KIA in Alabama - In Memory of Douglas Barber by Stan Goff

{Link in Title is for Stan's Contribution, on this to Huffington Post. It is also posted, as it should be, at the Iraq Veterans Against the War site.}


"All is not okay or right for those of us who return home alive and supposedly well. What looks like normalcy and readjustment is only an illusion to be revealed by time and torment. Some soldiers come home missing limbs and other parts of their bodies. Still others will live with permanent scars from horrific events that no one other than those who served will ever understand." - Douglas Barber , 2005


On January 16th, after having talked quite normally on the phone with at least two other people that same day, Douglas Barber, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) living in Lee County, Alabama, changed the answer-message on his telephone.

"If you're looking for Doug," it said in his Alabama drawl, "I'm checking out of this world. I'll see you on the other side."

He then called the police, collected his shotgun, and went out onto his porch to meet them. From the sketchy reports we have now, it seems the police wouldn't oblige him with a "suicide by cop" and tried to talk him down. When it became apparent he wasn't able to commit cop-suicide, 27-year-old Douglas Barber did an about face, rotated the shotgun and killed himself.

There is a hell of a lot that we just don't know about how this happened. I talked to Doug on the phone earlier this month, and he described how excited he was to have joined IVAW, how he looked forward to taking up the pen and speaking out. Others had spoken with him only days and hours before he permanently quieted the chaos in his head. None of the "classic" signs of suicidal thinking were manifest. He was gregarious and upbeat, playful.

We know he had been prescribed medication. When he came back from Iraq, having served with the 1485th Transportation Company, a National Guard unit federalized to compensate for the extreme combat overstretch in Iraq, he was diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress (PTSD), and the Veterans Administration medical system leans toward drugs. In fact, they frequently shazam PTSD into something called "personality disorder," which can be treated with drugs. One veteran I know was prescribed Paxil which made him feel suicidal, and when the VA insisted that it worked, this kid switched to his own anti-depressant -- marijuana, which he says works better than the Paxil and doesn't make him feel like killing himself.

If one has a personality disorder, you see, then the "pathology" has no relation to one's job, like participating in the occupation of Iraq.The etiology exists somewhere within the individual, like a genetic disorder... that was missed during induction, missed by one's units, and missed during medical pre-screeening for deployment into Mesopotamia.

We don't know if Doug was taking medication, or had stopped taking medication, or even what medication he had been prescribed.

We do know that he was a truck driver, and that his job in Iraq was driving supply convoys along the shooting gallery between Baghdad Airport and LSA Anaconda in Balad -- a giant military base -- a veritable city -- that is subject to so many mortar and rocket attacks that the troops have renamed it Mortaritaville. We do know, from Doug's interviews, that the stress of those convoys -- each confronting its participants with the possibility that this could be one's last road trip -- were hard on Doug. In July 2003, his convoy was hit with an improvised explosive device, and the mortar attacks at Anaconda were so regular that they were almost a weather pattern. But Doug said there was something else that was even harder on him. When the grunts came in, they would describe how many civilians they'd killed.

When Doug was in a traffic jam one day, feeling very vulnerable, and the US units dismounted to clear the traffic jam -- angry and afraid and waving weapons at the civilians -- a woman in a bus held up her baby for them to see... like that window-sign we see in cars on American highways -- "Baby on Board." Only she wasn't cautioning other drivers to be careful. She was trying to prevent an armed attack that could kill her child.

Doug may have decomped from medication, I don't know. That could have contributed to his suicide. It's possible. He fought with the defunded, Bush-administration VA for two years trying to get counseling, and trying to get authorization for his disability. It's very difficult to be a "productive member of society" when one fears sleep, and when one has lost meaning.

I read a book on post-traumatic stress once. Rape is the most common cause, then combat. It said that trauma disrupts one's sense that the word is a safe place, that trauma destabilizes our sense of meaning.

Let me explain something, as a veteran myself of eight conflict areas, and something that Doug discovered in Balad. The sense that the world is not a safe place is not a "disorder." It is an accurate perception. And the sense of meaning many of us enjoy is an illusion, a cruel construction that normalizes the orderly activity of the suburb and nurses our children on simple-minded, Disney-fied optimism pumped through television sets in a relentless data stream.

Post-traumatic stress is not a disorder. Calling it that earns it a place in the DSM IV, professionalizes and medicalizes this very accurate perception that the world is not safe, and that life is not a comforting film convention. Calling it an individual "disorder" cloaks the social systems responsible for experiences like Vietnam and Iraq. And it renders invisible the fact that Douglas Barber was not merely a suicide.

Douglas Barber was nurtured on the illusions that secure our obedience, but when the real system needed to demonstrate to the rest of the world just how unsafe our nation could make them as the price of disobedience, the vile carnival barkers of the Bush administration, like administrations before them, did not recruit the children of Martha's Vineyard or Georgetown. They went, as they have always done, to places like Lee County, Alabama, where simple people have formed powerful affective attachments to the myth of our national moral superiority.

