Watada court martial opens with feisty defense

[Barrett808]

Watada court martial opens with feisty defense
ADAM LYNN; The News Tribune
Published: February 5th, 2007 11:25 AM

Unable to put the Iraq war on trial, the lawyer for Lt. Ehren Watada launched an attack on the military legal proceedings against his client during the opening of Watada's court martial at Fort Lewis this morning.

Honolulu attorney Eric Seitz said rulings that have gone against the Stryker Brigade officer in pre-trial motions, including the exclusion of many defense witnesses, rendered the proceedings "almost comical" and at one point called the case "an atrocity."

"There's really nothing for us to say in this courtroom," Seitz said during pre-trial motions in a wood-paneled courtroom.

The military judge hearing the case, Lt. Col. John Head, told Seitz he could "leave the dramatics at the courtroom door."

(more)

http://www.thenewstribune.com/news/updates/story/6354502p-5670989c.html

Sean Penn is among the supporters outside the Fort Lewis gate. Local news coverage has been very favorable. Supporters vastly outnumber the anti-Watada protesters. The coverage has shown only one anti-Watada protester with a sign: "Jail Weasel Watada".

Video report:

Watada court-martial begins
11:39 AM PST on Monday, February 5, 2007
KING Staff and Associated Press

FORT LEWIS, Wash. - Twenty-eight-year-old 1st Lt. Ehren Watada is back in a Fort Lewis court.

The Army officer faces four years in prison after he refused an order to deploy to Iraq last June.

Proponents have gathered outside Fort Lewis to show their support for Watada. Actor Sean Penn, an outspoken war critic, is among them.

"In this particular case, the first thing that one would want to see in terms of any kind of reasonable justice, is that the primary question of whether or not there is an illegality involved in the war itself would be addressed in court, but that's been thrown out by the judge," he said.

(more)

http://www.king5.com/topstories/stories/NW_020507WABcourtmartial_mondaySW.531b0655.html

[gratuitous]

1. When the law is an ass, dramatics are all you have left

Sorry Lt. Col. Head (no, really?), but you're serving a corrupt regime in a dishonorable position. I reckon that's probably not what you signed up for when you joined the military, but for all the encomiums of men that reach your itching ears, you've become a tool of fascism pursuing a vocation bereft of integrity.

Let's get out the giraffe filled with whipped cream, and smash the living bejesus out of it.

[Mudoria]

2. Hope he gets a cell with a view...

shouldn't have joined the military if the thought of having to fight frightened him.

[killbotfactory]

3. fighting didn't frighten him

he wanted to go to Afghanistan. He doesn't want to go to Iraq because he believes the Iraq war is illegal, not because he's a coward.

[gratuitous]

5. What makes you think he's frightened?

From where I sit, Lt. Watada looks a whole lot braver than any number of jocksniffers, chickenhawks and decorated officers I see parading across my teevee screen on a nightly basis.

But then, I have a lot of loony ideas.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

6. Are you posting that from Iraq?

[Evergreen Emerald]

9. good question, if not

why not?

[saigon68]

19. These troop boot lickers are just repukes in disguise

I don't know why they are here

[Bonobo]

7. Go back to Tintagel, Chris.

[Doctor_J]

8. He said he would go to Afghanistan

but not to your hero's war of choice in Iraq. Hopefully the Bush twins will take the place reserved for him in Iraq.

Enjoy your stay, freeper

[harpboy_ak]

13. He's already been under fire

He just believes (and rightly so) that the war in Iraq is illegal. He's already done one tour there, and is willing to go to Afghanistan, but not Iraq.

You're so damn willing to call him a coward. When did YOU serve, Mudoria?

As far as I'm concerned, anybody who thinks folks against the war are cowards or unpatriotic should just enlist and get their asses over to the war they love so much. That goes for those draft dodgers Bush and Cheney, too. Just send them AND their kids over there, and keep extending them and refusing to let them leave even though their enlistment was up months ago, and see how they like it.

[rug]

16. His friends call him Dick.

[0rganism]

4. illustrating yet again why the notion of "refusing unlawaful orders" is bogus

If military personnel cannot address the legality of said orders in the context of a court martial defense, there is no reason to expect them to question the legality of orders during any other operation. Some might say this is as it should be, and perhaps they're right, but let's just drop any pretense to the contrary. Orders are orders, and you carry them out or you go to jail. Period, end of discussion, game over.

[KamaAina]

10. Lt. Watada faces 4 years. Meanwhile, a *deserter* gets three months.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070206/ap_on_re_us/brf_awol_soldier_1

FORT BLISS, Texas - A soldier was found guilty Monday of deserting her Army unit on the eve of its deployment to the Middle East and was sentenced to three months in military prison.

A guilty plea by Spc. Melanie McPherson, a 28-year-old reservist from Tofte, Minn., to going absent without leave was superseded by a military judge's ruling on the more serious charge of desertion. McPherson told the judge she hitchhiked to Minnesota after leaving Fort Bliss the day before her unit was to leave for Kuwait, in July.

Meanwhile, Lt. Watada is looking at 4 years for the less serious charge of missing troop movement. I have long suspected he is really being court-martialed for speaking out against the war.

More on Ehren's case: http://thankyoult.org

You know, I really could be doing more around this, seeing as how I'm out here and all...

edit: bolding

[SpudStateDem]

11. "Facing" Doesn't Mean "Sentenced To"

It's like all those stories about how so-and-so "faces" 180 years or something, and ends up getting 5. (Plus, he's also facing the CUBO charges.) It's a maximum possible penalty. I personally don't expect him to do any time at all in Leavenworth. He will, however, be dismissed from the service (the officer equivalent of a dishonorable discharge).

[roody]

12. His imprisonment would fuel more antiwar actions.

[Big_Mike]

14. All the counts against him carry Dishonorable Discharge

as part of the sentence. Since the early 90s, when the posts all closed their local stockades, all convicted prisoners are sent to Leavenworth. He would be incarcerated with other former officers (conviction strips him of his commission and reduces him to the lowest enlisted grade of E1/Private) and have all pay and benefits forfeited.

[roody]

15. Check out these fabulous photographs.

1,000 rally for Lt. Watada

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2007/02/06/18357980.php

[Barrett808]

17. Nice. n/t

[Eugene]

18. Army: War Objector Brought 'Disgrace' - AP

Associated Press
Army: War Objector Brought 'Disgrace'
By MELANTHIA MITCHELL 02.06.07, 2:40 PM ET

An Army lieutenant who refused to deploy to Iraq because he considers the war illegal
abandoned his soldiers and disgraced himself and the service, prosecutors said Tuesday
at his court-martial.

A lawyer for 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, however, argued that his client was acting in good
conscience, based on his understanding of the war and military law.

"At most, he engaged in an act or form of civil disobedience," defense attorney Eric
Seitz said in opening remarks. "No way does that add up to conduct unbecoming an
officer."

-snip-

Prosecutor Capt. Scott Van Sweringen told the court Tuesday that by Jan. 1, 2006,
Watada had concluded that the war was illegal and he could not deploy. Rather than
keep the decision between himself and his superiors, Van Sweringen said, Watada
released a video statement at a June news conference in Tacoma.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2007/02/06/ap3400441.html

[Zhade]

20. The man is a hero.

NT!