Prelim Analysis - Mutiny Story is Set Up - call for a Post 47

Various - Daily News, Salon, ^ | 10/17/04 | Self

[Phsstpok]

The earlier thread about the October Surprise "Mutiny" hit piece on this mornings Today show prompted me to do some Googling to try to see if there were any connections of note.  I felt that even the little evidence I found warranted a quick heads up and (forgive me) a separate thread as a call to action.  I have no particular standing to do this, but this concerned me enough to fire off a flare.

It looks like the extreme left is orchestrating an October Surprise propaganda campaign against the war in Iraq and President Bush by staging a "mutiny" of reserve troops (appears to be 5 of 'em, when you get down to it) and playing it the way they played Abu Gharib. 

First, the basic story.  Reports surfaced on Friday, the 15th, that troops in Iraq had refused a "suicide mission" and were under arrest and held in close guard.  A small handful of "frantic" family members began reporting "unfair practices" and "unsafe conditions," desperately calling on (the usual suspects) politicians to save their loved ones from cruel fate.

Some excerpts:

Daily News, October 17, 2004:

'All of us refused to go'

Calls, E-mails explain troops' alleged mutiny

The military has begun punishing some of the 19 Army reservists who balked at what they called a "suicide mission" and a "death sentence" in Iraq last week.

Some members of the South Carolina-based 343rd Quartermaster Company refused to transport fuel between the Iraqi cities of Tallil and Taji Wednesday morning, saying they had no protection for the dangerous trip.

now here's the kicker from the Daily News piece:

Citizen Soldier, a New York-based, nonprofit military rights group, has offered ... its help.

Citizen Soldier is not a "military rights group."  It is a virulently anti-American and anti-Military extreme left front group.  Their motto on their web site is: "Prepared to Challenge U.S. Militarism in the New Millenium."

Citizen Soldier also has close ties to John Kerry, as it's director Tod Ensign, was one of the organizers of Kerry's discredited Winter Soldier propaganda event in 1969, along with Jeremy Rifkin.  This connection is the one that set off my alarm bells.

I couldn't figure the Mississippi angle till I found this in The Clarion-Ledger of Hattiesberg, Mississippi:

Platoon with Mississippi soldiers defies orders 17 soldiers placed under arrest in Iraq

A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday. The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq - north of Baghdad - because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.

and again, buried in the piece, is the clue to the source and spin:

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson said he plans to submit a congressional inquiry today on behalf of the Mississippi soldiers to launch an investigation into whether they are being treated improperly.

Bennie Thompson is one of the more radical members of the Black Caucus.  He is a leader in the "fair play for Fidel Castro" movement in Congress.  He is often the designated "hit man" in attacking minority members of the Bush Administration, particularly Dr. Condoleezza Rice.  He was a rabid Deaniac, but shifted his loyalty to Kerry when Dean fell on his own scream.

The Salon hit piece ties this squarely to the Washington/DNC/Carville slime machine:

Revolt in the ranks in Iraq

The inside story of the Army platoon that refused to carry out a "death sentence" mission.

is by Mary Jocoby, Salon's Washington Correspondent.  Jacoby is one of Salon's "reliable" writers who can always be counted on to spew hate at George Bush, in particular, and Republicans in general.  She rates Seymour Hersh as a "crack investigative reporter" and has authored anti-Bush hit pieces such as  "The Dunce," "George W. Bush's Missing Year" and "Swaggering toward Election Day."

What is truly amazing about these pieces on the "mutiny" is that they appear to have been ready to go before the incident took place.  These folks had their stories straight and remarkably consistent in record time, even before the news had reached the regular news cycle on CNN, who jumped on this in record time. 

Folks, this is a set up.  But it's a set up that, like many of the Kerry camps dirty tricks, they've had to fire off prematurely to try to distract the news media from a Kerry gaffe.  Pulling the trigger on this was timed to try and keep the disastrous Mary Cheney attack off of the Sunday morning talk shows.  These soldiers are pawns who were told that they would be used to unseat a sitting President (with undoubted hints of vast rewards from a Kerry administration) but they are being sacrificed, just like pushing a pawn, to protect the dims' king.

[rface]

.....

