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“To stop an illegal and unjust war, the soldiers and service members can choose to stop fighting it,” First Lt. Ehren Watada. 

On Monday, the court-martial begins for Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to Iraq. 

He won’t be alone. People from across the country, including the Bay Area, are planning to go to Fort Lewis, Wash., where Watada will be tried. 

Berkeley artist and activist Betty Kano will be among them. 

“I feel an urgency to witness and support Ehren Watada,” said Kano, a member of the Watada support committee of Asian Pacific Islanders Resist! Seven East Bay residents, including a representative from Code Pink, plan to attend the trial. 

“I think that his consciousness is extraordinary. He’s putting himself at real risk; he commands respect,” she said. 

Kano, who is Japanese American, said the actions of Watada, an Asian American, has special significance for the Asian American community: “It’s a source of pride.”  

For refusing to deploy to Iraq and speaking out about it, Watada is facing four years in a military prison, reduced Monday from a possible eight years, Eric Seitz, Watada’s attorney, told the Planet on Wednesday.  

In a phone interview on Thursday, Watada told the Daily Planet: “I’m willing to go to prison for what I believe in.”  

After Sept. 11, 2001, Watada joined the military as a patriot, but learning that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he refused deployment to fight what he sees as an unjust war. 

“I’ve taken an oath to defend the constitution,” he said. “I must be willing to sacrifice” by refusing to fight and going to prison. 

Watada said he thinks the military “trumped up the charges to instill fear so that I would capitulate.”  

Another officer who wrote an op-ed piece calling Bush a liar was allowed to resign, Watada said, but the military refuses to allow him to deploy elsewhere or to resign. “There’s a lot of support for me in the military,” he said. “And a lot despise me.”  

Many people in the military and in America in general still believe that that the war in Iraq is tied to the events of Sept. 11, 2001, Watada said. 

“We need to educate ourselves,” Watada said. “We need to hold ourselves accountable and bring the troops home.”  

Ending the war is up to the people, he said. “Control comes from the people.” 

Watada’s attorney explained that, after negotiations with the military, the two reporters that had been subpoenaed would no longer be asked to testify. The reporters, freelance reporter Sara Olson and Honolulu Star-Bulletin journalist Gregg Kakesako, had been subpoenaed to testify that the stories as published accurately reflected the statements made by Watada. 

Seitz said that Watada agreed to “stipulate to the facts”—that is, he agreed to say that what the reporters had written was accurate.  

On Jan. 16, the judge who will preside over the court-martial, Lt. Col. John Head, ruled that the jury—minimally five Army officers—should decide whether Watada’s speech endangered troop loyalty. The judge refused to allow as evidence Watada’s motives for refusing to go to Iraq and evidence as to whether the war violates international law. 

“The allegations of disloyalty will be difficult (for the military) to prove,” Seitz said.  

In a phone interview from Washington, D.C., freelance journalist Sarah Olson said she was glad that the subpoena had been withdrawn and was grateful for the strong support shown by a coalition of organizations, such as the Society of Professional Journalists and the writers’ association PEN, and media such as Mother Jones, as well as individuals, all supporting the position that journalists should not be asked to testify in cases in which their sources are involved. 

“We need to preserve journalists’ ability to gather and disseminate news without government interference,” Olson said. 

Still, Olson said, the support mainly comes from independent journalists and independent media. “There has been no outcry by major media,” she said. 

Of particular concern in the Watada case is that charges against him relate to speaking out against the war. If he is prevented from putting out his perspective, that is a concern for journalists, Olson said, arguing that the censorship would impede her “ability to tell all aspects of a story and foster debate.” 

A journalist’s job is to tell the whole story, she said. “People need enough information to make decisions.” 

Today, Friday, API Resist! will hold a press conference at noon on the steps of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Civic Center Building at 2180 Milvia St. and on Tuesday, those members of API’s Resist! not in Fort Lewis will be joined by others to hang a banner in support of Watada from the Berkeley pedestrian bridge across I-80, beginning at 5 p.m. 

For more information about the Watada case, go to www.thankyoult.org and for information about the delegation to Fort Lewis call 510-559-8189.