Fresh off a victory in federal court barring the retrial of Army 1st Lt. Ehren Watada on three of five charges for refusing to go to Iraq, defense attorney Jim Lobsenz yesterday said he plans to pursue the dismissal of the remaining two charges against his client in military court.

"I'm pretty confident that some day, we will prevail in getting all of these charges thrown out," Lobsenz said by phone from Washington state.

"We've got three different arguments now on these two remaining charges," he said. "Which one of those arguments the court is ultimately going to latch on to as the one that says, 'You are right,' I don't know. But we have three, and I think they are all strong arguments."

At one time, Watada, 30, faced up to six years in prison for refusing to board a plane for Mosul, Iraq, in 2006 at his home station of Fort Lewis in Washington state. Now, the 1996 Kalani High School graduate faces at most one to two years, Lobsenz said.

Watada, the first commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to Iraq, said the war was illegal and unjust, and that participating in it would make him a party to war crimes. The Hawai'i man also accused the Bush administration of deception in starting the war.

U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle of Tacoma ruled Tuesday that the Army cannot retry Watada on the charge of missing his Stryker brigade unit's movement to Iraq, and two specifications of conduct unbecoming an officer for taking part in a press conference and participating in a Veterans for Peace convention.

Watada still faces the possibility of a court-martial trial on two remaining charges of conduct unbecoming an officer for interviews with two reporters.

A spokesman at Fort Lewis yesterday reiterated a statement that Lt. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby Jr., the base's commanding general, had not yet had a chance to review the federal court ruling in depth.

"Once that review is complete, we'll be able to make a decision on the way forward with this case," the base official said.

Lobsenz, Watada's attorney, said he may argue double jeopardy claims in military court for the remaining charges — the defense that led to the federal court barring the three main charges.

Watada raised double jeopardy, the constitutional protection against being tried twice for the same crime, after a military judge declared a mistrial at Watada's first court-martial in February of 2007.

Lobsenz said he also can raise due process and free speech arguments when he seeks to get the remaining charges dismissed.

Watada's mother, Carolyn Ho, said yesterday in Hawai'i that her son has faced extreme criticism as well as support for his decision. He has friends and volunteers in the community, she said.

"I think Ehren sees his decision as a personal one, and that he had to do something that was consistent with his conscience," Ho said. "So it can't be a function of what the masses think — whether they vote yea or nay on what his decision is."