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<p>An Army lieutenant who refused to deploy to Iraq in 2006, saying he believed the war was illegal, has officially left the service. Fort Lewis spokesman Joseph Piek confirmed that Ehren Watada was discharged Friday.</p> <p>Watada was charged with missing his unit's deployment and with conduct unbecoming an officer for denouncing President Bush and the war—statements he made while explaining his actions.</p>

Charles Robert Jenkins was an Army sergeant when he sneaked across the DMZ in 1965. Allowed to leave the North in 2004, he lives on a Japanese island with his family, working as a greeter in a shop.

SPC Reynaldo Jimenez, 31, an Army deserter compromised military computer systems to reroute soldiers' pay to Dominican Republic bank accounts he opened with fake NY drivers' licenses....... DOD traced the scam to Jimenez computer trespassing at Bronx Community College. Jimenez enlisted in 2005 and was trained on military myPay computer systems. He went AWOL March 2008, fleeing to the Dominican Republic......he pleaded guilty April 2009.

BOULDER, Colo. — A 21-year-old man wanted by the U.S. Army for desertion was arrested in Boulder over the weekend. In a strange twist, he was found wearing a woman’s thong and had three pairs of women’s underpants stuffed in his shirt pocket. Boulder police said they received an anonymous tip Saturday that Christopher Mauger, who has a nationwide felony warrant for desertion, could be found in an apartment unit at 770 29th St. in Boulder. Police went to the apartment around 4 p.m. and caught Mauger, who was wearing Army camouflage pants, at the back of the building trying...

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, Canada (AP) -- A Marine wanted by the U.S. military for abandoning his unit sneaked across the border into Canada and fatally shot himself outside his mother's farmhouse, police said Friday. Timothy Scott, 22, was holding a pistol when police found him in the road outside his mother's home in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Sgt. Mark Gallagher of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. "Police spoke to him to try to talk him out of using the gun ... and unfortunately the circumstances unfolded and he took his life," Gallagher said. The Marine had served at Camp Lejeune,...

Sporting a dragon tattoo on his forearm and skulls on both biceps, Cliff Cornell's looks tough. But he dissolves into tears as he reflects on his return to the Army four years after he fled to Canada to avoid the war in Iraq. "I'm nervous, scared," Cornell said, wiping puffy eyes beneath his sunglasses Monday at a Savannah hotel after a three-day bus ride from Seattle. "I'm just not a fighter. I know it sounds funny, but I have a really soft heart." Cornell, 29, of Mountain Home, Ark., planned to turn himself in to military police Tuesday at nearby...

Germany has been very good to Spec. André L. Shepherd since he deserted the U.S. Army. The 31-year-old former mechanic of the 601st Aviation Support Battalion is enjoying perks that eluded him back home in Ohio: a bed, a bank account, a cellphone and friends. Best of all from his standpoint, he isn't back in Iraq. "I'm having the time of my life," says Mr. Shepherd, the only American bunking at a refugee-processing center in southern Germany. The U.S. deserter enters uncharted legal territory on Wednesday, when Germany begins weighing his request for political asylum. The case will put to...

Canada has ordered the deportation of the first woman US soldier to have sought asylum in the country to avoid being deployed to Iraq. Kimberly Rivera, a mother of three, had requested permission to remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds but her appeal was rejected. She could face up to five years in prison when she returns to the US. Some 200 deserters from the US military are believed to have fled to Canada, some living incognito. Mrs Rivera served in Iraq in 2006 but deserted a year later after refusing to be redeployed. The War Resisters Supporters Campaign, who...

The first female U.S. Iraq war resister to seek refuge in Canada has been ordered to leave the country before the end of the month or face deportation. Kimberley Rivera, who served in Iraq in 2006 and fled to Canada in 2007 after refusing redeployment, was told this morning she has until Jan. 27 to return to the U.S., said Michelle Rubidoux of the War Resisters Support Campaign. "It's ridiculous," said Rubidoux, who accompanied Rivera to her hearing at the Greater Toronto Enforcement Centre on Airport Road. The decision will force Rivera to uproot her family – her husband Mario...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – A U.S. soldier who deserted his unit to avoid returning to Iraq has applied for asylum in Germany, saying the Iraq war was illegal and that he could not support the "heinous acts" taking place. Andre Shepherd, 31, who served in Iraq between September 2004 and February 2005 as an Apache helicopter mechanic in the 412th Aviation Support Battalion, has been living in Germany since deserting last year.

MUNICH, Germany — An American soldier who deserted the Army 18 months ago to avoid a second tour to Iraq has asked the German government for political asylum, making him the first U.S. servicemember to go that route over Iraq. Army Spc. Andrè L. Shepherd submitted his petition Wednesday to a German federal office in Giessen that handles migration and refugee issues. Worried the Army might attempt to arrest him, Shepherd didn't publicly disclose the time and place of his filing until he held a press conference Thursday morning in Frankfurt. In a seven-page letter written earlier this year for...