When that word view, that architecture of meaning, collapses in the face of realities like convoy Russian roulette, and women holding babies up to prevent being shot, and daily stories of slaughter by the people one sleeps with, the profound betrayal of it is not experienced as some quiet, somber sadness. It is experienced like bees swarming out of a hive that has been broken, as a howling chaos. So we quiet it with marijuana, alcohol, heroin, and even shotguns.

The most fortunate of these survivors find one another. Doug had recently joined IVAW, where our veterans not only establish mutual support networks of plain love and care with one another, but where they can engage in the most "therapeutic" activity of all -- fighting back against the criminality that sent them there in the first place.
We arrived too late for Doug. We were going to met him in Birmingham later this month to involve him in the planning for a from Mobile, Alabama to New Orleans, and serve as the conscience of a nation that will spend trillions to drop bombs on Iraqis, and use a hurricane in the Black Belt as a pretext to accelerate gentrification.

So when we launch out of Mobile {or HERE} On the 3rd Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq
Walkin' to New Orleans
VETERANS AND SURVIVORS MARCH FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE
From Mobile to New Orleans March 14-19, 2006

FROM THE GULF COAST TO THE PERSIAN GULF
EVERY BOMB DROPPED ON IRAQ EXPLODES IN NEW ORLEANS
in March on this 135-mile trek, we will carry Douglas Barber with us.
*****
Stan Goff is a retired Special Forces Master Sergeant. He is the author of three books;"Hideous Dream - A Soldier's Memoir of the US Invasion of Haiti" (Soft Skull Press, 2000), Full Spectrum Disorder - The Military in the New American Century (Soft Skull Press, 2004), and Sex & War (Soft Skull Press, 2006 [to be released soon]) Soft Skull Press .He is the military affairs editor for From The Wilderness, and writes foreign policy analysis for Sanders Research Associates. He is a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War , Veterans For Peace , and Militry Families Speak Out . His son is in the active duty army and is in Iraq now for the third time. Goff is on the coordinating committee of the Bring Them Homen Now! campaign , and advises Iraq Veterans Against the War-IVAW on organizational development. His blog is called Feral Scholar"

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Signature:

NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President.
James Starowicz
USN '67-'71
'67-'68: Meridian Mississippi/Naval Air Station
'68-'70: GMG3, Panama Canal Zone/Rodman Naval Base
'70-'71: GMG3, Coronado Calif - CounterInsurgency/S.E.R.E. School, Vietnam -- In-Country COMNAVFORV - CHNAVADVGRP MACV, RVN
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'STOP THE WAR COALITION': NEWSLETTER

1) IS IRAN NEXT?

2) PEACE CONFERENCE DVD

3) TONY BENN OPEN LETTER:
HAVE YOU SIGNED?

4) GUANTANAMO BAY DEMONSTRATION

5) REMEMBERING JEAN CHARLES

6) SCHOOL STUDENTS AGAINST WAR:
NATIONAL CONFERENCE 28 JANUARY

7) FASLANE 365

8) HELL, NO, WE WON'T GO

9) USEFUL LINKS

1)IS IRAN NEXT?
Iraq is "out of control". This is the conclusion of a US government report which contradicts in every detail George Bush's public optimism about "great progress". The deeper Iraq sinks into death, destruction and chaos, the more likely is an attack on Iran by Bush, to try and divert attention from what is now widely considered to be one of the worst foreign policy blunders in US history.

The hypocrisy of the current phoney crisis being orchestrated from Washington is too obvious to state here. Suffice to say that, unlike the demonstrable war crimes committed by Bush and Blair, Iran is not doing anything illegal in planning to develop nuclear power stations. Those who took us into an illegal and unjustified war in March 2003 are now planning to extend the Iraq catastrophe into Iran, with unknown consequences, not just the Middle East, but for the security of the whole world.

The anti-war movement is already responding to the threat and "Don't Attack Iran" will be one of the slogans for the international day of protest on March 18/19. What we do is particularly significant because Bush and Blair have learned from the Iraq experience. This time they are being much more careful this in preparing a consensus among what they call the "international community" for action against Iran. Much of Europe is already falling into line behind Bush and Blair.

According to Alan Watkins in The Observer, Tony Blair and his ministers, "see Iraq disappearing over the hill and becoming merged in the general nightmare of Middle Eastern politics." Blair certainly hopes that the anti-war movement will fade from view. On March 18 we can show him how mistaken he is. We will continue campaigning for as long as the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan continue and the best antidote to Bush and Blair's missile rattling over Iran will be to make the March 18 national demonstration in London as big as we can, reflecting the anti-war views of the vast majority of British people.

