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LOCAL News :: Activism : Civil & Human Rights : Peace : U.S. Government : War in Iraq
A Call for 20,000 Voices
US Justice Department has sued Voices in the Wilderness to try to collect a fine of $20,000 for bringing medicines to the people of Iraq. Voices in the Wilderness refuses to pay this fine. This is their call to peace activists.
The US Justice Department has sued Voices in the Wilderness to try to collect a fine of $20,000 from VitW for bringing medicines to the people of Iraq. Over the past seven years, Voices in the Wilderness has organized more than 65 delegations to Iraq made up of teachers, veterans, social workers, artists, health care professionals, trades people and people of faith. Many of these delegates carried symbolic amounts of medicine as an act of civil disobedience against the injustice of the economic sanctions; they then returned to the United States to tell about the brutalizing effects of the sanctions, magnified by the US bombing of the Iraqi civilian infrastructure during the Gulf War.
Voices in the Wilderness will not pay this fine. All funds received by Voices in the Wilderness were given to us for the purposes of providing humanitarian aid to Iraqi civilians and educating the world community about the deadly effects of the US bombing and embargo of Iraq. The Justice Department is choosing to spend its resources to launch an attack on Voices in the Wilderness at a time when Iraqi people and US soldiers are being killed daily and the US occupying forces have failed to provide for the security and basic humanitarian needs of Iraqi people. Meanwhile, the US has not found any of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that supposedly were the reason for the economic sanctions, bombing, and recent military invasion. This lawsuit offers an extraordinary opportunity for people of conscience everywhere to denounce the US Administration for its role in the illegal bombing and invasion of Iraq and for imposing a thirteen-year sanctions regime campaign on Iraq, which contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and thousands of people.
VitW calls for 20,000 or more citizens of the world to raise their voices in outrage against the injustice and hypocrisy of this lawsuit. Join your voices with ours as we call upon the Justice Department to drop their lawsuit against Voices in the Wilderness and instead direct their money towards the humanitarian efforts of NGOs working in Iraq, the clean-up of the hundreds of tons of depleted uranium now polluting Iraq from US weaponry, and the payment of reparations to the families of Iraqi victims of the US invasion and occupation. From our website you can download a sample letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft which summarizes our legal defense. You can fax your letter to (202) 307-6777 or mail it to Attorney General John Ashcroft/ 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW/ Washington, DC 20530. See the list of possible actions below for other ways to raise your voice. If the Justice Department continues with its plans to prosecute VitW, we will respond with our own indictment of the US government and an international day of nonviolent action and
civil disobedience.
VitW also pledges to raise $20,000 in donations for the humanitarian needs of Iraqis. The primary focus of VitW has always been ordinary Iraqi civilians and the most vulnerable of Iraqi society, especially children. Iraqi families living on a few dollars monthly income and surviving on a meager food ration have consistently offered VitW members their very best hospitality when we have visited their country on delegations. We take the petty imposition of this fine by the US administration as a challenge for VitW to return these years of generosity with a pledge of funds for the benefit of our friends in Iraq. Checks made out to Voices in the Wilderness with "20,000 voices" written in the memo line will go directly to NGOs serving the humanitarian needs of Iraqis. We will never use any of your donations to pay US penalties for performing works of mercy. Please mail checks to Voices in the Wilderness/ 5315 N. Clark, PMB #634/ Chicago, IL 60640.
In the meantime VitW will work today as we always have, by sending small groups of women and men into Iraq to discover the answer to one question: What is happening in this land of twenty four million people that our government is so anxious for us not to know? It's that simple. We return with information, stories, and photographs to share with others who also are "hungry for the truth." In the summons for a court trial that VitW received on July 29, 2003, the Justice Department stated its "prayer for relief" of the grievances that the Treasury Department has against VitW. In return, we would like to offer our own prayer for relief for the Iraqi people from the inhumanity of US economic and military violence. We pray for conversion in the hearts of the US attorneys, that they will follow their consciences and serve a higher calling than the drums of war and the alarms of mass destruction: the laws of love and human rights and respect for the lives of those whose screams are drowned out by the noise of F-16's, Apache helicopters, smart bombs and government bureaucracy.
In Peace--Michael Birmingham, Scott Blackburn, Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ, Caoihme Butterly, John Farrell, Angela Garcia, Ken Hannaford-Ricardi, Laurie Hasbrook, Amy Holcombe Mooney, Kathy Kelly, Ed Kinane, Ramzi Kysia, Safaa Al Magid, Nate Marshall, Karl Meyer, Ceylon Mooney, Bitta Mostofi, Danny Muller, Sharona Ourahim, Joe Proulx, Erin Proven, Bill Quigley, Chuck Quilty, Milan Rai, Bert Sacks, Stephanie Schaudel and Tom Walsh.
