1st Lt. Ehren Watada Back on Trial

[babylonsister]

Ehren Watada Back on Trial
Submitted by davidswanson on Mon, 2007-10-01 21:53. Nonviolent Resistance

By Michael Wong, Veterans for Peace chapter 69, Watada Support Committee, San Francisco

The Army is threatening to go ahead with a new court of martial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada on Oct. 9th. This is in gross violation of law and the Constitution, because his lawyers have appealed against a second trial on the basis of double jeopardy. For quite some time, Ehren's lawyers were proceeding on the assumption that since the appeal is in progress in the court system, the Army would cancel or postpone the Oct. 9th court martial. But now it is only a week and a couple of days away, and nothing has been cancelled or postponed. The trial is looking very much like it is on, yet nothing has been confirmed one way or the other.

If the court martial is indeed going to happen,
we need all the help we can get! We need all our
friends and allies around the country to hold
teach-ins, demonstrations, press conferences (if
you have lawyers who can address the double
jeopardy issue, please have them speak), write
letters to the editors, anything you can do, on
the weekend prior to Oct. 9 and/or on the day of.
Anyone who can to come to Ft. Lewis and support
Ehren in this critical moment, please come.

The catch here is that the Army has us set up: If
we mobilize in a big way and they postpone the
trial, we may look foolish if we don't frame it
right. On the other hand, if we don't mobilize
and the court martial occurs, Ehren can be
railroaded while his supporters are caught
sleeping. Either way, this looks like a perfect
ambush by the Army.

more...

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/27341

[Hydra]

1. We can't have Watada speaking truth about this war

So, as usual, they will bury the truth and the person speaking it.

[babylonsister]

2. It didn't work the first time but I now fear they've had time to work on it, and

to find a judge who is willing to pass judgment. :(

[Hydra]

4. I would have said this would blow up in their faces

after all, accepting his request to deploy elsewhere would have been much quieter.

They set out to do this to make a point about disagreeing with policy, so I doubt they'll stop until Watada is swinging from a rope.

[uppityperson]

3. k&r

[me b zola]

5. k&r

[babylonsister]

6. Kick...

[Cha]

7. Recommended~

Best Luck, Lt Ehren Watada~

[robinlynne]

8. Have you heard Watada speak? He has a greatness. a patriot.

[Canuckistanian]

9. What does the Army have to gain from this?

They're already looking like unfair bullies willing to stretch the limits of legality.

How does this jibe with truth, honor and justice that the Army is supposed to represent?

[Squatch]

10. I hold Watada in the utmost contempt

and I believe that abandoning his men 1 week before they deployed showed the utmost in cowardice.

I am an Army officer (in command) who adamantly opposes the war in Iraq, but I will never, until my dying breath, abandon the men who depend on me.

[roody]

11. His men should have had the good sense and

courage to follow his lead.