You can help make sure that no one can say after 18 March they weren't on the demonstration because they didn't know about it. Leaflets are available from the Stop the War Office. Order now and distribute them in your workplace, at your school or college, in your local community, round the streets where you live, among your family and friends. COST £10 FOR 1000 LEAFLETS TELEPHONE: 020 7278 6694 EMAIL: office@stopwar.org.uk


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2) PEACE CONFERENCE DVD
A DVD with film of speeches made at the hugely successful December 10 International Peace Conference on 10 December 2006 is now available from the Stop the War office. It includes speeches from Rose Gentle, Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, Ben Griffin, Craig Murray, Tony Benn and George Galloway. The DVD would be an excellent introduction to a local meeting for a report back from conference delegates and to build support for the 18 March demonstration. To order your copy at the inclusive price of £5: Telephone: 020 7278 6694 Email: office@stopwar.org.uk


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3) TONY BENN'S OPEN LETTER HAVE YOU SIGNED YET?
Hundreds of emails and letters are pouring into the Stop the War Office from people who want to be signatories to the open letter from Tony Benn and 43 others to the United Nations and the UK Attorney General.

The significance of the letter has been heightened by the response from the UN Secretary-General's office stating, "Your letter raises matters which are of extremely serious concern and which would appear to fall within the remit of a number of the mechanisms that the United Nations has established for the promotion and protection of human rights...On behalf of the Secretary-General, I am accordingly transmitting your letter and its attachments to the High Commissioner for Human Rights and asking her to explore what channels might be available to address your concerns."

ADD YOUR VOICE TO THIS CAMPAIGN TO HOLD TO ACCOUNT THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR WAR CRIMES IN IRAQ AND ELSEWHERE:
Email office@stopwar.org.uk
Telephone 020 7278 6694
Letter: 27 Britannia Street, London WC1X 9JP


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4) GUANTANAMO NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2006 12 NOON
Calling for justice for British residents in Guantanamo Bay. Assemble Tothill Street, London. March via Downing Street to the American Embassy in Grovesnor Square. Speakers include Tony Benn, Anas-Al-Takriti, Craig Murray.

Called by The Save Omar Deghayes campaign, The Birmingham Guantanamo Campaign, The Manchester Guantanamo and Belmarsh Campaign supporting Families of the British Residents in Guantanamo Bay.

FOR FULL DETAILS GO TO:
HERE


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5) REMEMBERING JEAN CHARLES SUNDAY 22ND JANUARY 2006 1 PM STOCKWELL TUBE STATION
On 22nd July 2005, Jean Charles de Menezes was killed by police at Stockwell tube station. He was shot 8 times, 7 times in the head. Following his death, the police misled Jean Charles' family and the public about his death. Six months later, his family still await with the truth around the circumstances of his death. The Menezes family invite you to show solidarity with the family of Jean Charles by joining them at Stockwell tube station to lay flowers and remember Jean Charles.


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6) SCHOOL STUDENTS AGAINST WAR
NATIONAL CONFERENCE 28 JANUARY
SATURDAY 28 JANUARY 2006 12 - 4 PM
The Resource Centre, 356 Holloway Road

Speakers:
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Lindsey German: Convenor Stop the War Coalition
Jamal Lel-Shayyal, FOSIS
Suzie Wylie, Student, RESPECT
Peter Leary, student CND

School Students Against War (SSAW) campaigns for an end to the occupation of Iraq, in defence of civil liberties and against the racist backlash to the July bombings. They have played a vital role in the anti-war movement, notably in March 2003 when school student protests received nationwide media attention. School Students Against the War continues to build its network of activists through the full spectrum of political action - from lobbying and petitions to walk-outs and occupations.

SSAW is organising its first major conference, attended by school students from across the UK, in London on Saturday 28th January 2006. If you would like to be a delegate call 07981 753 053 or email alys@riseup.net. See also the SSAW website, School Students Against War


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7) FASLANE 365
A civil resistance project is planned to apply critical public pressure for the disarmament of Britain's nuclear weapons by a people's blockade of the home base of Trident at Faslane in Scotland. The aim is to have a blockade which will continue for hundreds of days. The blockade will not begin until 100 groups have signed up for the first hundred days, it is hoped by 1 October 2006.

FOR MORE DETAILS OF FASLANE 365:
Web: Faslane365
Email: info@faslane365.org
Telephone: 01263 512049


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8) HELL, NO, WE WON'T GO
Scott Ritter, who served as a chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 until his resignation in 1998, writes:

U.S. military recruiters are having a difficult time meeting their quotas. Last year, the U.S. Army fell 6,600 recruits short of its goal to enlist 80,000 new soldiers.It is not military service that is being rejected, but rather military service in support of a cause not deemed worthy of the sacrifice expected. The military today has degenerated into an entity that is viewed by many in the American public as no longer serving the larger interests of the American people, but rather the play toy of a political elite who use the U.S. military as a tool to impose their ideology on others around the world, as opposed to "upholding and defending the Constitution of the United States," the mission assumed when one is sworn into military service.America went to war in Iraq on the basis of false premises. Our troops fight and die for a cause most Americans cannot identify with. And the U.S. military is engaged in domestic spying operations against the very citizens it is sworn to defend.

