Stop-Loss Rapper deploys to Iraq
Regular readers remember Marc Hall, the “Stop-Loss rapper” and new IVAW member, who complained in his rap song that he was scheduled to deploy to Iraq after his date for leaving the Army. The Army charges that Hall communicated a threat in the song by referring to all of his leadership as targets that would hit the floor when he locked and loaded a thirty round magazine on them. Of course, he sent the CD to the Pentagon in the weeks following Major Nidal Hasan’s attack on scores of soldiers at Fort Hood.
It seems the Army is preparing to deploy Hall to Iraq and the Leftists are angry.
Today, Fort Stewart, Georgia officials confirmed that the Army will attempt to separate Spc Marc A Hall from both his civilian legal team and his established military defender Capt. Anthony Schiavetti by sending him to Iraq “within a few days” to face court martial.
The Army declared that, “The jurisdiction transfer ensures a full and fair trial for both Spc. Hall and the United States.” Nothing could be farther from the truth, at least for Spc. Hall.
“It is our belief that the Army would violate its own regulations by deploying Marc and it would certainly violate his right to due process by making it far more difficult to get witnesses. It appears the Army doesn’t believe it can get a conviction in a fair and public trial. We will do whatever we can to insure he remain in the United States,” explains attorney David Gespass of Birmingham, Alabama.
Of course, the Army can send his military lawyer to Iraq with Hall, so they’re really not separating him from his defense team. But the really hilarious part is Veterans Today with their penchant for hyperbole, asks “what is happening to our military justice system;
Yes, we’re going to start throwing our troops in Guantanamo, Hanafin, you mega drama queen. Are you guys still taking hallucinogens after all these years. I’d love to hear your theories about the JFK assassination some time.
My guess is that most of the witnesses on both sides in the Hall case are deployed to Iraq and it makes more sense to move him there than to send an entire unit back from the war. But I have an email in to his commander to get the real skinny on the reason. Maybe they’re going to tie him to the grill of an MRAP on a clearing operation. I’ll check with Gordon Duff on that.
Category: Antiwar crowd, Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Usual Suspects
Gee, maybe we’re missing something here. Maybe rap speaks to the tragedy of man’s inhumanity toward man, and the struggle of our geselschaft with the zeitgeist of our existential being. I think I’ll try it.
His name is Marc Hall and he’s gonna have a ball.
Sittin’ in the brig is a special kind of gig.
A specialist of rap who ain’t worth a crap.
Bring your stupid swag along with your JAG.
The lesson to be learned is your ass is gonna burn.
Word. I’m out. ((flashes obscure gang sign))
Wow — was that Veterans Today article written by an actual veteran? The degree of ignorance regarding military law and jurisdiction is staggering – “Army plans to extradite to the sovereign nation of Iraq a Stop Loss rapper soldier to get him away from US public scrutiny.” To begin with, the very definition of “extradite” infers a process of transferring a suspected criminal not just from one geographical location within the same jurisdiction to another, but from one legal jursidiction to another. Marc Hall is not going to Iraq to be prosecuted by the “sovereign nation of Iraq”; he is going to Iraq under the jurisdiction of the US Army because that is where the rest of his unit is. News Flash: The US Army has jursidiction over its soldiers at all Army installations worldwide. The “sovereign nation of Iraq” has nothing to do with the prosecution of Marc Hall. While I have seen the Army bring soldiers back from Iraq to testify at court martial proceedings, such as in the case of SGT Kevin Benderman at Ft. Stewart a few years ago (which I attended), I don’t see anything illogical or unusual at all about the US Army sending Marc Hall to Iraq for his court martial if that is where the majority of the government witnesses are located. Speaking as one who was sent TDY back to Germany to testify at court martial proceedings after PCSing back to the States, it is completely logical to me that it would be more cost effective to simply send Marc Hall to where he was going anyway with the rest of his unit than for the government to to pull all its witnesses from Iraq and sending them on TDY orders to the States for the court martial. This has nothing to do with Guantanamo. Not even remotely. Now I believe in free speech and agree that the Stop Loss practice should be ended, but neither of those issues are justification for violent lyrics threatening to open fire on military superiors (or anyone), especially sending such lyrics to the Pentagon in… Read more »
“The Army charges that Hall communicated a threat in the song by referring to all of his leadership as targets that would hit the floor when he locked and loaded a thirty round magazine on them.”
He’d better be kept under a close watch by whoever is in charge of restraining his ass before the trial. Given the nature of his threats, if I was an E-7 within ear shot of this ass-clown and he twitched the wrong way, weelll… Just let your imagination fill in the blanks.
“I’d love to hear your theories about the JFK assassination some time.”
IMHO, Oswald was the trigger-man. He wannted to be a big-time player amongst the commies and they paid him no mind, a case of angry little man syndrome. The fact that he took a pot-shot at General Edwin Anderson Walker and murdered Police Officer J. D. Tippit (BTW, Tippit was a 17th ABN WWII vet, jumped at Operation Varsity in ’45)when he questioned Oswald seals the deal for me, Oliver LSD tripper Stone be damned. Jack Ruby was a nut job who loved JFK and he popped Oswald in a fit of rage.
