Few people have heard of the Battle of Baghdad. They might remember Mohammad Saeed al-Sahhaf, Iraq’s information minister, warning of a surprise awaiting U.S. troops if they attacked Saddam International Airport. Later, al-Sahhaf claimed that the Iraqi Republican Guard had slaughtered U.S. troops and was in control of the entire airport. His claims, according to one intelligence officer, were true, but were countered by a US military-media campaign of evasions and distortions which switched the subject from the airport to Private Jessica Lynch and ridiculed al-Sahhaf as “Baghdad Bob.”
What came to be called the Battle of Baghdad Cover-Up (BOBCUP), was an illegal deception of the American people, as well as a desecration of the military men who had fought and died only to be pushed into the memory hole by Big Brother Bush. Captain Eric H. May, a former U.S. Army intelligence and public affairs officer, responded by investigating and confirming BOBCUP, which he reported to an Army Inspector General and to a corporate media that were both cowed and complicit. Realizing that the entire US establishment was dedicated to waging a criminal global war and erecting an oppressive homeland state, Capt. May honored his military oath “to protect and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.” He formed and assumed command of a cyber intelligence group, which he named Ghost Troop to honor the unacknowledged ghosts from the Battle of Baghdad. Before long the unit swelled to several hundred members, including veterans of all services, as well as a former Assistant Secretary of the Navy and a U.S. ambassador.
Initially, Ghost Troop’s mission was to penetrate the propaganda of the corporate media, government, and military; and to provide essential information being withheld to the American people. Shortly after the Madrid bombing of 3/11, 2004, Capt. May and his chief officers determined that Madrid had been a “false flag” terrorist act carried out by the pro-war Spanish government in an attempt to turn the war weary Spanish people into hawks. They reasoned that the 9/11 attacks, which achieved the same purpose in the USA, were also false flag terrorism. Finally, they agreed that the U.S. government was routinely telling the public that there “was going to be another 9/11” because it meant to administer it. With grim humor, Ghost Troop began to refer to this future false flag as “9/11-2B.” Using their military and media savvy to frustrate the 9/11-2B false flag became their second mission, and consumed most of their efforts.
Those who know Capt. May well consider his unique mission of conscience to be the stuff of legend. The Lone Star Iconoclast in Central Texas has long demanded that Congress investigate his uncanny ability to warn the Internet about false flag dangers: he has forecast petrochemical refinery explosions in Southeast Texas, each of which may have been a foiled terror attack, six times. He exposed a US WMD team that had infiltrated the Texas City refinery area in February 2006. Publisher W. Leon Smith credits him with saving the Republic by his leadership of Ghost Troop to prevent 9/11-2B. (( “Captain Eric H. May Deserves Congressional Medal of Honor,” The Lone Star Iconoclast, 2 February 2010.))
There is a growing movement in the 9/11 “truth” and patriot movements to press for Congress to award him the nation’s highest military honor. Shortly after the publication of the Iconoclast editorial, Dr. James H. Fetzer, the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth and a close collaborator and friend of the captain’s gave voice to many with his glowing accolade: “This is a completely brilliant and fully justified recommendation, which I wholeheartedly support. I have not admired anyone during my life as much as I have Captain May. He is a superb analyst and remarkable human being.”
Capt. May was a vibrant, fit man — a martial arts expert — when he began to lead Ghost Troop. He was constantly under threat from the military, the FBI and various national police and intelligence agencies. He was mysteriously stricken with ALS, commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s disease, subsequent to his dissidence. Despite the advanced condition of the disease, Capt. May, now a paralyzed disabled veteran, was good enough to partake in the following interview. ((Introduction with assistance of Capt. May.))
Kim Petersen: I first became acquainted with you when you responded to Dissident Voice pulling an article on damning revelations about US military atrocities in Iraq made by a purported Army Ranger, Jesse Macbeth. However, Iraq Veterans Against the War disavowed backing Macbeth, and the veracity of Mr. Macbeth’s claims of service in the US Army were questioned. Lacking substantiation of Mr. Macbeth’s claims DV pulled the article. Other media outlets followed suit. You decried this as a “hideous failure of American journalism.” Do you still see Macbeth as a victim of “swiftboating”?
Captain May: In a word, yes. Jesse Macbeth is a perfect example of a crucial dissident voice who had both courage and a vital message. An Arab-American radio show host, Dr. Hesham Tillawi of Arab Voices asked me to review the Macbeth tape just before the swiftboat attacks began, and it seemed absolutely credible to me, a veteran of four decades of military service. Macbeth was specific in terminology, tactics and training. He was also specific about Middle East geography, lifestyle, habits and attitude. There had already been two local Arizona mainstream media stories about him — neither previously challenged — as a war veteran. He had already been drawing benefits from the Veterans Administration without difficulty, meaning that the military considered him much more than a training washout, the story with which they later attacked him.
