US war veteran seeks Indian asylum: report

[Marxist]

NEW DELHI — A former US soldier who says he fought in the Vietnam War has torn up his passport and is asking India to grant him political asylum, reports said Saturday.

Jeff Knaebel, who has been living in the hill resort town of Shimla in northern India since 1995, appeared in India's Supreme Court in New Delhi on Friday to seek asylum in the country.

Knaebel, 72, said he is a champion of Indian freedom icon Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of non-violence, according to the Hindustan Times newspaper.

"I am stateless," the daily quoted Knaebel as saying.

Knaebel, who said he served as a US navy commander during the Vietnam War, said he wanted to remain in India to continue his "mission to bring a smile to every face I can."

Known as "Sojourner Free" to friends, Knaebel said US political policies were based on war and destruction and "would one day destroy this beautiful planet."

He said he shredded his US passport in June 2009 at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial at Rajghat in New Delhi.

The Supreme Court directed the Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati to look into the matter.

Knaebel's lawyer, S.N. Jha, said he has filed the case in the Supreme Court after failing to get a response from the Indian Prime Minister?s Office to his client's request for asylum.

AFP: US war veteran seeks Indian asylum: report

 

[jha]

interesting case..
BTW shimla is too beautiful to leave ...

 

[DESERT FIGHTER]

One of those hippy anti war protesting soliers who were high on weed and loved there bong.

 

[Prometheus]

One of those hippy anti war protesting soliers who were high on weed and loved there bong.

Respect the soldiers irrespective of Nationality

 

[gambit]

Gents,

The man is an attention hound. He cannot even see how he contradicted himself. First he renounced his citizenship, claiming in his declaration of independence that all governments are evil, now he is seeking 'political asylum' from a government, India, to grant him protection. In effect, he is asking one devil to protect him from another devil. As if that is not absurd enough, since when did the US government hunt down anyone who renounces his/her citizenship? Political asylum automatically implies one is a victim of political persecution and that only a state can protect one from another state. Again, he is asking one devil to protect him from another devil. But then he failed to prove how is he politically persecuted in the first place.

Attention hound is the most appropriate descriptor for this loser.