The Left's ideas of "free speech" are disturbing and wholly self-serving.
Men and women pretending to be Red Cross officials have been calling families of troops deployed in Iraq, falsely telling them their loved ones were killed or are missing in action. "I'm astounded someone could be so cruel," said Sue Richter, a spokeswoman for the American Red Cross, which has set up a toll-free hot line (888/309-9679) for people to report such incidents. A spokesman for Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps base in San Diego, said he knows some families at that base have been victimized by these "absolutely false" phone calls. "We have a crisis response center here, where families of [deployed] Marines can call to get information. The crisis response center started getting a few calls from some very distraught wives, who had been telephoned by people who identified themselves as Red Cross representatives and who told them their husbands had been killed," said the spokesman, 1st Lt. Dan Rawson.
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"If possible, avoid wearing of the uniform when dining in public places." - from a "Protective Measures Awareness" notice sent to San Antonio's U.S. Army personnel by Maj. Gen. Darrel R. Porr on Friday. April 11, 2003, will be remembered as one of the saddest dates in Alamo City history. Because of recent instances of harassment of uniformed personnel, Porr, the commanding general at Fort Sam Houston, felt compelled to warn the men and women who serve under him to use caution when traveling, shopping and dining in San Antonio.
"Two separate incidents against military personnel have occurred," Porr reported. "In the first incident, two males on the city's Northeast Side made threatening gestures and pounded on the car window of a drill sergeant and his spouse while they were on their way home. The second incident involved two sailors, in uniform, who were accosted by several males who said, 'You'd better not go to war,' as they departed a River Walk restaurant."
(I see that the Riverwalk situation did have a happy ending)
One unofficial source I talked to said he had seen the police report of the incident on the River Walk, and he provided this description of the confrontation: "Some Marines who were nearby saw what was happening and went to the sailors' aid. The matter was then taken care of by combined military action."
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Actor Tim Robbins pleaded with listeners at the National Press Club yesterday to "defy the intimidation that is visited upon us daily in the name of national security and warped notions of patriotism" after calling some members of the press "Aussie gossip rags" and "talk-radio patriots." Mr. Robbins took special aim at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, whose president canceled his appearance at an April 26 anniversary fete in Cooperstown, N.Y., for the 1988 movie "Bull Durham" because of antiwar remarks made by him and his live-in partner, actress Susan Sarandon.
Mr. Robbins dodged a question about news reports accusing him of physically threatening a Washington Post columnist at a post-Academy Awards party last month. The Post reporter had interviewed Miss Sarandon's mother, a Republican who said the couple had "brainwashed" her grandson about the war. In his speech yesterday, Mr. Robbins called the writer a "sadistic creep."
Posted by Alan at April 19, 2003 09:28 AM