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Army plans to Extradite Stop Loss Rapper away from Public Scrutiny
This is a follow-up of an earlier report posted on Veterans Today in Army Jails Soldier for Singing Against Stop-Loss Policy.
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) has sent us the following media release on the U.S. military plans to extradite Stop-Lossed Iraq War Vet to Iraq for Court Martial over his rap song protesting Stop Loss.
The Obama administration came into office promising to curtail then cease with the disdainful policy of Stop Loss, but that remains to be seen given Obama’s SURGE into Afghanistan.
To quote Secretary of Defense Robert Gates about his disdain for Stop Loss. The New York Times reported that some 120,000 soldiers have been affected by stop-loss in its various forms since 2001, Army officials said Wednesday, a practice that Mr. Gates said had amounted to “breaking faith” with those in uniform.
Angry, darn right Specialist Marc Hall was angry letting both the Pentagon and mainstream media know it. It is not like he has something to hide like the Major gone wrong at Fort Hood that no one in the Army chain of command caught the warning signs, this young man put it all out front. Was his intent in even sending the message to the Pentagon anger at being Stop Lossed, threat to FRAG fellow troops, I doubt it.
Was Hall threatening to wipe out Iraqis in his anger once force to deploy, maybe who knows, but when I listened to the lyrics it told me that this young man (and I can’t stand rap music) was sending a message of anger and what could happen when WE break faith with too many of our troops and a 500 dollar Congressional bribe just is not enough to risk one’s life for.
Specialist Hall would have been granted the 500 bounty to willingly be Stop Lossed, but he told the Pentagon where they could put their bribe. This is not about a Soldier threatening his fellow Soldiers COME ON NOW, this is about STOP LOSS – PERIOD!
Watch the video yourselves, it has already appeared on every mainstream media outlet across the nation for angry voters to see. Does this warrant sending a young enlisted man to Iraq or Afghanistan to get him out of the public eye so he doesn’t have a fair trial. I don’t think so. Heck might as well send him to Guantanamo Bay for trail for it is about the same sense of Justice.
Let us pray that mainstream media follows Specialist Hall and the Army to Iraq, so the Pentagon can show American voters it has nothing to hide or be embarrassed about when it makes the President and Secretary Gates out to be liars on Stop Loss.
Robert L. Hanafin, Major, U.S. Air Force-Retired, Veterans Today News
US military plans to extradite stop-lossed Iraq war vet to Iraq for court martial over protest rap song
Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) had this to say about Stop Loss as other Veteran Service Organizations remain silent either in support of their hawkish Republican or Democratic party base.
Fort Stewart, Ga. – The US military plans to extradite a stop-lossed Iraq war veteran to Iraq “within a few days” to face a court martial for allegedly threatening military officers in a protest rap song he made.
Spc. Marc Hall has been jailed in the Liberty County Jail near Fort Stewart, Ga., since Dec. 11 because he wrote a song called “Stop Loss” about the practice of involuntarily extending military members’ contracts.
“It is our belief that the Army would violate its own regulations by deploying Marc and it would certainly violate his right to due process by making it far more difficult to get witnesses. It appears the Army doesn’t believe it can get a conviction in a fair and public trial. We will do whatever we can to insure he remain in the United States,” said Hall’s civilian attorney, David Gespass.
Gespass claims the Army’s attempts to deploy Hall violate Army Regulations 600-8-105 and the Army’s conscientious objector regulations. Hall applied for a conscientious objector discharge Monday. The military’s move would also separate Hall from both his civilian legal team and military defender.
“The Army seeks to disappear Marc and the politically charged issues involved here, including: the unfair stop-loss policy, the boundary of free speech and art by soldiers, and the continuing Iraq occupation. The actual charges are overblown if not frivolous, so I’m not surprised the Army wants to avoid having a public trial,” explained Jeff Paterson, executive director of Courage to Resist.
An Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) member, Hall served 14 months in Iraq. He was scheduled to end his military contract on Feb. 27 but received a stop loss order that he would have to stay on active-duty to re-deploy to Iraq with his unit.
