Sanctuary movement supports surge in GI resistance

Sanctuary movement supports surge in GI resistance

http://www.workers.org/2009/us/gi_resistance_0122/

By Dee Knight
Jan 18, 2009

The current surge in GI resistance, as reported in earlier articles
in Workers World, has begun to stimulate calls for a sanctuary
movement. In such a movement, people massively communicate
unconditional support for GIs who refuse to fight in unjust wars in
Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. Sanctuary cities have been
established in Ithaca, N.Y., and Berkeley, Calif.

Such a movement has also been underway in Israel. Dozens of young
Israelis have refused to be part of the Israeli occupation force on
the West Bank or in Gaza, scene of the latest slaughter of civilians.

Workers World spoke with John Lewis, a national field organizer of
the American Servicemen's Union (ASU) in August 1969, when an earlier
sanctuary struggle took place in Honolulu in protest of the war
against Vietnam.

The struggle started when Louis "Buffy" Perry entered the Crossroads
Church there amid a flurry of publicity on Aug. 6. "I've chosen to
begin a lifestyle of noncooperation, on any level, with the military
establishment," Perry told reporters. "I urge all my brothers and
sisters to do the same."

Began with a mass protest

The local anti-war movement, known as the Hawai'i Resistance, held an
anti-war march and rally of 350 people on Aug. 10 to commemorate
Nagasaki Day. GI participants and their civilian supporters demanded
"a bill of rights" for military personnel. By the end of that day,
six GIs went AWOL and sought sanctuary inside the Church of the
Crossroads, joining Perry.

During the next week, Black Marines rebelled at the nearby Kaneohe
Marine Corps Air Station and a delegation from the sanctuary church
demonstrated support for them. Marines and soldiers from other bases
and from the tens of thousands visiting Hawaii on rest and recreation
break from Vietnam began to join those in the sanctuary. Some who
didn't join the sanctuary brought food and other material aid.

The Hawaii People's Coalition for Peace and Justice quickly formed to
support the soldiers. Two "sanctuaries" for AWOL soldiers were
established: the Church of the Crossroads and the First Unitarian
Church of Honolulu. During the next four weeks, Honolulu became a
hotbed of GI resistance, with over 100,000 military personnel on the
island of Oahu at Pearl Harbor, Wickham Air Force Base, Scofield
Barracks and Kaneohe Marine Corps Air Station, plus GIs on leave from
Vietnam. According to legal records from a case brought three years
later, at least 24 soldiers refused to cooperate in a war they didn't
agree with and took refuge in the churches.

"You have to picture the grounds of the Crossroads teeming with
people," said Cindy Lance, who stayed at Crossroads Church during the
sanctuary struggle. "In the evening there would be maybe a couple
hundred support people bringing food and other supplies or just
coming to stay for the evening, singing and talking with the GIs."

About dawn on Friday, Sept. 12, military police stormed the two
churches and seized some 12 AWOL GIs. Others escaped. The Unitarian
Church caretaker remembered waking up with an MP's gun to his head.
The raids occurred simultaneously and were over quickly. The soldiers
would face court-martial.

"It was a dramatic end to a dramatic demonstration," Unitarian pastor
Gene Bridges said of the raid. He explained that the sanctuary idea
derives from medieval Christian practice, when a person fleeing
authorities could find safe haven inside a church.

Liberated Barracks

Cindy Lance continued to work with Liberated Barracks, an
organization spawned by the sanctuary movement that continued to
reach out to GIs after the sanctuary raids. "I think the military
simply wanted the sanctuary movement to die," Lance said. "They
probably thought we would be demoralized after the bust and just fade
away. On the contrary, we continued to visit the guys in the brigs
and attend their trials."

Many GIs defied the MPs' efforts to arrest them. The cops only caught
John Lewis after a dramatic chase across Honolulu by a convoy of
vehicles­documented by a BBC-TV news team in Honolulu to cover the
sanctuary movement. Lewis ended up in the Fort Dix stockade in New Jersey.

Other GIs who had participated in the sanctuary decided to leave the
country and go to Canada. The life-and-death gravity of the situation
changed not only the lives of the GIs, but also the thinking of some
anti-war activists. Community members began secretly housing AWOL GIs
in their homes.

