Mom
facing Afghanistan deployment, jail
Courage to Resist rallies national political, legal, and family support of Alexis Hutchinson, the single mom jailed by the Army for refusing to
deploy after being unable to find care for her 11-month old son Kamani.
Campaign wins Army objector discharge!
In August, we launched a campaign to “Free Army
objector
Dustin Stevens and the end illegal pre-trial punishment of the Fort
Bragg 50.” With your help, we did just that!
D.A.M. report from Israel/Palestine
Update from Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist Project Coordinator, and
Iraq War resister Stephen Funk who are traveling throughout
Israel/Palestine with the Dialogues Against Militarism project.
"Undeployables" to the Afghan Front
Dahr Jamail and
Sarah Lazare take a look at the situation Army-wide for Echo Platoon-type of situations across the country for TomDispatch. (link only)
Support Alexis Hutchinson, single mom still facing Afghanistan deployment, court martial
Please make a tax-deductible donation to Alexis’ legal and family support fund.
By Jeff Paterson, Courage to Resist. November 16, 2009
“I currently don’t have a family care plan, but they told me they
did not care and for me to get ready to go to Afghanistan,” explained
Oakland, California native Spc. Alexis Hutchinson, a 21-year-old
soldier based at Hunter Army Airfield outside of Savannah, Georgia.
As I spoke to Alexis on the phone, I believed if I found her a
civilian lawyer to work with the military, a reasonable resolution
would be quickly found. Unlike most service members Courage to Resist
assists, Alexis was not refusing to deploy. She was not looking to
speak out against war. She was simply asking for more time to find
someone to care for her 11-month old son Kamani. Within a few days,
however, the Army had tossed Alexis in the stockade and turned Kamani
over to the Chatham County (Georgia) foster care system.
In response to a public outcry, growing media attention, and
congressional inquiries, the Army backed off of their pledge to deploy
Alexis last night, November 15. Alexis’ lawyer Rai Sue Sussman of San
Francisco notes that “The Army maintains that she may still be sent to
Afghanistan for a court martial.” That has left Ms. Sussman
contemplating travel to Afghanistan to represent her client.
Read more...
Campaign wins Army objector discharge!
Spc. Dustin Stevens discharged,
Echo Platoon disbanded
By Courage to Resist.
November 10, 2009
In August, we launched a campaign to “Free Army conscientious
objector Dustin Stevens and the end illegal pre-trial punishment of the
Fort Bragg 50!” With your help, we did just that!
Dustin is
certain that he would still be facing over a year in the stockade if it
were not for your support. It is not everyday that we win an outright
victory for GI resisters.
Dustin Stevens was one of about 50 soldiers held at the 82nd
Holdover Unit awaiting likely AWOL and desertion charges. They lived in
a legal limbo of poor living conditions, verbal abuse, and arbitrary
punishments while waiting for up to a year to be actually charged and
court martialed. These soldiers were subjected to many months of unjust
and illegal punishment prior to their day in court.
Shortly after Dustin first contacted us, staff organizer Sarah
Lazare traveled across the country and not only met with Dustin and
other members of his unit, she also recorded an interview with their
commanding officer! After her first article was published, living conditions improved. After her second article, co-authored with Dahr Jamail, “Echo Platoon” was disbanded. And after we mailed hundreds of petitions to military authorities on behalf of supporters like yourself, Dustin’s court martial for desertion was canceled. He was discharged last week.
Dustin intends to continue fighting for GI resisters:
I was let out because I have
a big mouth and a lot of people backing me up. The guys and girls that
stay quiet are still getting screwed. How do we fix this, how do we
help these people? Fort Bragg is just one problem, there are many more.
I am eternally grateful for the help that
I received from Courage to Resist and others like them. But I am far
from finished. My fight is for every single person that has the right
to choose.
I will fight for the soldiers with a conscience. I will not
stop my fight, ever.
Read more...
Dialogues Against Militarism in Israel/Palestine
Update from Sarah Lazare, Courage to Resist Project Coordinator,
and Iraq War resister Stephen Funk who are traveling throughout
Israel/Palestine with the Dialogues Against Militarism project.
By Sarah Lazare and Stephen Funk. November 11, 2009
About 25 of us trudged towards military prison 400, just outside of
Tel Aviv, coils of razor wire and lookout towers looming above us,
fields of mud and dry grass to our right. As we walked past, soldiers
in the towers yelled out to us in Hebrew: “We are prisoners, too” and
“We don’t like the cops either!” referring to the two police vehicles
trailing us. When we reached our destination – an opening in the field,
nestled between the fences marking the perimeter of the prison – we
began setting up the sound system and preparing for the day’s goal of
reaching earshot of Or Ben-David, a young Israeli being held in prison
for refusing the army draft.
Our gathering consisted predominantly of young Israelis who had
themselves been conscientious objectors, some of whom had been held in
that same prison quite recently, some of whom had just refused and were
scheduled to report to prison in a few months. The crowd also included
some older radicals, a smattering of internationals, and of course us –
U.S. War resisters, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and anti-militarist
organizers, here to lend our support to Israeli and Palestinian
movements against occupation.
Raz Bar-David, a military resister who had spent time behind those
bars, explained that we were at the point where we could best be heard
by Or. And it is a good thing she could, because the sounds being
emitted over this barren military landscape were worth hearing.
Photo above: D.A.M. activists Stephen Funk, Sarah Lazare,
Clare Bayard. Bil’in, Israel/Palestine 11/13/09
Read
more...
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