thenation--2020-12-07--Roberto Lovato’s Journalism of the Soul

Roberto Lovato’s Journalism of the Soul

In the summer of 2015 , the journalist and activist Roberto Lovato returned to El Salvador to do some reporting on why his family ’ s homeland had become the most violent country on earth .
A few years earlier , he had ventured there to bury his mother ’ s ashes , but that ceremony was cut short when he was chased out of the cemetery by members of the gangs—better known as maras—that dominate Salvadoran society .
Now he was intent on getting to the bottom of how the constant battles between the maras and the Salvadoran police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of affairs every bit as perilous as El Salvador ’ s devastating 12-year civil war .
Unforgetting : A Memoir of Family , Migration , Gangs , and Revolution in the Americas In Unforgetting , a memoir that situates his family ’ s story within the broader history of what he dubs “ the tiny country of titanic sorrows , ” Lovato describes a personal awakening to El Salvador ’ s century-old cycle of violence , the process that prompted his turn to journalism as a means of grappling with the scale of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of that grim legacy are not hard to come by—take the abbreviated life of Giovanni Miranda , a fellow Salvadoran American whom Lovato befriends during his 2015 stay .
A recently deported car mechanic dressed in a Metallica T-shirt , Miranda runs a garage in a suburb of San Salvador , the nation ’ s capital .
Over a couple beers , he shares stories about restoring classic cars and growing up in Dallas , drawing out Lovato ’ s own memories of cruising around the Mission District of San Francisco as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gangster lean , ” he reminisces , “ sitting as though my left hand ’ s on top of the steering wheel , while looking out the driver ’ s window and leaning on my right elbow with the coolest possible look : jaw clenched , eyes dreamy , head slightly bobbing.
” Though he ’ s sitting in Miranda ’ s garage in El Salvador , Lovato ’ s mind has returned to the 1970s , when he ran with a small-time Mission crew that called itself “ Los Originales.
” A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by to say hello , he finds the garage closed .
A neighbor down the street tells him simply , “ Está muerto.
” Lovato quickly learns the young man has been assassinated by the maras for crossing someone under their protection—a stark illustration of the precarity of life for Salvadorans , a reality Lovato was only beginning to apprehend .
Though his memoir is mostly concerned with the process of unearthing the experiences of violence that both he and his family ( especially his father ) suppressed throughout their lives , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Lovato may today be recognized as a preeminent voice on Central America ’ s tribulations , but he came to reporting only after working throughout the 1980s and ’ 90s for nonprofits serving Salvadoran immigrants and as a program coordinator for Central American students at California State University , Northridge .
It wasn ’ t until the turn of the century that he began writing in earnest , namely by filing articles for this magazine that focused on Latinx politics in the United States during the Bush and Obama years .
Lovato ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ personal , a progression made possible only by his refusal to accept his father ’ s silence about the horrors he had witnessed in El Salvador .
Unforgetting plays out along three time lines : the 2015 reporting trip in which Lovato meets Miranda , the scenes depicting his winding path from Los Originales to revolutionary activism and then academia , and a reconstruction of his father ’ s childhood in Great Depression–ravaged El Salvador .
The wide scope allows him to explain how the maras evolved from a few crews of what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the Pico-Union district of late ’ 70s Los Angeles to their current form , an assortment of sophisticated , international criminal networks that have more control over the day-to-day life of most Salvadorans than their government does .
The structure of the book also allows him ample opportunity to locate his family in the country ’ s modern history , most notably the brief period when Lovato dabbled as a “ guerrillero ” member of the revolutionary Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front during El Salvador ’ s civil war ( which lasted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ revelation that his father witnessed the atrocities of La Matanza , the 1932 slaughter of tens of thousands of Indigenous Salvadorans by the nation ’ s military .
Lovato ’ s father ( whom he calls “ Pop ” ) had never spoken about La Matanza from his childhood years until 2000 , when his son asked him about it directly .
Though he was only 9 at the time , Pop is still able to clearly describe watching army officers thrust shovels into the hands of so-called communistas to dig their own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a man pleaded with his father ’ s mother to let him hide in the family ’ s adobe oven and the visions that descended on Pop at night of “ the dead and the ones that were almost dead before they came to give them the tiro de gracia.
” “ I saw not just one but hundreds of dead in those days , ” Pop says , before he begins to sob .
It isn ’ t until after his father finally unburdens himself that Lovato is able to appreciate the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , giving him some context not just for his father ’ s emotional unavailability ( and , to a lesser extent , the disciplinary beatings Pop inflicted on him as a child ) but also for how Salvadoran violence has perpetuated itself over the decades , leading his grandmother to describe her fellow countrymen as “ pieces of broken glass , stained with blood and struggling to put ourselves back together.
” While he previously viewed his younger self as a “ spoiled , misguided little gringo boy who was so angry and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the process of reexamining his life , Lovato begins to understand “ the layers of emotions—fear , anger , hopelessness—working below my conscious awareness to create my inner conflicts.
” At long last , he writes , “ I ’ d found my way .
I ’ d come to realize that if we do the necessary work of unforgetting , our buried love can blossom.
” Lovato ’ s journalism , then , is best understood as an expression of this process of unforgetting , and his work is a case study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reporter deciding to write stories that speak to his own inner turmoil rather than adopting the studied dispassion typically ascribed to the profession .
In his 2016 report for The Boston Globe , “ El Salvador ’ s archives of death , ” Lovato rides along with forensic researchers from the Instituto de Medicina Legal—what he describes as a federal “ CSI team ” —as they trek for two hours through a jungle to the site of a mass grave .
Once they arrive , the IML investigators find that a team hired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at work , led by Israel Ticas , a self-taught crime scene expert who , Lovato writes , had “ been filmed eating inside grave sites while excavating and celebrating his birthday in grave pits.
” To be able to capture such a moment—a pair of rival , government-sponsored forensics teams competing over a secret mass grave miles from the nearest town—is a remarkable feat in its own right , and Lovato ’ s report is only made richer by the subtle way he uses the meeting to illustrate the government ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between the IML staff and Ticas is palpable , as Ticas steps aside and hikes down from the hill while the IML team unpacks.
” Suddenly it doesn ’ t seem so unbelievable that El Salvador could have become a nation ruled by maras instead of bureaucrats .
As Lovato gets ready to head back to San Salvador , an official from the attorney general ’ s office orders police officers to delete the photos Lovato had taken of the site , claiming he had not received the necessary approvals to be there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this tense scene , fleshing out the standoff that received only a few lines in the Globe story .
“ Suddenly , ” he writes , “ I ’ m surrounded by guns held by the same cops who were just protecting me .
My blood is boiling.
” As it turns out , Lovato was asked to delete the photos himself , but the police were forced to do the job after he retorted , “ Fuck you .
You do it.
” The situation clarifies when Ticas makes a quip to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s office for permission next time , implying that traveling with the IML was the real point of contention .
“ I ’ m shocked , ” Lovato writes .
“ This quirky fucking guy I was trying hard to like and understand sold me out.
” Throughout Unforgetting , Lovato abandons reportorial equanimity in favor of a more honest portrait of himself : a Salvadoran American as likely to unleash an angry outburst as he is to succumb to tears , all because he is still struggling to make sense of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The violence in Central America and the immigration crisis it spawned has garnered plenty of international media attention in recent years , much of which has a tendency , in the pages of outlets like The New York Times , to treat the maras as inscrutable death cults and the leaders of the region ’ s governments as replacement-level incompetents .
