VA serves around 100,000 homeless veterans each year.
But Boone's group says that nearly 500,000 veterans are homeless at some point in any given year, so the VA is only serving 20 percent of them.
Roslyn Hannibal-Booker, director of development at the Maryland veterans center in Baltimore, said her organization has begun to get inquiries from veterans from Iraq and their worried families. "We are preparing for Iraq," Hannibal-Booker said.
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No one in this article seems to agree how many homeless vets there are but the 'advocacy groups' claim half are 'Nam vets and vets are 25% of all homeless. Though only 50 Iraqi vets are mentioned as passing through VA transient housing it's enough to raise the old bugaboos of 75% drug abuse and PTS. It's not hard to guess these 'advocacy groups' gobble VA and Public Health grants promoting this crap...and don't have to check DD214s. |
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mtboone
Founder
Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 470
Location: Kansas City, MO.
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| Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:09 am Post subject: |
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Hinzman, 26, deserted his regiment in January just days before being deployed to Iraq, and fears he will be unfairly court-martialled if returned to the United States.
I doubt if he deserted he would have a DD214, that comes after you leave the military but you are right; a Marine never calls another Marine a soldier. I doubt the MSM will try to touch this guy, it will make them look like the media from the 60's.
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Terry Boone PCF 90
Qui Nhon 68-69 |
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Snipe
Senior Chief Petty Officer
Joined: 03 Jun 2004
Posts: 574
Location: Peoria, Illinois
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| Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:43 pm Post subject: |
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A Seabee Gunner's Mate? This guy REALLY needs help. I was
rated Chief Petty Officer at Naval Construction Training Center,
Port Hueneme back in 1974 and this article just REEKs. The
reporters involved in this really ought to be able to check out their
stories or go into another line of work. Porn fiction comes to mind.
Something that doesn't require any semblance of truth.
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Navy_Navy_Navy
Admin
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 5777
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| Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 4:47 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era. |
There were over 8 million "era" vets and 2.6 million who actually served in-theatre during Vietnam.
There have been, what, 250 - 300,000 activated in the Gulf Wars of late?
Where do these freakin' newspapers FIND these people who can extrapolote catastrophe from nothing?
They speak to three or four former service members with atypical stories and all of a sudden, the sky is falling?
We all know the system doesn't work perfectly, but there is a huge amount of counseling and job/placement/financial assistance available when you leave the military these days. It's nothing like the days of Vietnam, where they gave you a bus ticket home, cashiered you out and said, "sayonara." By it's own admission, there are ten times the number of service points available to a departing service member, these days, and they're working on picking up PTSD cases early, before the follow-on cycle can start up.
| Quote: | | Data from the Department of Veterans Affairs shows that as of last July, nearly 28,000 veterans from Iraq sought health care from the VA. One out of every five was diagnosed with a mental disorder, according to the VA. An Army study in the New England Journal of Medicine in July showed that 17 percent of service members returning from Iraq met screening criteria for major depression, generalized anxiety disorder or PTSD. |
WTF is up with these people? Do they even bother to check the facts before they write?
17 percent is roughly equivalent to thode in the general population who suffer from either depression, GAD or PTSD - I'd have to check to be certain, but this number may actually be significantly less for military people!
The Vietnamization of the war on terror continues..... 
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
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I B Squidly
Vice Admiral
Joined: 26 Aug 2004
Posts: 879
Location: Cactus Patch
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fortdixlover
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 12 May 2004
Posts: 1476
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| Posted: Thu Dec 09, 2004 11:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Navy_Navy_Navy wrote: | | WTF is up with these people? Do they even bother to check the facts before they write? |
Navy, no, they don't check any facts. Which is truly amazing, considering google.com and other "quick find" tools that appeared in the late 20th century.
Suggests maybe the MSM has an agenda, eh?
-- FDL
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"Millions For Defense, Not One Cent For Tribute" - Thomas Jefferson on paying ransom to Muslim corsairs (pirates). |
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d19thdoc
PO3
Joined: 17 May 2004
Posts: 280
Location: New Jersey Shore
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d19thdoc
PO3
Joined: 17 May 2004
Posts: 280
Location: New Jersey Shore
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| Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 7:27 pm Post subject: Re: Sounds like another jfk puke. |
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| Quote: | TORONTO (CP) - A former United States marine told a refugee hearing for an American war dodger Tuesday that trigger-happy U.S. soldiers in Iraq routinely killed unarmed woman and children, and murdered other Iraqis in violation of international law.
