Harper government barring door to U.S. war deserters

Harper government barring door to U.S. war deserters

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Harper+government+barring+door+deserters/1741756/story.html

By Norma Greenaway
June 29, 2009

OTTAWA ­ Jason Kenney's most memorable assault on U.S. war deserters
seeking refuge in Canada occurred soon after he became immigration
minister in October 2008.

Kenney dismissed them as "bogus refugee claimants," a phrase that set
off loud alarm bells among the deserters' supporters because it was
more loaded than anything said before by his Tory predecessors in the job.

The phrase cannot be found in more than 300 pages of department
briefing notes, e-mails and other documents relating to the issue
obtained by Canwest News Service under Access to Information legislation.

Not surprisingly, the language in the documents, including background
briefing notes for the minister and his parliamentary secretary
written by bureaucrats, is decidedly more neutral than the words
chosen by the Calgary firebrand.

Still, the underlying message in the printed material dating back
three years is there is no appetite for intervening politically to do
for Iraqi war deserters what Pierre Trudeau did for Vietnam War draft
dodgers and deserters in 1969, when his government laid out the
welcome mat for both groups. There also is nothing in the documents
that suggests the issue has spurred any debate within government ranks.

In a memorandum to Kenney in February, Richard Fadden, his
then-deputy minister, provided a thorough review of the issue that,
among other things, laid out why all Iraqi war deserters' claims for
refugee status had failed so far with the Immigration and Refugee
Board, the Federal Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal.

Fadden wrote that, whereas the UN High Commission for Refugees
Handbook suggests a relevant factor to consider in a refugee claim is
whether a deserter was drafted or joined the army voluntarily,
deserters now coming to Canada from the U.S. had volunteered for
military service.

Fadden ­ recently named the new head of Canadian Security
Intelligence Service ­ also said the deserters have failed to make
the case that the punishment they face back home for desertion could
be regarded as persecution.

Other notes say refugee hearing officers have been advised to be
"particularly vigilant" about refugee claims from such western
democracies as the United States.

Kenney is the third Tory immigration minister to reject calls to
establish a special program to facilitate permanent resident status
to those who deserted the U.S. military to escape a war they say they
cannot support on moral or religious grounds.

Supporters of the deserters admit they are discouraged, but they vow
to keep pressing the government to show some compassion before more
get eviction notices.

Immigration critics for the opposition Liberals, New Democrats and
Bloc Quebecois sent a joint letter to Kenney on Friday asking him to
halt all deportations and to respect the "will" of Parliament, which
has approved two motions calling for permanent resident status for
the "war resisters."

"We urge the government to show compassion for those who have chosen
not to participate in a war that was not sanctioned by the United
Nations," the letter said.

Two deserters have been forced to leave already and are serving jail
sentences on desertion charges.

A handful of others could follow soon as they exhaust their legal
options. Among them are Jeremy Hinzman, the first deserter to file
for refugee status in Canada in 2004; Kimberly Rivera, the mother of
three young children, one of whom was born in Canada; and Phil
McDowell, an Iraqi war veteran who fled to Canada in 2006 rather than
accept a call to report back to base as a reservist for a 15-month
deployment to Iraq.

Michelle Robidoux, a spokeswoman for the War Resisters Support
Campaign, says about 50 deserters have applied for refugee status and
there are dozens more living below the radar, waiting to see how the
legal and political battles play out.

Robidoux said Kenney's comments have tainted the Immigration Refugee
Board process.

"How can it possibly be an independent body when a Minister of the
Crown is saying they are bogus refugees?" she said.

Kenney accuses his critics of politicizing the process by asking for
a political solution rather than trusting Canada's "fair,
internationally recognized" system for providing refuge to those
fleeing persecution in their home country.

Patricia Molloy, a university professor and activist with the support
campaign, said she was so frustrated by Kenney's intransigence that
she rejigged a visit to Europe to make a side trip to Oslo, Norway to
organize a "small, peaceful protest" to coincide with Kenney's
attendance last week at an international conference aimed at
enhancing education about the Holocaust.

In an e-mail sent after she talked to Kenney, Molloy said she told
the minister she applauds the government for finally recognizing
Canada's historical failure to protect Jewish refugees from crimes
against humanity but that she can't understand why it is "failing to
protect refugees who refuse to commit crimes against humanity in Iraq."

Alykhan Velshi, a spokesman for Kenney, objected to linking the Iraqi
deserter issue to the Holocaust.

"There is no similarity between the Mackenzie King government's
refusal to accept Jewish refugees fleeing the Holocaust with our
unwillingness to create a special program for American war deserters
trying to flee the Obama administration," he said in an e-mail from Oslo.

.

