Marshall’s Blog | Crazy Mormon Lib

The following is the text of a speech I gave at the Accountability for Torture Day in Salt Lake City, Utah on June 25. It’s not word for word, but I thought it was worth posting.

Thank you for showing up here today. I’m so glad to be with you. That may sound strange to say given the seriousness of the topic, but it’s true. This rally, and your presence, shows how far we’ve come as a country.

In 2003, I attended a protest against the impending invasion of Iraq at Utah State University. A handful of people showed up to support peace and about 200 people showed up to support war. Groups of them wore T-shirts that read “Bomb Saddam.” They yelled at us, they mocked us, they tried to take our microphone and stage away from us. We yelled back.

It was the beginning of a dark time for our country. Since then, we’ve watched, heartbroken, as our nation has gone down the strange path of illegal war, xenophobia, and torture. But now, today, less than a decade later, we can already see that our country is beginning to awake from the nightmare that has gripped it.

I feel more hope for an end to the war today than I ever have before. And I feel surer that those who put this country on this path will face justice in this life. To come to this event, and see you here, makes e believe that it will happen. And that makes me relived. It makes me happy and it makes me hopeful for the future.

Spending a year in Iraq as a soldier, I came to understand more fully that every act of violence has at least two victims: the person who commits the violence and the person who is on the receiving end of that violence. Both may be burdened and scarred for life, and both may eventually die of their wounds.

And so, when our country chooses a path of war and torture, we create twice the pain, twice the broken lives, and twice the destruction. When I think of this, I think of Spec. Alyssa Peterson, who was one of the first women to die in Iraq. I’ve told her story before, but I will keep telling it until everyone knows it.

I’ve never met her, but I feel very close to her because we have some important things in common. We are both Mormons who served as missionaries for our church. We both returned from those missions with a desire to serve our country, and joined the military. But Alyssa was exceptional. She was a gifted linguist who taught herself Dutch before going to the Netherlands as a Mormon missionary. She applied this gift to learn Arabic and serve her country as an interpreter and interrogator.

But when she got to Iraq, her country betrayed her. Alyssa was ordered to participate in an interrogation operation referred to as “the cage.” Our government refuses to tell us what went on in the cage, but from what we know it wasn’t good. Some accounts talk of men being stripped naked before female interrogators who would then proceed to mock the men’s genitalia. Some accounts hint at things much worse.

As Mormons, Alyssa and I were raised to believe that we are all children of God. We believe in the divinity of our bodies and the sacredness of our sexuality. And so I understand the betrayal she must have felt when she realized that her country was asking her to use that sacred sexuality and the divine feminine within her as a weapon to humiliate, defile and torture another child of God.

Weak and naïve men, thousands of miles away from any danger, acted out of fear and hate and ignorance and ordered Alyssa to abandon her morals, to defy here sense of right and wrong, and to rebel against her God.

Alyssa, however, was exceptional. She refused to do it. After only two days working in the cage, she complained about what was happening and utterly refused to serve. Shortly after that, she was found dead on her base in Iraq. The original story from the Army was that she died from a noncombat negligent weapons discharge. After a reporter dug deeper into the story, the Army declared her death a suicide. There is still is some doubt about that as well.

It is a shame that we do not know the full details of Alyssa’s story. It is a shame that we do not know what was going on in the cage that caused this exceptional woman such distress. It’s a shame that we have allowed our country to fall into this darkness.

Victor Hugo once wrote:

“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness.”

For Alyssa’s sake and for the sake of all those how have been affected by torture and illegal war, we must prosecute those who caused the darkness. We must govern ourselves or abandon the experiment of self-rule.

One painful irony in all of this is that listed among those weak and naïve men who caused the darkness and betrayed Alyssa are several of her fellow Mormons. I have to admit that I’ve cursed their names in the past, and I’ve hated them. But, I want to suggest today that I was wrong in doing so.

As hard as it is, we must forgive all those who are accused of war crimes in our country. We must prosecute them in courts of law, but we must forgive them on a personal level first.

The reason for this is our focus must be on justice and not on vengeance or retribution. We can’t afford to hate the members of the Bush administration who authorized and ordered torture because that hate will be a barrier for the justice that we truly desire. Our struggle for justice will be long and hard, and hate is not a good long-term motivator. We must be focused on something nobler.

