It has a good overview of our Oklahoma GI Rights Hotline project.

Oklahoma Center for Conscience was started with two concerns: First, to assist soldiers who no longer wish to serve in the military, with special attention to those who want out for conscience sake. Second, to counsel youth before they enlist about the realities of war, and options for those who have enlisted but later regretted it. There is great need for this counsel because at their most vulnerable age our youth are enticed with promises that do not have to be kept, and deceived with no sense of accountability to provide them the whole truth. Our country spends millions to snare our youth in this manner, making our military not a true volunteer force.
OCC was formed by groups and individuals from the peace community in Oklahoma City. Joy Mennonite Church serves as the host church, with support from members of Catholic Peace Fellowship, Veterans for Peace, and Quakers of OKC. Later, Eastern Oklahoma Pax Christi in Tulsa added their endorsement.

These are all small groups, only able to provide very modest monetary support. We raise funds from those in our community who support our mission, and that brings me to the purpose of this message: seeking your help.

What any donor wants to know is: How will the money be used? Let me explain where bulk of our budget goes.

We have lay counselors trained in military law answering calls to our Oklahoma G I Rights Hotline. Someone trained in psychology does evaluations that help in court cases. All these serve as volunteers.

Our greatest expense is providing legal services, and this is our most urgent need for assistance. James M. Branum, our attorney on staff, is helping as many as 40 clients at any one time. His work also requires lots of travel, as court cases are at the client’s home base. James charges a modest fee for those who can pay. Sometimes parents pay for legal counsel. There have also been other organizations that have paid for legal counsel. This still leaves a good number who cannot pay. To cover these cases, OCC pays James $400 a month.

If you observe James at work, besides being skilled in military law James is able to speak about the moral issue of war without imposing his beliefs on another.

Most of those who ask for our assistance have not formed a conscience about violence and war. They are more often troubled people who cannot adjust to military discipline. Our policy is to address the concern they bring to us. Often we can do no more then explain what to expect from certain decisions. We have, however, had some very rewarding experiences that have cheered us on the way.

* Camilo Mejia, after serving a tour of duty in Iraq, was troubled with his experience and took a stand as a conscientious objector. For this he was incarcerated in the military prison in Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. After his release we provided lodging for him and his family the first night. Later Camillo returned to Oklahoma to participate in forming an Oklahoma chapter of Catholic Peace Fellowship

* Jake Malloy, a sincere young Christian man, wanting to do the right thing as he was taught and understood, enlisted in the military to defend our freedom and way of life. Jake was sent for training to Ft. Sill, OK. During training Jake realized he was being trained to kill.; as a follower of Jesus he realized he could not do this. When he refused to train he was severely threatened, but Jake remained firm. His application for conscientious objector status was refused. Our attorney helped him with an appeal, and Jake was granted a less than honorable discharge. Later Jake returned to Oklahoma with his wife and child, his parents and grandparents, and at Joy Mennonite we had a service of celebration.

* Daniel Sandate served a tour in Iraq but after a short leave in the states, did not return to duty but fled to Canada to escape the war. Daniel was one of the first ones deported from Canada. Attorney James Branum represented Daniel in his trial. Daniel served his sentence at Ft. Sill. After his release from prison, because he had no family or place to go, we invited him to come to Oklahoma City to have some time to adjust to life again. Daniel has since become active in Joy Mennonite Church and in the community and has been a delight to be with.

In addition to these examples, James, as our attorney, has represented others who took the stand as conscientious objectors. He reports an increase of those who oppose war as conscientious objectors.

We have spoken to university and high school classes. We have literature tables at peace events and at places where youth gather. We have spent hundreds of dollars for literature and anticipate our expense for literature will increase.

If you would like to participate with us in this work you can contact us via email: mosesmast@gmail.com. Or you can mail us: Moses Mast, 4708 Outpost Dr., Spencer, OK 73084. If you wish to write a check, make it out to “Joy Mennonite Church“ and earmark is for “OCC.”
Thank you for your prayers and support. We wish all of you well in your efforts to bring peace to the world.

We are fortunate that OCC’s co-founder, James M. Branum, right here in Oklahoma is one of the few attorneys concentrating in this work. He has traveled all over the country defending GIs, and is also becoming a highly sought after GI Rights trainer.

Costs for providing legal services include travel and accommodations for James, as well as his legal research and documentation, phone calls, etc.

We have now added the ability to donate to our work online here on this site. There are several options for donations, and we hope you can find one that works for you.

Another way to help is to use the flier here and reproduce and distribute it through your own publications and networks. We are working on producing a variety of media that can be used to promote our work. Please give us your feedback and ideas.

2008 CO flier (pdf)

James M. Branum of the Oklahoma Center for Conscience will talk about their work. Donations of any amount accepted.