[familyop]

"He denied claims by some of the soldiers to their families that the fuel they were to deliver was contaminated. The platoon has troops from Alabama, Kentucky, North Carolina, Mississippi and South Carolina."

...the very last line in the AP piece through the Sun-Herald.

[88keys]

There seems to be some "there", there...well done on the research!

The Free Republic is in good hands with all the diverse talent here...one is never short on "all the available facts", whatever the issue or opinions might be, and I think you could safely change your tagline to "often in doubt, but never wrong"...LOL! ;)

[Victoria Delsoul]

I'm not surprised. The Democrats are famous for October surprises, and now they're getting desperate.

[R. Scott]

Whatever happened, it isn’t what the MSM portrays.

[fight_truth_decay]

Poking around for rumors on talk of mutiny..I found

Larry Holmes A.N.S.W.E.R, Interview
posted Monday, 18 August 2003

http://edstrong.blog-city.com/read/185956.htm

Excerpt:

"Pro-war morale was down because many of these soldiers had access to email, instant communication with their families and also to the news. And they learned before the war started that there were huge demonstrations against the war.

One of the reasons why the anti-war movement has a pretty good sense of the morale of the troops is because of the communications revolution. Unlike in other wars, the troops' feelings can be communicated instantaneously."

CUT

"There are all sorts of rumors, even that some soldiers talk of mutiny. General John Abizaid, the commander there, admonished soldiers who spoke to the press about [Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld and Bush using expletives.

WW: You mentioned that Gen. Abizaid demanded that discontented GIs stop publicly criticizing their commanders. Your reaction?

Stapp (Andy Stapp,was drafted during the Vietnam War after having burned his draft card): The military suppresses free speech. The GIs have to live under chain of command. This is inherently undemocratic. It's obvious they all want to come home. They should come home. The anti-war movement and their families would welcome this.

After World War II there were mass demonstrations that forced the generals to send troops home following the end of the war.

Holmes: The Pentagon is absolutely terrified over the perspective of GIs speaking out against continuing the occupation. They fear that what begins by talking could quickly evolve into organized GI resistance to staying in Iraq.

This can reach the point where the U.S. rank-and-file troops view their enemy not as the Iraqi resistance but as anyone over the rank of lieutenant.

Also frightening the Pentagon is the "bring the troops home" movement that has sprung up among the families of GIs. Both with the families and with the GIs themselves, the Pentagon's instinct has been to lash out with threats of punishment.

But it remains to be seen whether that will quell the dissent. Indeed, it may have the opposite effect.

The anti-war and GI support group SNAFU has just issued a statement supporting the right of the troops and their relatives to speak out against the military and the war and their right to demand to be brought home.

WW: At a conference we attended in Europe, some people called the GIs "mercenaries" because the U.S. has an all-volunteer military. Your reaction?

Holmes: This question needs a serious discussion. We will always argue that class contradictions between the troops and their commanders will come to the surface. But this is a super 21st-century high-tech army, with much of the killing done at a distance. It tests theory again.

We found out pretty quickly that the latest technology not only doesn't guarantee victory, it doesn't change the class structure in the Army.

Will there be significant dissent within the ranks? Or have they become alienated from the mass of the people?

It's best that we let events speak for themselves.

Now we have seen enough resistance to dispel any doubt. How much this will challenge the Pentagon is still to be seen, but the opposition is there."

SNAFU http://www.join-snafu.org/
http://www.workers.org/ww/2003/giresist0731.php

[Phsstpok]

great find, thanks.

But, now I've got to start ANOTHER LIST!

Evidence Of Enemy Action

[daybreakcoming]

I have been half expecting and dreading just this type of scenario. We just cannot believe that some, and I repeat some,.....oh heck, .0001% of our troops will not put party above their sworn military duty. But mutiny has happened in every war the US has been involved in. We just didn't have the mutiny of the media as we do now.

[FourtySeven]

Thanks for the ping, and thanks for all the work Phsstpok! Very interesting.

