Topic: Trial Starts For Officer Who Refused To Go To Iraq

Team Infidel

New York Times
February 6, 2007
Pg. 14

By William Yardley
FORT LEWIS, Wash., Feb. 5 — A court-martial started here on Monday against an Army officer who refused to serve in Iraq last summer because, he has said, the war is illegal.
The officer, First Lt. Ehren K. Watada, was charged in July with missing a movement and conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman after he refused to join his unit, the Third Brigade, Second Infantry, when it was deployed. Before and after his unit left, Lieutenant Watada gave interviews and made other public comments denouncing the war.
Lieutenant Watada has said the Bush administration has falsely used the 9/11 attacks to justify the war. He has said that the war has been proved unjust because unconventional weapons have not been found in Iraq and that American soldiers have mistreated the Iraqis.
Many enlisted soldiers have faced discipline for refusing to serve in Iraq. Lieutenant Watada is the first officer to refuse to do so publicly. He could face up to four years in prison and be dishonorably discharged if convicted on all counts.
The case has become a rallying point for antiwar groups, and scores of Lieutenant Watada’s supporters waved signs on Monday at a highway overpass outside Fort Lewis.
His prospects appear uncertain. The judge, Lt. Col. John Head, reinforced on Monday an earlier ruling that Lieutenant Watada could not base his defense on his contention that the war is illegal.
Lieutenant Watada has pleaded not guilty but he has not disputed that he missed the deployment or that he commented against the war.
“From what I understand, that under military law those in the military are allowed to refuse — in fact, have the right to refuse unlawful orders — a duty to refuse,” Lieutenant Watada said last month at a forum featuring war opponents, according to a transcript distributed on Monday by Zoltan Grossman, a professor at Evergreen State College who helped organize the forum.
In the transcript, Lieutenant Watada said being denied the chance to argue the legality of the war in his court-martial was “a violation of our most sacred premises of due process and, indeed, is un-American.”
“We will fight it,” he said. “I will always flight. We will try to appeal to the highest court.”
Lieutenant Watada, of Honolulu, asked to go to Afghanistan instead of Iraq but he was denied. He also tried to resign but was denied. He has been working in an administrative office here. Experts expect the trial to last much of this week.
On Monday, Army prosecutors and a defense lawyer, Eric Seitz, interviewed potential jurors drawn from a pool of officers on this post. Under questioning, several officers said it was “odd” that Lieutenant Watada refused to go because, as one put it, officers “should support our leadership and our tent command.”
Opening arguments could begin on Tuesday.
Outside the base, arguments were well under way. A woman held a sign reading “Lying and Bullying = Conduct Unbecoming a President.” A man a few feet away held one that said “Jail Weasel Watada.”

__________________