Antiwar Soldier Arrested in Iraq

Leonard Clark, who is currently serving as a member of the 860th MP Company of the Arizona National Guard patrolling the streets of Baghdad, has been arrested. Clark is a vocal opponent of the Iraq war, and this is clearly retaliation for expressing his views. Here’s the text of an e-mail from one of his fellow soldiers:

“I’ve just learned today that Leonard Clark was arrested for campaigning for the Senate! Well, it looks as if they could not muzzle him according to military law (the attorney said he had a right to speak his opinion), so they found another excuse! Apparently they can arrest him for campaigning for office. There’s just one thing wrong with that—Leonard Clark had not actually campaigned in the sense that we recognize campaigning (raising funds, soliciting campaign workers, etc.) All he has said is that he opposes the reasons for being in Iraq because he is there to see the truth and that he hopes he makes it back so he can run against Kyl. This is NOT in my view an actual campaign at this point. His papers have not even yet been filed! So how can he be accused of campaigning and arrested under this outrageous pretext? This is so shameful we should all be furious enough to write to as many government officials as we feel can help and copy as much media as possible!”

The next time some neocon fool writes me and says: “Our troops in Iraq are fighting so that morons like you can express your traitorous views” I’m going to refer them to Guardsman Clark.

This is a perfect story for the supposedly “liberal” media — so where the heck are they?

Support our troops — free Leonard Clark!

UPDATE: One of the great things about this blog is that I get responses from my readers pretty quickly, sometimes minutes after posting. Here’s one:

“I first learned about Leonard Clark’s arrest listening to Thom Hartmann’s radio program today and then googled and located your posting.

I called my Congresswoman (Zoe Lofgren) and 2 Senators (Boxer and Feinstein) and asked that they look into this outrage. The people that I spoke with were not aware of Clark nor his arrest. Lofgren’s office sounded intent on following up and I believe Boxer’s office will as well. As usual, I hold out no hope that Feinstein will do the right thing. Also, I called the San Jose Mercury News and left a voice mail message for the national news desk with a plea that the paper investigate and cover the story.”

Ok, folks, let’s follow this reader’s good example and get on those phones! What’s up with arrest Leonard Clark?