Following are the Washington, D.C. office phone numbers of Senators who are members of the Senate Appropriations Committee. Click on “continue reading” for the complete list with Washington, D.C. office phone numbers.

U.S. Army Sergeant Kevin Benderman Steps Up To The Plate, Conscientious Objector Status Pending

By Robert S. Finnegan
Managing Editor
Southeast Asia News

The ongoing saga of Sergeant Kevin Benderman’s denial regarding the legitimacy of war and his refusal to participate in it has now crystallized into a war of words and legalities, pitting his beliefs and first-hand battlefield knowledge against an action by the U.S. Government and Army prosecutors who are charging him with desertion for choosing to follow his conscience, in a war declared illegal by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Benderman is scheduled to stand trial before a General Courts-Martial at Ft. Stewart on May 11 on counts of desertion and missing a unit movement.

Benderman’s wife, Monica says that she is having a hard time expressing her feelings at this point. “Our lives right now have been put on hold by this issue. My husband is baring his soul. I don’t know what more proof these people need, something so simple, so basic, and they do not appear to have a clue.”

Fallujah, Iraq (photo: CPT)

DAHR JAMAIL spent eight months working as an independent journalist in Iraq. As one of the few journalists not “embedded” with U.S. forces, his reports earned a reputation for being an uncompromising look at life under occupation.

Currently, Jamail is back in the U.S. on a speaking tour that will take him to several West Coast cities. He spoke to Socialist Worker’s Eric Ruder about the destruction unleashed on Iraq by the U.S. during two years of occupation.

Interview by Eric Ruder
Socialist Worker