Iraq Veteran Finds Sanctuary in Canadian Church

Iraq Veteran Finds Sanctuary in Canadian Church

http://www.truthout.org/1230095

30 December 2009
by: Gerry Condon

Rodney Watson is one of the bravest and nicest men I have had the
pleasure of meeting. He is an African-American from Kansas City,
Kansas. He is a very religious young man, 32 years old. His dream was
to one day have his own restaurant. In 2004, when an Army recruiter
told him he would be trained as a cook, he signed up for a three-year
hitch. When Watson was deployed to Iraq in October 2005, his
superiors told him he would be supervising the dining facility.
Instead, he was given an M16 rifle and told to search for explosives
on the perimeter of his base in Mosul.

The Army had not trained Watson to inspect or detonate explosives, so
he was unhappy with this assignment. But this was not all that was
bothering him. He was appalled at the blatant racism of some of his
fellow soldiers in Iraq. He saw US soldiers spitting upon and kicking
the Koran and beating Iraqi, even civilians. "I had to sit there and
watch it," he told the Vancouver Courier, "and my hands were tied."
He did not report the abuses. "I didn't want to be labeled a snitch -
not with people walking around with machine guns."

Watson finished his twelve-month tour of duty in October 2006 and
returned home, only to be told he would be going right back to Iraq.
His three-year contract with the Army would have ended in the spring
of 2007, but the Army was unilaterally extending it so that he could
complete another tour of Iraq. Rodney Watson was being "stop-lossed."

On a two-week leave, Watson pondered his situation and decided he
would not be a slave to the US Army or cannon fodder for the war in
Iraq. Instead, he left a goodbye note in his father's Bible and made
his way to Vancouver on the west coast of Canada. The Army has since
charged him with desertion.

With the aid of the War Resisters Support Campaign in Vancouver,
Rodney Watson sought sanctuary in Canada as a political refugee who
would be persecuted for his beliefs if he were forced to return to
the US. Despite widespread support in Canada for US war resisters,
Watson was denied refugee status and the Conservative government of
Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered him deported.

The Canadian people have been much more welcoming than the Canadian
government. So Rodney spoke with Ric Matthews, pastor of the First
United Church in downtown Vancouver, a progressive congregation that
opens its doors every night to homeless people who would otherwise be
sleeping on the streets. Canadian churches have a long tradition of
granting sanctuary to refugees who are rejected by the politicized
refugee board but who truly do face persecution in their homelands.
Two US war resisters who have been deported from Canada, Robin Long
and Clifford Cornell, were court-martialed by the US Army, convicted
of desertion, and sentenced to 15 months and 12 months in prison,
respectively, as well as dishonorable discharges.

Pastor Matthews spoke to his congregation and they agreed to provide
Watson with sanctuary, the first time a Canadian church has done so
for a US war resister. Since mid-September, Watson has been living in
a custodial apartment in the church, where he has received a steady
flow of supporters, journalists and even Members of Parliament. So
far, the Canadian government has respected his church sanctuary.

Last week, Gerard Kennedy, a Liberal MP from Toronto, flew to
Vancouver to meet with Watson. Kennedy has introduced a bill in the
House of Commons that would grant sanctuary to US war resisters who
would not fight in the illegal US war and occupation of Iraq. If his
bill passes, it will be legally binding, unlike two similar
parliamentary motions that the Conservative government has chosen to ignore.

Watson's Canadian fiancé and their one-year old son are joining him
for the holidays and beyond.

I have had the good fortune of visiting Rodney Watson several times
in Vancouver, and I spoke with him recently to see how he is doing.
Although many Canadians know his story, very few people in the US are
aware of the stand that Rodney Watson is taking on behalf of all war
resisters. I asked Rodney if he would elaborate his story for an
American audience and he graciously agreed to do so.
--

Gerry Condon: Rodney, as an African-American man, you certainly
recognize racist behavior when you see it. How were you affected by
the racism you witnessed in Iraq?

Rodney Watson: The racism I witnessed in Iraq was something that
really angered me ... the mistreatment and abuse that some racist
soldiers or civilian contractors would afflict upon the Iraqi
civilians. The Army is full of good soldiers, but, as we all know,
there are some that just don't deserve to wear the uniform because of
their racial hatred.

At the same time as I was witnessing these crimes in Iraq, my fellow
Americans were still suffering from the effects of Hurricane Katrina
- mostly poor black people. As I watched the military spend millions
of US dollars in a country that had no weapons of mass destruction,
people back home were begging for help after the storm from a
government that moved very slowly to aid those in need.

I now wish that President Obama, being African-American, will help
the youth that are killing each other every day in the streets of
America and concentrate on helping the American people that are in
need of jobs, housing, food and health care. Because I think these
problems are more important right now than WAR!

I pray that God will direct the steps of the president and change his
mind on certain issues and for him to use the Love and popularity he
has received to rebuild America instead of "nation building" in the
Middle East.

What part of your story are the media not telling?

