Suzanne Swift was released on Jan. 3 from the brig at the Bangor Naval base near Seattle after serving a 30-day sentence for going absent without leave from the military. Swift says she refused to return to her unit after being subjected to sexual abuse and harassment.

Although one accusation of sexual harassment against a fellow soldier at Fort Lewis, Washington, was substantiated by Army investigators, Swift accepted a plea bargain in order to avoid a potential two year jail sentence. The former US Army Specialist was found guilty last month of being Absent Without Leave. She was demoted at her court-martial to the rank of Private and was sentenced to a month in jail.

Although Swift has served her sentence and is now free, she will still be required to complete her five-year period of enlistment. Swift's supporters, including her mother Sarah Rich and former US State Department diplomat Ann Wright, claim she is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and should be given an immediate medical discharge. --Mark Taylor-Canfield

The court-martial for US Army Lt. Ehren Watada began on Jan. 4 at Fort Lewis. Watada is facing six years imprisonment for refusing to deploy to Iraq.

Support rallies for Watada were held across the country on the first day of his trial at Fort Lewis, near Seattle. Watada is being court-martialed for refusing to return to Iraq for a second tour of duty with the Third Stryker Brigade. He is also being charged for "conduct unbecoming an officer" for speaking at the Veterans For Peace national convention in Seattle last August.

Lt. Watada's mother, Carolyn Ho, says she supports her son's efforts to use his court-martial as a way of putting the war in Iraq on trial before the US public.

"The issue of the illegality and the immorality of the war needs to be raised, specifically the illegality. We have reached over three thousand deaths right now among the American military. And that doesn't include those who have been maimed and disfigured. And in addition we have over 650,000 Iraqi men women and children who have been killed. These are the innocents. These are the 'collaterals' that nobody wants to really acknowledge, especially the military.

"For him to be tried fairly, the issue of the illegality needs to be brought in, and this particular case needs to be raised to another level. It needs to be taken to the broader arena. There is the argument that a person who is in the military has not checked their conscience out at the door, and that there should be room in the military for people to object conscientiously."

Carolyn Ho says that with the increasing death tolls in Iraq, the war must be brought to an end.

Sarah Olsen is one of two US journalists who have been served with subpoenas by the military to testify in the case. Although she will not be called to testify until Feb. 5, during the second phase of Lt. Watada's trial, Olson claims the subpoenas violate the traditional legal rights of reporters who should not be compelled to testify against their sources. "I hope the Army ceases completely in its efforts to compel journalists to participate in the prosecution of political speech, and that it quashes the subpoenas completely."

Robert Watada, Lt. Watada's father, was one of the keynote speakers at the support rally at Fort Lewis. Also speaking was Sarah Rich, mother of US war resister Suzanne Swift.

Lt. Watada's trial is expected to last several months. --M. T.-C.

A major class action lawsuit stemming from the 1999 WTO ministerial conference went on trial in Seattle on Jan. 8. The plaintiffs and their attorneys claim that police violated the First Amendment rights of demonstrators when they arrested 200 people in downtown Seattle on Dec. 1, 1999. The plaintiffs will testify that they were participating in a legal protest when they were swept up in a mass arrest during the second day of demonstrations against the World Trade Organization.

Gabriel Freeman was a witness to mass arrests and the use of so-called "non-lethal" weapons against demonstrators at the ministerial conference. A former Independent Media Center reporter, and a member of the Committee For Government Accountability, which conducted an independent investigation into police actions during the 1999 WTO protests, Freeman says law enforcement agencies violated people's constitutional rights throughout the WTO conference.

"In Seattle, the precedent of these large downtown-wide no-protest zones was set during the WTO meetings, and it's been duplicated around the country numerous times. This seems to be the new police model for big protests--arrest them all now, then let the courts sort it out, and the city pay for it all years later."

In 2003 US District Judge Marsha Pechman ruled that police had no probable cause when they arrested 157 protesters during the WTO conference at another location in downtown Seattle. In a related case in 2005, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned an earlier ruling by Judge Barbara Rothstein which had upheld the establishment of a "no-protest zone" by city officials. The appeals court ruled that police had targeted only people opposed to the policies of the WTO, thereby violating the First Amendment.

The trial is expected to last for several weeks. --M. T.-C.

God bless the Federal Way school board! Thanks to an emailed complaint from a parent, Frosty Hardison, the movie "An Inconvenient Truth" can no longer be shown in Federal Way schools without also presenting an opposing view. Frosty is steamed about the lack of a Biblical explanation for global warming in the movie. "The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD," he astutely notes. Hardison believes that the Earth is 14,000 years old, and that children should not be exposed to either condoms or Al Gore while in school.

The Federal Way school board couldn't agree more. Board president Ed Barney wants Federal Way students to hear global warming skeptics before they make up their minds. After that, "if they think driving around in cars is going to kill us all, that's fine, that's their choice." The new policy says teachers who want to show the movie must ensure that a "credible, legitimate opposing view will be presented," that they must get the OK of the principal and the superintendent, and that any teachers who have already shown the film must now present an "opposing view."

"Somebody could say you're killing free speech, and my retort to them would be we're encouraging free speech," said school board vice president David "Doublethink" Larson, who proposed the new policy. "The beauty of our society is we allow debate."

And a beautiful thing it is. We commend Federal Way for championing such open, reasoned debate around controversial issues, but think the school board has not gone far enough. Credible reports have it that Federal Way schools are still teaching the "round Earth" theory without any requirement to present an opposing view. If you would like to help rectify this sorry state of affairs, you can contact school board president Ed Barney at ed-barney@fwps.org to demand that both sides of the "flat vs. round" controversy be given equal time in the classroom. Remember, it's for the kids; they are our future. --ETS! news services (thanks to the Seattle P-I for original details)