Start Time: Friday, December 12, 2008 at 7:00pm – Midnight
Location:OKC Infoshop, 29 NE 27th St, Oklahoma City, OK [Map]

The Oklahoma City Infoshop is a collective actively striving to create a safe space advocating the ideas of autonomy, mutual aid, co-operation, and egalitarianism.

We will shortly have a Paypal button on this site for easy donations using a credit/debit card. In the meantime, you can send a donation via Paypall using the address info – at – centerforconscience -dot- com. Note in the remarks field that your donation should be used for legal support.

For Joshua Key & Daniel Sandate

My name is James M. Branum. I am a solo-practice attorney working in the area of GI Rights law, meaning that I assist members of the U.S. military who want to be discharged early and/or who are facing a court-martial because of their acts of conscience while in the military.

I am working with the Oklahoma Center for Conscience (www.centerforconscience.org) to raise funds for two of my clients who are in serious situations and who are unable to pay for my expenses at time.

Donations can be made today at the OCC table of the OKC Peace Festival (just put your donations into the “Legal Support” bucket).

You can also donate later by sending a check or money order to: Oklahoma Center for Conscience, 504 NE 16th St., Oklahoma City, OK 73104.

The Case of Joshua Key – an Oklahoma Soldier who is seeking asylum status in Canada because of his refusal to return to Iraq

Joshua Key, was a poor kid from Guthrie, Oklahoma, who saw the U.S. army and its promised benefits — from free health care to career training — as the ticket to a better life. In 2002, not yet 24 but already married and the father of two, Key enlisted. He says his recruiting officer promised he’d never be deployed abroad, but a year later he was in Iraq.

Iraq was horrific experience which left him with a terrible case of PTSD (which he recounts in his book, The Deserter’s Tale: The account of an ordinary soldier who walked away from the war in Iraq), so when he came back home on leave, he knew he couldn’t go back. He and his family left Ft. Carson, Colorado and ended up living in their car in Philadelphia for about a year before they made their way to Canada. Since then, Joshua has been fighting in the Canadian Immigration system for the right to remain in Canada as an asylum seeker.

I have been asked to come to Canada to testify on Joshua’s behalf in January before the Canadian immigration courts as an expert witness on the subject of U.S. military law (I previously represented Robin Long, the first US soldier deported from Canada), but Joshua does not have the funds to pay my way up there.

I am asking Oklahomans to support one of our own by contributing to my travel expenses and time.

The Case of Daniel Sandate – a mentally ill US soldier facing a court-martial at Ft. Carson
I wanted to let everyone know about a case I am working on. The client will be pleading guilty to the charge of Desertion on Monday, November 17th at 1 p.m. at Ft. Carson, Colorado. I (along with an excellent attorney with the JAG’s trial defense services and local Colorado attorney Bill Durland) will be arguing to the court that Daniel Sandate should receive a lesser sentence due to his extreme mental health issues.

Daniel has asked me to share his story with the public. A longer version of this will be published at a later point, but this limited account is what Daniel has asked me to share at this time.

Daniel grew up with a horrific home life that is indescribable in nature, so understandably he grew up experiencing severe trauma and mental health issues. His adolescence and young adulthood were brutal but he hoped that joining the Army would give him a sense of purpose and a reason to live.

Sandate was a good soldier. He performed reasonably well in training and did ok in the Army until he deployed in Iraq. Like many soldiers, he was forced to see and participate in things that no human should ever have to go through. He came home from Iraq shook to the core and with a strong case of PTSD.

Daniel tried to get help from the Army but he was blown off, time and time again. His situation was quickly spiraling in a negative direction (he was very suicidal at this point, which was scary because he had tried to kill himself before even joining the Army), so when he met new friend online who lived in Canada, he thought it would be nice to take a break from the Army and hang out up there for awhile. He always wanted to come back at some point, but just needed a break and some time to recover his sanity.

However, while in Canada, Daniel was threatened severely by his old unit (he was even told by an NCO that he could be executed for going AWOL) so he ended up staying in Canada for several years.

While in Canada, he became very isolated and saw few people other than his girlfriend. When they broke up, things got really bad and he tried to kill himself. He was stopped (the police came after his downstairs neighbors reported blood dripping from their ceiling) and at first hospitalized and then later incarcerated. He was later released from jail but due to his suicidality he reported back to the police and told them he wanted to be deported to the US.

The Canadian authorities did take Daniel back into custody but wouldn’t release him due to their concerns over his safety, so Daniel called the US embassy and asked for their assistance. Daniel was then deported to the US, where he was immediately taken into custody and transported to Colorado. He has been sitting in the county jail in Colorado Springs ever since, and has been on suicide watch pretty much the whole time. Daniel is an intelligent, articulate man, but he is deeply troubled. Unfortunately the Army and the CJC (the county jail) have refused to give him the mental health care that he needs, so his mental health situation has declined.

For Daniel’s defense, I am raising funds to cover my expenses and those of Bill Durland’s (who has been invaluable to me as local counsel). At this point, we are short about $1000 of what is needed.