Anti-war activists hold hearing

TACOMA — A question banished from the upcoming court-martial trial of 1st Lt. Ehren Watada surfaced Saturday at a citizens hearing on the Iraq war. Are the legal underpinnings of the war shaky enough to justify the Fort Lewis officer's refusal last year to deploy with his brigade?

Watada's efforts to raise that defense were struck down last week by a military judge. It was a ruling anticipated by peace activists who had planned the citizens event at the conference hall on the Tacoma campus of The Evergreen State College.

Attended by more than 340 people, it was initially billed as a "tribunal" to put the war on trial, although organizers said they were not trying to conduct an impartial hearing on the war. Instead, it was a daylong indictment of U.S. war policies. Several Iraq veterans, law professors and whistle-blowers condemned United States actions as violations of international law and war crimes.

"U.S. citizens have the responsibility to start asking tough questions about the underlying premises of the war, to start asking why instead of how," said Zoltan Grossman, an Evergreen faculty member who helped organize the hearing.

Watada, whose court-martial begins Feb. 5, also made a brief appearance. He thanked the conference organizers and denounced last week's decision by Military Judge Lt. Col. John Head to block the presentation of his defense.

"I believe that it is a travesty of justice," said Watada, who faces up to six years in military prison if convicted. "That it is a violation of our most sacred due process, and indeed it is un-American." In a pretrial ruling, Head — citing federal court decisions — concluded that the legality of the war was a political issue that could not be litigated in military court.

Saturday, plenty of people were eager to speak to the issue.

Richard Falk, a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, cited the Army Field Manual, which holds soldiers accountable for crimes that violate international law. He argued that the war breaches international law because the Bush administration did not go to the United Nations Security Council to gain specific approval for military action.

U.S. officials dispute that assessment, saying that a 2002 Security Council resolution, which threatened Iraq with serious consequences, put the invasion in compliance with the U.N. charter.

Some of the harshest attacks on the Bush administration came from Daniel Ellsberg, who in 1971 as a military analyst leaked to the press the secret Pentagon Papers, which detailed the U.S. conduct of the Vietnam War. Ellsberg accused President Bush of war crimes that could be prosecuted under international law.

"... Our country is engaged in clear-cut aggression," Ellsberg said.

At the hearing, there was no discussion of insurgent and sectarian attacks that have resulted in thousands of civilian deaths, nor did any speaker seek to outline the U.S. position on the legality of the war.

Grossman said the State and Defense departments were invited to send representatives but did not respond.

W.J. Hardiman, executive director of Evergreen's Tacoma campus, said that the conference sought to offer perspectives on the war that she said are often absent from public discussion.

The hearing concludes today. A citizen panel will compile the findings of the hearing and send them to members of Congress.

Hardiman said she would welcome supporters of the war if they seek to have a conference on campus.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com