In San Diego, Iraq War resister Navy sailor Pablo Paredes has been sentenced to three months of hard labor for refusing deployment to the Persian Gulf. He was also demoted to the lowest rank in the Navy. The 23-year-old New Yorker said “If there is anything I could be guilty of, it is my beliefs. I am guilty of believing the war is illegal.” Prosecutors had asked the judge to sentence Paredes to nine months of confinement and a bad conduct discharge. Paredes’ lawyer, Jeremy Warren, called the judge’s lesser sentence “a stunning blow to the prosecution,” saying “This is an affirmation of every sailor’s and military person’s right to speak out and follow their conscience.”