Watson: The media are not telling the story of the racism that I
witnessed directly. There was a soldier in my unit in Iraq who was
caught dealing drugs to an undercover military C.I.D. agent and the
result was that every black soldier in my unit had to report to a
formation to be questioned and fingerprinted by the FBI. Why didn't
they just detain him when the deal went down instead of treating all
the black men in my unit like potential CRIMINALS!!!!!!!!!

What would you like to say to the American people?

Watson: My message of PEACE to the people of the US is that we can
achieve Peace if we truly reach out to our enemies with diplomacy and
stop fighting, instead of risking the lives of these Brave Men and
Women to fight low-level fighters who attack and then run and hide.

To take the notion that America is ONE NATION UNDER GOD seriously and
rebuild the US into a land of equal treatment among all of the
different races of America with Love and true unity. In all honesty,
the KKK are Terrorists. Those who would kill their fellow man over
money or drugs are Terrorists. The people in power who sit in their
big fancy houses and just watch black youth kill each other are
Terrorists. What I'm saying is that we have a lot of problems in our
own country that are of a GREAT EMERGENCY. The people are crying out
for HELP!!!

Do you have a message for your fellow soldiers?

Watson: My message to the soldiers is that I pray for your safety,
even the ones who might think I'm some kind of coward or traitor. I
pray that the Lord of Lords and King of Kings Jesus Christ will keep
you all under his protection and your families as well. It has been
an honor to serve alongside most of you I have encountered in the
Army. And I know the bad apples will have to answer to God one day.
Even the ones in high places who led us into battle based on lies
will answer to God almighty for their LIES. Last but not least, I
pray that the Lamb of God will put an end to wars that you all are
involved in, for JESUS is the Prince of Peace and not The Prince of War!!

What kind of support are you receiving and what are your immediate needs?

Watson: I have the basics here living in Sanctuary, but if any
creative minds can and want to help me, I would highly appreciate it.
I have a son who is one year old. He and his mother are my heart and
soul and they are put before any of my needs. It is hard for me to
ask for help when I know there are many people in the US who are in
greater need than I. But if there are those who wish to give a
helping hand, I would be ever so grateful.

What would you like for Christmas?

Watson: All I want for Christmas is to turn on the TV after helping
my son open his gifts, to be joined together by his mother on the
sofa with maybe some hot cocoa, and see President Obama say that he
changed his mind and that he is bringing our men and women HOME!!!!!!

Is there anything else you would like to say?

Watson: I signed up for three years in the Army and served over two
and a half years and completed a one-year tour in Iraq. When I
returned to Fort Hood, Texas, my unit was informed that we were to
redeploy again to Iraq or Afghanistan within four months. I must say
that I was upset about risking my life again for a war I did not
understand or agree with, especially after seeing the things I saw
over in Iraq. I am not a coward, I would not have a problem fighting
a war against anyone who is a direct threat to our borders or who
could harm my family or fellow Americans. I would be on the front
lines for that.

My prayers go out to the soldier who is now imprisoned for a rap song
he made that expresses his anger about being stop-lossed, because,
just like him, I signed up for three years and I left before the
military could stop-loss me. I feel his pain because while at Fort
Hood I would see young men and women whose dreams of being civilians
again were stolen from them when they were ordered to redeploy. Some
took it with stride, while many others talked about suicide because
they wanted out that badly.

I have laid down my sword and I have taken up my cross. Now my fight
is for Love, Peace and Freedom. I no longer walk by sight but by
Faith, and I Know God is the only one who can truly Judge me.
--

Rodney Watson is one courageous man, indeed. But none of us can make
it alone. He and all the war resisters need and deserve our active
support. By supporting war resisters, we can also speed the end of
the illegal wars and occupations being pursued by the US government
and military and their corporate sponsors. And we begin to heal the
wounds of war that are affecting our entire society.

Please send Rodney Watson a New Year's card and maybe a gift for his
son. His mailing address is: Rodney Watson, c/o First United Church,
320 East Hastings St., Vancouver, BC V6A 1P4, CANADA. You can also
say hi to Rodney on his Facebook page, War Resister in Sanctuary.

.

The US Military is 'Exhausted'

The US Military is 'Exhausted'

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/12/26-1

by Sarah Lazare
Published on Saturday, December 26, 2009 by Al-Jazeera

The call for over 30,000 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan is a
travesty for the people of that country who have already suffered
eight brutal years of occupation.

It is also a harsh blow to the US soldiers facing imminent deployment.

As Barack Obama, the US president, gears up for a further escalation
that will bring the total number of troops in Afghanistan to over
100,000, he faces a military force that has been exhausted and
overextended by fighting two wars.

Many from within the ranks are openly declaring that they have had
enough, allying with anti-war veterans and activists in calling for
an end to the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with some active
duty soldiers publicly refusing to deploy.

This growing movement of military refusers is a voice of sanity in a
country slipping deeper into unending war.

"They shifted me from one war to the next"

Eddie Falcon, Iraq and Afghanistan veteran
The architects of this war would be well-advised to listen to the
concerns of the soldiers and veterans tasked with carrying out their
war policies on the ground.

