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VIETNAM VET TO BAGHDAD TO STAND WITH THE IRAQI PEOPLE
For immediate release
Contact: Danny Muller or Stephanie Schaudel
Voices in the Wilderness 773-784-8965
Chicago, IL - Charles Liteky, who won the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, will be leaving from O'Hare airport on Monday evening, February 17. He plans to be in Baghdad by the end of the week and to stay there "no matter what." Liteky will meet with the press at 5 PM Monday on the departure level of the International Terminal (#5) at O'Hare.
Liteky, who now lives in San Francisco, became active in protesting US military actions in Central America 20 years ago. In 1986 he returned his Medal of Honor, laying it beside the Vietnam Veterans' Memorial in Washington DC to protest the violence being done in Central and South America. Since then he has twice been in prison for actions taken to close the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia, where the US Army trains Latin American military personnel.
Liteky will travel to Iraq to rejoin the Iraq Peace Team with whom he spent November and December of 2002. Iraq Peace Team (IPT) is a project of Chicago-based Voices in the Wilderness. Since September 2002 there has been a continuing presence of Americans in Iraq to express solidarity with the Iraqi people, who, having endured (suffered) the Gulf War and over 12 years of ruinous sanctions, now live under the threat of massive bombing and invasion. IPT members also serve as independent observers of events ands conditions on the ground in Iraq. Liteky and others plan to stay on in Iraq even if that country is attacked by the United States.
“The Iraqi people are innocent of any crime. And yet they are the ones who will suffer under the rain of bombs, and in the aftermath of the bombing” Liteky said.
Also traveling with Liteky is Douglas Johnson, an employee with the US Postal Service for 13 years. Joining Liteky and Johnson in Amman is Christopher Doucot, a social worker from Hartford, Connecticut returning to Iraq for the eighth time. Doucot leaves from JFK airport Tuesday at 11 PM, and is available for interviews until then at 860-724-7066.
Liteky and Johnson are available for interviews at O' Hare at 5 PM or from 2:30 to 4 PM at the Chicago office of Voices in the Wilderness, 1460 W Carmen Avenue.
Depending on the length of the press conference, there may be an opportunity for individual interviews. To request this, please call Stephanie Schaudel at Voices in the Wilderness, 773-784-8065.
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