More on Adam Kokesh and his Armed March on Washington

As I wrote before, I am skeptical until I receive more information on Adam Kokesh's planned armed march on Washington.

Arlington Memorial Bridge, looking from DC to the Virginia side of the Potomac.

Alex Seitz-Wald, Salon's political reporter and no friend of gun rights gives us these details

Libertarian activist and radio host Adam Kokesh is hoping to get 1,000 people to march on Washington on July 4 — armed with loaded rifles. The plan, launched with a Facebook group today, is to gather on the Virginia side of the Potomac, where gun laws are lax, and then march across the bridge with loaded rifles slung over their shoulders into the District, where openly carrying weapons is generally prohibited.

“This will be a non-violent event,” the Facebook group warns, “unless the government chooses to make it violent.” Already, over 200 people have said they’ll attend the march. Here’s the message:

On the morning of July 4, 2013, Independence Day, we will muster at the National Cemetery & at noon we will step off to march across the Memorial Bridge, down Independence Avenue, around the Capitol, the Supreme Court, & the White House, then peacefully return to Virginia across the Memorial Bridge. This is an act of civil disobedience, not a permitted event. We will march with rifles loaded & slung across our backs to put the government on notice that we will not be intimidated & cower in submission to tyranny. We are marching to mark the high water mark of government & to turn the tide. This will be a non-violent event, unless the government chooses to make it violent. Should we meet physical resistance, we will peacefully turn back, having shown that free people are not welcome in Washington, & returning with the resolve that the politicians, bureaucrats, & enforcers of the federal government will not be welcome in the land of the free.

Seitz-Wald continues:

Kokesh is a former Marine who was discharged in 2007 after violating the military’s code against engaging in political activity while in uniform. Kokesh was highly active in the antiwar movement after serving in Iraq, participating in numerous protests and getting arrested on occasion.

He started an anti-government radio show as the Tea Party picked up steam and was eventually picked up by RT, the news channel funded by the Russian government that is often critical of U.S. policy, where he promoted both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street in a worldview that some sociologists describe as “fusion paranoia,” a visceral anti-governmentalism that isn’t limited to typical left-right divides.

He ran into trouble when he endorsed Ron Paul in the 2012 election, which led to an FEC complaint and his termination from RT, though employees have told me privately that there were other, darker issues.

Since then, he’s taken his show “Adam vs. The Man” to the Internet, and seems to have become increasingly radicalized. “It’s time to abolish the US federal government,” he tweeted yesterday. Today he tweeted this:

When the government comes to take your guns, you can shoot government agents, or submit to slavery.

— Adam Kokesh (@adamkokesh) May 3, 2013

Whether Kokesh actually goes through with his plan remains to be seen — he says he won’t do it unless 1,000 join him — but the protest may strike a chord with gun fanatics, who stage “open carry” protests across the country to fight gun control laws. There was one in Washington in 2010, but those rallying inside District lines did not actually carry weapons.

Kokesh did not immediately return an email seeking an interview (a message on his website says he’s in Barcelona), but we will update if he does.

"Gun fanatics." Hmmm.

Some observations on "the plan" --

I can imagine that the entire DC local and federal constabulary will be out in force at the end of that bridge to deny the marchers access to Mordor-on-the-Potomac, thus providing the "physical resistance" he promises to turn back in the face of. The bridge belongs to the National Park Service but DC's jurisdiction starts at at the mid-point, so whether the DC cops set up to block the march halfway across rather than on the land side of District is anybody's guess.

On the other hand, they may decide to let the marchers into DC and then use various blocking strategies, first to separate them into manageable segments, then to attempt to arrest them in detail. That has a high probability of going south fast. Certainly though the DC police will not be allowed by their political masters to let the march proceed in defiance of their unconstitutional laws.

The optics of a confrontation on the bridge are compelling to be sure, but it will put a premium on the discipline of the marchers, the wisdom of the leadership and the preparations made to reflect that wisdom and enforce that discipline on the Virginia side -- all in a hastily improvised setting without any sure way to vett out provocateurs and John Brown wannabes looking to get themselves and others massacred.

This puts a premium on planning and leadership, which brings us back to Kokesh.

I am in receipt of several emails from folks who have had run-ins with Kokesh before regarding the man with comments like this:

"Return of Adam Kokesh -- At best an egomaniac attention-whore, but most likely something much worse. Whatever it is, the object is Kokesh ambition and aggrandizement. Does Adam really believe in anything, good or evil, larger than his own personal path to destiny? Who knows? He could easily be a tool of those who might wish to manipulate him as a willing or unknowing sock-puppet. I think we may be dealing with a more severe example of that right now, if you know who I mean, and I’m sure you do. We’re seen that sort before in American history, the filibusterers of the early Nineteenth Century trying to care out their own empires in Central America or the borderlands. They keep bubbling up like farts in a bathtub. There were bunches of them in Eastern Europe after WW I, until one of them succeeded in getting power – actually several of them in different countries."

Several readers referred me to this post: "Adam Kokesh - Fraud - Fake - Code Pink Asshat."

Mr. Kokesh joined the Iraq Veterans Against War (IVAW) in February 2007, at which time he was 25 years old. The IVAW was formed by the Vietnam Veterans Against War (VVAW), the now infamous group formed by John Kerry in 1970, and responsible for the fraudulent maligning of our Vietnam veterans at the Winter Soldier Conference in 1971. It will be recalled that John Kerry now stands exposed as having repeated false accusations from that conference, during his Congressional testimony in 1971. Similar to the VVAW, the IVAW is a virulently anti-military, anti-America group. It holds the view that our country is an imperialistic and expansionistic “One World Order” government, and that our military is but a tool of this government. Further, they believe that our soldiers are little more than marauders and murderers who, in the words of John Kerry, behave “in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan”.

