ARMY IMPRISONS SOLDIER FOR SINGING AGAINST STOP-LOSS POLICY

Pultitzer-Prize winning reporter Dahr Jamail reports on how the Army has imprisoned a soldier who sang against the "Stop-Loss" policy used by the Army. Read story here:

Army Imprisons Soldier for Singing Against Stop-Loss Policy
Friday 08 January 2010
by: Dahr Jamail, t r u t h o u t Report

http://www.truthout.org/article/army-imprisons-soldier-singing-against-stop-loss-policy

(Photo: Courage to Resist; Edited: Lance Page / t r u t h o u t)

Army Specialist and Iraq war veteran Marc Hall was incarcerated by the US Army on December 11, 2009, in Liberty County Jail, Georgia, for recording a song that expresses his anger over the Army's stop-loss policy.

Stop-loss is a policy that allows the Army to keep soldiers active beyond the end of their signed contracts. According to the Pentagon, more than 120,000 soldiers have been affected by stop-loss since 2001, and currently 13,000 soldiers are serving under stop-loss orders.

Hall, (aka hip hop artist Marc Watercus), who is in the Army's 3rd Infantry Division, was placed in Liberty County Jail for the song (click here to listen to "Stop-Loss," by Marc Watercus), in which he angrily denounces the continuing policy that has barred him from exiting the military.

Military service members do not completely give up their rights to free speech, particularly not when they are doing so artistically while off duty, as was the case with Hall. He is charged under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which covers "all disorders and neglects to the prejudice of good order and discipline" and "all conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the armed forces." The military is claiming that he "communicated a threat" with his song. Hall mailed a copy of the song to the Pentagon after the Army unilaterally extended his contract for a second Iraq deployment.

Read more here: http://www.truthout.org/article/army-imprisons-soldier-singing-against-stop-loss-policy