by Dave Gross Wednesday October 15, 2003 at 03:40 PM

The war tax resistance movement got a big boost today when legendary environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill announced what is being called “the single largest war tax resistance in U.S. history.”

The war tax resistance movement got a big boost this afternoon when the well-known environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill held a press conference at the Federal Building in San Francisco to announce what the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee is calling “the single largest war tax resistance in US history.”

Hill attracted international attention when she climbed 180 feet up into the branches of a 1000 year-old Redwood tree and refused to come down until it was safe from the Pacific Lumber Company’s harvesting. 738 days later, she came down with an agreement to save not only the tree she’d named “Luna,” but a three-acre patch of trees that surrounded it. Hill’s commitment and her ultimate success proved inspirational to environmentalists and other activists.

By Cathy Breen
Voices in the Wilderness
Baghdad
October 14, 2003

The roar of helicopters circling low overhead as I write is unnerving. It is so hard to concentrate. One is filled with a sense of dread wondering what is going on.

Yesterday we had a most unexpected visit from two prestigious Shia Imams from Hilla, the site of a holy shrine. Bearded, tall and stately, they were cloaked in black robes and turbans. They know of our group as one of the Imams is the brother of a friend of ours, someone who is a constant guest at our house. Haythem, “just happened” to return home and, after greeting them with the utmost respect, he sat down willingly to translate for us.

The clerics represent the religious/political direction established by Muqtada al-Sadr, sthe son of a famous Shia leader. One is the chief of the Sadr office in Hilla, the other an Imam in one of the mosques there. They came with an invitation for us to attend a press conference this afternoon in Najaf, to be followed by a demonstration on Friday in Hilla.