Many of those being deployed have already faced multiple deployments
to combat zones: the 101st Airborne Division, which will be deployed
to Afghanistan in early 2010, faces its fifth combat tour since 2002.

"They are just going to start moving the soldiers who already served
in Iraq to Afghanistan, just like they shifted me from one war to the
next," said Eddie Falcon, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War
(IVAW), who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Soldiers are going to start coming back with Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD), missing limbs, problems with alcohol, and depression."

Many of these troops are still suffering the mental and physical
fallout from previous deployments.

Rates of PTSD and traumatic brain injury among troops deployed to
Iraq and Afghanistan have been disproportionately high, with a third
of returning troops reporting mental problems and 18.5 per cent of
all returning service members battling either PTSD or depression,
according to a study by the Rand Corporation.

Marine suicides doubled between 2006 and 2007, and army suicides are
at the highest rate since records were kept in 1980.

Resistance in the ranks

US army soldiers are refusing to serve at the highest rate since
1980, with an 80 per cent increase in desertions since the invasion
of Iraq in 2003, according to the Associated Press.

These troops refuse deployment for a variety of reasons: some because
they ethically oppose the wars, some because they have had a negative
experience with the military, and some because they cannot
psychologically survive another deployment, having fallen victim to
what has been termed "Broken Joe" syndrome.

Over 150 GIs have publicly refused service and spoken out against the
wars, all risking prison and some serving long sentences, and an
estimated 250 US war resisters are currently taking refuge in Canada.

This resistance includes two Fort Hood, Texas, soldiers, Victor
Agosto and Travis Bishop, who publicly resisted deployment to
Afghanistan this year, facing prison sentences as a result, with
Bishop still currently detained.

"There is no way I will deploy to Afghanistan," wrote Agosto, upon
refusing his service last May. "The occupation is immoral and unjust."

Within the US military, GI resisters and anti-war veterans have
organised through broad networks of veteran and civilian alliances,
as well as through IVAW, comprised of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.

This organisation, which is over 1,700 strong, with members across
the world, including active-duty members on military bases, is
opposed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and openly supports GI resistance.

"Iraq Veterans Against the War calls on Obama to end the war in
Afghanistan (and Iraq) by withdrawing troops immediately and
unconditionally," wrote Jose Vasquez, the executive director of IVAW,
in a December 2 open letter.

"It's not time for our brothers and sisters in arms to go to
Afghanistan. It's time for them to come home."

No clear progress

GI coffee houses have sprung up at several military bases around the
country. In the tradition of the GI coffee houses of the Vietnam war
era, these cafes provide a space where active duty troops can speak
freely and access resources about military refusal, PTSD, and veteran
and GI movements against the war.

"Here at Fort Lewis, we've lost 20 soldiers from the most recent
round of deployments," said Seth Menzel, an Iraq combat veteran and
founding organiser of Coffee Strong, a GI coffee house at the
sprawling Washington army base.

"We've seen resistance to deployment, mainly based on the fact that
soldiers have been deployed so many times they don't have the
patience to do it again."

As the occupation of Afghanistan passes its eighth year, with no
clear progress, goals that remain elusive, and a high civilian death
count, this war is coming to resemble the Iraq war that has been
roundly condemned by world and US public opinion.

The never-ending nature of this conflict belies the real project of
establishing US dominance in the Middle East and control of the
region's resources, at the expense of the Afghan civilians and US
soldiers being placed in harm's way.

The voices of refusal coming from within the US military send a
powerful message that soldiers will not be fodder for an unjust and
unnecessary war. By withdrawing their labour from a war that depends
on their consent, these soldiers have the power to help bring this
war to an end, as did their predecessors in the GI resistance
movement against the Vietnam war.

And the longer the war in Afghanistan drags on - the more lives that
are lost and destroyed - the more resistance we will see coming from
within the ranks.

Sarah Lazare is an anti-militarist and GI resistance organiser with
Dialogues Against Militarism and Courage to Resist. She is interested
in connecting struggles for justice at home with global movements
against war and empire.

.

The Best Way to Stop a War ...

Get the Soldiers to Refuse to Fight It

The Best Way to Stop a War

http://www.counterpunch.org/jacobs12222009.html

By RON JACOBS
December 22, 2009

I read today (December 22, 2009) that the last bunch of US Marines in
Iraq are scheduled to leave early next year. As everyone knows, this
means that more than 120,000 US troops will still be in Iraq after
that Marine unit's departure. In addition, there will be tens of
thousands of US-paid mercenaries, CIA operatives and other
personnel. No one knows when or if these people will leave that
country. It's hard to believe that the United States has been waging
some kind of war against that nation since 1991. Whether it was the
original attack on January 16, 1991 that ended in the slaughter on
the Highway of Death, the years of deadly sanctions or the renewal of
outright hostilities and occupation that began with the shock and awe
attacks in March 2003, the people of Iraq have felt the wrath of US
military power. This nineteen-year campaign has destroyed the
infrastructure of the Iraqi nation and much of the social fabric of
its people. What follows is a reflection on one of the earliest
protests against the war in 1990.

