DN! - Lt. Ehren Watada Faces Court Martial for Refusing to Serve in Iraq
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Lt. Ehren Watada Faces Court Martial for Refusing to Serve in Iraq
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Last week a military judge ruled Watada cannot present evidence
challenging the war's legality nor explain what motivated him to
resist his deployment order. He is the first officer to refuse to go to
Iraq. With his court martial less than two weeks away, Lt. Watada is
facing up to six years in prison. [includes rush transcript]
He faces one charge of missing troop movement, and four counts of
conduct unbecoming an officer. Each of the later four charges relates
to his public comments on why he refuses to deploy to Iraq. The
military judge also rejected defense arguments that Lt. Watada's
remarks are protected by the First Amendment.
Lt. Ehren Watada joins me now from Seattle.
First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, the nation's first Army officer to
refuse deployment to Iraq. For more information on his case visit
ThankYouLT.org
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AMY GOODMAN: Lieutenant Ehren Watada joins us live now from Seattle. We
welcome you to Democracy Now!
LT. EHREN WATADA: Thank you, Amy.
AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. First of all, explain why
you have refused deployment and when you refused.
LT. EHREN WATADA: Well, basically, back in January of 2006, even before
that, maybe a few months prior to that, in my preparation for
deployment to Iraq, in order to better train myself and my soldiers, I
began to research the background of Iraq, including the culture, the
history, the events going on on the ground and what had led us up into
the war in the first place, and what I found was very shocking to me
and dismaying, and it really made me question what I was being asked to
do, and it caused me to research more and more. And as I found out the
answers to the questions I had, I became convinced that the war itself
was illegal and immoral, as was the current conduct of American forces
and the American government on the ground over in Iraq. And as such, as
somebody who has sworn an oath to protect our Constitution, our values
and our principles, and to protect the welfare and the safety of the
American people, I said to myself that's something that I cannot be a
part of, the war. I cannot enable or condone those who have established
this illegal and immoral policy. And so, I simply requested that I have
my commission resigned and I separate completely from the military,
because of those reasons, and I was denied several times, and I was
basically given the ultimatum, "Either you deploy to Iraq or you will
face a court-martial."
AMY GOODMAN: And so, now you are facing a court-martial.
LT. EHREN WATADA: Yes.
AMY GOODMAN: And you're the first officer who has refused deployment
to Iraq.
LT. EHREN WATADA: That I know of, correct.
AMY GOODMAN: Tell us about the judge's ruling last week.
LT. EHREN WATADA: Well, the judge's ruling is very unfortunate. You
know, during the Article 32, which is a pretrial hearing, the
prosecution asked some of the witnesses we brought, including Denis
Halliday, Ann Wright and Francis Boyle, if there had been any
congressional representatives or congressional hearings or
investigations, any courts of law that had determined the war to be
illegal or immoral. And, of course, at this point, the answer would be
no. And I think it would have been an excellent opportunity to bring to
light in a court of law evidence and witnesses who could testify to the
illegality and immorality of the war and its conduct. Unfortunately,
just like Vietnam, my judge, just like the judges back then, have
refused to bring to light any of the evidence or challenge the policies
of the administration.
And I think it's also very unfortunate that under the Uniform Code of
Military Justice, which is military law, all service members are
obligated and have the right to refuse unlawful orders, and in this
case, you know, you do so at your own peril, but the judge has simply
predetermined that the war is lawful, that the order to go to war is
lawful, and that it would not be debated in his court. And they have
simply skirted the issue of whether that order was lawful or not.
AMY GOODMAN: And so, what is heard in the court, that you just refused
to show up?
LT. EHREN WATADA: Correct. It will simply be -- it will be a non-trial.
It will not be a fair trial or a show of justice, in any sense. I think
that they will simply say, "Was he ordered to go? Yes. Did he go? No.
Well, he's guilty." And that also goes for the conduct unbecoming
charges: "Did he make those statements? Can we verify that? Yes. OK,
he's guilty." And then it will be pretty much a disciplinary
hearing, in terms of how much punishment should we give this
lieutenant.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you appeal this, even before the court-martial takes
place, the judge's decision to exclude your reasons?
LT. EHREN WATADA: No. We will have to wait until after the verdict is
rendered.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to ask you about a press issue that's come out
in your case, and that involves military and press freedom. The US Army
subpoenaed two journalists to testify on whether you made some of the
antiwar statements that they are charging you for. Earlier this month,
we interviewed one of the two journalists, Sarah Olson.
SARAH OLSON: I think it's my job as a journalist to report the news.
It's not my job to participate, again, in the Army, in the military
or government prosecution of political speech. I think when journalists
do that, they really risk being turned into kind of the investigative
arm of the government, really being seen as the eyes and ears of the
military and the government. It really threatens to erode kind of that
separation between the press and our government. I think that this is
particularly ironic, because the Army is, again, asking me, a
journalist, to build the case against military personnel speaking to
the press, against dissenting voices in the media.
