Catholic soldier says her Muslim-sounding name made her a target for harassment in US Army

RALEIGH, N.C. - Sgt. 1st Class Naida Hosan is not a Muslim — she's a Catholic. But her name sounded Islamic to fellow U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and they would taunt her, calling her "Sgt. Hussein" and asking what God she prayed to.

So before deploying to Afghanistan last year for her second war tour, she legally changed her name — to Naida Christian Nova.

This did not solve her problems.

Instead, matters escalated. Nova complained to her superiors about constant anti-Muslim slurs and jokes. She says they responded with a series of reprisals intended to drive her out of the Army, leading her to consider suicide.

"My complaints fell on deaf ears every time," said Nova, 41, a member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, N.C. "Any time I would say something about it I was treated like I didn't know what I was talking about or that I'm an idiot or that I was a Muslim sympathizer. It was just a very lonely feeling."

Determined to remain in the service for at least eight years, until she is eligible for retirement, Nova recently re-enlisted. But she agreed to tell her story to The Associated Press because "I don't want this to happen to anyone else if I can help it. It's a horrible to feel like people are against you when you are supposed to be on the same team."

Fort Bragg spokeswoman Sheri L. Crowe said the Army would not comment on the case, and referred questions to the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, assigned to defend the Army, also declined comment.

But her account is supported by an affidavit filed by an old friend, Sharon Deborah Sheetz, who said that Nova had confided in her about the harassment she had suffered, telling Sheetz that she was so unhappy that she no longer wanted to live.

A Farsi linguist who works in military intelligence, Nova's multicultural background exemplifies the kind of soldier Army recruiters prize — U.S. citizens with ethnic ties to a part of the world many Americans can't find on a map.

Nova's father, Roy Hosein, was born into a Muslim family on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where his parents had emigrated from India. He converted to Christianity after meeting Nova's mother, a Catholic from the Philippines, and became a U.S. citizen shortly after his daughter was born in New York. He changed the spelling of his family name to Hosan in the hope his children would avoid discrimination.

"He Americanized it," his daughter explained. "He got Hosan from Hosanna. He kept hearing it in church."

She reported for basic training two months after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Before 9-11, my last name never raised an eyebrow," she said. "But after 9-11, I felt compelled to tell people I am a Christian and felt I had to prove I was loyal to the United States."

Her first deployment was to Iraq in 2005. She said other soldiers, including her supervisors, mocked her family name and made crude jokes.

"I was called Sgt. Hussein, as in Saddam Hussein," she said. "Even when I would correct them on the pronunciation of my name, I was still called Sgt. Hussein. I was asked what God I pray to. And there were a lot of references to hajjis, used as a derogatory term."

Hajiis, in fact, are Muslims who have made the pilgrimage to the Saudi Arabian birthplace of the prophet Muhammad. But Nova said she regularly heard U.S. troops use the word as racist slang for enemy, terrorist or suicide bomber.

"My uncle is a hajji, because he made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 2005," Nova said. "I would stand up for what I thought was right and say, 'Not all terrorists are Muslims and not all Muslims are terrorists.' That just opened the door for more harassment."

Mikey Weinstein, a former U.S. Air Force officer who founded Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said Nova's experience is not uncommon. Military personnel who are Muslim or perceived to be of Middle Eastern descent are often targets for discrimination, he said.

"When a Muslim soldier, sailor or airman stands up for themselves, they are the subject of vicious reprisal and retribution," said Weinstein, who is Jewish. "What (Sgt. Nova) has gone through is horrible, but it is typical."

In 2007, while serving in Harrogate, England, Nova said co-worker told her and others a racist joke about Muslims. When she objected, Nova said, a supervisor warned her to stop making trouble. Instead, she filed a formal complaint with the Army's Equal Opportunity Branch, the program charged with ensuring the military provides an environment "free of unlawful discrimination and offensive behaviour."

Within days, Nova said she was removed from her job and ordered to take a "command directed" mental health evaluation.

"In writing, the referral said my values were not in line with mission," she said. "They considered me a 'Muslim sympathizer,' that I was too loyal to Muslims."

Rather than address her complaint, Nova said, the Army transferred her to the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg. Though she hoped to make a fresh start with her new unit, word of her complaint followed her to North Carolina.

That treatment worsened after a November 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. Maj. Nidal Hasan, a Muslim, is charged with killing 13 people. His name sounded a lot like hers.

Nova changed her name shortly before deploying to Afghanistan last year. She arrived just after worn copies of the Qur’an were found to have been burned with trash from a U.S.-run prison outside the capital of Kabul, a widely reported incident that triggered violent protests.

The Army responded by initiating a new training program on the proper handling and disposal of Islamic materials. But Nova said she discovered that her unit trashed and burned documents collected through intelligence gathering that contained what could be considered sacred writings.

Nova conferred with an on-base military chaplain, and suggested designating a special box for Islamic materials so they could be disposed of in a more appropriate manner.