December 8, 1990 was a beautiful day in Olympia, WA. Once again,
people throughout the world were massing in large numbers to express
their opposition to what seemed to be an inevitable war in the
Persian Gulf. In Olympia, over five hundred people had gathered in
Sylvester Park. This was almost twice the number that had made it to
the October 20th demonstration.

As antiwar organizer and Army veteran Greg Bye wrote in his report
for the local left-wing monthly Works In Progress: "the rally and
march was spirited˜and well received [as] leaflets were taken by most
everyone who was offered one." Many of the speakers were familiar
faces by now, yet one of them-a young man I'll call Hugo-gave the
most powerful talk of the day. Hugo was one of those guys who still
believed that America was a good country. He had joined the Marines
because he wanted to and had served proudly. However, he couldn't
deal with a war that was so obviously about markets and profit. This
led him to decide that not only would he refuse to go should his
reserve unit be activated, he would also oppose the war as loudly as
he could. As time went on, it was apparent that he had an innate
ability to reach young (and older) folks who were nervous around the
more garishly outfitted and culturally extreme protesters and
organizers. In other words, he was best at reaching people from
middle America who liked being from middle America. The part of his
speech that sticks in my mind to this day went like this:

"I'm here today with a troubled heart. This morning one of my best
friends from Evergreen (college) left; not because he doesn't want to
be here; not because he is not intelligent enough to be here; not
because it's the holiday season and school's out so he can go home to
his family. He left because he serves in the reserves and George
Bush has decided his life is less valuable than words like oil. He
must leave the peace of home because George has decided to send our
armies overseas to make the world safe for feudal monarchy. Some
would claim that my friend must be a warmonger to enlist, so why
should the peace movement worry? But those of us who are his friends
know this is wrong. He must go because he does not have the money to
be in college without the GI Bill. Not having money for an education
should not be a death sentence in our society."

Hugo had hit it right on the head. Many folks in the antiwar
movement, whether they were anarchist or some kind of liberal
pacifist, assumed a moral superiority over those in the
military. This had been a problem during the Vietnam war as well,
yet most organizations overcame it. Without the military draft,
however, this arrogance had returned. Many folks who held this
opinion either did not understand the economic reality of a system
that forced working class young people to choose between a dead end
job and the military once they left high school, unless they somehow
lucked into a substantial scholarship for college. Those folks who
had developed a working class consciousness knew that this lack of
choice constituted what some on the Left termed an economic draft.

Having lived in a military environment the first eighteen years of my
life made it easy for me to sympathize with most service women and
men. Hell, my parents had hired GIs to babysit us when I was a
youngster on a small USAF station in Peshawar, Pakistan. When I was
in high school over in Germany I used to listen to rock concerts and
smoke hash with several GIs. After all, we were only two or three
years apart in age. This identification with their situation,
especially after working with antiwar servicemen and women in
Frankfurt am Main as a newsletter distributor for the local chapter
of Fuck The Army (FTA) and later as a friend of some of the members
of the Laurel, Maryland chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War
(VVAW), led me to quickly defend GIs whenever some movement person
started to call them baby killers or something similar. The best way
to stop a war is to get the soldiers to refuse to fight it.

On the other side of the coin, however, the yellow ribbon campaign to
support the troops (which was just in its infancy in December) was
difficult to swallow. If one was against the war, then it was
ridiculous to suggest that (s)he could support the troops' presence
in the Gulf since they were there to fight a war. As for the
government and the media behind the yellow ribbon phenomenon, their
call was pure hypocrisy. They cared less about the troops than
anyone, otherwise they would not have supported their going to the
Middle East in the first place.

.

Celebrating desertion

Celebrating desertion

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/the-newspaper/columnists/celebrating-desertion-219

By Jawed Naqvi
Thursday, 12 Nov, 2009

IT may seem sinister but it is commonplace. Frenzied soldiers shoot
their fellow officers, also comrades, all the time. Or they desert
armies they otherwise served loyally. The more senior officers plot
military coups.

Sven Kempe and his wife Ann-Charlotte would favour desertion any day
to bloodletting. In the 1960s, the Swedish couple ran a virtual
asylum ­ though they called it a commune ­ for American army
deserters. It was located in a scenic spot in Uppsala, not far from Stockholm.

Sven belongs to a wealthy industrialist family and heads a textiles
business in Sweden. His burly frame and capitalist pedigree mask a
gentle, giving human being. He speaks with nostalgia about the days
when a successful anti-war movement raged from Europe to the United
States. And he became an important part of it. The commune they ran
won the couple many friends from far and near.

Among them was their last week's host in Delhi, a common friend at
whose farmhouse I met the couple over a lazy late afternoon lunch. My
interest was mainly to find out what opinions the more neutral
observers had managed to form of Major Nidal's murder of 13 fellow
soldiers at Fort Hood. What I got in return was a glimpse into the
tragic story of the US army's Major Jerry Bhagwan Das.