An earlier sanctuary movement was integral to the anti-slavery
abolitionist struggle of the 19th century, known as "the Underground
Railroad." Thousands of runaway slaves found freedom and a new life
through the heroic support provided to them by churches and
individuals who sheltered and guided them, often at extremely high
risk to themselves. This legacy is important to the current struggle.
Then, as now, those who provided sanctuary were consciously doing
everything they could to win immediate freedom for the victims of a
criminal government and its institutions arrayed against them.

Today, it is unknown how many GIs are living a semi-underground AWOL
existence, although thousands are AWOL. During the Vietnam War,
hundreds of thousands were AWOL, and non-white GIs especially were
sheltered by their families and other community members.

Today, to the extent it exists, this embryonic form of sanctuary has
been largely clandestine. It may be possible to make it public if it
can be made clear to those who remain in hiding that there is
widespread public support for them in their communities and in
society at large.

Some worry about the difficulty of providing sanctuary. In a 2003
article, Cindy Lance commented: "Wasn't it difficult for Germans to
help Jews escape, or for whites to smuggle slaves to freedom? It's
not a question of degree of difficulty, it's a question of doing what's right."

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Ex-Guardsman denounces Gitmo

Ex-Guardsman denounces Gitmo

http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/article/20090111/NEWS01/901110584/1001/NEWS

Charlotte-area native to tour U.K. to express views

Ryan Loew • rloew@lsj.com •
January 11, 2009 •
From Lansing State Journal

The deciding moment that transformed Chris Arendt into the anti-war
activist he is today came while he was in basic training at Fort Sill
in Oklahoma.

U.S. forces had invaded Iraq, and the news only amplified the anxiety
of a young man who joined the Michigan Army National Guard with hopes
of earning money for college.

But Arendt, now 24, never went to Iraq. Instead, the Charlotte-area
native served as a guard at the Guantanamo Bay detention facility in
Cuba - an experience he described as "terrifying."

He's since become a vocal critic of the global war on terror, gaining
some national attention when he was featured in an article in Esquire
magazine last year.

And he's about to take his opinions on the road in the United Kingdom.

Arendt, who was honorably discharged as a specialist in the Army
National Guard in 2007, said he will participate in a month-long
speaking tour put on by Cageprisoners, a London-based human rights
organization.

As part of the tour, he said he'll travel with two former Guantanamo
Bay detainees, speaking with community groups and college students
around the U.K.

One of those former detainees was one of the men he watched as a
guard, according to Arendt.

He said he'll be able to offer insight into his experiences at the
detention facility, which the Bush administration opened shortly
after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to hold enemy combatants,
people suspected of ties to al-Qaida or the Taliban.

The Guantanamo Bay prison has been harshly criticized at home and
abroad for the detentions and the aggressive interrogations that were
conducted there.

'Waste of time'

Arendt was stationed at the camp from December 2003 until November
2004 - "an awful waste of time," he said.

"It was terrifying. We were stuck down with people (detainees), and
we didn't know if they were guilty; we didn't know what they had done
or anything," Arendt said.

His duties as a prison guard mixed the mundane with the horrifying, he said.

"If they need a toothbrush, you give it to them," he said. "If they
need toilet paper, you give it to them.

"If they're hanging themselves, you cut them down."

Kari Vivoda, Arendt's mother, said her son's experience at the camp
made him more solemn and introverted.

"Chris has never been the kind of soul that wants to harm another
thing," Vivoda said, "and when he went to Guantanamo Bay, I was
concerned for him. I knew that was going to be a really hard thing
for him to deal with mentally."

Doing this for others

This will not be the first time Arendt has spoken publicly about his
experience.

He has participated in several speaking engagements in association
with the Iraq Veterans Against the War advocacy group.

"We're not anti-troops," he said of his involvement in the group. "We
are the troops, and we're doing this for our brothers and sisters."

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Canada Expels US Woman Deserter

[2 articles]

Canada Expels US Woman Deserter

http://www.truthout.org/011109B

08 January 2009

Canada has ordered the deportation of the first woman US soldier
to have sought asylum in the country to avoid being deployed to Iraq.

