By Cathy Breen
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad
September 26, 2003

Dear Friends,

I imagine that if we learn to die gracefully all of the little daily deaths, then the final death will come more easily.

Last night Amal, her 3 children and sister-in-law with her young daughter were visiting with us around the kitchen table when shooting broke out on the street below. People began running and angry voices were heard, and we had out hands full trying to keep the boys, Omar and Ali, from sticking their heads out the window! The shopkeeper Mohammed had said to Ed and I just an hour or so before that we should get a guard for the house, or “pay the police just a little bit” to look after us. And he cautioned us not to allow cars to park in front of our place (because of bombs). Most of our Iraqi friends feel we’re unwise for not having a gun in the house. A half-hour or so later we could hear car-horns honking, the sign of a cheerful wedding caravan, in the streets. We all laughed together which broke the tension somewhat. Soon it was high time for Amal and her clan to head home, about a 15 minute walk. We embraced and I wished them safe travel.

At about 7 am that morning Eva and I were talking in our room when a very loud explosion caused us to run out onto the roof. Our first thought was that the Sheraton or Palestine hotel had been hit, but there was no smoke coming from that direction. We found out later that a bomb had gone off at a hotel not too far away where the NBC staff is housed. And so began the day.

We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.

We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel’s defense.

The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose – and we shall take no part in them.

Courage to Refuse - Combatant’s Letter

What can we do about all the fetuses in Iraq who are dying from radioactive depleted uranium (DU) dust, left from the US invasion of Iraq? Burnt out DU armored tanks and spent DU shells are all over the urban areas of Iraq. They are not posted as dangerous, children play on them and with them, and adults, including pregnant women are exposed to them daily.

Contact: Voices In The Wilderness-(Chicago): 773-784-8065
For Immediate Release

(Chicago)–Voices in the Wilderness (VITW) filed an Answer and Counter Claim in US District Court in Washington DC on Friday September 26, 2003, in response to the fines for bringing medicine and relief to Iraq. A $20,000 penalty was first threatened in December 1998 by the US Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), but was not actually imposed until November 2002, at the height of the Bush Administration’s preparation to invade Iraq. At that time VITW was sponsoring a team of US civilians and other internationals in Baghdad; they remained there from October 2002 through April 2003 as witnesses against war and in sympathy with the ordinary people of Iraq.

Northern Star via U-Wire
September 26, 2003, Friday
Dekalb, Ill.

By Deanna Cabinian, Northern Star

Activist Kathy Kelly, founder of Voices in the Wilderness and a Nobel Peace Prize nominee, spoke to a packed house Thursday night at Northern Illinois University. Seats could not accommodate the crowd that came to see Kelly. About 80 people, young and old, attended the event, forcing some to stand against the wall or sit on the floor.

Cele Meyer, a member of the DeKalb (Ill.) Interfaith Network, which co-sponsored the event with the Northern Coalition for Peace and Justice, introduced Kelly, calling her the most wonderful person she knew in the world.

Kelly began her speech by saying, “Much of what I say can be condensed into one sentence: Where you stand determines what you see.”