Bhagwan Das was an Indian orphan who somehow found himself cleaning
ships in Thailand. That was when an American naval officer and his
childless wife spotted him. They adopted the boy and brought him up
as an American patriot who would join the army. Jerry, as he came to
be called, was so good at his work that he was inducted as a member
of an elite force in Vietnam. He killed many Vietcong guerrillas and
civilians; too many, as he later told his friends.

During an R&R break in Germany in 1969, Jerry escaped to Stockholm,
which had become a sanctuary for deserting soldiers from the US army.
Often when the soldiers subsequently wanted to return home, even when
they were prepared to face the stigma and punishment (as pugilist
Muhammad Ali did for dodging the draft) they were set humiliating
conditions. They had to say their return was prompted by their
mistreatment in Sweden, which was a lie.

At the commune, Jerry befriended a Swedish girl and both were happy
together. Then, very quietly, almost stealthily, he one day doused
his body with kerosene and set himself on fire. His friends rushed to
save Jerry but he perished in hospital after a brief struggle. Sven
doesn't quite know why the young officer took his life but their
horrific deeds in Vietnam did haunt many of his guests from the
world's most powerful army.

Sven and Ann-Charlotte celebrated the desertion by the soldiers
because they were opposed to the Vietnam War. If asked, they would
also consider desertion the only proper way for the licensed killers
to atone for their deeds. The alternative is too forbidding to
contemplate. There must be so many Major Nidals lurking inside the
most disciplined armies across the world. They are just waiting to be
provoked.

It would be interesting to find out if there were peaceful ways for
Major Nidal Malik Hasan to say 'no' to a proposed assignment in
Afghanistan without being branded a deserter, an option he did not
choose. This is assuming that he is not an Al Qaeda-like fanatic,
which he is being made out to be.

Al Qaeda and Taliban, though they lend themselves easily to the
description, are not the only fanatics in the business of
bloodletting. Not too long ago it was routine for violent military
coups to be staged at the behest of powerful democracies. A lot of
innocent blood was spilt and still continues to be wasted.

Desertion and killing of fellow officers has a history. Patriots in
India, Pakistan and Bangladesh rejoice in the great sepoy mutiny of
1857 against the British. On their part, the British bribed or
coerced local chieftains to switch sides not always without a bloody
mess. There is at least one familiar instance of a Gandhian leader
who exhorted the military to revolt, albeit peacefully, against a
rival civilian despot.

The exact phrase that Jaiprakash Narayan used in urging India's
security forces to rebel against Indira Gandhi's authoritarianism is
a matter of dispute. But bereft of the semantics involved it was
nothing short of a call to mutiny. However, Mrs Gandhi found a good
ruse in the exhortation and suspended democracy before she realised
her mistake and called elections, which she lost.

In India, it is not infrequent to hear of regular soldiers and
paramilitary troopers, particularly in the punishing terrain of
Kashmir, turning their guns on fellow officers. The Sikh rebellion in
Punjab of the 1980s shook the Indian army to its core but that was
not the end of the matter. It was Mrs Gandhi's vetted security
guards, in the sanctum sanctorum of the state's authority, who
murdered her in revenge for a military assault on the Golden Temple
in Amritsar.

Pakistan of course lost a large chunk of its army when many of its
officers became embroiled in the political turmoil that led to
Bangladesh. From the 1951 Rawalpindi case, which involved officers
and communist leaders in a plan to overthrow the state, to a more
eerie assassination plot against Gen Musharraf, Pakistani soldiers
have had their share of infidelity and bloody-mindedness. Reported
desertions by Pakistani soldiers during their ongoing war with the
Taliban were probably a more agreeable statement to make than the
unimaginable horrors of bloody subversion from within.

Of all the desertions that took place in history, the First World War
saw possibly the highest toll. As the seemingly endless war went on,
desertion and mutinies became an increasing problem. To deal with the
problem, commanders began tying deserters and mutinous troops to
poles where they would be executed by firing squad. The British shot
320 men and the French 700. The Germans shot about 50, according to
one estimate.

While it will deal with Major Nidal according to its sovereign laws,
the United States has been less than generous with rebels even from
rival armies. It induced large-scale desertions from the Iraqi army
following their 1990-91 conflict. Around 4,000 Iraqi deserters were
sent back to Iraq against their will in 1992 only, according to a
Canadian document.

"Some countries of resettlement, such as the US, were sensitive about
the security risk involved in the operation and were conducting
extensive background checks for criminal elements among the
candidates for resettlement," the document by the Immigration and
Refugee Board of Canada stated. "For example, the US decided to
refuse all Iraqi army officers." Sven and Ann-Charlotte still have a
job to do. They can start refurbishing their fabled commune.
--

jawednaqvi@gmail.com

.

AWOL in Vancouver

AWOL in Vancouver

http://www2.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=6490531e-b2d9-4e1e-ab9a-511a51ef106e

Facing a second tour in Iraq, U.S. army corporal Rodney Watson fled
to Canada and now lives in the First United Church on East Hastings
while his government presses for his return

Janaya Fuller-Evans
November 13, 2009

Rodney Watson, a fugitive soldier originally from Kansas City, Mo.,
stands in the cramped kitchen of his one-bedroom apartment at the
back of The First United Church on Hastings Street.

