An AP story ("Superferry, Warriors grabbed headlines in 2007") filed in Honolulu looks back at 2007 biggest stories for the stae and includes among their top stories "the attempted court martial of Hawaii 1st Lieutenant Ehren Watada for his refusal to deploy to Iraq in February, the deaths of ten Schofield Barracks soldiers and four other troops when an Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed in Iraq in August" and other non-Iraq related stories. Ben Hamamoto (Nichi Bei Times) also notes Watada "Japanese American News Since 1946:"
The more I look at 2006, the more I realize that the Center for Asian American Media was right and it was indeed the "year of the Asian man." Yul Kwon won the racially-themed season of "Survivor" and put his celebrity to great use, tabloid-y accounts of C-Net commentator James Kim's heroics gave America a fully formed image of an Asian man, the hugely successful "Letters from Iwo Jima" contained the best portrayals of Asian men we've seen in the mainstream media, like ever, and Lt. Ehren Watada broke numerous stereotypes by becoming a major figure in the Peace Movement.
Watada is the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq. After months of acting in good faith and attempting to work towards a solution with the military (who indicated that they wanted to work this out privately) and with his unit due to deploy in a matter of weeks, Watada went public (June 2006). In August 2006, an Article 32 hearing was held. Following that it was stated that the military intended to court-martial Watada. The court-martial took place in February 2007. At that point, Watada's service was up (December 2006) but the military was keeping him to court-martial him. The Feb. court-martial was provided over by Judge Toilet (John Head) who refused to allow Watada to present a defense (not being allowed to explain motive is being refused a defense) and who, in the end, refused to obey the Constitution. On Monday, February 5th, Watada's court-martial began. It continued on Tuesday when the prosecution argued their case. Wednesday, Watada was to take the stand in his semi-defense.Over defense objection, Judge Toilet ruled a mistrial thus ending the court-martial. In doing so, the legal reading should be Watada walks. Double-jeopardy should take care of that.
Judge Toilet stated Watada would be court-martialed again in March of 2007. Didn't happen. Judge Toilet said it was coming, just you wait. November 8th Judge Benjamin Settle, a US District Court judge, put Head's planned court-martial on hold where it currently remains. Repeating, Watada's service contract ended in December 2006. He continues to report for assignments on base. The military should have released him long ago. He has now been extended a year just to court-martial him. Watada needs to be discharged immediately.
Reuters reports that 17 corpses were discovered near Baquba. Peter Graff (Reuters) reports that, "The Iraqi cabinet approved a draft law on Wednesday which could see thousands of prisoners freed, one of the main demands of Sunni Arab politicians boycotting the Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad."
Today WBAI broadcasts (and streams online) The Christmas Coup Comedy Players, original comedy programming created for public radio, from two p.m. to three p.m. (EST) and features Janet Coleman, David Dozier, John McDonagh, Marc Kehoe, Scooter, Moogy Klingman and (Wally's favorite) Will Durst.
Also in humor news, check out Wally's "THIS JUST IN! U.S. MILITARY KILLS 'TERRORIST'!" and Cedric's "Christmas in Baghdad" which went up yesterday.
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ben hamamoto
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