LEFTISTS CONSORTING AGAINST AMERICA - AGAIN!

Additional Information:Larry Zok 703-915-1019 Jim Bancroft banky81459@yahoo.com For Immediate ReleaseVeterans' Coalition Plans War Memorial Vigil March 17 Anti-War Vandalism Prompts Call for ‘Protective Screen’WASHINGTON – A nationwide coalition of veterans' groups is planning a vigil at the National Mall on March 17 as a result of increasing concerns that anti-war protesters participating in a march on the Pentagon might deface the Vietnam War Memorial or other national monuments. The veterans plan to form a human ‘protective screen’ around the Vietnam War Memorial.Although no umbrella organization is representing the veterans who plan on standing the vigil, organizers say there will be representatives all branches of the service from World War II to the current war. Individuals from Prisoner of War groups, Vietnam Veterans of America chapters, the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and many other veterans’ organizations are planning to attend, although the parent organizations are not sponsoring the vigil. Ohio resident Dane Brown, who served as a Marine infantryman during the Battle of Hue in Vietnam in 1968, has posted on-line calls to action, noting there are Internet, anti-war web sites that now encourage vandalism to the war monuments.Brown said there are many "fringe groups with private agendas who are planning to participate in the anti-war march. I want to be certain that these groups don't deface any monument to the men and women who risked their lives -- and gave their lives -- to defend this country." Among the anti-war groups that Pentagon march organizers say will attend are: CODEPINK; National Lawyers Guild; Free Palestine Alliance; Nicaragua Network; Mexico Solidarity Network; Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation- KAWAN: NYC Labor Against the War (NYCLAW); Socialist Front of Puerto Rico; Islamic Political Party of America (IPPA);Vietnam Veterans Against the War Anti-Imperialist; Women's Anti-Imperialist League (WAIL); International Socialist Organization; Freedom Socialist Party National Office; and the Party for Socialism and Liberation.Brown and fellow Marine Larry Zok, who also plans to participate in the vigil, say they are encouraged by responses to their inquiries from the National Park Service which has promised to vigorously protect the Vietnam Memorial and other sites on the mall from vandalism. However, after reading news reports that the Capitol Police allowed protesters to spray paint graffiti on the Capitol at a recent demonstration, veterans believe it is necessary to provide an extra measure of deterrence in March. Zok says “We need to have this vigil because some of these same people sprayed graffiti on our nation’s Capitol and I want to ensure that the same thing does not happen” to the Vietnam Memorial. While the veterans solidly support active duty troops now fighting the War on Terror in Afghanistan and Iraq, “This is not about pro or con the war (in Iraq),” Zok added. “This is about honor and integrity.” Brown said the National Park Service is emphatic that the decision by the Capitol Police does not have any relevance to the Park Service enforcement, and that measures in place to secure the memorial include a 300 yard exclusion zone, mounted and foot police, a riot reaction squad and intelligence personnel on the scene to insure that the conditions of the permit issued to the anti-war activists are not violated. This includes restricting the anti-war activists to their permitted assembly area on the eastern end of the grounds and away from the wall. Distributed byMJ London & Associates 203-261-1549 MJLondon@aol.com http://www.usvetdsp.com/feb07/eagle.htm 'Gathering of Eagles'to protect Vietnam Veterans Wall By C.J. Raven U.S. Veteran Dispatch February 07, 2007 Leftist activists who march to the Pentagon next month will discover that their path won't be as clear as it has been in the past. The group, led by Cindy Sheehan, Jane Fonda, Ed Asner and their ilk, plan to gather March 17 at the Vietnam Memorial Wall to begin a march to protest America's involvement in the Iraq war. The date marks the fourth anniversary of the war's beginning. This time, however, protestors will see objectors if they spit on Iraqi veterans again, or throw paint on a war memorial. This time, they will encounter a buzz saw of Vietnam veterans and supporters who will gather to protect the Wall, and show their support for U.S. troops. The counter-protestors are calling themselves the Gathering of Eagles. "… An eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks. The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it." An unknown author wrote that description, but it describes how the veterans see their mission. They are angry that the Wall is being used as a jumping off point for a political protest and they are gathering to protect it from another storm of anti-war activists. "The anti-war/anti-America group cannot be allowed to use the Vietnam Memorial Wall as a back-drop to their anti-America venom and stain the hallowed ground that virtually cries out with blood at the thought of this proposed desecration ... it must not happen," said veteran Bud Gross. "… All Americans are invited to support our effort, which is intended as a defender of hallowed ground and intended as a non-violent competition between those that would sell out America and those of us who support freedom and keeping the fight with the enemy on distant shores." The group defending the Wall will be wearing armbands to identify themselves. Those who are unable to stand with the defenders are being asked to wear armbands with small U.S. flags to show their own communities that they abhor the Fonda-Sheehan tactics. "We'll be there to act as a countervailing force against the Cindy Sheehan-Jane Fonda march from the Vietnam Memorial to the Pentagon," retired Navy Capt. Larry Bailey said. "We will protect the Vietnam Memorial. If they try to deface it, there will be some violence, I guarantee you." Bailey and thousands of his fellow Vietnam vets are worried that the anti-war protesters will damage the wall, just as they spray-painted the steps of the Capitol at their last march. The wall is sacred to the men and women who fought in that war. "It is our contact with our dead brothers -- those who lost their lives in the cause of their country," Bailey said. And so it is that Washington will see a Gathering of Eagles - Americans determined to stand up against leftist propagandists who denigrate U.S. troops and the mission for which they sometimes sacrifice their lives. Retired Col. Harry Riley organized the Gathering of Eagles. Organizers hope thousands will show up in Washington from as far away as Hawaii, and they won't only be Vietnam veterans. Families, friends and veterans of other wars, including Iraq, and soldiers still on active duty, will be there to defend the Wall. "When we say a gathering of eagles, that signifies people who support the American way," Bailey said. The leftist Web site MarchonPentagon.org describes the anti-war demonstrators this way: "The March on the Pentagon has already attracted more than 1,500 endorsers, including prominent individuals and national and grassroots organizations. Students on college campuses and in high schools will be attending in large numbers. There will be a large turnout from the Muslim and Arab American community, which is organizing throughout the country." The movement is well-financed. Its sponsor list is lengthy and contains highly recognizable names, as well as those of Fonda and Sheehan: · Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark (who offered his services to defend Saddam Hussein) · Ultra-liberal Congresswoman Maxine Waters · Former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney · Ron Kovic, Vietnam veteran and author of "Born on the 4th of July" · Mahdi Bray, executive director, Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation · Waleed Bader, vice chair of the National Council of Arab Americans and former president of Arab Muslim American Federation · Medea Benjamin, co-founder, CODEPINK and Global Exchange · Free Palestine Alliance · Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation · Islamic Political Party of America · FMLN (Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front) · Islamic-National Congress · Gay Liberation Network · Muslim Student Association · Jibril Hough, chairman, Islamic Political Party of America. Retired Air Force Col. Smitty Harris, a former Vietnam POW, doesn't believe Fonda's protests carry the weight they once did. Harris says Fonda's actions at the march last month were "anti-American," just as they were in the 1970s, and won't have much effect on public opinion. "It was big news during the Vietnam era when they had these marches ... because people didn't have all the alternative ways of finding out what is true and what's not," he recently told Agape Press. "So I don't think it's going to have a big effect." In fact, he says, it could even be counterproductive. Today, Harris points out, Americans have talk radio and media outlets like the Fox News Channel to hear the voices of those who do not agree with Jane Fonda's point of view. For more information, visit the Gathering of Eagles message board.