Anonymous Comrade writs: The following interview with Spc. Aidan Delgado, a conscientious objector who spent six months of a one-year tour of Iraq at Abu Ghraib prison, appears in the Spring 2005 issue of LiP Magazine. Delgado will be presenting a slideshow and talk about his experiences on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2005 (Iraqi election day), in San Francisco at the Beta Lounge, 1072 Illinois at 22nd Street, at 7:30. For more information contact boal at sonic dot net.


In Good Conscience
An interview with conscientious objector Aidan Delgado
by SCOTT FLEMING

Aidan Delgado, 23, was a Florida college student looking for a change when he decided to join the army reserve. It was his misfortune to sign an enlistment contract on the morning of September 11, 2001. After finishing the paperwork, he saw a television broadcast of the burning World Trade Center and realized he might be in for more than one weekend a month of low-key service. In the ensuing months, Delgado became dedicated to Buddhism and its principles of pacifism. By April 2003, when he began his yearlong tour in Iraq, he was openly questioning whether he could participate in the war there in good conscience. Having grown up in Cairo, Delgado spoke Arabic and had not been steeped in the racism that drove many of his fellow soldiers. When he surrendered his rifle and declared himself a conscientious objector in the middle of 2003, he was punished by his officers and ostracized by his peers. His unit, the 320th Military Police Company, spent six months in the southern city of Nasiriyah, and another six months helping to run the notorious Abu Ghraib prison outside Baghdad. Now out of the army, Delgado says the prison abuse that has been covered by the likes of 60 Minutes and the New Yorker was the tip of the iceberg: Brutality, often racially motivated, infected the entire prison and the entire military operation in Iraq.

Anti War Activism Interview
by Stan Goff and M. Junaid Alam
Left Hook
December 22, 2004


Recently, Left Hook co-editor M. Junaid Alam was able to fire off some questions to Stan Goff, a former US Special Forces Master Sergeant with more than two decades of military experience who is now heavily involved in anti-war work with Military Families Speak Out and the Bring Them Home Now campaign, and is also the author of Full Spectrum Disorder and Hideous Dream. Below, he offers his sharp insights on recent tactical, military, and political developments taking place in Iraq, discusses the very real growing signs of discontent within the armed forces, and what the anti-war movement should do about it.

"Internal Intifada: Workers' Struggle in Occupied Iraq"
Ewa Jasiewicz, Mute Magazine

In order to understand the present state of workers’ resistance in occupied Iraq we have to begin with the old regime. The Ba’ath dictatorship exterminated workers – both literally and ideologically. In 1987 Saddam liquidated all trade unions, transforming all workers into civil servants – state employees. Fake Ba’athist unions were set up, functioning in effect as tools of surveillance, repression and murder. But this denial of the existence of workers and repression of labour organisation did not end with the fall of Saddam. In June 2003 the US occupation administration passed its infamous ‘Public Notice on Organisation in the Workplace’. This innocuous sounding document effectively perpetuated the 1987 law: unions were still illegal and would not be recognised until ‘The Iraqi people’ – i.e. the puppet Governing Council – passed its new labour law. The Ba’athist managerial class, restored to their posts by the occupation, implemented the ‘Public Notice’ like an order: organisation in the workplace was still illegal. Bosses would look smarmily baffled when asked about workers’ rights and workers’ organisations, responding ‘But we do not have workers, only employees.’

Workers across Iraq ignored the notice and began forming unions and collectives while taking direct action against their recycled Ba’athist bosses.

"Eight Soldiers Sue US over Stop Loss Policy"

Center For Constutional Rights

On December 6, 2004, eight U.S. soldiers — five stationed in Iraq, two in Kuwait on their way to Iraq, and one home on leave from Iraq about to be shipped back — filed a federal lawsuit challenging the Armed Services’ so-called “stop loss” policy which would require them to serve beyond their enlistment contracts. CCR Vice President Jules Lobel and cooperating attorney Staughton Lynd are representing Specialist E-4 David W. Qualls and seven anonymous (“John Doe”) plaintiffs who are seeking a court order requiring their immediate release from military service.  The suit was brought against Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Acting Secretary of the Army Les Brownlee, and Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, Reginald Brown.

