Tag: Haditha

January 31, 2012

The Haditha Massacre: No Justice for Iraqis

“They ranged from little babies to adult males and females. I’ll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood.This left something in my head and heart.” -Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones Last week, Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich was sentenced to a reduction in rank but no jail… Read more »

July 17, 2007

Reining In an Out-of-Control Executive

Our Founding Fathers created three separate but co-equal branches of government to check and balance each other so no one branch would become all powerful. Indeed, James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers, “The preservation of liberty requires that the three great departments of power should be separate and distinct.” Madison warned, “The accumulation of… Read more »

February 9, 2007

Mistrial at Court Martial: Watada Beats the Government

When the Army judge declared a mistrial over defense objection in 1st Lt. Ehren Watada’s court martial, he probably didn’t realize jeopardy attached. That means that under the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Constitution, the government cannot retry Lt. Watada on the same charges of missing movement and conduct unbecoming an officer.Lt. Watada is the… Read more »

June 13, 2006

Spinning Suicide

They are smart, they are creative, they are committed. They have no regard for life, neither ours nor their own. I believe this was not an act of desperation, but an act of asymmetrical warfare waged against us.Rear Adm. Harry B. Harris Jr., commander of Guantánamo prison camp Three men being held in the United… Read more »

May 30, 2006

The Haditha Massacre

They ranged from little babies to adult males and females. I’ll never be able to get that out of my head. I can still smell the blood. This left something in my head and heart.– Observations of Lance Cpl. Roel Ryan Briones after the Haditha Massacre On November 19, 2005, Marines from Kilo Company, 3rd… Read more »

January 9, 2006

First Officer Publicly Resists War

Yesterday, US Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada became the first officer to publicly state his refusal to obey an order to deploy to Iraq. Lieutenant Watada said at a press conference in Tacoma, Washington, “The war in Iraq is in fact illegal. It is my obligation and my duty to refuse any orders to participate… Read more »