What You Can Do
Since VitW is an unincorporated entity we consider all people who share our philosophy of nonviolence and our concern for the people of Iraq to be of a part of Voices in the Wilderness. Thank you for your support. We invite you to join the Call for 20,000 Voices through some of the following actions or by creating your own way of joining with us in the kindred purpose of denouncing US military and economic violence against Iraqi people.
1) Write or fax Attorney General John Ashcroft at the Justice Department to express your outrage at the recent Office of Foreign Assets Control lawsuit against VitW and to ask that they refuse to prosecute. There are sample letters that you can download from our website at www.vitw.org/. You may sign on to our form letter and add your comments and signature or write a letter of your own. Please email at us info-AT-vitw.org or drop us a postcard to let us know that you have sent a letter or fax to Attorney General Ashcroft, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20530. Fax: (202) 307-6777. Our goal is achieve 20,000 letters or faxes sent to the Justice Department.
2) Donate your war tax refusal or another suitable donation to humanitarian NGO's working in Iraq by sending us a check made out to Voices in the Wilderness with "20,000 Voices" written on the memo line: Voices in the Wilderness, 5315 N. Clark, PMB #634, Chicago, IL 60640. We won't use any of your money to pay fines or penalties to the US government.
3) Do acts of nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience along with us as we continue to travel to Iraq and take medicines and school supplies there in defiance of the US sanctions on Iraq. (For more information about how a July 31, 2003 memo from President Bush extended US sanctions on Iraq until August of 2004, visit Truthout.org at www.truthout.org/docs_03/080203I.shtml.) Hold a "gag-in" at your local District Attorney's office or at the Justice Department itself; this could be a sit-in with a gag in your mouth while wearing a sign of support for VitW. VitW sees the imposition of this lawsuit as a violation of our rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The timing of this lawsuit is questionable too, as it seems to be intended to silence the voices of VitW as we continue to speak out against the failures of the US occupying forces and the continuing injustice of US sanctions on Iraq. We believe the public will be sympathetic to an organization being fined for taking medicine to children.
4) Organize a local media event, fundraiser, or symbolic event of solidarity with VitW, perhaps by "turning yourself in" to your local District Attorney as members of Voices in the Wilderness or by publicly welcoming the Wheels of Justice Bus Tour, co-sponsored with VitW by International Solidarity Movement, Al-Awda, and Middle East Children's Alliance. To see the schedule for the Wheels of Justice tour, visit www.vitw.org
5) Write an op-ed for your local paper to challenge the Justice Department on the hypocrisy of this lawsuit and teach others about the lies of the current administration and previous administrations which have been used to perpetuate economic sanctions and bombing campaigns against the people of Iraq.
6) Offer your time, media savvy or legal expertise to the VitW office in Chicago, where much of the work of responding to this lawsuit will be based. Call 773-784-8065 for more info.
7) Invite a speaker from Voices in the Wilderness to do a workshop on nonviolence or on the situation in Iraq for your local school, community center, church, synagogue, or mosque. Contact Laurie-AT-vitw.org
Laurie-AT-vitw.org> for scheduling.
Voices in the Wilderness will not pay this fine. All funds received by Voices in the Wilderness were given to us for the purposes of providing humanitarian aid to Iraqi civilians and educating the world community about the deadly effects of the US bombing and embargo of Iraq. The Justice Department is choosing to spend its resources to launch an attack on Voices in the Wilderness at a time when Iraqi people and US soldiers are being killed daily and the US occupying forces have failed to provide for the security and basic humanitarian needs of Iraqi people. Meanwhile, the US has not found any of the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction that supposedly were the reason for the economic sanctions, bombing, and recent military invasion. This lawsuit offers an extraordinary opportunity for people of conscience everywhere to denounce the US Administration for its role in the illegal bombing and invasion of Iraq and for imposing a thirteen-year sanctions regime campaign on Iraq, which contributed to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and thousands of people.
VitW calls for 20,000 or more citizens of the world to raise their voices in outrage against the injustice and hypocrisy of this lawsuit. Join your voices with ours as we call upon the Justice Department to drop their lawsuit against Voices in the Wilderness and instead direct their money towards the humanitarian efforts of NGOs working in Iraq, the clean-up of the hundreds of tons of depleted uranium now polluting Iraq from US weaponry, and the payment of reparations to the families of Iraqi victims of the US invasion and occupation. From our website you can download a sample letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft which summarizes our legal defense. You can fax your letter to (202) 307-6777 or mail it to Attorney General John Ashcroft/ 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW/ Washington, DC 20530. See the list of possible actions below for other ways to raise your voice. If the Justice Department continues with its plans to prosecute VitW, we will respond with our own indictment of the US government and an international day of nonviolent action and
civil disobedience.
