U.S. Soldier Found Guilty of Deserting Iraq Unit

[jimnyc]

** I hope this guy spends 365 days straight laying a hammer to rocks in prison for deserting his comrades. **

FORT STEWART, Ga. (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier who failed to return to his unit in Iraq after taking a two-week leave to the United States last year was found guilty of desertion, a military court said on Friday.

Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, a member of the Florida National Guard, faces up to a year in prison, a bad conduct discharge and a demotion in rank.

Mejia, a nine-year U.S. Army veteran, was deployed to Iraq early last year and took a two-week leave to the United States in October. He was gone for five months before surrendering to Army officials in March. He has filed an application for conscientious objector status.

During his court martial, Mejia cited his opposition to the Iraq war and said he had sought to be discharged from the Army under a U.S. military regulation that prohibits non-citizens from serving more than eight years.

Mejia, 28, has dual Nicaraguan and Costa Rican nationality.

The soldier testified he "had problems in Iraq" and decided to seek status as a conscientious objector. Tod Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier, a New York-based nonprofit group that sponsored Mejia's defense, said Mejia chose not to go back to Iraq after seeing the torture of prisoners and other immoral acts.

The issue of prisoner abuse has rocked the U.S. military in light of recent revelations of abuse of Iraqi detainees. Earlier this week, a U.S. soldier in Iraq was sentenced to a year in jail after pleading guilty to abusing Iraqis in a scandal that has sparked worldwide outrage and battered the image of the United States.

http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=5222938

 

[OCA]

Wow its shocking to see that Three Rivers avatar show up now

Good this person deserves everything they got the friggin coward!

 

[freeandfun1]

Originally posted by jimnyc
Mejia chose not to go back to Iraq after seeing the torture of prisoners and other immoral acts.

Mejia, 28, has dual Nicaraguan and Costa Rican nationality.
[/url]

They are going to tie everything they can to the prisoner abuse shit ain't they?

He was in the FL national guard.... the unit at Abu was from NY.

Nicaraguan and Costa Rican....

Okay, then go back home. Why, after nine years in the service is he not a US citizen?

Oh, and the part about "not being able to serve more than 8 years". That applies to active duty service. If he was in the guard, he was only getting credit for 1 weekend a month and two weeks a year (until he was called up) so he didn't serve more than 8 years active....

They are grasping on this one!

 

[Comrade]

Originally posted by jimnyc
** I hope this guy spends 365 days straight laying a hammer to rocks in prison for deserting his comrades. **

FORT STEWART, Ga. (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier who failed to return to his unit in Iraq after taking a two-week leave to the United States last year was found guilty of desertion, a military court said on Friday.

Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, a member of the Florida National Guard, faces up to a year in prison, a bad conduct discharge and a demotion in rank.

Mejia, a nine-year U.S. Army veteran, was deployed to Iraq early last year and took a two-week leave to the United States in October. He was gone for five months before surrendering to Army officials in March. He has filed an application for conscientious objector status.

During his court martial, Mejia cited his opposition to the Iraq war and said he had sought to be discharged from the Army under a U.S. military regulation that prohibits non-citizens from serving more than eight years.

Mejia, 28, has dual Nicaraguan and Costa Rican nationality.

The soldier testified he "had problems in Iraq" and decided to seek status as a conscientious objector. Tod Ensign, director of Citizen Soldier, a New York-based nonprofit group that sponsored Mejia's defense, said Mejia chose not to go back to Iraq after seeing the torture of prisoners and other immoral acts.

What a load of BULL-FUCKING SHIT.

Is the reporter retarded or does he believe his readers are that dumb.

Any "choice" not to go back due to the release of photos necessarily occured in May, 2003.

He was AWOL since, at the latest, Novemeber, 2002. His excuse for not returning post-dates his actual desertion by five months or more. Prior to the release of photo's, his excuse for not returning was what exactly.

God, his lawyer sucks, and if this is his defence I say he deserves years of hard labour for sucking up to the leftist media while trying to bail his own ass out of trouble.

A true Gomer.

 

[tim_duncan2000]

Good. Fuck him.

 

[Avatar4321]

Originally posted by Comrade
What a load of BULL-FUCKING SHIT.

Is the reporter retarded or does he believe his readers are that dumb.

Any "choice" not to go back due to the release of photos necessarily occured in May, 2003.

He was AWOL since, at the latest, Novemeber, 2002. His excuse for not returning post-dates his actual desertion by five months or more. Prior to the release of photo's, his excuse for not returning was what exactly.

God, his lawyer sucks, and if this is his defence I say he deserves years of hard labour for sucking up to the leftist media while trying to bail his own ass out of trouble.

A true Gomer.

I think you are misunderstanding. I dont think he is claiming he couldnt go back because of the photos. i think he is claiming he couldnt go back because he saw actual torture, in person, in Iraq. I think thats a dumb argument too. because if he witnessed torture he should have reported it and not deserted.

 

[Comrade]

Originally posted by Avatar4321
I think you are misunderstanding. I dont think he is claiming he couldnt go back because of the photos. i think he is claiming he couldnt go back because he saw actual torture, in person, in Iraq. I think thats a dumb argument too. because if he witnessed torture he should have reported it and not deserted.

Hmm.... I usually have a good nose for a crap excuse, and in this case I still think I'm accurate in saying his actual role in prisoner abuse, or as a witness to such, is absolutely nil.

He's already been on 60 minutes with this interview:


http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/29/60II/main609216.shtml


"He was a staff sergeant and squad leader, but he says he started to have doubts about what his unit was doing in Ramadi, a hot spot in the Sunni Triangle."

A combatant, not a prison guard.

"Why did he go AWOL?

When you look at the war, and you look at the reasons that took us to war, and you don’t find that any of the things that we were told that we’re going to war for turned out to be true, when you don’t find there are weapons of mass destruction, and when you don’t find that there was a link between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda, and you see that you’re not helping the people and the people don’t want you there,” says Mejia. “To me, there’s no military contract and no military duty that’s going to justify being a part of that war.”


Typical leftist propaganda, quite different from his lawyers current excuse. I believe he is pandering to the political left based solely on the latest hot topic.

Note his reasons given above are as of March 31st, well before any mistreatment of prisoners were an issue in the media. Can you tell how the excuse has changed since then?

Totally in line with the issue of the day, then and now.

"Mejia says he means the war in Iraq should be considered illegal."

Blah blah blah.... BLAH!!!

Note there is nothing at all in this March 31st interview which indicates his witness to abuse of prisoners.

I have a pretty intuition for crap. What's clear from this link from last March is that his reasons for objecting to active duty HAVE changed, which now just happen to fall in line with the current hot topic of the left.

That to me tell's me he is a liar and a pandering fool.

 

[Avatar4321]

Um its war. What did he think he was going to be doing, giving flowers to everyone all the time? he is supposed to be there to kill enemy combatants.