Free Republic

An Oregon soldier whose case has caused a stir in anti-war groups nationwide has been sentenced to six months in jail, a loss of pay, a reduction of rank and a bad-conduct discharge for being absent without leave. Pfc. James Burmeister, who was born in Portland and raised in the Eugene area, received the sentence Wednesday from a military judge at a court martial held at Fort Knox, Ky. Burmeister agreed to plead guilty to the charge in exchange for an agreement by military prosecutors not to seek more serious charges. Anti-war activists from filmmaker Michael Moore to groups such...

I haven't posted a thread in some time, but my sister is freaking out. Her son, 20, was supposed to get on a plane for Germany on Monday (then on to Afghanistan), but he never boarded. He later sent her a text msg and apparently this is all over a woman. I need to know what consequences he faces if he doesn't report soon. Personally, I am shocked. I keep thinking its a joke. UNBELIEVABLE. Any advice is very much appreciated.

A month after US army reservist Matthis Chiroux publicly refused to deploy to Iraq, the former sergeant on Sunday set himself up for possible prosecution by failing to report for active duty with his unit in South Carolina. "Tonight at midnight, I may face further action from the army for refusing to reactivate to participate in the Iraq occupation," Chiroux told reporters in Washington. "I stand here today in defense of those who have been stripped of their voices in this occupation, the warriors of this nation...", Chiroux read from a statement as his father Rob, who had travelled to...

Dozens of friends and family gathered in Manhattan Wednesday to honor New York National Guard soldiers being deployed to Afghanistan - but not one politician showed up. The soldiers of the legendary Manhattan-based Fighting 69th rushed to Ground Zero on 9/11 to help secure the area and search for survivors. They guarded one of the most dangerous roads in Iraq in 2004. Now about 350 soldiers will head to Afghanistan for a year to help train local police. While not every politician was invited to the Hunter College ceremony - one of nine across the state - the lack of...

Since the beginning of the war, hundreds of deserters have fled to Canada, fearful of being jailed or forced to return to duty. It’s starting to look like they need not have bothered: Despite troop shortages and problems hitting recruitment targets, Pentagon officials say it would be a poor use of time to go after deserters. “We don’t actively look for a deserter or have bounty hunters who go out knocking on doors,” Army spokesman Major Nathan Banks says. “It doesn’t serve our purpose to lose manpower or focus in the global war on terror to find them, because the...

The Supreme Court of Canada on Thursday refused to hear an appeal by two U.S. military deserters who sought refuge in the country to avoid deployment to Iraq, a conflict they argued is “immoral and illegal.” The announcement ends a bid by American soldiers Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey, the plaintiffs in the case, to win refugee status and opens the way for them to be deported to the United States, where they could face court martial for going AWOL and missing troop movements. It also could lead to deportation of dozens of other American soldiers who have filed formal...

Canada's top court will not hear the case of two Americans who sought refugee status here after deserting the U.S. army in 2004 to avoid being deployed to Iraq. In a decision released Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada rejected a bid by Jeremy Hinzman and Brandon Hughey to stay in Canada as refugees. The court's ruling backs previous ones by the Federal Court, the Federal Court of Appeal and the Immigration and Refugee Board. Before Thursday's ruling, the Federal Court of Appeal last rejected the claims by Hinzman and Hughey, who crossed the border rather than face possible court...

(AP) ABERDEEN, Md. Military officials say a man shot by Aberdeen police is a soldier who had been away from Aberdeen Proving Ground without permission since last month. Army officials say 22-year-old Private Evan Parker, of Pittsford, N.Y., had been AWOL since late August. Aberdeen police say officers called to a disturbance at a motel Sunday night encountered Parker and when they learned his military status, they took him to the base. When officers returned to the motel around 11 a.m. Monday for a suspicious person call, Parker had returned. Police say he displayed a gun and waved it threateningly...

A U.S. serviceman from the Bronx will spend a year in jail after he admitted in court that he arranged to have himself shot in the knee to avoid having to return to Iraq for a second tour of duty, Bronx prosecutors said Tuesday. Jonathan Aponte, 20, pleaded guilty to third-degree falsely reporting an incident, a misdemeanor. In exchange for his guilty plea, State Supreme Court Justice John Byrne agreed to sentence Aponte to a year in jail on Oct. 17. Aponte's Legal Aid attorney could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Aponte originally claimed he had been shot in...

