Kathy Kelly

Following the March 11, 2004 terrorist attacks in Madrid, Secretary of State Colin Powell told ABC TV’s “This Week” that he hoped Europeans, recognizing that no one is immune, would dedicate themselves to “going after” terrorist organizations with military force, intelligence, and law enforcement. He said that all of us have to get together to … Continue reading “Defeating Terrorism, Step One: Look in the Mirror”

Last month, Judge G. Mallon Faircloth sentenced me to three months in prison for participating in a November, 2003 peaceful protest, organized by the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), at Fort Benning, GA. During three days of trial, 27 activists offered moving testimony about why they carried crosses and coffins onto the base. Defendants … Continue reading “The Further Invention of Nonviolence”

Yesterday in Columbus, Georgia, Kathy Kelly, co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, was sentenced to three months in federal prison for enacting her habit of bearing witness against US military violence, this time by crossing onto the property of Ft. Benning military base in November of 2003, as a … Continue reading “Iraq Activist Kathy Kelly Sentenced to Federal Prison”

"We’ve given up hope," said 20 year old Mohammed Al Katib, a Palestinian student imprisoned in the Umm Qasr prison camp in southern Iraq. "We don’t think we’ll ever get out of here." On January 3, 2004, I traveled with Rev. Jerry Zawada, OFM, and several of our Iraqi friends to Umm Qasr, located on … Continue reading “A Batch of TCNs”

Oral traditions eventually recorded in the Book of Exodus narrate the tales of the ancient Israelites’ escape from bondage in Egypt. A cruel Pharaoh was ruthless in his murderous demands. Already crushed by the work of building monuments to their oppressor, they were then ordered to also gather the straw to make the bricks that … Continue reading “Rebuilding Iraq with Poisoned Bricks”

Last evening, in Amman, we met with Fadi Elayyan and Jihad Tahboub, two Palestinian young men who were imprisoned for two months, without charge, by US Occupying forces who seized them, in Baghdad, on April 10, 2003. They are trying to help four of their companions who are still held by the US military, presumably … Continue reading “The Two Troublemakers”

On Sunday, November 23, I took part in a nonviolent civil disobedience action at Fort Benning, GA, to protest the U.S. Army´s School of the Americas (SOA, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation – WHISC) Shortly after more than two dozen of us entered Fort Benning and were arrested, US Military Police … Continue reading “Hogtied and Abused at Fort Benning”

On Feb. 24th, 20 of us set up a 4-day tent encampment in the Demilitarized Zone between Iraq and Kuwait. "Between heaven and hell, that’s how I felt, the whole day" said our Franciscan priest, Jerry Zawada. When we arrrived, the sky was darkening, thunder rumbled across the desert. Yet the border area, desolate and … Continue reading “Between Heaven and Hell”

On April 17, we entered the Jenin camp for a third time,accompanied by Thawra. We had met Thawra the night we first entered Jenin. She came into the crowded, makeshift clinic organized by Palestinian Medical Relief Committee workers, cradling Ziad, an 18 day old infant born on the first night of the attack against Jenin. … Continue reading “Searching For the Truth In Jenin”

A Note from the editor: Matt Welch‘s analysis of conflicting claims over the effect of sanctions on Iraq, published in Reason magazine, is typical of the "war-blogger" mentality: preening arrogance and pretensions to a strict just-the-facts standard. When he isn’t sneering at Noam Chomsky, and otherwise critiquing the politics of sanctions critics, he accuses the … Continue reading “Re: The Politics of Dying Children by Matt Welch”