And I think, you know, kind of the final thing that I find really
alarming about that is that it really does threaten to kind of
eliminate those voices from the media. What kind of future war
resisters would agree to speak with me or with other journalists if
they thought that it was reasonable that they would be facing very high
prison sentences, four years in prison, for explaining, you know, the
reasons for their opposition to the Iraq war?
AMY GOODMAN: Independent journalist Sarah Olson. There's a petition
going around in support of her, as well as Honolulu Star Bulletin
reporter Gregg Kakesako, the other journalist who has been subpoenaed
in this case. Independent journalist Dahr Jamail and videographer Sari
Gelzer have also been added to the prosecution's witness list.
Lieutenant Ehren Watada, can you talk about Sarah Olson and her case?
LT. EHREN WATADA: Sure. I think that when it comes to, if it's a
national security issue and it has to do with public safety that has
the possibility of being in danger, I think, of course, you know,
reporters will be compelled to testify in that case. But I think, as
the prosecutors determined, my speaking out has nothing to do with
national security or public safety. They simply said that it's
offensive to the Army. And Miss Olson is right, that once you start
using reporters to testify against their sources, what -- not just war
resisters -- what whistleblowers, what minority opinions will be
willing to go out there and testify to reporters in order to get the
truth out, if they know that the government will use those reporters to
testify against them? And I think that becomes very dangerous in our
society, and it's going to have a chilling effect that's going to
stifle free speech. It's going to stifle people having the courage to
bring the truth out. And it's going to stifle the freedom of the
press.
...AMY GOODMAN: ...Lt. Ehren Watada, you went to Hawaii. You went home.
Is that right? Can you talk about your experience there and what other
soldiers there, going back to different wars, how they responded to
you?
LT. EHREN WATADA: I think that Hawaii, like everywhere else around the
United States, there's tremendous support out there. I think it's
unfortunate that we haven't been able to get into the national media as
much as we wanted to. And therefore, the more east you go, the less
people know about the case. And I think, just looking at how much
support I've received in Washington state and back home in my home
state, in Hawaii, there are a lot of people who are coming out, and not
just people on one spectrum of the political ideology, but people from
the mainstream, they are all coming out -- the unions, the interfaith
groups, the students, universities -- they are all coming out to
support. And I think that's just a testament to how people feel about
the war and the policies of this administration.
AMY GOODMAN: We were speaking with your mother here in studio in New
York, as she speaks out for you around the country. She went to
Congress. She spoke with congress members, tried to speak with
senators. And she talked about your background and the response of --
can you explain who the No-No boys are?
LT. EHREN WATADA: Sure. During World War II, when the Japanese
Americans were interned by the United States government, I think over
100,000 Japanese Americans were forcibly removed from their homes,
their civil rights were stripped, their property was taken away without
any compensation whatsoever, and they were placed in concentration
camps. And there were Japanese Americans, young men who were
conscripted, or they volunteered to join the United States military and
fight over in Europe and the Pacific Theater. And many of them
volunteered, because they felt that they needed to prove their
loyalties to the United States government in any way possible in order
to free their families and to prove that they were still Americans.
And there was also a minority of those young Japanese American men who
refused to swear loyalty and who refused to fight in the army or the
military until their civil rights were restored, until their property
was given back to them, until their families were released from the
concentration camps. And I think there has been a lot of controversy
between those two groups ever since then. Certainly, I think that my
case has brought up some of those tensions.
But as I talked to them back in Hawaii, I spoke to veterans of the
442nd, the 100th Battalion, those who fought during World War II, and I
also spoke to those who refused to fight, and I told them that it
doesn't matter what the other believes the intent of the other was or
if one group was right or the other was wrong. It's that both groups
were trying to prove to America that they were -- even though they were
Japanese Americans, they were still Americans.
AMY GOODMAN: Finally, President Bush will be giving his State of the
Union address tonight. What do you think he should be telling the
American people?
LT. EHREN WATADA: I think that he should be telling the American people
that he is going to support the troops, really, and when these troops
come back, they will be provided all the healthcare, including
psychological care, when they come back, 100%, that they will be given
jobs, there will be homes for them. Back in 2004, there were over
500,000 vets who were homeless at some point. That is ridiculous,
especially in our country and especially when we have an administration
that uses the line, "Support the troops." I think it's just --
it's a travesty. And we need to focus on bringing the troops back
home, and we need to focus on supporting those troops for the rest of
their lives.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you very much, First Lieutenant Ehren
Watada. Again, we will certainly cover your court-martial and also
follow what is happening to the reporters who have been interviewing
you. Thank you for joining us.
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