Lt Watada refuses order, restricted to base

Friends,

Hope you join me at Ft. Lewis on June 27. We need to support Lt. Watada and Suzanne Swift, and all the other scared kids there who don't really want to go to Iraq but are unable to stand up for one reason or another.

I have driven by many times and see their disgusting pro war demonstrations at the overpass. Now it is our turn. See you there! This is an oportunity for a peaceful and effective media event.

Truthout article:  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062206S.shtml

"Eric Seitz is Lieutenant Watada's lead defense attorney. He says: "This morning Lieutenant Watada has been restricted to base without any actual charges or proper process. By placing a complete gag order on Lieutenant Watada, the military has again shown that their first concern is silencing Lieutenant Watada's speech in opposition to the illegal war in Iraq." Seitz says he will immediately challenge these restrictions."

Union leader Faruque Ahmed's question

I would like to ask you a question based on the following observations:

1. Three successive UN Assistant Secretary Generals responsible for Iraq prior to the 1993 invasion resigned in protest. All of them basically said 1.5 million Iraqi deaths resulted due to the sanction regimes are in essence genocide.

2. Three successive UN Weapons Inspectors like Scott Ritta, Hans Blix and Richard Butler fell from the grace by disagreeing with the coalition of the willing over the so called WMD in Iraq.

3. Many experts around the world are basically saying governments of USA, UK, and Australia are ignoring the advice of technocrats, bureaucrats and intelligence agencies resulting in disasters all around and all types.

4. It took seven serving US Generals to gang up and speak out for five minutes and then they were silenced forever within 24 hours!

5. The big democracy (The UN General Assembly), little clique (the Security Council) and the ultimate democracy (millions of people around the world) opposed the invasion of Iraq with tragic failure!

Therefore the question ought to be asked, "who is running the government of USA, Australia or any where for that matter"?
An Evening with Rod Barton, Author - Weapon's Detective, Sydney University