Lovato never falls into regurgitating these bits of received wisdom ; before he ever got into journalism , he was chatting with tatted-up MS-13 members in Los Angeles , dodging domineering security @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the adaptation of Rudy Giuliani ’ s “ broken windows ” policing into the “ mano dura ” policies of the Salvadoran authorities .
In his reporting , Lovato frequently notes that murders in El Salvador are as likely to be the work of gangs as they are to be exterminados , which he once described in the pages of The Nation as “ the extrajudicial killings that gang members and some human rights activists suspect are being carried out by government security forces.
” In that article , he characterized the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ a civil war by other means.
” If El Salvador is to emerge whole from its current fractured state , Lovato argues in Unforgetting , the nation must first stop ignoring its sinister and brutal history .
He offers Pop ’ s process of unforgetting as a model .
Admitting the reality of the horrors one has seen can not make them go away , but airing them might , at least , create the space necessary for a departure from history to become possible .

In the summer of 2015, the journalist and activist Roberto Lovato returned to El Salvador to do some reporting on why his family’s homeland had become the most violent country on earth. A few years earlier, he had ventured there to bury his mother’s ashes, but that ceremony was cut short when he was chased out of the cemetery by members of the gangs—better known as maras—that dominate Salvadoran society. Now he was intent on getting to the bottom of how the constant battles between the maras and the Salvadoran police and military had led to a state of affairs every bit as perilous as El Salvador’s devastating 12-year civil war. Books in Review Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs, and Revolution in the Americas By Roberto Lovato Buy this book
In Unforgetting, a memoir that situates his family’s story within the broader history of what he dubs “the tiny country of titanic sorrows,” Lovato describes a personal awakening to El Salvador’s century-old cycle of violence, the process that prompted his turn to journalism as a means of grappling with the scale of the nation’s trauma. Illustrations of that grim legacy are not hard to come by—take the abbreviated life of Giovanni Miranda, a fellow Salvadoran American whom Lovato befriends during his 2015 stay. A recently deported car mechanic dressed in a Metallica T-shirt, Miranda runs a garage in a suburb of San Salvador, the nation’s capital. Over a couple beers, he shares stories about restoring classic cars and growing up in Dallas, drawing out Lovato’s own memories of cruising around the Mission District of San Francisco as a teenager. “My body adopts a gangster lean,” he reminisces, “sitting as though my left hand’s on top of the steering wheel, while looking out the driver’s window and leaning on my right elbow with the coolest possible look: jaw clenched, eyes dreamy, head slightly bobbing.”
Though he’s sitting in Miranda’s garage in El Salvador, Lovato’s mind has returned to the 1970s, when he ran with a small-time Mission crew that called itself “Los Originales.” A few days later, when Lovato drops by to say hello, he finds the garage closed. A neighbor down the street tells him simply, “Está muerto.” Lovato quickly learns the young man has been assassinated by the maras for crossing someone under their protection—a stark illustration of the precarity of life for Salvadorans, a reality Lovato was only beginning to apprehend.
Though his memoir is mostly concerned with the process of unearthing the experiences of violence that both he and his family (especially his father) suppressed throughout their lives, the book doubles as a journalistic bildungsroman. Lovato may today be recognized as a preeminent voice on Central America’s tribulations, but he came to reporting only after working throughout the 1980s and ’90s for nonprofits serving Salvadoran immigrants and as a program coordinator for Central American students at California State University, Northridge. It wasn’t until the turn of the century that he began writing in earnest, namely by filing articles for this magazine that focused on Latinx politics in the United States during the Bush and Obama years. Lovato’s memoir reveals that journey as intensely personal, a progression made possible only by his refusal to accept his father’s silence about the horrors he had witnessed in El Salvador. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
Unforgetting plays out along three time lines: the 2015 reporting trip in which Lovato meets Miranda, the scenes depicting his winding path from Los Originales to revolutionary activism and then academia, and a reconstruction of his father’s childhood in Great Depression–ravaged El Salvador. The wide scope allows him to explain how the maras evolved from a few crews of what he calls “heavy-metal-listening Salvadoran stoners” in the Pico-Union district of late ’70s Los Angeles to their current form, an assortment of sophisticated, international criminal networks that have more control over the day-to-day life of most Salvadorans than their government does. The structure of the book also allows him ample opportunity to locate his family in the country’s modern history, most notably the brief period when Lovato dabbled as a “guerrillero” member of the revolutionary Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front during El Salvador’s civil war (which lasted from 1980 to 1992) and the revelation that his father witnessed the atrocities of La Matanza, the 1932 slaughter of tens of thousands of Indigenous Salvadorans by the nation’s military.
Lovato’s father (whom he calls “Pop”) had never spoken about La Matanza from his childhood years until 2000, when his son asked him about it directly. Though he was only 9 at the time, Pop is still able to clearly describe watching army officers thrust shovels into the hands of so-called communistas to dig their own graves, as well as the night a man pleaded with his father’s mother to let him hide in the family’s adobe oven and the visions that descended on Pop at night of “the dead and the ones that were almost dead before they came to give them the tiro de gracia.” “I saw not just one but hundreds of dead in those days,” Pop says, before he begins to sob.
It isn’t until after his father finally unburdens himself that Lovato is able to appreciate the “atom bomb” he has inherited, giving him some context not just for his father’s emotional unavailability (and, to a lesser extent, the disciplinary beatings Pop inflicted on him as a child) but also for how Salvadoran violence has perpetuated itself over the decades, leading his grandmother to describe her fellow countrymen as “pieces of broken glass, stained with blood and struggling to put ourselves back together.” While he previously viewed his younger self as a “spoiled, misguided little gringo boy who was so angry and confused about being Salvadoran,” in the process of reexamining his life, Lovato begins to understand “the layers of emotions—fear, anger, hopelessness—working below my conscious awareness to create my inner conflicts.” At long last, he writes, “I’d found my way. I’d come to realize that if we do the necessary work of unforgetting, our buried love can blossom.”
Lovato’s journalism, then, is best understood as an expression of this process of unforgetting, and his work is a case study in the power that comes from a reporter deciding to write stories that speak to his own inner turmoil rather than adopting the studied dispassion typically ascribed to the profession. In his 2016 report for The Boston Globe, “El Salvador’s archives of death,” Lovato rides along with forensic researchers from the Instituto de Medicina Legal—what he describes as a federal “CSI team”—as they trek for two hours through a jungle to the site of a mass grave. Once they arrive, the IML investigators find that a team hired by the Salvadoran attorney general is already at work, led by Israel Ticas, a self-taught crime scene expert who, Lovato writes, had “been filmed eating inside grave sites while excavating and celebrating his birthday in grave pits.”
To be able to capture such a moment—a pair of rival, government-sponsored forensics teams competing over a secret mass grave miles from the nearest town—is a remarkable feat in its own right, and Lovato’s report is only made richer by the subtle way he uses the meeting to illustrate the government’s dysfunction, observing, “The tension between the IML staff and Ticas is palpable, as Ticas steps aside and hikes down from the hill while the IML team unpacks.” Suddenly it doesn’t seem so unbelievable that El Salvador could have become a nation ruled by maras instead of bureaucrats.