When Iraq Veterans Against the War failed to support him, it was because an IVAW administrator, Amanda Braxton, a lifelong civilian, had been buffaloed by the best swiftboating attack since the presidential election of 2004. It was led by men whose records in special operations, propaganda and Republican war rallying made them seem more like mercenaries than media. When I interviewed Braxton, she admitted that she had been frightened into turning on Macbeth. Further, she mentioned that his IVAW cohorts had never doubted that he was a war veteran. This was the best evidence of all that he was on the level.
Given my familiarity with the military system, I made calls all the way to the top level of the Army requesting confirmation from the official record supporting swiftboater claims that Macbeth had never seen the war — and found that the Army was trying to dodge any comment about him. Yes, Macbeth was swiftboated because his message was that we were using SS-style tactics against Middle Eastern Muslims — something the Middle East is well aware of. The alternative media chickened out on a crucial story, allowing the mainstream media and political establishment to cover it up. I wrote an article about it before moving on to other critical stories:
“Updating a War Crime Witness: Jesse Macbeth,” Ghost Troop Archive, June 2006.
KP: I had heard about the Battle of Baghdad at the airport from my colleague BJ Sabri, where reportedly US troops had suffered many losses, but you are the first person I know to have reported about it online. You wrote that it was kept from public consciousness, “hidden under the distraction story of Private Jessica Lynch.” The Battle of Baghdad still has not emerged into public consciousness. Why do you think this is so?
Capt.: In Ghost Troop, we never left the cover-up unchallenged. In early April of 2007, as the fourth anniversary of the Battle of Baghdad approached, The Lone Star Iconoclast published an interview with me updating my research on the cover-up. A few days later Al Jazeera published an interview with Iraqi General Al-Rawi, who had commanded Saddam’s forces at the airport. A few weeks later the U.S. Congress held hearings about media and military failure to report the truth from Iraq and Afghanistan, especially in the cases of Pvt. Jessica Lynch and Cpl. Pat Tillman. I believe that Ghost Troop and the Iconoclast gave Al Jazeera and Congress the encouragement they needed to do as much as they did. I believe that the continuing cover-up by the mainstream and alternative media goes far to demonstrate that they are in large part controlled by the same pro-war establishment that has orchestrated everything from 9/11 to the present to turn the American dream of security into the Muslim nightmare of invasion.
BJ Sabri: There were many published emails that you wrote where you defend the right for information and to find out the truth, at least about the Battle of Baghdad; now, if that is the case, and since you were a material witness to history, and since many accounts confirm that the United States used a neutron bomb to the end the battle that cost the US military dearly, I ask you a very precise question: Did the United States use such a neutron bomb in Iraq?
Capt.: When the Battle of Baghdad occurred, I was at home in Texas, my active duty military days behind me, watching events on CNN. At that point I knew that something catastrophic had happened in Saddam International Airport, but I had no idea that it was something nuclear. Over the next couple of years I received many reports from both Arab and Western witnesses that we had used a neutron warhead. It wasn’t until I reached the anti-war Camp Casey outside George W. Bush’s Texas headquarters in Crawford in 2005 that I spoke with numerous witnesses together. They included Army and Marine veterans of the Battle of Baghdad, Arab witnesses and journalists. All their accounts, taken together, convinced me that the neutron warhead was employed. Gen. Al-Rawi confirmed the nuke in his Al Jazeera interview:
“US accused of using neutron bombs,” Al Jazeera, 4/9/2007.
BJ: You say, “War is just homicide on a national scale.” Homicide against whom: U.S. military personnel, who are the aggressors or the Iraq nation — military, and civilians — who were attacked without casus belli? Still, homicide sounds ordinary in these circumstances, why not use a precise term such as premeditated mass murder, in which both aggressors and aggressed suffered unnecessary death? In addition, whether homicide or mass murder, it seems that the criminals who planned and carried it out will go unpunished. Does this mean the United States government and military are above the law?
Capt.: I realize that my phrase “war is just homicide on a national scale” is cold-blooded, but it is a professional military man’s first premise in understanding or discussing the phenomenon. I accept your objection that I don’t offer human judgments as to who is involved in self-defense and in aggression, with its implication that such judgments must be made. I’ve been forthright elsewhere in my moral evaluation of the “Global War on Terror,” admitting that we Americans have been duped into war crime, and calling for punishment of our leaders:
“Hamdan vs. Rumsfeld: Geneva Conventions now, Nuremberg Principles later,” Al Jazeerah, 7/3/2006.
BJ: In your email, you write, “I am pleased to see that the anti-war is joining the infowar …” You sound like an anti-war activist. Are you really an anti-war military man? If you are anti-war, why did you take part in such war that you may have been privy to as being based on pretexts?
