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Stop deportation of Robin Long from Canada
US Iraq War resister in Canada arrested and taken to Vancouver for expedited deportation. Supporters on both sides of border taking action now. Contact Prime Minister Harper today!

Army moving against Lt. Watada
Despite US Constitution and protections against double jeopardy, Army appears ready to retry First Lt. Ehren Watada a week from now—Tuesday, October 9—at Fort Lewis. Supporters encouraged to take action.

Sgt. James Circello, AWOL, protests war
Army Airborne Infantryman went AWOL in April due to opposition to military intervention in the Middle East, now traveling country protesting and speaking out.

Message from Elliot D S Adams
National President, Veterans for Peace: "Courage to Resist gives our young soldiers the help and support so they can stand up to the military and do what is right, moral and lawful." Donate

Stop the deportation of Robin Long from Canada!

US Iraq War resister Robin Long

By Courage to Resist
October 2, 2007

Yesterday, October 1, U.S. Iraq War resister Robin Long was arrested in Nelson, British Colombia—a small city about 50 miles north of where Washington State and Idaho intersect with Canada. He was taken to the police station and detained. Today, Tuesday, he was flown to Vancouver, where the authorities intend to possibly bring him to the border and hand him over to U.S. military authorities. Supporters on both sides of the border are taking emergency action: “Stop the deportation of U.S. war resister Robin Long!” E-mail, call, fax, and/or write Canadian officials today:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper
Fax: 613-941-6900 | Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
80 Wellington Street, Ottawa K1A 0A2, CANADA

The Honourable Diane Finley, PC, MP
Phone: 613-954-1064 | Email: minister@cic.gc.ca
Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A 1L1, CANADA

Robin, a native of Boise, Idaho hitchhiked to Canada in June 2005 seeking sanctuary after leaving his Fort Knox, Kentucky based tanker unit in order to resist deployment to Iraq.

Emergency rally Wednesday, October 3, 2007, 4:30 pm at the Dundas Street West and University Avenue in Toronto, Canada organized by the War Resisters Support Campaign (Canada)

Read complete action alert and background info

Despite Constitution, Army moving against Lt. Watada

"Puppetistas" put war on trial 2/5/07 outside Ft. Lewis. Photo: Jeff Paterson for Courage to Resist

By Courage to Resist
October 2, 2007

The Army appears ready to retry First Lt. Ehren Watada a week from now—Tuesday, October 9—at Fort Lewis, Washington. As scheduled, the retrial will be heard by the same military judge that orchestrated the February mistrial in order to give the prosecution a “do-over” after they rested their case against the first officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq.

Supporters of Lt. Watada and GI resisters are being urged to take action to highlight double jeopardy outrage!

Michael Wong, a member of the Watada Support Committee and Veterans for Peace, is working hard to mount a public response.

Mike Wong states:

This is in gross violation of law and the Constitution, because his lawyers have appealed against a second trial on the basis of double jeopardy. For quite some time, Ehren's lawyers were proceeding on the assumption that since the appeal is in progress in the court system, the Army would cancel or postpone the October 9th court martial. But now it is only a week away, and nothing has been canceled or postponed. The trial is looking very much like it is on.

Friends and allies around the country are being encouraged to hold teach-ins, demonstrations, press conferences (if you have lawyers who can address the double jeopardy issue, please have them speak), write letters to the editors, anything you can do, on the weekend prior to October 9 and/or on the day of.

Read complete call to action and background

AWOL Army paratrooper protests war

AWOL Sgt. James Circello (left) and Iraq War resister Mark Wilkerson (right) under St. Louis Arch 8/19/07. Photo Jeff Paterson for Courage to Resist

By James Circello Jr. and Courage to Resist. October 2, 2007

Sergeant James Circello Jr. is an Army Airborne Infantryman who went AWOL in April 2007 because of his opposition to U.S. military intervention in the Middle East.

James enlisted in the Army in 2001 following the attack on the World Trade Center. He spent a year in the Kirkuk area of northern Iraq with the 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry, 173rd Airborne Brigade from March 2003 to March 2004.

After much soul-searching, James left his base in Vicenza, Italy (Caserma Ederle) on April 10, 2007. Recently he has attended the Veterans for Peace National Convention in St. Louis this August, the mass anti-war march on Washington DC last month, and is currently working with Iraq Veterans Against the War and Courage to Resist.

James plans to turn himself over to military authorities soon and will undoubtedly need our support.

I saw kids turn into animals
By James Circello, AWOL Army Sgt.

I enlisted in September 2001
and reported to my unit in Italy in June of 2002.
I was an alright Private—
got along with everyone, did my job the best I could,
trained and jumped from airplanes....

I saw kids turn into animals.
Members of my own unit, who I will never speak negatively about,
doing things that one day I know
will haunt them.

I saw soldiers mistreating detained Iraqis.
Detained on nothing more than pure suspicion in some cases.
But why not, it was the Old West, anything goes and anything did go. Honestly.

Questionable shootings.
Questionable decisions by superior commanders.
Nothing ever questioned by your superiors.
You as the Soldier were always in the right.

One platoon in particular killed so many people,
some legally,
some others
maybe not so legally.
They were investigated.
Nothing ever came from it.
Everyone always knew nothing would come from it.
In the military you watch each other's back, against the "bad guys"—
including the investigators.

I did see a side of Iraq I didn't know existed.
A courageous group of people, fighting for their own survival,
compassionate and friendly.
It was always so easy to make friends with an Iraqi—
whether he was Kurdish, Arabic or Turkish—
it never made a difference.

I left the country feeling awful.

It was so hard to speak to anyone in America about it,
because they had no idea.

Read Sgt. James Circello's complete story, view video

A message from Elliot D S Adams

Every service person is charged with the responsibility to disobeying an illegal order. Orders that violate the treaties of the United States like the Geneva Conventions are illegal. Courage to Resist gives our young soldiers the help and support so they can stand up to the military and do what is right, moral and lawful.

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