TO READ THE FULL ATICLE GO TO:
HERE


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9) USEFUL LINKS


STOP THE WAR COALITION

MILITARY FAMILIES AGAINST THE WAR

INFORMATION CLEARING HOUSE

ZNET


COUNTERPUNCH

ANTIWAR


URUKNET.INFO

GLOBALECHO
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Impeach Bush Coalition
The following 'Signature' is asked to be used by the 'Impeach Bush Coalition' in All your E-Mails and, I'll add, Posts! I added my Military Service Info with the VFP Call For Impeachment. You can Add what you desire or nothing at all!

Signature:
NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President.
James Starowicz
USN '67-'71
'67-'68: Meridian Mississippi/Naval Air Station
'68-'70: GMG3, Panama Canal Zone/Rodman Naval Base
'70-'71: GMG3, Coronado Calif - CounterInsurgency/S.E.R.E. School, Vietnam -- In-Country COMNAVFORV - CHNAVADVGRP MACV, RVN
Member: Veterans For Peace
VFP 'Declaration Of Impeachment'
Sign On and Pass Link To Others

First Gulf War still claims lives

First Gulf War still claims lives

By MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Fifteen years ago today, Operation Desert Storm began, first with an air war, then a Feb. 23 allied ground attack that steamrolled across Iraq in four days.
The initial casualties were few. But they continue. They have drawn the attention of members of Congress, and now one Washington senator believes they demand further investigation.
Graft From Report:

Click on Link or Graft to Read Report

An Army death, and a family left in the dark

Peggy Buryj asked everyone she could to help find out the details of her son's last hours. She even asked President Bush when she and other grieving parents met with him during a campaign stop in hotly contested Ohio. He promised to look into it. Soon afterward, she said, his campaign called and asked her to appear in a commercial for him, but she declined.Months went by with no clarification. "We had a lot of questions," said Amber Buryj, 22, Jesse Buryj's bride of seven months. "We were left in the dark."

How to Support the Troops

What do Howard Dean, Garry Trudeau, Paul Newman, and Denzel Washington have in common? They have all contributed, and encouraged their supporters to contribute, to an organization called Fisher House, which provides free or low-cost housing at or near military and Veterans’ hospitals so that the relatives of servicemen wounded in the Iraq War can be near them during their treatment and rehabilitation.
I learned about Fisher House from relatives, who forwarded to me a steaming e-mail sent by a friend whom the relatives described as a very nice person, but extremely conservative.
Click Link to Find just One Way

WHERE R THE PPL?

RealMedia 13MB low resolution

WindowsMedia 65MB full resolution

Visit reflectiontheory.com

Vietnam documentary 'Sir! No Sir!'

Theatrical Release In Spring Chronicles Forgotten Movement

Sir, No Sir! An Interview with David Zeiger

The director's Vietnam documentary Sir! No Sir! chronicles a forgotten movement and presents a history lesson for the present.

Jonathan Stein
September 01 , 2005
The Oleo Strut was a coffeehouse in Killeen, Texas, from 1968 to 1972. Like its namesake, a shock absorber in helicopter landing gear, the Oleo Strut’s purpose was to help GIs land softly. Upon returning from Vietnam to Fort Hood, shell-shocked soldiers found solace amongst the Strut’s regulars, mostly fellow soldiers and a few civilian sympathizers. But it didn’t take long before shell shock turned into anger, and that anger into action. The GIs turned the Oleo Strut into one of Texas’s anti-war headquarters, publishing an underground anti-war newspaper, organizing boycotts, setting up a legal office, and leading peace marches.
David Zeiger was one of the civilians who helped run the Oleo Strut. He went on to a career in political activism and today, at 55, he is a filmmaker and the director of Sir! No Sir!, a new documentary on the all-but-forgotten antiwar activities of GIs from Fort Hood to Saigon. The GI Movement, as it was then known, was composed of both vets recently returned from Vietnam and active-duty soldiers. They fought for peace in ways big and small, from organizing leading anti-war organizations to wearing peace signs instead of dog tags. By the early ‘70s, opposition to the Vietnam War within the military and amongst veterans had grown so widespread that no one could credibly claim that opposing the war meant opposing the troops. Veterans wanted an end to the war; their brothers in Vietnam agreed.
Zeiger put off making this movie for years, convinced the public didn’t want to hear another story about the ‘60s. What finally spurred the project was the Iraq War and the role some Vietnam vets are playing in keeping America’s young men and women from seeing the same horrors they saw. When GIs from the current war started coming home and wondering what they’d been fighting for, Zeiger’s days at the Oleo Strut took on a new relevance. His film is a remarkable interweaving of vets’ stories about their intensifying resistance to the war, starting with the lone objectors of the late ‘60s and culminating with open disobedience throughout the ranks in the ‘70s. One vet even recalls an episode from 1972 in which Military Police joined enlisted men in burning an effigy of their commanding officer. The images that accompany such stories are just as powerful. As a young doctor is escorted into a military court for refusing to train GIs, hundreds of enlisted men lean out of nearby windows extending peace signs in support. It’s an image that the Army didn’t want the American people to see then, and probably wouldn’t want the American people to see today.
Sir! No Sir! won the Documentary Audience Award at the L.A. Film Festival and is slated for broad release before the end of the year. David Zeiger spoke with MotherJones.com from the Los Angeles office of his production company, Displaced Films.

