Bangor Daily News (Maine)
August 12, 2003 Tuesday All Editions
SECTION: B; Pg. 4
BYLINE: AMANDA DUMOND

International activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly spoke on economic sanctions and the effects of war that she witnessed in Iraq at a press conference Monday morning. The event, sponsored by the Peace and Justice Center and the Bangor Chapter of Veterans for Peace, was held at the center.

Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness, a national peace activists group, told Veterans for Peace members and local residents at the press conference that U.S. economic sanctions enabled the U.S. military to win the war easily over a weakened Iraqi populace.

“Democracy is based on information,” she said. “We lost crucial information on ordinary people like ourselves in Iraq” when the sanctions were enacted.

Contact: Tom Walsh: 773-784-8065
For Immediate Release

(Chicago, IL. Tuesday, August 12th….) On July 29th 2003 Voices in the Wilderness (ViTW) was presented with a summons by the United States Department of Justice, charging ViTW $20,000 in penalties, plus interest and late fees, for bringing medicine and school supplies to Iraq. ViTW has been given 20 days to respond or “judgment by default will be taken against you for the relief demanded in the complaint”.

Since 1996 ViTW has been a campaign to end the US/UN sanctions on Iraq, calling their effect on the Iraqi people inhumane, immoral and unjust. ViTW does not intend to pay these fines. We do not believe that we have acted illegally by bringing desperately needed relief to the Iraqi people. Rather, our response to this summons will be an extension of our effort to draw attention to the devastating condition of life in Iraq and to the direct role that US/UN imposed sanctions and US bombing campaigns have had on ordinary Iraqi families and the civilian infrastructure.

The Dartmouth via U-Wire
August 14, 2003, Thursday
BYLINE: By Alison Schmauch

Hanover, N.H.

When Kathy Kelly first went to take toys and medicine to hospitalized Iraqi children, she met one little girl whose abdomen had literally been ripped open.

Another three-year-old boy, whose arms vaguely resembled dead tree branches, forlornly looked up at her and asked, “Will I always be this way?”

Kelly, a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee and a founding member of the anti-war organization Voices in the Wilderness, spoke at length Wednesday night about this experience and others like it during her stay in strife-ridden Iraq, which lasted six months.

SEAN CALLEBS, CNN ANCHOR: Now the after effects of the Iraqi war here on U.S. soil. A retired Florida school teacher, who was a human shield in Iraq, is being fined by the U.S. federal government.

Faith Fittinger (ph), is refusing to fork over the — at least, $10,000, and she is not the only U.S. citizen who has been fined for going to Iraq.

Kathy Kelly is the founder of Voices in The Wilderness, a national peace activist group. Her group has received a summons to pay fines in the mid-90’s.

Now, CNN did invite the Treasury Department to take part in our interview, but calls were not returned.

Good morning, Miss Kelly, thanks for joining us.

Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)

August 18, 2003 Monday
SECTION: METRO; UPDATE: Newsmakers revisited; Pg. 1
BYLINE: By Bill Grady

With war looming in Iraq, Loyola University law professor Bill Quigley joined five other peace activists on a privately funded fact-finding tour of the country aimed at bringing back to the United States the viewpoints of ordinary Iraqis.

After 10 days in Iraq, Quigley came home with insights that confirmed his long-held belief in the commonality of all and the need for American understanding of the plight of the Iraqi noncombatant.

In addition to a significant degree of poverty, Quigley found in Iraq a pervasive sense of powerlessness among the citizenry, fear of the impending conflict, cynicism about the motives of the U.S. government and a cordiality toward Americans that humbled the New Orleans lawyer.