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Iraq War Veteran Loses Protest Appeal

Posted on: Thursday, 7 June 2007, 00:00 CDT

By HEATHER HOLLINGSWORTH

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - An Iraq war veteran who was recommended for a general discharge because he wore his uniform to a protest lost his appeal Wednesday for a new hearing.

An attorney for Cpl. Adam Kokesh appealed after a military panel Monday recommended kicking him out of the Marines for the uniform infraction and using an obscenity in an e-mail to superior officers.

Kokesh, a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, was pictured in uniform attending the March protest in a photograph that ran in The Washington Post. He said he removed his name tag and military emblems, making it clear he was not representing the military.

Brig. Gen. Darrell L. Moore, one of the two officers who got the e-mail that included the obscenity, dismissed the appeal, said Gunnery Sgt. Chad Homan. He is expected to complete his legal review of the board's proceedings and recommendation within the next week.

"He has taken the appeal to be unfounded, and it is his determination to make," Homan said.

Kokesh's civilian attorney, Mike Lebowitz, had argued that the three-member administrative board that heard the case at the Marine Corps Mobilization Command in Kansas City was "improperly convened."

Marine rules require all members of panels that decide whether to cut ties with Marines to be commissioned officers. He argued that a member of Kokesh's panel, Chief Warrant Officer Stephen Turner, isn't considered a commissioned officer.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online

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