Posted on 10/24/2006 11:18:02 AM PDT by Impeach98
'American Mourning' authors prepare to defend book
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan issues threat to sue over claims in publication
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Posted: October 24, 2006
1:20 p.m. Eastern
"American Mourning" co-author Melanie Morgan says she is prepared to defend the book against allegations of slander or libel, but she hopes it won't go to that because she wants to spare the family of fallen hero Casey Sheehan any further pain.
It was his mother, anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, who told a nationally syndicated radio show by Stephanie Miller that she was preparing for possible litigation over allegations in the book that she became addicted to "online chat rooms of a pornographic nature" after her son died in Iraq.
"I am totally confident in my level of documentation," Morgan told WND today. "It's locked in a bank vault, and we are prepared to use it should Ms. Sheehan proceed to litigation.
"We hope that doesn't happen for the sake of her family, the Sheehan family," she said, because the documentation is "very graphic in nature.
"We had hoped to spare the family any further uncomfortableness and embarrassment," she said.
The book, published by WND Books and released just a little over a week ago, already is climbing the ranks of Amazon.com and other book lists. It is the story of two families – the Johnsons and Sheehans – that lost sons in the war against terror. Their sons – Casey Sheehan and Justin Johnson – were best friends since they met at Fort Hood in Texas. They went to Iraq and died in the same area just six days apart.
But the book explains how little else the families have in common: with the Johnson family bonding closer than ever and Justin's father, in fact, volunteering to replace his son in the war on terror and going to fight in Iraq.
The book explains how the Sheehan family, however, experienced difficulties and disintegration as Cindy Sheehan chose to turn her anger over the loss of her son against her own country and president.
Morgan told WND that she and co-author Catherine Moy both have been in contact with "a very high-powered attorney in L.A. who is an expert on slander and libel law."
"We are prepared to hire him immediately should the need become apparent. That will depend on what Ms. Sheehan decides to do."
She said she found out about the threat when CNN censored an interview with her about the book. A call placed by WND to CNN to comment on the situation wasn't returned immediately, but the issue arose as Morgan was preparing for an interview on "American Mourning."
Morgan said she was en route to CNN headquarters in New York when she got a call from the producer of the "Glenn Beck" show, outlining what the short interview was scheduled to cover.
The producer specifically mentioned the online chat room issue, Morgan said. But a few minutes later, she got another call from the same producer explaining that the interview would deal with all other aspects of the book, but not that.
Morgan said she asked why, and was told because it "involved legal issues."
"Then we discovered Cindy Sheehan had appeared on the Miller show, saying she was going to sue," Morgan said.
Sheehan had used the radio interview to call the authors "hate-mongers" and accuse them of "using our tragedy for profit."
She dismissed the information in the book as hearsay.
"We wrote the book not to make life uncomfortable for Cindy Sheehan, far from it," Morgan said. "We wrote it as a tribute to her son Casey, an honorable and dutiful soldier, a man who was tremendously inspiring in what he did.
"He volunteered not once but twice, and actually went into Sadr City to rescue fellow soldiers," she said. "He was told he did not have to go. His story is an amazing story, as is Justin Johnson's."
"We felt and do feel we did a good job of trying to show how these men became such heroes to the American public. But we felt that it would be dishonest not to include contextual information about Cindy, her story, what she had been telling in the media, which was inaccurate in many respects," Morgan told WND.
The book, according to Ann Coulter, is "a beautiful, raw war story that breaks the hearts and strengthens the resolve to protect America from her enemies." David Limbaugh calls it "arguably the most poignant portrayal of love, loss, and grief that polarizes our nation today," adding, "It moved and astounded me." Sean Hannity says simply, "The truth in this book will set you free."
Moy is an award-winning journalist and columnist for the Vacaville Reporter, Cindy Sheehan's former hometown newspaper. Morgan, a weekly columnist for WND, is a talk radio show host in San Francisco and chairman of Move America Forward.
Kristen Schremp, a publicist for Morgan and Moy, has confirmed there are hundreds of telephone records, e-mails and other documents supporting the statements made in the book.