We Won’t Go Back

We Won't Go Back

http://www.torontolife.com/features/we-wont-go-back/

To avoid serving in Iraq, 75 American soldiers have left their homes
and families and fled to Toronto By Maggie Gilmour

To avoid serving in Iraq, 300 American soldiers have left their homes
and families and fled to Canada, 75 of them to Toronto. Many assumed
they'd get a visa, settle down and live a normal life. But the
federal government has rejected their refugee claims and ordered them
deported. Some go into hiding; others wait for appeals and judicial
reviews of their cases. In the meantime, they've put down roots,
taking temp jobs and raising children, nostalgic for a time when
Canada was a haven for conscientious objectors.

Page 1 of 37

[Continued at URL above.]

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War Resisters Held in Legal Limbo

War Resisters Held in Legal Limbo

http://www.truthout.org/061609K

Tuesday 16 June 2009
by: Sarah Lazare, t r u t h o u t | Report

At Fort Bragg, North Carolina, AWOL soldiers find themselves
detained for months under difficult conditions in an extended legal
limbo they cannot escape.

Dustin Stevens is one of about 50 soldiers being held at Fort
Bragg awaiting likely AWOL and desertion charges that seem like they
will never arrive, he says.

A former soldier who refused to continue military service seven
years ago because he did not want to fight a war, Stevens says that
he and his colleagues are being held in legal limbo - a no man's land
of poor living standards and arbitrary punishments - while awaiting
charges and possible court-martial. Stevens has been in a holdover
unit for five months without charges, and he says that others have
been held for up to a year in conditions he describes as harrowing.

The unit is overcrowded and filthy, he says, with four people to
a room. The command verbally abuses the soldiers, with one commanding
officer proclaiming, "We should just shoot you all," according to
Stevens. Troops are not receiving the medical and mental health care
they need. "People around me are literally going crazy. I hear people
threaten suicide on a daily basis," says Stevens. "They won't give us
leave passes unless it's a dire emergency, so we're just sitting
here, day by day."

The command offered the soldiers a free pass if they agreed to
deploy to Afghanistan, according to Stevens. About ten people took up
the offer, he says. Those who decline must find a way to endure.

At least 50 AWOL troops are being held right now in the holdover
unit at the 82nd Replacement Company, constituting about
three-quarters of its population, with the rest medical holdovers,
says Stevens, who is corroborated by his civilian lawyer, James
Branum. A holdover unit is a special unit for people who are on a
legal hold of some kind, whether it is because they are seeking
medical discharge, switching assignments or, as in Stevens's case,
waiting for charges.

Branum says that at this particular holdover unit, AWOL soldiers
are being held for long stretches of time before receiving charges.
"People are in this unit for months and months. They take forever to
do anything," says Branum. "You are going to be there six months if
you're lucky, 12 if you're not."

Maj. Virginia McCabe, 82nd Airborne Division spokesperson,
confirmed that AWOL soldiers are in the Holdover unit at the 82nd
Replacement Company at Fort Bragg, but could not say how many are
there, how long they are being held, or what their conditions are
like. She acknowledged that soldiers are confined to the unit if they
are deemed a flight risk, but could not provide details on how that
is determined. "Each AWOL soldier has his or her own special
circumstances," she says. "They stay in a holding platoon until a
legal decision is made. Or they might say they made a mistake and are
ready to serve."

Kathy Gilbert, head of the Military Law Task Force of the
National Lawyers Guild, says that holdover units can be very
unpleasant. "In reality, a lot of times these units are run by senior
enlisted personnel who are obnoxious and give people a hard time," she says.

Gilbert also says that legal hold makes it structurally
difficult to make complaints. "People on restriction would have to
request to see a commanding officer, the person officially in charge
of restriction, if they wanted to make a complaint. There is not an
official way to do that," says Gilbert. "Most people who are on
restriction don't even know whose authority places them on
restriction and don't know that senior enlisted personnel don't have
the authority they often claim to have. Command doesn't have an open
door policy or encourage people to speak up."

In a military where desertion is still technically punishable by
death, Stevens says he has found military "justice" to be cruel and arbitrary.

In May 2002, after five months in the Army, Stevens refused to
stand in formation at his Airborne graduation and declared that he no
longer wanted to serve. Stevens had joined the army to escape a
broken home, thinking he had few other options. Yet, since day one,
he had been having panic and anxiety attacks, finding himself morally
opposed to his service, and to the prospect of deployment to Iraq or
Afghanistan sometime in the future. "I knew in my heart and in my
mind, I couldn't kill anybody and couldn't be a part of an
organization that did so," he says. Upon his refusal, Stevens's
command told him to simply go home and wait for his discharge papers,
he says. The papers never showed up, but he didn't think anything of
it, he says.

Seven years later, during a routine traffic stop, Stevens was
told that there was a warrant for his arrest and he was whisked off
to military custody, torn away from his girlfriend and his job. "This
whole time, I've been living my life. I've been working, paying
taxes, had a car and apartment," he says. Since January 15, 2009, he
has been in a holdover unit, biding his time while he awaits charges
that might be months away. These months of detention will not count
toward his sentence.