As Lovato gets ready to head back to San Salvador, an official from the attorney general’s office orders police officers to delete the photos Lovato had taken of the site, claiming he had not received the necessary approvals to be there. In Unforgetting, Lovato returns to this tense scene, fleshing out the standoff that received only a few lines in the Globe story. “Suddenly,” he writes, “I’m surrounded by guns held by the same cops who were just protecting me. My blood is boiling.” As it turns out, Lovato was asked to delete the photos himself, but the police were forced to do the job after he retorted, “Fuck you. You do it.” The situation clarifies when Ticas makes a quip to him about asking the attorney general’s office for permission next time, implying that traveling with the IML was the real point of contention. “I’m shocked,” Lovato writes. “This quirky fucking guy I was trying hard to like and understand sold me out.”
Throughout Unforgetting, Lovato abandons reportorial equanimity in favor of a more honest portrait of himself: a Salvadoran American as likely to unleash an angry outburst as he is to succumb to tears, all because he is still struggling to make sense of the historical morass he was born into. The violence in Central America and the immigration crisis it spawned has garnered plenty of international media attention in recent years, much of which has a tendency, in the pages of outlets like The New York Times, to treat the maras as inscrutable death cults and the leaders of the region’s governments as replacement-level incompetents. Lovato never falls into regurgitating these bits of received wisdom; before he ever got into journalism, he was chatting with tatted-up MS-13 members in Los Angeles, dodging domineering security forces in San Salvador, and observing the adaptation of Rudy Giuliani’s “broken windows” policing into the “mano dura” policies of the Salvadoran authorities.
In his reporting, Lovato frequently notes that murders in El Salvador are as likely to be the work of gangs as they are to be exterminados, which he once described in the pages of The Nation as “the extrajudicial killings that gang members and some human rights activists suspect are being carried out by government security forces.” In that article, he characterized the country’s current state of violence as “a civil war by other means.” If El Salvador is to emerge whole from its current fractured state, Lovato argues in Unforgetting, the nation must first stop ignoring its sinister and brutal history. He offers Pop’s process of unforgetting as a model. Admitting the reality of the horrors one has seen cannot make them go away, but airing them might, at least, create the space necessary for a departure from history to become possible.


thenation--2020-12-07--What’s At Stake in Julian Assange’s Extradition Trial

Julian Assange ’ s extradition trial in London this fall revealed the lengths to which the US government was willing to go to secure the return of the WikiLeaks founder to America .
It also threw light on a disturbing abuse of process in the English courts .
Assange was indicted in federal district court in Virginia in 2019 on 17 counts of violating the 1917 Espionage Act by “ unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the national defense , ” as well as for conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network .
If the British court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s found guilty , he could be sentenced to as much as 175 years in a maximum-security prison under “ Special Administrative Measures , ” a particularly cruel version of solitary confinement .
Assange was indicted for spying , but Washington may have engaged in a bit of its own espionage in order to secure his extradition .
In the month-long extradition trial , held in London ’ s Central Criminal Court , anonymous witnesses who had worked for a Spanish security firm testified that the firm , UC Global , bugged @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ecuadorean Embassy in London—and that UC Global passed on the information it gathered to US intelligence .
UC Global had originally been hired by the Ecuadorean government simply to provide security for the Ecuadorean president ’ s daughters .
But the mission changed , said the witnesses , after David Morales , owner of UC Global , traveled to Las Vegas and obtained a contract with a security company owned by American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson .
According to the witnesses , Morales then became obsessed with monitoring and recording the lawyers who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Morales put it , “ our American friends were requesting it.
” The implication was that Adelson , a major Trump donor , was the cutout connecting UC Global to US intelligence through his own security company , which had close connections to US intelligence and security agencies .
More on Assange and WikiLeaks Morales , who has been detained since last year and is on trial in Spain , frequently traveled to New York to deliver filmed material on Assange .
Later , he asked his employees to set up a livestream @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the United States .
There were even plans to poison Assange , and Morales suggested the embassy door could be left open to kidnap him .
All this and much more was exposed by Gareth Peirce , Assange ’ s lawyer , and by Witness 1 and Witness 2 , the former UC Global employees who decided to confess everything as long as their anonymity was maintained , because they fear retaliation from Morales and those associated with him .
The defense showed time and again how the WikiLeaks cables exposed crimes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , revealing government crimes may not be sufficient reason to escape sentencing under the Espionage Act .
The act , which has never been used to put a journalist on trial until now , is considered by many legal scholars to raise troubling constitutional issues because it infringes on First Amendment rights to receive and publish information .
What has been put in question with the Assange case is not only his life but also the principles that characterize journalism , which is being likened to criminal activity .
If this extradition attempt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safe in calling authority to account or in scrutinizing the actions of those who hide behind the veil of power , since the United States will feel empowered to extradite anyone in the world Washington views as an enemy .
Noam Chomsky , one of the numerous defense witnesses , said that “ Julian Assange , in courageously upholding political beliefs that most of us profess to share , has performed an enormous service to all the people of the world who treasure the values of freedom and democracy.
” During the four @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prosecutor , James Lewis QC , and his team busied themselves with removing paragraphs from the testimony of Khaled El-Masri , a victim of the CIA ’ s rendition program ( El-Masri , a German citizen , was kidnapped by the CIA in Macedonia and secretly transported to a black site in Afghanistan , where he was held and tortured before the agency finally admitted its mistake and released him ) .
The WikiLeaks cables revealed not only revealed the torture of El-Masri but also the pressure Washington put on the German government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guilty of this act , as requested by the German courts .
Unsurprisingly , El-Masri could not connect to the court via the Internet to offer his testimony , so part of it ( with redaction ) was read in court .
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser seemed almost to have teamed up with prosecuting attorney Lewis to prevent German journalist John Goetz from giving his account of an allegation against Assange , one that is rooted in a dinner in a London restaurant .
During that dinner , Assange allegedly said that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the informants on the WikiLeaks cables that were published without redaction—something many witnesses , including Goetz , who was present at the dinner , said is not true .
These “ confessions ” by Assange are found in the book WikiLeaks : Inside Julian Assange ’ s War on Secrecy , by journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding , and they were used by Lewis to depict Assange ’ s allegedly irresponsible and criminal attitude .
Strangely , Leigh and Harding weren ’ t called to testify in court on this .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ an abuse of process in the English courts .
She denied bail release for Assange and didn ’ t even allow him to sit next to his lawyers in the well of the court .
The US military ’ s court-martial of Chelsea Manning was more humane than this .
The judge also rejected the defense lawyer ’ s protest that Assange did not have enough time to respond to new US government accusations , which were introduced at the 11th hour .
Baraitser allowed the prosecutors four hours to cross-examine , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and she dismissed its arguments routinely throughout the proceedings .
Baraitser ’ s decisions could arise from an institutional conflict of interest .
An investigation by Declassified UK revealed that Baraitser ’ s boss is Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot , whose husband , Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom , a former Conservative defense minister , has extensive ties to the British intelligence and military community exposed by WikiLeaks .
Her son Alexander Arbuthnot is also linked to an anti–data leak company created by the UK intelligence establishment and staffed by officials recruited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s prosecution of the WikiLeaks founder .
In addition , Declassified UK has also revealed that a key Assange prosecution witness is part of an “ academic cluster ” that has received millions of pounds from the UK and US militaries .
The world press , with few exceptions , has been absent from the hearing .
This was not helped by Judge Baraitser ’ s suspension of access to 40 organizations , including Amnesty International , on the first day of the hearing .
The queen recently announced the appointment of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which takes effect on February 1 , 2021 .
