Nyack and NYC Day 12

After a relaxing time staying at Judith’s in the woods we were off…we arrived at the Fellowship of Reconciliation to meet Leila, the organizer of the event and the Director of FOR’s Iran program. There were a lot of people in the audience who had traveled to Iran with FOR. It was great to have an audience who had a real sense of what Iran is like.

The room we spoke in over looked a large lake the FOR office is beautiful, Raed could tell us what kind of architecture it is but I don’t know.

Rostam spoke about how the US government claims Iran is its major threat. He tried to have us imagine Iran’s perspective. Iran is constantly being threatened by the US calling for increased sanctions, threats of bombing and potential invasion. Iran is also surrounded by nuclear powers in Pakistan, Israel, India, and Russia and surrounded by US military bases in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Afghanistan. Iran is the one who feels threatened and is being threatened. Yet the IAEA after combing the country for hours and hours has not come up with any proof that Iran is developing a nuclear weapons program. In fact Iran’s foreign policy has been consistent, it has not invaded another country for over 250 years, Rostam reminded us that we cannot say the same for US foreign policy.

The origins of Iran’s nuclear energy program are important to remember. They began over 30 years ago when Iran’s Shah was pressured by President Ford to adopt nuclear energy. When the Shah refused saying Iran had all the oil it needed to provide energy for its people. Ford brought Henry Kissinger and American defense contractors GE and Westing House to the table to apply more pressure to the Shah. Eventually the Shah agreed and bought a dozen nuclear reactors including a uranium enrichment facility. In the end the GE reactors were never build because of the Iranian revolution. Part of the point is that Iran has had this nuclear program for over 30 years why is it suddenly a threat? If this is hard to believe read about it in a recent Washington Post article by Dafna Linzer, click here.

After the talks we quickly sped off to NYC to avoid any traffic. It was sad to leave Leila and the FOR team as they were having a potluck and discussions before their next event that evening but we had one last event to make!

Alwan for the Arts is where we were headed in downtown Manhattan. Alwan is a great spot that is run by Ahmed with a lot of volunteers. Alwan is one of the few Middle Eastern arts and community spaces in NY and we were glad to be warmly welcomed there. The event was great as it is in NY where Chelsea and I both live so lots of friends came, including Andrew Stern the photojournalist with images from Lebanon in the show and Ramin Talaie with images from Iran in the show. Andrew and Raed actually know each other from Iraq, so it was a great reunion in a lot of ways.

The event went a little long with hard questions from the audience about how we can foster a change of US policy in the Middle East. Answers from the panel came in all the usual forms.

Pressure the corporations to give up contracts in Iraq, and return the monies lost, including monies corporations are still holding for unfinished projects to Iraqi companies.

Continue to pressure congress to stop funding the war, now more than ever, letting the dems know why they are in office.

The suggestion I think we need to highlight more is to continue to educate ourselves and our communities about the realities of US foreign policy currently and historically in the Middle East. Many times as our panel has showed me the keys to re-spinning Washington’s arguments are in Washington’s past. This awareness can help ourselves and others to change what Raed calls the ‘mental approach’ Americans have when thinking about foreign policy. One of thinking the United States is supreme and all other nations and peoples need US to take care of them. Understanding our history will help us to change this sense of automatic entitlement we have been taught that rationalizes that it is feasible to bomb countries into democracy, or to bomb countries to liberate women. If social change movements can change these gut reactions in Americans they will grow and eventually win.

This is my last blog, I’m signing off. If you want reach me email info@justforeignpolicy.org

~Jessica

Pennsylvania and Upstate NY Day 11

After a nice rest in a hotel in Philly, and a cheese steak for dinner we were on the road again to an event the LEPOCO Peace center organized for us.

We invited the Wheels of Justice tour to speak with us. Dahlia Wasfi spoke on Iraq and Dan Pearson spoke about his time in Palestine.

Dahlia spoke powerfully about her family in Iraq and what the wars have meant for them. She showed pictures of her uncle who before the most recent war looked young and handsome and now looks aged and thin. These dramatic images and personal stories moved me. Dahlia who has spent most of her time in the US being born in NY to an Iraqi and Jewish family shared what it feels like to her and her family for the government to be occupying and destroying her father’s country. She also read a testimony she presented at the United Nations, you can find a video of her testimony here.