Mr. Kokesh was active in the IVAW from 2007 to 2009, at which time he announced his candidacy for Republican Congressman from New Mexico. There are no indications that he has revoked his affiliations with the IVAW. As an active member of the IVAW, Mr. Kokesh was involved in numerous anti-militaryactivities and actions. While executing these actions, Mr. Kokesh knowingly made common cause with a wide array of other well-known, radical anti-America and communist groups. The list of these other groups includes, but is by no means limited to, the following:

SDS, Code Pink, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, United for Justice and Peace, Communist Party of America, Muslim Brotherhood, (and the) Black Panthers.

In cooperation with the above-named groups and the IVAW, Mr. Kokesh: participated in multiple anti-war demonstrations in Washington DC, and other cities throughout the country; organized and incited violent demonstrations at military recruiting stations; participated in an initiative to encourage active duty soldiers to desert their military post; and, organized and participated in a Winter Soldier Conference 2, an effort designed to malign and undercut the morale of our soldiers who were fighting and dying on the battlefield. Even a most cursory search of the Internet will yield a plethora of documents attesting to the veracity of these assertions.

Character Issues

Mr. Kokesh’s personal accomplishments and achievements appear to be limited to his having served in the Marine Corps from 1999 until 2006, and his subsequent work as a political activist with the IVAW from 2007 until 2009. His MC service was basically unremarkable, in terms of citations, medals, and commendations, and it was ultimately marked by a demotion in his discharge rank from Sergeant to Corporal, and a downgrading of his discharge status from honorable to general. Mr. Kokesh’s tenure with the IVAW has been noted above and need not be repeated here.

There are no indications that Mr. Kokesh has ever maintained any private sector employment. Unless otherwise proven, it might be assumed that his ‘work’ with the IVAW was financed through contributions to that organization, finances that often originated in radical leftist organizations such as MoveOn.org.

There are no indications that Mr. Kokesh has achieved any notable academic standing. This fact, coupled with his young age and his otherwise lack of personal accomplishments, leave little that would recommend him for serious consideration for Congress.

There are numbers of incidents in Mr. Kokesh’s personal life that suggest that he employs poor judgment. Examples of this include the following: he smuggled a gun home from Iraq, and then was apprehended when he bought it onto a college campus; he has incited protestors to engage in violent actions against military recruiting stations; and, he incited unrest on a college campus by hanging racist poster around the campus, having signed the posters as being from members of the college’s conservative Republican organization.

Reader Rurik writes:

I’ve had extensive conflict vs Kokesh during 2007, when I was with Gathering of Eagles, defending the Vietnam Wall against him and his comrades. . . Treat Kokesh with the utmost reservation, his wiki entry is full of deception, shading and false claims. He severely truncates his involvement with IVAW, Code Pink, and International ANSWER.

In 2008 I was tasked with infiltrating attending the sol-called “Winter Soldier II hearings” staged by IVAW, in which Adam played a major role. Those “hearings”(which I helped to unmask, were in fact stage-managed by the old VVAW cadres, now renamed VFP; IVAW is/was their sock puppet. The whole proceeding was a classic Stalinist agitprop exercise. If you search at Obitur Dictum, you will find much about Adam there (and maybe even some reporting by me from inside) You may also want to go over to This Ain’t Hell where they have a lot of information on him, including a severe debunking of his claims about his medals and military accomplishments.

Here are some more links about him from . . . Miss Redacted.

Iraq Veterans Attempt 'Winter Soldier' Reenactment - HUMAN EVENTS

BLACKFIVE: Adam Kokesh of IVAW

Meet Iraq veteran Adam Kokesh, the new mouthpiece of the anti-war movement

DPNM: “Who is Adam Kokesh to lecture anyone on corruption?”

Say NO!! to IVAW’s Adam Kokesh, “Republican”?!!!! for Congress?

I see one of your commenters alleges he is a Communist and under Russian control. Perhaps. I think he is dedicated only to Adam Kokesh, and is the sort of anal sphincter what gives Paulbots a bad image. But as such he is also the sort of sphincter who could well be manipulated by someone else (foreign or domestic) smarter than he is. Nothing good will come of this.

It is all to evocative of Ronbo, aka Ronald Gene Barbour.

-Rurik

As I said above, "this puts a premium on planning and leadership." So, who is Adam Kokesh and who does he love? I don't know. It is certain that you could get similar nasty comments about me from folks across the spectrum from the neo-Nazis (who say I am a Mossad agent and an SPLC spy), to SPLC (who said in the 90s I was a neo-Nazi tool), to the LaRouchies (who claim I am an agent of MI-5), to the dead and unlamented cop-killer William Cooper (who claimed I was "John Doe #5"), to the disinformation businessman Alex Jones (who claims I am a government provocateur), to the Three Percent hijackers of ex-con Kerodin and Company (who claim I am all of the above and more).

I'd say that I am inclined to agree with Rurik. Character issues (as delineated above) aside, I don't care what your cause is -- to make alliance with collectivists like SDS, Code Pink, A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, United for Justice and Peace, Communist Party of America, Muslim Brotherhood, and the Black Panthers would make anyone a likely candidate for Lenin's "useful idiot" award at the least.

I am still waiting for the international traveler (Seitz-Wald says Kokesh is in Barcelona) to respond with more details. Until then, I'd caution readers to stay away from this likely cluster-coital situation in the making.

LATER: This was just forwarded to me: "An armed march on Washington? Let’s not. Update: Kokesh an anti-war smear merchant?"