By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

Less than a week before his court martial is scheduled to begin, major developments have occurred in the case of Ehren Watada, the 28-year-old Sansei army lieutenant from Hawai‘i who refused deployment to Iraq to participate in what he considers an illegal war of aggression.

While supporters rally and Watada’s mother travels the country speaking on his behalf, his defense has reached a compromise with the prosecution, but has also received some bad news.

Upcoming Trial

The Seattle Times reported that on Jan. 29 that the Army agreed to drop two of the misconduct charges in exchange for Watada’s admission that he made all the statements included in the two remaining misconduct charges.

This dropping of these charges reduces the jail-time he faces from a maximum of six years to a maximum of four years.

Because the dropped charges related to statements Watada had made to the press, the army had subpoenaed journalists who would have been forced to testify against Watada or face a prison sentence. The move drew significant criticism from organizations dedicated to civil liberties and freedom of the press.

As part of the agreement, the Army dropped the subpoenas at the same time it dropped the two misconduct charges, avoiding further controversy.

“This should be seen as a victory for the rights of journalists in the U.S. to gather and disseminate news free from government intervention,” Sarah Olson, one of the journalists subpoenaed, said in a statement, “and for the rights of individuals to express personal, political opinions to journalists without fear of retribution or censure. I am glad the growing number of dissenting voices within the military will retain their rights to speak with reporters.”

Watada’s defense also faced disappointing news, according to the Associated Press; Judge Lt. Col. John Head ruled on Jan. 16 that the legality of the war is a political question that could not be argued in a military court.

Head also stated that he believes there are limits to the free-speech rights of military personnel, thus rejecting the defense’s claims that Watada’s First Amendment rights shielded him from charges stemming from his criticism of the war.

“We have been stripped of every defense,” Watada’s attorney Eric A. Seitz, Watada’s attorney, told the AP. “This is a disciplinary system, not a justice system. Otherwise, we would have been entitled to defend ourselves.”

Seitz has stated previously that he plans to present evidence that the war is illegal during the appeals process before the military appeals court and the Supreme Court.

The trial is set to begin on Feb 5.

Watada’s Mother Visits Bay Area

Watada’s profile has grown significantly over the past several months; he has been interviewed on “National Public Radio’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross” and discussed by Amy Goodman on the satirical political TV show “The Colbert Report.” He has received statements of support from Congressmen Mike Honda and Dennis Kucinich and celebrities like Susan Sarandon, Willie Nelson and Danny Glover.

Watada supporters took to the street all over the country on Saturday, joining large crowds of anti-war protestors. Organizers told the San Francisco Chronicle that approximately 10,000 people attended the rally in that city. The keynote speaker, however, was a Watada supporter who is otherwise not a public figure — his mother, Carolyn Ho.

In addition to her appearance at the anti-war rally, Ho attended a large number of events in the San Francisco Bay Area over the past weekend. She appeared on Saturday, Jan. 27 at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California and at an Oakland screening of the film “Little Birds.”

The following day she made a series of appearances in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

“Today was a milestone,” Rev. Norman Fong, one of the event’s organizers, said after Ho spoke. “The community overall has not (given Watada) a lot of press, so today we invited them. It will be on Chinese TV which will be very important because it’s broadcast to the whole Bay Area… 500 people showed up, youths and seniors... it was very powerful.”

Ho urged the Chinatown audience to write letters, sign petitions and post signs demanding that the military drop the charges and allow Watada to resign.

“I ask you right now to take action in support of him,” Ho told the crowd at Chinatown’s Cameron House. “The way this resolves itself will speak to the soldiers and tell them whether or not they are being supported and it will speak to the politicians as to how we feel about the war (and soldiers’ rights).”

The Thank You Lt. Watada Website’s petition to support Watada and request the military accept his resignation has reached tens of thousands of signatures as of Jan. 31.

A Mother’s Story

After a Jan. 28 speaking appearance, Ho told the Nichi Bei Times the story of Watada’s refusal to deploy from a mother’s point of view.

Ho says that in 2003, she was shocked to learn that her son had chosen to join the Army. Ho and Watada’s father Robert are both activists, critical of the American military and foreign policy.

“I come out of the Vietnam era and I did not want my children being part of the military industrial complex,” Ho explained. “Growing up he got the message and from me and it wasn’t subtle.

“I found out he joined after the fact, I was very angry at his father (who the younger Watada had consulted),” Ho continued. “His Dad is much more into laying out the options and the pros and cons, I’m much more into ‘no way are you going to join and go to war!’”

Ho speculated that his years as a Cub Scout, a Boy Scout, and eventually an Eagle Scout might have influenced his decision. She says that the founder of the program meant for the Boy Scouts to instill patriotism in children and prepare them for military service. Watada had expressed some desire to join the military during those years but it wasn’t until 2001 that he acted on it.

“9/11 changed his perspective; in his mind he felt America was vulnerable and he had to protect his country,” Ho said. “My son really believed that that profession was a noble one.”

However, when her son told her he was refusing to deploy to Iraq in Jan 2006, Ho was against that decision as well. She did not want to him to ruin his career or be vilified by the press and the military.

She explained to “Democracy Now” that her son told her, “Mom, I really know where all that comes from. And I really know that you’re trying to be protective… You know, I felt really betrayed by the fact that you were trying to talk me out of what I really felt my conscience was dictating.”

Ho eventually came to endorse her son’s decision, but said she was concerned he would not have any support. When she finished her obligations as a school counselor for the semester, she took a plane out to Washington State, where she found that support has already formed.

“I put my clothes in a suitcase and I came straight to Washington State and as soon I got to the fort, there was already a group of activists who had been at it for two weeks,” she explained. “It all came together very suddenly. I stayed all the way through the end of July. It was really important for me to leave my work, and bring all the elements of support together.”

She has since toured the country and is in California for what she calls “a last-ditch effort to build momentum for the court martial.”

She will be in Illinois and Indiana this week and will participate in a march in Los Angeles’ Little Tokyo on Feb. 3

“The communities have been overwhelmingly kind and embracing. I didn’t even know about all these groups in Chinatown and Japantown in San Francisco,” Ho said. “I wish my son could be out here to see it.”