Dan spoke about the houses in Palestine that are being destroyed by the Israeli Defense Force as quickly as they are built in some cases. He showed images of children right after their homes were bulldozed, showing the confusion on their little faces as to why they now are homeless. Dan asked us the hard questions: Why is this happening? Why does it seem like the destruction of homes is happening in vacuum with no one in the US preventing it? He reminded us of Rachel Corrie a US citizen who was killed in Palestine while trying to stop a Caterpillar bulldozer from destroying a family’s home.

Middle East Crisis Response sponsored our next event in Saugerties, NY

As we pulled up we were glad to meet Cheryl and David and many other members of the coalition that took root in Upstate NY on both sides of the Hudson River after Israel began bombing Lebanon this summer. I was so happy when they contacted us about hosting the tour as I had read about them in a local paper in July. They brought out some amazing activists including a female veteran of WWII.

Raed had taken the bus up from NYC with a member of the coalition whom I found out I had organized with in the late ’90s in NYC. She is now writing a book about Iraq and her time there as a human shield.

Rostam started off and talked about how there is so much Americans are not learning about Iran in the media. One fact he gave was that there are 2 million college students in Iran and 60% are women. Iran’s education system is state owned free education. English language schools have been opened in every town and village in Iran. There are also women in executive offices within the government. The US government says Iran is a national security threat yet Iran has not invaded another country in 250 years. Except for one instance in the 1970’s when Iran, under the Shah bombed a soviet backed rebel movement in Oman, Jordan on behalf of the United States.

Raed talked about depleted uranium in Iraq, as there were groups in the audience who worked on nuclear issues and one women who came saw Raed in the film Battle Ground on PBS that night where he was in a tank junk yard measuring uranium levels!

Depleted uranium was used in Iraq in 1991 and it caused a rise in the cancer rate in Southern Iraq. DU was used in bullets and warheads “it can be used to destroy a tank cheaply because it pierces the metal like a pen in a plastic bottle.”

Uranium in Iraq’s water contaminated it for billions of years. In the film Raed was taking journalists to tank junk yards to measure geiger levels of DU. The tanks were being melted down by local people who worked in the yard to make spoons in Iraq for people to eat with.

Raed explained that the use line regardng Iraq, even with in the anti-war movement is a line of “But maybe…”

But maybe if US troops pull out of Iraq another dictator will take over..But maybe if we pull out Iraq will be controlled by terrorists; there will be an unending civil war and people will kill each other…

The but maybe excuses never end. Raed argues until Americans realize that Iraq can take care of itself, they have for 4 to 5,000 years. Iraq has never had a civil war, and if it does now it will be as a result of the foreign occupation not despite it.

Philly here we come Day 10

The next two events were different for us as Raed had to attend an event with Friends Committee on National Legislation in DC and the United Fore Peace and Justice steering committee meetings in NY. So we had Peter Lems the Middle East Program Director at American Friends Service Committee to speak on the panel.

Kevin from the Committee for Conscientious Objectors sponsored the event. I knew him from the national counter recruitment conference On the Front Lines in Berkeley a year back. It was great to see Kevin again and check out CCCO’s office. They are a great organization that has been supporting CO’s since 1948 ! Please check them out as they can help all of us ensure our pacifist beliefs are recognized by the government when the next draft comes knocking…and much more.

Kevin is a photographer so he helped me to hang the exhibit, here are some photos of the event:

Peter spoke first and talked a lot about the humanitarian situation in Iraq. Peter has been with AFSC since 1999 when he was hired to work on the Iraq sanctions, he spent his first 5 years working on Iraq lobbying democrats on the US policy that was killing millions of innocent Iraqi’s.

Peter explained his view of the change of guard in Washington. Saying, “Up until Tuesday Republicans controlled the Executive branch/House/Senate and Judiciary, there were no checks and balances. Democrats complained that they wanted to do something different about Iraq but couldn’t get any bills passed.”

It seems to me from what everyone has been saying that we need to hold the new congress accountable to all of those lost intentions. And demand congress stop funding the war and bring the troops home!

Peter told us about the reality on the ground when the US invaded Iraq in 2003, he said, “Iraq was on its knees because of the years of sanctions. Baghdad fell in two weeks.”

According to John Hopkins study an estimated 655,000 Iraqi’s have been killed since 2003. The World Food Program counts 12 million Iraqi’s are dependant on food rations, and 4 million Iraqi’s are in dire need of aid. This is 45% of the population. “Right now in Iraq 1.6 million people are internally displaced, and there are 3 million refugees who have fled abroad, most are in Syria and Jordan.” These displacements have caused further fragmentation along religious lines, and the capacity of Iraq’s neighbors to keep taking refugees cannot hold. Rostam added that 2,000 Iraqi’s per day are entering Jordan and Syria right now.