An Oneonta man who helped produce a 9/11 conspiracy documentary that became an Internet hit was arrested Monday for allegedly deserting the Army. Korey Rowe, 24, a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq, was picked up by deputies at about 10:45 p.m. Monday, Otsego County Sheriff Richard Devlin Jr. said… Rowe was arrested on a “military warrant” that Devlin said was brought to the attention of deputies by the Oneonta Police Department, who received information from a source outside of that department… After deputies received the information from Oneonta police, they reached out to the Army, and officials from Fort Knox...

An Iraq war veteran will not be court-martialed for leaving his post without permission for 15 months to undergo treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, the Army said. Instead of facing a bad conduct discharge _ a felony punishable by up to a year in military prison _ Spc. Eugene Cherry admitted he was absent without leave and was granted a general discharge, rather than an honorable discharge, the Army said Friday. "It really wasn't about proving I went AWOL _ that's a given," Cherry, who was to be tried by court-martial Monday, said in a telephone interview from Fort Drum...

TORONTO -- There is an untold story of the war in Iraq -- a story about soldiers who have gone to Canada to avoid going back to Iraq. Many people think about the Vietnam War draft dodgers when they hear about people heading to Canada to avoid military service, but the soldiers in the Persian Gulf War and the Iraq War are part of an all-volunteer force. "I signed up before the invasion of Iraq," Corey Glass said in his Toronto apartment. "I joined the National Guard thinking it was a humanitarian organization." Glass is an Army National Guardsman from...

Decorated veteran mistaken as deserter for second time 5/4/2007, 1:45 a.m. PDT porwam The Associated Press GLADSTONE, Ore. (AP) — For a second time, a decorated Iraq war veteran has been mistakenly listed as a deserter — this time costing him a day in jail. Joe Wolters, 26, of Gladstone was released the Clackamas County Jail on Wednesday after his parents spent the day making frantic phone calls to Army officials, who eventually cleared up the paperwork mistake. "I was a little mad at the Army," said Wolters, who enlisted in 2002 and spent a year stationed in Iraq as...

If he had any doubts upon arriving here, big news from back home likely erased them. It was 5 p.m. Wednesday when Linjamin Mull, stepping off a bus in downtown London, ended a two-week journey that turned him from an American soldier to expatriate, just as the Iraq war controversy flared again in the U.S. That same day, the U.S. government announced troop deployments to Iraq -- a war Mull refuses to join -- will be extended from 12 to 15 months. "Most people don't have the courage to leave," said Mull, a New York City social worker and graduate...

On the morning of Monday, Jan. 9, 2006, a 21-year-old Army specialist named Suzanne Swift went AWOL. Her unit, the 54th Military Police Company, out of Fort Lewis, Wash., was two days away from leaving for Iraq. Swift and her platoon had been home less than a year, having completed one 12-month tour of duty in February 2005, and now the rumor was that they were headed to Baghdad to run a detention center. The footlockers were packed. The company's 130 soldiers had been granted a weekend leave in order to go where they needed to go, to say whatever...

An Army Ranger who served in Iraq and Afghanistan took maps of the Mojave Desert and abandoned his car late last week southwest of Needles, sheriffís officials said Sunday. But rescuers ó including volunteers from Redlands and Yucaipa ó helped find the young soldier alive and unhurt Sunday afternoon on a mountaintop south of the Mojave National Preserve, said San Bernardino County sheriffís Deputy Dave Pichotta, who was assigned to the search. Andrew Stone, 20, of Wisconsin was found alone and uninjured about 1:30 p.m. Sunday on a peak in the Sacramento Mountains, said Pichotta, a volunteer forces coordinator working...

On the night before Darrell Anderson was supposed to return to Iraq for his second tour of duty, he got in a car and drove to Canada. The Army specialist decided he could not go back to the place where he had shot at Iraqi civilians, been wounded by a roadside bomb, and watched other soldiers die. So he went absent without leave. "I'd spend three years in prison rather than go back to Iraq," Anderson, 24, said Saturday. Instead he spent nearly two years in Canada before returning home to Kentucky and turning himself in to the military, where...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. Nov 4, 2006 (AP)— Since going to Canada to avoid another deployment to Iraq, Corey Glass has considered returning to the United States. But after hearing that a fellow former soldier who surrendered to the military and was ordered to return to his unit instead of being discharged, Glass may not return at all. "They're not going to win the hearts and minds like that," said Glass, 24, who signed on with the Indiana National Guard in 2002. Kyle Snyder, a one-time combat engineer who joined the military in 2003, disappeared Wednesday, a day after surrendering at Fort...

