Global, Global Geopolitics, Headlines, Human Rights, North America

RIGHTS: Award Honours Defiant GIs, Crusading Colombian Senator

Abra Pollock

WASHINGTON, Oct 18 2007 (IPS) - A growing number of U.S. military personnel are publicly expressing opposition to the ongoing occupation of Iraq, said the leaders of a group of active-duty service members who were honoured here Wednesday by the Institute for Policy Studies, a progressive Washington think tank.

On Wednesday morning, the group known as Appeal for Redress formally presented its latest request for the U.S. to withdraw its forces from Iraq in the form of a letter to the U.S. Congress that so far has been signed by more than 2,000 military personnel, 60 percent of whom have served at least one tour of duty in Iraq.

"As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq," states the appeal. "Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home."

Appeal for Redress was one of three groups that received the Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards here on Wednesday, recognising them as "new heroes of the human rights movement." Other winners included D.C. Vote, a local advocacy group calling for voting representation in Congress for D.C. citizens, and Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro, whose bold investigations into his country&#39s "narcomilitaries" have exposed widespread corruption in the Colombian government.

The Letelier-Moffitt award commemorates former exiled Chilean defence minister Orlando Letelier and his assistant, Ronni Karpen Moffitt, who were both killed by a car bomb in Washington in September 1976 while they were working for the Institute for Policy Studies. Letelier was an outspoken opponent of Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Moffitt was a 25 year-old fundraiser.

Letelier and Moffitt&#39s assassinations were the most infamous act of international terrorism to have ever taken place in the U.S. capital prior to the Sep. 11, 2001 attacks, according to the Institute. Their murders were later traced by the Federal Bureau of Investigation to the highest levels of the Pinochet administration.

Several U.S. military groups have called for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq, including Veterans for Peace, Military Families Speak Out, and Iraq Veterans Against the War. But Appeal for Redress is distinctive because the majority of its signatories are active-duty military personnel.

"Having been a soldier on the ground in Iraq for 12 months, I think the biggest problem is that we have all of these people throughout the country saying that they&#39re speaking on behalf of the soldiers when they&#39re not in fact soldiers themselves, nor do they have any connection to anyone who&#39s ever directly served over there," said Linsay Rousseau Burnett, a former sergeant with the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, who signed the appeal.

"If people are going to continue to speak on our behalf, I think it&#39s time that those of us who are actually on the ground, and who this war is directly affecting, need to stand up and give our viewpoints."

While U.S. military service personnel have limited rights of expression compared with civilians, they retain the right to file and send a protected communication to a member of Congress while out of uniform and off-duty regarding any subject without reprisal.

"What this movement is showing is that just because active members of the military take an oath to defend their Constitution and their country…does not mean that they have sacrificed their rights under that Constitution. Our rights are limited, but our rights are not forgone," said Jonathan Hutto, one of the co-founders of the coalition.

Navy Seaman Hutto founded the group in January 2007 with Marine Corps Sergeant Liam Madden after reading the book "Soldiers in Revolt", sent to him by one of his Howard University professors. The book, published in 1974, details the movement of Vietnam War military personnel who spoke out and opposed the war when their conditions and morale reached a breaking point.

"There was thorough documentation during [the Vietnam] era that the morale and discipline of the armed forces began to collapse as a result of forcing our men and women in uniform to fight in an illegal and unjust war," said author David Cortright, who is currently a fellow at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame University, speaking at a press conference at the Capitol Wednesday morning.

"When the U.S. government under the [Richard] Nixon administration began to withdraw troops, they did so because the military was no longer functioning as an effective force."

Appeal for Redress is calling not only for an immediate withdrawal of troops, but also for military service personnel to receive adequate care and treatment once they return. Otherwise, the consequences could be devastating.

"We made a mistake" in not providing adequate treatment to Vietnam vets, and now "over half of the homeless on the street tonight – 200,000 – are Vietnam vets," said Rep. Bob Filner, chair of the House Committee on Veterans&#39 Affairs. "As many Vietnam vets have now committed suicide as died in the original war – over 58,000."

Now the suicide rate for returning Iraq veterans is rising to a similar level, according to Filner.

Other honorees of the Letelier-Moffitt awards have made similar efforts to appeal to their governments and demand redress for existing injustices.

Since 1998, D.C. Vote has advocated for voting representation in the U.S. Congress for citizens of the District of Columbia. Currently, the District is limited to a non-voting, "Delegate to Congress" observer. D.C. Vote was instrumental in securing passage for the 2006 D.C. House Voting Rights act, "the most promising step toward political representation in decades," according to the Institute for Policy Studies.

The bill has not been enacted into law, however, as a filibuster blocked the three votes necessary for Senate approval.

The Institute also honoured Colombian Senator Gustavo Petro for exposing his country&#39s "parapolitics scandal", which links the right-wing, drug-trafficking death squads with politicians aligned with President Alvaro Uribe. Gustavo explained that a free trade agreement between the U.S. and Colombia would only further the aims of the drug traffickers.

"I call on you, distinguished members of [U.S.] Congress and distinguished citizens sitting in this room, to not approve of the free trade agreement, which is an agreement that would benefit drug traffickers in Colombia," he said.

Instead, Petro called for dialogue "between civilisations, between our people" to expose the reality of the situation in Colombia.

Past winners of the Letelier-Moffitt Award include Juan Garces, a Spanish lawyer on the prosecution team against Pinochet (1999); investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, who helped expose the Abu Ghraib prison scandal (2004); and Maher Arar (2006).

Arar, a Canadian citizen, testifies Thursday before the U.S. Congress about his 2002 extraordinary rendition from the U.S. to Syria, under claims that he was a member of al Qaeda. Both the Canadian and the Syrian governments have since cleared Maher of any links to terrorism.