A U.S. Army soldier who fled to Canada after learning his unit was being deployed to Iraq won a last-minute stay of deportation Monday. Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley ruled Jeremy Hinzman can stay in Canada while the court decides whether he can appeal his deportation order. "We're elated," Hinzman said moments after the decision was released. "(But) we're not out of the woods at all. We just have a stay of removal." ... In his three-page ruling, Mosley wrote, "Based on the evidence and submissions before me, I am satisfied that the applicants would suffer irreparable harm if a...

An American soldier who fled to Canada rather than fight in Iraq pleaded guilty to a desertion charge Friday and was sentenced by an Army judge to 15 months in a military prison. The soldier, Pfc. Robin Long, 25, of Boise, Idaho, who left his unit in 2005 on grounds of moral opposition to the war, will also be dishonorably discharged and demoted to private E-1, the Army’s lowest rank.

Deserter may fare worse because of flight Former 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman has been ordered out of Canada By Jay Price, Staff Writer A deserter from Fort Bragg who was ordered deported from Canada last week would probably have gotten a lighter punishment if he had simply stayed in the United States and quietly turned himself in, Army statistics suggest.Former 82nd Airborne Division paratrooper Jeremy Hinzman, 29, and his supporters in the United States and Canada think he'll be court-martialed for desertion if he is forced to return, in part because he fled to Canada and in...

Jeremy Hinzman, a deserter from the United States Army, was ordered Wednesday to leave Canada by Sept. 23... Although the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper has not backed the Iraq war, it has shown little sympathy for American deserters, a significant change from the Vietnam War era.

MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — One of the first U.S. army deserters from Iraq to seek refugee status in Canada has been ordered deported. Jeremy Hinzman deserted the army in 2004 after learning his unit was to be deployed to Iraq. He refused to participate in what he calls an immoral and illegal war. Hinzman fled to Canada along with his wife and son and sought refugee status. Today, he was ordered out of the country by Sept. 23. The Immigration and Refugee Board rejected his claim in 2005 and the Federal Court of Appeal held that he wouldn’t face any serious...

July 29, 2008 at 5:23 PM EDT FORT ERIE, Ont. — An American man wanted in the U.S. on desertion charges who had apparently been living for months in Canada has been arrested while trying to cross the border back into the U.S. American customs officials apprehended 23-year-old Tyrone Pachauer of Deltona, Fla., at the Peace Bridge border crossing in Fort Erie, Ont., as he tried to cross into Buffalo, N.Y., on Monday.

U.S. soldier who fled to Canada because he refused to serve in Iraq has been deported, and now faces a possible court martial. Robin Long crossed the border into Canada in 2005. Last October, he was arrested in Nelson, B.C., on a Canada-wide warrant. He called military operations in Iraq "an illegal war of aggression." On Monday, Federal Court of Canada Justice Anne Mactavish said Long did not provide enough convincing evidence that he will face irreparable harm if he's sent back to the United States. She noted that the percentage of American military deserters prosecuted in the U.S....

A U.S. Navy deserter nabbed at the border is being shipped back to his base in California to face charges of desertion. At the same time, rallies were staged in Toronto and Vancouver yesterday to try to prevent Robin Long, a failed refugee claimant and deserter, from being deported to the U.S. In the first case, naval officer Jeffrey Mitchell, 24, was crossing the Peace Bridge late Saturday with his wife after a two-day Niagara Falls getaway when he was nabbed in a computer check, said Chief Kevin Corsaro, of U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Corsaro said Mitchell had been...

A US soldier who deserted to Canada and sought refugee status for opposing the war in Iraq has been extradited to the United States, officials said, in Canada's first such case since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. "I can confirm that he has been expelled from Canada and returned to his country of origin," Shakila Manzoor, a spokeswoman for the Canada Border Services Agency (ASFC) said. US citizen Robin Long, 25, fled to Canada in 2005 and demanded refugee status, claiming he would suffer irreparable harm if he were sent back to the United States. He also argued that he...

VANCOUVER - A U.S. Army deserter who fled to Canada three years ago has been deported back to America to face possible court martial. The Canada Border Services Agency confirmed Robin Long was removed from Canada Tuesday. Long claimed refugee status in Canada, saying he didn't want to take part in a U.S. war in Iraq he called "an illegal war of aggression." Sarah Bjoknas, a co-ordinator for the War Resisters Support Campaign, says Long will be returned to his unit based in Fort Knox, Kentucky. She says Long's punishment for deserting will be up to the company commander and...