Baraitser ’ s decision is due on January 4 , and whatever she decides will certainly be appealed—and Arbuthnot will hear those appeals .
Whatever the decision , Assange will be vindicated in the end , because he has the legal , procedural , and moral arguments on his side .
But he is a lonely David fighting the Goliath of the US and UK intelligence and military establishments .
And even if he wins his extradition fight , he could spend many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prison .
If so , it will be the only punishment the United States will be able to give him for crimes he never committed .

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Julian Assange’s extradition trial in London this fall revealed the lengths to which the US government was willing to go to secure the return of the WikiLeaks founder to America. It also threw light on a disturbing abuse of process in the English courts.
Assange was indicted in federal district court in Virginia in 2019 on 17 counts of violating the 1917 Espionage Act by “unlawfully obtaining and disclosing classified documents related to the national defense,” as well as for conspiring to hack into a Pentagon computer network. If the British court approves Assange’s extradition and he’s found guilty, he could be sentenced to as much as 175 years in a maximum-security prison under “Special Administrative Measures,” a particularly cruel version of solitary confinement.
Assange was indicted for spying, but Washington may have engaged in a bit of its own espionage in order to secure his extradition. In the month-long extradition trial, held in London’s Central Criminal Court, anonymous witnesses who had worked for a Spanish security firm testified that the firm, UC Global, bugged Assange when he was living in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London—and that UC Global passed on the information it gathered to US intelligence.
UC Global had originally been hired by the Ecuadorean government simply to provide security for the Ecuadorean president’s daughters. But the mission changed, said the witnesses, after David Morales, owner of UC Global, traveled to Las Vegas and obtained a contract with a security company owned by American casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. According to the witnesses, Morales then became obsessed with monitoring and recording the lawyers who met with Assange, because, as Morales put it, “our American friends were requesting it.” The implication was that Adelson, a major Trump donor, was the cutout connecting UC Global to US intelligence through his own security company, which had close connections to US intelligence and security agencies. More on Assange and WikiLeaks Free Julian Assange! Charles Glass Trump’s Charges Against Julian Assange Would Effectively Criminalize Investigative Journalism Bruce Shapiro Daniel Ellsberg: Espionage and Julian Assange Start Making Sense and Jon Wiener
Morales, who has been detained since last year and is on trial in Spain, frequently traveled to New York to deliver filmed material on Assange. Later, he asked his employees to set up a livestream connection from the embassy to an office in the United States. There were even plans to poison Assange, and Morales suggested the embassy door could be left open to kidnap him.
All this and much more was exposed by Gareth Peirce, Assange’s lawyer, and by Witness 1 and Witness 2, the former UC Global employees who decided to confess everything as long as their anonymity was maintained, because they fear retaliation from Morales and those associated with him. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
The defense showed time and again how the WikiLeaks cables exposed crimes committed by the United States. Unfortunately, revealing government crimes may not be sufficient reason to escape sentencing under the Espionage Act. The act, which has never been used to put a journalist on trial until now, is considered by many legal scholars to raise troubling constitutional issues because it infringes on First Amendment rights to receive and publish information. Current Issue View our current issue
What has been put in question with the Assange case is not only his life but also the principles that characterize journalism, which is being likened to criminal activity. If this extradition attempt is successful, no one should feel safe in calling authority to account or in scrutinizing the actions of those who hide behind the veil of power, since the United States will feel empowered to extradite anyone in the world Washington views as an enemy.
Noam Chomsky, one of the numerous defense witnesses, said that “Julian Assange, in courageously upholding political beliefs that most of us profess to share, has performed an enormous service to all the people of the world who treasure the values of freedom and democracy.”
A Tainted Proceeding
During the four weeks of the extradition hearing, the prosecutor, James Lewis QC, and his team busied themselves with removing paragraphs from the testimony of Khaled El-Masri, a victim of the CIA’s rendition program (El-Masri, a German citizen, was kidnapped by the CIA in Macedonia and secretly transported to a black site in Afghanistan, where he was held and tortured before the agency finally admitted its mistake and released him).
The WikiLeaks cables revealed not only revealed the torture of El-Masri but also the pressure Washington put on the German government to reject extradition of the CIA agents guilty of this act, as requested by the German courts. Unsurprisingly, El-Masri could not connect to the court via the Internet to offer his testimony, so part of it (with redaction) was read in court.
District Judge Vanessa Baraitser seemed almost to have teamed up with prosecuting attorney Lewis to prevent German journalist John Goetz from giving his account of an allegation against Assange, one that is rooted in a dinner in a London restaurant. During that dinner, Assange allegedly said that he didn’t care about the fate of the informants on the WikiLeaks cables that were published without redaction—something many witnesses, including Goetz, who was present at the dinner, said is not true.
These “confessions” by Assange are found in the book WikiLeaks: Inside Julian Assange’s War on Secrecy, by journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding, and they were used by Lewis to depict Assange’s allegedly irresponsible and criminal attitude. Strangely, Leigh and Harding weren’t called to testify in court on this.
Judge Baraitser’s decisions have highlighted an abuse of process in the English courts. She denied bail release for Assange and didn’t even allow him to sit next to his lawyers in the well of the court. The US military’s court-martial of Chelsea Manning was more humane than this.
The judge also rejected the defense lawyer’s protest that Assange did not have enough time to respond to new US government accusations, which were introduced at the 11th hour. Baraitser allowed the prosecutors four hours to cross-examine, but the defense was allowed only 30 minutes per witness, and she dismissed its arguments routinely throughout the proceedings.
Baraitser’s decisions could arise from an institutional conflict of interest. An investigation by Declassified UK revealed that Baraitser’s boss is Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot, whose husband, Lord Arbuthnot of Edrom, a former Conservative defense minister, has extensive ties to the British intelligence and military community exposed by WikiLeaks. Her son Alexander Arbuthnot is also linked to an anti–data leak company created by the UK intelligence establishment and staffed by officials recruited from US intelligence agencies behind that country’s prosecution of the WikiLeaks founder. In addition, Declassified UK has also revealed that a key Assange prosecution witness is part of an “academic cluster” that has received millions of pounds from the UK and US militaries.
The world press, with few exceptions, has been absent from the hearing. This was not helped by Judge Baraitser’s suspension of access to 40 organizations, including Amnesty International, on the first day of the hearing.
The queen recently announced the appointment of Judge Emma Arbuthnot to the High Court, which takes effect on February 1, 2021. Baraitser’s decision is due on January 4, and whatever she decides will certainly be appealed—and Arbuthnot will hear those appeals.
Whatever the decision, Assange will be vindicated in the end, because he has the legal, procedural, and moral arguments on his side. But he is a lonely David fighting the Goliath of the US and UK intelligence and military establishments. And even if he wins his extradition fight, he could spend many years in Britain’s high-security Belmarsh prison. If so, it will be the only punishment the United States will be able to give him for crimes he never committed.


thenation--2020-12-07--Bringing Our Troops Home Is Not Enough

Bringing Our Troops Home Is Not Enough

By the end of this year , the White House will reportedly have finally brought home a third of the 7,500 troops still stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq ( against the advice of President Trump ’ s own military leaders ) .
While there have been stories galore about the global security implications of this plan , there has been almost no discussion at all about where those 2,700 or so troops who have served in this country ’ s endless wars will settle once their feet touch US soil ( assuming , that is , that they aren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elsewhere in the Greater Middle East ) , no less who ’ s likely to provide them with badly needed financial , logistical , and emotional support as they age .