READ INTERVIEW HERE






FOCUS | Ron Kovic:

The Forgotten Wounded of Iraq

Ron Kovic writes: "Thirty-eight years ago, on Jan. 20, 1968, I was shot and paralyzed from my mid-chest down during my second tour of duty in Vietnam. As I now contemplate another January 20th I cannot help but think of the young men and women who have been wounded in the war in Iraq. They have been coming home now for almost three years, flooding Walter Reed, Bethesda, Brooke Army Medical Center and veterans hospitals all across the country."

READ REST HERE

Kids Can't Opt Out

Mining for kids: Children can’t “opt out” of Pentagon recruitment database

By Kathryn Casa | Vermont Guardian


posted January 17, 2006


Parents cannot remove their children’s names from a Pentagon database that includes highly personal information used to attract military recruits, the Vermont Guardian has learned.

The Pentagon has spent more than $70.5 million on market research, national advertising, website development, and management of the Joint Advertising Market Research and Studies (JAMRS) database — a storehouse of questionable legality that includes the names and personal details of more than 30 million U.S. children and young people between the ages of 16 and 23.

The database is separate from information collected from schools that receive federal education money. The No Child Left Behind Act requires schools to report the names, addresses, and phone numbers of secondary school students to recruiters, but the law also specifies that parents or guardians may write a letter to the school asking that their children’s names not be released.

However, many parents have reported being surprised that their children are contacted anyway, according to a San Francisco-based coalition called Leave My Child Alone (LMCA).

“We hear from a lot of parents who have often felt quite isolated about it all and haven’t been aware that this is happening all over the country,” said the group’s spokeswoman, Felicity Crush.

Parents must contact the Pentagon directly to ask that their children’s information not be released to recruiters, but the data is not removed from the JAMRS database, according to Lt. Col. Ellen Krenke, a Pentagon spokeswoman.

Instead, the information is moved to a suppression file, where it is continuously updated with new data from private and government sources and still made available to recruiters, Krenke said. It’s necessary to keep the information in the suppression file so the Pentagon can make sure it’s not being released, she said.

Krenke said the database is compiled using information from state motor vehicles departments, the Selective Service, and data-mining firms that collect and organize information from private companies. In addition to names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and phone numbers, the database may include cell phone numbers, e-mail addresses, grade-point averages, ethnicity, and subjects of interest.

She said the Pentagon spends about $500,000 annually to purchase the data from private companies, and has paid more than $70 million since 2002 to Mullen Advertising — a Massachusetts firm whose clients include General Motors, Hooked on Phonics, XM Satellite Radio, and 3Com — to target recruiters’ messages toward teens and young adults.

The Boston Business Journal reported in October that the Pentagon had spent a total of $206 million on the JAMRS program to date, and could spend another $137 million over the next two years.

Invasion of privacy?

The JAMRS program “provides the services with contact information on millions of prospective recruits annually … Beyond list management services, DM outreach initiatives include targeted fulfillment pieces directed at influencers,” according to the program’s password-protected website.

In real terms, what that rhetoric looks like at the other end can stack up to harassment, said Crush. “Kids have been relentlessly harassed,” she said, “things like persistent phone calls — and you can’t remove your phone numbers from their list because it’s the government; people being called on numbers that have been listed as private, or for emergency only; kids under 17 called at home, night after night, and not being given a realistic picture about life in the military, particularly during a time of war.”

Her organization contends that the Pentagon’s conduct is illegal under the federal Privacy Act, which requires notification and public comment whenever new data is being compiled on individuals by any branch of government.

The Pentagon maintains it has provided that notice, posted in the Federal Register on May 23, but LMCA and other JAMRS critics point out that because new data is being collected daily, JAMRS is failing to fulfill the notification requirements of the Privacy Act.

Last fall, 100 privacy and civil rights groups sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urging him to dismantle the database. “The Privacy Act requires that agencies publish in the federal register upon establishment or revision a notice of the existence and character of the system of records” 30 days before the publication of information, they noted. “The maintenance of a system of records without meeting the notice requirements is a criminal violation of the Privacy Act.”

But Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Project in New York, said protection offered by the Privacy Act — the 1974 statute aimed at reducing the government’s collection of personal data on U.S. citizens — might be overestimated. “The federal Privacy Act is to some extent an over-hyped statute,” said Steinhardt. “It is largely a statute that requires notice; it doesn’t give you any substantive rights.”

