News Release Archive - 2002

On Thursday two more members of a delegation organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy returned to the United States from Iraq. The delegation included Rep. Nick Rahall, D-WV, who returned on Tuesday. Other delegation members now available for interviews are:

JAMES ABOUREZK
A former senator and author of Advise & Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate, Abourezk said today: “I am pleased that the Iraqi government has decided to again admit UN inspectors. We hope it will lead to a genuine reduction of tensions, not just a postponement of military action. In any case, a new U.S. attack on Baghdad would be a mistake for humanitarian reasons. The reality is that the people of Iraq have still not recovered from the 1991 war. Few people in the West realize that one in every ten Iraqi children dies before his or her first birthday, the lingering result of infrastructure degradation, unclean water, and communicable disease spread in the wake of the 1991 war. One child in three suffers from chronic malnutrition, according to the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq. I learned of the disturbing evidence of the effects of Depleted Uranium contamination on the environment, and on leukemia and cancer rates in children. The U.S. military used DU in its artillery shells in 1991, resulting in deformed births throughout southern Iraq. If the U.S. does start a new and unprovoked war, it will stand in violation of international law, the UN Charter, and basic humane values.”

NORMAN SOLOMON
Executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Solomon said today: “Much of our discussion with Iraqi officials involved urging them to agree to unfettered access for UN weapons inspectors…. A couple of days later, Iraq chose a longshot for averting war — appreciably better than no chance at all, but bringing its own risks. Several years ago, Washington used UNSCOM inspectors for espionage totally unrelated to the UN team’s authorized mission. This fall, inspectors poking around the country could furnish valuable data to the U.S., heightening the effectiveness of a subsequent military attack…. Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz told our delegation that a comprehensive ‘formula’ would be needed for a long-term solution; presumably the formula would include a U.S. pledge of non-aggression and a lifting of sanctions. No such formula is in sight. Instead, the White House remains determined to inflict a horrendous war. Meanwhile, the Democratic ‘leadership’ in the Senate is lining up to put vast quantities of blood on its hands.”
More Information

Dr. JAMES JENNINGS
President of Conscience International, a humanitarian aid organization, Jennings is in Iraq until Sunday. He said today: “President Bush claims, as his father did, that he ‘has no quarrel with the Iraqi people.’ But every family I meet here in Iraq is suffering from what he is doing. The economic sanctions the U.S. government insists on mean malnutrition, prohibitions on desperately needed medicines, a lack of employment and people having to sell their belongings just to survive. Yesterday I had people beg me for cancer medicine. The UN’s ‘661 committee’ is blocking many such necessities — this is uncivilized behavior.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

JOHN C. BERG
Professor and director of graduate studies of the government department at Suffolk University, Berg said today: “The current plans by Congressional leaders to give the president a blank check in advance would be an abdication of their constitutional responsibility. The whole history of Congressional attempts to authorize military action with conditions is that the conditions are meaningless — this was true of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in 1965; with the intervention in Lebanon in the 1980s; and with the many attempts to limit military aid to repressive governments in Central America. It is not enough to say that it’s up to the president to decide when the conditions are met.”
More Information

JIM NAURECKAS
Naureckas is editor of Extra!, the magazine of FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting). After protesters chanted “inspections not war” at a hearing yesterday, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: “Mr. Chairman, as I listened to those comments, it struck me what a wonderful thing free speech is. And of course, the country that threw the inspectors out was not the United States. It was not the United Nations. It was Iraq that threw the inspectors out.” Naureckas said today: “Yes, free speech is a wonderful thing. It’s even better when it’s true. As media outlets correctly reported at the time, it was the U.N.’s Richard Butler who pulled his inspection team out of Iraq in December 1998 to clear the way for a U.S. bombing attack. Unfortunately, many media have adopted as fact the official myth that Secretary Rumsfeld repeated.”
More Information
More Information