James Corey Glass, apprentice mortician and United States Army deserter, was keeping an unusually close eye on the text messages coming into his cellphone. He was hoping to hear that a court had blocked the Canadian government’s attempt to send him back to the United States. On Wednesday afternoon, the message came: Mr. Glass, 25, could remain in Canada while he appealed his removal order by the country’s Immigration Department. It was a welcome reprieve, he said, but well short of a guarantee that he and other deserters could make Canada their new home. The Canadian government’s effort to remove...

OTTAWA, July 5 (UPI) -- A Canadian federal judge has decided Canada's refugee board made a mistake when it rejected a U.S. soldier's request for asylum. Justice Robert Barnes said the Immigration and Refugee Board was incorrect when it decided Joshua Key was unable to seek asylum in Canada because the military actions he was dodging weren't extreme enough to be considered war crimes. The Friday ruling may pave the way for other American deserters who try to claim refugee status in Canada, The Globe and Mail in Toronto reported. The judge said evading military orders that are "contrary to...

Since deserting his unit in Iraq and fleeing to Canada two years ago, Corey Glass has become the poster boy of the war resisters movement. Thursday in Toronto, supporters are planning to protest his scheduled deportation back to the United States. Corey Glass, 25, who deserted the U.S. Army while his unit was in Iraq and fled to Canada has become a cause celebre there. The American's impending deportation has led to protests and a parliamentary resolution. (ABC News Photo Illustration)But it turns out Glass has had little reason to be on the lam, ABC News has learned. Unknown to...

‘Illegal Occupation’: US Soldier Refuses To Deploy To Iraq 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...

Canada is set to deport in June the first of possibly hundreds of American soldiers who sought asylum to avoid military duty in Iraq, a group backing the US deserters said Wednesday. Corey Glass, 25, came to Canada in August 2006 after serving in Iraq as a military intelligence sergeant. Authorities told him on Wednesday that his application to stay in Canada was rejected and he would be deported in early June, a spokeswoman for the War Resisters Support Campaign told AFP. According to the group, several hundred Iraq War resisters are currently in Canada, many of them living underground....

US military finds sailor in slain taxi driver's case: report Weekend March 22, 2008 The US military Saturday took into custody a deserter in Japan wanted for questioning over the killing of a taxi driver, a report said.The US military, which has been looking for the sailor since early this month, informed Japan early Saturday that he was found in the military hub of Yokosuka near Tokyo, Kyodo News said, quoting police sources. The report said the sailor's credit card was found Wednesday in a parked taxi in which the 61-year-old driver was stabbed to death with a kitchen...

BERLIN (Reuters) - A U.S. Army medic jailed for desertion after refusing to return to Iraq is on a mission to tell young Americans about the grim realities of war before they join the military. Mexican-born combat medic Agustin Aguayo, in Germany to receive a peace award, told Reuters that U.S. Army recruitment methods were unfair as young people got a one-sided, positive picture of combat. "I want to bring young people awareness. We ask them to sacrifice so much yet we don't educate them about the realities of war," said Aguayo, who describes himself as a conscientious objector, in...

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...

Fort Lewis deserter arrested in crash that killed young boy Joshua Beadle is seen in this undated police booking photo. YouNewsTV™ Story Published: Aug 8, 2007 at 12:56 PM PDT Story Updated: Aug 8, 2007 at 5:06 PM PDT By KOMO Staff Watch the story WESTMINSTER, Colo. -- Investigators here say an Army soldier who deserted from Fort Lewis, Wash. is suspected of crashing into another vehicle and killing a 10-year-old boy. Westminster police arrested Joshua Beadle, 21, for investigation of vehicular homicide and driving under the influence. Officials say Beadle ran a red light on Friday and slammed into...

The Iraq War has its own generation of deserters. Today’s runaway soldiers are casualties of two relentless voices--that of their own fear and that of political appeasement. Before recruitment, health and education benefits should be partnered with a reality check: the bloody baggage of war. These young volunteers could then inventory themselves and judge if they can attack their fear. America’s present-day “Neville Chamberlains” account for the second shrill voice. Appeasement is naïve and blind to evil’s intent, which has always been the subjugation or destruction of others. The constant public yammering of the appeasement crowd undercuts the mental focus...

The Keys are living in a van because of Joshua Key's opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq. While many opponents of the Iraq war base their opposition on media reports, Key's opinion is based on what he witnessed when he fought for eight months in Iraq's Sunni Triangle. Key never thought he'd end up in Iraq in the first place. When he first enlisted, he signed up to be a bridge builder in a non-deployable unit. Despite this, the army trained him in explosives and landmines, and sent him to Iraq in April of 2003. Key describes himself as...