Stevens says that the people being held in the 82nd Holdover
Unit went AWOL for various reasons, some because they were opposed to
the war, some because the Army wouldn't let them leave to tend to
family problems, and some because of medical problems.

"It is horrible here. We are treated like animals," he says.
"We're all just lost, wanting to go home. Some of us are going crazy,
some were already crazy, some are sick," he says. "I'm bouncing on a
pin needle. I read all of the time, I talk to people all of the time
to try to stay out of this place in my mind. It's really hard."

"AWOL troops being held in a replacement unit is totally absurd
and unusual and is an example of how the command has plenty of ways
to punish people and enforce discipline, bypassing the formal justice
system. Smoking people, giving them unofficial duties, mistreatment,
and in this case, making an example out of people and segregating
them, are all informal mechanisms of punishment commonly used in the
military." says Carl Davison, Iraq war resister and member of Iraq
Veterans Against the War. "People who follow their consciences
deserve our support, and there needs to be a highly vocal community
out there to let them know they are not alone."

"Every single person here should not be here. There are people
here who should be in mental hospitals, who are just sitting here.
This place is hell, it really is," says Stevens. "And in my mind, I
didn't even do anything wrong."
--

Sarah Lazare is a project coordinator for Courage to Resist.

.

Canada’s New Leaf

Canada's New Leaf

http://www.newsweek.com/id/200860

America's war deserters could always take comfort in Canada. Now,
it's the country that's deserting them.

By Gretel C. Kovach | NEWSWEEK
Published Jun 6, 2009

Kimberly Rivera thought joining the Army would solve her problems.
Before she enlisted in 2006, she was struggling on her Wal-Mart
paycheck while her husband worked odd jobs and tended their two small
kids. She knew she'd be sent to Iraq, but she didn't mind. "I thought
I was helping my family and helping my country," she says. But her
problems only got worse; she and Mario did nothing but fight on the
phone, and the war kept eating at her. In January 2007, while she was
home on leave in Mesquite, Texas, she and Mario packed up their car
and headed for Toronto rather than let her return to Iraq. The old
junker barely made it before breaking down.

Now 26, Rivera has more problems than ever. Her mother hasn't spoken
to her since she fled to Canada, although Rivera misses her terribly.
And the Canadian government keeps trying to send her home to face
desertion charges. She might end up in a military prison­but says she
has no regrets about her broken commitment to the service of her
country. "At least I can say I never killed anyone, ever," she says.
"I think that's a little more honorable."

As Rivera awaits her next court appeal in July, some 50 other
American deserters are waging their own asylum battles in Canada.
They've inspired rallies and parliamentary resolutions, and triggered
clashes between lawmakers and Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Not long
ago Iraq provoked similar passions on the U.S. side of the border.
But after six years of conflict, thousands of combat deaths and
innumerable scandals, most Americans are eager to move on. In some
ways the war over the war now rages more fiercely in Canada than in
the United States.

Dubbed "Resisterville" by opponents of the war, Toronto has become
the deserters' refuge of choice. Many settled in the Parkdale
neighborhood, a gritty area west of downtown, where placards pledging
support for the dissenters sit in some apartment windows, framed by
grubby stonework and peeling paint. Rivera and her husband rented a
place there, and last year they had their third child, Katie. As the
first mother to publicly campaign for asylum, Rivera offers an
alluring face for the movement, appearing at rallies with her
Canadian-born child to read a poem she wrote for the Iraqi people. "I
was fighting for your liberty," it reads. "I was fighting for peace.
But in reality, I was fighting to destroy everything you know and love."

When Rivera deployed to Iraq in October 2006, she sounded a lot more
like the red-blooded, flag-waving Texan she'd been raised to be. As
far as the enemy was concerned, "bomb them all to hell," she thought.
A few months into her tour her attitude began to change. Standing in
full battle rattle before a young Iraqi girl who shook and sobbed and
peered up at her with wild-eyed terror, Rivera was painfully reminded
of her daughter Rebecca. The carnage, the constant menace, the strain
of separation from her family­all of it wore her down. She barely
slept, ate little and withdrew from her fellow troops. Home on leave,
Rivera couldn't fathom returning to the war zone. She and Mario
talked things over, then packed up their belongings, loaded Rebecca
and her older brother Christian into a beat-up Geo Prizm and took off
for Canada.

She and the others have found succor in the War Resisters Support
Campaign. Working out of a cramped office loaned by the United
Steelworkers of America, the group has opened chapters in 12 Canadian
cities and built a roster of supporters that numbers in the
thousands. It helps newcomers find housing, apply for work permits
and pay for legal counsel. But more than anything, it tries to
ratchet up pressure on the Canadian government to let the deserters stay.

