Joshua Key's Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) hearing

Once Again Laura has provided us with an excellent window into the struggles of our War Resisters and other refugees as they seek refuge in Canada. Joshua Key refused to fight in Iraq and spoke out against the US policy. 

Here Laura reports on Joshua's IRB hearing. She broke it down into 6 parts as there is quite a bit of information. Take the time to read it and you will gain some insight into the legal process our resisters face.

photo by Ken Marciniec 

Part one

Part two

Part three

Part four

Part five

Part six

To meet June deadline, US and Iraqis redraw city borders

'What is a city' is one question the US and Iraq must answer as they try to balance a requirement that US combat forces withdraw from cities next month and the need for US help to maintain security.

By Jane Arraf | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the May 19, 2009 edition

"If our long-term goal is strategic partnership in Iraq, I would suspect beyond 2011 we would have some kind of long-term presence here," says the senior US commander.

BAGHDAD - On a map of Baghdad, the US Army's Forward Operating Base Falcon is clearly within city limits.

Except that Iraqi and American military officials have decided it's not. As the June 30 deadline for US soldiers to be out of Iraqi cities approaches, there are no plans to relocate the roughly 3,000 American troops who help maintain security in south Baghdad along what were the fault lines in the sectarian war.

"We and the Iraqis decided it wasn't in the city," says a US military official. The base on the southern outskirts of Baghdad's Rasheed district is an example of the fluidity of the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) agreed to late last year, which orders all US combat forces out of Iraqi cities, towns, and villages by June 30.

"We consider the security agreement a living document," says a senior US commander. With six weeks to go, US and Iraqi commanders are sitting down in joint security committees to determine how they can comply with the decree that all US combat forces withdraw from populated areas by the end of June and still maintain the requirement to assist Iraq in fighting the insurgency and maintaining security and stability.

"[The Iraqis are] clear in their intention, less clear in their implementation," says the senior military official, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the subject.

COMPLEXITY OF OPERATING UNDER SOFA

The security agreement, which took effect five months ago and charts the US-Iraqi relationship for years to come, is also being tested in murkier waters, such as the US right to self-defense.
A US-led raid in the southern Iraqi city of Kut last month, in which an Iraqi woman was killed in the crossfire, prompted protests in the streets. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the operation a crime and demanded that the American soldiers involved be turned over to Iraqi courts, saying the raid violated the terms of the security agreement.

US officials say they had valid warrants for the operation targeting suspected members of Iranian-funded Shiite militias involved in weapons smuggling. One suspect was killed in the raid and six others detained before Iraqi authorities ordered their release.

One US military official said that although Iraqi authorities had been notified of the raid in advance, those authorities maintained they had not approved it. He said the US side believed it was exercising its right to self-defense under the agreement when the raid turned violent.
The US military offered condolences and was believed to have paid compensation to the family of the woman killed.

"Kut shone a brighter light on the complexity of what we are facing," says the senior US commander.   <READ MORE>

-thanks to the Christian Science Monitor

Additional note on recent Jason Kenney picket in Toronto

I forgot a little Campaign note that I wanted to share. So rather than bury it in an old post, here's a new one.

This past Monday, Toronto Campaigners showed up at the Sutton Place Hotel, where an unpublicized event featuring Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney was taking place. (How do we know about these things? Magic!)

About 15-20 supporters were outside the hotel, holding our huge STOP DEPORTING U.S. WAR RESISTERS! banner and handing leaflets to passers-by. Someone going into the event took a leaflet and said, "I agree with you!"

We later heard that, inside, the protest "was definitely noticed". Someone in the audience stood to ask a question, and, identifying himself as an historian, "upbraided" Mr Kenney for his stance on war resisters in Canada, and "was warmly applauded".

People of peace and good conscience are everywhere!

* * * *
Kenney was at the hotel to announce Canada's participation in an international Holocaust education effort. The event was held on the 70th anniversary of Canada's refusal to allow a ship full of Jewish refugees into the country.

