Aidan Delgado

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Aidan Delgado (b. November 18, 1981) is a former soldier in the 320th Military Police Company of the United States Army, notable for having become a conscientious objector in April 2003, partly due to his newfound dedication to the principles of pacifism espoused in his faith of Buddhism. Since leaving the Army in April 2004 he has become actively involved in the anti-war movement. He has participated in numerous protests across the country, and led the 70-member "Florida For Peace" group to Washington, D.C., on September 24, 2005 to participate in the rally organized by United for Peace and Justice. He has also given many presentations on the atrocities committed at the Abu Ghraib prison, at which Delgado was stationed and of the torture and prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib and across Iraq, of which he was a leading revelator.

Delgado sparked considerable controversy when, upon his release from the Army and his return to the United States, he asserted, in an interview with The New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, to have witnessed egregious cases of abuse perpetrated against Iraqi civilians by American soldiers. After the Bob Herbert interview, Delgado provided a sworn statement and copies of photographs taken at Abu Ghraib to Army CID and IG investigators. The lead investigator was Army CID Agent David Lindstedt and lawyer Aaron Delgado from the Daytona law firm Simpson & Delgado was also present as legal council. Several months later, representatives of the military stated that they could neither confirm nor deny Delgado's account. During the investigation Army CID Agent David Lindstedt acknowledged that the incidents described by Delgado occurred, but disputed the context and motivations of those involved. In their report, Army CID investigators acknowledged that they had not taken sworn statements from some of the other members of Delgado's unit that he had mentioned in the deposition as witnesses.

Since his involvement with the New York Times article and the publication of his story in national media, he has become one of the most visible and well-known veterans in the anti-war movement. Along with numerous television appearances he appears in the film "The Ground Truth" by Focus Features and the revised edition of "Rush to War." In February 2006, blues guitarist Robert Cray released a video for his song "Twenty," about the Iraq War, in which Delgado portrayed a soldier coming home.

Delgado speaks some Arabic, having spent eight years living in Egypt, where his father, an American diplomat, was assigned; he graduated from Cairo American College in 2000. Delgado also lived in Thailand and Senegal. Delgado attained a Bachelor's Degree in Religion at the New College of Florida in 2006.

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[edit] Select speeches and interviews

[edit] Video

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