Questions from Congress

Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-VT, said he had grave concerns about the legality of the database. “I think this is absolutely wrong,” he told the Vermont Guardian. “You have the law, and then you have an administration that says we don’t like the law so let’s find another way of doing it.”

“When my kids were in school I would have been really angry if this had happened,” said Leahy, whose youngest son enlisted in the Marines. “I would have been absolutely ripped if they would have gone into his high school or other records to contact him this way; I know nothing that allows it.”

“Data mining and proliferation of using databases are all concerns because it represents an administration that does not believe in checks and balances,” said Leahy. “Can you imagine our country if a Joseph McCarthy or J. Edgar Hoover has the electronic power these guys have today?”

Discomfort over the database extends to other members of Congress. Seven senators, including New York’s Hillary Rodham Clinton and Wisconsin’s Russ Feingold, both Democrats, sent a letter to Rumsfeld on June 24 asking him to “immediately cease creation of this database.”

“This personal information, which would be obtained from schools as well as from commercial data brokers, state drivers’ license records, and other sources, could then be used to formulate and execute a targeted ‘marketing’ campaign to identify and recruit individuals based on these personal factors,” they noted.

In his July 11 response, Undersecretary of Defense David Chu said the database was an important component in the nation’s volunteer military — one that enables the United States to avoid a draft.

“The department collects basic information on youth in response to a congressional mandate in 1982 that noted ‘it is essential that the Secretary of Defense obtain and compile directory information pertaining to students enrolled in secondary schools throughout the United States’ to support recruiting for the all-volunteer force and avoid conscription,” he wrote to the senators.

Chu said the central database was designed to save the Pentagon money. “In the past, the data were compiled by each of the services independently. In order to achieve significant cost savings, the data are now purchased by the department, housed centrally, and sent out to the services. The services use these data to provide information and marketing materials to potential recruits.”

Leahy scoffed at such reasoning. “This is coming from a Pentagon that tells us they don’t have money to pay for body armor for our troops over in Iraq,” he said.

Chu also said the Pentagon had no intention of using the information for purposes other than targeted recruitment.

But according to the privacy group, BeNow, the direct marketing company chosen by the Pentagon to compile the data, is owned by the credit reporting company Equifax and does not have a privacy policy, “nor has it troubled itself to enlist in a privacy seal program regarding the handling of information collected for this purpose.”

The Pentagon proposes a wide range of “blanket routine uses” that allow an agency to disclose personal information to others without the individual’s consent or knowledge, the groups wrote in their letter to Rumsfeld. “The list of 14 DOD ‘blanket routine uses’ include: disclosures to law-enforcement; state and local tax authorities; employment queries from other agencies; and disclosure of records to foreign authorities. Although individuals can opt out of recruitment solicitations, they cannot opt out of this enormous database.”

In a separate statement, the Electronic Privacy Information Center said both the Privacy Act and the DOD’s own internal regulations require the agency to collect information directly from citizens when possible.

“The main commercial vendors that sell students’ data, American Student List and Student Marketing Group, were both pursued recently by consumer protection authorities for setting up front groups that tricked students into revealing their personal information,” according to the center.

What to do

The Leave My Child Alone coalition is urging the Pentagon to add an 800 number and online opt-out links to its websites. The group concedes, however, that given reports of massive security breaches at data firms, the fact that the information remains on file “hardly grants parents peace of mind.”

One California lawmaker is sponsoring state legislation that would require high schools to include opt-out information on the emergency forms that parents must fill out annually for school records. In one California school district that implemented such a policy, the number of families choosing to opt out went from 16 percent to 63 percent, Crush said.

Meanwhile, asked what parents could do about the Pentagon database, the ACLU’s Steinhardt said, “This is as much a political issue as anything else; it’s an issue to be decided in the Congress. A state like Vermont could take it up. It’s a perfect issue for a town meeting … calling on your senators to pass some legislation.”

Information and action

Parents seeking to determine whether information about their children is contained in the JAMRS database system should address typewritten inquiries to:
The Department of Defense
c/o JAMRS, Direct Marketing Program Officer
Defense Human Resources Activity
4040 N. Fairfax Drive, Suite 200
Arlington, VA 22203-1613
Requests should contain the child’s full name, date of birth, current address, and telephone number. Do not include a Social Security number.

To ask that your child’s name be added to the suppression files of the database, send a typewritten request to:
Joint Advertising and Marketing Research
& Studies Office (JAMRS)
Attention: Opt Out
4040 North Fairfax Drive, Ste. 200
Arlington, VA 22203-1613
Include the child’s full name, street address, date of birth, and telephone number. Do not include a Social Security number.

For more information: Leave My Child Alone, JAMRS.

Vermont Guardian staffer Shay Totten contributed to this report.

