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Soldier Faces Iraq Court Martial for Writing Angry Hip Hop Song About Stop-Loss
Any day now, Marc Hall -- a Fort Stewart soldier and Hip Hop artist -- will be whisked off to Iraq for a military Court Martial, out of reach of the public eye and his own civilian defense lawyers. His crime: writing an angry hip hop song about stop-loss.
President Obama has publicly pledged to phase out stop-loss, the practice of involuntarily extending soldiers' contracts. However, with two ongoing wars, the practice is still being used to fill the ranks, with 13,000 soldiers currently serving involuntary extensions of their contracts.
Hall, who had already served a tour in Iraq, learned this summer that he had been stop-lossed and would face redeployment. Self-described as the "first Hip Hop President of the World," Hall wrote a hip hop song in July condemning the military's policy of stop-loss and mailed it to the Pentagon. Meanwhile, he began expressing objections to his command about going on another deployment that would prolong his contract that had been set to expire later this month.
On December 12th, Hall was thrown in jail by his command, on the pretext that the song he had written is considered a threat, and he is facing charges under Article 134 of the UCMJ, which covers communication threats. "The charges are connected to song lyrics allegedly written by Spc. Hall that allege deadly threats against his chain of command and fellow Soldiers, specifically shooting them," reads a statement released the by the Fort Stewart Public Affairs Office. "I explained to [my first sergeant] that the hardcore rap song was a free expression of how people feel about the Army and its stop-loss policy. I explained that the song was neither a physical threat nor any threat whatsoever. I told him it was just hip-hop," explained Hall, in response to the charges.
Hall's song can be found here: http://www.couragetoresist.
"Marc has never been a violent person. He never meant any harm," said his mother, Brenda McElveen. "He was frustrated because he was supposed to get out and went to chain of command and said he could not stand another deployment at that time. They say he is communicating a threat in a song. That music is a way that a lot of young kids who are black express themselves these days." Hall had been traumatized by his previous deployment, and his mother says he is unfit for another one. "Marc saw a lot over there that he did not anticipate seeing. I think it was a bit much for him. I think it took a toll on him mentally. When he came back, he wasn't himself. He wasn't like he usually was. He was so glad to be home, so glad that it was over with. But then they turned around and told him he had to go back. It's hard for all of us. It just does something to you." Hall's supporters say that the song was just a pretext to arrest Hall for his objection to deployment and likely refusal. He was jailed five months after mailing the CD that is now being cited as proof of the threat he posed, and only after repeatedly objecting to his imminent deployment. "It was only after he expressed some reservations about being deployed that they even began prosecution. From what I know about it, they have really retaliated for his opposition to the war, as opposed to being anything that has to do with real fear that he was somehow going to go around killing these people," said David Gespass, a member of the National Lawyers Guild and founding member of the Military Law Task Force. The Army's latest decision to deploy Hall to Kuwait in the next few days is an unusual twist in a case that has already attracted widespread criticism from GI rights lawyers. Once in Kuwait, Hall will be driven into Iraq to meet up with his is old unit to be placed in confinement and court martialed there Kevin Larson of Fort Stewart Public Affairs says that the trial will be held in the Middle East because that is where important witnesses are. "It makes sense from the standpoint of witnesses. Most of the witnesses are deployed," he says. Larson did not know how common it is to fly soldiers across the world for a court martial. Yet, GI lawyers say that this move is a draconian attempt to prevent Hall from having a fair trial and to ensure that the process is punishment in itself, on top of the formal punishment he will be dealt through military court. "They are sending him to Iraq just to punish him," says Jim Klimaski, an NLG lawyer who has been advising Marc Hall. "Not that they need to do that to conduct a court martial. They are trying to find any which way to inflict punishment on Marc." The Kuwait court martial will make it near impossible for Hall to have a civilian lawyer present. Hall's supporters also say that it is highly unlikely that his current military lawyer will be available to deploy at a moment's notice. "He will get a new military lawyer who is probably very busy and won't have time to build a proper defense," says Klimaski. "They are trying to stack the deck. It is illegal to ship him to Iraq or Kuwait, but who is going to contest it? You would have to go to Iraq to contest it. They know that they are not going to have a civilian lawyer out there. They are just trying to punish him without due process." As President Obama calls for 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan, bringing military presence to over 100,000 in that country, with over 124,000 troops still stationed in Iraq, Hall's supporters suggest that he is being used as an example to warn other troops against speaking out. "They are doing this because the war is going to go on forever. They have to establish the ground rules and the control," says Klimaski. "Who wants to go back, time and again, to a war zone? You are going to have people in the military who start resisting against what they are being told to do." "Hall already went to Iraq once. He said he was done. He wanted to go home."
