RICK REYES
A veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Reyes has testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said today: “Obama’s plan to step down our presence in Iraqi cities only to step up our presence in Afghan cities gets us no closer to ending these disastrous occupations. Obama’s renaming the ‘Global War on Terror’ to ‘Overseas Contingency Operations’ or moving troops from one occupation to another doesn’t change the real issue, which is our flawed foreign policy. It doesn’t matter where you conduct these operations, you will end up with the same disastrous results.”

Video of Reyes’ April 23, 2009 testimony to the Senate committee is posted at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypwrq4mbiQw

RAED JARRAR
Jarrar is an Iraqi blogger and activist now living in Washington, D.C., where he works as an Iraq consultant for the American Friends Service Committee. He said today: “The withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraqi cities, towns and villages is seen by the majority of Iraqis as a positive step towards ending the occupation. Many Iraqis realize the huge challenges that lie ahead, but they still think that the U.S. withdrawal is an essential first step for building a stable, united and sovereign Iraq.”

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