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The Home Front Series

The following, written by Reggie Rivers, was sent to me from a few News Lists I belong to, some of you might also have received it and read Reggie's words, but Did You Search Out The Series he's writing about. I did and below are the photo's and briefs, along with the links to the articles mentioned, making up the week long series. Each one has a Flash Presentation as well as some with a few other links.
Read all of Reggie's Commentary first than Visit the Reality of these Returning Iraqi Vets!!


You call this support?

By Reggie Rivers

This week, The Denver Post has run a front-page series profiling soldiers returning from Iraq. Their stories were sad and powerful, and they illustrate the varied backgrounds and experiences of our troops.
The series puts a human face on the suffering caused by the war and reveals just how small a stake most of us have in the Iraqi conflict. We're not being asked to pay a special war tax. We don't have to ration anything. We're not seeing our brothers, sons, fathers and uncles drafted into the service. And most of us don't have a loved one in Iraq or Afghanistan.
While the war rages on the other side of the globe, we simply live our uninterrupted lives.

When the troops come home, many of them say they are shocked by how little concern the public has for the war and the soldiers fighting it.
"People were so oblivious, they didn't even care," Spec. Elizabeth Spradlin said of her return to Colorado Springs. "They didn't even talk about the war."
Despite our rhetoric about supporting the troops, our actions suggest a deep indifference. Maybe that's because the war doesn't cost us anything or provide any entertainment for us. We care about the NFL playoffs, because

Two years ago, I wrote a column in which I referred to U.S. soldiers as "slaves." The column was not well received. Most people believed that I was denigrating the troops. My point was that our perception of the average soldier is off the mark. We think of these men and women as volunteers who signed up for military service and are therefore willing to fight. As long as we believe that, we won't worry much about the impact the war is having on them and their families.

Former Bronco Reggie Rivers (reggierivers2002@yahoo.com) is the host of "Global Agenda" Wednesdays at 9:30 p.m. on KBDI-Channel 12. His column appears every Friday.




The Home Front Series



Staff Sgt. Caleb Dillon swings his 4-year-old daughter, Kailynn, outside their home at Fort Carson. Dillon returned from Iraq in July. Also profiled in this series are, clockwise from top left: Spec. Justin Williams, Spec. Elizabeth Spradlin, Spec. Corey Quintanilla and Spec. Jeff Englehart. (Post / Craig F. Walker)

'Daddy' carries the torch
Article Launched: 01/08/2006 01:00:00 AM

Staff Sgt. Caleb Dillon balances family and his military service

By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer


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Three-year-old Aleeya Williams prays before a meal while her dad, Army Spec. Justin Williams, stands over her in their Fort Carson home. Williams spent a year in Iraq, but by the time he returned, the only constant in his family was his love for his little girls, Aleeya and Jewels, 2. (Post / Craig F. Walker)

In search of a new life, family
Article Launched: 01/09/2006 01:00:00 AM

Spec. Justin Williams left a wife and two kids when he shipped out for Iraq. When he returned, he was divorced and headed for single fatherhood. But not for long.

By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer


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Elizabeth Spradlin walks the labyrinth at Penrose Hospital in Colorado Springs and meditates, an activity that has helped her cope with frustrations in the aftermath of her military service in Hungary, the Balkans and Iraq. She first trained as a medic but was posted with the military police. (Post / Craig F. Walker)

Medic-MP still taking care
Article Launched: 01/10/2006 01:00:00 AM

Elizabeth Spradlin joined the Army National Guard thinking she'd get some travel and an education. She got both, plus an unhealthy dose of frustration. She's still learning how to navigate the maze of postwar life while helping others.

By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer


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Jeff Englehart works on his computer outside a Colorado Springs coffee shop in November. While he was stationed in Iraq, he and other GIs shared their experiences and thoughts on a Web log. Since leaving the Army as a specialist, the Grand Junction native has devoted himself to speaking out against the war. (Post / Craig F. Walker


GI puts war into words
Article Launched: 01/11/2006 01:00:00 AM


By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer


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Spec. Corey Quintanilla and his wife, Tatiana, relax on the couch and watch TV in Colorado Springs as their daughter, Leah, 9 months, rests nearby. After a year-long tour of duty in Iraq, Quintanilla is happiest staying at home watching light-hearted programs and movies, but concerns about his daughter s health and his future employment intrude. (Post / Craig F. Walker)

At ease, but still uneasy
Article Launched: 01/12/2006 01:00:00 AM


After the tensions of his tour of duty, Spec. Corey Quintanilla just wanted to get out of the Army and relax with his wife and new daughter, but his return meant trading in one set of worries for another.

