Voters say no to Lt. Governor Molly Gray

Though she touted human rights, Molly Gray actually worked to legitimize Blackwater. As Lt. Governor, she supported the illegal F-35 training in a city.

Lt. Governor Molly Gray’s website touts her as “Fighting for Human Rights and Humanitarian Action.” It says that she was “always inspired by Eleanor Roosevelt’s belief that fighting for human rights starts at home.”

Yet voters rejected her in the Vermont Democratic primary election for Congress earlier this month. Notwithstanding strong establishment support, she lost by a whopping 24 points. Voters had increasingly become aware that Molly Gray was no Eleanor Roosevelt.

Legitimizing Mercenaries

Molly Gray’s website reveals that her legal career included working “with the U.S. Government” to set up an organization “to oversee the compliance of private security contractors with human rights.” Contractors like Blackwater, CACI, and L-3 that had tortured in Abu Ghraib and had massacred civilians in Iraq.

The Center for Constitutional Rights issued a fact sheet stating that “Several investigations into torture, including by the military itself, have concluded that CACI and L-3 contractors participated in ‘sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses.’”

Mercenary Molly

However, as revealed in a report on CancelF35.substack.com last December, “Lt. Governor Molly Grey touts human rights–but her record shows otherwise,” the organization she helped launch, the “International Code of Conduct Association” and its supposed “code of conduct” were roundly condemned in a 20-page report by the genuine UK human rights organization, War on Want:

The International Code of Conduct for Private Security Service Providers (“the Code of Conduct”) and the International Code of Conduct Association (“the Association”) act as fig leaves for the private military and security company industry to legitimise its actions.

The War on Want report showed that the Association Molly Gray helped set up is actually “dominated by the private military security companies” themselves.

A scholarly article, “Becoming Legitimate: How Private Military Security Companies are Seeking Legitimacy in the International System,” showed that the Code of Conduct and the Association were created for mere “rebranding” and “self-regulation.” And that their purposes were “to counter the negative perceptions created by media coverage and controversial incidents involving private military security company personnel” and to achieve “legitimacy” for the companies.

By helping launch this bogus Association Molly Gray was actually working for the private military security companies. By working with the US Government to create such a public relations operation, she worked against the call by genuine human rights organizations, including War on Want, for “a complete ban on the use of private military security companies in conflict zones.”

Guard Commanders have their way with Vermonters

With all her talk of human rights, Vermont voters might have thought Molly Gray was using her time as Lt. Governor to protect the human rights of Vermonters. But no. She never visited Winooski or the Chamberlin school neighborhood of South Burlington to speak out against the 115-decibel F-35 training flights blasting those densely populated cities. Even though the US Air Force itself reported that the extreme F-35 noise hundreds of times a month made the homes of 6,663 Vermonters “unsuitable for residential use,” and that repeated exposure to military aircraft noise at that level could cause hearing loss and impair the learning and cognitive development of children.

A war crime waiting to happen

Nor did Molly Gray ever question using thousands of airport passengers, airport workers, and tens of thousands of nearby residents as human shields for the F-35.

Democracy Denied

Town meeting votes showed massive opposition to the F-35 training in such a densely populated area. Burlington voted to cancel the F-35 basing at its city-owned airport in 2018 with a 55% majority. Winooski voted to halt the F-35 training flights in a populated area in 2021 by a 2:1 margin.

The Lt. Governor who did not stand up for the people

As the second highest elected state-government official, Molly Gray was in the very best position to stand up to the governor and demand protection of the human rights of thousands of Vermonters hurt by the illegal training with F-35 jets in a city. Yet she did not speak up.

Nor did she call for or sponsor legislative hearings at which the governor and commanders could be questioned under oath: With questions such as, “Aren’t you required by DoD and Air Force regulations to distinguish, or separate military operations, like F-35 training flights, from populated areas?” Or, “What’s the military necessity for F-35 training in a densely populated area? Wouldn’t the training be equally effective if conducted from an available runway remote from any populated area?” Or, “Isn’t intermingling F-35 jets with cities human shielding? And isn’t human shielding a war crime?”

