Posted on 12/18/2006 1:42:46 PM PST by radar101
Army prosecutors have sent subpoenas to journalists in Oakland and Honolulu demanding testimony about quotes they attributed to an officer who faces a court-martial after denouncing the war in Iraq and refusing to deploy with his unit.
The Army's subpoenas, which the journalists said they received last week, put them in the uncomfortable position of being ordered to help the Army build its case against 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, who faces up to six years in prison if convicted.
"It's not a reporter's job to participate in the prosecution of her own sources,'' said Sarah Olson, an Oakland freelance journalist and radio producer. "When you force a journalist to participate, you run the risk of turning the journalist into an investigative tool of the state.''
But Olson, who received her subpoena Thursday, acknowledged she has no legal grounds to refuse to testify, since she is being asked only to confirm the accuracy of what she wrote about Watada and not to disclose confidential sources or unpublished material.
Normally, she said, "no one, myself included, has any problem verifying the veracity of their reporting.'' The ethical problem in this case, she said, is that she would be aiding the prosecution of one of the dissidents and war critics who regularly trust her to tell their stories to the public.
Watada, 28, faces a court-martial in February at Fort Lewis, Wash., where he is based. He is charged with missing a troop movement -- because he refused to deploy -- and with conduct unbecoming an officer for his quotes in articles in June on the Web site truthout.org and in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. In the news reports, Watada criticized President Bush and the Iraq war.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The thing that made me suspect his motives for joining was that he was commissioned the summer after the invasion and his family is involved in democratic politics in Hawaii.
ping
Funny how so many that say they want to stand up for what's "right" don't want to stand up at all when the rubber meets the road, eh?
Well, the lawyer in me says the evidence for his intention is only circumstancial, but the former artillery officer thinks the likelihood is motives were not bad is about the chance of my tossing the tube of an M114A1 for a caber.
Unfortunately, he'll likely receive only a dismissal and a nominal prison term.
Then he'll go into politics in a big way.
Sigh! You're right, unfortunately, but one can always hope....
And very depressing.
Beautiful irony!
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