I had not read all of these statistics, especially about displacement. Having all of this data helps to see how dire the situation in Iraq is. It gives us a sense of what this occupation has done to the entire nation and people of Iraq and its neighbors. I agree with Peter that peace groups need to support Iraqi’s and Iraqi groups. Peter said people in the peace movement need to listen to Iraqi’s, in January several Iraqi Parliamentarians are visiting the US and US Labor Against the War is sponsoring another tour of Iraqi Labor leaders soon.

Rutgers, NJ Day 9

At this point in the tour we had a lot of things worked out. Chelsea usually took care of the table with all the  great tools: petitions on Iran and Iraq,  Antoni’s book : The Bush Agenda,  We Will Not Be Silent t-shirts and I would work with the volunteers to put up the photo exhibit with amazing images from Iran, Iraq and Lebanon donated by amazing photojournalists. But one thing we did not have totally down by now was the traffic, weather and other unavoidable things on the road. All in all we did well, but the Rutgers football game that brought over 44,000 people to New Brunswick tonight was hard to contend with. Needless to say we made it to the event with a little time to spare, but were very late to meet the organizers, Rutgers Against the War or RAW for dinner! (We still managed to get a few bites in before moving on to the school, but not enough!)

Rostam started the talk tonight since Antonia was already back in California. He spoke about why GW Bush has been demonizing Iran since his re-election campaign in 2003. He explained it is because we are entering a new cold war, this time with China. The demonization of Iran is about controlling the world’s oil so the US can eventually control China. He warned the audience to remember that today’s leading neo-cons were once democrats and some still are.

Meaning there is no reason for Americans who disagree with US foreign policy to relax and take are guard down now that the dems are in the majority. The US is still investing in a new generation of nuclear weapons, and for the first time the US has a policy of attacking sovereign nations pre-emptively that are non-nuclear states.

Rostam explained to the audience that Iran is not an exception when it comes to human rights abusers. There are far more harmful governments in the world than Iran, to their own people and to others. This made me think of Indonesia slaughtering Acehnese and East Timorese for decades, the US government calls Indonesia its ally both then and now.

Rostam gave the example that although Iran is not in violation of the NPT (Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty) the United States is. The US and UK have both expanded its nuclear programs since signing, while Iran has not.

We are very grateful for all the work RAW did to organize this event, even with one of Rutgers largest sports events in history happening the same night our event had a decent attendance. 

Day 8 Brooklyn College and WESPAC Foundation

Today was a struggle we had little sleep driving from last night and then trying to find parking which was forever challenging, and then Raed having to get up early early in the morning to be on the radio show Democracy Now! to talk about the elections and the execution verdict of Saddam Hussain (go to the Nov 4 post). But we all servived it and hope for a good parking spot tonight.

Today is also a different day because now the Democrats will have the majority come January instead of being kept out of congressional meetings, they will be running the show after 12 years of Republicans. Although we do not see this as a solution or the silver lining it is a ray of hope.

We were lucky to have Geoffrey Millard from Iraq Veterans Against the War join our panel today!

Antonia started off the talk with what she hopes is demanded of congress in the first 100 days of their taking office.

First and for most is the Billions of dollars paid to US corporations to reconstruct Iraq be reallocated to Iraqi companies!

Of the 1,300 reconstruction projects given to 150 US companies, 66 projects have been assessed by the Iraq Inspector General and all have been found to be FAILED projects (not reaching their goals in one way or another, and have misspent monies).

Rostam said we need to remain vigilant against US policy on Iran, calling for an end to economic sanctions and any actions threatening to bomb or attack Iran. Unfortunately having the democrats in control of the congress does not change much for US policy toward Iran. Tom Lantos (D-CA) will be the chair of the House International Relations Committee and he acts as a ‘blood enemy of Iran’. He has pushed forward most of the economic sanctions of Iran. If that wasn’t bad enough Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) will be the Co-Chair and she equally demonizes Iran.

Raed reminded us that what has happened to Iraq under the republicans is not an exception of US foreign policy toward Iraq. There have been 16 years of attacks on Iraq first through the imposition of broad economic sanctions in August 1990 that killed millions, next the Gulf war in 1991 and now the current war.

Geoffery talked about how the Iraq veterans are not getting the support from the US government that they need and deserve. For example there is no current increase in funding to cover the additional medical care needs of Iraq vets. Geoffery spoke about how we need to press the new congress to address these gaps, because the government is not supporting its troops if they are not taking care of them. He said, we also need to ensure the reconstruction of Iraq happens by Iraqi’s that in order for Iraqi’s to rebuild their economy they need to control reconstruction.

