Update

Please Read and Sign the Appeal and online petition for the Release the Italian and Iraqi Aid Workers Abducted in Baghdad.

For more information regarding the Italian & Iraqi Aid Workers Kidnapped in Iraq please visit freeourfriends.blogspot.com

Dear Friends,

Here on Carmen Avenue, ten of us gathered this morning for a reflection, as we’ve done each day of the fast. It was a tearful time. Cathy Breen and Cynthia Banas recounted their most recent conversations and correspondence with Ra’ad Ali, one of the four Bridges to Baghdad humanitarian workers kidnapped from the group’s Baghdad office yesterday.

We remembered how relieved we felt when we learned that Ra’ad and his family were safe, following the worst of the “Shock and Awe” bombardment. We’ve each quoted him, often, when speaking about Iraq with groups in the U.S. Ra’ad, a University professor and engineer, studies astronomy as an avocation. When the lights went out all across Baghdad, Raad went to his rooftop where he set up a telescope, knowing he could study the stars as never before.

Voices has worked with Bridges to Baghdad since we began traveling to Iraq in 1996. They have maintained a steady presence in Iraq, since 1991, and we relied on them for advice and insights whenever our delegations traveled to Iraq. Their vision and witness has provided peace activists worldwide with an inspiration to resist the economic sanctions and each of the wars waged against Iraq.

In 2002, when we were notified of a $20,000 fine imposed on us for bringing medicines to Iraq, we raised $20,000 and contributed it to Bridges to Baghdad’s Sinbad Clinic which they operated in Basra to assist women and children afflicted with water-borne diseases.

We write today, aggrieved and concerned, asking you, urgently, to sign the statement which is attached. Please help circulate this statement widely. Simona Toretta, Simona Pari, Ra’ad Ali Abdulaziz and Mahnaz Bassam have long recognized the grievances of people throughout Iraq who have endured ongoing siege and war. Their work compels us to recognize that no country should ever be held hostage to the greed and dominance of others.

As we yearn for their liberation, we pledge ourselves to work toward a fair and peaceful future for the people they’ve served.

Sincerely,

Kathy Kelly and companions on Carmen Avenue

Update

Sign the online Petition for the Release the Italian and Iraqi Aid Workers Abducted in Baghdad.

For more information regarding the Italian & Iraqi Aid Workers Kidnapped in Iraq please visit freeourfriends.blogspot.com

On Sunday, 13 Iraqis were killed and dozens injured in Baghdad when US helicopters fired on a crowd of unarmed civilians. G2 columnist Ghaith Abdul-Ahad, who was injured in the attack, describes the scene of carnage - and reveals just how lucky he was to walk away

The Guardian

It started with a phone call early on Sunday morning: “Big pile of smoke over Haifa Street.” Still half asleep I put on my jeans, cursing those insurgents who do their stuff in the early morning. What if I just go back to bed, I thought - by the time I will be there it will be over. In the car park it struck me that I didn’t have my flak jacket in the car, but figured it was most probably just an IED (improvised explosive device) under a Humvee and I would be back soon.

On the way to Haifa Street I was half praying that everything would be over or that the Americans would seal off the area. I haven’t recovered from Najaf yet.