Deserter opposes torture
Found at Dust My Broom: 42-year-old US Army linguist Peter Jemley has deserted and gone to Canada. He’s seeking refugee status from the US on the grounds that his job MIGHT include him being involved in a technique he MIGHT consider torture. From the Toronto Star;
The Tacoma, Wash., father of two young children also bucks the soldier stereotype. Jemley is a college history major, both quiet and fervently independent. If describing a bad situation he’s likely to say it “sucked,” then apologize for his profanity.
Now Jemley’s reasons for deserting set him apart too, and make his case a historic first.
He wants Canada to accept him as a refugee because he’s opposed to torture.
Jemley argues that as one of only a small number of Arabic linguists with top security clearance, he could be forced to violate international law by participating in the interrogations of terrorism suspects. It was something he hadn’t considered when he enlisted in 2005 and was handpicked to undergo two years of intense training due to his adeptness with languages.
Only last February did he discover that his government had sanctioned new rules on how terrorism suspects could be interrogated. He believes it’s torture and when he realized he might be asked to be a part of it, he fled.
Well, see here’s the thing; Jemley claims that it’s his duty as a soldier to refuse unlawful orders, and he’s absolutely correct. I would be angry at him if he didn’t refuse to execute orders that involved illegal acts. But, he’s saying he has a right to asylum in Canada just on the chance that he MIGHT be given an illegal order. That’s just goofy talk.
I have no intention of discussing what is or isn’t torture…that’s not what this about. It’s about a pre-emptive refusal of an order that hasn’t even been issued. It hasn’t even been determined that our interrogators have used torture – beyond the two times waterboarding has been used (if waterboarding is indeed torture, which I don’t believe).
Every member of the armed forces could use the same defense for their asylum applications. But Jemley has hit on a real gem for the Left in Canada…it capitalizes on their perception of Americans as cruel and inhuman cowboy-types and sets Jemley up to be some kind of principled humanitarian. It seems to me that the Canadian Courts could see the falacy of this from space.
Category: Politics
Jonn,
As a person who has known you longer than most likely anyone on this blog, I’m afraid I’m a bit disappointed in your take on this one. Your response is professionally correct but for some reason you deprived us one of your patented beat downs.
This “man” has no objection to torture; he has an alergy to testosterone. There is nothing principled in being a coward which is all this is. He is clearly an American hating coward and the the lunatic lefties in Canada will embrace him until his sorry ass is finally tossed in a cell with a less principled but far more randy fellow felon.
Jonn wrote: Sorry, it must be age.
So, Peter joins the military in 2005 and goes through what I’m sure was months of training due to his MOS. Now, he decides that he needs to seek asylum in Canada, because he may be asked to do something he believes illegal. This sounds like someone joining the military with the intention to undermine our country politically. I find it hard to believe that this supposed college graduate did not read all the trash the left has been vomiting about the treatment of prisoners by the U.S. Military since 2002.
I did not mean to wind up as Anonymous: guess it would help to put info in the right boxes. Hopefully, Canada ships Peter back so he can finish his enlistment in Kansas making big rocks into little rocks. Also, that way he won’t have to worry about violating international law.
Ok, he has a fear of what MIGHT happen? All right, so give back the money that you’ve been paid since you enlisted, and all the money that you’ve used for your family’s care — medical, PX, and any other benefits — and those benefits will, of course, no longer be available to your young family — and go to prison and be listed as a deserter and given a dishonorable dischagre.
Let’s see, what else? Oh, yeah, and your kids can grow up being ever so proud of their Dad in a Canadian prison because he’s afraid of what MIGHT happen. Explain that to your kids.
And may I ask the question — why the hell did he enlist in the first place?
What the hell? A preemptive whine?
Shouldn’t seeking asylum in a foreign country be grounds for yanking his security clearance at bare minimum? Trial for Conduct Unbecoming? A Bad Conduct Discharge?
What a sissy.
Um, yeah. F-ing Pussy. Nothing wrong in being afraid of doing something illegal. But why not wait until the real risk materializes and see what your convictions would really tell you. Pansy-assed American hater who joined for the wrong reasons. Ft. Leavenworth awaits.
Sounds like someone who might possibly consider commiting treason in time of war. So, preemptively shoot the MoFo. Fair is fair.
It also helps if you understand that SPC Jemley is not an interrogator. His lies are transparent and stupid.
Sig