BRIAN WHITAKER
Today, Richard Perle, Chairman of the Defense Policy Review Board, testifies before the House Foreign Relations Committee. Middle East Editor for the British Guardian, Whitaker is author of the recent articles “U.S. Think Tanks Give Lessons in Foreign Policy” and “Playing Skittles with Saddam.” Whitaker said: “President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt recently predicted devastating consequences for the Middle East if Iraq is attacked, saying that ‘We fear a state of disorder and chaos may prevail in the region.’ Mubarak and the hawks agree on one thing: war with Iraq could spell disaster for several regimes in the Middle East. Mubarak believes that would be bad. The hawks, though, believe it would be good. For the hawks … Iraq is just the starting point — or, as a recent presentation at the Pentagon put it, ‘the tactical pivot’ — for re-moulding the Middle East on Israeli-American lines…. [These hawks have plans] by which Israel would ‘shape its strategic environment,’ beginning with the removal of Saddam Hussein and the installation of a Hashemite monarchy in Baghdad. The leader [of this group of hawks is] Richard Perle — now chairman of the Defense Policy Board at the Pentagon. He is not fighting his battle single-handed. Around him there is a cosy and cleverly-constructed network of Middle East ‘experts’ who share his neo-conservative outlook and who pop up as talking heads on U.S. television, in newspapers, books, testimonies to congressional committees, and at lunchtime gatherings in Washington. The network centres on research institutes — think tanks that attempt to influence government policy and are funded by tax-deductible gifts from unidentified donors.”
More Information
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

DENIS HALLIDAY
Halliday is former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. Currently in his native Ireland, he said today: “Now the challenge is for the member states of the Security Council to do the right thing. By this I mean keep American military aggression at bay until the UN inspectors have a genuine opportunity to work and for Iraq to demonstrate fullest cooperation. Whereas the military might of the U.S. has forced movement, let us not allow that same might to corrupt the UN into decisions or actions in breech of human rights and other aspects of international law — as in the recent past.”
More Information
More Information

SUSAN WRIGHT
Co-author of Preventing a Biological Arms Race and of the forthcoming Biological Warfare and Disarmament, Wright said today: “Iraq’s decision to allow the UN to resume inspections should be welcomed and should proceed as soon as possible under UN Resolution 1284, which established the UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission in December 1999. Since the machinery for monitoring and verification is already in place, there is no need for further UN resolutions on these matters….”
More Information

RAHUL MAHAJAN
Mahajan is author of The New Crusade: America’s War on Terrorism. He said today: “Colin Powell is certainly right that ‘we have seen this game before’ and that we need ‘a different road than what we have seen in the past.’ Hopefully, this time around, the U.S. will not use inspectors to spy on Iraq. Hopefully, this time around, the U.S. will not have them issue a dubious report to facilitate a bombing campaign as it did in December of 1998. And hopefully, this time around the U.S. will not undermine inspections by insisting that the economic sanctions continue even after Iraq has complied with the inspectors. UN Security Council Resolution 687 says that when Iraq complies with weapons inspectors the economic sanctions ‘shall have no further force or effect.’ Resolution 687 also speaks of ‘establishing in the Middle East a zone free from weapons of mass destruction’ — which also means Israel’s 200-plus nuclear weapons.”
More Information
More Information
More Information

STEPHEN ZUNES
Zunes is associate professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus Project and author of the article “Seven Reasons to Oppose a U.S. Invasion of Iraq.” He said today: “While healthy skepticism may be necessary when dealing with a regime like that of Saddam Hussein, the categorical dismissal of this apparent breakthrough is dangerous…. It appears that the administration is more interested in finding an excuse to invade Iraq and install a compliant regime than it is in promoting peace and security…. The list of UN Security Council resolutions violated by Iraq cited by Bush pales in comparison to the list of resolutions currently being violated by U.S. allies. The most extensive violator of UN Security Council resolutions is Israel, the largest recipient of U.S. military and economic aid.”
More Information
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Interviews are available with members of a U.S. delegation to Iraq sponsored by the Institute for Public Accuracy. Members of the delegation met with Tariq Aziz and other Iraqi officials over the weekend.

In Damascus:

Rep. NICK RAHALL and former Sen. JAMES ABOUREZK, en route back to the U.S. from their visit to Baghdad.
In a story in the Washington Post today entitled “Congressman Sees Hope For Return of Inspectors: Bush’s Call for Ousting Hussein Cited as Obstacle,” the Post reports that “[Rahall said] there was a ‘strong possibility’ Iraq would agree to unrestricted U.N. weapons inspections if President Bush backed down from his call for Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein to be replaced…. Meetings this weekend with senior Iraqi officials, including the deputy prime minister and a speaker of the national assembly, left him with the impression that Hussein’s government was ‘very interested’ in allowing inspectors to return unconditionally but wanted diplomats from countries other than the United States to serve as independent arbiters of disputes between Iraq and the U.N. inspection commission…. The deputy prime minister, Tariq Aziz, insisted Saturday that even if his government readmitted the weapons inspectors, the United States and Britain would proceed with military action. ‘It’s doomed if you do, doomed if you don’t,’ he said.”

Rahall returns to the U.S. on Tuesday early afternoon.

See: www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0916-01.htm

In Baghdad:

JIM JENNINGS
President of Conscience International, an Atlanta-based humanitarian aid organization, Jennings has been to Iraq many times.