Canada had a lot of company on that one: every country in the Americas also refused to allow the passengers of the St Louis onto their shores. The 907 Jewish people on board were sent back to Germany.

That was a mistake that Canada now admits and regrets.

Today the Canadian government makes another mistake, by turning away and deporting war resisters.

-thanks to We Move To Canada

A tale of two war criminals: Bush and Clinton do Toronto

BY KRYSTALLINE KRAUS | JUNE 2, 2009

When you accuse anyone of war crimes, you’d better be sure you have the evidence to back it up; such an accusation is the equivalent of yelling “fire” in a crowded shopping mall.

It’s a serious charge, something that sits heavily on our psyche as fragile human beings who generally tend to disbelieve that any one could be capable of committing crimes against humanity, especially if they have elected him president.

Perhaps that’s why such a presidential event as a “conversation” between George W. Bush and Bill Clinton happened in Toronto, Canada on May 29, 2009 -- the event was billed as a “conversation,” maybe because the terms “meeting of the minds” or “great intellectual debate” would embarrass one of the two parties involved?).

The two men got a standing ovation from a packed audience that paid from $200 to over $2,000 a ticket at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

Yes, that’s right, a standing ovation from the crowd inside the Convention Centre. And both Presidents got paid for their time. While no one is telling how much each ex-President made off the 90 minute conversation, Bush reportedly received (US) $160,000 for his last appearance in Canada, in Calgary Alberta in March 2009. Clinton can charge up to (US) $350,000 per speaking engagement. Good work if you can get it.

But ask the 500 or so protesters across the street from the Convention Centre, organized by the Toronto Coalition to Stop the War, and the only standing up the presidents got were erect middle fingers. It was this side third and uninvited side of the conversation that chanted slogans such as "Bush and Clinton, war criminals: shame on you!”

Here are a few of the numerous examples of war crimes committed by each of the two men.

Bush as a war criminal

Bush is accused of numerous war crimes, resulting from him ignoring his own constitution’s “supremacy clause,” Article II, section 4, and the War Crimes Act of 1996 (18USC §2441).

Regarding the United States’ War Crimes Acts, author Mike Ferner from Veterans for Peace, writes:

“To give just a snapshot of how serious these laws are, consider this portion of 18 USC 2441 which defines a war crime as '... a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party ...' The guilty can be '... fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.'"

Not to mention important international treaties and conventions such as the Geneva Conventions, the Nuremberg rulings, the Laws and Customs of War on Land and UN General Assembly Resolution 3314. Breaches of these international treaties and conventions amounting to war crimes are too numerous to mention here (though they are listed at the website War Criminals Out, which has lists of charges and broken resolutions.)

The invasion of Iraq is cited as a prime example of Bush’s war crimes, where activists insist Bush should be charged under the UN Resolution 3314, Article 5 (codified from the principles of Nuremberg concerning “Wars of Aggression,” which cites as an historical example Hitler’s invasion of Poland) for committing a “crime against peace.” The invasion of Iraq is thus considered a war crime and a crime against humanity, which is spelled out in detail in the Geneva Conventions.

In Iraq alone, Ferner points out that Bush is responsible for, among other things,

“illegally invading a sovereign state, using banned weapons such as white phosphorous and napalm, bombing hospitals and civilian infrastructure, withholding aid and medical supplies, terrorizing and knowingly killing civilians, torturing prisoners, killing a million people and displacing 4 million more in Iraq alone.”

Now, we’re talking big crimes here, a big fire someone should point out to the general public.Clinton as a war criminal

While Clinton's presidency might enjoy a different reputation (think blue dress), there’s a case to be made regarding his culpability in committing war crimes. He was not the focus of the demo, but I don’t think he should get a free pass. Again, using the same international conventions and treaties listed above, there’s a list of actions to consider in regards to charging him with war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Clinton imposed, through the UN Security Council, sanctions on Iraq between 1990 and 2003, which had a devastating effect on the Iraqi population. The UN, in 1999, reported more that hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died as a result of the sanctions, disproportionately among children.