VitW also pledges to raise $20,000 in donations for the humanitarian needs of Iraqis. The primary focus of VitW has always been ordinary Iraqi civilians and the most vulnerable of Iraqi society, especially children. Iraqi families living on a few dollars monthly income and surviving on a meager food ration have consistently offered VitW members their very best hospitality when we have visited their country on delegations. We take the petty imposition of this fine by the US administration as a challenge for VitW to return these years of generosity with a pledge of funds for the benefit of our friends in Iraq. Checks made out to Voices in the Wilderness with "20,000 voices" written in the memo line will go directly to NGOs serving the humanitarian needs of Iraqis. We will never use any of your donations to pay US penalties for performing works of mercy. Please mail checks to Voices in the Wilderness/ 5315 N. Clark, PMB #634/ Chicago, IL 60640.
In the meantime VitW will work today as we always have, by sending small groups of women and men into Iraq to discover the answer to one question: What is happening in this land of twenty four million people that our government is so anxious for us not to know? It's that simple. We return with information, stories, and photographs to share with others who also are "hungry for the truth." In the summons for a court trial that VitW received on July 29, 2003, the Justice Department stated its "prayer for relief" of the grievances that the Treasury Department has against VitW. In return, we would like to offer our own prayer for relief for the Iraqi people from the inhumanity of US economic and military violence. We pray for conversion in the hearts of the US attorneys, that they will follow their consciences and serve a higher calling than the drums of war and the alarms of mass destruction: the laws of love and human rights and respect for the lives of those whose screams are drowned out by the noise of F-16's, Apache helicopters, smart bombs and government bureaucracy.
In Peace--Michael Birmingham, Scott Blackburn, Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ, Caoihme Butterly, John Farrell, Angela Garcia, Ken Hannaford-Ricardi, Laurie Hasbrook, Amy Holcombe Mooney, Kathy Kelly, Ed Kinane, Ramzi Kysia, Safaa Al Magid, Nate Marshall, Karl Meyer, Ceylon Mooney, Bitta Mostofi, Danny Muller, Sharona Ourahim, Joe Proulx, Erin Proven, Bill Quigley, Chuck Quilty, Milan Rai, Bert Sacks, Stephanie Schaudel and Tom Walsh.
What You Can Do
Since VitW is an unincorporated entity we consider all people who share our philosophy of nonviolence and our concern for the people of Iraq to be of a part of Voices in the Wilderness. Thank you for your support. We invite you to join the Call for 20,000 Voices through some of the following actions or by creating your own way of joining with us in the kindred purpose of denouncing US military and economic violence against Iraqi people.
1) Write or fax Attorney General John Ashcroft at the Justice Department to express your outrage at the recent Office of Foreign Assets Control lawsuit against VitW and to ask that they refuse to prosecute. There are sample letters that you can download from our website at www.vitw.org/. You may sign on to our form letter and add your comments and signature or write a letter of your own. Please email at us info-AT-vitw.org or drop us a postcard to let us know that you have sent a letter or fax to Attorney General Ashcroft, 950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20530. Fax: (202) 307-6777. Our goal is achieve 20,000 letters or faxes sent to the Justice Department.
2) Donate your war tax refusal or another suitable donation to humanitarian NGO's working in Iraq by sending us a check made out to Voices in the Wilderness with "20,000 Voices" written on the memo line: Voices in the Wilderness, 5315 N. Clark, PMB #634, Chicago, IL 60640. We won't use any of your money to pay fines or penalties to the US government.
3) Do acts of nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience along with us as we continue to travel to Iraq and take medicines and school supplies there in defiance of the US sanctions on Iraq. (For more information about how a July 31, 2003 memo from President Bush extended US sanctions on Iraq until August of 2004, visit Truthout.org at www.truthout.org/docs_03/080203I.shtml.) Hold a "gag-in" at your local District Attorney's office or at the Justice Department itself; this could be a sit-in with a gag in your mouth while wearing a sign of support for VitW. VitW sees the imposition of this lawsuit as a violation of our rights to freedom of speech and freedom of religion. The timing of this lawsuit is questionable too, as it seems to be intended to silence the voices of VitW as we continue to speak out against the failures of the US occupying forces and the continuing injustice of US sanctions on Iraq. We believe the public will be sympathetic to an organization being fined for taking medicine to children.
4) Organize a local media event, fundraiser, or symbolic event of solidarity with VitW, perhaps by "turning yourself in" to your local District Attorney as members of Voices in the Wilderness or by publicly welcoming the Wheels of Justice Bus Tour, co-sponsored with VitW by International Solidarity Movement, Al-Awda, and Middle East Children's Alliance. To see the schedule for the Wheels of Justice tour, visit www.vitw.org
5) Write an op-ed for your local paper to challenge the Justice Department on the hypocrisy of this lawsuit and teach others about the lies of the current administration and previous administrations which have been used to perpetuate economic sanctions and bombing campaigns against the people of Iraq.
6) Offer your time, media savvy or legal expertise to the VitW office in Chicago, where much of the work of responding to this lawsuit will be based. Call 773-784-8065 for more info.
7) Invite a speaker from Voices in the Wilderness to do a workshop on nonviolence or on the situation in Iraq for your local school, community center, church, synagogue, or mosque. Contact Laurie-AT-vitw.org
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