The lawyer for an Army officer from Honolulu who refused to deploy to Iraq said military prosecutors do not want the lieutenant to have the chance to defend himself by arguing that the war in Iraq is illegal.
"They're claiming that the only real issue is whether or not an order was given to Lieutenant Watada, which he refused to carry out and whether he made certain statements to the media," Eric Seitz said Tuesday, two days before a pretrial hearing at Fort Lewis, Washington.
First Lt. Ehren Watada's court martial is set to begin Feb. 5 at Fort Lewis.
He refused to deploy to Iraq on June 22 with his Fort Lewis-based unit because he believes the war in Iraq is illegal.
A judge at the pretrial hearing will decide some of the parameters of the trial, including whether Watada's opposition to the war could be included in his defense.
Seitz said prosecutors have filed motions to exclude all of what Watada had planned to say in his defense.
The above is from the AP's "U.S. Army war resister's lawyer says Army is attempting to silence his defense" which you can find at the International Herald Tribune but not the New York Times though the papers are both owned by the Times. (They elbowed out the Washington Post years ago.)
What you can find in the Times is three stories on the show execution. And why is that?
As Antonia Juhasz pointed out on yesterday's KPFA's The Morning Show, the US administration would prefer that of the two (the show execution and the 3,000 mark), the focus be on the show execution. They'd prefer that be the image 2006 went out on and, luckily for them, independent media is as prepared as the mainstream media to be useless which is why Amy Goodman can't discuss or explore the 3,000 lives lost but she could dedicate the majority of the show yesterday today the show execution and will, in fact, air an interview with Saddam today. Democracy Now! willing to enlist in the administration's propaganda battle.
The 3,000 marker means something but not to independent media so spare us all the lectures about how the public doesn't care when independent media doesn't demonstrate that they even give a damn as they rush to file one Saddam report after another and have little to no time to note the 3,000 mark. It's apparently not interesting enough to them. (See yesterday's snapshot.)
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