Kimberly Rivera, a mother of three, had requested permission to
remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds but her appeal was rejected.

She could face up to five years in prison when she returns to the US.

Some 200 deserters from the US military are believed to have
fled to Canada, some living incognito.

Mrs Rivera served in Iraq in 2006 but deserted a year later
after refusing to be redeployed.

The War Resisters Supporters Campaign, who are backing Mrs
Rivera, said her experience in Iraq was "a huge awakening" which
convinced her that "the war was immoral and that she could not
participate in it".

Mrs Rivera and her family have been told they must leave Canada
by the end of January unless the court order is reversed.

Last year, the Canadian parliament passed a non-binding motion
granting asylum to deserters from the Iraq war.

But correspondents say the governing Conservatives opposed the
motion, not willing to risk upsetting Washington over the issue.

So far Canada has deported only one US deserter, Robin Long. He
was sentenced to 15 months in prison on his return.

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War Resister Ordered Out

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/01/08-0

http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/563532

Immigration officials inform American soldier that she must leave by
Jan. 27 or face deportation

by Paola Loriggio
Published on Thursday, January 8, 2009 by The Toronto Star

When Kimberley Rivera shipped out to serve in Iraq with the U.S. Army
in the fall of 2006, she saw herself rebuilding homes, feeding the
hungry and helping children.

Barely three months into her 15-month mission, Rivera, a gate guard
in Baghdad, had had enough.

A young mother herself, she says she was haunted by the sight of
children crying, forever traumatized by the war.

While on leave for two weeks, Rivera says, she decided she couldn't
go back to war.

In January 2007, she packed up her family from Fort Carson, Colo.,
and drove to Canada, hoping to obtain refugee status on humanitarian
and compassionate grounds.

Rivera, the first female U.S. Iraq war resister to seek refuge in
Canada, was told by the Immigration and Refugee Board yesterday
morning that she and her family must leave the country by Jan. 27 or
face deportation.

The decision will force Rivera, 26, to uproot her family ­ her
husband, Mario, and their three children, including 6-week-old
daughter Katie ­ from their Parkdale home in Toronto. In the United
States, she faces the prospect of jail for deserting the army.

"It's really overwhelming," she said at a news conference yesterday
afternoon, cradling a sleeping Katie in her arms.

"It'll be heart-breaking," added her husband, noting that their two
older children go to school in Toronto.

The couple both worked full-time ­ she in a bakery, he in various
labour jobs ­ until Katie was born. Rivera is taking time off work to
care for the baby.

The family plans to consult a lawyer in case they can appeal the
decision, she said.

Rivera stressed she doesn't regret her decision to leave the army,
even if it leads to deportation and a criminal record in the United States.

"I came here in my belief, I'll leave here in it as well."

Another four U.S. Iraq war resisters and their families are facing
deportation this month alone, said Michelle Robidoux of the War
Resisters Support Campaign.

Approximately 200 American war resisters are believed to be living in Canada.

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney yesterday blamed U.S. "deserters"
for the backlog in refugee applications, and denied the legitimacy of
their claims.

"We're not talking about draft dodgers, we're not talking about
resisters," he told Global Television. "We're talking about people
who volunteer to serve in the armed forces of a democratic country
and simply change their mind to desert and that's fine, that's the
decision they have made, but they are not refugees."

Robidoux says the government is ignoring a motion passed by all three
opposition parties in the House of Commons last June, urging the
government to allow U.S. military deserters and their families to
remain in Canada as permanent residents instead of deporting them to
face possible jail time.

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André Shepherd, Iraq War Resister, Applies for Asylum in Germany

André Shepherd, Iraq War Resister, Applies for Asylum in Germany

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/118396/andr%C3%A9_shepherd,_iraq_war_resister,_applies_for_asylum_in_germany/

By Sarah Lazare
January 8, 2009.

Shepherd has been living underground in Germany for nearly two years;
he applied for refugee status on the grounds that the Iraq War is illegal.
--

U.S. Army Specialist André Shepherd, who went AWOL after serving in
Iraq, has applied for asylum in Germany. Shepherd refused military
service because he is morally opposed to the Iraq War.