NORMAN SOLOMON
Executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Solomon said today: “During our meeting with Aziz, it was clear he felt that even if Iraq fully complied with the weapons inspectors, the administration would try to find some other pretext for a massive military assault…. One of the concerns the Iraqi government has is that unless there are safeguards that the inspectors will not be spies, then the Iraqis would be better off not letting them in at all. The fear is that if inspectors functioning as spies were let in, then U.S. military officials would end up with more information about sites to attack.”
See: “U.S. Says It Collected Iraq Intelligence Via UNSCOM”
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/iraq/stories/unscom010899.htm

“Iraq Arms Teams Were ‘Manipulated'”:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/middle_east/2161552.stm

“Autopsy of a Disaster: The U.S. Sanctions Policy on Iraq
Myth: The Sanctions Will be Lifted When Iraq Complies with the U.N. Inspections”:
www.accuracy.org/iraq

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

With Iraq agreeing to weapons inspections, the following analysts are available for interviews:

JAMES ABOUREZK
The former Senator is en route back to the United States. He was a member of a delegation to Iraq sponsored by the Institute for Public Accuracy. He is currently in Damascus.

NORMAN SOLOMON
Executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, Solomon is currently in Baghdad.
More Information

DENIS HALLIDAY
Halliday is former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. He is currently in his native Ireland.
More Information
More Information

FRANCIS BOYLE
Boyle is professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of The Future of International Law and American Foreign Policy and Foundations of World Order.

JOHN QUIGLEY
Quigley is professor of international law at Ohio State University.

PHYLLIS BENNIS
Bennis is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, editor of Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader and author of the forthcoming Before & After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11 Crisis.
More Information

KATHY KELLY
Coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, a group openly violating the economic sanctions against Iraq, Kelly and several of her colleagues recently ended a forty day fast in front of the U.S. mission to the UN.
More Information

STEPHEN ZUNES
Zunes is associate professor of politics, University of San Francisco, Middle East editor of the Foreign Policy in Focus Project and author of the article “Seven Reasons to Oppose a U.S. Invasion of Iraq. ”
More Information
More Information

ROBERT JENSEN
Jensen is the author of the book Writing Dissent, coauthor of the recent article “Bush at the U.N.: ‘Diplomacy ‘ in the Age of the American Empire ” and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
More Information
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

I want to thank you for the traditional Iraqi hospitality that our delegation has received since coming to Baghdad.

We are all aware of the grave crisis presently facing our two countries, the United States and Iraq. I am concerned about the effects that a new war would have on both our countries. For that reason I come as an advocate of peace through dialogue.

Ours is a humanitarian mission. I come, not as the Secretary of State, and not as a weapons inspector, but as a member of Congress concerned with peace. Basically, I want America and Iraq to give peace a chance.

A few days ago, the former head of the United Nations oil-for-food program, Denis Halliday, commented on the independent American delegation of which I am a part. Mr. Halliday is a former UN Assistant Secretary General. On September 12, he said: “Any dialogue between the U.S. and Iraq is good and, with current and former lawmakers, it is even better.” Mr. Halliday added: “Open-minded dialogue would prove war to be unnecessary.”

Instead of assuming that war must come, let us find ways to discover how to prove that war is unnecessary.

A key to this terrible box that we’re now locked in — is dialogue.

I would also like to quote Edward Peck, an American diplomat who is a former chief of mission to Iraq. Mr. Peck pointed out: “You lose nothing when you talk, but the failure to do so in this case may cost us dear(ly).”

Mr. Peck encouraged this delegation from the United States, which includes: former United States Senator James Abourezk; James Jennings, president of Conscience International; and Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

We are here to try and help open doors. Doors to genuine dialogue.

It is time and, in my opinion, far past time that American and Iraqi officials talk to each other without threats.

We want to open doors to possibilities that will protect life instead of maiming and killing.

Doors that will give peace a chance.

We’ve had far too much heated rhetoric between our two countries. Another war in this region would be greatly damaging. Any new war would be a war against public health, and also against the environment.

Iraq is the cradle of civilization. We do not wish to see civilization strangled in its cradle.

Iraq was once the Garden of Eden. Humanity must not turn the Garden of Eden into Hell.

The evidence from the last war is quite compelling:

— degradation of the infrastructure;
— a wrecked economy;
— shocking escalation of infant mortality and communicable disease, and many other negative health indicators for the entire population.

We do not wish to see this devastation repeated.

