by Kathy Kelly

On June 4, 2004, lawyers for Voices in the Wilderness (VitW) will argue, in federal court, that a judge should allow further “discovery” to help establish why VitW travelers believed they had a duty to challenge economic sanctions against Iraq. The U.S. government charges us with the “crime” of delivering donated medicines to Iraq, without authorization. The U.S. Treasury Department is attempting to collect $20,000 from VitW for violation of U.S. sanctions against Iraq, sanctions which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq and effectively destroyed the civilian infrastructure. VitW is countersuing for reparations for the catastrophic effect of UN/U.S.-led economic sanctions.

From 1996-2003, our resolve, not bound by unjust UN/U.S.-led economic sanctions, deepened each time we personally witnessed innocent Iraqis being brutally and lethally punished by shortages of food and medicines, deteriorating infrastructure, contaminated water and a disastrous breakdown in their health care systems.

Prosecuting lawyers will argue that our case should be resolved swiftly since we have already acknowledged delivering medicines to Iraq. Our attorney, Bill Quigley, professor of law at Loyola University, New Orleans, who traveled to Iraq prior to the U.S. war, counters, “The U.S. government has no business punishing people for bringing medicine to Iraq, while its sanctions and occupation cause the daily deaths of Americans and Iraqis and continue to create a desperate need for medicine and basic goods for many Iraqis. This case is about justice, this hearing is an attempt to further criminalize dissent, and we will continue our civil resistance and actions regardless of the outcome of this case.”

Contact:
Angela Garcia (773) 784-8065
John Farrell (773) 619-2418 (on site)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
US Treasury Department Prosecutes Americans For Bringing Medicines to Iraq

(Chicago, Illinois) Voices in the Wilderness (ViTW) will appear in the US District Court Building in Washington, D.C. on Friday, June 4, 2004 at 9:30 a.m. facing charges in excess of $20,000.00 in civil fines being imposed by the US Department of Treasury for “exporting medicines to Iraq.”

ViTW delegates from across the country will be present at the US District Court Building (333 Constitution Avenue N.W., Washington, D.C.) and will hold a press conference immediately following the ruling in the case. Voices delegates will also be available for interviews between 12:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. in Lafayette Park (Pennsylvania Avenue at 16th Street, NW).

“The US government has no business punishing people for bringing medicine to Iraq, while its sanctions and occupation cause the daily deaths of Americans and Iraqis and continue to create a desperate need for medicine and basic goods for many Iraqis,” stated Bill Quigley, ViTW lawyer and professor of law at Loyola University, New Orleans, LA. Mr. Quigley traveled to Iraq with a ViTW delegation months prior to the latest US led invasion.

ViTW has campaigned to end economic and military warfare against the Iraqi people since 1996. They have organized over seventy delegations to Iraq in deliberate violation of UN economic sanctions and US law. “There is another America, which is not reflected by the images of torture and destruction that have come to symbolize the US presence in Iraq, which was shown in some small way by our efforts and those of others working against economic sanctions,” stated Kathy Kelly, co-founder of ViTW and three time Nobel Peace prize nominee.

ViTW is counter-suing the U.S. Government for reparations for the Iraqi people due to the catastrophic effects of 14 years of US led economic sanctions. ViTW recognizes that an unjust law is no law at all, and will nonviolently resist all payments, fines, taxes, and laws that perpetuate war and restrict our rights and responsibilities as world citizens. The US Treasury Department has attempted collection in the past, and ViTW has responded each time by refusing payment and raising and delivering thousands of dollars worth of humanitarian aid to hospitals and schools throughout Iraq.

For documents regarding the case, please see http://vitw.org/summons/

For interviews with our legal team or recently returned delegates, 773.784.8065 / info@vitw.org

by Mike Ferner

ABU SIFFA, IRAQ-”How could this happen?” nearly everyone asks these days. But as the U.S. now releases hundreds of men from Abu Ghraib prison, another question, “why were so many Iraqis locked up there in the first place?” is likely to become part of the debate.

The story of this farming hamlet 30 miles north of Baghdad sheds a lot of light on that question.

“On December 16, 2003, at 2:00 am, on a rainy night, all the houses in Abu Siffa, about two dozen, were surrounded by U.S. troops in tanks and humvees. They surrounded the fields of the farmers by tanks and they destroyed the fences of the fields,” citrus farmer, Mohammed Al-Tai explained to a delegation from Christian Peacemaker Teams visiting the village to document detainees’ stories.

Soldiers from the Army’s 4th Infantry Division rounded up two attorneys, 15 schoolteachers, men in their 80’s, a blind man, police officers, young teens, and an elderly man so frail he had to be carried by the soldiers, Al-Tai said. In all, 83 men disappeared that night, virtually every male in the village.

The re-writing of Iraqi history is now going on at supersonic speed

By Robert Fisk - 26 May 2004

I can’t wait to see Abu Ghraib prison reduced to rubble by the Americans — at the request of the new Iraqi government, of course. It will be turned to dust in order to destroy a symbol of Saddam Hussein’s brutality. That’s what President Bush tells us. So the rewriting of history still goes on.

Last August, I was invited to Abu Ghraib — by my favorite U.S. Gen. Janis Karpinski, no less — to see the million-dollar U.S. refurbishment of this vile place. Squeaky clean cells and toothpaste tubes and fresh pairs of pants for the “terrorist” inmates. But now, suddenly, the whole kit and caboodle is no longer an American torture center. It’s still an Iraqi torture center and thus worthy of demolition.

The rewriting of Iraqi history is now going on at supersonic speed.

Weapons of mass destruction? Forget it. Links between Saddam and al-Qaida? Forget it. Liberating the Iraqis from Saddam’s Abu Ghraib life of torture? Forget it. Wedding party slaughtered? Forget it. Clear the decks for both “full (sic) sovereignty” and “chaotic events.” This is, at any rate, according to Bush. When I heard his hesitant pronunciation of Abu Ghraib as “Abu Grub” on Monday night, I could only profoundly agree.

BUSH’S FIVE STEPS IN A SPEECH: FIVE STEPS TO LOSE A WAR AND THE UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION ON THE TABLE

by Phyllis Bennis
Institute for Policy Studies
24 May 2004

The U.S. is losing the war in Iraq. The Bush administration has lost the battle for Iraqi hearts and minds; four out of five Iraqis hold a negative view of the U.S. occupation authority and U.S. troops. The U.S. has, with the expose of the Abu Ghraib torture scandal, lost whatever shreds of moral authority it once claimed in Iraq, the Arab world, or the international community. And at home, President Bush is losing support faster than ever before; a majority of Americans believe the war was not worth the price, and 64% of Americans believe the president does not have a clear plan for Iraq.

Bush’s new “five-step plan” to “help Iraq achieve democracy and freedom” is not new, does not lay out serious steps to resolve the Iraq crisis, and will not bring about anything resembling democracy or freedom. Instead, it is a recipe for continuing U.S. occupation, continuing deaths of hundreds of U.S. and coalition troops and thousands of Iraqis, and continuing destruction in Iraq.

Step One: Hand over something
Whatever it is that the U.S. plans to “hand over” to the not-yet-appointed appointed interim Iraqi government on June 30, it will certainly not be sovereignty. Iraq will not be sovereign as long as 135,000 U.S. and tens of thousands of “coalition” troops remain in the country under U.S. command and unaccountable to the Iraqi government.