Fans of Sheehan have been responding to the book with vitriol, calling one of the authors "fat" and a "whore." And those have been the calmer reactions.
The political website Crooks and Liars attacked Morgan as a "a fringe talk-show host" who was leader of "the low-class MAF organization." However, despite the criticism, Morgan's talk-radio show is one of the highest-rated drive time programs in the San Francisco media market – one of the largest markets in the nation.
The attack on Morgan's leadership of the pro-troop organization, Move America Forward, seems designed to diminish her credentials as a prominent supporter of the men and women of the United States military. Move America Forward is the nation's largest grass-roots pro-troop organization and has shipped over 16 tons of coffee, cookies, beef jerky and Gatorade to U.S. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The attacks quickly deteriorated into vulgarity and insult-laden jeers.
"Michelle Malkin, Mary Matalin, Melanie Morgan... These right-wing b------s all have the same initials of MM.""if i call those 2 women whores, then that's MY responsibility."
"Bibi -- but then that would be an insult to whores."
"That one on the left really needs to work on her eating disorder before she starts pointing that sausage finger."
Finally, the comments became so over the top that the website owner intervened and instructed participants to ease up on their attacks. The site owner deleted dozens of the most offensive and vulgar posts, but dozens of new attacks were posted and not removed by the website's administrator:
The anger by the participants seems to have confused them on some of the essential points of their protests. One individual criticized Morgan's employment at a Republican political consulting firm, however Morgan has never worked for any such firm. Another participant identified co-author Moy as being an employee of KSFO radio along with Morgan. However, Moy has never had any connection with the radio station – she works at the Vacaville Reporter.
Leftists can't win in the court of world opinion so they turn to the activist, leftist judges. Cindy has been exposed for the POS she is and now she's whine which is about all the Rats are capable of doing these days.
Can't lose what you never had. I don't think the She-HAG had much going on upstairs before this.
Gosh, thanks but it sure is a sad truth.
Wow - that is profound. I'm not being sarcastic, I think you really may have hit on something.
I suspect her own conscience is eating her alive.
Like Queen Gertrude, the lady doth [literally] protest too much.
It requires an incredible leap in faith, to believe Ms. Sheehan was ever in control of her mind.
The "look" about her, tells me she's been a freaking dingbat from the beginning.
Semper Fi
No! we don't need to hear any "porn" involving Mother Sheehan. That's a mental image I can do without.
Q - What's the difference between a tribe of cannibalistic female pygmies and Cindy Sheewhine?
A - The pygmies are a pack of cunning little runts.
Good luck with that lawsuit Cindy. Bwaaaaahhaaahhaaaahhaaa!
Let's not lose sight of who the real monsters are: Jesse Jackson, Hugo Chavez, MoveOn.org, and the other usual band of anti-American idiots who have exploited Sheehan. This woman needs mental help, not our scorn. The aforementioned jerkoffs, however, should be beaten with sticks for exploiting her. Nobody ever would have heard of Sheehan if she had not been exploited by left-wingers. She will one day regret this - not because she was upset and irrational, but because she made a public spectacle of herself and tarnished the sacrifice of her son. The other undesireables have no shame now and probably will not in the future either.
Well now you got a point there, I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, why I don't know, can't stand what she is doing to her son's memory, or what she's trying to do to this country...
Semper Fi back (says hubby)
Read more at sacredscoop.com ...
Read more at sacredscoop.com ...
This is hilarious. It's just like Kerry's shills screaming about the Swiftvets. Hiwever, unlike Traitor I (Kerry), Traitor II (Mother Cindy) is dumb enough to sue for libel and face discovery. BRING IT ON!!
You left out Mary Mapes!
LOL!!
At least you're not mentioning the infamous Helen Thomas Sex tapes this time. Thank you for allowing my poor dogs to recover from the terrible trauma they suffered the last time you so cruelly (to my dogs) mentioned the Helen Thoma Sex Tapes.
But Cindy, you've made yourself a public figure. Are you prepared to prove malice?
Talk about calling the kettle black.
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