A U.S. Army soldier who fled to Canada rather than return to Iraq has disappeared again, this time just a day after surrendering to the military. Pvt. Kyle Snyder, 23, of Colorado Springs, Colo., told The Associated Press he was supposed to return by bus to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., Louisville on Tuesday but didn't go. He said he went AWOL after Fort Knox officials told him he would be sent back to his unit, the 94th Engineer Battalion. Snyder returned to the United States on Saturday, after his lawyer said he had reached a deal to receive an other-than-honorable...

He should have gone for the second time to Iraq - US soldier Augustin Aguayo fled from his apartment in Schweinfurt and disappeared. Since this week the deserter sits in the Mannheim military prison and waits for his process. He is worldwide one of thousands of cases. Mannheim - Both military policemen sat beside his wife in the sitting room, they waited. Their tone was rough. He should pack his things, they ordered, fast. They tried to figure out how they could bring him fastest to the airport. For a long time his companions of the 1 infantry division waited...

This column is going to make me very unpopular with Republicans. I don't care. It must be said. Following the revelations about Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexually suggestive e-mails to a 16-year-old congressional page, I have concluded Republicans are unworthy of retaining control of the federal government. I sincerely regret this is the case. I would much prefer that there were a real viable alternative to the Democrats, who are not only unworthy, but also unacceptable. But wishful thinking is not going to protect our country. Wishful thinking is not going to expand freedom, promote justice and restore morality to...

Lexington's Darrell Anderson crossed the border back into the United States yesterday afternoon, almost two years after deserting from the Army and fleeing to Canada, and started for home in Kentucky, where he plans to turn himself in at Fort Knox on Tuesday. But Anderson's stay at Fort Knox apparently could be brief, according to his attorney. Chicago lawyer Jim Fennerty, who is representing Anderson, told reporters in Canada yesterday that an officer at Fort Knox told him by phone last week that the Army has decided not to court-martial Anderson, and plans to release him within three to five...

LEXINGTON, Kentucky (AP) -- A soldier who fled to Canada two years ago after serving in Iraq said he would return home to face consequences from the U.S. Army.

BOULDER, Colo. Authorities say a Marine who is missing after reportedly injuring his head while hiking in Colorado's Eldorado Canyon last week staged his disappearance. Boulder County officials say they're still looking for 21-year-old Lance Hering, who was back at Camp Pendleton, California, after being on leave from Iraq. They say they've arrested Hering's friend, 20-year-old Steve Powers, for investigation of allegedly making a false report. Authorities say they became suspicious when they re-interviewed Powers about his August 29th hiking trip with Hering. They say he eventually confessed that the disappearance was staged and that Hering was avoiding his return...

We hear from a soldier who is refusing to fight in Iraq. Mark Wilkerson has been AWOL for more than a year and is turning himself in at Fort Hood in Texas today. In a taped video statement he says, "I am not willing to kill or be killed for something I don't believe in. My morals said going to Iraq was not the right thing to do." I was not going to live a life of violence." [includes rush transcript]

Spc. Mark Wilkerson already had made the decision to serve in the military when airplanes were flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. He had joined the Army the summer before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks but was even more inspired to serve after his nation was attacked. "I found a new resolve after (the attacks)," Wilkerson, 22, said Thursday morning before returning to Fort Hood – the place he began losing faith in the ideals with which he was raised – after being absent without leave for 18 months. "I felt I could avenge the people...

FORT HOOD — An Iraq war veteran who left his unit and spent 19 months on the run surrendered to military officials at Fort Hood on Thursday, bolstered by anti-war demonstrators from Crawford’s Camp Casey III. Army Spc. Mark Wilkerson, 22, said he gradually became convinced the war was wrong while he served as a military police officer in Iraq. “We were told our mission was to win the hearts and minds of the people — I’m sure a lot of people are familiar with that phrase,” he said. “But when I got there, the treatment of the people in...

WASHINGTON — Congressional researchers have identified dozens of AWOL guardsmen and reservists receiving paychecks despite their criminal absence, and said the Army has no reliable system to ensure that those deserters are taken off the service’s payroll. Over the last three years, the Government Accountability Office has monitored 75 cases of guardsmen and reservists who failed to report to active duty when their units were called up, but still received “improper and possibly fraudulent pay” while listed as deserters. The researchers estimated those errors cost the Army nearly $880,000 over that span, and said their calculations “likely significantly understate the...

A new poll to freep. This one doesn't usually get hit by Freepers and they do occasionally report on poll results on the local news. Do you think 1st Lt. Ehren Watada should face a court martial for refusing to go to Iraq?