In chilling testimony intended to bolster the asylum claim of compatriot Jeremy Hinzman, former staff sergeant Jimmy Massey recounted how nervous soldiers trained to believe that all Iraqis were potential terrorists often opened fire indiscriminately. |
Having kept a sharp eye on media reports like this during this past year, Massey's stories ring bells. What we have here is classic "Kerry-ism." There was a story of a civilian vehicle shot up by Marines at a bridge crossing. It was actually captured on film and broadcast. I saw the broadcast. But it was a single incident, where the civilians failed to heed orders to stop and continued toward the Marines.
What this guy is doing is what Kerry did. He takes a few isolated incidents, cites them as typical, or even routine, or worse, as policy; and exaggerates or misrepresents the context and actual circumastances of the incidents. He then goes beyond what Kerry (personally) did, and claims that he personally was present at the incident in question, and others like it.
Unfortunately, I did not save links to these stories, but it looks like someone has tracked these kinds of things, and has found a spokesman who is willing to claim, incredibly, that he participated in all of them.
Someone needs to get busy tracking these stories, and researching their credibility, while the actors are all still available and the trail is fresh.
We also need to look into who the patrons are, financially and ideologically, for guys like this Massey.
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Mother
Former Member
Joined: 02 Nov 2004
Posts: 210
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| Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 12:52 am Post subject: |
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It'd be interesting to see the signature on these guys American Express bill for his hotel and plane fare to Canada....JFK?
The Boston story is a little too close to Kerry, eh?
And both stories come out in the same week as the homeless story? |
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Beatrice1000
Resource Specialist
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1179
Location: Minneapolis, MN
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| Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 9:18 am Post subject: Re: Sounds like another jfk puke. |
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Been researching these deserters (“refugees”) to Canada and the people helping them -- and using them -- the anti-war folk, the European press, socialists/communists, the Islamists -- every time they open their mouths, they feed someone’s cause -- just a little something for everyone, it seems (except for the U.S.A.) ... Here are some articles indicating their mass appeal and some of their friends and supporters who want Vietnam so bad they can't talk about anything else, it seems -- (I’ve only followed a few threads -- it gets real complicated, real quick....)
Jeremy Hinzman -- (26) Former Army, Private First Class, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne (deserted his regiment in Jan. just days before being deployed to Iraq) -- Hinzman told the Immigration and Refugee Board hearing that the U.S. military regarded all Arabs in the Middle East - Iraqis in particular - as potential terrorists to be eliminated.
Jeffry House -- Hinzman’s Lawyer: Vietnam draft dodger (Canada), represents 3: Jeremy Hinzman, Brandon Hughey & David Sanders
Jimmy Massey -- (33) former Marine staff sergeant (there to bolster asylum claim of compatriot Hinzman) (Waynesville, NC) - honorable discharge; assoc. with Veterans For Peace: “We’re committing genocide” in Iraq.
Gary Myers -- Massey’s Lawyer: defense atty for My Lai trials during Vietnam War; and attorney for Chip Frederick re: Abu Ghraib.
| Quote: | MARCH 31, 2003: Re: MASSEY
“Slandering the Troops in Order to Defeat Them” - 5/18/04
In the presence of an embedded reporter, in March 2003, Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey, of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Weapons Company, mocked an Iraqi civilian who was trying to communicate with Marines:
<"Marines treat every Iraqi as a potential combatant"> by Ron Harris, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 3/31/03
A little more than a year later, Massey implied to the AP that excessive 9/11 rhetoric might have contributed to the atmosphere that facilitated the Abu Ghraib abuses: ... (He) served in Iraq, then quit the force & has affiliated with an anti-war group called Veterans for Peace. ... In between these two press mentions, Massey...was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, received a discharge, & began decrying war crimes — first to French media, but increasingly in the U.S. ... The domestic buzz began with an interview that Massey gave to anti-war activist Paul Rockwell for the Sacramento Bee, & some of what he says therein is eerily familiar: ...What they need to know is we killed a lot of innocent people. ... "We're committing genocide."