“Marc served his tour of duty to Iraq honorably,” said Brenda McElveen, Hall’s mother. “To his dismay, he was told that he would be deployed again. When Marc voiced his concerns over this matter, his concerns fell on deaf ears. To let his frustration be known, Marc wrote and released the song. Marc is not now nor has he ever been violent.”
Using stop loss orders, the US military has stopped about 185,000 soldiers from leaving the military since 2001. An additional 13,000 troops are now serving under stop-loss orders. President Obama said he thinks the practice should be stopped.
Hall, 34, was charged Dec. 17 with five specifications in violation of Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Conduct, including “wrongfully threatening acts of violence against members of his unit.” His arrest came about a month after 13 people were killed in a shooting incident at Fort Hood, Texas. Hall, whose hiphop name is Marc Watercus, mailed a copy of his “Stop Loss” song to the Pentagon.
Based at Fort Stewart, Hall said the song was a “free expression of how people feel about the Army and its stop-loss policy” not a threat. “My first sergeant said he actually liked the song and that he did not take it as a threat,” Hall added.
A South Carolina native, Hall wanted to leave the military to spend more time with his wife and child.
Hall’s song:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
A copy of the US Army’s press release about transferring Hall to Iraq is available on request.
IVAW is a national organization of veterans and active-duty service members who have served since September 11, 2001 – including those who took part in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. IVAW also is dedicated to fighting for adequate physical and mental healthcare, full benefits, and other support for returning veterans.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, VISIT WWW.IVAW.ORG
Selena Coppa
Media Team Leader
Iraq Veterans Against the War
(347) 985-6039
http://activedutypatriot.blogspot.com
MEDIA INTERVIEWS AVAILABLE:
- Jason Hurd, IVAW Organizer, is in regular contact with Marc Hall. jehurd@gmail.com , 1-678-896-3821
- Brenda McElveen, Marc Hall’s mother, 1-843-206-3439
- Chantelle Bateman, IVAW Field Organizing Team. chantellebateman@ivaw.org , 1-202-758-7818
- David Gespass, Hall’s civilian attorney, 1-205-323-5966
- Jeff Paterson, the founder and director of the soldier advocacy group Courage to Resist, jp@jeffpaterson.net , 1-415-279-9697
- LTC Eric Bloom in Iraq, US Army Public Affairs, eric.bloom@mnd-b.army.mil
For progressive Veteran and Military Family organizations who fought to force the administration and Secretary of Defense Gates to admit the evil that Stop Loss is and NOW think the battle is over, this confirms that we have not yet begun the fight to STOP the STOP LOSS.
Don’t hold your breath waiting for mainstream VSOs of party politicians to take a STAND on Stop Loss again, they still think bribing our troops will keep they silent and content.
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=13942
Posted by Robert L. Hanafin on Feb 5 2010, Filed under Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
“The stop-loss policy is one that has been expanded and abused for too long,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq war veteran and chairman of VoteVets.org, “and it is a significant and positive sign that the president plans to largely end it.”
“If we had to point to one policy that has placed the most strain on our troops and their families, and adversely affected the morale and readiness of our forces, it would be stop-loss,” Mr. Soltz added.
Senator John Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat who strongly criticized the stop-loss policy during his campaign for president in 2004, released a statement on Wednesday saying, “I applaud the president and Secretary Gates for ending a practice that has for too long abused the trust and tested the strength of our incredible military families.”
Quotes from ‘Stop-Loss’ Will All but End by 2011, Gates Says http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/19/washington/19gates.html
MORE FOOD FOR THOUGHT!
The Army Reserve will no longer mobilize units under stop laws, Gates said during a news conference, with the Army National Guard to end the practice in September. Active Army
units will cease deploying with stop-loss solders starting next January [2010]
The goal is to cut the number of troops stop-lost by 50 percent by June 2010 and to eliminate the use of stop-loss under ordinary circumstances by March 2011. As of January 2009, 13,200 solders were stop-lost, Gates said.
In addition, the Army will undertake several incentive programs to encourage soldiers to voluntarily extend their enlistments, Gates said, “thus, mitigate the impact this change may have on unit strength and unit cohesion. ”
The Defense Department will provide special compensation of $500 a month to soldiers that have been stop-lost, Gates said. The move is effective in March and will be applied retroactively to Oct. 1, 2008.