A stocky black man with a chin-strap beard, 31-year-old Watson is
dressed casually in a black shirt and jeans, and sports a burgundy
baseball cap. A dog tag with the impression of a cross dangles from
his neck as he browns ground beef in a pot on the small stove. He is
making spaghetti for one.

It is a far cry from preparing food in his own restaurant, which was
Watson's dream when he joined the army and became a corporal at the
beginning of 2004. Instead, the American soldier was deployed to Iraq
in October 2005.

He was put on guard duty, carrying an M16 rifle and surveying the
perimeter of his base in Mosul, searching for explosives under
vehicles, and guarding Iraqis. When he signed up at the recruiting
station in Connecticut, he was told he'd be a cook. "I asked my
higher ups before I went," Watson says. "They said I'd be supervising
the dining facility."

He never made it to the kitchen. He was given a weapon, a
walkie-talkie and told to keep the peace between Sunni and Shiite
Muslims in the Iraqi holding area on his military base. "Some of them
had knives on them," Watson says, "these traditional, curved knives
that they carry."

Watson hadn't gone to Iraq thinking he'd be safe--dining facilities
have been targeted and blown up--but he joined the U.S. Army as a
career move. He thought working as an army cook would be a good first
step to owning a restaurant, as he didn't have restaurant experience.

The economic climate changed after 9/11, he says. Previously, he'd
been the supervisor at Calibre Auto Transport in Kansas City, but was
laid off. He went to Connecticut to find work.

Watson wasn't trained to physically inspect or detonate explosives
during basic training in the spring of 2004 and never expected that
would be his job once he got to Iraq. It wasn't just the assigned
duties that made him question his decision to join. It was the
blatant racism he says he saw in Iraq--U.S. soldiers spitting on and
kicking the Koran, and beating Iraqis, even civilians. "I had to sit
there and watch it," Watson says, "and my hands were tied."

He didn't report what he saw because of the hostility he'd face. "I
didn't want to be labelled a snitch--not with people walking around
with machine guns."

Watson finished his 12-month tour of duty in October 2006 and returned home.

He was informed at the end of 2006 that he was going right back, even
though that would extend his service beyond his three-year contract,
part of the U.S. military's stop-loss policy. Watson's contract would
have ended in the spring of 2007.

Watson fled to Canada at the end of a two-week leave, living first in
north Burnaby and then moving to Vancouver's East Side. He has since
been charged with desertion.

Watson encountered a very different political climate in Canada than
what he expected.

Fugitive soldiers from the U.S. are discovering that Canada's welcome
mat has disappeared since Vietnam. Whereas thousands of Vietnam draft
dodgers (approximately 20,000 to 30,000 draft-age men immigrated to
Canada during the Vietnam War) were given permanent resident status,
few Iraq War-era soldiers have been allowed to stay.

Watson was eventually ordered to leave the country Sept. 11, 2009,
after two deportation stays during the summer.

A fugitive in Canada and the U.S., Watson sought refuge at the First
United Church on East Hastings after meeting Rev. Ric Matthews at a
press conference. Matthews says taking Watson in is part of church tradition.

Watson asked Matthews for sanctuary to avoid deportation. Matthews
offered him a former caretaker's apartment in the church, noting the
church is well known for providing refuge to those who need it in the
Downtown Eastside, primarily through the on-site emergency shelter.
"This is not a new concept for First United," Matthews says,
mentioning a Fijian woman who asked for sanctuary in 1998 and stayed
for more than 10 months. "It is 2,700 years old as a church tradition."

The church board and congregation supported the decision, Matthews
says. "It is about whether justice would better be served by putting
a pause in the momentum of what's happening to an individual."

Canada has a history of supporting conscientious objectors, Matthews
says, and Parliament voted twice last year on non-binding motions to
allow conscientious objectors of wars not sanctioned by the U.N. to
stay in Canada. The Conservatives did not support the motions.

Because of this, Watson's situation deserves further consideration,
he argues. "It would seem there's a least a prima facie case that it
might be unjust," he says, "that it at least be reconsidered."

This reasoning was also behind the formation of the War Resisters
Support Campaign following the arrival of former U.S. soldier Jeremy
Hinzman in Toronto in 2004. Hinzman was the first U.S. soldier to
file a refugee claim in Canada because of the Iraq War. There are
about 50 soldiers in Canada who entered the country after going AWOL
in the U.S., according to the group, though numbers are hard to track
because there may be more in hiding.

They are considered war resisters by their supporters, and deserters
by the American military. However, until they have been legally
convicted of desertion, it is difficult to know what to call the
fugitive soldiers.

The U.S., like many countries, doesn't allow selective conscientious
objection as a reason to leave the army or avoid serving overseas.

Sarah Bjorknas, Vancouver coordinator for the War Resisters, says the
point is to support former soldiers who don't want to be part of an
illegal war. "The U.S. military doesn't allow people to say, 'I won't
participate in this action'," she says, adding that this policy
requires soldiers to be part of a war even if the UN doesn't sanction it.