SGT Ricky Clousing at RDU on Friday. MORRISVILLE, N.C. -- A Fort Bragg soldier is in military custody after being AWOL for more than a year.Sergeant Ricky Clousing went absent without official leave from Fort Bragg in 2005. Last week he turned himself into military authorities at Fort Lewis in Tacoma, Washington after attending a “Veterans for Peace” convention.Instead of wearing his military uniform, Clousing wore a T-shirt that said “Free Speech” and said it’s with a clear conscience that he turned himself into military custody."Because it was always my intention of turning myself in I decided that now...

Shortly after returning from Iraq last year, Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing gathered a few belongings and sneaked out of Fort Bragg, leaving only a note quoting Martin Luther King. After six months spent seeing the "daily physical, psychological and emotional harassment of civilians," the 24-year-old said he was confused and disenchanted with the United States' role in the war.

Published on Friday, August 11, 2006 Army interrogator to return to military custody SEATTLE The Associated Press Shortly after returning from Iraq last year, Army Sgt. Ricky Clousing gathered a few belongings and left Fort Bragg in the middle of the night, leaving only a note quoting Martin Luther King. Less than six months in Iraq, seeing the "daily physical, psychological and emotional harassment of civilians," had left him confused and disenchanted with the United States' role in the war, he said. "My experience in Iraq really made me second-guess my ability to perform as a soldier and also forced...

AWOL soldier to surrender at Fort Lewis01:43 PM MDT on Friday, August 11, 2006Associated PressFORT LEWIS, Wash. -- An Army sergeant who went AWOL from Fort Bragg out of disgust with the Iraq war says he'll turn himself in Friday at Fort Lewis. Lawyers for 24-year-old Ricky Clousing of Sumner have tried to negotiate a discharge without success. At an anti-war conference Friday morning at the University of Washington, Clousing announced he would turn himself in later at the Army base. Clousing spent six months in Iraq and says he became confused and disenchanted with the U.S. role in Iraq....

CASTLEGAR, British Columbia -- For Craig Wiester of Minneapolis, fleeing to Canada to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war meant losing a country, a way of life - and his father. "He felt it was a man's duty to go when his country called," Wiester said Thursday at the opening of a four-day reunion and peace event to honor U.S. draft resisters who fled to Canada and the Canadians who assisted them. Organizers were expecting hundreds of draft resisters and their Canadian supporters to attend the gathering, which includes workshops and panel discussions at Selkirk College and the nearby...

Army charges officer for refusing to fight in Iraq Wed Jul 5, 2006 08:28 PM ET By Daisuke Wakabayashi SEATTLE (Reuters) - The U.S. Army filed three charges on Wednesday against an officer who refused to fight in Iraq due to objections over the legality of the war. First Lt. Ehren Watada, who supporters say is the first commissioned U.S. officer to publicly refuse to serve in Iraq and face a military court, remained at Fort Lewis base in Washington state when his unit shipped out to Iraq on June 22. Watada called the war and U.S. occupation of Iraq...

On July 5, 2006, the Army brought three charges against an officer who refused to deploy to Iraq because he believes the war is illegal, according to officials at Fort Lewis, Wash. First Lt. Ehren Watada, of 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, at Fort Lewis was charged with missing movement, contempt toward officials and conduct unbecoming an officer. His unit deployed to Iraq on June 22. He has since been reassigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, I Corps. Eric Seitz, Watada’s attorney, said he’s not surprised that his client was charged with missing movement. The other two charges were unexpected,...

A Fort Lewis-based officer who declared that he would not accompany his unit to Iraq followed his promise this morning. Lt. Ehren Watada was not present when his battalion, part of the 3rd Brigade 2nd Infantry Division, gathered at 5:13 a.m. Instead, Watada remained within his headquarters building. Watada, who joined the Army in 2003, said he came believe the Iraq war was illegal and immoral, and he had a duty not to follow orders. No charges against Watada will be filed until the commander has had a chance to review all of the facts of the case and consult...

SEATTLE (AP) -- An Army lieutenant in Washington state is expected to go public Wednesday with his refusal to deploy to Iraq. Attorney Eric Seitz tells Seattle's K-O-M-O Radio that Lieutenant Ehren Watada (wah-TAH'-dah) opposes the war and first asked to be re-assigned and also asked to be allowed to resign his commission. Seitz says after both requests were denied, Watada told his superiors he wouldn't go to Iraq. Two anti-war groups say the soldier will announce his refusal at a news conference in Tacoma. A Fort Lewis spokeswoman had no comment.

John Murtha served his country well during the Vietnam era but today in the War on Terror John Murtha is AWOL.

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi commanders are increasingly critical of a policy that lets Iraqi soldiers leave their units virtually at will - essentially deserting with no punishment. They blame the lax rule for draining the Iraqi ranks to confront the insurgency - in some cases by 30 percent or even half. Iraqi officials, however, say they have no choice but to allow the policy, or they may gain virtually no volunteers.

