The Army yesterday said it has given up efforts to retry 1st Lt. Ehren Watada on three charges for refusing to deploy to Iraq in 2006, but has not made up its mind about two other court-martial charges or the possibility of administrative punishment.

More than a year and a half after he would have left the Army — had he deployed as ordered — the 1996 Kalani High School graduate still reports to a desk job at Fort Lewis in Washington state.

Watada is likely to continue to have to do so as the Army weighs its next move.

The Honolulu man, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq, said the war was illegal and unjust, and that participating in it would make him a party to war crimes.

Watada, who said he would have deployed to Afghanistan, also accused the Bush administration of deception in starting the Iraq war.

Fort Lewis spokesman Joe Piek yesterday said the Army was informed late last week that the U.S. Justice Department — which represents the Army in the case — had decided against continuing with an appeal of an October 2008 federal court ruling.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle of Tacoma ruled at that time that the Army could not retry Watada on a charge of missing his Stryker brigade unit's movement to Iraq, and two specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer for taking part in a press conference and participating in a Veterans for Peace convention.

Watada raised double jeopardy, the constitutional protection against being tried twice for the same crime, after a military judge declared a mistrial at Watada's first court-martial in February 2007.

Two other charges of conduct unbecoming an officer were withdrawn, but not dismissed, as a result of Watada's court-martial, officials said.

The Army appealed Settle's October ruling, but the Justice Department under the Obama administration has now dropped that appeal.

Asked why the appeal was dropped, Piek said, "That would be a question you would have to ask (the Justice Department). I don't know.

"Right now, the other two specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer are still relevant in the case."

He said the leadership at Fort Lewis "is considering a full range of judicial and administrative options that are available, and those range from court-martial on those two remaining specifications, to nonjudicial punishment, to administrative separation from the Army."

'SIGNIFICANT VICTORY'

At one time, Watada faced up to six years in prison for refusing to board a plane for Mosul, Iraq. Jim Lobsenz, an attorney for Watada, in October said his client at most faced one to two years on the remaining two charges. But the attorney said he was confident the remaining two charges, if pursued, would be thrown out as well.

Ken Kagan, another attorney representing Watada, yesterday said the Army conceivably could have drawn out its appeal on the three charges against Watada into late 2010 or early 2011.

"So having this one cleared away and no longer an issue is a significant victory in the sense that now we can focus on really getting this thing resolved," Kagan said.

Kagan said the Justice Department's solicitor general "sought to take that leadership position" in dropping the Army appeal.

"It's obviously a bold decision to depart from past policies, so we're very pleased they saw fit to do that," he said.

Kagan said discussions continue with the Army "to see if we can find some common ground" on the remaining issues.

GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT

Watada gained international attention as an Iraq war objector, and he served as a rallying point for the antiwar effort.

But he also was reviled by many in the military who said he violated his oath as an officer, and that he had no right to decide whether the Iraq war was just or unjust.

Piek, the Fort Lewis spokesman, said Watada's service in the Army was scheduled to end in December 2006, but the soldier was subject to "stop loss" — the ability to keep troops in for deployment — and was subject to his unit's deployment to Iraq.

His brigade returned from Iraq in September 2007 after 15 months, and Watada would have been eligible then to leave the Army.

Piek said Watada now is part of the rear detachment headquarters for I Corps.

"He's still coming in doing PT (physical therapy) and then works from 9 to 5 and occasionally I see him here at the gym," Piek said.

Piek added that "what is most disturbing for us, is that this case really needed to be heard by a jury and to be decided by a jury, and it's very unfortunate that more than two years ago the first court-martial ended in a mistrial on a technicality."

Lt. Col. John Head, the military judge, made the decision to call off the court-martial in its third day as Watada was ready to take the stand in his own defense.