Saving Sandoval


Book Description

The true story of the 2007 case of a soldier charged with murder by the very government he had sworn to serve. While deployed to the most dangerous area in Iraq known as the “Triangle of Death,” U.S. Army Specialist Jorge G. Sandoval Jr., an airborne infantryman and elite sniper, was instructed to “take the shot” and kill an enemy insurgent wearing civilian clothes. Two weeks later, Army Criminal Investigation Command descended upon Sandoval’s unit and began interrogating the soldiers, trying to link Sandoval and others to war crimes, including murder. Captain Craig W. Drummond was the JAG military defense attorney assigned to Sandoval’s case. “The case blew up and was closely followed by reporters around the world. After all, a soldier is trained to follow orders, not ask questions or second-guess authority. I knew I needed to prove his innocence or risk other soldiers being tried and convicted for simply doing their job.” Saving Sandoval covers the events from the moment the trigger is pulled through the trial in a U.S. military compound on the outskirts of Baghdad. With the fast-paced, detailed account of the investigation and trial testimony from elite Army snipers, readers are brought into the courtroom and onto the battlefield of Iraq. “A revealing, real-life courtroom drama, reminiscent of A Few Good Men.”—Hunter R. Clark, Director, International Law and Human Rights Program, Drake University Law School “Gives an inside look at the scrutiny soldiers face on the battlefield and the politics involved in modern day warfare.”—Major Chris Ophardt, U.S. Army, Public Affairs Officer to the Secretary of the Army, 2016-2017, (Iraq Veteran)




Starving for Justice


Book Description

Focusing on three hunger strikes occurring on university campuses in California in the 1990s, Ralph Armbruster-Sandoval examines people's willingness to make the extreme sacrifice and give their lives in order to create a more just society.




Methodology of the Oppressed


Book Description

In a work with far-reaching implications, Chela Sandoval does no less than revise the genealogy of theory over the past thirty years, inserting what she terms "U.S. Third World feminism" into the narrative in a way that thoroughly alters our perspective on contemporary culture and subjectivity. What Sandoval has identified is a language, a rhetoric of resistance to postmodern cultural conditions. U.S. liberation movements of the post-World War II era generated specific modes of oppositional consciousness. Out of these emerged a new activity of consciousness and language Sandoval calls the "methodology of the oppressed." This methodology—born of the strains of the cultural and identity struggles that currently mark global exchange—holds out the possibility of a new historical moment, a new citizen-subject, and a new form of alliance consciousness and politics. Utilizing semiotics and U.S. Third World feminist criticism, Sandoval demonstrates how this methodology mobilizes love as a category of critical analysis. Rendering this approach in all its specifics, Methodology of the Oppressed gives rise to an alternative mode of criticism opening new perspectives on any theoretical, literary, aesthetic, social movement, or psychic expression.




War and Warriors Volume One


Book Description

Three real-life accounts of the struggles of American soldiers from the Iraq and Afghanistan battlefields to, in two cases, US military tribunals. Legion Rising: Surviving Combat and the Scars It Left Behind by Jeff Morris Follow Jeff through up-close, fast-paced accounts of the thrills and dangers of combat as a Platoon Leader in Iraq. Feel the weight of the gruesome and tragic loss of eight men whose lives were taken in the line of duty. Journey through his battle to face the scars and shadows that followed him long after his time serving in the military was over. Travesty of Justice: The Shocking Prosecution of Lt. Clint Lorance by Don Brown The Book That Won a Presidential Pardon! On July 2, 2012, three Afghan males crowded on a motorcycle and sped down a Taliban-controlled dirt road toward Lt. Clint Lorance’s men. In a split-second decision, Lorance ordered his men to fire. When no weapons were found on the Afghan bodies, the Army prosecuted Lorance for murder. “The most powerful case to date for the exoneration of imprisoned Army Lt. Clint Lorance.” —Sun-Sentinel Saving Sandoval by Craig W. Drummond While deployed in Iraq, Sandoval, an airborne infantryman and elite sniper, was instructed to “take the shot” and kill an enemy insurgent wearing civilian clothes. Two weeks later, Army Criminal Investigation Command descended upon Sandoval’s unit, trying to link Sandoval and others to war crimes, including murder. “A revealing, real-life courtroom drama, reminiscent of A Few Good Men.” —Hunter R. Clark, International Law and Human Rights Program and Drake University Law School




Killing Rasputin


Book Description

A look into the life of the so-called “Mad Monk” of Imperial Russia, his murder, and the effects of his death on a dynasty, a people, and a country. Written in three parts, Killing Rasputin begins with a biography that describes how a simple unkempt “holy man” from the wilds of Siberia became a friend of Emperor Nicholas II and his empress, Alexandra, at the most crucial moment in Russian history. Part Two examines the infamous murder of Rasputin through the lens of a “cold case” homicide investigation. And lastly, the book considers the connection between a cold-blooded assassination and the revolution that followed; a revolution that led to civil war and the rise of the Soviet Union. Unique about this book on Rasputin, is that the author combines Russian heritage (her parents were forced out of Russia during World War II and arrived as refugees in Australia in 1948) with medical science and legal training. Nelipa relied on Russian-language sources that she translated rather than depend on the interpretations of others. Her primary sources include police documents and witness testimonies, an autopsy report, diaries, letters and memoirs written in their native language by the participants in these historic events. Secondary sources include Russian-languages newspapers and other publications from that era. The narrative is copiously referenced and augmented with photographs (including graphic forensic photographs) and other documents, some of them published here for the first time. Step into the imperial court of a 300-year-old dynasty in its final days with one of the most fascinating characters ever to grab our imaginations, judge whether Margarita Nelipa makes her case regarding his death, and if you agree that it was “the murder that ended the Russian empire.” Praise for Killing Rasputin “You can almost hear the whispering conspiracies and intrigues in the court of Nicholas and Alexandra. . . . A dramatic history with a touch of true crime.” —Steve Jackson, New York Times–bestselling author of Bogeyman




