I finally got a LTTE printed!

[MsAnthropy]

In the SPPP

I'm not impressed
with Lesch trip

I am disgusted with Rep. John Lesch's selfish little adventure to Iraq. While he is free to be a fool at his own expense, going into a war zone with no protection or translator, his foolish actions endanger our troops who have to protect him, other Americans and Iraqi civilians. If anyone in any of these groups is harmed because of his reckless disregard for his own safety, he belongs in prison.

[katinmn]

1. Good job!

:hi: Great letter, MsAnthropy.

[dodger501]

2. What is the backstory?

Not a Pioneer Porn reader . . . what happened?

[MsAnthropy]

3. Here it is--in the filmed piece he acted like it was a big adventure

which completely set me off. He can enlist if he wants adventure.


St. Paul lawmaker going to Iraq on his own
Updated: 01/30/2006 07:45:31 AM
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John Lesch, DFL, St. Paul

ST. PAUL (AP) - A St. Paul lawmaker is on his way to visit Iraq by himself to learn more about the war-torn country.

DFL representative and assistant city attorney John Lesch said he is going to the Middle East despite State Department warnings and opposition from his friends.

Lesch, who is paying for his own trip, has a cousin serving in the military in Iraq, but knows no one else in that country and doesn't speak Arabic.

"I was very interested to see not just the issues of state and elections, but the needs of the average citizen," Lesch said. "Where do they get their electricity? Where do they get a job? How do they provide for their family? ... We don't often hear about that in the mainstream press."

Lesch started his political career as St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman's legislative aide in the Ward 2 city council office. Coleman said he wasn't surprised by Lesch's planned trip.

"John seems to have a sense of destiny, or something - I'm not quite sure," Coleman said. "John ... I honestly think that he'd rather die and be remembered than live and not be."

Lesch, 33, said he has traveled alone through the Middle East on a two-month backpacking trip in 1997 through Syria and Egypt, among other places.

He said he plans to be back from his current trip by March 1, the first day of the 2006 legislative session.

The lawmaker is following in the footsteps of another noted visitor to Iraq: Florida teenager Ferris Hassan, who successfully made his way to Iraq by himself.

Lesch, a Brooklyn Park native and a Hamline University School of Law graduate, was elected to represent part of St. Paul in the state Legislature in 2002. He said he plans to seek re-election in the fall, but didn't plan the Iraq trip to improve his political fortunes.

He hopes his trip will eventually inspire his daughter "to do whatever she has to learn about her own place in the world," Lesch said.

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[MsAnthropy]

4. His blog shows how delusional he is

http://johnlesch.blogspot.com/

[MsAnthropy]

5. He got kicked out of Iraq

:rofl:

Lesch makes hasty exit from Iraq
St. Paul lawmaker's brief trip ends after missteps, scolding
BY NANCY A. YOUSSEF, Knight Ridder News Service and TIM NELSON, Pioneer Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq —

State Rep. John Lesch of St. Paul reportedly left Iraq after a lecture from an angry Iraqi official — and just a week after he flew to the Middle East to tour the war zone on his own. Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, a U.S. military spokesman, confirmed Monday that Lesch had left, but offered no further information about where the 33-year-old, two-term DFLer was heading. Neither Lesch's brother, Jim, nor friends in Minnesota who had been in contact with the lawmaker knew his whereabouts Monday.
But Iraqi and U.S. officials expressed their relief he had left the country the United States invaded in 2003.

"This grandstanding has no place here," Johnson said. "Stay home." Had something happened to Lesch, he added, untold numbers of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers would have been obliged to endanger themselves to help him. Mithal Alusi, founder of the Democratic Party of the Iraqi Nation, said he spoke with Lesch shortly after he arrived last week in Baghdad and quickly reprimanded him. Alusi has been a victim of violence since the invasion and has dodged several assassination attempts. His two sons were slain in January 2005. "Do you know what would happen if the terrorists took you as a hostage? Kalashnikov to your head. You with your passport, crying. And all of the world in danger. Just because of you!" Alusi recounted in an interview with Knight Ridder. "I told him, 'You are crazy.' I don't like to talk to politicians this way, but he made me very sad." Alusi asked if Lesch had any hobbies and said Lesch answered that he liked watching movies: "I told him you have watched too many James Bond movies." Alusi said that had a U.S. state lawmaker been taken hostage, it would have exhausted the country's strained resources. "We are so lucky he didn't die" here, he said. "Can you imagine what will happen here? … I told him, 'Don't do it again!' " More than 400 foreigners have been kidnapped since the war ended in April 2003. In addition, thousands of others have been injured and killed by explosives and car bombs.

Nearly all contractors and journalists living and working in the country spend thousands of dollars for armored cars, guards and weapons to defend themselves. And they acknowledge that is not foolproof. Most U.S. officials and the top leaders of the government live in the heavily fortified Green Zone, which is surrounded by 12-foot-high blast walls. Most rarely leave. Lesch, however, flew at his own expense to the Middle East on Jan. 29. He planned to stay for about three weeks. He traveled through Amsterdam and Damascus, according to postings on his Internet blog (http://johnlesch.blogspot.com). His last blog entry was dated Monday. In his blog, Lesch talked about his various missteps in the country. He arrived without a visa and tried to call the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad to get one, but officials there initially refused. Lesch persisted, only to be refused a spot on secure transport into Baghdad proper. People he met at the airport told him not to ride with an Iraqi taxi driver, saying he could be kidnapped. But he persisted, and some British contractors arranged a taxi ride for him with an Iraqi they trusted, Lesch wrote in his blog.
Because he did not have cash, the British strangers also paid his fare. He wound up staying initially in the Palestine Hotel, which was heavily damaged by a truck bomb last year.
After learning Lesch was in the country, U.S. officials persuaded him to move to the Green Zone.
Sylvia Blackwood-Boutelle, an Embassy spokeswoman, confirmed U.S. diplomatic officials had been in touch with Lesch, but she would not discuss their dealings with him. Blackwood-Boutelle did note there is a travel warning and advised "all Americans to heed that advice."