AD HOC
CAMPAIGN TO FREE EHREN WATADA
End the U.S. Army’s Prosecution of Lt.
Ehren Watada
The Justice Department Can Say No
to Army’s Legal Appeal
In June 2006, U.S. Army 1st
Lt. Ehren Watada refused orders to Iraq on the grounds that the war was
illegal and immoral. His court martial in February 2007 ended
in an Army-contrived mistrial. In October 2007, the Army
attempt to have a second court martial was stopped by a Federal judge
who ruled that a second court martial would be double
jeopardy. But the Army has not allowed Lt. Watada to leave
military service. Instead, they have notified the U.S. Court
of Appeals, Ninth Circuit of their plans to appeal the double jeopardy
ruling. The Army has also threatened to revive old charges stemming
from Lt. Watada’s speech in Seattle to the 2006 convention of Veterans
For Peace.
Justice Department to Decide If Army Will
Appeal Double Jeopardy Ruling
The U.S. Solicitor General’s office in the
Department of Justice will soon decide whether the Army can go ahead
with its plans to appeal Federal Court rulings in Lt. Watada’s favor.
An campaign of public pressure is being called by
Lt. Watada’s supporters in the peace movement. The ad
hoc campaign is being spearheaded by two Vietnam War resisters, Mike
Wong and Gerry Condon, who are active members of Veterans
for Peace in San Francisco and Seattle. The Call to
Action is being issued in the name of
Asian Americans for Peace and Justice, formerly the
Watada Support Committee, in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Project
Safe Haven, a war resister support group.
We are sending out this email
alert to all our contacts and organizations – including Veterans for
Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out,
United For Peace and Justice, ANSWER, Code Pink, American Friends
Service Committee and others. We ask you all to phone, write,
and email Solicitor General Elena Kagan and Deputy Attorney General
Neal Katyal immediately.
1. Ask
the Solicitor General: Tell the Army to drop the appeal and
any other charges against Lt. Watada, and to release him from the Army
with an honorable discharge.
If we all act quickly, we can
flood the Solicitor General’s office with hundreds of phone calls,
letters and emails, which could tip the balance in Ehren Watada’s favor.
Solicitor General
Elena Kagan, 202-514-2201
Deputy Solicitor
General Neal Katyal, 202-514-2206
Send letters to: U.S.
Department of Justice, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC
20530.
E-mails to DOJ@usdoj.gov
will reach the Solicitor General and Attorney General Eric Holder.
A sample letter is included below. Feel free to edit as you
wish, or to write your own.
It is possible that both the
Solicitor General and her Deputy may be open to our plea.
Please be respectful and polite in all your communications with these
Obama appointees.
2. Please forward this alert to all
activists, friends, and organizations you know that would be
supportive. If you are involved in an organization, please ask that it
forward this alert to its entire membership.
3. We will approach the friendliest of
our allies in Congress and ask them to make inquiries to the Justice
Department. If you or your organization has contact with any members of
Congress, please email Gerry Condon at projectsafehaven@hotmail.com so we
can coordinate our Congressional outreach.
4. Various groups may also wish
to mount demonstrations, press conferences, lobby, or use other means
of peaceful political pressure. You may also call for an end
to the persecution of all war resisters.
Mike Wong,
Vice President, SF Bay Area Veterans For Peace;
Asian Americans for Social Justice
Gerry Condon,
Greater Seattle Veterans For Peace; Project Safe
Haven
Sample
letter:
Date
Solicitor General Elena Kagan
Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal
U.S. Department of Justice,
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW,
Washington, DC 20530-0001
Dear Solicitor General Kagan and Deputy Solicitor
General Katyal,
I am writing to urge you to direct the U.S. Army to
drop its appeal and any other charges in the case of 1st
Lt. Ehren Watada, and to release him from the Army with an Honorable
Discharge. Lt. Watada was the first Army officer to publicly
refuse to deploy to Iraq, because he believes the U.S. war in Iraq is
illegal and immoral, and that orders to participate in it are therefore
also illegal and immoral.
(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Lt. Watada’s Army court martial in February 2007
ended in a mistrial that was illegally construed by the Army judge, Lt.
Col. John Head. When the Army then attempted a second court
martial in October 2007, U.S. District Court Judge Benjamin Settle
halted the proceedings on double jeopardy grounds. Judge
Settle had just been appointed to his position by George W. Bush and
was a former Army JAG lawyer. I urge you to uphold U.S. and
international law by directing the Army to end its prolonged
prosecution of Lt. Ehren Watada. Thank you very much.
Sincerely yours,
Mike Wong
For more backfround on Lt. Ehren Watada,
go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
For updates on the Campaign to Free Ehren
Watada, go to