Among the organization's most ardent members are Vietnam-era
deserters like Lee Zaslofsky, who serves as the campaign's de facto
spokesman. Back in the 1960s and '70s, Canada proudly offered shelter
to more than 50,000 Americans, roughly half of whom ended up staying,
despite President Jimmy Carter's unconditional pardon in 1977. Now
grayer but just as fiery, the old-timers still gather at grungy
watering holes to toss back drinks and rail against injustice. One
recent evening at an Irish pub the talk turned to the American
public's apparent disengagement from the war in Iraq. "It has not
captured the hearts and minds of the American people because there is
no draft," says Carolyn Egan, a trade unionist and Vietnam-era expat.
"The people don't want to hear about it," Zaslofsky offered. "It's
'We want it over and Obama is going to make it go away'."

Yet Canada isn't the open-armed sanctuary it once was. True, the
public is firmly against the Iraq War; according to a recent poll,
three in five Canadians think the Americans should be granted
permanent residency. And in March, Parliament voted for the second
time in favor of a nonbinding resolution calling for a halt to
deportations of deserters. But Harper, a Conservative, spoke in
support of the Iraq War before assuming power and has uniformly
rejected the petitioners' asylum claims. Last July, the government
began deporting deserters.

Harper's immigration minister, Jason Kenney, once complained that the
resisters were "bogus refugee claimants," clogging the courts with
baseless applications. When one of the deserters' supporters,
accompanied by a cameraman, cornered Kenney and pleaded with him not
to separate Rivera from her Canadian child, Kenney replied, "Talk to
the Obama administration," and got in his car and sped off. That
hostility leaves immigration lawyers few options. "I don't think this
is a situation that ultimately will be resolved in the courts," says
Alyssa Manning, Rivera's attorney. "I'm just buying time for a
political solution."

All of which means that the United States must now figure out what to
do with the deserters who have already begun trickling back. No one
expects Obama to issue them a pardon. They'll have to plead their
cases before the military command. Prosecution rates of deserters
have increased during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, from 2
percent at the start to about 10 percent now (the remainder receive
administrative punishments, like the loss of a stripe). With the help
of a new electronic notification system that issues arrest warrants
to local police, the military has been nabbing more deserters than
ever, according to Lt. Col. Nathan Banks, an Army spokesman. Indeed,
Rivera says Texas cops called her family members incessantly for
months, even relatives she'd never met.

Still, Banks thinks the resister issue has been overblown. More than
20,000 soldiers have deserted the Army since 2001, peaking at 4,700
in 2007, the highest number in decades (the figure dropped to about
2,900 last year). Yet that amounts to less than 1 percent of the
force. Contrast that with 1971, at the height of the Vietnam War,
when some 33,000 soldiers, or 3.4 percent, abandoned their posts.
"The vast majority of American soldiers serve their country
admirably," says Banks. And those who flee, he adds, usually do so
for family or financial reasons, not to make a political statement.

That doesn't mean the Canadian deserters will find a receptive
audience if they're sent home. Robin Long was the first American
soldier to be deported and received a 15-month sentence in the brig.
Next up was Cliff Cornell, who got 12 months. Jeremy Hinzman could be
removed at any moment, and Rivera­whose asylum application has
already been rejected twice­may well follow. Her apartment remains a
maze of moving boxes, a continual reminder of the legal limbo she
finds herself in. She cringes at the thought of another long
separation from her family, of bidding farewell to Toronto, a city
she's come to love. "The best thing about Canada is it allowed me to
get the strength to deal with the consequences" of deserting. Those
consequences are just starting to unfold.

.

Deserter warns of prosecution if sent back to US

Deserter warns of prosecution if sent back to US

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20090603/war_deserter_090603/20090603/?hub=TorontoNewHome

Jun. 03 2009

TORONTO ­ A war deserter from the U.S. who fled to Canada was visibly
tense Wednesday as he made his case for asylum for a second time,
arguing he will face unfair prosecution if sent back to the United States.

Joshua Key told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing in Toronto
that what he was being asked to do in Iraq was "immoral" and it made
him question the war he once supported.

"To me it was morally wrong what I was doing to Iraqi civilians," Key
told the board member hearing his case. "It very much plays on me, it
still plays on me."

Last July, Canada's refugee board was ordered to take another look at
Key's case after initially denying him asylum. The Federal Court
found the board made mistakes in turning down Key's claim.

At the time, Justice Robert Barnes said military misconduct falling
short of war crimes may still support a claim of refugee status.
Barnes also said actions that degrade or humiliate combatants and
non-combatants would also support a claim.

Key and his family fled to Canada in 2005 while on leave after
serving in Iraq for eight months as a combat engineer.

On Wednesday, Key said he conducted more than 200 arbitrary raids on
ordinary civilians. Soldiers forced men outside of their homes,
cuffing them, hooding them and sometimes forcing them to undress, he said.

Roger Gould, tribunal officer for the Immigration and Refugee Board,
asked Key why his superior wanted the soldiers to do this.

"To dehumanize," Key replied.

