by Jim Rissman

Mid-December saw a flurry of articles about how U.S. tactics in Iraq were beginning to resemble those of Israel in the occupied territories. Then, on December 22, the resemblance became downright eerie.

On that day, Voice of Palestine radio reported that the Israeli army had raided various towns, imposing curfews and destroying houses. In Balata refugee camp in Nablus, “thirteen citizens were wounded” and “Nazmi Aziz Duwaykat, 62, died of a severe heart attack after the occupation forces stormed his house and detained him and a large number of his family and neighbors in a single room of the house.”

By Kathy Kelly

“We’ve given up hope,” said 20 year old Mohammed Al Katib, a Palestinian student imprisoned in the Umm Qasr prison camp in southern Iraq. “We don’t think we’ll ever get out of here.”

On January 3, 2004, I traveled with Rev. Jerry Zawada, OFM, and several of our Iraqi friends to Umm Qasr, located on the Iraq-Kuwait border. There, in a remote and desolate area where US Coalition authorities have constructed a network of tent prisons, we visited four Palestinian students who’ve been held for many months by US coaliton authorities. In the “Bucca Camp,” (named after a firefighter who died in the World Trade Center) prisoners and guards alike battle against monotony, anxiety, and isolation. The prisoners we met listed one more emotional pitfall: despair.

15 January 2004
Dear Friends of Voices,

As we approach the eighth anniversary of the beginning of the Voices in the Wilderness campaign (this Monday, Martin Luther King day) we are very grateful to see the vast network of people that has grown to be a part of Voices in the Wilderness. We feel confident that if this network were to act together for justice on issues such as the one described in this email, our voices would be heard loud and strong.

PLEASE call your Senators and Representative today and ask that they urge the Security Detainee Review Board in Baghdad, Iraq, to swiftly examine the cases of the Palestinian students listed below and seek their immediate release. Kathy Kelly’s article explaining the details of this situation can be found here.

Statement before Judge G. Mallon Faircloth, who sentenced me to 3 months in federal prison after I pled not guilty but stipulated to the facts of a charge for a November 22, 2003 entry onto Fort Benning, an open US military base in Columbus, GA.

by Kathy Kelly
Columbus, GA
26 January 2004

I’m fortunate to have been influenced by the life and witness of some extraordinary individuals, many of whom have appeared before you in court, several of whom are now co-defendants.

Their witness in this court has been valuable, constituting a rich and sad drama.

It’s important to continue bringing before this court testimony from or about those who can’t appear, people whom we’ve met when visiting places directly affected by US expenditures on military training and military solutions. Quite often these solutions are based on threat and force, rather than considerations of mercy and compassion.

Yesterday in Columbus, Georgia, Kathy Kelly, co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, was sentenced to three months in federal prison for enacting her habit of bearing witness against US military violence, this time by crossing onto the property of Ft. Benning military base in November of 2003, as a form of protest against the School of the Americas/Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (SOA/WHISC). You can read “Hogtied and Abused at Fort Benning” Kathy’s account of the inhumane treatment that she received by her arresting officers.