[fight_truth_decay]

Andy Stapp...American Servicemen's Union (add to post #206)
Excerpt:
..."Stapp committed himself and his organization to armed violence and to promoting mutiny within the U.S. military. According to the transcript of his speech broadcast over Radio Pyongyang, Stapp stated, "The American Servicemen's Union will study as documents, that must be read, the works of genius of Marshal Kim Il-sung. ... With the juche idea as the guiding compass of struggle, we will consolidate the branches of the American Servicemen's Union in order to rally more soldiers around the organization. In this way the American GIs will fight against their real enemies, against the policy of aggression and war enforced on them by the U.S. ruling circles and the fascist military officers."

He added that his goal was "to build a powerful American Servicemen's Union that will turn the guns against their fascist officers. ... If the American Servicemen's Union cuts the windpipe of U.S. imperialism inside the army while at the same time it is mutilated in all parts of the world, U.S. imperialism will surely perish forever."

Today, the WWP and its fronts claim to be nonviolent, but they remain as enthusiastic as ever about North Korea. Visiting Pyongyang to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the birth of Kim Il-sung in April 2002, Griswold Stapp signed a statement denouncing President George W. Bush's "notorious antiterrorism war" and demanding that "the Korean peninsula be reunified without fail under the wise leadership of the respected leader Kim Jong-il following the banner of the Three Charters for the national reunification set forth by the great President Kim Il-sung." Filing an article from the North Korean capital for the July 23, 2002, issue of Workers World, Griswold Stapp called Pyongyang "truly one of the most beautiful cities in the world."

http://www.insightmag.com/main.cfm?include=detail&storyid=370637

[fox0566]

Kiran Chetry co-hosts both Fox & Friends 1st and FNL. She's been with Fox for over 3 years. Her question and answer segment with her two guests was very brief, but every one of her questions seemed to be laced with the assumption that the troops did not have what they needed to do their jobs in Iraq. I don't mind anyone asking questions about that too, but it seemed that she was only centering on what the 18 soldiers had claimed and not any other possibilities for their actions.

Fox has many liberals working for them, Kiran included, and I think that with the election coming closer, it may be hard for even news professionals to keep their allegiances under wraps. We've seen it with many other networks.

Our military has been questioned and second-guessed repeatedly during this campaign, and I think it has done some damage. Every incident that takes place is made out to be some major catastrophe, and quite frankly, it's making me sick.

[Phsstpok]

Noted and added to the table,

thanks

[cajungirl]

You won't believe it but I googled a couple of the guys from citizen-soldier and ended up on a Leninist website,,I have been following it all afternoon and found a guy who is a native american activist, involved heavily in Miss civil rights movement back in the 60's, those links took me right into the leninist Marxist movement.

Anyway Jackson and particularly Tougaloo college are heavy into this stuff,,workers united, reparations, the bad capitalists. I wonder if some of these people esp the woman and the good Representative are off shoot of this. It was mind boggling to read, we have a subculture of Marxist/activist/labor union/ agitators in this country. And VVAW was just a part of it.

[Phsstpok]

thankyou. Link added to new "evidence of enemy action" table. Will post updated lists in a few minutes.

[SheLion]

Now, if this will only lead somewhere....

I'm sure your work won't be for naught. Someone besides we posters will see it, that's for sure!!

[Camel Joe]

I agree about Fox and libs, its seems like some of Gretta's poll questions were made debate questions when they hurt Bush.

[Phsstpok]

I googled a couple of the guys from citizen-soldier and ended up on a Leninist website

Got links? I've added a "evidence of enmey action" to my lists. This could make a great chart, ala the NYT chart "linking" Bush to the Swift Boat Vets, except this one would have some substance.

[Salamander]

So do I, especially given the general voting tendencies of the area from which most of the "guilty parties" originated.

[cajungirl]

I can't do links, link impaired. Go to citizen-soldier.org and see what you come up with. I did a search of the Todd guy, Todd Ensign is his name I think. He is one of the helpers and that is where I ended up on the leninist web site. Then I ran across a guy involved in Miss, wont post his name but will email you, and he is the native american marxist who taught at tougaloo college way back when.

[cajungirl]

almost forgot, the Indian has a blog on his website about the poor Al-Samarian, the guy in Florida who was in a flap about tenure of something, suspected terrorist ties if I remember right.

all of these radical fringe people are related.