Since third parties, specifically the Constitution Party, have become an issue Constitution Party on ImmigrationConstitution Party gains strength, could hurt Republicans I thought it might be helpful to look at issues other than immigration. The entire platform is in post 1, since there are issues other than the WOT and immigration. Terrorism and Personal Liberty America is engaged in an undeclared war with an ill-defined enemy (terrorism), a war which threatens to be never ending, and which is being used to vastly expand government power, particularly that of the executive branch, at the expense of the individual liberties of the...

The drink arrives, not in a glass, but in a puff of alcohol-laden vapor. Imbibers sit beside each other on bar stools, breathing deeply from plastic devices that resemble giant asthma inhalers. Even though the futuristic Alcohol Without Liquid machines have apparently not arrived in Massachusetts, some legislators and law enforcement officials are so fearful of their potency that the House will hear testimony today on a bill banning the machines, which are popular in Europe. Promoters say the devices deliver low-calorie, low-carb, hangover-free doses of booze.

Katherine Jashinski Statement read near Fort Benning gate November 17, 2005 My name is Katherine Jashinski. I am a SPC in the Texas Army National Guard. I was born in Milwaukee, WI and I am 22 years old. When I graduated high school I moved to Austin, TX to attend college. At age 19 I enlisted in the Guard as a cook because I wanted to experience military life. When I enlisted I believed that killing was immoral, but also that war was an inevitable part of life and therefore, an exception to the rule. After enlisting I began the...

The cost of the war can't be calculated in rising gas prices or soaring national debt. The real toll is being brought back from the Middle East by a generation of soldiers whose neglect is becoming a national shame -By Kathy Dobie - As I write this, it's a sunny summer day in America, the third summer of war, and one year, one month, and two days since Jeff Lucey, a Marine reservist came home from Iraq with a big smile on his face, hanged himself in his parents' basement.

I was listening to John Batchelor Show last evening(9/28/05) and a guest mentioned that he is hearing rumors that the 250 policemen that allegedly deserted from NO PD will never be prosecuted because they did not exist, and that is why police chief quit. Has anyone heard any rumors and do you have any links to them? By the way, John Batchelor Show is the most inciteful and entertaining show on the air today. It is streamed by radio station WMAL in D.C.

Ever notice when the going gets tough those that shout loudest during smooth sailing run for cover during the storm only to appear later to tell us what we did wrong...come on...now is the time for constuctive leadership NOT after the fact.

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The Iraq Army continues to be plagued by absenteeism and equipment shortages, but at a far lower level than that during 2004. A U.S. Defense Department report said Iraqi military and security forces have achieved significant progress over the last year. The report said this has included the easing of equipment shortages and absenteeism. "Although there is variance in the rate of absenteeism, AWOL [Absent-without-leave], attrition, and desertion among the Iraqi Army, rates have diminished significantly and are now around one percent for some divisions," the report said. "Still, unitsthat are conducting operations and units that relocate...

A recent high school graduate who alleged that she was recruited into the National Guard through deceptive practices did not appear for her entry training Wednesday and now is considered absent without leave, officials said. Faustner's mother, Joan Koberly, said her daughter had been attending the monthly drill weekends at the Allentown National Guard Armory but stopped in April on the advice of her lawyer, John Roberts. Roberts said Thursday that a recruiter had told Faustner that the Army National Guard would send her to nursing school after basic training, but instead her unit had been told it had a...

Kerry bolts D.C. and misses Bolton vote By Noelle Straub Thursday, June 23, 2005 - Updated: 10:38 AM EST WASHINGTON - Sen. John F. Kerry has been an outspoken critic of John Bolton's nomination as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, but the senator skipped a roll-call vote on the appointment Monday as he took a two-day leave from his Washington duties. Kerry missed four roll-call votes altogether on Monday and Tuesday, including one on an energy amendment he co-sponsored. Kerry spokesman David Wade refused to divulge where the Bay State senator had been, characterizing his absence only as a...

The Marine Corps' second-most wanted deserter was arrested Thursday in Chicago by the Great Lakes Regional Fugitive Task Force. Larry Patten, who was known as Lawrence Raggs after moving to the Chicago area, had been sentenced to confinement before escaping from Camp Pendleton, Calif., in 1988. He had been demoted and found guilty of bad conduct, a U.S. Marshals Service news release said. ... Through interviews and photos, local task force investigators confirmed that Patten and Raggs were the same person before making the arrest while Patten walked his dog Thursday morning, she said. ...