SEATTLE, (AP) -- The Army has set a second court-martial for July 16 for an officer who refused to deploy to Iraq and spoke out against the war and the Bush administration. The first military trial for 1st Lt. Ehren Watada ended in a mistrial Feb. 7, when the judge said he didn't believe Watada, 28, fully understood a pretrial agreement he'd signed. On Friday, the Army refiled charges of missing movement and conduct unbecoming an officer.

'I'm so sick of running' Canada says no to U.S. deserter By PATRICK MALONEY, FREE PRESS REPORTER London Free Press Mon, January 29, 2007 Matt Lowell is one of the unlucky 13. That's how many U.S. soldiers have bolted their homeland in protest of the Iraq war and applied for refugee protection in Canada, Ottawa says. So far, all the claims have been rejected. Lowell, a quiet Michigan native who arrived in London by accident, just received the Immigration and Refugee Board's decision on his case. Matt David Lowell of Michigan is a deserterfrom the U.S. army who lives...

By MELANTHIA MITCHELL, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 9, 5:20 PM ET SEATTLE - An Army lieutenant who challenged the Bush administration's reasons for going to war in Iraq and then refused to deploy to the country will face a military trial, the Army said Thursday. Fort Lewis commander Lt. Gen. James Dubik recommended that the Army proceed with a general court-martial against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada. Watada, 28, was charged with missing troop movement, conduct unbecoming an officer and contempt toward officials for comments he made about President Bush. The Army later added another specification of conduct unbecoming an...

RADCLIFF, Kentucky (AP) -- An Army soldier who fled to Canada rather than redeploy to Iraq surrendered Tuesday to military officials after asking for leniency. Spc. Darrell Anderson, 24, said he deserted the Army last year because he could no longer fight in what he believes is an illegal war. "I feel that by resisting I made up for the things I did in Iraq," Anderson said during a press briefing shortly before he turned himself in at nearby Fort Knox. "I feel I made up for the sins I committed in this war." Anderson, of Lexington, returned to the...

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.

SAN DIEGO A man who deserted the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War was arrested as he entered the United States from Mexico, authorities said Friday. Victor Aguirre, 63, was wanted on a 1966 felony warrant for desertion, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection bureau. He was arrested Thursday at San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing. Aguirre will likely be taken to Camp Pendleton Marine base, about 50 miles north of San Diego, for processing and release, said Capt. Jay Delarosa, a Marine spokesman. He will likely be discharged without facing formal charges. The circumstances of Aguirre's desertion...

Darrell Anderson, the young Lexington soldier who deserted to Canada last year after being wounded in Iraq, wants to come home. Anderson, now 24, has been an outspoken critic of U.S. policy in Iraq while living in Canada, appearing at peace rallies and attacking the Bush administration in interviews with international publications. Earlier this year, he married a Canadian woman, which his mother said should guarantee him permanent residency in Canada. But Lexington's Anita Anderson confirmed that her son now wants to return to the United States sometime within the next few weeks. He could be arrested as soon as...

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...

Remember this moonbat hero? When thousands of Fort Lewis troops prepared to deploy to Iraq this man refused to obey his orders and the anti-war groups rallied around him. A little flashback from the Seattle Times: 1st Lt. Ehren Watada's Stryker brigade is scheduled to make its first deployment to Iraq this month. His refusal to accompany these troops puts him at risk of court-martial and years of prison time. "I feel that we have been lied to and betrayed by this administration," Watada said Tuesday in a telephone interview from Fort Lewis. "It is the duty, the obligation of...

SEATTLE - An Army officer who refused to serve in Iraq because he believes the war is illegal was steadfast in his resolve ahead of a military court hearing, saying the decision was "my obligation to this country." "I made this decision a long time ago," Watada said during a telephone interview. "It is my obligation to this country. I‘m not happy about it and I didn‘t want to do it, but I had to." His lawyer, Eric Seitz, said he has lined up two witnesses to support the soldier‘s claim that the war violated domestic and international law: University...

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...

NORFOLK — A petty officer has been in the Norfolk Naval Station brig for more than four months facing espionage, desertion and other charges, but the Navy has refused to release details of the case. The case against Fire Control Technician 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann is indicative of the secrecy surrounding the Navy military court here, where public affairs and trial court officials have denied access to basic information including the court docket – a listing of cases to be heard. After months of requests, the Navy this week provided The Virginian-Pilot with Weinmann’s name, rank and the charges...

Captain Amir Pastar, called up by army in recent days to join fighting in Lebanon, declares Sunday he refuses to take part in war, sentenced to 28 days in military jail. 'He thinks Israel's operation hurts civilians on both sides,' his girlfriend explains Captain Amir Pastar, 32, a reserve Armored Corps officer, was sentenced to 28 days in military prison Sunday for refusing to take part in IDF operations in the framework of the fighting in Lebanon. Pastar, who has been called up in the recent reserve mobilization, stated that "participating in the war contradicts the values I was brought...

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...