An Iraqi friend whom I've known for 10 years looked worn and very weary yesterday when he came to visit me at my apartment in Amman, Jordan. He hadn't slept the night before because he'd been on the phone with his wife, who throughout the night was terrified by...
Upon arrival in Beirut in early August 2006, Michael Birmingham met Abu Mustafa. Michael is an Irish citizen who has worked with Voices campaigns for several years. Abu Mustafa is a kindly Lebanese cab driver. Having fled his home in the Dahiya neighborhood, which was...
"Where you stand determines what you see, and how you live." That's how Voices in the Wilderness members began our statement explaining why we'd decided to stay in Baghdad during the 2003 Shock and Awe bombing of Iraq. During the long war of the economic...
In the summer of 1994, I was part of a four-person Christian Peacemaker Team dedicated to filing reports on human rights conditions in Jeremie, located in the southern finger of Haiti. When I arrived, I spent one day in Port au Prince, waiting to travel by ferry to...
Shortly before sunrise this morning, a small band of us gathered at a busy Chicago intersection and unfurled vinyl banners bearing enlarged pictures of Iraqi children. One banner called for an end to U.S. warfare in Iraq. On my banner was Johan, smiling wanly, a...
I've always liked the restful quiet of an empty classroom. Maybe this is why the large room where we wait to start mealtime duties, here at Pekin Federal Prison, feels comfortably familiar. During breaks, in the dining area, I've spent many hours reading, writing,...
On June 4, 2004, lawyers for Voices in the Wilderness (VitW) will argue, in federal court, that a judge should allow further "discovery" to help establish why VitW travelers believed they had a duty to challenge economic sanctions against Iraq. The U.S. government...
Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing. -Arundhati Roy Porto Alegre, Brazil, World Social Forum, January 27, 2003 "Kathleen Kelly, report to Admin." I was routinely cleaning toilets in my dorm at Pekin Federal...
It's Saturday morning, May 1, 2004, and women here at Pekin Federal Prison Camp who watched CNN news feel indignant about the way Iraqi prisoners have been treated by US military guards. "Did you see those pictures?" Ruth asked. What in the world is going on...
Six years ago, in February 1998, I traveled to Iraq with a British Voices in the Wilderness team. The US was threatening another massive bombardment. We decided to go to Fallujah in hopes of better understanding the perspective of people whose marketplace had been...
