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A former Vietnam War veteran has renounced his U.S. citizenship and is
seeking political asylum in India.
Jeff Knaebel, who claims to be inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolence
philosophy, claims he shred his U.S. passport in June 2009 at Gandhi’s
memorial, because: “The United States government is a stain upon humanity. It
is a grotesque distortion of human relations and the human conscience.”
Knaebel, who has been living in Shimla since 1995, has moved the Indian
Supreme Court for relief after failing to get a response from the Indian
government. The court directed India’s Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati to
examine his request and remanded the case for another hearing on July 12.
Knaebel has published a “Declaration of Renunciation and Severance of
U.S. Citizenship,” in which he declares:
“I renounce my birth certificate — I renounce my citizenship — and
reject all claims of whatsoever nature made by the United States against me. I
am not government property, and I am not a criminal. I am a peace-loving human
being who is finished with being a slave to the Corporate Warfare State. I am
not a citizen of any Government. I renounce all of them.
I hereby destroy my United States passport by which the United States
government claims control of my movement upon this earth, and thus lays claim
upon my right to exist. I will place the shredded remains of my passport upon
the monument of Mahatma Gandhi. I have chosen this monument because it is a
symbol that all mankind can recognize: of nonviolent resistance to immoral,
corrupt, and violent Governments.”
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