By Erin Emery
Denver Post Staff Writer

A Message For All Time (UPDATED)

Speaking Truth To Power

A Time to Break Silence By Rev. Martin Luther King
By 1967, King had become the country's most prominent opponent of the Vietnam War, a year to the day before he was murdered -- King called the United States "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." Time magazine called the speech "demagogic slander that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi," and the Washington Post declared that King had "diminished his usefulness to his cause, his country, his people." Listen to this historic speech in full.
To Listen Click Here-MP3 Format

To Listen and Read The Speach Click Here

Why for All Time:
Take out 'Vietnam' replace with 'Iraq'

Take out 'Vietnamesse' replace with 'Iraqi's'

Take out 'Communism' replace with 'Muslim', all sects

Take out 'Names of Vietnam's Places/Cities' replace with 'Names of Iraq's Places/Cities'

Place your Mind in today's World as the Words are Spoken about Yesterday's World!

Kings speach can and could have been given repeatedly by many in differant countries that are engulfed in Man's Aggression agains his fellow Man and especially in the Larger Invasive Conflicts, such as the Soviet/Afgan Debacle, and those taking place today.
We use the new term 'Terrorism' while we, and other powers, 'Terrorize'!
In the Past World the Invaded just wanted the Invaders 'Out', using any means at their disposal to achieve that goal. In Today's World the Criminal Act of 'Terror' knows No Boundries or Borders as those, Used by the Powerful, for a veriaty of reasons as well as their countries natural resources for the Powerful's own wealth and more power, use the Message of Killing and Destruction to push back at the Powerful!
The Powerful than Resort to Crossing the already fine line seperating a more Peaceful/Tolerant World from the one with Growing Hatred and Intolerance causing the Hatreds to Multiply by Invading any and all they choose, with complete disregard to the regions inhabitants, placing them lower than the Arrogance of the Powerful! The Powerful Support and Solidify the Leaders who Depress their own people keeping them in power for reasons of policy that make no sense! The Powerful sell their wares of destructive force to those they support spreading more fear within the regions of what those Leaders(sic) can and will do to control!
It's a Vicious Cycle of Death and Destruction and Gains Nothing!
Actions of today are Much More Dangerous than those of the Past as they have Crossed that thin line Creating a World where Aggression, from anyone, is the Norm, and the Fears are Embedded in the Rethoric Creating more Fears, giving the few the Power of Control over even Larger Numbers!

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"A true revolution of values will say of war, 'This way of settling differences is not just.'…I call on Washington today, I call on every man and woman of goodwill all over America today: Take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow may be too late; a book may close. And I don't know about you -- I ain't going to study war no more."
- Martin Luther King
Click here to watch

On Monday, January 16, the country will remember Dr. Martin Luther King and the legacy of love and non-violent resistance he left to us. To commemorate him, CODEPINK has created an inspiring flash movie where his words are animated by tragic images of the US occupation of Iraq and uplifting images of people rising up. Click here to view it. Then forward it to your family and friends.

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From Peace Takes Courage.

STAND UP

How Dr. King Is Still Teaching Us Today
January 12, 2005
Written by: Ava

Every year near Martin Luther King Jr. Day our family watches some of Dr. King’s greatest speeches, such as “I Have a Dream” and “We Shall Overcome.” Each year I have listened and watched carefully, but not until this year did I actually hear what Dr. King was really saying.

The Rest Of Article Can Be Found HERE

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A "Freedom Bus" in flames, six miles southwest of Anniston, Ala., May 14, 1961. (Birmingham Public Library) Oxford University Press

Get On the Bus: The Freedom Riders of 1961
Listen to this story at site
by Terry Gross
January 12, 2006 · In 1961, the Freedom Riders set out for the Deep South to defy Jim Crow laws and call for change. They were met by hatred and violence -- and local police often refused to intervene. But the Riders' efforts transformed the civil rights movement.
Read the rest of the report HERE while listening. A few more photo's are at site.

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President Lyndon B. Johnson greets visitors as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., looks on in the U.S. Capitol.



Martin Luther King, 'At Canaan's Edge'

Audio for this story Now Up at the NPR Link, just visit site

· In Taylor Branch's history At Canaan's Edge, Martin Luther King Jr. is a citizen of his time. The Alabama peace marches; the Watts riots of 1965; the Vietnam conflict that dominated the late '60s -- King dealt with them all.
{You can Read the rest HERE along with a number of other links

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Online Chat: The Challenges Facing U.S. Families in Poverty


For the fourth year in a row childhood poverty has risen and nearly 2,500 babies are born into poverty daily in the United States. Join Connect for Kids and poverty experts on January 18th for an online chat that will explore ways to improve the conditions of impoverished children and the challenges facing families in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.


Kingapalooza
by Rich Benjamin and Jamie Carmichael , TomPaine.com
In the clap-happy kumbayah that color celebrations of what King stood for, the government and the media must not forget what he stood against.


Juan Cole | 10 Things King Would Have Done about Iraq
Juan Cole says that every year we honor Martin, and we hear again his stirring speech, "I have a Dream." Cole reminds readers of the other dreams of King and discusses what King would have said about our current situation in Iraq.