The students at Brooklyn College were very engaged, they asked a lot of good questions concerning reconstruction in Iraq, the sectarian violence and Iraq’s history.

Raed explained that Iraq has had 4 revolutions in the 20th century that Iraqi’s are certainly capable of taking care of themselves. They have rebuilt their country several times. He said, “The best thing that can happen for social movements and movements for change and nations is to be left alone.” Foreign interventions weaken life in the world, not only because Iraq and other countries are being destroyed but because peoples are also getting destroyed, oppression of people’s movements is furthered. Crushing the potential for change and thus taking more time for change to be realized.

Raed talked about the arrogance in foreign interventions, that the US line is, ‘even though your country existed for 4 to 5,000 years before our country you need US to save you.’ This is clearly false. Iraqi’s can do anything themselves, their history shows us that.

Wespac Foundation

We were so happy to make it to the event, we were unable to bring the photo exhibit as it was pooring rain all day and the roads north of Manhattan were flooded. We abandoned the road and parked the van and jumped on the train with minutes to spare to arrive at the event only a few min. late. Antonia was on time as she took the train straight from a radio interview. Who knew we would have this kind of monsoon whether.

I had been looking forward to meet the Wespac Foundation, they have a very strong social justice mission and have been focusing on the Middle East in recent years especially Palestine. Little did I know my friend Chralie from ETAN is one of the founders!

The panel was asked a lot of important questions about the situation on the ground in Iraq. Raed explained there are many socio-political groups in Iraq demanding a time table for a withdrawl of the troops. He said, one such group organized a petition for calling for a time table that 1 million Iraqi’s signed in 3 months. But in the foreign press this courageous statement by 1 million Iraqi’s was not covered.

Even when the Iraqi Parliment puts forth proposals for peace like “The Iraq Reconciliation and Peace Plan” launched on June 25, 2006 international press hardly covers it. But now that the Iraq Study Group has called on the Iraqi government to work for reconciliation, the idea is getting some traction.

Some of the Wespac members suggested actions people can take upstate to move an anti-war agenda in congress. Particularly urging Nita Lowey (D-Westchester/Rockland, NY), a ranking democrat on the Foreign Aid House Appropriations Subcommittee, which funds the Iraq Inspector General.

Wespac members said Americans need to be in the habit of contacting their representatives. Raed, echoed this by saying he tries to contact them several times a month at least by phone.

1. Ask for all reconstruction monies to go to Iraqi companies.

2. Ask for our representative’s position on the Middle East Free Trade Area.

3. Ask them what their position on Iran is, and if they say they see Iran as a serious national security threat, ask them who are they comparing Iran to?

Iran has had nuclear capability for over 30 years. Why do you now believe they are such a threat when inspections have shown they are not building nuclear weapons and our own State Department says Iran is 5 to 10 years away from having the capacity to do so if they chose to.

We were sad after the event because this was Antonia’s last day on the tour. Unfortunatley we were not able to go out for a party afterwards. Thank you so much Antonia, and hope to see you soon!!

Day 7 Brown University Election Day!!

We are so grateful for working with Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Brown Anti-war group. They pulled together a good turnout with a lot of interested students. We were also happy to visit Brown, as it is Antonia’s Alma madder.

Rostam talked about the origins of Iran’s uranium enrichment program. Reminding us that Iran’s program has been in existence for 30 years. So why is the US so threatened by it now? Constently saying it is a major national security threat? Rostam explained that Iran’s nuclear program began under the Shah in the 1970’s at the urging of US President Ford. When Pres. Ford initially approached the Shah with the suggestion that Iran develop nuclear energy the Shah was not interested and said Iran is floating on oil why would we need another source of energy? But American defense contractors GE and Westing House along with the President and Henry Kissinger were able to persuade the Shah to purchase up to a dozen nuclear power plants. Why were GE, Kissinger and others so eager to get Iran nuclear? Rostam explained they wanted Iran’s oil dollars! His argument is laid out in an article published in the Washington Post last year by Dafna Linzer, click here to read the facts Bush does not want us to remember.

The reality in Iran 30 years ago is different than now, Rostam explained, there was less reason for nuclear energy in Iran when Ford was pushing it but now the population has tripled counting 70 million people, with electricity reaching every village in Iran. So Iran needs extra sources of power to support its population. Rostam argues that the real reason Bush bashes Iran is because the neo-cons want regime change in Iran. There is NO evidence to show after hours and hours of UN inspections that Iran has any intentions of developing a nuclear weapons program, the US State Department said itself that if Iran were to start developing a nuclear weapons program it is five to ten years away from a nuclear test.