"It is a sickening feeling to realize that I took part in what was
basically a daily slaughter of a proud people," said Shepherd at a
press conference announcing his application for asylum. "I am
remorseful for my contribution to these heinous acts, and I swear
that I will never make these mistakes again."

Shepherd, who has been living underground in Germany for nearly two
years, applied for refugee status on November 26th on the grounds
that the Iraq War is illegal.

This makes Shepherd the first Iraq War Veteran to apply for refugee
status in Europe. His case may have profound implications for the
growing ranks of troops who are refusing to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Who is André Shepherd?

Shepherd did not set out in life intending to build a career in the
military. He grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and went to school at Kent
State University, where he studied computer science. He graduated in
2000 in the midst of the dot-com bubble burst, and he found himself
unable to get a job in his field. Shepherd embarked on a litany of
odd jobs to get by, including working fast food, stuffing envelopes,
couriering, and selling vacuum cleaners. Yet it often wasn't enough
to cover his basic living expenses.

In the summer of 2003, Shepherd ran into an army recruiter who told
him of the army's benefits: free travel, healthcare, and free
housing. "At the time, I was living in my car, so that sounded
appealing," said Shepherd.

On January 27, 2004, Shepherd decided to join the army. "At that
time, I didn't have the knowledge I have now. All I had was pretty
much what the mass media was telling me and what the Bush
Administration was saying on the mass media," said Shepherd.

Shepherd was trained in Apache helicopter repair and sent first to
Achach Germany, then to Iraq, where he was stationed from September
2004 to February 2005.

"While I was in Iraq, the first thing I noticed was when the local
population would come on our base. Usually when you liberate a
people, they are overjoyed to see you, they are happy to see you,
they would welcome you with open arms," said Shepherd. "When I would
see the Iraqi population, they didn't look like they were in any way
happy to see us. They looked like either they were afraid of me or if
I turned my back without my weapon, they would probably want to kill
me. That started me thinking."

Shepherd started talking to soldiers on his base and was shocked to
learn that many did not understand why they were there and did not
see any benefit. He began doing research and started seeing
"inconsistencies between what the Bush Administration was saying and
what was actually happening."

Eventually, Shepherd began analyzing his own contribution to a war
that was making less and less sense to him. "My job appeared harmless
until one factors in the amount of death and destruction those
helicopters cause to civilians in Iraq," he said.

"Once I pretty much figured out the truth, that this war was nothing
more than a fraud, not only on the American people but the entire
world, I resolved within myself that I would no longer go on another
deployment to Iraq," he said in an interview with Courage to Resist,
one of the many U.S.-based organizations rallying support for him.

Refusal to deploy

On April 11, 2007, Shepherd went on leave to southern Germany. "I
made a decision within that two week period that I would have to walk
away from the service rather than get myself killed or get someone
else killed," he said.

He carried out that decision and lived underground in Germany until
going public with his request for asylum last week. During this time,
he had no contact with his family, in order to protect them being
implicated in his case. Now that he is open about his situation,
Shepherd is back in touch with his family. He says they are worried
about what could happen to him but supportive of his decision.

Shepherd has been met with a groundswell of support for his decision
to refuse further military service. The Military Counseling Network,
a German organization that counsels American soldiers who are
questioning going to war, has been instrumental in helping him go
public with his case, and his refusal to serve has garnered
international press.

"The peace movement in Germany is rallying to support Shepherd's
cause. We are working on an appeal to the German government,
collecting signatures and other forms of support, and there is
definite interest in all parts of the country," said Tim Hubert of
the Military Counseling Network in Germany.

Shepherd is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), an
organization comprised of over 1,300 U.S. veterans who have served
since September 11, 2001 and call for immediate pullout from Iraq.

"I think it is very courageous of him to step away from the military
and the situation and prevent himself from being drawn into a war
crime," said Mathis Chiroux, an IVAW member who is currently refusing
orders to reactivate into the military and deploy to Iraq. "I
certainly hope the german government responds to his request and
allows him to stay."