In September of 2004, then United Nations secretary general, Kofi
Annan, declared publicly that the Iraq War breached the UN Charter.
Watson joined the army a year later.

The group also supports soldiers who have had stop-loss contract
extensions, like Watson, which the War Resisters view as unfair.

The War Resisters have provided support and advocacy for 12 U.S.
soldiers trying to stay in Canada, including Hinzman, convicted
deserter Robin Long and Kimberly Rivera, the first female U.S.
soldier to flee to Canada.

Rivera arrived in Ontario in 2007 with her husband and two children.
Now a mother of three living in Toronto, Rivera was granted a
temporary stay in August so she can have a new pre-removal risk
assessment done to review her risk of punishment as an opponent of
the Iraq War.

The campaign is supporting Watson's application for permanent
residence based on humanitarian or compassionate grounds. Watson has
also been supported by a number of local politicians. On Aug. 12,
seven B.C. NDP members of Parliament wrote the Minister of
Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, asking him to intervene in
Watson's case. Libby Davies, MP for Vancouver East, was one of the
signatories and says she will continue to support Watson in his fight
to stay. "I believe he has a legal reason to seek refugee status in
Canada," says Davies, noting that Watson's situation is more
difficult than it appears. "He's taking on this whole system. It's
obviously a very hard decision to make."

Many people support his decision, Davies says. She points to an Angus
Reid poll conducted in June 2008 with 64 per cent of Canadians
supporting permanent residence for fugitive soldiers. "Canada has a
history of welcoming war resisters," Davies says.

But, she adds, the current government, particularly Immigration
Minister Jason Kenney, does not. "But I'm an optimist. I hope that,
with all these efforts combined, Rodney will be able to stay in Canada."

Kelli Fraser, Citizenship and Immigration Canada spokesperson, says
there is a thorough process for determining permanent residence
claims on the basis of humanitarian or compassionate grounds.
"Refugee protection claims, including those made by U.S. military
deserters, are generally referred to the Immigration Refugee Board
which is an independent decision-making body," Fraser explains.

Decision-makers must determine that the applicant has a well-founded
fear of persecution.

Or, "if removed, would be subjected to a danger of torture or a risk
to life or of cruel and unusual treatment or punishment."

Fraser said Watson could have his case reviewed by a federal court,
even if he is staying in Canada after ignoring a deportation order.
The Canada Border Services Agency is responsible for removing Watson
following the deportation order.

Lt. Col. Nathan Banks, spokesperson for the Pentagon, said Watson
faces immediate arrest from customs as soon as he enters the U.S. He
would be taken to the county jail, and an extradition team would be
sent to pick him up within 30 days.

He would be read his rights and charges, and returned to his home
unit in Fort Hood, Texas, where 13 people were killed and another 29
wounded last week in a shooting spree. An army psychiatrist, Maj.
Nidal M. Hasan, has since been charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder.

But his commanding officer would ultimately decide how his case would
be handled--he could be ordered to return to his unit, or court martialed.

"They may determine the soldier committed the offence but the best
punishment is for him to stay in the army," Banks says in a phone
interview. "This is not a cookie cutter situation."

Desertion is considered such a serious offence because it damages the
unit, Banks says. "In times of war, the maximum penalty is death,
that's how serious it is."

It can damage morale and degrade continuity, he adds.

"Someone else has to pick up the slack," Banks says. "You're letting
down your unit."

Even if the U.S. completely pulled out of Iraq and Afghanistan
tomorrow, Banks says, Watson would still be arrested.

"He still deserted his unit."

Anyone who joins the army is told they have to defend their country
and serve as soldiers, no matter the job description, Banks says. "We
all have jobs. But we're soldiers first."

The U.S. withdrew its forces from Iraqi cities last June, leaving
131,000 troops in non-populated areas. An agreement signed by former
president George W. Bush in his last days in office states American
troops will be completely withdrawn by 2011.

There has been nothing to suggest U.S. president Barack Obama would
then pardon soldiers who deserted because of the Iraq War, as former
president Jimmy Carter did following the Vietnam War.

And while draft dodgers and resisters were welcomed into Canada by
Pierre Trudeau's Liberal government during Vietnam, there is a big
difference with the current fugitive soldiers: they were not drafted.

It is a crucial point for those who oppose allowing those charged
with desertion to settle in Canada. But Rev. Ric Matthews says it is
not that simple.

"There are documentaries showing [people] don't really have a
choice," Matthews says, pointing to economic and cultural
limitations, particularly in the case of black soldiers, like Watson.

While media have focused on the targeting of poor, black
neighourhoods by recruitment officers, it is unclear what effect
recruiting has had. U.S. Defense Department statistics show that the
percentage of black enlistees decreased sharply between 2000 and
2007. In 2000, 20 per cent of new recruits were black. However, in
2007, only 14 per cent of new military enlistees identified
themselves as black. The army has seen the sharpest decline of all
the branches of the military.

Watson voluntarily approached a recruiting station and offered his
services as a cook.