“I would not support relocating”

During the June 9 Democratic Congressional Candidate Debate cosponsored by VPR and Seven Days the four candidates were asked whether they support relocating the F-35 from the densely populated area. Molly Gray told the radio audience, “I would not support relocating. I think our guard has done a tremendous job having the F-35 here. I’ve been a big supporter of the Guard as Lt. Governor.” (1:00:33).

Yet, while she used her position as Lt. Governor to support the decision by the governor and Guard commanders to continue the F-35 training from the runway in the Chamberlin School neighborhood, she ignored the human rights of thousands of Vermonters living, working, or going to school near the runway at BTV.

Equally, Molly Gray ignored the right of the men and women in the Vermont Air National Guard to have commanders who respect and enforce the military regulations that protect civilians from military operations, including DoD Directive 2311.01 and Air Force Policy Directive 51-4.

While two of the other candidates in the debate called for relocating the F-35, none called out a human rights violation from hurting and injuring civilians with the 115-decibel F-35 training flights in a city. Nor did any of them recognize a human rights violation from using a city to human-shield the F-35. Nor did any of them recognize that just as the reputation of military contractors was demolished by the revelations of torture and mass killing in Iraq, the reputation, as well as the dignity and honor of the Vermont Air National Guard depends on commanders enforcing, and not blatantly flouting, the military’s own regulations.

Why the voters rejected her

Molly Gray could not successfully run in Vermont on a record of legitimizing US mercenaries at Abu Ghraib. Nor could her obsequious support for the governor’s and Guard commander’s decision to continue the grotesque F-35 training in a city location win mass public approval. Instead, and quite bizarrely, Molly Gray touted herself as “Fighting for Human Rights.” It didn’t work. It crushed her own credibility. It mobilized opposition. What could Vermont voters do but reject her by a huge margin?

Write or call your public servants and demand an immediate halt to F-35 training in cities.

Governor Phil Scott 802-828-3333 Chief of Staff <Jason.Gibbs@vermont.gov>

Vermont National Guard's Complaint Line: 802-660-5379 (Note: the Vermont Guard told a reporter that it received over 1400 noise complaints. But the Guard won’t release what people said).

Submit your report & complaint to the still active online F-35 Fall 2021-Summer 2022 Report & Complaint Form: https://tinyurl.com/5d89ckj9

See all the graphs and in-your-own words statements on the F-35 Spring-Summer 2021 Report & Complaint Form (513 responses): https://tinyurl.com/3svacfvx.

See links to the graphs and in-your-own words statements on all four versions of the F-35 Report & Complaint Form since Spring 2020, with a total of 1670 responses from 658 different people plus 77 more so far on the form that will remain active through summer 2022.

Senator Patrick Leahy 800-642-3193 Chief of Staff <john_tracy@leahy.senate.gov>

Senator Bernie Sanders 800-339-9834 <Senator@sanders.senate.gov>

Congressman Peter Welch 888-605-7270 Chief of Staff <patrick.satalin@mail.house.gov>

Burlington City Council <citycouncil@burlingtonvt.gov>

Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger <mayor@burlingtonvt.gov>

Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott <klott@winooskivt.org>

S. Burlington City Council Chair Helen Riehle <hriehle@sburl.com>

Williston Selectboard Chair Terry Macaig <macaig@msn.com>

VT Senate President Becca Balint <bbalint@leg.state.vt.us>

VT House Speaker Jill Krowinski <jkrowinski@leg.state.vt.us>

Attorney General TJ Donavan <DonovanTJ@gmail.com>

States Attorney Sarah George <Sarah.fair.george@gmail.com>

Vermont’s Federal Prosecutor <usavt.contactus1@usdoj.gov>

Adjutant General Brig Gen Gregory C Knight <gregory.c.knight.mil@mail.mil>

Major J Scott Detweiler <john.s.detweiler.mil@mail.mil>

Wing Commander Col David Shevchik david.w.shevchik@mail.mil

Vermont National Guard Inspector General Lt. Col. Edward J Soychak <edward.soychak@us.af.mil>

US Air Force Inspector General Lt. Col. Pamela D. Koppelmann <pamela.d.koppelmann.mil@mail.mil>

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall <Frank.Kendall@us.af.mil>