Letter from a GI in Falluja:
"This wasn't a war, it was a massacre"

[THE FOLLOWING letter from a U.S. soldier stationed in Iraq, known as hEkLe, powerfully conveys the terror of the U.S. assault on Falluja. It was published in
militaryproject.org. GI Special, a daily Internet newsletter that gathers news and information helpful to soldiers and military families. You can find an archive of the GI Special updated with each new issue at militaryproject.org. hEkLe and several fellow soldiers have a Web log that they regularly update with essays at ftssoldier.blogspot]

THESE ARE ugly times for the U.S. military in Iraq. It seems everywhere you turn, more and more troops are being killed and maimed in vicious encounters with determined rebel fighters.

The insurgency is mounting incredibly in such places as Baghdad, Mosul and Baquba, using more advanced techniques and weaponry associated with a well-organized guerilla campaign. Even in the massively destroyed city of Falluja, rebel forces are starting to reappear with a callous determination to win or die trying. Many critics and political pundits are starting to realize that this war is, in many aspects, un-winnable.

"What Palestinians should do now"
Ali Abunimah Electronic Intifada

The first priority for Palestinian leaders now must be to defend their people against Israel's relentless colonization and violence and not to negotiate with Israeli guns to Palestinian heads. They must formulate a national strategy to regain Palestinian rights enshrined in UN Resolutions, clearly explain this strategy, and organize Palestinians and allies everywhere to struggle for it, starting with full implementation of the ICJ decision on the West Bank wall. Palestinians should seek to emulate the success of the African National Congress that freed South Africans from apartheid by confronting and defeating injustice, not seeking to accommodate it.

This is a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan from Kassim Abdullsattar al-Jumaily, President of the Fallujah-based Human Studies Center of Democracy and Rights.

Fallujah 14 October 2004

Excellency

It is very obvious that the American forces are committing crimes of genocide every day in Iraq. Now, while we are writing to your excellency, the American forces are committing such kind of crimes in the city of Fallujah.  The American warplane is dropping its most powerful bombs on he civilian in the city killing and injured hundreds of innocent people. In the same time their tanks are attacking the city by using their heavy artillery. As you know, there is no any military position in the city. There were no any activities by its resistance in the past weeks; the negotiation with representatives of the city and the Government was going well. In this atmosphere the new development happened while its people are trying to prepare them self to fast the firs day of the holy month of Ramada many of them are now under the wreckage of their demolished houses, no body can help while the military activity are continues.

Just to give your Excellency an examples; the result of one night bombardments by the American forces (that was on 13/14 Oct. 2004)  was demolishing (50) houses on its residents. Is this a genocide crime or  a lesson about the  American democracy?

nolympics writes:

"James Baker's Double Life"
Naomi Klein, The Nation

When President Bush appointed former Secretary of State James Baker III as his envoy on Iraq's debt on December 5, 2003, he called Baker's job "a noble mission." At the time, there was widespread concern about whether Baker's extensive business dealings in the Middle East would compromise that mission, which is to meet with heads of state and persuade them to forgive the debts owed to them by Iraq. Of particular concern was his relationship with merchant bank and defense contractor the Carlyle Group, where Baker is senior counselor and an equity partner with an estimated $180 million stake.

Haiti Information Project writes

October 2, 2004
"Armed Resistance to Imperialism in Haiti.
Slum under siege"
Port au Prince, Haiti (HIP)

A slum in the capital is under siege from the Haitian National Police (HNP) following three days of violence and unrest. Heavily armed units of the HNP attempted to enter the slum of Bel Air at 9:00 p.m. last night and were met with armed resistance. Shots could be heard throughout the area for several hours as residents fought a pitched battle with the police who were forced to withdraw under heavy fire.

nolympics writes

The writer is currently being investigated by the military and could face treason charges and the gulag if convicted. The investigation was prompted by this article.

"Why We Cannot Win"
Al Lorentz

Before I begin, let me state that I am a soldier currently deployed in Iraq, I am not an armchair quarterback. Nor am I some politically idealistic and naïve young soldier, I am an old and seasoned Non-Commissioned Officer with nearly 20 years under my belt. Additionally, I am not just a soldier with a muds-eye view of the war, I am in Civil Affairs and as such, it is my job to be aware of all the events occurring in this country and specifically in my region.

I have come to the conclusion that we cannot win here for a number of reasons. Ideology and idealism will never trump history and reality.