Ricky Clousing to be released from military jail
Help welcome him home this Saturday at Sea-Tac Airport
US Army Interrogator Sgt. Ricky Clousing will come home to Washington State on Saturday, December 23rd after three months in a military prison. Family, friends and supporters will welcome Sgt. Clousing at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport at 10:15PM on Saturday, December 23rd, Concourse B, Baggage Claim 11.
On August 11th 2006, after being AWOL from the military for over 14 months, Sgt. Clousing spoke publicly about what he called "the daily devastation of occupation in Iraq" which led to his decision to leave his unit after completion of his tour in Iraq. He then turned himself over to military custody. On October 11th he was found guilty of AWOL and sentenced to three months in prison.
Save the date Come listen to Ricky Speak on January 6th
Time and location to be announced soon (somewhere in the Puget Sound area). If you are interested in having Ricky speak to your group in the near future, please contact Laurel Albina at (206) 419-3811.
Move Over GI Joe and Han Solo: Sgt. Ricky Clousing, Peace Action Hero
By Elizabeth de la Vega, www.TomDispatch.com I look forward to the day when Mattel makes a Sgt. Ricky Clousing action figure.
As the mother of sons born eight years apart, I spent nearly half my adult life surrounded by - and stepping on - action figures. They were everywhere: a phalanx of tiny knights in shining armor on the windowsill; Batman and Robin frozen in an ice tray; and GI Joe guys in camouflage among the hosta. One Christmas, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo even ended up in the manger scene along with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, two cows, three sheep, and several Ewoks. My kids spent hours and hours in a fantasy world populated by villains and heroes of every description except one; there were no peace heroes . . .Read the entire article online
Contributions still needed to cover legal expenses All contributions are tax-deductible
You can also mail checks to SDMCC at PO Box 25681, Seattle WA 98165-1181
email: info@sdmcc.org
phone: (206) 789-2751
web: http://www.sdmcc.org/rickyclousing/
The above was noted by Billie, it's an e-mail sent out to those who signed up for alerts on Ricky Clousing. Starting with what matters. And not afraid to call out crap which is why we move immediately to Erika's heads up: Do not watch, listen or read Democracy Now! today.
Erika: Seymour Hersh, whose most recent contribution was to call the warning about [Robert] Gates by Robert Parry and others "ancient history" is featured which is alright. Hersh was wrong. But a speech by him might be worth noting; however, he's partnered up with He Whose Name Shall Not Be Mentioned. I don't support some pervert getting online and trying to meet up with my underage daughter so he pull it out and whack off in front of her for his own perverted thrills. Not only do I not support it, it's also against the law. He may have been able to get a slap on the wrist and have the court records sealed to protect him from the questions he doesn't want to answer, but I'll be damned if I'm going to contribute in any way to the rehabilitation of a nonrepentant sexual predator.
So Erika's given you the heads up. If you do regularly watch, listen or read, she's asking you not to today. I'll honor that and, in fact won't even listen to KPFA today, until Nora Barrows-Friedman comes on this evening, as a result. (It airs twice each morning on KPFA, the first time in a little less than half-hour.) I'm 100% with Erika on this.
It's interesting because there was a fall out when skin/smut peddler was brought on as a 'respectable' source by Goodman but there's never any fallout for bringing on the sexual predator. The New York Times, rightly, decided his court 'issues' made him unfit for their paper and stopped using him as a source.
Independent media, on the other hand, has given him a platform repeatedly.
He will not unseal his court records (as the one accused, he has the legal right to unseal them) and he will not discuss the crimes that have been reported by CNN and other outlets claiming it's a 'privacy' matter. No, the public record says you are a sexual predator who attacks underage girls. There should be no privacy around that. In fact, many of us (if not all) live in neighborhoods that the sort of actions the public record says He Who Shall Not Be Named committed would lead to mailings were he to attempt to move into our neighborhoods.
It's not a surprise that, as usual, when the safety of women is involved, independent media looks the other way. Many may remember the mother, a Republican, who tried to raise flags about a 'pundit' whom she stated had abused her daughter but was still being provided an outlet by the right and the center. It's a real shame that the left does the same.
I won't support it here.
Shame on anyone who gives that man an outlet.
The public record is well known and it's past time that he was told, unseal the records and prove that you are not a sexual predator or get lost.
Instead, he's interviewed by Laura Flanders, Amy Goodman, printed by The Nation, on and on and on. On the first three, women are the ones making the decisions to involve him. That's really disgusting. Maybe it's just another example of a big f.u. from The Nation?
Middle-aged men do not legally seek sexual encounters with underage girls. When they do, they no longer get to be presented as respectable sources. Presenting him as such makes everyone culpable if he goes online to seek out underage girls again.
Next time, it may not be a sting that catches him. Next time, he may be chatting with an underage girl. Everyone giving him a platform is responsible for that. And Sy Hersh is responsible for taking that loser on a speaking tour.
We heard a lot of psuedo outrage about Mark Foley's actions. Apparently the real outrage was over the fact that it was same-sex directed. Otherwise He Who Shall Not Be Named would have been kicked to the curb a long, long time ago.
Instead, he's allowed a platform where he offers predictions that thus far haven't come to pass. (That's overlooked as well.) He's had more than enough time to offer an explanation -- his refusal to do so suggest that there is no explanation for it, that the public record is correct. Doors should close on him as a result.
Maybe others think it's okay, maybe they think it's 'sexy'? I have no idea. I think it's disgusting and that it needs to stop.
Martha notes Nancy Trejos and Saad Sarhan's "U.S. Transfers Control Of Najaf Province to Iraqi Security Forces" (Washington Post):
Another car bomb exploded in the Sinaa district of Baghdad, killing one civilian and injuring four, Kinani said.
[Early Thursday, a suicide bomber killed at least 10 Iraqis and wounded 10 at a police recruitment center in the capital, Reuters cited police officers as saying.]
Meanwhile Wednesday, the U.S. military reported that a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded four that day as they were on their way to investigate an explosion southwest of Baghdad. In a southern neighborhood of Baghdad, a roadside bomb killed one soldier and wounded two, the military said.
The U.S. military also reported that a female civilian was killed Tuesday by insurgents who attacked a police station in Ramadi with two rockets. A man, another female and a 12-year-old child were wounded, the military said.
Coalition forces captured a senior al-Qaeda leader and five other suspected insurgents in Mosul last Thursday, the military reported Wednesday.
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