On June 26, 1993, the Clinton administration bombed Baghdad in retaliation for an alleged but unproven Iraq plot to assassinate former President George Bush, Sr.

Clinton’s administration and NATO conducted the bombing campaign of Bosnia from March 22 to June 11, 1999 without UN Security Council approval, against the rules of the Geneva Conventions.

Again, big fire here! Not only should Bush and Clinton’s actions translate into war crimes charges, but their disregard for not only American law but also international treaties and conventions undermines the rule of international law and undermines the consensus of the international community.

And we’re not even talking torture charges against Bush regarding his country’s treatment of foreign nationals at military and CIA run prisons, military or rendition sites around the world, an obvious breach of the Geneva Conventions. Reports from Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay alone might be enough to prosecute Bush and win convictions.

this is part of an article written by Krystalline Kraus, a Toronto-based writer.
-thanks to Courage to Resist

Let Them Stay

May 28, OP ED, Toronto Sun

 Mary Jo Leddy

Jeremy Hinzman was a soldier in the United States Army's elite infantry division, the 82nd Airborne. In 2002 and 2003 he served in Afghanistan in a non-combat role after applying for conscientious objector status. His application was refused and he learned that he would be deployed to Iraq. In January 2004 he drove to Niagara Falls, crossing the border with his partner Nga Nguyen and son Liam.

Hinzman was the first American Iraq war resister to seek refuge in Canada. Since then many others have joined him here realizing that were they to stay in the United States, they would be punished for their moral, political and religious beliefs.

In the coming days, Hinzman is expected to receive notice that he will be deported. Like Robin Long and Cliff Cornell, who were deported by the Harper government and sentenced respectively to 15 and 12 months in prison, Hinzman will be jailed as a prisoner of conscience.
For what crime were Long and Cornell sentenced to a year or more in prison?

During Long's court martial, the only piece of evidence presented against him was a video of him speaking out against the Iraq war on Canadian television. For Cornell, it was a clip of him being interviewed on CNN.

Ninety-four per cent of U.S. military deserters are administratively discharged. Those who have had the courage to make their opposition to the war public, like Long and Cornell, are convicted as felons. In many states that means they will be stripped of the right to vote and in all cases it means they won't be permitted to return to Canada.

Ever since the Nuremberg Trials, a new principle has entered the realities of modern warfare: the argument that one must follow orders in all circumstances is no longer justified. Following orders is not the ultimate test of patriotism. This is especially true in the case of an illegal, immoral and, in Barack Obama's words, "a dumb war" like that which is still being fought in Iraq.

Our former prime minister Jean Chrétien refused to send Canadian troops to Iraq, in spite of all the dire consequences he was threatened with. To this day, Canadians continue to support that decision with what pollsters call "statistical unanimity."

As a graduate student at the University of Toronto, I studied with many of those who came here because of resistance to the Vietnam War. They were allowed to stay and our country has been immensely enriched by this wave of immigrants who were willing to commit to the civil society that welcomed their ideas and values.

We would be a better country for welcoming Iraq war resisters, too.

In the last 11 months Parliament has twice voted for an end to these deportations. Our government has also been directed by the majority of MPs to establish a program to facilitate permanent resident status for Iraq war resisters.

Despite these democratic expressions of the will of the majority of Canadians, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney refuses to take action to accept Iraq war resisters' requests to stay on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.

As citizens, Canadians have the choice of whether we are going to be a colony of empire or a country of conscience.

Our government emphasizes programs for immigrants who make money. We also need immigrants who make sense.

Mary Jo Leddy is a senior fellow at the University of Toronto's Massey College and the founding editor of the Catholic New Times.

New Military Base in Colombia Would Spread Pentagon Reach Throughout Latin America

Written by John Lindsay-Poland

The Pentagon budget submitted to Congress on May 7, 2009 includes $46 million for development of a new U.S. military base in Palanquero, Colombia.