There was a rigid chain of command, which prevented him from bringing
his concerns forward because soldiers were often told "quit
complaining or be charged," Key said.

A defence of misconduct or unfair treatment against Iraqi civilians
would be inadmissible in a military tribunal, said Key, who added
that means he would have no defence if sent back to the U.S.

His decision to publish a book about his experience would further
damage any chance of fairness, said Key, who cited other cases of
severe punishments for war resisters who spoke to media.

The immigration board member who heard Key's case reserved his decision.

After the hearing, Key seemed relieved.

"I believe in what I did. I don't believe I did anything wrong. I
believe sending me back to the United States and punishing me, that's
wrong," he said.

Key said he wants to start a new life with his fiancee and new baby
in Saskatchewan, where he currently lives.

If his bid to stay is accepted, he'll face yet another challenge.

His ex-wife and four children have returned to the United States and
he's not sure when he'll be able to see them again.

"You're worried, you're stressed and you're hoping for the best," Key said.

.

Let Iraq war resisters stay here [Canada]

Let Iraq war resisters stay here

http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/641489

May 28, 2009
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.

.

Soldier Seeking Asylum: 'I Want to Be Able to Atone'

Soldier Seeking Asylum: 'I Want to Be Able to Atone'

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/05/28-4

Elsa Rassbach interviews André Shepherd, a U.S. soldier applying for
asylum in Germany

by Elsa Rassbach
May 28, 2009

Background: the view from Germany

Berlin, May 26, 2009. Early in June, President Barack Obama will
sign into law the supplemental funding of 92 billion U.S. dollars for
the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan that was approved by the
U.S. Congress last week. Then he will depart for a speaking tour and
meetings with heads of state in Egypt and in Europe.

On June 5th, he will be coming to visit us here in Germany, making
stops at the concentration camp at Buchenwald, at Weimar, and at
Dresden, a site also of massive bombings of civilians during World
War II. This will be Obama's third visit to Germany in less than a
year, and it seems likely that he will once again, as in the previous
two visits, make a pitch for more German support for the ongoing "war
against terror," particularly in Afghanistan. Though Obama is popular
here, the German government has for the most part stonewalled his
requests for further direct German involvement in these wars.

The well-known German ambivalence towards the U.S. "war against
terror" is now being further tested by a U.S. soldier's application
for asylum in Germany. André Shepherd, who was stationed in Germany,
refuses to deploy to Iraq. Many U.S. soldiers stationed in Europe who
refused service in or support of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan have
been tried in U.S. military courts in Europe and imprisoned in the
U.S. military's correctional facility at Mannheim; the most well
known are Blake Lemoine (2005) and Agustín Aguayo (2006-2007).

But Shepherd is so far the first to turn to the German government for
help: last November he filed a formal application to the German
government for asylum. For the moment his case is entirely outside of
U.S. jurisdiction.

Shepherd argues that there are strong reasons arising from Germany's
history for Germany to grant him asylum: the Nuremberg Principles and
the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany that has
provisions written in the spirit of Nuremberg. In 2005 the highest
German administrative court upheld a German military officer's right
to refuse orders in 2003 to provide software that might have been
used by the U.S. for logistics during the invasion of Iraq.

Shepherd's case is of significance in part because of the strategic
importance of the bases in Germany for the U.S. wars in the Middle
East. Outside of Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. has far more bases in
Germany than in any other country; ca. 68,000 U.S. troops are
stationed at U.S. bases throughout southern Germany. Approximately
80% of the soldiers and supplies to the war zones are routed through
Germany, which also hosts the Pentagon's commands for Africa
(AFRICOM) and for Europe and the former Soviet Union (EUCOM).

As a sovereign nation, Germany could at any time restrict use of the
U.S. bases, as Turkey, also a NATO member, did in 2003. The German
government refused to provide its own troops for the Iraq war, which
did not have a UN mandate. But the German government interpreted the
NATO treaties as allowing the U.S. to use the U.S. bases in Germany
for the invasion of Iraq.

According to a 2005 survey conducted by the German military
(Bundeswehr), 68% of the Germans polled oppose the use of war to
solve any international conflict; in contrast ca. 90% of U.S.
citizens support the use of war. Per numerous surveys, a majority of
Germans oppose German participation in the war in Afghanistan. In the
campaigns leading up to the parliamentary election in September, it
is likely that at least one parliamentary party will call for the
closing of all foreign military bases on German soil.

André Shepherd, 32, grew up in Ohio, where he attended college. Like
President Obama, he is an African-American. In 2003, when unemployed,
he joined the U.S. Army. He was trained as an Apache helicopter
mechanic and was stationed in Germany at the U.S. Army's
Ansbach-Katterbach base. From there he was deployed in 2004 to Iraq
for six months. In 2007, back in Germany, he received orders to
return to Iraq. In April 2007, he went absent without leave (AWOL)
and lived underground in Germany. He formally applied for asylum in
Germany on November 26, 2008. His application references a directive
of the European Union under which soldiers must be granted asylum in
the E.U. if they have reason to fear persecution in their home
countries for refusing to participate in crimes or actions that
violate international law. Shepherd is currently living in an asylum
facility in western Germany together with other asylum applicants,
primarily from Iraq and Afghanistan; the facility and a small living
stipend are provided by the German government pending the outcome of his case.