<dustinthelight.timshelarts.com> |
| Quote: | APRIL 15, 2003: Re: MASSEY
“The High Price of War Leaves One Man Broken” by Jeff Schmerker, 4/15/03
... On 4/15/02, Massey was handed orders saying when his duty as a recruiter ended in Oct. he was to report to Twentynine Palms, CA. He knew he’d be going to war... Massey came to believe that most of the time when he shot to kill, he was killing civilians. ...On 4/15/03, in Karbala, Massey went to his commanding officer. He was depressed, he told the officer. He was not an effective leader anymore, he said. “I’m having issues,” he told his commanding officer. .. The commanding officer sent him to a Navy psychiatrist. ... The psychiatrist diagnosed Massey as depressed & suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. He recommended Massey leave the battlefield immediately. ... In the morning Massey was called into the commanding officer’s room. He was not cut out to be an officer in the Marines, the superior told him. “He told me, ‘You’re a poor leader,’ ‘You’re faking it,’ ‘You’re a conscientious objector,’ ‘You’re a wimp,’” said Massey. “..You just stand there and take it....”
In CA, Massey’s medical history was put before a review board. .... There arose questions about disability & retirement payments, so Massey hired a lawyer, the same one who defended American soldiers after the Mai Lai attack in Vietnam. On Nov. 14, orders came that he was discharged on a medical retirement. Within 24 hours, Massey was on the road home. ... “It just leaves a question in my mind: Were we there to help them or were we there to take over a country for our own personal gain? i.e., oil.” < SOURCE > |
| Quote: | JUNE 23, 2003: Re: Islamonline gets out info on exhausted troops
“U.S. Soldiers in Iraq ‘Had Enough,’ Want to Go Home” - 6/23/03 Fallujah, Iraq
... "I think I had enough. It's time for us to go home," said Private First Class Joe Cruz, 18, from the Second Brigade of the Army's Third Infantry Div. in Fallujah, ... according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). Cruz, a native of Guam,.. Terrified & panicked by Iraqi resistance operations, Cruz wakes up "in the middle of the night just to look around..." ... The Iraqi resistance issued its first statement, which was circulated in Baghdad's mosques and streets. “Iraqis should stay away from occupation soldiers... , to allow our fighting cells to carry out their martyr operations without leaving civilian casualties,”.... Private First Class James Mierop, 20, from Joliet, IL, described the mood as grim. "I think a lot of people here are at the breaking point," he said. "I think everybody's had enough.... " Mierop said. Morale, soldiers said, is low since the end of the U.S.-led Iraq invasion. ... When asked what he would like to say to Bush, Leggette said he wanted Bush to know everyone here was "exhausted."... For Balderas, the message is simple. "Get us out of here and get new troops here," he said. < SOURCE >
(My note: Why are our troops so eager to talk to the French press?) |
| Quote: | | MARCH 20, 2004: NOTE: Hughey & Hinzman were featured guests at Toronto's "The World Still Says No to War" rally |
| Quote: | APRIL 2004: Re: MASSEY & HOFFMAN (French press)
“No Worse Enemy: A Marine Breaks his Silence” by Natasha Saulnier, 4/04
With the escalation of violence now engulfing Iraq, Jimmy Massey, 31, a Staff Sergeant in the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Weapons Company, has decided to break his silence & speak out about us abuses on the ground there. ...When I read about the mutilated, charred bodies of the Blackwater mercenaries in the news, all I thought was that we did the same thing to them. They would see us debase their dead all the time. ...” Another soldier, a 23-year-old Marine who returned from Iraq last fall and wishes to remain anonymous, adds, “We would defecate on and run over dead Iraqi bodies.” ...
Lance Corporal Michael Hoffman*, a 24-year-old Marine who recently returned from Iraq, corroborates this point, saying, “We used improved conventional weapons which explode in the air and contain 88 grenades each. .. ”...This is the war that Massey refused to participate in—a war where the lines between civilians & military are blurred, ... According to Massey, it puts in context the killing of the Blackwater employees, which he sees as an act of retaliation from the Iraqis for the atrocities perpetrated on them instead of an attempt to “stop progress toward democracy,” as described by President Bush. “The Marines were brainwashed to kill the enemy, now they’re brainwashed to kill civilians,” says Massey. “They used to be trained to meet the enemy on the battlefield. but in Iraq, there’s no enemy.” Lance Corporal Hoffman confirms...