"The Army has transferred Spc. Hall to another command, one stationed on the other side of the world in a combat zone, for the sole purposed of denying him a fair and public trial stateside," says Jeff Paterson, Project Director of Courage to Resist, a GI resistance support organization that has been active in supporting Hall. "Spc. Hall is facing politically charged accusations that could focus public attention to the issues of stop-loss, the limits of free speech and artistic expression, and objections to the Iraq War."
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24 Comments so far
Show All-"His crime: writing an angry hip hop song about stop-loss"
Too bad he isn't a corporation with free speech rights.
Gosh, Obama is just as creative with the "law" in America as Bush was, tip of the hat to him. Yeah ship him away from the scene of the crime, in his own country, to the other side of the world, for "trial"...makes perfect sense.
I also find amusing the new American habbit of charging single mothers in the army who refuse to abandon their infants. Obama thinks they should leave their babies and join in the important mission of garrisoning the enduring occupation in Iraq that Obama says will soon end,...any day now. After all, if more soldiers don't go to Iraq, how will Obama keep his promise to bring the troops home?
My first thought was that he should incorporate to protect his free speech.
Joe
Is the crime here exercising free speech rights in the military where there has never been any pretense such rights exist? This soldier knew this and forged ahead anyway. Duh.
Kind of hard to be sympathetic. Rights are dissolving everywhere and this guy decides to make a point where? In the military? Not too bright. Good luck with your case, soldier.
It does not seem right to label someone who has stood up to authority the way this guy did as being "not too bright." Isn't the whole country keeping their mouths shut for fear of some sort of reprisal from some scary entity? Bunch of smart people in that USA.....
Depends on your pov I suppose. I think he's done quite the smart thing really, by writing a song, he'll get the royalties from that song being played. He's going to have tons of publicity for a future singing career, and he's not likely to again serve as a soldier in Iraq. He'll hopefully be sent to jail for a few months and tossed out of the forces.
He certainly knew what the reaction from the officers would be to his composition. Of that there's no doubt in my mind.
As he's been charged in the military, he's in the position of being considered guilty until he proves his innocence. (at least if the us military courts are anything like the Canadian ones)
Former O/S Cdn Forces.
It is difficult to accept the point of view of one who may have been brainwashed during military training. Fall in line!
Well of course I was brainwashed in training. What do you think soldiers go thru basic for? It's not just about physical fitness. But the brainwashing breaks down over time, I left the military over 20 years ago. And a good part of the reason that I left was that I was sick of the bs that is shoveled there, the wash didn't work so well... Moreover, I don't think the lad who wrote the song has had a very good job of brainwashing done either. If he had been properly brainwashed he'd not have written an anti-stoploss rap while still in uniform. Of course if you want to see how brainwashing is really done, you have to look to the civvie side of things, religious cults do a much better job of brainwashing than the military does.
If you've read my other posts and thoughts, I don't think you'll find much in the way of a 'militaristic' sort of posting history. If anything you'll find someone who writes in opposition to using military force. Of course that could be some sort of cunning plan to trick you into doing something nefarious, somehow... Exactly how I'd go about doing that is something I'd have to leave up to someone who can think up a much better conspiracy theory than I've ever done. (grin)
Ok, I trust you a little bit more now but It would be extra difficult to trust an indoctrinated American soldier. In the US the military is a religious cult complete with regular prayer meetings in the pentagon and bible verses stamped on gun sights. There was once a time when I thought that if my country really needed me I would go into war but the Americans rushing into Iraq changed all that. I will not participate in utter mindlessness brought on by tough guys for God who are not embarrassed to flaunt their understanding of sandbox diplomacy.
Soldiers may have been duped, or may have chosen wrongly out of some dismal life options, but every time one wakes up it is good for all soldiers and good for the world. He deserves our support. Support our troop!!
Joe
You make a point where you are. You only get there from where you've been.
I do not know what happened to you that you cannot empathize with someone who changes his mind after a mistake. But you yourself might want to ask.
Stop Loss is the back-door draft that keeps volunteers in the military unvolunarily. This soldier is just speaking out in against this measure. More soldiers need to speak out against these two (or more?) never ending wars the way the Viet Nam soldiers spoke out against that war.
Everyone should learn to rap.
'Cause today's America is full of crap.
You join the army to do your bit
You go wherever the army says you fit
You do your time in peace and war
When it's time to get out the army wants more
Yeah, when it comes time to end your bit
You learn your army's word doesn't mean shit.
RJW
AT LAST! An anti war song! After all these years! Oh... it's just complaining. Hm. Well at least it SCARED THE MILITARY!!! Hey you guys with the cluster bombs, and nukes and drones and guns and tanks and body armor... BOO!
Hey at least you KNOW its fascim, when they go after artists.
I just wish, they would write me a real ANTI war song, this poor kid is just stupid for trusting the armed forces to do anything but screw him to the wall, and leave him there .
How do these kids keep falling for the same shit generation after generation??
If his ditty had been a country song, I bet the reaction would have been a lot less drastic.
