Leonard Clark Watch

Leonard Clark, an AZ National Guardsman stationed in Iraq has been arrested. Details are varied so I encourage you to access the sources yourself to draw your own conclusions, but it appears the arrest is for vocally protesting the war.

Leonard's site, which can be accessed by the Leonard Clark link under Blogs From Iraq, has been scrubbed by his friend Kevin Spidel to take the heat off Leonard for awhile. Kevin assures me that he has backed up the site contents so for now, while unaccessable to us, the emails Leonard created regarding his experiences and opinions of the Iraqi war are not lost.

More about Leonard can be found here, here and on Kevin Spidel's blog.

Kevin tells me calls are flooding John McCain's office and he and his staff are aware of the situation. Further, area newspapers have picked up on it and will be covering the story.

I ask that you all check out Kevin's site and blog to stay abreast of the situation and if you can give some time to the action items he suggests, please do.

Also be aware that there are other miltary bloggers out there--some can be found among my links--that may be under scrutiny as well. Let's keep as many eyes on them and this development as possible and not let these guys 'disappear'....

[UPDATE 7-12-05] Eric Alterman has posted a wonderful, lengthy email from Steven D., a friend and supporter of Leonard's (it is under Correspondence Corner, fifth down). If you don't have time to go there I have provided the links to material here, here and here that Leonard, before he was arrested, had asked Steven disseminate and are included in the email to Alterman

[UPDATE 7-14-05] According to Kevin Spidel:

I have made no comments to the media personally. All the facts are finally coming it. It appears Leonard was never “arrested” only investigated. However his voicemails to his family made it very clear that in his eyes, he felt he was arrested. He has been released, and I have yet to hear directly from him.

--snip--

I am getting varied “facts” from all sides. Until more is known, I can no longer speak on this matter. Leonard has the backend access to the blog, and should he want/can post, I am sure he will. I hope you all understand.

[UPDATE 8-03-05] From Kevin Spidel's blog:

The Press on Leonard Clark
Kevin posted in War and Peace, Friends on August 2nd, 2005

Folks have been following the Leonard Clark story. For those who have not, click here to see cross posts on the internet: Google

He has been gagged by order of the Army, demoted, and fined for speaking truth to power.

Note all of his comments are archived for viewing in court at a later date, but his friends have gone over in detail all of his prior posts… there was NO sensitive data given. All ambigious with no specific details. But very outspoken on the war.

Because he has been gagg’ed he can not defend his reputation, and it is being smeared now by an AP wire that was posted on www.drudgereport.com. So all the right wingers are going there to fill the blog with hate speech against a liberal soldier.

The AP story went far and wide: here is the story.

You can still see the link on Drudge now…

he does read this blog still and needs your love and support. He is fearful of his family and what they are doing to his name… all while still following orders.

Please… if you ahve a few seconds… go to http://www.leonardclark.com/blog and send him your positive thoughts. This is how you can support a fellow believer and defender of the truth.

Thanks!

Kevin Spidel
the site admin of www.leonardclark.com