Watada Witness List Set
Lt. Ehren Watada will call three witnesses to the stand, while the Army will only call one, at Thursday's Fort Lewis hearing leading up to a possible court martial following Watada's refusal to deploy to Iraq. The Army could have challenged the scope of defense testimony, seeking to have Watada limit his evidence to facts around whether or not he got on the bus headed out to war. But it has not done so, according to Watada's lawyer, Eric Seitz. The three witnesses he plans to call are: Francis Boyle, a University of Illinois international law professor, who will testify about the legality of the war; Denis Haliday, a former United Nations assistant secretary general, presenting evidence on the same subject; and retired Army Col. Ann Wright, who will talk about how she used to train soldiers to decline orders if they appeared illegal. Seitz says he will also present two friend-of-the-court briefs at the hearing, including one from the American Civil Liberties Union. Meanwhile, Seitz says that he received word from the Army today that it will present but one witness, who will testify about Watada's failure to deploy. According to Seitz, the Army had also wanted to call to the stand two journalists who had quoted Watada, giving rise to charges against him of speaking contemptuously of the president and acts unbecoming an officer, but the journalists would not cooperate. The attorney expects the hearing to be over in one day, though it is scheduled for two.
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