"When I brought this up, I was told 'Sgt. Nova, you can't bring your religion to work ...,'" she recalled. "I changed my name, but that didn't change other people's ignorance."

After just two months in Afghanistan, she said her commanders removed her from her job and ordered her back to Fort Bragg.

With the help of a Fayetteville lawyer, Mark Waple, she filed a formal complaint with the Army's Inspector General in October seeking a voluntary discharge due to being subjected to "adverse treatment and negative, prejudicial remarks ... concerning the Muslim faith."

Nova said she grew so depressed that she considered suicide. She checked herself into an on-base hospital for treatment, staying for about a week before returning to duty.

After learning of her IG complaint and hospitalization, Nova's commanders at Fort Bragg responded by filing paperwork to involuntarily end her military career and bar her from reenlistment for "ineffective leadership."

Nova's Army performance review from a few months earlier, a copy of which she provided to AP, shows her as meeting expectations in all categories, with her senior commander rating her potential for promotion and increased responsibility as "superior."

The forced discharge could have imperiled Nova's ability to get a civilian job, denied her Veterans Affairs medical care and educational benefits.

After exhausting her administrative options for fighting her case, Waple helped Nova file a complaint in federal court alleging discriminatory treatment and asking a judge to prevent her discharge.

Rather than fight the case in court, the Army retreated. Shortly before a key hearing before the judge, Waple says he got a call from Army lawyers informing him that the disciplinary action against Nova was "completely off the table." She, in turn, agreed to drop the lawsuit.

Nova re-enlisted in the Army on April 8. She recently married, and is preparing to ship out next month to attend a senior leadership course and then report to a new assignment in Germany.

"I want to put all this behind me. I want to move on to my next duty assignment ...," said Nova. "My beliefs aren't any different from what the Army states as its beliefs and values. I would like to be treated fairly."

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Follow Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker at twitter.com/mbieseck

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U.S. soldier accused of Afghan killings faces "sanity" review

By Laura L. Myers

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A U.S. soldier charged with killing 16 civilians, most of them women and children, near his Army post in Afghanistan is set to undergo a medical review on Sunday to determine his state of mind at the time of the killings and ability to stand trial.

The review, known in the military as a "sanity board," will be conducted by three doctors at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, and will be completed by May 1, according to a U.S. Army spokesman.

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty against Robert Bales, a decorated veteran of four combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan who is accused of gunning down the villagers in cold blood during two rampages through their family compounds in Kandahar province last March.

Army prosecutors say Bales, a 39-year old father of two, acted alone and with "chilling premeditation" when, armed with a pistol, a rifle and a grenade launcher, he left his base twice in the night, returning in the middle of his rampage to tell a fellow soldier: "I just shot up some people."

The shootings marked the worst case of civilian slaughter blamed on a rogue U.S. soldier since the Vietnam War and further eroded strained U.S.-Afghan relations after more than a decade of conflict in that country.

Defense lawyers have not set out an alternative theory of what happened on the night of the shootings, but have focused on Bales' fragile mental state.

Bales' lead civilian attorney John Henry Browne said in January that government documents showed Bales had been diagnosed as suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a brain injury before his deployment in Afghanistan in 2011.

After hearing preliminary evidence in November, military judge Colonel Jeffery Nance determined that Bales should face a court martial, which is due to begin in September.

At Bales' arraignment in January, Browne's team entered no plea and told Nance they were preparing a possible "mental health defense." Nance said such a defense would require a formal psychiatric evaluation, and ordered a sanity board review.

SANITY BOARDS COMMON

Sanity boards are common in military justice, said Army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Gary Dangerfield.

They may be ordered when a commander, investigating officer, government trial counsel, defense counsel, or military judge believes there is reason to question the mental responsibility of the accused at the time of the offenses or that the person lacks the mental capacity to stand trial, Dangerfield said.

The Army has not said which doctors will conduct the review, or what their specialties are, but such panels are usually made up of Army physicians and psychologists. There was no word on whether the judge had granted a defense request that Bales be examined by a neuropsychologist with expertise in traumatic brain injuries.

At a November pre-trial hearing, prosecutors said Bales had been drinking earlier in the evening of the attacks, and had used steroids on the Special Forces outpost. Defense attorneys also quizzed Bales' colleagues closely about his sudden explosions of temper in the days before the attacks.

Bales faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder, as well as charges of assault and wrongfully possessing and using steroids and alcohol while deployed.

Military justice experts say a defense based on Bales' PTSD or deeper mental health problems may not be enough to avoid trial, but could raise serious issues over premeditation, which would make a death sentence less likely.

"Just because someone has a (mental) disease does not mean they're legally insane," said Victor Hansen, a professor at the New England Law Boston law school with two decades of military law experience.

"The board could uncover unknown components that could help the defendant claim diminished capacity," Hansen said. "To obtain death, you have to prove premeditation. Anything less than premeditation of murder, there's no death."

Defendants deemed unable to stand trial after a sanity board are typically referred for treatment at a government medical center.

(Writing by Bill Rigby; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Lisa Shumaker)

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