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Navy Judge finds "reasonable cause" to believe
IRAQ war illegal
6-9-5
- From: "Phyllis" <phyllis@addausa.com>
To: <TheLawParty@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, May 27, 2005 1:00 PM
Subject: re: [TheLawParty] Navy Judge finds "reasonable cause" to believe
IRAQ war illegal
Amen. Praise God! Now the USA must stand trail for acts of inhumanity. NOW!
The biggest criminal since Hitler our leader, who lead us down a road of
MURDER and CRIMES AGAINST HUMANITY. What have we been left with but a evil
legacy that will not leave us unless we punish its violators.
INSPIRED BY THE LORD JESUS CHRIST
> Navy Judge finds "reasonable cause" to believe IRAQ war
illegal
Date: Sat, 14 May 2005 02:46:06 -0400
From: ranger116@webtv.net
Subject: Navy Judge finds "reasonable cause" to believe IRAQ war
illegal
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/051305X.shtml
Navy Judge Finds War Protest Reasonable
By Marjorie Cohn
t r u t h o u t | Report
Friday 13 May 2005
"I think that the government has successfully proved that any
service member has reasonable cause to believe that the wars in
Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq were illegal."
-- Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant, presiding at Pablo Paredes' court-
martial
In a stunning blow to the Bush administration, a Navy judge gave
Petty Officer 3rd Class Pablo Paredes no jail time for refusing
orders to board the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard before
it left San Diego with 3,000 sailors and Marines bound for the
Persian Gulf on December 6th. Lt. Cmdr. Robert Klant found Pablo
guilty of missing his ship's movement by design, but dismissed the
charge of unauthorized absence.
Although Pablo faced one year in the brig, the judge sentenced him
to two months' restriction and three months of hard labor, and
reduced his rank to seaman recruit.
"This is a huge victory," said Jeremy Warren, Pablo's lawyer. "A
sailor can show up on a Navy base, refuse in good conscience to
board a ship bound for Iraq, and receive no time in jail," Warren
added. Although Pablo is delighted he will not to go jail, he still
regrets that he was convicted of a crime. He told the judge at
sentencing: "I am guilty of believing this war is illegal. I am
guilty of believing war in all forms is immoral and useless, and I
am guilty of believing that as a service member I have a duty to
refuse to participate in this War because it is illegal."
Pablo maintained that transporting Marines to fight in an
illegal war, and possibly to commit war crimes, would make him
complicit in those crimes. He told the judge, "I believe as a member
of the armed forces, beyond having a duty to my chain of command and
my President, I have a higher duty to my conscience and to the
supreme law of the land. Both of these higher duties dictate that I
must not participate in any way, hands-on or indirect, in the
current aggression that has been unleashed on Iraq."
Pablo said he formed his views about the illegality of the war
by reading truthout.org, listening to Democracy Now!, and reading
articles by Noam Chomsky, Chalmers Johnson, Naomi Klein, Stephen
Zunes, and Marjorie Cohn, as well as Kofi Annan's statements that
the war is illegal under the UN Charter, and material on the
Nuremberg and Tokyo tribunals.
I testified at Pablo's court-martial as a defense expert on the
legality of the war in Iraq, and the commission of war crimes by US
forces. My testimony corroborated the reasonableness of Pablo's
beliefs. I told the judge that the war violates the United Nations
Charter, which forbids the use of force, unless carried out in self-
defense or with the approval of the Security Council, neither of
which obtained before Bush invaded Iraq. I also said that torture
and inhuman treatment, which have been documented in Iraqi prisons,
constitute grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions, and are
considered war crimes under the US War Crimes Statute. The United
States has ratified both the UN Charter and the Geneva Conventions,
making them part of the supreme law of the land under the Supremacy
Clause of the Constitution.
I noted that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires that
all military personnel obey lawful orders. Article 92 of the UCMJ
says, "A general order or regulation is lawful unless it is contrary
to the Constitution, the laws of the United States...." Both the
Nuremberg Principles and the Army Field Manual create a duty to
disobey unlawful orders. Article 509 of Field Manual 27-10,
codifying another Nuremberg Principle, specifies that "following
superior orders" is not a defense to the commission of war crimes,
unless the accused "did not know and could not reasonably have been
expected to know that the act ordered was unlawful."
I concluded that the Iraq war is illegal. US troops who
participate in the war are put in a position to commit war crimes.
By boarding that ship and delivering Marines to Iraq - to fight in
an illegal war, and possibly to commit war crimes - Pablo would have
been complicit in those crimes. Therefore, orders to board that ship
were illegal, and Pablo had a duty to disobey them.
On cross-examination, Navy prosecutor Lt. Jonathan Freeman
elicited testimony from me that the US wars in Yugoslavia and
Afghanistan also violated the UN Charter, as neither was conducted
in self-defense or with the blessing of the Security Council. Upon
the conclusion of my testimony, the judge said, "I think that the
government has successfully proved that any service member has
reasonable cause to believe that the wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan
and Iraq were illegal."
The Navy prosecutors asked the judge to sentence Pablo to nine
months in the brig, forfeiture of pay and benefits, and a bad
conduct discharge. Lt. Brandon Hale argued that Pablo's conduct
was "egregious," that Pablo could have "slinked away with his
privately-held beliefs quietly." The public nature of Pablo's
protest made it more serious, according to the chief prosecuting
officer.
But Pablo's lawyer urged the judge not to punish Pablo more
harshly for exercising his right of free speech. Pablo refused to
board the ship not, as many others, for selfish reasons, but rather
as an act of conscience, Warren said.
"Pablo's victory is an incredible boon to the anti-war
movement," according to Warren. Since December 6th, Pablo has had a
strong support network. Camilo Mejia, a former Army infantryman who
spent nine months in the brig at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for refusing
to return to Iraq after a military leave, was present throughout
Pablo's court-martial. Tim Goodrich, co-founder of Iraq Veterans
against the War, also attended the court-martial. "We have all been
to Iraq, and we support anyone who stands in nonviolent opposition,"
he said. Fernando Suárez del Solar and Cindy Sheehan, both of whom
lost sons in Iraq, came to defend Pablo.
The night before his sentencing, many spoke at a program in
support of Pablo. Mejia thanked Pablo for bringing back the humanity
and doubts about the war into people's hearts. Sheehan, whose son,
K.C., died two weeks after he arrived in Iraq, said, "I was told my
son was killed in the war on terror. He was killed by George Bush's
war of terror on the world."
Aidan Delgado, who received conscientious objector status after
spending nine months in Iraq, worked in the battalion headquarters
at the Abu Ghraib prison. Confirming the Red Cross's conclusion that
70 to 90 percent of the prisoners were there by mistake, Delgado
said that most were suspected only of petty theft, public
drunkenness, forging documents and impersonating officials. "At Abu
Ghraib, we shot prisoners for protesting their conditions; four were
killed," Delgado maintained. He has photographs of troops "scooping
their brains out." Pablo's application for conscientious
objector status is pending. He has one year of Navy service left. If
his C.O. application is granted, he could be released. Or he could
receive an administrative discharge. Worst case scenario, he could
be sent back to Iraq. But it is unlikely the Navy will choose to go
through this again.
Marjorie Cohn, a contributing editor to t r u t h o u t, is a
professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, executive vice
president of the National Lawyers Guild, and the US representative
to the executive committee of the American Association of Jurists.
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