This interview was previously published in the national German daily
newspaper junge Welt on May 23, 2009, the 60th anniversary of the
German Constitution.

Since the "war on terror" began, there have been many U.S. soldiers
who have spoken out and many who have refused to serve. But you are
the first so far to apply for asylum in Germany. What are the grounds
on which your application is based?

Well, it's very simple: In the war of aggression against the Iraqi
people, the United States violated not only domestic law, but
international law as well. The U.S. government has deceived not only
the American public, but also the international community, the Iraqi
community, as well as the military community. And the atrocities that
have been committed there these past six years are great breaches of
the Geneva Conventions. My applying for asylum is based on the
grounds that international law has been broken and that I do not want
to be forced to fight in an illegal war.

In your asylum application, you mention the Principles of the
International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, which were incorporated
in the UN Charter. In Nuremberg, the chief U.S. prosecutor, Robert H.
Jackson, stated: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not
only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime
differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within
itself the accumulated evil of the whole." In opening the trial on
behalf of the United States, he stated that "while this law is first
applied against German aggressors, this law includes and if it is to
serve a useful purpose it must condemn aggression by any other
nations, including those which sit here now in judgment." What does
Nuremberg mean to you?

The Nuremberg statutes are the foundation of many U.S. soldiers'
refusal of the Iraq war, and to some extent of the Afghanistan war.
The United States with its Allies after World War II crafted these
laws stating that even though you've gotten orders to commit crimes
against humanity, you don't have to follow them, because every person
has their own conscience. That was more than 60 years ago. Today the
U.S. government seems to be under the impression that those rules do
not apply to it. In invading Iraq, they did not wait for a UN
mandate, they didn't let the inspectors do their job, and they made
up stories about who's a real threat. This totally violated
everything stated in the Nuremberg statutes. The U.S. Constitution
states that the U.S. is bound to our international treaties, for
example with the UN. When we ignore the UN, we are violating the U.S.
Constitution, which every U.S. soldier is sworn to uphold. And the
U.S. must also respect our own very strict laws against war crimes
and torture. Since the Obama administration refuses to investigate
and prosecute the previous administration, it's clear to me that the
Obama administration is an accomplice to the previous
administration's crimes. They're setting a very dangerous precedent
for the future of the world, something I don't want to see. The
German people are well aware of the history; it is here that the
Nuremberg tenets were first set down. Now we have to find a way to
restore those tenets, to actually respect the Nuremberg tenets as
well as the Geneva Conventions. Germany needs to tell the U.S.,
"Look, you guys helped create these laws, and now you guys should
abide by your own rules. "

When you were stationed in Ansbach-Katterbach, were you aware of the
German citizens' campaign to prevent the U.S. from enlarging the base there?

Yes, there were protests outside of the Katterbach base. Being
inside, we understood that the German people weren't against us as
soldiers. They were just protesting against Germany's further
involvement in U.S. imperialism. So the relationship between us
Americans and the Germans working on the base was actually still
good. We were of course not allowed to join the protests. I am sure
the U.S. military assumed that 50% of the GIs would have been out
there protesting. A lot of the soldiers understand what is going on -
to the point that we realize that we are just a mercenary army for a
few rich people. But a significant number of GIs, about 60%, have
families, so it's very difficult for them to go AWOL or make massive
resistance.

As part of their protest, the citizens of Ansbach and Katterbach
circulated a petition citing Article 26 of the German Constitution,
pronounced 60 years ago on May 23rd, 1949, in the Basic Law of the
Federal Republic of Germany. Article 26 states that the preparation
of aggressive war from German soil is unconstitutional and a criminal
offense. In Kaiserslautern and in Ramstein, where there are also U.S.
bases, there were also petitions circulated citing this Article.
These German believe that the U.S. is violating the German
Constitution by preparing aggressive war from German soil. Were the
GIs aware of this provision of the German Constitution?

We received almost no information about the German Constitution at
all. This seems strange to me, because if we're supposedly in Germany
to defend German democracy, shouldn't we know something about it? The
fact is that wherever U.S. soldiers are sent, they are taught almost
nothing about the people, the culture, the beliefs and laws in the
countries we are occupying. When I was in Iraq, they didn't teach us
any Arabic. In Ansbach, they do offer an optional German course, but
we work long hours speaking English all day, so most GIs don't learn
much German. Now that I have been living among Germans for the past
eighteen months, I have learned that very many of them are very much
against using war to solve international problems or to aggress
against people. This comes from what they've learned from their own
history. Article 26 of the German Constitution was written in the
spirit of the Nuremberg statutes, which state that launching an
aggressive war is the most serious crime. The U.S. and the Western
Allies approved and authorized the German Constitution. How can the
U.S. say we are here in Germany to defend democracy when we are
ignoring and violating not only the Nuremberg statutes and the Geneva
Conventions and the U.S. Constitution, but also the German Constitution?

