Sen. Barbara Boxer’s Capitol Hill staff is stonewalling a request by military mother Beverly Perlson for a copy of a reported diplomatic letter provided by the California Democrat to the leftwing group Code Pink/Global Exchange in support of the delivery of $600,000 in cash and aid to the “other side” in Fallujah, Iraq in late 2004.
Perlson, whose son has served four tours in the war on terror, is founder of the pro-troops group The Band of Mothers.
After initially telling Perlson the letter could not be found, Boxer’s staff has given Perlson the run around. Since she first made her request by telephone last week, Perlson says she has been passed from one staffer who, after failing to return several phone calls, referred her to another staffer who has not returned repeated phone messages. The receptionist refuses to give an e-mail address to Perlson so she can send her request in writing.
The stonewalling by Boxer’s office is in stark contrast to California Rep. Henry Waxman’s office which promptly provided Perlson a copy of a similar letter by Waxman.
Boxer and Waxman are part of what has come to be known as the Fallujah Four. They were joined by fellow Democrats Dennis Kucinich of Ohio and Raul Grijalva of Arizona in providing diplomatic letters to Code Pink/Global Exchange according to a January 4, 2005 report by Islam Online. The article was mysteriously taken down last week.
The letters have become controversial because at the time of the delivery Code Pink/Global Exchange co-founder Medea Benjamin proclaimed the aid was going to families of the “other side” in Fallujah while U.S. Marines were clearing the city of al Qaeda and other Sunni terrorists.
Also, given Code Pink’s public stance supporting the ‘resistance’ in Iraq, the Fallujah Four are being criticized by veterans and military families for at best bad judgment and at worst, treason.
Publicly available statements by Code Pink and Global Exchange soliciting donations for ‘Fallujah aid’ included accusations against U.S. troops of mass murder of civilians and other war crimes in Fallujah. No mention was made in the appeals that Fallujah was being targeted because it had become the headquarters for al Qaeda in Iraq and was a city-wide car bomb factory that sent vehicle-borne explosives to Baghdad and other Iraqi cities that really did mass murder civilians.
An excerpt from Code Pink’s appeal:
While George Bush was on the campaign trail talking about moral values, his administration was busy preparing the assault on Fallujah that was launched immediately after the election. The US military leveled virtually the entire city, killed hundreds of desperate civilians, refused to let humanitarian aid workers into the city, and has now left refugees without food, water and medicines.
An excerpt from Global Exchange’s appeal:
When the US bombed a hospital in Falluja and seized another, leveled virtually the entire city, killed hundreds of desperate civilians, refused to let humanitarian aid workers into the city, and left an estimated 50,000 civilians without water, electricity and food, we here at Global Exchange knew we had to do something–FAST–because Falluja is just one terrifying example of the escalating devastation in Iraq.
So we have put together a delegation of parents who lost loved ones in Iraq and on 9/11, as well as health care workers, to take a shipment of humanitarian aid to the people of Iraq. This delegation will take desperately needed medical supplies to the Iraqi/Jordanian border, where we will meet with Iraqi humanitarian aid organizations that will take the supplies to Falluja and to those in the most need. (bold added)
…PS: Remember, your donation is tax-deductible. It is one way to transfer money from war to money for health, peace and justice.
Sponsored by: Global Exchange, CODEPINK, Voices in the Wilderness, and Physicians for Social Responsibility.
It was obvious at the time to any astute observer that Code Pink/Global Exchange intended to throw a life preserver to the insurgency by delivering cash and aid to Fallujah, helping insurgent family members in refugee camps and by pumping out pro-terrorist propaganda. Any doubt was cleared when Benjamin proclaimed the aid was for the “other side.”
Code Pink published a report after delivering the aid that accused U.S. troops of murdering thousands of civilians in Fallujah:
During our week-long exchange with Iraqis, we heard allegations of US atrocities that made Abu Graib seem like childish pranks: a woman raped in full view of other prisoners, who is now seeking permission from religious leaders to kill herself; a seven-year-old girl, left momentarily in the car while her father stopped at the market, screaming and clawing at the window while a US tank crushed the vehicle; a mother watching in horror as the troops raided her home in the middle of the night, shot her son in the chest and then stomped on him as he bled to death. In Fallujah alone, thousands of civilians were killed in one brutal week. We wept together as we saw gruesome pictures of bodies burned beyond recognition, possibly from the use of napalm, and limbs eaten by dogs because anyone trying to retrieve the dead would be shot. A young Iraqi woman who risked her life taking our humanitarian aid to those too old and infirm to flee was still traumatized by the devastation she witnessed.
A spokeswoman for Waxman told Perlson in 2007 that the Congressman “(does) not know” whether his letter was used to aid the terrorists in Iraq but that it was not his intention to do so.
Last week Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) called Boxer the most “anti-defense Senator” in the Senate.
Perlson says she has not given up trying to get a copy of Boxer’s letter. One other effort to obtain the letter from Boxer has met with similar stonewalling.
President Barack Obama is scheduled to headline a campaign rally and fundraiser for Boxer at USC on October 22nd. They will reportedly be joined at the rally by Jerry Brown.
All three Democrats have a common Code Pink connection: Code Pink co-founder Jodie Evans has served as a fundraiser for both Obama and Brown, and has donated thousands of dollars to Boxer’s reelection campaign. Jodie Evans also participated in ‘Fallujah aid.’