When it comes to honoring active-duty troops and veterans of this country ’ s forever wars , we Americans have proven big on symbolic gestures , but small on action .
Former First Lady Michelle Obama ’ s organization , Joining Forces , was a short-lived but notable exception : Its advocacy and awareness-raising led dozens of companies to commit to hiring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ proved limited in scope and didn ’ t last long .
Zoom out to the rest of America and you ’ ll find yellow-ribbon bumper stickers on gas-guzzling SUVs galore ; tons of “ support our troops ” Facebook memes on both Veterans Day and Memorial Day regularly featuring ( at least before the pandemic struck big time ) young , attractive heterosexual families hugging at reunions ; and there is invariably a chorus of “ thank you for your service ” when a veteran or active-duty soldier appears in public .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up to nothing .
Bumper stickers don ’ t watch soldiers ’ kids while they ’ re gone , nor do they transport those troops to competent , affordable specialists to meet their health and vocational needs when they return from battle .
Memes don ’ t power vets through decades of rehabilitation from traumatic brain injuries , limbs blown off by homemade explosives , depression , anxiety , and grief for comrades lost .
I ’ m the spouse of a US naval officer .
My husband has served on two different @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the course of our decade together .
We ’ ve had to move around the country four times ( an exceedingly modest number compared with most military families we know ) .
We have dual incomes , as well as extended family and friends with the means to support us with care for our two young children and help us with the extra expenses when that uprooting moment arrives every two or three years .
We have self-advocacy skills and the resources necessary to find the best possible health providers to help @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the relentless pace of post-9/11 military life .
And yet I feel I can speak for other military families who have so much less for one reason : I ’ ve dedicated much of my career to research and advocacy on behalf of people affected by the American-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq .
I ’ ve focused my attention , in particular , on the vast loss of life , both abroad and at home , caused by those wars , on decimated and depleted health care systems ( including our own @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the families of soldiers who have to struggle to deal with the needs of those who return .
Troops from our current wars in Afghanistan , Iraq , and elsewhere across the Greater Middle East and Africa are , in certain ways , unique compared to earlier generations of American military personnel .
More than half of them have deployed more than once to those battle zones—often numerous times .
Over a million of them now have disability claims with the Veterans Affairs Department and far more disabled veterans than in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they will live with , not die from .
Among troops like my spouse who , as a naval officer , has never deployed to Iraqi or Afghan soil , days have grown longer and more stressful due to a distinctly overstretched military that often lacks the up-to-date equipment to work safely .
And mind you , the costs of caring for the soldiers who have been deployed in our never-ending wars won ’ t peak for another 30 to 40 years , as they age , and the government isn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be involved .
And mind you , the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs are even less prepared to care for the families of their troops and veterans , those most likely to be tasked with their round-the-clock care .
Among the many grim possibilities from my own experience and the stories I ’ ve been told as an advocate over the years by military veterans , military spouses , and military children , let me try to paint just one picture of what it ’ s like when a member of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Imagine your spouse suddenly walking through the door after months away .
His face is a greenish hue from fatigue and fear .
He may tell you some horror story about some set of incidents that occurred while he was deployed and indicate that he fears , given his state , he might even be out of a job soon .
You think about the work you cut back on in the months since he left because you couldn ’ t handle the 24/7 demands of caring for confused children who had stopped @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support the family if his worst fears come to pass ?
You need to remind him that , while he ’ s been rattling on , there are children present whom he has yet to greet .
He hugs them now , his face a combination of love and lack-of-recognition ( given how they ’ ve grown in the months since he ’ s been gone ) .
The kids ’ facial expressions are a mirror image of his .
You do your best to catch him up on the changes that have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kids ’ latest developments , your new work schedule , the need for more child care support , and the problems of your extended family ( including the terminal illness of a family member ) .
Family or friends want to swoop in and take the kids so the two of you can get away , yet after months of his silence , you ’ re feeling too confused to want that yet .
What ’ s more , your own hard-earned role as head of the household is suddenly about to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all , he ’ s used to telling others what to do . )
You try to call other spouses who were your lifeline while all your husbands were deployed together , but they ’ re as stressed out and preoccupied as you are .
Even the other commanders ’ wives are , like you , up far too often at night as their spouses accept calls about drunk driving , partner violence , suicide threats , and child abuse within the stressed-out command .
Your unnerved husband is helping deal with such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and you ’ re counseling him .
One night , he tells you that part of the reason for his stress is the things he was asked to do by his war-traumatized commander while he was deployed .
These stories keep you awake at night .
You suggest he see a mental health professional .
After all , the base has licensed psychologists and psychiatrists on staff , ready to help .
He reminds you that the decision to seek care is not private in the military and the stigma among those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ career .
So you look for mental-health assistance yourself to deal with the stress and grief over your changed relationship with your spouse .
The lone practitioner within 45 miles who accepts military insurance tells you that , to receive care , you must sign a contract accepting that you can be hospitalized at his discretion “ because military spouses go psychotic during their husband ’ s deployments.
” You walk away .
Child care support of some kind is needed more than ever now that your spouse is in such distress .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ order , the Navy tells you that you ’ re at the back of the local line for financial child care assistance .
You ’ re in your own hell on earth and in that you ’ re typical of so many other military spouses .
And you also turn your gaze to the citizenry of this country that , in the world of the “ All Volunteer ” military , generally ignores us .
Before I became a military spouse , I grew up in an affluent part of New Jersey .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ or even mocked ( including by me ) .
In the 1990s , I used to vacation at the Jersey shore and sometimes , from the front porch of our house , my family and I would catch a glimpse of a middle-aged man in military uniform , marching like a metronome up and down the island ’ s main boulevard .
The glazed , far-off look on his face with its telltale ruddiness signaled , I know now , someone who probably drank too much , too often .
Back then , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ the soldier ” when he passed and laugh at him , once safely out of earshot .
Of course , he was undoubtedly suffering from some form of mental illness without the sort of care that might have helped him make sense of things .
My family and I had no idea that it was normal for war-traumatized soldiers to have difficulty distinguishing the past from the present , that it wouldn ’ t have been strange for him to see lines of summertime beach traffic and think “ convoy ” or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ sniper !
” Later , when I was living in San Francisco , a friend who worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development told me about a veteran of the Afghan War , on leave between deployments , who called their office to request that a military tent village be set up in a popular city park to house homeless and mentally ill veterans like himself .
My friend and I laughed about that over drinks , imagining the eyesore of an instant military base suddenly arising in the middle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Some 15 years later , I think : How appropriate it would have been to remind Americans having fun of just what they were invariably missing—their military and the forever wars that go with them that all of us pay for endlessly but ignore .
Maybe it finally is time to create spaces meant for US troops and veterans right in the middle of everything .
President-elect Biden , I ’ m hoping against hope that you ’ ll read these thoughts of mine and take steps to support such priorities when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soldiers and our veterans don ’ t find themselves in ever deeper holes as their service ends : 1 .
Give those who serve and military veterans , as well as their families , real choices about where to go to get health care , whether primary care , physical therapy , specialized surgery , psychological therapy , or dental care .
The Veterans Choice Program , first rolled out in 2014 , should have been a decent start in expanding that sort of access , but in practice few providers have received @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rates and excessive wait times for approval and reimbursement .
Anything your administration could do , including ensuring that there ’ s just one less form to fill out or a few more dollars in reimbursement , would make a difference .