The official justification states that the Defense Department seeks "an array of access arrangements for contingency operations, logistics, and training in Central/South America."

The military facility in Colombia will give the United States military increased capacity for intervention throughout most of Latin America. The plan is being advanced amid tense relations between Washington and Venezuela, Bolivia, and Ecuador, and despite both a long history and recent revelations about the Colombian military's atrocious human rights record.

President Obama told hemispheric leaders last month that "if our only interaction with many of these countries is drug interdiction—if our only interaction is military—then we may not be developing the connections that can over time increase our influence and have a beneficial effect."1

In this Obama is on point. This base would feed a failed drug policy, support an abusive army, and reinforce a tragic history of U.S. military intervention in the region. It's wrong and wasteful, and Congress should scrap it.

The new facility in Palanquero, Colombia would not be limited to counter-narcotics operations, nor even to operations in the Andean region, according to an Air Mobility Command (AMC) planning document. The U.S. Southern Command (SouthCom) aims to establish a base with "air mobility reach on the South American continent" in addition to a capacity for counter-narcotics operations, through the year 2025.2

With help from the Transportation Command and AMC, the SouthCom noted that "nearly half of the continent can be covered by a C-17 without refueling" from Palanquero. If fuel is available at its destination, "a C-17 could cover the entire continent, with the exception of the Cape Horn region," the AMC planners wrote.3 <READ MORE>

-thanks to SOAW

War Resister, Manuel Leonard Perry, Jailed in Whatcom County

Manuel Leonard Perry was booked into the Whatcom County Jail in Bellingham , WA , on Monday, June 1, after he turned himself in at the Canada-U.S. border. The 30 year-old Marine is from West Virginia . He was attached to a Marine Reserve Unit in Maryland and went AWOL in April 2003 after his unit received orders to deploy to Iraq .

Local attorney Larry Hildes and Marie Marchand, executive director of The Whatcom Peace & Justice Center, visited with Perry on Tuesday evening. The Whatcom Peace & Justice Center and the G.I. Sanctuary City Movement will hold a vigil for Perry 10am-1pm on Wednesday, June 3rd, in front of the Whatcom County Jail, 311 Grand Avenue.

This arrest and detention comes less than a week before The City of Bellingham hosts a Community Discussion on the matter of G.I. war resisters. This public discussion will take place on Monday, June 8, at 7pm at the Municipal Court Building , 2014 C St . It will be filmed and televised at a later date on BTV10.

-thanks to Nick Springer of the Bellingham GI Sanctuary City 

As Wars’ Death Toll Passes 5,000, Military Families Urge President Obama to Bring All Our Troops Home Now

DC Boots

 As the nation awaits confirmation from the Pentagon of the 5,000th death of a U.S. service member in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, members of Military Families Speak Out are mourning the dead and calling on President Obama to honor the sacrifices of these service members and their families and honor all of those who serve by acting swiftly to end both wars.

Warren Henthorn of Choctaw, OK, the father of Army Spc. Jeffrey Henthorn who died in Iraq on Feb 8, 2005, says:

“Way too many have died on all sides of these wars. If I remember correctly, President Obama won the Democratic nomination based on the promise to end the war in Iraq. But, between Iraq and Afghanistan, at the end of this year we will actually have more troops in harm’s way then we did at the height of the ‘surge.’ That’s just as bad as we had it under President Bush. These wars now belong to President Obama. The blood is on his hands.”

Henthorn is a member of Gold Star Families Speak Out, a national chapter of Military Families Speak Out whose loved ones died a result of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jane Bright of West Hills, CA, the mother of Sgt. Evan Aschraft who was killed at the perimeter of an oil refinery in Iraq on July 24, 2003, is also a member of Gold Star Families Speak Out. She says:

"My son was the 249th U.S. service member killed in Iraq – it’s hard to believe that 5,000 of our troops have already died in Iraq and Afghanistan. How many more? We need to bring all our troops home from these wars and we need to take care of our veterans when they return home, giving them the medical and psychological care and treatment they need and deserve.”

