Justice Dept. drops case against war resister Watada
Published: May 6, 2009
Updated 6 months ago
The Department of Justice has dropped its case against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, a war resister who refused Iraq deployment in June 2006 and denounced President George W. Bush’s decision to invade as illegal and immoral.
In Feb. 2007, military judge Lieutenant Colonel John Head halted Watada’s case following possible inconsistencies concerning a “stipulation of fact” agreed before the hearing. The decision led to a mistrial, ending Watada’s court martial. The Army appealed, but a judge said Watada could not be tried again on the same charges, as it would violate his right to be free of double jeopardy.
The Justice Department is dropping its appeal of that judge’s decision.
“Because there are no longer any criminal charges pending against Lt. Watada, and because (his) military service has been extended far beyond his normal release date, he anticipates that he will soon be released from active duty,” Watada’s attorney, James Lobsenz, said in a media advisory published Wednesday. “He plans to return to civilian life and to attend law school.”
“Settle set aside two specifications of the same charge — conduct unbecoming an officer — which stemmed from public statements Watada made against the war and President Bush,” reported Vanessah Ho for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
“Settle left the door open for the United States to pursue those charges later. Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek said he did not know if the Department of Justice intended to refile those charges.”
One of the charges was filed for statements Watada made during the 2006 convention of Veterans for Peace, held in Seattle.
“I could never conceive of our leader betraying the trust we had in him. As I read about the level of deception the Bush administration used to initiate and process this war, I was shocked. I became ashamed of wearing the uniform. If the president can betray my trust, it’s time for me to evaluate what he’s telling me to do,” Watada said, according to the court martial charge sheet.
“In the 2004 fiscal year, the Army court-martialed 176 deserters, just 7 percent of the total who fled for civilian life. Courts-martial, or military trials, must be held for prison sentences to be handed out,” reported Nina Shapiro in Seattle Weekly. “When they are, the standard ranges from three to five months, according to Bill Galvin, who has counseled hundreds of AWOL soldiers in his work for the Center on Conscience and War in Washington, D.C.
“‘The Army doesn’t have enough jail cells to accommodate all the people who go AWOL,’ says James M. Branum, an Oklahoma lawyer nationally known for his work with deserters. Nearly 7,000 soldiers deserted in fiscal year 2007, according to figures from each branch of the military. (The military counts soldiers as deserters once they’ve been AWOL for more than 30 days.)
“While some branches, most notably the Navy, have seen the number of deserters drop since the beginning of the Iraq War, the total number has risen, largely in the Army, where roughly 4,700 people deserted in the last fiscal year—an 80 percent jump since the beginning of the war—amounting to just under one percent of the Army’s total manpower.”
Watada was the first high-profile resister of the Iraq war.
With AFP.
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I’m so glad somebody had the male parts to do the right thing. This is what America is made of!
Yes, he did his duty to stand up for enlisted personnel by calling it out as an illegal order. Justice needs to leave this man alone. Only a kangaroo court could convict him of any crime…
Congratulations, Lt. Watada! (may the gods of the Inernets and Six-Degrees-Of-Kevin-Bacon see this message and every other message of support to your Karmic in-box ^.^ )
awesome!! congrats lt watada, and thank you!!
Now that is a man with big brass balls. A real hero. Unlike the misguided murderers who are ‘just following orders”. Kudos Lt. Watada.
That is a good sign.
Now if we will just stop dropping charges on the children and let them go back home.
A glimmer of hope. Chalk up a minor positive on Obama’s record. Now let’s work on the major: holding the war criminals accountable.
Oh YAY! A true American Hero, Too bad his message was lost on the sheeple.
♬ akuna Watata ♬
Good job, Lt. Watata! You fought the law and YOU won! Congratulations! I wish you the best of luck in everything you do from this day forward.
Finally some good news! Great that this ridiculous case comes to an end. Kudos to Lt. Watada for making a stand for truth and honesty, and all the best for him in his civil life!
Glad to see the DOJ did the right thing - Congrats Lt. Watada!!
God damn! I guess they’d drop it. They won’t even investigate the criminals that lied us into this war for Israel and oil……They did finally find the WMDs though. Yep, Elvis was over there and came upon them and phoned his ole buddy Chimpy McBush and gave him their whereabouts. Would Chimpy lie?
This is an awesome sign, no war was declared by Congress so why should he go fight? Good for him
I’m happy for him, now he can testify against these criminals (bush and cheney) when they are taken to trial…hopefully
If the populace ever learns that all of these wars are about money in one form or another, they may be less willing to have their sons and daughters slaughtered and maimed so that others can live better than they can begin to conceive. If there were an equation for it, . . War=profit.
War on terror? How about war on nervousness. Oh, repeal the war powers act, and get the ‘executive’ back in line too.