Atrocities in Toronto

Mudville readers were first introduced to U.S. Army deserter Jeremy Hinzman here last February Hinzman, an active duty soldier, fled his post rather than deploy to Iraq.

Michelle Malkin offers an update:

But there is a Michael Moore-sized distinction between Hinzman and the thousands of ?resisters? who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War. Unlike the American draft dodgers who crossed the northern border more than three decades ago, Hinzman volunteered for military service in January 2001. He joined of his own free will. Nobody forced him to go to the recruitment office. Nobody dragged him to Fort Bragg.

He happily cashed in his Army paychecks until deployment to Afghanistan was imminent. After his application for conscientious-objector status was rejected, he grudgingly finished his stint in Afghanistan, declared opposition to the coming war in Iraq, packed up his wife and infant son, and waltzed into the open arms of Toronto's radical leftists.

It's been one big pacifist kumbayah ever since -- a dazzling procession of campus tributes, rock-star galas, and international media martyrdom. And when he's not on his tour of self-promotional duty, Hinzman and his wife (a feminist social worker who has also applied for asylum in Canada) are savoring the good life in their newly adopted home. Hinzman reports on his own snazzy Web site:

In the mornings, we usually take (son) Liam to various playgroups in our neighborhood. In the afternoon, we alternate which one of us cooks dinner. I also try to go for a run while Liam naps. In the evening we play with our son and often go to various parts of Toronto and 'people watch' to get Liam out of the house. After he goes to sleep for the night, I try to read or Nga (Hinzman's wife) and I watch a movie or do various other things. A great deal of this routine, or lack thereof, will probably soon change after I get a work permit and find some sort of employment.

Hinzman is enjoying his domestic tranquility on the backs of each and every American military man and woman who is living up to his or her commitment to uphold a sworn oath of duty. Hinzman and his lawyer plan to argue to Canadian immigration officials that American soldiers are guilty of war crimes and that forcing Hinzman to fight in Iraq would have likely made him a war criminal. Among the witnesses testifying on Hinzman's behalf is former U.S. Marine Staff Sgt. Jimmy Massey, the Winter Soldier of the 21st century, who claims his platoon killed ?a bunch of innocent civilians.? Massey has been making the rounds in the French media and other America-hating swamps.

Talk about an understatement! The Washington Post details Massey's testimony in a report headlined Former Marine Testifies To Atrocities In Iraq. Bear in mind as you read this that Massey and Hinzman are from separate branches of service, and Massey's testimony is just to establish the "fact" that Hinzman would have been compelled to commit the same sort of acts Massey claims he himself did.

TORONTO, Dec. 7 -- A former U.S. Marine staff sergeant testified at a hearing Tuesday that his unit killed at least 30 unarmed civilians in Iraq during the war in 2003 and that Marines routinely shot and killed wounded Iraqis.

Jimmy J. Massey, a 12-year veteran, said he left Iraq in May 2003 after a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress. He said he and his men shot and killed four Iraqis staging a demonstration and a man with his hands up trying to surrender, as well as women and children at roadblocks. Massey said he had complained to his superiors about the "killing of innocent civilians," but that nothing was done.

Massey, 33, of Waynesville, N.C., was the chief witness at a refugee board hearing for a U.S. Army deserter, Jeremy Hinzman, who is attempting to win asylum in Canada after he fled from Fort Bragg, N.C., rather than go to Iraq. Hinzman, 25, the first of at least three U.S. military deserters to apply for asylum here, argues that he refused to go to Iraq to avoid committing war crimes.

In Washington, a Marine Corps spokesman at the Pentagon said Massey's charges had been investigated and were unproved.

"We take such allegations very seriously," said Maj. Douglas Powell. "And Jimmy Massey, who is a former staff sergeant, out of the Corps, has made these statements before in the press. They've been looked into, and nothing has been substantiated."

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During one 48-hour period, Massey said under oath, his platoon set up roadblocks and killed "30-plus" civilians. He said his men, fearing suicide bombers, poured massive firepower into cars that did not stop as they approached the roadblocks. In each instance, he said, none of the cars was found to have contained explosives or arms.

"Why didn't the Iraqis stop? That is something that has plagued me every waking moment of the day," he said. He said they may have been confused by the Americans' gestures or thought that a warning shot was celebratory gunfire.

"I don't know if the Iraqi people thought we were celebrating their newfound freedom. But I do know we killed innocent civilians," Massey said. In one case, the driver of a car leaped out with his hands up. "But we kept firing. We killed him," Massey said. In another case, he and other Marines shot and killed four protesters near a checkpoint after a single incoming gunshot from an unknown source, he said. None of the protesters was found with arms.

Then this fact near the bottom of the story (emphasis added):

The government won a ruling that the legality of the Iraq war could not be an issue at the refugee hearing. But Hinzman's attorney, Jeffry House, has introduced testimonials and human rights reports to support Hinzman's claim that he would have been forced to violate the Geneva Conventions in Iraq.

Some of Hinzman's supporters, including House, are Vietnam-era draft dodgers. They compare Massey's testimony to the disclosure of the My Lai massacre of civilians in Vietnam.