In this context, I am reminded of what Dwight Eisenhower, the great U.S. general and president, once said: “Every gun and rocket that is fired, every warship launched, signifies, in a final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

Our delegation does not want to see a new war in Iraq. We do not subscribe to the “Clash of Civilizations” thesis which foresees nothing but war between the predominantly Islamic countries and the West.

I hope that my colleagues in the United States Congress will perceive that peaceful dialogue is a more fruitful avenue than the awful road of perpetual warfare.

I must say, however, that I believe the first step to restoring a relationship of mutual friendship and respect must be for Iraq to fully comply with United Nations mandates by allowing the return of weapons inspectors. That step would at least give pause to the crisis that threatens to engulf us.

Then, over the next weeks and months, the participation of the international community may have an opportunity to succeed in defusing the crisis altogether. Perhaps this could be done by finding a combination of specific nations not directly involved in the dispute to serve as “honest brokers.” Perhaps, for instance, Canada and South Africa.

But time is now terribly short to reverse the momentum toward war. To make that reversal possible, Iraq must cooperate by giving UN weapons inspectors unfettered access. And in that process, “honest brokers” and the UN as an institution must proceed differently than UNSCOM did, so that next time there will be no abuses, and there will be no misuse of UN inspectors for espionage (as belatedly admitted by U.S. officials themselves and authoritatively reported by The New York Times and other media outlets in early January of 1999). If this work proceeds properly, Iraq will be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Then the sanctions, which have done so much damage to your economy, infrastructure, and health can once and for all be lifted.

The Middle East, and Iraq in particular, is a place of enduring cultural richness. It is the home of the world’s oldest civilizations. Iraq has bequeathed to the world three great religious traditions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. This is our heritage, and the world’s heritage.

The Christian scriptures say “Blessed are the peacemakers.” They do not say “Blessed are the warmongers.” I happen to believe that the vast majority of the American people do not want to wage war, but would rather wage peace.

Our delegation is here on behalf of peace. We believe that a new war is not only unnecessary, but wrong.

I must again emphasize, however, that in my view and in the view of many of my colleagues, the way to avoid war and to secure peace is to allow UN inspectors into Iraq. The matter is urgent, and I therefore urge your government to implement all relevant Security Council resolutions without delay.

Speaking personally, I will encourage my colleagues in the Congress to enter into dialogue with the Iraq National Assembly for the future benefit of both our nations.

_________________________________

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or Cynthia Skow (415) 552-5378

An independent American delegation to Iraq, led by Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., and former Sen. James Abourezk, is scheduled to arrive in Baghdad on Friday night (Sept. 13). The delegation also includes James Jennings, president of Conscience International, an Atlanta-based humanitarian aid and human rights organization, and Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

The following policy analysts and commentators are available for interviews:

DENIS HALLIDAY
Halliday is former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. He is currently in his native Ireland. He said today: “Any dialogue between the U.S. and Iraq is good — and with current and former lawmakers, it is even better. Open-minded dialogue would prove war to be unnecessary.”

EDWARD L. PECK
Peck is a former chief of mission to Iraq and deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan Administration. He said today: “This delegation can provide the start to a much-needed dialogue between the U.S. and Iraq. I hope that more congressional representatives, and others who are concerned over the present course, will go to Iraq and determine facts for themselves. Our government is constantly saying that there must be discussions between parties in disagreement, to avoid or at least reduce the risk of war: India and Pakistan; North and South Korea; the Israelis and the Palestinians; the Protestants and the Catholics in Northern Ireland. So why don’t we talk to Iraq?…. This [the current policy] is not merely dynamic hypocrisy, it is shatteringly unwise. At the height of the Cold War, we knew the Soviet Union could, with the push of a button, eliminate us from the face of the earth. That was a known, not hypothetical threat — a real one. But we had an embassy in Moscow, and they had one here, not because we loved and trusted each other, but because we didn’t. You lose nothing when you talk, but the failure to do so in this case may cost us dear. The delegation is a good start, one that I hope will lead to a dialogue.”

