I gotta go with "GUILTY!" on this one.
Posted on 11/21/2009 4:13:13 PM PST by BykrBayb
A lesbian soldier who deserted the U.S. army won a key court victory Friday when a judge ordered the refugee board to reconsider her failed asylum claim and take into account compelling evidence that she was persecuted and that her sexual orientation could mean stiffer punishment for going AWOL.
Federal Court Justice Yves de Montigny's order for the board to consider a gay U.S. soldier as a credible refugee candidate is believed to be a first, said a spokesman for the U.S. military.
"I have never heard of anybody attempting to do that before," said army spokesman Lt.-Col. Christopher Garver.
Pte. Bethany Smith, 21, will have another chance to argue her case for staying in Canada, rather than face deportation and a possible court martial in the U.S. for fleeing the military base at Fort Campbell, Ky., two years ago.
"I did a happy dance when I heard," said the deserter, now an Ottawa call centre worker who has adopted the name Skyler James.
Smith, who says she was outed by another soldier who spotted her walking hand-in-hand with a woman at a shopping mall, contends in court documents that she was badgered daily, saddled with extra work by her superiors and received more than 100 threatening notes on her dormitory door, including a death threat.
Smith says that she sought a discharge from the army -- under the U.S. "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy that permits openly gay soldiers to leave -- but that she was told the paperwork would not be done until after she returned from a scheduled deployment to Afghanistan.
She said she considers herself among the hundreds of U.S. war resisters who have fled to Canada as "conscientious objectors."
~snip~
(Excerpt) Read more at canada.com ...
Not to mention that hideous accident with an industrial nail gun.
I gotta go with "GUILTY!" on this one.
Guilty, hell let me save you some work.....
“GUY” just throw away the unnecessary “ilt”
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