Rostam argues that the real reason Bush wants regime change in Iran is because the US is entering a new cold war, this time with China. And according to policy papers and the Project for the New American Century, which was made of by many, many members of the Bush administration, the US needs Iran’s oil to control China.

Another reason Rostam argues the US is demonizing Iran is because Iran has an independent foreign policy. Meaning it is not controlled by the US, and the US needs to dominate. The reality in Iran is that, human rights in Iran are more favorable by international standards than they were 20 years ago, more women and men in Iran are going to college than ever before, English schools have openned across Iran even in the smallest towns. So openning and tolerance for outside influence is blossoming in Iran. Unfortunately this reality is not the one Americans are presented with in the US media.

In the US I think we all have a lot to learn about Iran. Jessica

Day 5 Cambridge, MA

Vets for Peace organized this event, it was in a Unitarian Church in downtown Cambridge. A friend of Mohammad Kheirkhah , one of the photographers sharing images from Iran, came to the event and said she wanted to receive photographs of the event to send to him back in Tehran. This reminded me of how small the world is. She said she had heard about the event and wanted to come and see her friend’s photos in person. She was so happy someone she knew from back home was having their work on display.

This event was really special for us as we shared it with Bob Watada, the father of Lt. Ehren Watada the 1st commissioned officer to publicly refuse deployment to the Iraq war and occupation. Ehren faces court martial and up to 6 years in prison for refusing and publicly speaking out. Bob and his wife warmed the stage. Bob spoke about the injustice of the Iraq war that Ehren helped him to see. He explained that Ehren was motivated to enlist to support the US in its time of need, and after educating himself about the US intervention in Iraq, learning about the lies, manipulation and the destruction, corruption and torture taking place in Iraq he decided the war in Iraq is illegal, and thus participation in the war is also illegal. Reading the speech the Lt. gave on August 14, 2006 shows how honorable he is and shows that he deserves all of our support, as he faces penalty for saying what the many Americans believe to be true, that the war in Iraq is illegal, unjust and immoral.

Thank you Bob, Ehren and the Watada family for helping to end this war!

Day 3 Greenfield and Boston, MA

We spent the night at Trap Rock Peace Center, oh my gosh it was gorgeous up on the hill in the middle of the forest. We all live in cities and really appreciated the outdoors. The night was really clear and I could see the stars from the field surrounding the center. Sunny our host at Trap Rock organized everything, she made sure we all had a full healthy breakfast. Our event in Greenfield was at the public TV studio, it was a different environment than we had had so far and it was really cool. We set the event up with an audience Trap Rock had gathered as an in-studio live show. Trap Rock has DVD’s available now for distribution, so your local community can see the event on public access! Email Sunny here for info on how you can get a copy. We will also have them on our website soon.

Boston University

In Boston we were hosted by MassPeaceAction, we arrived early and to set up in a huge room in the Law School unfortunately the room was not filled by the time we were ready. Turn out was difficult since BU no longer has an anti-war group. Students need to get activated at BU on ending the war. This was a little disheartening but we met a few engaged law students from BU and are hopeful they will get something started!

Antonia started the talk and launched into how corporations are driving the oil timeline for the war. She explained how the top five oil companies in the world control the biz. They control refining, marketing, and extraction. This not only allows them to control how much oil is turned to gas everyday and how much drivers pay at the pump this gives them un-due influence over US elected officials. Antonia went on to explain, for the first time in US history the top leaders (16 of them) in US government have spent more time as oil company executives than working for government! This includes, President, George Bush, Vice President, Dick Cheney and Secretary of State, Condi Rice who spent 10 years on the Board of Directors of Chevron/Texaco. (Click the link for more info on Chevron/Texaco’s achievements).

Antonia emphasized that WE have the power to end the war in Iraq! We have already kicked Halliburton out of Iraq. This was no easy task as they wanted there billion dollars in contracts and Cheney wanted them to have it too. But OUR public pressure exposing the corporation’s failure to rebuild sewage, water, and electrical systems ended that dream for Halliburton and Bechtel!

