GI RESISTER MARC HALL IS A FREE MAN, VFP & IVAW HELPED TO ANCHOR SUCCESSFUL CAMPAIGN
GI resister Marc Hall is now a free man. Under pressure from his
supporters, the U.S. Army has backed down from their plans to give him a
kangaroo court martial in Iraq. Instead they have granted him a
discharge. Marc Hall is known as the GI "rapper" who recorded a song
against the Army's "Stop-Loss" policy last July. But his real troubles
began in December when he filed a formal complaint with the Army's
Inspector General about the poor quality of the Army's evaluation and
treatment of his PTSD. Five days later, the Army arrested the Iraq
veteran and charged him with 11 counts of violating the good order of
the Army (Article 134), including "threatening violence against fellow
soldiers."
The GI resister support group Courage To Resist found him a lawyer near his base,
Fort Stewart, Georgia, and the Army sent him 8,000 miles away to a
prison in Kuwait. Marc's mother worked with Courage To Resist and
members of VFP and IVAW to form the Family and Friends of Marc Hall,
which rallied political support and raised funds to send a lawyer and
doctor to the Middle East.
The presiding military officer at Marc Hall's arraignment (Article 32
hearing), threw out 5 of the 11 charges against Hall, finding them
totally without basis or evidence to support them. She recommended that
Spc. Hall be given a Special Court Martial, which can give a maximum
sentence of 1 year in prison and a Bad Conduct Discharge. But the Army
command, clearly wanting to make an example of Marc Hall, insisted it
would give him a General Court Martial. Marc Hall was facing a sentence
of up to 6 years in prison and a Dishonorable Discharge. Finally,
though, the Army appears to have come to its senses.
Veterans For Peace played a significant role in supporting Marc Hall.
When VFP called for emails to be sent to the Army on behalf of Spc.
Hall, 643 members of VFP did so. One hundred and ten VFP members
forwarded the action alert to friends, and 113 contacted newspapers on
behalf of Hall. Iraq Veterans Against the War also mobilized its
members in support of Marc Hall.
VFP members Russell Brown, of Buffalo, New York, and Gerry Condon, of
Seattle, Washington, participated in weekly strategy sessions of the
Family and Friends of Marc Hall, along with Jeff Paterson, a VFP member
who heads up Courage To Resist. Courage To Resist raised and spent
$7,100 for Marc Hall's defense fund, and has another $1,500 of
outstanding expenses at this time.
Marc Hall's lawyer, David Gespass, who is president of the National
Lawyers Guild, will now work to get Hall's Other Than Honorable
discharge upgraded, and to insure that Hall, who saw 14 months of combat
in Iraq, will get treatment for his PTSD from the Veterans
Administration.
Veterans For Peace has supported GI resisters for several years, and
will soon be launching a GI Resistance Working Group, in order to
provide timely information to VFP members about how they can support GI
resisters in their time of need.
Read Dahr Jamail's excellent article on the Marc Hall case,
and find out about another GI resister, Eric Jasinky, whom the Army has
jailed with untreated PTSD.