Kidnapping,rape,torture and murder all go unpunished yet writing a song is worthy of punishment
What a topsy turvy world we live in
Did you hear about the case of Col Russell Wiliams yet? I doubt that Williams would have held someone in his command's feet to the fire for the types of infractions you noted above. I wonder if William's trial will be prorogued.
"While police scour cold cases for any links to Col. Russell Williams, the base commander accused of murdering two Eastern Ontario women and sexually assaulting two others, details of what investigators know about the suspect are starting to leak out."
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20100210/soldier_wednesday_100210/20100210?hub=TopStoriesV2
Hope that Marc Hall sneaks across the border. Canada won't keep him but if he can delay getting kicked out long enough then the wars will be over. Hall seems to be worried about his own conduct if he returns because he has been traumatized by his last tours - which is probably one reason the military is not quick to diagnose PTSD or borderline PTSD which can turn into the full thing if a person is not allowed to say "when".
Note that Williams is not being sent to Afghanistan to face trial.
The closest thing to "deadly threats against his chain of command and fellow soldiers" that I heard in the lyrics of Spc. Hall's rap song was a single reference near its end to how people in the uppermost levels of the Pentagon who cynically use stop loss as a back door draft to extend Army enlistments indefinitely could some day find themselves "up against the wall", "as the bodies hit the floor....."
Fee, fie, foe, fum,
I smell the blood of an Englishman,
If he's alive or if he's dead,
I'll crush his bones to make my bread.
Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming,
We're finally on our own,
This summer I hear they're coming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it.
Soldiers are cutting us down.
Shoulda been done long ago.....
Communication of a threat?
Up against the wall, redneck muthas!
Muthas who have learned your sons so well.
I'm thirty four and drinkin' in a honky tonk saloon,
Kickin' hippies' asses and raising hell.
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Let the bodies hit the floor!
Any of that sound familiar?
This is what is called freedom of speech, raw artistic expression with an edge.
It may not be your cup of tea depending on your age, lifestyle, taste in musical listening pleasure, or type of nightspot you occasionally frequent, but in the big picture of nursery rhymes, country & western songs, rap, and heavy metal lyrics all across the current multicultural hi-hop spectrum, what Hall communicates to listeners is comparatively mild stuff as an exhortation towards violence.
Active duty soldiers in the United States military have First Amendment rights, too.
Clearly, this is nothing but a politically motivated prosecution, and a blatant abuse of the court martial provisions of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, even with the Ft. Hood shootings as backdrop.
FTA, as we used to say.
Bill from Saginaw
Marian Cole
What happened to Marc Hall's First Amendment Rights? What a total disgrace this action is. Where is his Representation in the US Congress? Should I still have hope that his Representative might lend a hand here and stop this obsenity?
I think you'll find, soldiers have no first amendment rights.
Or at the least, limited. A soldier cannot, while in service,
protest, speak out against the president, etc. etc.
They are not considered full citizens in many ways. I remember
hearing that if a soldier in the army (at least back in the 70's)
laid out in the sun and got sunburned, the army could court martial
for "destruction of US property"..
Gee whiz, times sure do change! I don't remember Staff Sgt. Barry Sadler being hassled like this when he wrote "The Ballad of the Green Berets".
ยท Yr Obd't Servant
Marc should be a Pete Seeger Award.
One less soldier to go psycho and shoot at his mates.
One less man who believes in the current national hates.
Someone who dares to object when their rights are trampled.
In the old days were shot or strung up and the body exampled.
Most certainly the army makes up all the rules so all rights a soldier forgo.
If someone makes a fuss under them, a prison term and hard legal books they throw.
At least now one protestor will not need to go back to another murdering tour of duty.
One more honest person is unable to help rich corporations pillage a nation for booty.
Everyone note well and learn the attitudes of this corrupt nation to limit disobedience,
After signing up with such a devil, a body and soul is forever taken to be at their convenience.
No freedoms can pretend to exist, in such a cruel and greed tarnished land.
If all those who try to disagree, instead are forever silenced or made to stick their head in the sand.
The crimes of the former supreme nation have gotten so bad,
There is no more hope for victory or redemption to be had.
The only real option for bodies and souls at war but still sane,
Is to go back home and say the war has ended, and for me never again.
Isn't it nice how the powers that be and their minions use subtle pieces of law to deny what is truly right. Stop loss is a abrogation of a contract. No and if or buts. But the U.S. government sees fit to re-write that contract for the good of the service. The crime, to protest, was committed in the U.S.A., why is he remanded to another jurisdiction for trial.
Wall Street, on the other hand, claimed huge bonuses for their employees using the sancticy of contracts to defend their position. What the hell is wrong with this picture.
Send your Congressman a note; along with Mr. Halls'.
Who would Mr. Hall's congressman be? Might be worth dropping them a note. What about setting up a web site to raise money for his defense? any takers?