One important piece of our work in the next months is to continue pressuring the independent contractors in Iraq such as KBR, click here for an article in the New York Times about KBR’s dirty practices.. One important way to do that is by telling our representatives to STOP FUNDING US corporations to reconstruct Iraq and to support the continuation of the Iraq Inspector General. (As of the 109th congress’ last session, the Iraq Inspector General’s position has been further secured!) Click here for exact language of the bill. Lets keep the pressure on and make sure the position gets more funding to uncover the fraudulant reality of reconstruction in Iraq.

Also I wanted to let you all know Mass Peace Action and the Massachusetts movement to end the war just had a major victory! While we were on tour voters in Mass cast ballots to end the war immediately! Click here to read an article in the Boston Globe about it.

Jessica

Brattleboro, and Castleton VT Day 2

SIT and Castleton State College were our 2nd and 3rd stops on the tour. We met Mary Hayward at SIT who organized everything for us. We pulled up and Raed got out of the car and pointed out we had a flat tire. Chelsea got on the phone with the car service folks and Mary got on the phone with the maintenance folks at SIT to see how we could fix it. With in an hour we had a local tire shop picking up the van and fixing it to our relief.

Despite the car fixing anxiety, the event itself went really well, the SIT students were critical and engaged and the speakers had a lot to download. Raed discussed how people in the US have been so affected by invasion psychology that some believe if we want something like oil then we are entitled to make war to get it. He made the analogy that there are rules that people follow when it comes to domestic issues that are simply not applied in the international arena. Raed used the example that in the US if we heard a neighbor getting abused we would not break there door down and shoot the abuser in the head to liberate the abused women, we would call the authorities, or find a community solution. But in the case of a cross-boarder situation the US would bomb and invade a county for the “liberation of women.” Raed spoke about how foreign invaders can never ‘bring democracy’ democracy can never be brought to a place or people, the people themselves must create their own democracy or systems they cannot be enforced.  I think this itself goes against the idea of democracy, which is governance of, by and for the people.

Castleton, VT

We made it, Matt  from the Real Action Film Club was outside ready with a group of volunteers to help us un-load and set up. Despite being a little late we arranged the room and got in place in time. Our venue was the atrium off of the cafeteria. It was a large room with a podium and tables for folks to eat.

We were very glad to be at Castleton, it was in some cases a hard sell. Many students at the college were in the National Guard, or were enlisted and going to be fighting in Iraq. One such student attended the event.  In this community we were told it is hard to raise the issues of the war being un-just, illegal, and imperial since so many families are serving. Still we had an audience of some committed students who were clearly apposed to the Iraq war and some who were on the fence. I am glad we could bring our messages to this group of students and professors.

The professors sponsoring the event were from the communications department and asked a lot of questions about how Iraqi and Iranian leaders are represented in the media. Raed and Rostam both confirmed the communications Professors suspicions that there have been many false translations of Middle Eastern leaders speeches including a recent one by Mahmoud Amenajad (Iran’s President). They both said there are entire organizations focused on spinning news from the Middle East. One NGO they sited is called Memri the acronym for Middle East Media Research Institute. A group that provides translations of Arabic, Farsi for major media outlets, academics and politicians voluntarily. They said Memri is run by former Israeli intelligence/security operatives with funding from militant Zionists. As a result their translations are politically motivated.  Memri intentionally represents major figures words and newspaper articles from the Middle East to create inaccuracies and sway public opinion.  In the article Selective Memri (click here) Brian Whitaker of The Guardian Newspaper UK investigates whether the ‘independent’ media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems, not surprisingly he finds out it is not!

I think this is really important information to let people know; there are actually groups that work with major media outlets to sabotage politics and sway public opinion using false information. For the informed it wasn’t new news,  Professor’s Conroy and Ghosh who attended the event were nodding their heads, I had not heard of this before. Check out MEMRI online, there has been a lot written about it.

Jessica

Burlington, VT

We set up the exhibit out side the room for all the students and professors in the building to see. The exhibit looked great! Everyone was stopping to look.

Once the speakers had 5 min to chat, we started the event with Chelsea moderating. There were about 80 ppl in the audience from the school and Burlington community. Raed spoke first then Rostam and then Antonia. The audience heard lots of information about the economic colonization of Iraq by Antonia who focused on the US corporate take over of Iraq explaining how Bechtel, Halliburton and others had won huge contracts to reconstruct Iraq after the invasion and had squandered all of our billions of dollars. She explained how we could put pressure on the companies directly and through congress about canceling the current contracts and especially on contracts that have not received payment yet. What we should be doing is asking for this money to be transferred to Iraqi’s to re-build themselves.

There of course was much more that was talked about, but as I am in the car now I will tell you later.