Capt.: I was no longer a serving soldier at the time of 9/11 or the ensuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. For the most part I accepted the official propaganda. It wasn’t until realizing the cover-up of the Battle of Baghdad that I became interested in analyzing the wars or the policies behind them. I was never an anti-war military man until after I examined the post-9/11 wars in the Middle East.
My comrade in the antiwar, former Marine Corps Major William B. Fox, wrote a well researched article about my intellectual and ethical awakening:
“Captain Courageous and the Quicksand War,” The Lone Star Iconoclast, 3/26/2008.
BJ: I read somewhere in the wealth of information you provided, how you imagined George W. Bush should articulate his message to the nation about the course of war. Because you put words in his mouth, you, nevertheless, injected your personal feelings about the imperialist wars “by American definition, patriotic.” What do you think now about the endless wars of what many experts contend is a Zionist-controlled United States government?
Capt.: You are referring to “Cavalrymen and Cowards,” which was a philippic I directed at Bush shortly after the Battle of Baghdad cover-up. At that point I still had no judgment about whether or not the war in Iraq was legal or illegal. I was chiding him for not having enough guts to admit facts. It’s likely that Bush himself read my words, since I interviewed with his team about becoming his speechwriter before he became president, when he was still the governor of Texas and we shared some acquaintances.
As far as those experts who consider the United States to be Golem, mindlessly carrying out proxy wars for Zionists, at this stage of my development I would call myself one of them. Until we awaken as a nation to Israel’s machinations and manipulations against our own interests, we are in great danger ourselves, and represent a great danger to the rest of the world.
KP: Nine/11 provided a pretext for the so-called War on Terror, and Ghost Troop has been vigilant in defending against another 9/11. Does an Obama government affect the need for such vigilance?
Capt.: Not in the least. In his first year in office, Obama has demonstrated conclusively that he is a puppet for the war cabal. He needs another 9/11-style event to re-energize the dictatorial Homeland and the imperial Global War, which are nothing more than euphemisms for “Vaterland” and “World War.”
In Ghost Troop we use an operational codename for this required next 9/11: We call it “9/11-2B” — the 9/11 that the establishment assures us is going “to be.” Just this month Obama’s intelligence officials were projecting 9/11-2B in 3 to 6 months. The way we look at it, that means this puppet president wants to set up such an attack before the Congressional elections of next fall. His recent emphasis on beefing up our cyber security is an indicator that 9/11-2B will entail an attack on the Internet, the sole remaining free media, and the greatest impediment to totalitarian rule of the United States.
BJ: Going back to the issue of how you think George W. Bush should articulate his message to the nation. You stated in your article “Philippic contra George W. Bush” that he should say, “We will not rest until the mission for which they gave their lives is accomplished. We will not stop until we have vanquished tyranny and terror abroad, and brought our heroes home. That will be our tribute to the fallen. God Bless America, Garry Owen, and goodnight.” To me, you kept George Bush’s essence, but just embellished the rhetoric. Can you explain?
Now, you put words in his mouth (meaning that you, in turn, articulated your own political vision and projected it into Bush’s mind). Since you injected personal feelings about U.S. imperialist war in Iraq “by America’s definition: patriotic,” what do you think now about the endless wars?
Capt.: In the philippic against Bush I attacked him as a lying coward, and to drive the point home I wrote the words that I would have written for him had I been his speechwriter at the time of the Battle of Baghdad — which I nearly was. I was writing rhetoric, putting the best face on the facts as I then believed them to be. Please bear in mind that I was writing a historic document here by slamming the most powerful man on earth at a time when he had shown himself to be tyrannical and murderous. People who write philippics — which can only earn the name “philippic” when published to a murderous tyrant — have good reason to worry that the bold act will cost them their lives, and I believe it nearly cost me mine. A couple of days after I wrote it, political dissidents in the U.S. and UK began to be assassinated, which was the topic of a recently published article about them and me:
“Captain Courageous Witnessed: Dr. Kelly Assassinated!,” Al Jazeerah, 12/10/2009.
BJ: Do you really think that these wars are about tyranny and terror? In wider sense, do you think it is about time that the American people stop following what their rulers incite them to do in the names of causes that actually do not exist except on a propagandistic level?
Capt.: I do think that these wars are about tyranny and terror: the tyranny and terror emerging from the efforts of Western psychopaths who have taken over the reins of power. They intend to do far worse deeds than they have done. The only way we can stop them is by doing what you suggest: awakening the American people to the perils of being misled by perfidious leaders and an evil establishment. I am proud to be, like you, among the dissident voices engaged in this historic struggle, in which we have transformed the Internet into the printing press of the New American Revolution.