I’ve often wondered what I would do if I ever had the chance to meet Pres. Bush. Would I shake his hand? Would I snub him? Would I yell at him? But now, considering the task at hand, I know that if I ever had the chance to meet George W. Bush, I would embrace him as a brother. Because he too is a child of God. He is an American and he was my president. I forgive him for the pain his actions have caused me, and forgive him for the pain his actions have caused the world. Nevertheless, Justice demands he be held accountable for his actions.

And so today is a wonderful day, and I’m happy to be here. We’re all here together to make our country a better place. We’re here to ensure that future generations have a good example to follow. We’re here to demand justice for the countless victims of illegal war, indefinite detention, and torture.

I’d like to share one last thing with you. It’s a Mormon scripture from one of our canonical texts, the Doctrine and Covenants. I think it perfectly describes my motivations in calling for the prosecution of war crimes and I hope it will inspire others to take up the cause as well. It reads:

“We believe that the commission of crime should be punished according to the nature of the offense; that murder, treason, robbery, theft, and the breach of the general peace, in all respects, should be punished according to their criminality and their tendency to evil among men, by the laws of that government in which the offense is committed; and for the public peace and tranquility all men should step forward and use their ability in brining offenders against good laws to punishment.”

It’s my hope today, that we can all come together and use our abilities to bring offenders of good laws to punishment, and do it in a way that is free of hate and focused on peace and justice. Thank you.

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

In America, you can face up to 10 years in prison for standing up for what’s right in a nonviolent way. That’s what’s happening to Tim DeChristopher, a University of Utah student who was charged today for disrupting an oil and gas leasing auction of public land in Utah back in December.

Tim drove the price of the land up and really pissed off the oil companies. He also ended up winning about $1.8 million worth of leases himself. He raised enough money to cover the first down payment, and felt confident he could raise money for the subsequent installments, but that didn’t matter.

The Obama administration nullified the acution in February because it was hasty and involved sensitve lands. That is exactly why Tim took direct action back in December. He was able to delay things long enough for Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar to review the whole mess and recind the leases.

Still, U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman, is charging DeChristopher with two felonies worth 10 years in prision and up to $750,000 in fines. Tolman announced it on April Fool’s Day, which is appropriate. Considering the seriousness of the charges, I’ve got to ask, what was the damage here?

Bascially, the government isn’t out anything. The oil and gas guys and the BLM had to play by the rules and set up a legitimate auction, which went off without a hitch last week. But DeChristopher is still getting charged.

I suppose Tolman thinks it’s the principal of the thing. But 1o years? This is nuts. Sex offenders and armed robbers get lesser sentences. If this goes through, America will have to ask itself why one of its citizens ended up in prision for a decade simply for following his conscience in a nonviolent way. This would be a travesty and embarrassment to our entire nation.

What is Tolman thinking? Why doesn’t Obama and Salazar chime in? If DeChristopher gets charged, what happens to the BLM officals that set up the faulty auction in the first place? Do they get life in prison? 

Here is DeChristopher’s statement:

On December 19th, 2008 I took what I considered to be ethical, necessary, and direct action to try to protect our planet, our democracy, and my fellow human beings. In that spirit of protection, I took nonviolent action, which did not harm anyone nor destroy any property. 

My actions stopped what I believe was an illegal and certainly unethical auction of red rock public lands in Southern Utah. This auction was a fraud against the American people and a threat to my future. My motivations to act against this auction came from the exploitation of public lands, the lack of a transparent and participatory government, and the imminent danger of climate change. 

I acted openly and honestly because I was then, and still am ready to take the consequences of my actions. I had hoped the wheels of justice, particularly with a new Administration, would recognize the merit of my actions and their results, and not pursue prosecution. Those hopes were misplaced, and now my hopes rest on a jury of my peers.  

I have a proven legal team with Ron Yengich and Pat Shea. In a matter that will undoubtedly go to trial, my team will have a chance to demonstrate the corruption of the system which “awards” oil and gas leases to the highest bidders, yet, where the public and the environment are without representation and ultimately are really the only victims through the catastrophic effect of climate change. This trial will be an opportunity to address our moral imperative to defend a livable future for our children.

I hope my actions will be understood by others who learn about the depth of manipulation in our system. I deeply appreciate the enormous support I have already received, and I hope it will continue in the future. If my actions inspire others to work for change, any consequences I have to face will be worth it.