Maggie Pondolfino, a member of Military Families Speak Out from Portland, OR has been nervously watching the death toll in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan rise as her son awaits a deployment to Afghanistan with the U.S. Army:

“It’s been over a year since my only son returned from a 14 month deployment to Iraq. Over a year since I was immobilized with dread at every unexpected knock on my door and every unfamiliar van parked in front of my house. Daily, I obsessively checked the Department of Defense casualty list. Too many times the names were close to home…someone from our state, or even someone from his platoon,” says Pondolfino. “I imagined the other mothers’ grief and wondered would I be able to endure it? Then I had a year of relative calm. I even celebrated a new administration and momentarily experienced the hope that seemed to engulf the country. “Now as the nation braces for the news of the confirmation of the 5,000th death of a U.S. service member in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration that briefly gave me new hope prepares to send my son to another war with no clear mission and no exit strategy. And how do I prepare? How do I prepare for another year of going through the motions of living, while wondering if he will come home? If he does will he have to fight a war within himself? If he does not come home, my darling boy with his loving heart and keen intellect will have died for nothing. I know that no good will come from continuing the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, just more heartbreak, sorrow, and tragedy. When will we ever learn?”

-thanks to Military Families Speak Out

Important hearing for War Resister Joshua Key - June 3rd

This is straight from We Move to Canada. Laura has a link to the prologue for his book, the Deserter's Tale. The book is a couple of years old. It's worth taking a few moments to read the intro as it adds to people's understanding of why soldiers choose to leave the service when they have signed a contract, which seems to be the main argument cited the people who oppose the idea of creating sanctuary communities for the war resisters. 

Laura's report:

Tomorrow, June 3, the Immigration and Refugee Board will hear the case of war resister Joshua Key for the second time.

Last summer, the Federal Court ordered the IRB to re-hear Josh's case with a new immigration officer.

In a strongly worded opinion, Justice Robert Barnes said,

"Officially condoned military misconduct falling well short of a war crime may support a claim to refugee protection".

This is the first of the war resisters' cases to make it this far, and we have been eagerly awaiting the hearing.

Josh Key, as you probably know, is the author (with Lawrence Hill) of The Deserter's Tale, a riveting book that exposes the heart of military resistance. I always say that if you want to understand everything about this issue - why people in the US join the military, what they find there, what happens when they try to leave - you should read this book. It's very compelling; once you start, you won't be able to put it down. I posted the book's introduction here, and blogged about it again here.

If you're a supporter of US war resisters in Canada, and you live in the Toronto area, please join us for a vigil outside the IRB tomorrow morning. You can also attend the hearing, as space permits.

Please note the address; this is not the Federal Court on Queen Street.

When: Wednesday, June 3, 8:00 a.m. vigil, 8:30 hearing
Where: 74 Victoria Street, east of Yonge, south of Queen
Why: LET THEM STAY!

Hope to see you there.

-thanks to Laura at We Move To Canada

And from Courage To Resist:

Oklahoma native enlisted in the Army and was sent to Iraq shortly after the 2003 invasion.  While home on leave, traveled to Canada instead of returning to Iraq. Authored “The Deserter’s Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq” published by Atlantic Monthly Press, January 2007. The following is from "The Deserter’s Tale: A Tale of War Crimes from the Perspective of a Grunt" by Kenneth J. Theisen, September 20, 2007:

Joshua Key enlisted in the U.S. army and was sent to Iraq shortly after the 2003 invasion. His book which is an account of his life and his seven months in Iraq is well worth reading.  It is entitled, “The Deserter’s Tale: The Story of an Ordinary Soldier Who Walked Away from the War in Iraq.” Key is typical of many who have enlisted in the U.S. military.  He was poor in Oklahoma, with a family to support, and with very few resources to support that family. One day he went to an army recruiting office where the recruiter told him he could join up and not worry about being deployed overseas.  He could spend his enlistment building bridges and learning a trade in the U.S.  He might even get an education at government expense.  And like many who bought such BS from their recruiters he ended up being a “grunt” on the ground in a war-torn nation. After being trained in demolition not construction, Key was deployed to Iraq in the spring of 2003.  As part of the 43rd Combat Engineer Company of the Second Squadron, 3rd Armored Calvary Regiment, Key found himself in the midst of a criminal war. He was first assigned to Ramadi, Iraq.  He did get an education, but not the one promised by the recruiter. Nearly every night he was assigned to participate in raids on Iraqi homes.  With his expertise in explosives, he would set charges that would blow open the entrances to the homes that were invaded.  Although ostensibly he and his fellow troops were after “terrorists” and insurgents, he states in the 200 plus raids he was on, they never discovered any such people.  Instead they found ordinary families, usually in bedclothes and only awakened by the explosion. In these raids, Iraqi males were usually beaten and if over five foot tall, taken away in plastic handcuffs to places like Abu Ghraib for further abuse and torture. Items in the home were either destroyed or stolen by the troops.  Key admits that at first he took part in the stealing and abuse.  He saw the Iraqis as non-human which was consistent with his basic training where Iraqis were referred to as sand niggers, terrorists, ragheads, and habibs.  He was taught to kill the enemy and all Iraqis were seen as the enemy. But eventually Key began to see the humanity of the “enemy.”   One chapter of the book is entitled “The Girl at the Hospital.”  He was assigned to guard duty at the children’s hospital in Ramadi.  Each day he was visited by an Iraqi girl of about seven.  The girl was always dressed in her school uniform and sandals.  She would say, “Mister, food” and he would give her his MRE or field rations.  She would then run home to feed her family.  He was chewed out several times by his Lieutenant for fraternizing with the enemy for giving the girl food. But each day he looked forward to seeing the little girl who reminded him of his own children.  As he said, “Her visits were the best part of my days…”  Then one day, “I saw the girl run out of her house, across the street, and toward the fence that stood between us.  I reached for my MRE, looked up too see her about ten feet away, and heard the sound of semiautomatic gunfire, and saw her head blow up…The only thing I had heard was the distinctive sound of an M-16…I looked in every direction. The only armed people in the area were my squad mates…it was the sound of my own people’s guns that I heard blazing before the little sister was stopped in her tracks…Her death haunts me to this day.” But this is not the only atrocity he witnessed.  One night while riding in his APC along the Euphrates River he and his squad mates came across the gruesome site of “four decapitated Iraqis in their bloodied white robes lying a few feet from a bullet-ridden pick-up truck…I assumed that someone had used a massive amount of gunfire to behead them.”  He then observed an American soldier screaming, “We fucking lost it, we just lost it,” while “Two other soldiers were laughing and kicking the heads of the decapitated Iraqis.”  While driving away from this scene the driver of the APC swerved it in order to run over one of the heads. These are just two of the horrifying incidents described by Key in the book. He also witnessed the murder of a 10 year-old girl and guards being posted outside of a house while U.S. officers entered. The house held several captive Iraqi women inside. Keys described the terrified screams of the Iraqi women. Were they sexually assaulted, tortured, both?  The book is filled with such crimes of American forces in Iraq. Finally Keys had had enough. When he got permission to go home briefly he made the decision to desert in order to stop being a war criminal.  He describes in the book how he and his family made it to Canada and were welcomed by anti-war Canadians.

Cindy Sheehan discusses bringing the Guard home with Leah Bolger

This week Cindy talked with author, David Vine,  about his book: Island of Shame: The Secret History of the U.S. Military Base on Diego Garcia. The second half of the interview is with Leah Bolger from Oregon. They discuss, Bring the National Guard Home: It's the Law

You can listen to the interviews here.

Cindy Sheehan on her website, Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

That's a lot of links for such a small amount of copy, but I had to do it.