FERNANDO SUAREZ DEL SOLAR
JUNE BRASHARES
MEDEA BENJAMIN
GAEL MURPHY
JODIE EVANS
They are among the activists who protested inside the convention center during speeches including Bush’s. Fernando Suarez del Solar (whose primary language is Spanish) is the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar Navarro, who died in Iraq on March 27, 2003. He held a sign on the convention floor: “Bush Lied, My Son Died.” Bashares, Benjamin, Murphy and Evans are with Code Pink, a women’s peace group. Benjamin had a banner that read: “Pro-Life — Stop the Killing in Iraq.”

RAHUL MAHAJAN
In his Republican convention speech last night, George W. Bush claimed: “After more than a decade of diplomacy, we gave Saddam Hussein another chance, a final chance, to meet his responsibilities to the civilized world. He again refused, and I faced the kind of decision that comes only to the Oval Office — a decision no president would ask for, but must be prepared to make. Do I forget the lessons of September 11th and take the word of a madman, or do I take action to defend our country?”

Author of the book Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond, Mahajan said today: “The entire world was watching. Yet the president of the United States now brazenly lies about the central question of how the war started. George Bush says his choice was between trusting Hussein and war. In fact, Iraq had been undergoing intrusive weapons inspections for months before the attack. Iraq allowed inspectors into the country in November 2002. Iraq turned over 12,000 pages of documents to comply with UN Security Council Resolution 1441’s disclosure requirements. Both UNMOVIC head Hans Blix and Mohammed el-Baradei of the IAEA had expressed confidence that continuing inspections might be able to account for all unresolved issues in a matter of months. Blix withdrew the inspectors only in March 2003 after Bush stated that the U.S. was about to attack. At the time inspectors withdrew, Iraq was destroying its al-Samoud 2 missiles, as prescribed by UNMOVIC because they were slightly over the range limits in some tests — information that was contained in the original disclosure.”

Mahajan added: “Weapons inspectors had been absent from Iraq since December of 1998 when they were withdrawn by UNSCOM head Richard Butler at the urging of the Clinton administration before the ‘Desert Fox’ bombing campaign.”

See IPA news releases about administration deceptions leading to the Iraq invasion:

“White House Claims: A Pattern of Deceit”

“Bush’s War Case: Fiction vs. Facts at Accuracy.org/bush”
October 9, 2002 (shortly after a major Bush address and just before the Congressional vote on authorizing war)

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