HONOLULU (AP) — The Army is allowing the resignation of the first commissioned officer to be court-martialed for refusing to go to Iraq, his lawyer said late Friday. Ted S. Warren/Associated Press First Lt. Ehren Watada The officer, First Lt. Ehren Watada, will be granted a discharge on Oct. 2, “under other-than-honorable conditions,” said the lawyer, Kenneth Kagan. Lieutenant Watada told The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, “The actual outcome is different from the outcome that I envisioned in the first place, but I am grateful of the outcome.” A Fort Lewis spokesman, Joseph Piek, would not confirm Lieutenant Watada’s type of discharge, citing privacy rules. But he said late Friday that Army regulations described “resignation for the good of the service in lieu of general court-martial.” Lieutenant Watada, 31, refused to deploy to Iraq with his unit, based in Fort Lewis, Wash., in 2006, arguing that the war was illegal and that he would be a party to war crimes. Lieutenant Watada, who was born in Honolulu, was charged with missing his unit’s deployment and with conduct unbecoming an officer for denouncing President George W. Bush and the war — statements he made while explaining his actions. His court-martial ended in a mistrial in February 2007. The Army sought a second court-martial, but a federal judge ruled that it would violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy. Mr. Kagan said that Lieutenant Watada had tried to resign previously, but that the Army had refused to allow it. “This time, however, it was accepted, apparently only when the Army realized it could not defeat Lieutenant Watada in a courtroom,” Mr. Kagan said. Antiwar activists have lionized Lieutenant Watada. If convicted, he could have been sentenced to six years in prison and been dishonorably discharged.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 22:01:09 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015