Mejia Says Prison Orders Affected Decision

[Khephra]

FORT STEWART, Ga. -- Lawyers for a U.S. soldier accused of deserting his unit in Iraq last year argued that he walked away partly to avoid orders to abuse Iraqi prisoners.

Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, an infantrymen with the Florida National Guard, is charged with desertion after failing to return to his unit in Iraq after a two-week furlough in October.

His attorneys spent Wednesday, the first day of Mejia's court-martial, asking a military judge to allow testimony from witnesses who could support Mejia's claim that his unit was ordered to abuse detainees.

But the judge ruled that only Mejia himself could raise the abuse issue before a military jury of officers and enlisted men that will begin hearing the case Thursday.

snip..........

"I can only say, whatever I did, I did because I felt like I had an obligation -- moral and in some cases legal," Mejia told reporters outside the courtroom.

more..........

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-anti-war-soldier,0,5083559.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[Just Me]

1. WOW!!! Can he be charged even though he was upholding his duty

to protect the law?

I would not think so?

[AndyTiedye]

2. They'll Probably Hang Him to Make an Example of Him...

while pResident AWOL says "bring 'em on".

[w4rma]

3. Omg! This guy refused to obey these unlawful torture orders!

So, the next time someone tries to shift the focus away from the leadership by saying that they should have disobeyed their orders, tell them about this guy who *did* refuse.

Imho, these soldiers were between a rock and a hard place. They didn't have a lawyer there telling them what they could refuse and what they couldn't.

Now, here we have one who did refuse. So, we're going to see what happens to folks who refuse unlawful orders, as well.

I hope that these cases will set a *good* precedent for future cases and go after their leadership who gave them these orders.

[TahitiNut]

4. Welcome to the insane world of military hypocrisy.

When a grunt in a combat zone tries to play "barracks lawyer" and ask for orders in writing or expresses any resistance to SOP, he's taking his life in his own hands, inviting a blanket party at a bare minimum and usually guaranteeing reassignment to duty that has a life expectancy of 30 seconds.

There's virtually no enabling support for determining whether an order is "lawful." None.

[Just Me]

6. This individual should be treated as a "hero"!!!

He refused to follow an illegal order!!!!

[David__77]

5. Excellent defense strategy.

He can be the "anti-torture" resister. Much more effective than only focusing on the immoral nature of the war against Iraq to begin with.

[underpants]

7. Wasn't this one of the excuses given by the right?

They loved to talk of the freedom troops have to disobey unlawful orders. YEs this is a really good defense strategy.