In Germany, Andre hooked up with Military Counseling Network whose Tim Huber explained to the UK Channel 4 news, "Andre contacted us about a year and a half ago and he asked about asylum He wasn't the first to ask about asylum but our answer was always the same, we don't know what would happen if you tried asylum. We went over the pros and cons of trying it. We noted that we were quite pessimistic that it would actually work, but we said it's an option." The report included his lawyer explaining the legal basis (here for video, here for C.I.'s transcript):
Reinhard Marx: It's a specific European law, the so-called directive on qualification of refugees and in this directive it is ruled that deserters of an army who refer to international reasons, refer that the war is conducted in a way which infringes the national law then he has a right to be accepted as a refugee.
Samantha Haque: His lawyer cites the case of Florian Pfaff, a German officer demoted after refusing to work on a computer program for the US Army in Iraq in 2005. A federal court overturned his demotion because the Iraq War contravened international law. But although Germany opposed the war in Iraq and said no to the US resolution backing it, it still allowed its territory to be used as a base for military operations in Iraq. Here in Heidelberg is the US Army's headquarters in Europe. There are currently around 51,000 US military service men in Germany If Mr. Shepherd's application for asylum is accepted, there could be implications for US-German military relations.
AP's Patrick McGroarty explained that Andre was set to appear Wednesday before Germany's Federal Office for Migration and Refugees today where he would be stressing "a 2004 European Union directive that established basic guidelines for refugee status within the 27-nation bloc. Soldiers who face punishment for refusing to commit a war crime or serve in an unlawful conflict are to be granted that status, the directive says."
His attorney explained to AFP following the hearing, "It was just a fact-finding exercise, so Mr. Shepherd was questioned about his situation as a soldier, about his motivation to join the Army and how he decided to leave the Army. . . . It is in their hands to decide now. We are very confident."
Andrea has explained what went into his decision to Channel 4 News:
I was working on the Apache helicopter. Those Apaches won't fly unless we take care of them. The Apache helicopter is a deadly weapon a lot of people call it a flying tank. What started my doubts was when I saw the Iraqi people, when they would come and help us, the looks that they gave us weren't the looks of heroes or people that you know were bringing freedom. We looked like conquerors and oppressors. That really bothered me a lot. So I started to look into the reasons why we were actually there in Iraq. I thought that what we were doing was a great thing and a positive thing. That we were actually bringing freedom to people and making them happy but what I found out instead was that we completely destroyed an entire country on a pack of lies. It started to weigh very heavily to the point where my actions when I was a soldier were starting to deteriorate so as this was going on I came to the conclusion that I wasn't going to back to Iraq.
And he explained to Andy Eckardt (NBC News): "When I enlisted in 2004 and later was sent to Iraq, I believed I was doing the right thing. But then, like other comrades around me, I started questioning why we were there and what we were fighting for. . . . My job was harmless until I factored in the amount of death and destruction those helicopters caused to civilians every day. The government made us believe we would be welcomed as heroes in Iraq, but we saw nothing but hostility from the Iraqis that came to work for us, they wanted to kill us."
He was not the first US service member to self-check out, nor was he the first to do so in Germany where checking out has often been seen as a temporary measure you do, then return and proceed to a discharge. Andre is the first known US war resister to check out and then apply for asylum. He has stated that if he is turned down by the board, he will appeal the decision. He has also stated that if he's granted asylum and that means he can never return to the US he can handle that.
At his hometown paper (Cleveland Plain Dealer), James Ewinger provided this background, "Shepherd said he grew up on East 94th Street in Cleveland, attended Lakewood High School and studied computer science at Kent State University until he ran out of money. He enlisted in 2004 with the hope of flying the Apaches, but was urged to become a mechanic first." And he has gone on, in the words of the Munich American Peace Committee, to demonstrate "courage and conviction despite the possibility of extreme punishment from the US authorities" winning their peace prize "for publicising your convictions to give other soldiers the courage also to leave the army and to push for peace." And he was awarded it on the day that US Vice President Joe Biden was in Munich.
Russia Today notes the Pentagon claims Andre is one of 5,000 US Army soldiers "are missing from duty" presently. Another of the 5,000 would be Cliff Cornell. Cornell is among the many who went to Canada where they were repeatedly assured 'the wheels are turning' but, outside of a non-binding resolution and a bunch of bad legal advice, nothing ever happened. Like Robin Long, Cliff was kicked out and, like Robin, Cliff is now being legally represented by James Branum who expressed outrage that his client was arrested at the US border, "Clifford Cornell came back to the United States so that he could voluntarily return to his old unit at Fort Stewart. He stated this intention to the Border Patrol, both verbally and in writing, by way of a letter I drafted on his behalf. I am disappointed that the Border Patrol chose to arrest my client and place him into a county jail with general population prisoners. This should not have happened." Following up, AP reported that Branum's argument registered, that Cliff was released from custody and was being allowed to travel "by bus to Georgia" where he will "turn himself in Tuesday at the Army base near Savannah." Project Safe Harbor's Gerry Condon continues to call on US President Barack Obama to grant amnesty to all war resisters. Former US presidents Gerald Ford created a process for Vietnam war resisters (draft dodgers and deserters) to seek asylum and Jimmy Carter provided amnesty to all Vietnam draft dodgers.
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Photo of Andre via MCN's blog, André Shepherd seeks German asylum"):