Tim DeChristopher

Ken Salazar, the Secretary of Interior, announced today that the Bush administration’s last-minute efforts to lease public land in Utah to oil and gas companies is on indefinite hold. This is great news for anyone who cares about protecting wilderness in Utah and the rest of the country.

It’s also great news for Tim DeChristopher, the University of Utah student who disrupted and delayed the auction by getting in and bidding on the land. He successfully drove up the prices and won over 22,000 acres worth about $1.8 million. He didn’t have the money, but he was able to raise enough for the down payment. His act of civil disobedience stalled the lease sales long enough that the Obama administration could take a look at it.

So, today is a huge victory. The only people not celebrating are the oil and gas companies and the U.S. Attorney for Utah, Brett L. Tolman. Here is an excerpt from his press release today:

“Today’s decision by the Interior Department to withdraw the BLM oil and gas leases in Utah does not impact our obligation to analyze the facts and law at the time of the alleged conduct in the DeChristopher case. The decision to withdraw the leases does not wipe the slate clean.  We are obligated to enforce the law, a responsibility we take very seriously.  As we do with every case referred to our office, we will continue to carefully review the facts in this case and, if appropriate, present it to a grand jury.  Because it is an ongoing criminal investigation, we will not be making further comment.”

So, even though the auction was illegitimate to begin with, DeChristopher is the one who is still on the hook for delaying it. That’s American justice for you. The person with the least amount of power and influence will inevitably get stuck with the bill.

It’s still a great day, and if you have a chance, stop by www.peacefuluprising.org and tell Tim thanks.

A little over two years ago, I returned from a tour in Iraq and walked the length of Utah to call for a peaceful and responsible withdrawal. When I started, I considered my home state the reddest, most hawkish, war-loving state in the nation. My 500-mile trek for peace, however, changed my mind. I met so many good people who supported the war only out of an abused sense of loyalty and patriotism, and I met so many more who had seen through the lies and violence and were outraged.

I ended my walk convinced that I was wrong about Utah. Surrounded by a group of amazing peace-loving people who had followed me out in the desert to the Arizona border, I said, “I’ve never been prouder to be a Utahan.” And I meant it.

Obviously, not everybody knows Utah as well as I do. The Blackwater mercenaries from Iraq who killed 17 innocent Iraqis last year, turned themselves in at a federal court in Utah today because they thought it was their best bet for a sympathetic jury. This is how the New York Times put it:

“Mark Hulkower, a lawyer for one of the defendants, said the men surrendered in Utah, a relatively conservative, pro-military area, because they hoped to find a jury pool where ‘people are more sympathetic to the experiences of coming under enemy fire.’”

For those of you unfamiliar with Blackwater, watch this mini-documentary from the Daily Show:

Great. Utah has such a poor reputation that trigger happy mercenaries feel like Utahans will understand them the best. George Bush thought that a few months ago when he visited here with Mitt Romney, but we showed him otherwise. Thousands turned out to protest a president who has left a legacy of torture and war crimes.

I think it’s time to mount another protest and show the world that Utah will not be sympathetic to those who carried out Bush’s illegal policies for cold hard cash. If you can’t tell, I don’t feel any sort of connection to the Blackwater mercenaries, even though I also participated in the illegal war in Iraq.

While I deeply regret the entire tragedy of the war and my own role most bitterly, I can at least honestly say that I was trying to serve my country. The Blackwater mercenaries can’t say that, and any jury that tries them can’t forget that.

One of my buddies from Iraq, Spencer Case, studies just war theory. He told me that there are two sorts of ethical standards or scopes when it comes to war: jus ad bellum, which deals with the justification to go to war, and jus in bello, which deals with the actions of the individual combatants in a given conflict.

Bush failed when it came to jus ad bellum and the Blackwater guards failed when it came to jus in bello. While I would like to see mercy for all, I have to demand justice for the victims. Seventeen people are dead, the Blackwater mercenaries killed them, that much is not in doubt. The question is, how much blame will we, as a society, attribute to the circumstances and how much blame will we put upon the shoulders of the individuals. I’m glad I don’t have to be making those decisions.

I’m offended and embarrassed that mercenaries who gunned down innocent people when they posed no threat, think that Utahans will look kindly upon them. When I was serving in Korea, the status of forces agreement stated that U.S. service members would be tried in South Korea for major offenses. I don’t see why Blackwater mercs should be treated any better for crimes committed in Iraq. Let them have their trial there.