Ehren Watada

Case dropped against Lt. Ehren Watada!

Last week Courage to Resist supporters took action to ask the Solicitor General to drop the Army's appeals against Iraq War refuser Lt. Ehren Watada. Yesterday, he did just that!

Mark Jensen. May 8, 2009

On Wednesday, at the request of the Justice Department, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dropped the government's case against Lt. Erhen Watada, which has been followed closely on this web site since June 7, 2006, when Lt. Watada publicly stated at Associated Ministries in Tacoma the reasons for his principled refusal to deploy to Iraq. -- The Associated Press said that "Watada's attorney, James Lobsenz, said in a news release that his client anticipates he will soon be released from active duty and 'plans to return to civilian life and to attend law school.'"[1]

-- Army officials at Fort Lewis said they were considering pursuing still unresolved aspects of the case and complained that Watada was escaping punishment on a "legal technicality," the *Seattle Post-Intelligencer* reported.[2] -- COMMENT: This assertion is simply false: the preponderance of the evidence is that an Army judge deliberately aborted Watada's court-martial when it was clear that it was going in his favor.

[1] JUSTICE DEPARTMENT WON'T PURSUE WAR OBJECTOR CASE
By Gene Johnson, Associated Press. May 6, 2009

[2] NO COURT-MARTIAL FOR WATADA ON REFUSAL TO DEPLOY
By Vanessa Ho, Seattle Post-Intelligencer. May 6, 2009