2 .
Sponsor large-scale studies on the health of military spouses and children .
Evidence of the effects of military life on such families is scattered at best , but doesn ’ t look good , particularly during and immediately after deployments .
The needs of spouses and children who deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ training , and protection from family violence appear high and badly unmet .
3 .
Advocate making training on the issues faced by our troops and their families central to continuing education requirements among health care providers and the staff supporting them , especially the military insurance contractors who are the gatekeepers to care .
Urge such providers to place veterans and their families first in line .
Make sure therapists , including those focused on children and adolescents , know about the special challenges faced by military kids after parents return .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ soldiers and their families , since Department of Defense therapists too often prioritize the needs of the soldier or of the mission above the needs of the family .
4 .
Teach everyone to stop “ thanking ” the troops for their service , which effectively ends any conversation instead of beginning one .
Teach them instead to ask about what service in the US military in the forever-war era is really like .
Believe me , that would start a conversation that wouldn ’ t end soon .
5 .
Remove needless @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , whether they ’ re active duty and awaiting their next assignment or settling for good in communities where they ’ ll begin their lives as civilians .
Nothing About Us Without Us In all such things , take your cues from soldiers , veterans , and their families .
Nationally , what about creating a presidential commission that represents such groups in equal measure and in as diverse a way as possible ?
Let it investigate violations of the rights of military personnel and their families when it comes to health and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ across the country and around the world .
Often when I talk about changes like these , I ’ m met with skeptical looks from family members and friends .
Where will we get the money for such changes , since we ’ re already reimbursing providers at higher rates for accepting military insurance ?
The striking thing is that there ’ s no ceiling when it comes to putting money into disastrous weapons systems , the US nuclear arsenal , or the Pentagon generally .
But when it comes to putting money @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matter entirely .
How about , as a start , cutting down on waste and fraud ?
Money that could have done us some good has disappeared into gas stations in the middle of nowhere and other corrupt construction projects in our distant war zones .
Tens of millions of dollars or more have been lost to waste and fraud in some of those unfinished foreign reconstruction projects .
As economist Heidi Garrett-Peltier has pointed out , US federal defense spending accounts for more than half of all of our government ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dollars going to expensive contractors who provide services like cleaning , meals , and security guards on bases in those same war zones .
Instead of spending $ 100 more on a single bag of laundry in Iraq , how about spending it on a therapy session for a veteran struggling with postwar trauma here at home ?
It ’ s long past time to end America ’ s fruitless post-9/11 wars .
But if we don ’ t start reexamining our basic priorities , bringing our troops “ home ” will just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , in the long run , will be millions of sick , grieving , and injured Americans who will lack the safety net of adequate health care .
Please remember , President-elect Biden : war , even failed war , shouldn ’ t be about sacrifice by the military alone but by all of us .

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.
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By the end of this year, the White House will reportedly have finally brought home a third of the 7,500 troops still stationed in Afghanistan and Iraq (against the advice of President Trump’s own military leaders). While there have been stories galore about the global security implications of this plan, there has been almost no discussion at all about where those 2,700 or so troops who have served in this country’s endless wars will settle once their feet touch US soil (assuming, that is, that they aren’t just moved to less controversial garrisons elsewhere in the Greater Middle East), no less who’s likely to provide them with badly needed financial, logistical, and emotional support as they age.
When it comes to honoring active-duty troops and veterans of this country’s forever wars, we Americans have proven big on symbolic gestures, but small on action. Former First Lady Michelle Obama’s organization, Joining Forces, was a short-lived but notable exception: Its advocacy and awareness-raising led dozens of companies to commit to hiring more veterans. Unfortunately, those efforts proved limited in scope and didn’t last long.
Zoom out to the rest of America and you’ll find yellow-ribbon bumper stickers on gas-guzzling SUVs galore; tons of “support our troops” Facebook memes on both Veterans Day and Memorial Day regularly featuring (at least before the pandemic struck big time) young, attractive heterosexual families hugging at reunions; and there is invariably a chorus of “thank you for your service” when a veteran or active-duty soldier appears in public.
In practical terms, though, this adds up to nothing. Bumper stickers don’t watch soldiers’ kids while they’re gone, nor do they transport those troops to competent, affordable specialists to meet their health and vocational needs when they return from battle. Memes don’t power vets through decades of rehabilitation from traumatic brain injuries, limbs blown off by homemade explosives, depression, anxiety, and grief for comrades lost.
I’m the spouse of a US naval officer. My husband has served on two different submarines and in three military policymaking positions over the course of our decade together. We’ve had to move around the country four times (an exceedingly modest number compared with most military families we know). We have dual incomes, as well as extended family and friends with the means to support us with care for our two young children and help us with the extra expenses when that uprooting moment arrives every two or three years. We have self-advocacy skills and the resources necessary to find the best possible health providers to help us weather the strain that goes with the relentless pace of post-9/11 military life. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
And yet I feel I can speak for other military families who have so much less for one reason: I’ve dedicated much of my career to research and advocacy on behalf of people affected by the American-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. I’ve focused my attention, in particular, on the vast loss of life, both abroad and at home, caused by those wars, on decimated and depleted health care systems (including our own), and on the burdens borne by the families of soldiers who have to struggle to deal with the needs of those who return.
Troops from our current wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and elsewhere across the Greater Middle East and Africa are, in certain ways, unique compared to earlier generations of American military personnel. More than half of them have deployed more than once to those battle zones—often numerous times. Over a million of them now have disability claims with the Veterans Affairs Department and far more disabled veterans than in the past have chronic injuries and illnesses that they will live with, not die from. Among troops like my spouse who, as a naval officer, has never deployed to Iraqi or Afghan soil, days have grown longer and more stressful due to a distinctly overstretched military that often lacks the up-to-date equipment to work safely. Current Issue View our current issue
And mind you, the costs of caring for the soldiers who have been deployed in our never-ending wars won’t peak for another 30 to 40 years, as they age, and the government isn’t faintly ready to meet the expenses that will be involved.
Homecoming
And mind you, the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs are even less prepared to care for the families of their troops and veterans, those most likely to be tasked with their round-the-clock care.
Among the many grim possibilities from my own experience and the stories I’ve been told as an advocate over the years by military veterans, military spouses, and military children, let me try to paint just one picture of what it’s like when a member of that military returns home from deployment: Imagine your spouse suddenly walking through the door after months away. His face is a greenish hue from fatigue and fear. He may tell you some horror story about some set of incidents that occurred while he was deployed and indicate that he fears, given his state, he might even be out of a job soon. You think about the work you cut back on in the months since he left because you couldn’t handle the 24/7 demands of caring for confused children who had stopped sleeping. What will you do to support the family if his worst fears come to pass?
You need to remind him that, while he’s been rattling on, there are children present whom he has yet to greet. He hugs them now, his face a combination of love and lack-of-recognition (given how they’ve grown in the months since he’s been gone). The kids’ facial expressions are a mirror image of his.
You do your best to catch him up on the changes that have taken place in his absence: the kids’ latest developments, your new work schedule, the need for more child care support, and the problems of your extended family (including the terminal illness of a family member).
Family or friends want to swoop in and take the kids so the two of you can get away, yet after months of his silence, you’re feeling too confused to want that yet. What’s more, your own hard-earned role as head of the household is suddenly about to be subsumed by his needs. (After all, he’s used to telling others what to do.)