Summary Execution


Book Description

“An incredible true story that reads like an international crime thriller.”—Steve Jackson, New York Times bestselling author On June 1, 1981, two young activists, Silme Domingo and Gene Viernes, were murdered in Seattle in what was made to appear like a gang slaying. But the victims’ families and friends suspected they were considered a threat to the dictatorship of Philippines dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his regime’s relationship to the United States. In Summary Execution, attorney and author Michael Withey describes his ten-year battle for justice for Domingo and Viernes that he fought because “They killed my friends.” Follow along as he embarks on a long and dangerous investigation and into the courtroom to obtain convictions of three hitmen, and then prove in U.S. federal court that Marcos was behind the assassinations. If so, it would be the first time in U.S. history that a foreign head of state would be held liable for the murder of American citizens on U.S. soil. However, to accomplish this Withey and his legal team, working with the victims’ families and friends, would have to overcome numerous obstacles including exposing the perjured eyewitness testimony of an FBI informant, uncovering the brutal murder of an accomplice who was being sought to turn state’s evidence, and working around the failure by local authorities to prosecute the Marcos operative who planned the murders. “Remarkable . . . The story has so many twists—as well as amazing turns—that prove the point that conspiracy theories aren’t necessarily fiction.”—Eric Nalder, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist




Fields of Fortune


Book Description

A gripping history of one Norwegian immigrant family’s experience in the United States from the mid-nineteenth century to World War II. In the spring of 1853, a family of eight drove their wagon to the wharf in Bergen, Norway. They unloaded their belongings alongside the other stacks labeled, AMERICA, MINNESOTA, ILLINOIS, MICHIGAN, NEW YORK CITY, CHICAGO and boarded the crowded ship. Hopeful, nervous Norwegians—giving up everything for a place they knew of only through second-hand tales of freedom and opportunity—watched as the shoreline retreated, knowing they would never see their homeland again. Their trip ahead would be spent in cramped conditions for two or three months until they reached Ellis Island. The United States, where they were immigrating to, was facing many problems including tensions over slavery and the subsequent beginning of the Civil War. The family moved west to farm the free land that was offered to them but were met with resistance, as it was land that had been cultivated by Native Americans for thousands of years before. The family was nearly eliminated during these times, often referred to as the American Indian Wars. Future generations carried on to the Dakotas and Alberta with difficulties. These Norwegians persisted. Through ardent research and narrative biography, Robert Dodge reflects on the immigrant experience of one Norwegian family from the mid-nineteenth century through World War II in Fields of Fortune: ‘Viking’ Farmers in America. Praise for Fields of Fortune “A thriller, a family adventure, a Viking heritage story that kept me turning the pages and asking for more.” —Alice C. Schelling, author of Hiding Alinka “A riveting tale . . . featuring strong women who carried their families forward even when their men failed them.” —Carolyn Bradley Bursack, author of Minding Our Elders “Award–winning author Robert Doge doesn’t just write history, he paints it in true story-telling style.” —Jodi Bowersox, president of the Colorado Authors League




Confessions of a Film Investor


Book Description

Private film investors are playing a critical role in the dawn of a new golden age of independent cinema. This book is intended to help filmmakers better understand these investors, or "money people." Follow the writer's journey deep inside his own search for investment opportunities with first-hand accounts and real experiences. If you've ever struggled with finding real investors, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. If you've ever struggled with knowing how to effectively present yourself and your project, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. If you've ever struggled to secure financing for your film productions, THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. Don't face the volatile world of film financing without reading this book.




Let Us Go Free


Book Description

A vivid and disquieting narrative of Jesuit slaveholding and its historical relationship with Jesuit universities in the United States The Society of Jesus, commonly known as the Jesuits, is renowned for the quality of the order's impact on higher education. Less well known, however, is the relationship between Jesuit higher education and slavery. For more than two hundred years, Jesuit colleges and seminaries in the United States supported themselves on the labor of the enslaved. "Let Us Go Free" tells the complex stories of the free and enslaved people associated with these Catholic institutions. Walker Gollar shows that, in spite of their Catholic faith, Jesuits were in most respects very typical slaveholders. At times, they may have been concerned with the spiritual and physical well-being of the enslaved, but mostly they were concerned with the finances of their plantations and farms. Gollar traces the legacies of the Jesuits' participation in the slaveholding economy, portrays the experiences of those enslaved by the Jesuits, and shares the Jesuits' attempts to come to terms with their history. Deeply based on original research in Jesuit archives, "Let Us Go Free" provides a vivid and disquieting narrative of Jesuit slaveholding for the general reader interested in the historical relationship between slavery and universities in the United States.




The Mission Higher


Book Description

Love letter to a restive city, The Mission Higher juxtaposes the generation galvanized by the strikes of the 1930s with the next generation of its own children in neighborhoods fragmented by racial dynamics in the late 1950s. A fictional telling of real events, it brings long-deserved recognition to Mission High School coach Ernie McNealy whose courage and conviction single-handedly stopped a racial gang war and helped yet another generation of San Franciscans learn to value the ethnic diversity of the city.