"I thought it was something good I could do to support my country,"
Watson says.

He now regrets the decision, though he's glad he met some of his
fellow soldiers.

Others he says are evil, and wishes he never encountered them, after
seeing them abuse Iraqi civilians.

As for Canada, Watson says he now has a life here. He has a fianc?e
and an 11-month-old son in Vancouver and would like to settle in B.C.
permanently. He met his fianc?e after arriving in Vancouver in September 2007.

"One night, she caught my eye," Watson says, "and that's all she wrote."

But if all his legal avenues are exhausted, Watson says he'll return
to the U.S., serve his time and try to move his family there. For
now, he's happy living at the church, with friends and his fianc?e
dropping by regularly to see him.

The couple went through a rough patch, breaking up and getting back
together in September. "[The situation] put a strain on our
relationship," Watson says.

Their son was in foster care at one point, though Watson wouldn't
explain why, saying only that it was being sorted out.

His next step is to consult legal counsel about his options. Watson
plans to fight his deportation. "I'm not a coward," he says. "I'm
here, right now, fighting for my life. I believe I'm doing something right."
--

janayafe@gmail.com

.

Lesbian soldier seeks asylum after death threats

Lesbian soldier seeks asylum after death threats

http://salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/feature/2009/12/07/bethany_smith/index.html?source=newsletter

Private Bethany Smith became a deserter after colleagues said they
would kill her in her sleep

By Kate Harding
Dec 7, 2009

A couple of months after learning that she was about to be deployed
to Afghanistan, Private Bethany Smith received an anoymous death
threat. Smith, a 21-year-old lesbian who enlisted in the Army in
2006, was stationed at Fort Campbell, Ky., the same base where Barry
Winchell was murdered in 1999. Like Winchell, Smith was continuously
harassed about her sexuality, "receiving hundreds of anonymous
"gay-bashing" notes," according to Women's eNews. She was also
"grabbed, shaken and thrown on the ground by a male soldier daily."
The taunts of "dyke" had started as soon as she arrived, but "the
abuse worsened exponentially after a soldier spotted her holding
hands with another woman at a local shopping mall." So when she got a
note in 2007 that described how some of her fellow soldiers planned
to steal keys to her room and beat her to death during the night,
Smith fled Fort Campbell to seek asylum in Canada. "It was at that
point," she says, "that I knew I was more afraid of the people who
were supposed to be on my side than people we were supposed to be
fighting overseas."

Although Smith's first appeal for protected status was rejected,
Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny recently ruled that Canada's
refugee board should reconsider her case. He noted Winchell's murder,
the fact that gay sex violates the military code, and "evidence that
[Smith] was afraid that her superiors may have been involved in the
harassment and threats targeted at her" as reasons to give her
another hearing, after the original findings stated that somehow a
written death threat on top of regular beatings and hundreds of
lesser threats did not constitute "a risk to her life or risk of
cruel and unusual treatment or punishment upon return to the United
States." Smith's lawyer, Jamie Liew, emphasizes that Smith is not
looking to avoid going to Afghanistan, but to avoid going there with
people who mean her harm. "The idea that she would be deployed with
people who were giving her death threats is a problem. If people in
your unit are not there to have your back, you would be killed in a
war and you wouldn't even know if it was because of friendly fire, of
enemy fire or because of someone deliberately firing at you . . . Her
situation is unique in that way."

It may be, in that she's the first to seek asylum because of
persecution from fellow soldiers, but what drove Smith to Canada is
far from unique. The Human Rights Campaign's website says in its FAQ
about the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, "Although gay, lesbian and
bisexual service members have been held to the 'Don't Tell' portion
of the policy, reports show that the 'Don't Ask, Don't Pursue, Don't
Harass' parts of the policy are often ignored. A 2000 Defense
Department inspector general survey showed that 80 percent of service
members had heard offensive speech, derogatory names, jokes or
remarks about gays in the previous year, and that 85 percent believed
such comments were tolerated. Thirty-seven percent reported that they
had witnessed or experienced direct, targeted forms of harassment,
including verbal and physical assaults and property damage.
Overwhelmingly, service members did not report the harassment. When
asked why, many cited fear of retaliation." And speaking of DADT, in
October, the University of California, Santa Barbara's Palm Center
released data that showed, in the words of Salon's Tracy Clark-Flory,
"women are disproportionately punished under the military's
fingers-in-your-ears policy toward homosexuals." Meanwhile, violence
against female soldiers in the military is rampant, and questions
often surround the deaths of gay soldiers, like Ciara Durkin, whose
death was ruled a suicide by the Army, even though shortly before she
died, she told her family another soldier had pulled a gun on her and
asked them to investigate if anything happened to her.

Even if Smith had no evidence of specific threats to her life, it's
reasonable to conclude that her being a lesbian would pose serious
risks to her safety in such a hostile environment. We can hope
Canada's refugee board recognizes that and allows her to stay, but
until the U.S. does something to address a military climate that
supports harassment and violence against female and gay soldiers,
many more will remain in danger.

.