LOTS OF NEWS

• Two members from South Korean Veterans For Peace arrived in Jeju Island today to meet their counterparts from the U.S. who had been turned away yesterday. So the Korean VFP members held a news conference to blast their government for their treatment of their guests. “This is gratitude. I served in Korea with the 2nd Infantry Division defending the people from North Korea, I come back to again defend the people [of Gangjeong] and I am pushed off into no-man's-land,” said Elliott Adams from New York.
• Angie Zelter (UK) was able to return to Gangjeong village today but has to leave the country by March 22. Beji Monnet (France) was immediately sent to Hong Kong by the reactionary South Korean government. (I would not be surprised to hear that Benji makes his way from Hong Kong to Gureombi on a kayak.)
  
• Sung-Hee Choi reports that, "Yang Yoon-Mo is told to stop the fast as of March 15, his 38th day. As his health has become deteriorated, he stopped his hunger strike and is beginning to feed himself with water gruel. He had stopped even water and bits of salts since the Navy’s enforcement of the blast on the Gureombi. But his health was very fragile since more than 70 days’ fast last summer. People in Gangjeong village are glad on the news. Nobody wants him to die for fast."
• I did a radio interview in Sarasota, Florida today and spent a good bit of time talking about Obama's "pivot" of U.S. foreign and military policy toward the Asia-Pacific. I included much about Pentagon "missile defense" deployments on Navy warships that would be ported in Gangjeong if the base is allowed to be completed and the likely resulting new arms race in the region.
• Tomorrow (Friday) I speak at 7:00 pm at the Unitarian Church in Bradenton, Florida.
• U.S. Veterans For Peace members Elliott Adams and Tarak Kauff will hold a protest and news conference on Friday, March 16 at the South Korean Consulate in New York City at 12:30 pm. They are fighting mad and I would venture to say that the South Korean government has just made bad blood with two of the most respected and hardest working VFP members in our country. President Lee, you are going to regret ever denying these non-violent peace warriors entry onto Jeju Island. Your desperate plan will surely backfire now!
• Boycott Samsung....spread the word.
• I had a record of 1,211 hits on this blog today from South Korea. Some of them are from the Lee government (they want to know what we are going to do next) but many are just from interested citizens. My total visits today were 1,917. The most ever in one day. They also came from United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Australia, Malaysia, Canada, Japan, Russia and various other countries. Thanks for visiting and come back again soon.