Aidan Delgado is an American attorney, author, and war veteran. His 2007 book ''The Sutras of Abu Ghraib'' detailed his experiences during his deployment in Iraq. He graduated from Georgetown Law in 2011.

Early life

He is an American citizen and grew up in Thailand, Senegal and Egypt. His father served in the American diplomatic service. During his eight-year stay in Egypt, Delgado learned to speak Arabic. His family then moved to Florida, where he attended college.

Army career

At 19 years of age, Delgado joined the Army Reserves on September 11, 2001. After signing his enlistment contract, he learned of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States. He was deployed to Iraq in April 2003. Because of his development of Buddhist beliefs, he filed for

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

status. He continued to serve in Iraq while his request was processed. In November 2003, his unit was redeployed to

Abu Ghraib Abu Ghraib (; ar, أبو غريب, ''Abū Ghurayb'') is a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road t ...

prison. In April 2004, the Army recognized his conscientious objector status and he was honorably discharged.

After the Army

He returned to Sarasota, Florida and enrolled in the

New College of Florida New College of Florida is a public liberal arts college in Sarasota, Florida. It was founded in 1960 as a private institution known simply as New College, spent several years merged into the University of South Florida, and in 2001 became an aut ...

to continue his religion studies. In 2005, Delgado began giving public presentations about his experiences in Iraq. The Associated Press described it as a "grisly roadshow" that gives "a disturbing account of routine brutality that he elgadoclaims he saw during his year in Iraq." His presentations resulted in military investigations from the 81st Regional Readiness Command and the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command. In 2007,

Beacon Press Beacon Press is an American left-wing non-profit book publisher. Founded in 1854 by the American Unitarian Association, it is currently a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association. It is known for publishing authors such as James B ...

published a memoir of Delgado's time at Abu Ghraib and his conscientious objection entitled ''The Sutras of Abu Ghraib''. In 2011, Delgado graduated from Georgetown Law.

In the media

* He appears in the film '' The Ground Truth'' by Focus Features and the revised edition of ''Rush to War''. * In February 2006,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

guitarist Robert Cray released a video for his song "Twenty," about the Iraq War, in which Delgado portrayed a soldier coming home. * Delgado is one of the individuals featured in the documentary ''Soldiers of Conscience'' by Luna Productions, broadcast on PBS on October 16, 2008.

References

External links

Select speeches and interviews

Democracy Now! Interview transcript

Video

Berkeley High Presentation on Abu GhraibPresentation on Abu Ghraib
{{DEFAULTSORT:Delgado, Aidan American Buddhists 21st-century Buddhists 1981 births Living people United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of the Iraq War United States military personnel at the Abu Ghraib prison Iraq War resisters American conscientious objectors American expatriates in Egypt