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GUESTS: Jabbar McGruder, co-chair of the Board of Directors, and LA Chapter President of IVAW, Jane Song, member of IVAW

If you do a news search online for the words “Winter Soldier,” the results include several blogs and news stories by independent media, as well as international coverage from Italy to the Philippines. But absolutely nothing in the US mainstream media. This past weekend, commemorating the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war, hundreds of veterans from various American wars gathered in Washington DC to speak out on US atrocities at the Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan Investigations. Listeners tuned in by the thousands on Pacifica stations and online at ivaw.org to hear honest and horrific eye-witness accounts from the mouths of soldiers themselves. But Americans at large were denied the news of this important gathering. The nearly air-tight media blackout is astonishing given that Winter Soldier 2008 is modeled on the 1971 Winter Soldier hearings during the Vietnam War which led to a national dialog about that war and its eventual end. Despite mainstream rhetoric of supporting US troops, Americans remained ignorant of what the troops themselves are actually saying.

For more information, and to view and hear the Winter Soldier 2008 hearings, visit www.ivaw.org.