[News] AWOL from IRAQ - Sgt. Camilo Mejia, on Sixty Minutes, tonight

[News at freedomarchives.org]

Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2004 6:09 AM
Subject: "Sgt. Camilo Mejia is interviewed by Dan Rather, on SixtyMInutes, 
Wednesday nigh

"Sgt. Camilo Mejia is interviewed by Dan Rather, on SixtyMInutes, Wednesday 
night, 8 pm (same Pacific time) on reasons for his refusal to return to Iraq."


Forwarded Message:

AWOL From Iraq
March 29, 2004


Since the U.S. invaded Iraq last year, hundreds of American soldiers have 
broken the law and abandoned their units on the battlefield.

Correspondent Dan Rather talks to AWOL Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, and his 
commanding officer, in exclusive interviews to be broadcast on 60 Minutes 
II Wednesday, March 31 at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
Until October, 28-year-old Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia, who's with the Florida 
National Guard, was stationed in Ramadi - one of Iraq's most dangerous 
areas. Despite his commanding officer's suspicions that the bloodshed was 
taking a heavy toll on Mejia, he was allowed to take a short leave to work 
out the problems he was having renewing his green card. (Like almost 40,000 
other soldiers who have spent time fighting in Iraq, Mejia is a legal alien.)

It was during that leave that Mejia tells Rather he first began thinking of 
going 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," says Mejia.

"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 and, to me, there's no military contract and no military duty that's 
going to justify being a part of that war."

In addition to his moral questions about the war, Sgt. Mejia thought he had 
a legal right not to go back. He says he satisfied his agreement with the 
Army and National Guard to serve eight years, but like many in the 
military, he was ordered to serve more time because of the war.

So, from his home in Florida, Mejia emailed Capt. Tad Warfel and requested 
assistance being released from active duty. "[Warfel] pretty much said that 
my place of duty was [in Iraq] and that I was to go back immediately," he 
says.

Warfel tells Rather that he was "furious" with the soldier. "I don't know 
if I considered him personally a coward but I consider what he did as a 
cowardly act," he says.

"...[Mejia] told me he was coming back and he didn't, and that makes me mad 
and just that any soldier that abandons his fellow soldier in a time of 
war, and I can't think of anything worse ... I just hope that the military 
justice system does right by me and by my soldiers and punishes him for 
what he did," says Warfel. "You know, the worst punishment in the world 
would be sending him back to Iraq for six more months."

In March 2004, Mejia turned himself in to a military base in Massachusetts. 
He has asked to be classified as a conscientious objector and to be given 
an honorable discharge.

"I have not deserted the military," says Mejia. "I have not been disloyal 
to the men and women of the military. I have not been disloyal to a 
country. I have only been loyal to my principles and I think that gives me 
the right to decide not to be a part of something that I consider criminal. 
I realize I have a duty to the military and I'm going to face that duty and 
I'm going to face my responsibility."

When asked if he still hopes to become a citizen, Mejia responds, "Yes, I do."


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20040331/f37d583a/attachment.htm>