Ledger

awyers, veterans, academics and regular citizens met in Tacoma at Evergreen State College on the weekend of January 20 to hear testimony concerning the current Iraq War and the actions of Lt. Ehren Watada. The event, called the Citizen’s Hearing on the Legality of U.S. Actions in Iraq, was brought together by a number of people, some of whom were UWT faculty.

David Krieger, the chair of the tribunal panel, stated that one of the purposes of the tribunal was to allow the public to hear in detail Watada’s reasoning behind refusing to return to Iraq to fight -- namely that the war is illegal for a variety of reasons. Watada’s lawyers have argued that he should be allowed to present evidence that challenges the legality of the war during his general court martial, but the judge, Lt Col. John Head, denied the request.

In a prepared statement, Krieger, who also participated in the Jury of Conscience at the World Tribunal on Iraq last year, stated, "Since Lt. Watada cannot get a full hearing about he war’s legality in a military trial, then his cause should at least be aired in the court of public opinion."

On Saturday, the 12-member tribunal heard testimony from two Iraqi War vets, former Army National Guard member Geoffrey Millard and former Navy Lt. Harvey Thrap. Tharp has the distinction of being the first officer to resign due to his objections over the current Iraq War. Among the other testimony heard was Daniel Ellsberg, famous for his involvement in the Pentagon Papers scandal. Ellsberg was in town for the weekend to participate in the tribunal.

Ellsberg, who is on the Advisory Board of the tribunal, also spoke on the Watada case at the Washington State History Museum in an event sponsored in part by UWT’s Peace and Justice Advocacy Group.

The two-day tribunal concluded on Sunday with video testimony from additional speakers including Eman Khammas, an Iraqi journalist and human rights advocate who has been reporting on the abuses she has witnessed or heard about committed by both U.S. and Iraqi forces. Her reporting and advocacy work has led to a number of death threats against her. She stated in her testimony that she was forced to flee the country and apply for asylum in Spain for fear of what could happen to her family because of her work, which she is continuing.

The tribunal also heard from two additional soldiers from the war; Darrell Anderson, who served in the 1^st Armored Division in Baghdad and Najaf at the age of 21. Anderson spoke of the dehumanizing conditions present when he served, including an incident where he was ordered to guard Iraqi prisoners on the same night he was injured and watched his close friend die.

He stated that he no longer saw the prisoner as a human, but had to resist the urge to execute him on the spot. Anderson also testifies that he has witnessed several incidents that would qualify as war crimes, but that the Army is doing virtually nothing to punish those responsible. He further stated that the stress of the conditions as well as his own crisis of conscious forced him to go AWOL after his returning from his first tour of duty for two years.

Upon his return from Canada, where he claims there are hundreds of GI’s who are refusing to fight in the war, he surrendered himself to the officials at Fort Knox and demanded a court martial where he would be able to testify as to what he witnessed. The officers of the base refused to charge him, instead opting to dishonorably discharge him, which leaves him without military benefits and has made it difficult to find civilian work.

Another soldier who testified was Chanan Suarez-Diaz, who served as a corpsman for the Navy for 5 years. He testified that racism towards Arabs is almost ingrained in the training and indoctrination in Iraq, where soldiers are encouraged to refer to Arabs as "hagi" or "raghead."

His experience in Iraq also prompted a crisis of conscious. One of the incidents that sparked it was his time with a Marine platoon who he testified, "had gone insane" after losing two of their members. They often bragged of killing civilians and would keep victim’s brain matter as trophies in the unit refrigerator. Diaz also claimed that he was personally aware of what have been called "night flights" -- clandestine airplane trips where prisoners of war of sent to foreign countries to be tortured.

The Citizens’ Tribunal will release a summary of their findings on their website at www.wartribunal.org.