< SOURCE >
(*My note: Michael Hoffman is founder of: IVAW -- with the blessings of the VVAW (see Wintersoldier/VVAW Forum here)) |
| Quote: | APRIL 6, 2004: Re: HUGHEY & HINZMAN
“Facing Iraq duty, two U.S. G.I.’s head north to seek asylum -- Soldiers Choose Canada” by Alisa Solomon (4/6/04)
TORONTO: Army private Brandon Hughey got in his silver Mustang around midnight on March 2, ...All he had to guide him was ... help from a complete stranger he'd found on the Internet...an anti-war activist, "...The activist met him on March 4 in southern Indiana, stashed the Mustang ...He gave Hughey a NY Knicks cap to pull on over his crew cut so the guards at the Canadian border would believe they were on their way to see a Toronto Raptors game. ...
... their cases will determine whether Canada will once again welcome young Americans resisting a questionable war. The first was Jeremy Hinzman, a private first class with the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 82nd Airborne, who arrived in Toronto on January 3... In contrast to Hughey, Hinzman engaged a lengthy process of pleading from within his unit for non-combat duty as a conscientious objector (C.O.). After his request was denied, Hinzman faced orders for Iraq. ... To win refugee status, Hinzman & Hughey will have to demonstrate that they are fleeing a well-founded fear of persecution in the U.S.—an extremely tough claim. What's more, notes a former member of Canada's Immigration & Refugee Board, refugee law specifies that "prosecution is not persecution": ... That is the kind of argument Hinzman and Hughey's attorney, Jeffry House, will make before Canada's immigration board about eight weeks from now. Essentially, House will be putting the war itself on trial by contending that the U.S. wants to send these young men to jail—or worse—for choosing to comply with international law. ... House knows the feeling. As a college student in Madison, WI, in the late '60s, he concluded that the Vietnam War was wrong & that he would not participate. The day he got his draft notice, he went to Canada. ...
---------------------------------
... By the time Hughey reported to Fort Hood in mid Dec., he had read what int’l. law has to say about wars of aggression & sensed he had made a terrible mistake. ... Then he found the stranger: ... Carl Rising-Moore, 58, who describes himself as having been "a brainwashed young man" who enlisted during Vietnam & has been a peace activist ever since, says he couldn't help responding to Hughey's plea—even though it's a felony to assist a deserter. ... Rising-Moore made arrangements with the Quakers. When Rose Marie Cipryk & Don Alexander agreed to receive Hughey in their St. Catharines home, it was déjŕ vu all over again: They had sheltered resisters in the late '60s...
While it will be months before their refugee claims are decided—possibly years if there are appeals—Hughey & Hinzman have already been embraced by Canada's anti-war movement. On 3/20/04, they were featured guests at Toronto's "The World Still Says No to War" rally, which brought out some 7,000 students, trade unionists, religious peaceniks, & lefty sectarians... Hinzman addressed the crowd. Though he had never given a speech at a demonstration before, he was a high school debater in his hometown of Rapid City, SD .. --later, he comments that the rally reminded him of Elias Canetti's "Crowds and Power"—so he knows how to turn an oratorical phrase. He told the demonstrators, "I could not simply claim that I was merely a victim of the times or that I was just following orders. Had I taken part in the occupation of Iraq, I would have been making myself complicit in a criminal enterprise."...
< VILLAGE VOICE > |
| Quote: | APRIL 17, 2004: Re: MASSEY (Islamonline)
“American Marine ‘Ashamed’ of Iraq Experience” Cairo, 4/17/04
Ever since his return home last April, U.S. Marine Jimmy Massey has had a hard time sleeping, feeling "ashamed" of involvement in killing no less than 30 Iraqi civilians during his one-month mission. "We had no qualms about opening fire on any car crossing a checkpoint without hauling up," he told the French newspaper L’Humanite on Tuesday, April 13. ... for Massey, there is more than a thin line between allegedly precautionary measure & a "war of genocide" and a virtual stench of civilian deaths... ...."Throw candies in the school courtyard, and open fire on children rushing to snatch them. Crush them," he recalled officers as saying during drills. ... < SOURCE > |
| Quote: | MAY 1-3, 2004: Re: GARY MYERS (Abu Ghraib/My Lai)
“Abu Ghraib as My Lai?” by Diane Rejman, 5/1-3/04 (Rejman is member of Vets For Peace)
...The Winter Soldier hearings of 1971 came about in a big way to show the world & America that murdering Vietnamese civilians & burning their villages was a common occurrence, & sometimes even expected. Jump forward to 2004. Photographs of American soldiers torturing & abusing Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib surface. ... But if you turn those people into gooks or ragheads, or whatever non-human assignment you can think of, the soldier is no longer murdering human beings. ... I saw similar pictures as these in the Winter Soldier hearings. ...