BISHOP THOMAS GUMBLETON
Gumbleton has been to Iraq several times. His weekly Sunday homilies given at Saint Leo Church, Detroit, Mich., are available at the National Catholic Reporter web page, above. He will be available for interviews Thursday afternoon and Friday.
More Information

PHYLLIS BENNIS
Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-editor of Beyond the Storm, A Gulf Crisis Reader, Bennis said today: “Getting inspectors back in must be primary. War would violate international law and undermine the UN.”
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

SUSAN WRIGHT
Wright is co-author of Preventing a Biological Arms Race and of the forthcoming Biological Warfare and Disarmament: New Problems/New Perspectives. She said today: “If Saddam Hussein has had any inclination to wage war against other Middle Eastern states, deterrence seems to have worked — as it worked between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War. On the other hand, war against Iraq would most likely generate a situation in which he would be tempted to use weapons of mass destruction…”

FRANCIS BOYLE
Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of The Criminality of Nuclear Deterrence: Could the U.S. War on Terrorism Go Nuclear?, Boyle said today: “President Bush is exploiting the terrible human and national tragedy of September 11 in order to monger for war against Iraq at the United Nations.”
More Information

ARIEL DORFMAN
Author of the new book Exorcising Terror: The Incredible Unending Trial of General Augusto Pinochet, Dorfman has written “An Open Letter to America” in the forthcoming Nation.
More Information

ROBERT JENSEN
Author of Writing Dissent and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Jensen wrote an article that appeared in the Houston Chronicle on Monday headlined “There’s Still Time for Americans to Stop Insanity.”
More Information
More Information

JOHN BURROUGHS
Burroughs is executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy and co-editor of “Rule of Power or Rule of Law? — An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties.”
More Information

NASEER ARURI
Aruri is professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He is author of the book The Obstruction Of Peace: The U.S., Israel and The Palestinians. He said today: “The hawks in the Pentagon are trying to find a way to war…. Their real agenda is to reshape the strategic landscape of the Middle East by redrawing not only the map of World War II, but that of World War I too, not unlike what the previous imperial powers (Britain and France) did when they balkanized the Arab world and fragmented it into more than 20 weak principalities and sheikhdoms, and at the same time allocated Palestine as a state for European Jewish settlers.” [Today’s Boston Globe has a news article entitled “Iraq War Hawks Have Plans to Reshape Entire Mideast.”] More Information
More Information
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

An independent American delegation, led by Rep. Nick Rahall and former Sen. James Abourezk, is scheduled to arrive in Baghdad on Friday night (Sept. 13).

Rahall, of West Virginia, is currently serving his 13th term in the U.S. House of Representatives. Abourezk represented South Dakota in the United States Senate.

The delegation also includes: James Jennings, president of Conscience International, an Atlanta-based humanitarian aid and human rights organization; and Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a nationwide consortium of public policy researchers.

The trip, described by participants as a “humanitarian mission,” comes as President Bush is seeking formal authorization from Congress to launch a large-scale military attack on Iraq.

__________________________________

For further information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Norman Solomon, (202) 347-0020, (415) 552-5378;
David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

Many communities throughout the United States and the world are planning events to honor the people who were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. The following organizers, seeking to help create a world with “no more victims,” are available for interviews:

DAVID POTORTI
David Potorti, who lost his brother James at the World Trade Center, said today: “Victims of terrorism and war — from Afghanistan, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian territories, the Philippines and Japan — will join family members of Sept. 11 victims for a joint speaking tour in the days immediately before and after Sept. 11, 2002. The ‘No More Victims’ tour, co-sponsored by September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows and the American Friends Service Committee, hopes to place the human dimension of the 9-11 attacks and of war at the center of the national debate over the ‘war against terrorism’…. By putting a human face on the casualties of terrorism and war, we hope to demonstrate the price of responding to violence with violence. The true cost of the U.S. war on terror, in human terms, is reflected in the experiences of these people, leading them to seek alternatives.” Peaceful Tomorrows members available for interviews include Talat Hamdani, a Pakistani-American woman who endured rumors that her son was a terrorist after he disappeared on Sept. 11. His remains were later found at the World Trade Center site, where it is thought he rushed to try to save people with his skills as a trained emergency technician. [Joseph Gerson is director of programs at the AFSC in New England. He can be reached at: jgerson@afsc.org, www.afsc.org.] More Information

MEDEA BENJAMIN
A founder of United for Peace, a coalition of groups, Benjamin said today: “In over 100 U.S. cities, as well as nearly a dozen foreign countries, people are honoring those who died on Sept. 11 by calling for no more innocent victims.”
More Information

KATHY KELLY
Kelly is coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, a humanitarian relief group. She and other members of the group have been on a 40-day fast at the UN headquarters in Manhattan, calling for a nonviolent foreign policy. They will break their fast on Sept. 10 at 11 a.m. with symbolic servings of embargoed Iraqi dates. The group has openly violated the economic sanctions on Iraq by taking medicine there without U.S. government approval. Two participants in the fast, Henry Williamson (from Charleston, S.C.) and Cynthia Banas (from Verona, N.Y.), are then planning to go to Iraq; they intend to stay through any massive U.S. assault on Iraq.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020 or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167