What is your understanding of why Germany is allowing the U.S. to
conduct these wars from German soil?

Honestly, I cannot answer that: you could look at it from the
political side; you could look at it from the economic side. Or maybe
Germany just has a hands-off approach: "You guys are paying the gas,
you guys are paying us for the rental space, so you guys just do your
thing, and we're not going to do anything about it."

So in filing this application for asylum, it's not just about finding
a place to live or something like that: you're trying to raise a
larger historical and political principle?

Yes, that's correct, because it is my sincere belief that the United
States has gone too far. In Iraq alone 1.3 million people have died
so far, and that includes American soldiers as well. We've attacked
several countries over the past eight or nine years: Afghanistan,
Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, and some places in the Sudan. All over the
world, we're just destroying property and killing people, all based
on lies. And I feel like that I have to do everything I can to help
put an end to this. I feel guilty enough for having taken a part in
this war for almost five years. I want to be able to atone for that.

Why didn't you go through the U.S. legal system and apply to the Army
for conscientious objector status?

When I asked my NCO (officer) about applying as a CO (conscientious
objector), he told me that you have to be against fighting in all
wars of every form. And that doesn't work for me, because of course
if you're being overrun by a foreign invader, you would have to fight
back. According to U.S. Army regulations, this means you are not a
conscientious objector. I also learned of the case of Agustín Aguayo
and saw how the military treated him. He was based Schweinfurt,
Germany, not far from where I was in Ansbach. He tried to go through
the military procedures to be recognized as a conscientious objector,
and he refused to load his weapon. Twice he turned himself in to the
U.S. authorities and said, "Look, I'm a CO, and I can't do this." But
the military wanted to force him to go back and fight anyway.
Ultimately they put him in jail in Mannheim. This showed me that I
could not expect any help from within the military, and I decided to
fight for my rights from the outside.

Can you think of any moment when you suddenly realized, "What I'm
doing here is wrong?"

I can't pick only one moment, because this was a process that went on
for years. Falludja was one. Looking at the aftermath of that battle,
especially what the Marines, and the Air Force, and the Apache
helicopters did to that city -- the devastation caused by these
machines and the air war, also in Basra and in many other Iraqi
cities -- I realized that if it weren't for my work and the work of
the other mechanics, those Apaches wouldn't have gotten very far. We
were constantly working, 12 hours a day, 6 days a week, to make sure
this sophisticated equipment continued to fly, especially in the hard
conditions in Iraq with all the sand storms and the temperature
changes from 140 degrees in the day to 60 at night. Had we, the
mechanics of these aircraft, not done our jobs and refused from the
beginning to take part in this war, a lot of those people would still
be alive, and a lot of the infrastructure in Iraq would still be functioning.

And then there was when one of the Iraqi guys working for the U.S.
Army on our sandbags told me how he didn't understand why we were
destroying their city, destroying their infrastructure, arresting
people. And I'm just standing there like "what?!" I can't believe
this stuff is happening, because I thought the military is supposed
to be fighting for the rights of people. They're not supposed to
torture. They're the ones who are supposed to get rid of the
torturers and to stop the rapists and to help people to have a better
life. And when I heard what we're really doing - it just turns your
whole world upside down!

And then there are the 937 lies of George W. Bush to the American
people: you just feel like a fool, because we signed up to do X, but
we wound up doing Y and Z and who knows what else. We killed people;
some of our people got killed. An entire country, two countries, are
completely destroyed. I keep wondering: what was this all for?

Ask anybody, why are we in Iraq? And you hear several theories:
Israel, oil, strategic purposes for Iran, whatever, but no one really
has the answer. Same thing in Afghanistan: the NATO mission only went
to Afghanistan because of U.S. insistence. We have to force the U.S.
to clarify what the actual objective in Afghanistan is. Are they
there to help out the drug dealers cultivating heroin, or for the
Unical pipeline, or are they there just to have a forward base to go
into China or Russia? Why are we there?

Do you think President Obama is going to change any of this?

No. Obama has the backing of the international corporations. And the
people who gave him the most money are the ones whose interests are
going to be served first. And it's quite obvious. He won't go after
the prior administration for the war crimes; he won't pull out of
Iraq. He's leaving 50,000 soldiers to conduct combat missions in
Iraq. That means the war is continuing. He wants to escalate the war
in Afghanistan. He wants to keep pushing for AFRICOM, the U.S.
command for Africa based in Stuttgart, and he's pushing for the
missile shield to try to encircle Russia and Iran. These things show
me that Barack Obama is not going to change anything. And Obama is
only one guy. He still has to deal with the entire Congress, the
court system, the Pentagon. The military has been around for over 220
some years, and they're not going to change overnight just because
there's a new Commander-in-Chief. They're still arresting people who
refuse to fight. They're still putting them in jail, giving them
dishonorable discharges, and some are facing possible felony
convictions. But Obama has yet to speak of the growing number of
soldiers refusing to fight for him - well, first Bush, and now him.
So I don't see President Obama granting anyone clemency until the
entire "war on terror" is finished, and Afghanistan and Iraq are part
of the same war.