... Sgt. Chip Frederick is one of those being court-martialed. "The way the Army was running the prison led to the abuse of prisoners... We were helping the interrogators... " Rather: "How could a person such as Frederick, ...get himself into this kind of jam." Attorney Gary Myers, & a Judge Advocate in Iraq: "The elixir of power. The elixir of believing you are helping the CIA for god's sake, when you're from a small town in Virginia, that's intoxicating. And so good guys sometimes do things believing that they are being of assistance and helping a just cause & helping people they view as important." ... This same kind of brainwashing led many soldiers in Vietnam to randomly murder women, children, the elderly and the sick. That has happened in Iraq. .... < SOURCE > |
| Quote: | MAY 10, 2004: Re: GARY MYERS (Abu Ghraib - by Hersh, who broke the My Lai story....)
“Torture at Abu Ghraib” by Seymour M. Hersh (5/10/04)
American soldiers brutalized Iraqis. How far up does the responsibility go? ... At the Article 32 hearing, the Army informed Frederick & his attorneys, Captain Robert Shuck, an Army lawyer, & Gary Myers, a civilian, that two dozen witnesses they had sought... would not appear... “The purpose of an Article 32 hearing is for us to engage witnesses and discover facts,” Gary Myers told me. “We ended up with a c.i.d. agent & no alleged victims to examine.” After the hearing, the presiding investigative officer ruled that there was sufficient evidence to convene a court-martial against Frederick. Myers, who was one of the military defense attorneys in the My Lai prosecutions of the 1970s, told me that his client’s defense will be that he was carrying out the orders of his superiors &, in particular, the directions of military intelligence. He said, “Do you really think a group of kids from rural Virginia decided to do this on their own? Decided that the best way to embarrass Arabs & make them talk was to have them walk around nude?” ... Gary Myers, Frederick’s civilian attorney, told me that he would argue at the court-martial that culpability in the case extended far beyond his client. “I’m going to drag every involved intelligence officer & civilian contractor I can find into court,” he said. “Do you really believe the Army relieved a general officer because of six soldiers? Not a chance.
< SOURCE > |
| Quote: | MAY 16, 2004: Re: MASSEY
“Atrocities in Iraq: I killed innocent people for our government” by Paul Rockwell,* The Sacramento Bee, 5/16/04
The Iraq war changed Massey. The brutality, the sheer carnage of the U.S. invasion, touched his conscience & transformed him forever**. He was honorably discharged with full severance last Dec. 31 & is now back in his hometown, Waynesville, N.C.
Q: You mention machine guns. What can you tell me about cluster bombs, or depleted uranium?
A: Depleted uranium. I know what it does. It's basically like leaving plutonium rods around. I'm 32 years old. I have 80 percent of my lung capacity. I ache all the time. I don't feel like a healthy 32-year-old.
Q: Were you in the vicinity of depleted uranium?
A: Oh, yeah. It's everywhere. Depleted uranium is everywhere on the battlefield. If you hit a tank, there's dust.
Q: Did you breath any dust?
A: Yeah.
Q: And if depleted uranium is affecting you or our troops, it's impacting Iraqi civilians.
A: Oh, yeah. They got a big wasteland problem.
Q: Do Marines have any precautions about dealing with depleted uranium?
A: Not that I know of. Well, if a tank gets hit, crews are detained for a little while to make sure there are no signs or symptoms. American tanks have depleted uranium on the sides, and the projectiles have depleted urranium in them. If an enemy vehicle gets hit, the area gets contaminated. ... Hell, I didn't even know about depleted uranium until two years ago. You know how I found out about it? I read an article in Rolling Stone magazine. I just started inquiring about it, and I said "Holy s---!"