Significance of Shepherd's case

Several factors lean in favor of André's bid for asylum. The German
government came out against the Iraq War, a majority of Germans are
opposed to that conflict, and not a single German soldier has been
sent to fight in Iraq. Furthermore, the German Federal Courts ruled
that the Iraq War violates international law. A European Union
regulation guarantees refugee status for soldiers who are fleeing
military service in wars that have been declared illegal by
international standards. And in 2005, the German Federal Court ruled
that a German army officer could not be demoted for refusing to
develop a computer he feared would be used by the United States to
aid the Iraq War effort.

"The Nuremberg Trials took place here, and the notion of all soldiers
taking personal responsibility is widely respected in Germany," said
Tim Hubert. "That said, German exports and the greater economy are
very financially dependent on the United States, and the political
repercussions of granting asylum would definitely be an affront to a
long-standing friendship, making André's case an uphill battle."

Germany is home to roughly 60,000 U.S. soldiers, and Germany's
airspace has been used by the United States since the beginning of
the Iraq War. "It's time for the German government to come down off
its fence and pick a side, and I think André is offering them a
unique opportunity to stand up for the Geneva Conventions," said Hubert.

Shepherd joins a growing number of U.S. troops are refusing to fight
in the so-called "war on terror." Army soldiers are resisting service
at the highest rate since 1980, with an 80 percent increase in
desertions, defined as absence for more than 30 days, since the
invasion of Iraq in 2003, according to the Associated Press. An
estimated 200 Iraq War resisters are residing in Canada, and over 150
resisters have come out publicly against the war. Some cases, such as
Lt. Ehren Watada, the first army officer to refuse to deploy to Iraq,
have garnered widespread support and attention.

Robin Long, an Iraq War resister who applied for asylum in Canada in
2004, was rejected by Canadian authorities this September and
deported into U.S. military custody, making him the only war resister
to be deported from Canada since the Vietnam War. Dozens of other
cases are still making their way through the appeals process in
Canadian courts.

Many applaud Shepherd's decision to refuse deployment and apply for
asylum, despite the uncertainty he faces. "I think it is important
that soldiers are examining the conflicts they are asked to fight in
and are making a decision to not fight based on their values and
sense of morals," said Andrew Gorby, who was discharged from the Army
in May 2007 as a conscientious objector and now works for the Center
on Conscience and War, a counseling organization that works to defend
the rights of conscientious objectors."It is powerful that here you
have a soldier making a decision not to fight regardless of the consequences."
--

Sarah Lazare is Project Coordinator for Courage to Resist, an
organization that supports the troops who refuse to fight. To learn
more about the case of André Shepherd and other war resisters, please
visit www.couragetoresist.org.

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US soldier avoiding Iraq ordered to leave Canada

US soldier avoiding Iraq ordered to leave Canada

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iYiV4RBt67QUXAzIxG_yw0OB71CAD95IF1L00

1/8/08

TORONTO (AP) ­ The first woman soldier to flee the U.S. military for
Canada to avoid the Iraq war said Wednesday that Canadian authorities
have ordered that she be deported this month along with her husband
and their children.

Kimberly Rivera said her requests to stay on humanitarian and
compassionate grounds were rejected. The family must leave Canada by
Jan. 27 unless the order is reversed.

Rivera, a private first class in the Army based at Fort Carson,
Colo., served in Iraq in 2006 and came to Canada the following year
after she was ordered to serve another tour there. She could be
court-martialed when she returns to the U.S. and could face up to
five years in prison.

She lives in Toronto with her husband and three children ­ the
youngest is 6 weeks old and was born in Canada.

Rivera said she would discuss her options with her husband and
supporters but felt she had come to the "end of the road."

The group War Resisters Support Campaign says four other American
military personnel and their families face deportation in January.

In July, Robin Long became the first American deserter removed by
Canadian authorities. Long, who was also stationed at Fort Carson,
was sentenced to 15 months in prison after pleading guilty to a
reduced charge of desertion.

The lower house of Canada's Parliament passed a nonbinding motion in
June urging that U.S. military deserters be allowed to stay in
Canada, but the Conservative Party government ignored the vote.

During the Vietnam War, up to 90,000 Americans won refuge in Canada,
most of them to avoid the military draft. Many were given permanent
residence status that led to Canadian citizenship, but the majority
went home after President Jimmy Carter granted amnesty in the late 1970s.

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