Watch Your Back, My Friends

Written by: Damon Getsman on Jun 25, 2007 12:08 PM EDT

Many of you have seen the letter that I wrote to Senator Kent Conrad's office regarding a movement to investigate the Bush administration regarding falsified information being used as evidence to support the invasion of Iraq.  Since this time I have suffered numerous personal consequences as a result of that correspondence being available on the internet.   I am currently being discharged from the North Dakota Army National Guard.  The reason for this is officially quoted as being 'fraudulent enlistment'.  It's kind of funny that this incident happened only days after I was visited by a secret service agent from the Fargo, ND office.

The reason for the secret service investigation into my character was cited as a member of my platoon alleging that I made statements against the president.  Immediately after I was banned from all military posts and informed that if I were to show up that the authorities would be called.  I've been told by my JAG attorney that I am currently considered a threat to national security.

 All of my efforts to fight this investigative process and to return my membership in the National Guard to good standing have failed.  I'm viewed as an outsider by my military unit; between that and health issues I'm now looking at ending up homeless thanks to my political activism.

I hope that all of you are careful in your efforts to pursue a government with integrity and accountability within this country.  Our constitional rights to free speech are guaranteed, but that hardly means anything when the federal government holds a new 4th branch (the department of homeland security-- with the Secret Service at its head) that is hardly accountable to the normal system of checks and balances in this country.  I wish you all the best, and I certainly hope that nothing that has happened to me happens to any of you.  I've lost everything that I cared about due to this.  Vague labels such as 'conspiracy theorist' have made it easy for me to be discounted as a black sheep before those in authority even get a chance to hear my arguments.

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