...We're committing genocide ...And you know who I blame? I blame the president of the U.S. ... < SOURCE >
--------------------------------------------------
*My Note: PAUL ROCKWELL. (writer and peace activist in Oakland, CA, who taught constitutional law at Midwestern Univ.)
< U.S. War Crimes in Iraq: A Prima Facie Case >
Respectfully submitted to the Int’l. Criminal Court
by Paul Rockwell, Oakland, CA (publ. 1/31/04)
**My Note: re: Massey being "transformed" by the invasion -- he had had contact with the War Resisters League while a recruiter in 1990s. See 11/11/04 article. |
| Quote: | SEPTEMBER 2, 2004: Re: HUGHEY & HINZMAN (article in communist newspaper, Workers World*)
p.3 - “Resisting GIs Get Support in Canada” by Dustin Langley, Toronto (9/2/04):
...On 8/20, activists from the Support Network for an Armed Forces Union—SNAFU, the support organization for GI resisters—& the People’s Video Network** traveled to Toronto to interview Brandon Hughey. Hughey is a former member of the U.S. Army who went to Canada rather than participate in an illegal act of aggression. Jeremy Hinzman, like Brandon Hughey ...has also fled the U.S. in opposition to the war against the Iraqi people. ... The activists also met with Gerry Condon, who deserted from the U.S. Army in 1969 after refusing orders to Vietnam. He is director of Project Safe Haven & the Right to Resist network, which organize support for U.S. soldiers fleeing to Canada (SoldierSayNo.org). Hughey and Hinzman are both represented by Jeffry House, a Toronto attorney who came to Canada as a draft resister during the Vietnam War. Their claim to refugee status is based on the illegality of the U.S. war against Iraq. ... Gerry Condon will be testifying at the Aug. 26 War Crimes Tribunal in NY about the right to resist, the growing resistance in the military & the support network in Canada.
(*my note: Re: Workers World Party: - “America Under Siege” by David Horowitz, 1/20/03): < ARTICLE >
(**my note: “People’s Video Network” -- established & led by members of Workers World party in 1990s: “Deductions For Destruction” by Greg Yardley, 8/6/03): < ARTICLE >
------------------------------------------------------------------
p.3 - “Iraq War Crimes Tribunal” - Political Defense of the Right to Resist” by John Catalinotto, NY (9/2/04):
...an antiwar group is preparing a session of what it calls an “Iraq War Crimes Tribunal” in NY for Aug. 26. This tribunal, working from an indictment prepared by former U.S. Atty Gen. Ramsey Clark, has charged Pres. Bush & others with war crimes, crimes against peace & crimes against humanity. ... “Now we are not just recounting the crimes. ... you are either for the resistance or you are for the occupation. We will show at the tribunal that whether you measure this issue by the yardstick of class solidarity with the oppressed, of humanity against the killing machine, or even of int’l. law, you must be with the resistance....."
------------------------------------------------------------------
p. 5: “Chance to unite anti-war and workers’ movements”
...10/17/04, Washington, D.C.! The struggle of working people and the struggle against the war are the same struggle! ...
(A few of the supporters:)
Bill Lucy, Secretary-Treasurer, AFSCME;
the National Education Association;
International ANSWER;
National Immigration Solidarity Network;
New York City Labor Against the War;
Myra Shone and Ralph Schoenman, Taking Aim, Pacifica;
International Action Center;
former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark;
Howard Zinn, historian;
Noam Chomsky, linguist;...
< SOURCE PDF > |
| Quote: | NOVEMBER 11, 2004: Re: MASSEY (socialist web site)
“We’re Committing Genocide in Iraq” by Jeff Riedel, 11/11/04
... (Massey) would eventually join the Marines & became a recruiter himself in the late 1990s. He was sent to Kuwait in Dec. 2002, in preparation for the invasion of Iraq. Massey’s disillusionment with the military began as a recruiter, when he started to question the methods used by the Marines in preying on young people from economically depressed areas. ... Massey’s career as a recruiter ended after he wrote a mission statement to his commanding officers, outlining his personal concerns with the issues of recruitment. ... .. “I was coming into contact with groups like the War Resisters League* while I was out on recruitment duty.... I started reading some of the literature that they were passing out at the high schools. I became curious and started doing my own research, finding out certain things about America’s involvement in other countries.” ... In Iraq, Massey was brought face to face with this involvement. ... I saw people dead on the side of the road in civilian clothes. As a matter of fact, I only remember seeing a couple of bodies in military uniform the whole time. ... In the midst of the widespread killing of civilians, Massey was struck by the callousness of the military command & the lack of humanitarian assistance they were offering the Iraqi people. This further deepened his doubts about the true purpose of the war. ... ...A recent study estimated the number of Iraqi deaths since the start of the war in March 2003 at around 100,000. When asked if this number seemed accurate, Massey responded: “Yes,... We are committing genocide in Iraq, and that is the intention.” ... ...“This started with Nixon,” he said. “The South was always predominantly Democratic, but Nixon began this campaign to turn the Southern mentality into Republican mentality,...