I also found it ironic that in a mass email sent out by IVAW, after first requesting action in support of Marc Hall, the very next paragraph is on the SuperBowl, with the sentence, “Militarism pervades our society in obvious and subtle ways, and to the average citizen, the intrusion of martial values in all aspects of life often goes unquestioned. The National Football League takes pride in its relationship to the military, but we want to challenge this traditon of linking the violence of war with competitive sports. With IVAW’s alternative Super Bowl parties, help us shine a light on one area of our society where patritic symbolism is used to mask the realities of war.”
The Super Bowl, of course, is a completely different thing than the intrusion of violent lyrics threatening a mass shooting in the very wake of a mass shooting in the arena of the so-called “peace” movement that is supposedly against the violence of war. It all makes sense, right?
Well said, Deb. The maroon who wrote that article indeed, has no clue as to what extradition is. And apparently Gespass is studying to be as good a lawyer as Branum, he also doesn’t appear to understand “extradition”. Gespass is a member of the National Lawyers Guild, and the National Police Accountability Project. Besides being factually challenged, the NLG can’t add or subtract either.
Thank you, UpNorth. Though I couldn’t help but be amused that your creative spelling of “moron” was followed by the assertion that the NLG can’t add or subtract, LOL… 🙂
I think UN was going for the Bugs Bunny pronouniation on purpose Deb. I/E: “What a maroon…What an imbisessel… What a ta-ra-ra boomdiay” 🙂
I tire of these whiners going on about stop loss. You signed up for 8 years, sorry if the needs of the nation require you do a bit more of the eight on active duty.
Oh dear…my cultural illiteracy must be revealing itself again. I didn’t know that was a Bug Bunny thing.
Oh, and I forgot to mention, Adirondack Patriot (#1), that was remarkably good!
Take the misunderstanding of extradition out and replace it with this: when a member of a unit allegedly commits a crime, it is important that the rest of the unit see the legal process to completion, regardless of outcome.
In cases where the allegation is found untrue, being witness to the process reinforces the Soldiers’ belief that the chain of command will be fair and impartial… translates to orders and commands the leaders of the unit will issue. In cases where the allegation is found to be true, the punishment serves as a reminder of the power of UCMJ for others who may consider to challenge authority in the future or otherwise. It also can serve to reinforce trust in the system.
Either way, the accused’s fellow Soldiers need to see the process. It is important to the discipline and cohesion of the unit. If they don’t get to see it through, a perception that one can get away with offenses can be very dangerous, especially for a unit in a combat zone.
Sorry, Deb. Next time I’ll footnote it. 🙂 Well said, Jack, that’s an explanation even our own Joey could understand.
Well said, Jack Army.
Btw, I think you typed the name of your website wrong as the link on your name didn’t work. However, I found it anyway.
I agree with Gary. I was on the verge of my 8 year MSO expiring and I recieved a letter in the mail from DA. That’s the way it goes. I have been stop-lossed for 8 over months after being recalled from IRR. I signed the contract, I read the contract, I knew what it meant could happen.
Jack Army: Would you quit making sense and stuff? I mean, it’s all the evil military’s fault!! We know that they are extraditing the poor unfortunate for their own evil plans, since the Army knows he’s innocent and they want to change venues out of the country so they can carry out their evil plans and stuff. Jeez, you guys are definitely part of that whole military industrial complex type thingy; aren’t you? Anything you can do to cover for the illegal and immoral persecution of a true patriot like that and stuff! I mean, like ya know? Close Gitmo so no more patriotic American troops can be sent there like all them others, who are never heard from again!!! I bet evil Cheney McHaliburton is making money off of every patriotic American soldier that is sent there, too, cuz we know the pentagon pays him a kickback and stuff.
Be back later cuz it’s like time for me to go underground cuz I like hear the helicopters coming and stuff.
Free Willy!!! I mean Marc!!!!!
I usually restrain myself from reading this blog, but I got to it because the Marc Hall case is such an interesting example of that all-American reality known as selective enforcement. As a Vietnam veteran antiwar activist, I went through a period where every Saturday I went nose-to-nose with some right-wing, pro-war activists in West Chester, PA. One of these patriots sent my name to someone in Pittsburgh who sent me a You Tube of some big-gutted guy shooting antiwar signs in a field with a shotgun — with a note attached, telling me they were going to come visit me. Two lawyers told me it constituted a violation of the law.
However, the local police detective thought it was a joke. Good ol’ boys jus’ havin’ good, clean fun. I had to gather more information and visit the detective again and get angry as a citizen who paid his fucking salary before he would agree to call the State Police to have them read these people the riot act. Did I think these morons from Pittsburgh were going to come and blow me away? Not really. But it pissed me off.
Marc Hall’s position is exactly that of the ol’ boy with the shotgun, and I’m the Pentagon. Add to Hall’s case the long tradition of First Amendment rights for art and the fact hip-hop rap is a cultural “trash talking” creative outlet for political frustration and, at the very least, you have a case that, if tried in the US, might get media legs and could easily embarrass the military over its Stop Loss program, which sucks. That’s why they’re sending him to be tried in some FOB in the Iraqi desert.
All this talk about Marc Hall endangering troops is political horseshit. The issue is Stop Loss and how the military is fucking over Marc Hall by sending him to Iraq after his enlistment is over.
yeah, he was just a guy at Fortress Hood saying crazy shit about killing other soldiers. It was all in good fun…
Too bad that other nut job killed a bunch of people and messed it all up for this *****.
You can be extended, get over it. Also I would like to see the video link first before anything else.