TRI In The News
Iraq Veteran Being Held at Salem VA Medical Center Over Facebook Posts
From WSLS
Original article available here
SALEM, VA --
A Virginia man who once served in Iraq and Afghanistan as a Marine is being detained at the Salem VA Medical Center, according to his lawyer John Whitehead, president of the Rutherford Institute, a civil liberties organization that provides free legal services.
Whitehead says 26-year old Brandon Raub’s Facebook posts are the reason he’s being held.
“Raub is a Ron Paul libertarian. He's also a 9/11 truther. He questions the facts of 9/11 and was the government involved?” said Whitehead. “It doesn't make you crazy because you're controversial.”
Whitehead said on Thursday, August 16th, uniformed officers who identified themselves as FBI and secret service agents showed up to Raub’s Chesterfield County home, asking about his recent Facebook posts and then arrested him in his underwear.
“They arrested Raub and transported him to the John Randolph Medical Center, where he was held against his will due to alleged concerns that his Facebook posts were controversial and ‘terrorist in nature’” said The Rutherford Institute in a statement.
On August 10th, Raub wrote “I'm starting the Revolution. I'm done waiting” and “The time for being willfully blind has ended.”
“911 was an inside job” wrote Raub on August 11th.
“This is a picture of the government dropping Barium and Aluminum Powder from the air on American Citizens” he wrote on August 12th followed by “The people responsible for posioning the America people from the sky will be held accountable. And there is going to be justice.”
“Sharpen up my axe; I'm here to sever heads” Raub wrote on August 13th.
Whitehead said some posts quoted song lyrics from a group called Swollen Member.
“The song lyrics had some violent imagery in them, but you can go back as far at the Beatles and get violent images out of song lyrics” said Whitehead, who is working on an appeal to get Raub released.
Whitehead said in a hearing on Monday, Special Justice Walter Douglass Stokes sentenced the former Marine to up to 30 days further confinement in a psych ward and signed a court order for Raub’s involuntary admission to the VA Hospital in Salem. Whitehead says Raub checked into the Salem VA Medical Center Tuesday night.
“He’s going to be detained another 30 days. He's not been charged with a crime. The FBI, the police now say he committed no crime, they're not going to charge him with a crime” said Whitehead. “I think it's a very scary scenario.”
WSLS has reached out to the Salem VA Medical Center for an interview or comment and as of publishing this article, have not received one.