Diagnosed with depression & post-traumatic stress disorder, Massey was sent home to argue his case against a dishonorable discharge in the summer of 2003... Massey recalls walking directly from the meeting to the Base Exchange, where he picked up a copy of the “Marine Corps Times” and called a lawyer who was listed in the back. The lawyer was Gary Meyers, (Myers) whose practice dates back to the My Lai trials during the Vietnam War. ... In the end, the Marines backed down & agreed to his honorable discharge. He is currently working on a book & plans on using whatever proceeds there are from it to start a post-traumatic stress disorder foundation. ... “What do you tell a kid that just came back from war...who’s just got finished murdering innocent civilians because his government has violated every law in the Geneva Conventions?” Massey asked. ...
< World Socialist Web Site >
(My note: Right under this article is a link to a 11/8/04 article re: Mike Hoffman of the IVAW.)
(*My Note: “War Resisters League” -- a radical group which focuses on non-payment of taxes as a form of protest; “the Socialist Party’s remaining stalwart David McReynolds, who also functions as the top dog in a still existing 1920’s pacifistsocialist group, The War Resisters League. In his statement after the (9/11) attack, McReynolds emphasizes the need to renew our attacks on US foreign policy, especially to condemn "the policy of assassination against the Palestinian leadership by Israel,"...)
“The Decadent Left: Still With Us” by Ronald Radosh, 9/18/01: < ARTICLE > |
| Quote: | DECEMBER 9, 2004: Re: HINZMAN, MASSEY, HUGHEY, SANDERS
“War-resister says comrades killed civilians” by Beth Duff-Brown, AP (12/9/04)
TORONTO: ...Army Pfc. Jeremy Hinzman, 26, is calling on the Immigration and Refugee Board to grant him, his wife & 2-year-old son refugee status in Canada, claiming he would face persecution if forced to return to the U.S. He fled Fort Bragg, N.C., to Canada weeks before his 82nd Airborne Division was due to be deployed to Iraq. He had served three years in the Army, but had applied for conscientious objector status before his unit was sent to Afghanistan in 2002. ...
Jimmy Massey, a staff sergeant who was in the Marines for 12 years & served three months in Iraq before being honorably discharged with post-traumatic stress syndrome, told the immigration board during the last day of Hinzman’s 3-day hearing that his colleague likely would have been forced to commit atrocities that violated Geneva Conventions. ... “I take full responsibility for my actions,” said Massey. “We deliberately gunned down people who were civilians. ... I saw plenty of Marines become psychopaths, they enjoyed the killing.” The Marine Corps denies Massey’s allegations. ....
Hinzman is arguing that the war in Iraq is illegal & fighting in it would have made him a war criminal.... Hinzman is one of three American military deserters seeking refugee status in Canada. Hearings for Brandon Hughey, of the Army’s First Cavalary, & David Sanders of the Navy were scheduled to be heard by the refugee board in January. Jeffry House, an American lawyer who first came to Canada as a draft dodger during the Vietnam War, is representing the three Americans. ... < armytimes.com > |
| Quote: | NO DATE: Re: GERRY CONDON, Vietnam deserter: assists war resisters -- CANADA. Website: “SNAFU” -- “Supporting Resistance to an Illegal War”
“U.S. War Objectors Are Seeking Sanctuary In Canada: What Will be Their Fate?” by Gerry Condon
The presence of U.S. war resisters in Canada is being widely reported in the int’l. media. ... It is virtually unprecedented for Canada to grant refugee status to someone from the U.S., which it considers a democracy & its closest & most powerful ally. “But this is an unprecedented case,” answers Jeffry House, lawyer for Hinzman & Hughey. ... “Canadians do not want to send war objectors to prison in the U.S. for refusing to fight in a blatantly illegal war that has outraged all the entire world,” says Carolyn Egan, president of the Steelworker Toronto Area Council & herself a Vietnam-era immigrant from the U.S. ... Canada is a safe haven from where U.S. war resisters can speak out against the war to an int’l. community interested in hearing what they have to say. ...there is a noble tradition of resistance from within the military itself. GI newspapers, coffeehouses, & even mutinies helped to end the Vietnam War.... In either case, war resisters should seek legal advice before attempting to cross the border. The law office of Jeffry House, who has the most current experience in representing U.S. war objectors in Canada, is located in downtown Toronto, Ontario....