While noting the new stop-loss rules carry risk, Gates said, “I believe it is important that we do everything possible to see that soldiers are not unnecessarily forced to stay in the Army beyond their end-of-term of service date.”
Quotes from media hyping political promises to Stop – Stop Loss, and we all know which direction political promises go with this administration.
Gates announces stop-loss phaseout http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2009/03/18/Gates-announces-stop-loss-phaseout/UPI-19541237413609/
FYI Senator Kerry saying that the Obama administration was “ending a practice that has for too long abused the trust and tested the strength of our incredible military families” AND phasing it out are sorta kinda political rhetoric wouldn’t you agree since you would not have wanted to be the last man to die in your war.
“After he came home, and after his friend Don Droz was killed in Vietnam, Kerry began to speak out against the war. It wasn’t easy. Only 27 years old, John Kerry sounded a call to reason in April 1971 when he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and posed the powerful question, “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?”
Well rest assured Senator Kerry that Specialist Hall got angry about being Stop Lossed because he does not want to be the last man to die for a mistake. How do you ask Specialist Hall to be the last man to die for a lie?
Senator Kerry’s gallant stand on Viet Nam
http://www.johnkerry.com/pages/about/
In a statement to Stars and Stripes newspaper, the Army says Hall has threatened violence on numerous occasions and that they have a duty to protect others on the base. He is charged under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which gives the Army lots of leeway to charge anyone whose actions bring “discredit upon the Armed Services.”
Soldier Jailed for Rap Song Against Stop Loss Military Policy
ABC Channel 7 News in Washington, DC
http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0110/693826.html
Well if Specialist Hall did in fact threaten violence on numerous occasions against his fellow Soldiers than especially after the Fort Hood Incident, the Pentagon and Obama administration owe it to American voters to prove so publicly here in the United States not behind closed doors in Iraq, Afghanistan, Japan, or where ever outside our shores. What does to Army have to hide?
VFP has a letter online you can send to the LTC: http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/826/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=2217
Lets look at this another way. These young men and women have signed a contract to serve in the Armed Forces with the USA for a specified period of time. Under unusual circumstances that constitute a national emergency they can be held inside the Armed Forces against their will for a limited amount of time if their MOS is in short supply. That is how I remember the rules from my Coast Guard personnel experience.
Their pay is supposed to significantly increase under these circumstances if I remember correctly. That is not happening here. Also, this is supposed to be a policy specifically directed at ONE individual with a highly hard-to-replace MOS that is not available when he or she is ready to separate. Combat for extended tours of duty in a series of undeclared wars was never under any circumstances part of the scenario here as a blanket policy. As far as I remember, this is clearly against any CFR or USC that involves involuntarily extending a contract with the federal government by any entity, whether it be an individual or group.
Let me state this clearly, I believe this blanket policy to be illegal using past precedent in any Armed Forces regs as a base for comparison. This is shanghai-ing someone. This is what pirates did in the 18th Century.
I don’t think this is legal as a blanket policy for anybody. The ACLU ought to be involved here. This is neither proper labor law nor is it in any way, when compared to past practice, proper armed forces regulation for involuntarily extending the contract of individuals whose MOS is hard to replace at the time of separation.
I don’t think this is a legal practice no matter how you look at it. These kids have been bamboozled.
CWO3 Thomas M. Barnes, USCG (Ret.)
CWO3 (PERS)
“The ACLU ought to be involved here. This is neither proper labor law nor is it in any way, when compared to past practice, proper armed forces regulation for involuntarily extending the contract of individuals whose MOS is hard to replace at the time of separation. I don’t think this is a legal practice no matter how you look at it. These kids have been bamboozled.”
Good idea, let’s send this post to ACLU, and see how they react with the individual has given up all civil rights when he/she joins the Army.
Frankly, since this doesn’t have enough mainstream media attention (sexy) it is not going to get the attention of ACLU. Anyway, the kid has a civilian legal team, if they haven’t figured out the ACLU can get them the mainstream media they need. Hum.
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