How is your asylum application progressing?

We had a hearing on the 4th of February with my attorney, Dr.
Reinhard Marx, and myself at the Federal Office of Migration and
Immigration. Dr. Marx was recommended to me by Amnesty International.
I believe that we presented our case very well, and we're waiting to
see what the decision is. If the Office of Migration and Immigration
were to deny my request for asylum, then I would bring my case to
court in Germany. Because of the political sensitivity of this case,
and because this is a precedent-setting case, it could take a lot of time.

Many U.S. soldiers who have fled the military are living underground
in the U.S. and dozens more are likely in Europe. In Canada, many of
them have applied for asylum, but since last summer they are being
deported and then imprisoned in the U.S. What if Germany rejects your
asylum application?

Then I'm facing a U.S. military court martial and jail time. I'm not
saying I would go back to the U.S. willingly; I would still try to
find another way to build a life somewhere.

What if you are granted asylum in Germany?

The day I am legally allowed to go to the German Employment Office, I
will probably camp outside so I can be the first one in there,
because being 32 years old and healthy, I feel I should be able to
make my own way. I'm taking classes to learn German, and I'm trying
to get into the University of Karlsruhe so that I can study computer
science. I want to get the Bachelor's or even the Master's so that I
can eventually start my own business. My ultimate dream job would be
to work with German and Japanese companies, which are the foremost
leaders in information technology, to develop artificial intelligence.

If Germany granted you asylum, would large numbers of GIs who are
stationed here start walking off the bases?

I would see maybe like 100 or 200, but I don't see 30,000 soldiers
applying for asylum in Germany. It's no easy thing, because you're
basically saying goodbye to your country, perhaps for the rest of
your life. That's a really big step. You have to say goodbye to your
family. You've got to learn a new language and try to fit into the
culture. You've got to deal with homesickness. It is a very important
personal step that a lot of soldiers would find difficult.

But you are taking all these difficulties upon yourself. Why do you
feel called to do this?

Because I was sick of watching the United States degenerate into
something I can't even recognize anymore. The America that I grew up
in isn't there anymore. Between Clinton, Bush, and now Obama, the
U.S. is sliding from the constitutional republic that it was to where
now the corporations are just taking all the fruits of the American
people's labor; the country's really poor, we've got endless war
everywhere. 60 years from now people will be saying that we were the
country that destroyed half the Middle East for nothing. They're
building up a civilian corps that'll spy and turn in everybody, you
know, like a modern day Stasi. These things are very disturbing. This
is a country that I don't want to live in or raise my future children
in. America's going down the exact same path as the Roman Empire, and
it's really sad, having grown up there, to watch the destruction
slowly happen before your eyes. Sometimes you feel, no matter what
you do, it's going to happen anyway. There have been many people
before who have been sounding the alarm bells, many peace
organizations. And I want to help, put my hand in and try to stop it
as well. And this is something that's been building up over time,
because I'm totally hurt. I feel cheated. I feel lied to. You know, I
helped murder people in Iraq for nothing. These are things I'm not
proud of whatsoever, and I want to be able to turn this around and
bring the people ultimately responsible for this to justice. Because
had I known back then what I know now, I never would have signed up
in the first place.

What can people do to help you?

Help raise awareness internationally, because this is not just about
me. It's about the other soldiers as well. We're all in this
together. And especially it's about the Iraqi people, the Afghan
people, the dead soldiers, just everyone. Organizations people can
contact are Military Counseling Network (MCN) or Connection e.V.,
Tübingen Progressive Americans, Munich American Peace Committee, Iraq
Veterans Against the War, and it's good to contact with DFG-VK in
Germany - they're a national organization. Right now we're collecting
letters to give to the German government to show the support of the
German people. The German government also needs to know that
Americans and people from other countries support my request for
asylum. This is an international problem, and I believe in an
international solution.

To support André Shepherd, contact:

girights-germany@dfg-vk.de or see www.connection-ev.de
--

Elsa Rassbach is U.S. citizen, filmmaker and journalist who often
lives and works in Berlin, Germany. She co-founded American Voices
Abroad Military Project, an initiative to support GIs who resist in
Europe, and she is active in DFG-VK (the German affiliate of War
Resisters International, WRI) as well as in Code Pink and the
International Committee of United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ). Her
award-winning film, "The Killing Floor," set in the Chicago
Stockyards, will be re-released this year.

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