Gerry Condon deserted from the U.S. Army in 1969 after refusing orders to Vietnam. He lived for three years in Sweden & three years in Canada before returning to the U.S. in 1975, campaigning for amnesty for war resisters. He is director of “Project Safe Haven” and the “Right to Resist” network, “resisters of past wars standing with war resisters today.”
< join-snafu.org >
Also, Condon is Director of: < Soldier, Say No >
Many reference items at site are “under construction”
Some headings and links:
-Websites for Jeremy Hinzman & Brandon Hughey (see below)
-War Resisters in Canada; in Prison; Around the World
-Central Committee for Conscientious Objectors
-Military Law Task Force of the National Lawyers Guild
-Support Network for an Armed Forces Union (SNAFU)
-Jeffry House, Toronto lawyer
-War Resister Support Campaign
-Progressive magazines, websites and discussion groups
-IVAW; VFP; VVAW; Veterans Call to Conscience
-History of GI Resistance
-----------------------------------------------
JEREMY HINZMAN WEBSITE:
... evidence of a systematic pattern of U.S. war crimes in Iraq, including attacks on civilian population centers, & the torture & murder of prisoners, will be presented at the Dec. 6-8 hearing. This will include eyewitness testimony of the killing of Iraqi civilians from former Marine Sgt. Jimmy Massey. Jeremy Hinzman and Jimmy Massey will be featured in a public meeting on the evening of December 4, the Sat. just prior to the IRB hearing. This meeting is being sponsored by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War and the War Resister Support Campaign... (by Gerry Condon -- Right To Resist / Project Safe Haven)
“Letters of Support” for Hinzman (excerpts from a few letters):
--Susan Sarandon: “In times of war there have always been soldiers who have drawn the line, their own personal line, and have refused to follow orders they feel in their hearts to be immoral.....”
--“Good luck, Mario Fadda: ps: there are much more protest movements in the States then one would imaging. Just check H. Zinn "A people's history of the US" to get an idea!”
--“I just seen the Michael Moore documentary and all I can say is good for you.”
--“..Canada...it is a beautiful country and i hope and pray it will shelter you just as it did the conscientious objectors in the vietnam era.”
-- “Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless... I have a 13 year old boy. .. I took him to see Fahrenheit 911...he did turn & say, "This is a good movie." He got all the puns. .. He said, "That movie was beyond crying." And then he sobbed .. He says he will never go to war...”
-----------------------------------------------
BRANDON HUGHEY WEBSITE:
... Interest from both the public & media outlets has been overwhelming since the Village Voice published Alisa Soloman's article on Brandon and Jeremy Hinzman....
Letters of Support for Hughey (excerpts from a few letters:)
--“..Another thing I wonder about is whether the U.S.' refusal to ratify the Int’l. Criminal Court could be seen as increasing the potential for criminal orders to be given to US troops...” (writing from Ireland)
--“..Everyone I know here in France who has heard the story about you & Jeremy Hinzman fully supports both of you...”
--“..suddenly I thought that there are a few good men in the USA. Here in Spain the population never wanted that war..”
--“Here in Europe, lots of people admire men like you,..” (Brussels)
--“..Let me know how I can help you. -Ricardo, an ex-Marine (these days I’m ashamed to admit I ever served in the Marines during the 1970s)”
--“I am proud of you. I am a Puerto Rican, and have no loyalty to the United States...but I can spot a courageous and principled individual. To resist the patriotic propaganda of your country & come to your own conclusions about the morality or immorality of a particular war is laudable. Know that you have many supporters out there and don't let anyone call you a traitor.” |
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