You try to call other spouses who were your lifeline while all your husbands were deployed together, but they’re as stressed out and preoccupied as you are. Even the other commanders’ wives are, like you, up far too often at night as their spouses accept calls about drunk driving, partner violence, suicide threats, and child abuse within the stressed-out command.
Your unnerved husband is helping deal with such events, counseling those still on duty, and you’re counseling him. One night, he tells you that part of the reason for his stress is the things he was asked to do by his war-traumatized commander while he was deployed. These stories keep you awake at night.
You suggest he see a mental health professional. After all, the base has licensed psychologists and psychiatrists on staff, ready to help. He reminds you that the decision to seek care is not private in the military and the stigma among those handling his promotions could cost him his career.
So you look for mental-health assistance yourself to deal with the stress and grief over your changed relationship with your spouse. The lone practitioner within 45 miles who accepts military insurance tells you that, to receive care, you must sign a contract accepting that you can be hospitalized at his discretion “because military spouses go psychotic during their husband’s deployments.” You walk away.
Child care support of some kind is needed more than ever now that your spouse is in such distress. Because you moved posts recently by military order, the Navy tells you that you’re at the back of the local line for financial child care assistance. You’re in your own hell on earth and in that you’re typical of so many other military spouses.
Perspectives on Service From a Coastal Elite
And you also turn your gaze to the citizenry of this country that, in the world of the “All Volunteer” military, generally ignores us. Before I became a military spouse, I grew up in an affluent part of New Jersey. I remember how war veterans were ignored or even mocked (including by me). In the 1990s, I used to vacation at the Jersey shore and sometimes, from the front porch of our house, my family and I would catch a glimpse of a middle-aged man in military uniform, marching like a metronome up and down the island’s main boulevard. The glazed, far-off look on his face with its telltale ruddiness signaled, I know now, someone who probably drank too much, too often. Back then, we would just refer to him as “the soldier” when he passed and laugh at him, once safely out of earshot.
Of course, he was undoubtedly suffering from some form of mental illness without the sort of care that might have helped him make sense of things. My family and I had no idea that it was normal for war-traumatized soldiers to have difficulty distinguishing the past from the present, that it wouldn’t have been strange for him to see lines of summertime beach traffic and think “convoy” or hear a car engine backfire and think “sniper!”
Later, when I was living in San Francisco, a friend who worked at the Department of Housing and Urban Development told me about a veteran of the Afghan War, on leave between deployments, who called their office to request that a military tent village be set up in a popular city park to house homeless and mentally ill veterans like himself. My friend and I laughed about that over drinks, imagining the eyesore of an instant military base suddenly arising in the middle of a popular San Francisco tourist destination.
Some 15 years later, I think: How appropriate it would have been to remind Americans having fun of just what they were invariably missing—their military and the forever wars that go with them that all of us pay for endlessly but ignore. Maybe it finally is time to create spaces meant for US troops and veterans right in the middle of everything.
A Task List
President-elect Biden, I’m hoping against hope that you’ll read these thoughts of mine and take steps to support such priorities when you take office, so that our soldiers and our veterans don’t find themselves in ever deeper holes as their service ends:
1. Give those who serve and military veterans, as well as their families, real choices about where to go to get health care, whether primary care, physical therapy, specialized surgery, psychological therapy, or dental care. The Veterans Choice Program, first rolled out in 2014, should have been a decent start in expanding that sort of access, but in practice few providers have received authorization to participate because of low reimbursement rates and excessive wait times for approval and reimbursement. Anything your administration could do, including ensuring that there’s just one less form to fill out or a few more dollars in reimbursement, would make a difference.
2. Sponsor large-scale studies on the health of military spouses and children. Evidence of the effects of military life on such families is scattered at best, but doesn’t look good, particularly during and immediately after deployments. The needs of spouses and children who deal with veterans for health care, vocational training, and protection from family violence appear high and badly unmet.
3. Advocate making training on the issues faced by our troops and their families central to continuing education requirements among health care providers and the staff supporting them, especially the military insurance contractors who are the gatekeepers to care. Urge such providers to place veterans and their families first in line. Make sure therapists, including those focused on children and adolescents, know about the special challenges faced by military kids after parents return. Fund and support off-base family therapy for soldiers and their families, since Department of Defense therapists too often prioritize the needs of the soldier or of the mission above the needs of the family.
4. Teach everyone to stop “thanking” the troops for their service, which effectively ends any conversation instead of beginning one. Teach them instead to ask about what service in the US military in the forever-war era is really like. Believe me, that would start a conversation that wouldn’t end soon.
5. Remove needless barriers to military families receiving child care, whether they’re active duty and awaiting their next assignment or settling for good in communities where they’ll begin their lives as civilians.
Nothing About Us Without Us
In all such things, take your cues from soldiers, veterans, and their families. Nationally, what about creating a presidential commission that represents such groups in equal measure and in as diverse a way as possible? Let it investigate violations of the rights of military personnel and their families when it comes to health and safety in military commands and on bases across the country and around the world.
Often when I talk about changes like these, I’m met with skeptical looks from family members and friends. Where will we get the money for such changes, since we’re already reimbursing providers at higher rates for accepting military insurance?
The striking thing is that there’s no ceiling when it comes to putting money into disastrous weapons systems, the US nuclear arsenal, or the Pentagon generally. But when it comes to putting money into us, it’s another matter entirely.
How about, as a start, cutting down on waste and fraud? Money that could have done us some good has disappeared into gas stations in the middle of nowhere and other corrupt construction projects in our distant war zones. Tens of millions of dollars or more have been lost to waste and fraud in some of those unfinished foreign reconstruction projects. As economist Heidi Garrett-Peltier has pointed out, US federal defense spending accounts for more than half of all of our government’s discretionary spending, with piles of taxpayer dollars going to expensive contractors who provide services like cleaning, meals, and security guards on bases in those same war zones. Instead of spending $100 more on a single bag of laundry in Iraq, how about spending it on a therapy session for a veteran struggling with postwar trauma here at home?
It’s long past time to end America’s fruitless post-9/11 wars. But if we don’t start reexamining our basic priorities, bringing our troops “home” will just create a new crisis, involving what, in the long run, will be millions of sick, grieving, and injured Americans who will lack the safety net of adequate health care.
Please remember, President-elect Biden: war, even failed war, shouldn’t be about sacrifice by the military alone but by all of us.


thenation--2020-12-07--Mitch McConnell’s Ghoulish Plan to Exploit Covid Desperation to Shield Corporate Crime

What the United States desperately needs is a multitrillion-dollar stimulus package to provide the resources to fight the current coronavirus surge , to provide for the unemployed and underemployed , to keep small businesses and small farms afloat , to fund state and local governments and schools , and to organize and implement the distribution of the vaccines that are vital to ending the current crisis .
What the United States does not need is a massive corporate bailout that allows the wealthiest and most powerful businesses in this country to avoid liability for actions they take that sicken and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ what Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and his minions have been battling to include in a new Covid-19 “ relief ” package .
And key Democrats could end up going along with the grim reaper ’ s ghoulish scheme as he again uses federal legislation to insulate irresponsible CEOs from accountability—and , conveniently , to reward the business interests that fund Republican campaigns .
Exploiting the sense of urgency over the peaking pandemic and the prospect of what President-elect Joe Biden refers to as a “ long dark winter ” for working families @ @ @ @ @ @ @ months held relief proposals hostage over the issue of a so-called “ liability shield.
” Such a shield—even if it is limited , even if it is only temporary—would give corporations immunity from lawsuits related to Covid-19 .
Crooked David Perdue Is Afraid to Debate His Record of Self-Dealing Do Not Hire This Man Donald Trump Just Paid $ 3 Million to Expand Joe Biden ’ s Margin of Victory Considering the stark evidence of irresponsibility on the part of US corporations since the pandemic hit , the proposal is absurd .
Yet @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scheme that was initially proposed by corporate-aligned centrists in Congress but has now attracted backing from leading congressional Republicans and Democrats proposes just such a liability shield .
The one-page outline of the plan released last week includes among its proposals : “ Provide short term federal protection from coronavirus-related lawsuits with the purpose of giving states time to develop their own response.
” That ’ s precisely the sort of vague language that has been used in the past to take advantage of crisis moments to benefit the bottom lines of multinational @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get what they want—in this measure or some future one—big business will be off the hook and working people will be further endangered .
As Public Citizen warned earlier this year , the proposal by Senate Republicans “ to immunize businesses from liability includes provisions shielding employers from a range of workplace laws—including laws addressing discrimination , fair wages and occupational health and safety.
” In a new variation on the scenario described in Naomi Klein ’ s The Shock Doctrine , corporations and their congressional benefactors would have us believe that a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic .
But why ?
“ How would exempting employers from complying with the Occupational Safety and Health Act , the Fair Labor Standards Act , Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act , the Americans with Disabilities Act , the Age Discrimination in Employment Act , the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act help to end the pandemic ?
” asks the Public Citizen analysis .
“ What does any of this have to do with restoring the economy ?
Nothing at all.
” The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ shield was summed up by the Rev .
William J. Barber II when he explained Monday : “ This new proposal , if you go to the bottom , is pushing for a liability shield for businesses to protect themselves from lawsuits from poor/low-wealth workers if they get Covid because the business did not protect them .
That ’ s criminal.
” Yet , while Democrats have long objected to the liability shield , things have gotten so desperate in the United States that there ’ s mounting concern that a “ compromise @ @ @ @ @ @ @ days—might include a liability shield .
The only way to prevent this from happening is to make it clear that compromises that endanger the health and safety of Americans in the midst of a pandemic are unacceptable .
That ’ s what Bernie Sanders has done .
In announcing that he can not support the relief package as it has been proposed by Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mitt Romney of Utah , the senator has said : Sanders has other objections to the plan as it is currently configured , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time when the COVID crisis is the worst that it has ever been in the U.S. with record-breaking levels of hospitalization and death , the Manchin-Romney proposal not only provides no direct payments to working families , it does nothing to address the healthcare crisis and has totally inadequate financial assistance for the most vulnerable.
” This country has suffered enough from Shock Doctrine schemes .
Sanders is right when he says that a Covid “ relief ” package that includes a liability shield for multinational corporations “ is wrong morally and it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rebuild the economy .
”

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What the United States desperately needs is a multitrillion-dollar stimulus package to provide the resources to fight the current coronavirus surge, to provide for the unemployed and underemployed, to keep small businesses and small farms afloat, to fund state and local governments and schools, and to organize and implement the distribution of the vaccines that are vital to ending the current crisis.
What the United States does not need is a massive corporate bailout that allows the wealthiest and most powerful businesses in this country to avoid liability for actions they take that sicken and kill Americans. Looking for holiday gifts with a conscience? Check out The Nation Shop and help support The Nation’s journalism while you complete your gift list.
Unfortunately, that is what Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and his minions have been battling to include in a new Covid-19 “relief” package. And key Democrats could end up going along with the grim reaper’s ghoulish scheme as he again uses federal legislation to insulate irresponsible CEOs from accountability—and, conveniently, to reward the business interests that fund Republican campaigns.
Exploiting the sense of urgency over the peaking pandemic and the prospect of what President-elect Joe Biden refers to as a “long dark winter” for working families, McConnell and his colleagues have for months held relief proposals hostage over the issue of a so-called “liability shield.” Such a shield—even if it is limited, even if it is only temporary—would give corporations immunity from lawsuits related to Covid-19. More From John Nichols A GOP Debate Without Trump Is the Definition of Pointlessness August 11, 2023 A Win for Abortion Rights, a Win for Democracy: Ohio Voters Reject Issue 1 August 9, 2023 The Biggest Threat to Donald Trump Could Be the Constitution Itself August 4, 2023
Considering the stark evidence of irresponsibility on the part of US corporations since the pandemic hit, the proposal is absurd. Yet the “COVID Emergency Relief Framework” scheme that was initially proposed by corporate-aligned centrists in Congress but has now attracted backing from leading congressional Republicans and Democrats proposes just such a liability shield. The one-page outline of the plan released last week includes among its proposals: “Provide short term federal protection from coronavirus-related lawsuits with the purpose of giving states time to develop their own response.”
That’s precisely the sort of vague language that has been used in the past to take advantage of crisis moments to benefit the bottom lines of multinational corporations. If McConnell and his allies get what they want—in this measure or some future one—big business will be off the hook and working people will be further endangered. As Public Citizen warned earlier this year, the proposal by Senate Republicans “to immunize businesses from liability includes provisions shielding employers from a range of workplace laws—including laws addressing discrimination, fair wages and occupational health and safety.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. My Homeland Is Being Ruled by Terror. The World Must Pay Attention. Manny Maung
In a new variation on the scenario described in Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine, corporations and their congressional benefactors would have us believe that a liability shield is needed to battle the pandemic. But why? “How would exempting employers from complying with the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act help to end the pandemic?” asks the Public Citizen analysis. “What does any of this have to do with restoring the economy? Nothing at all.” Current Issue View our current issue
The awful truth of why corporations want the shield was summed up by the Rev. William J. Barber II when he explained Monday: “This new proposal, if you go to the bottom, is pushing for a liability shield for businesses to protect themselves from lawsuits from poor/low-wealth workers if they get Covid because the business did not protect them. That’s criminal.”
Yet, while Democrats have long objected to the liability shield, things have gotten so desperate in the United States that there’s mounting concern that a “compromise” plan—which could come before Congress in days—might include a liability shield. The only way to prevent this from happening is to make it clear that compromises that endanger the health and safety of Americans in the midst of a pandemic are unacceptable.
That’s what Bernie Sanders has done. In announcing that he cannot support the relief package as it has been proposed by Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Mitt Romney of Utah, the senator has said:
Unfortunately, despite long-time Democratic opposition, this proposal provides 100 percent legal immunity to corporations whose irresponsibility has led to the deaths of hundreds of workers. It would continue to provide a get-out-of-jail free card to companies that put the lives of their workers and customers at risk. In fact, the Manchin-Romney proposal will, through this liability provision, encourage corporations to avoid implementing the common sense safety standards needed to protect workers and consumers—and make a bad situation worse.
Sanders has other objections to the plan as it is currently configured, noting on Friday that “at a time when the COVID crisis is the worst that it has ever been in the U.S. with record-breaking levels of hospitalization and death, the Manchin-Romney proposal not only provides no direct payments to working families, it does nothing to address the healthcare crisis and has totally inadequate financial assistance for the most vulnerable.”
This country has suffered enough from Shock Doctrine schemes. Sanders is right when he says that a Covid “relief” package that includes a liability shield for multinational corporations “is wrong morally and it is wrong economically if we hope to rebuild the economy.”