FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 28, 2002

U.S. ANTI-WAR DELEGATION AT AREAS BOMBED BY U.S. WARPLANES
IN IRAQ

A U.S. anti-war delegation traveling through Iraq has
visited areas that have been targeted by this week's U.S.
bombing campaign. The delegation -- stationed at Baghdad's
Al-Rasheed hotel until the end of the week -- was in Basra
on Tuesday. Basra is Iraq's second largest city and
suffered a major bomb attack on Sunday morning August
25th. Eight people died and many civilians were injured,
some seriously.

The U.S. delegation, which is led by Ramsey Clark, former
U.S. attorney general will be inspecting Mosul airport in
Northern Iraq tomorrow August 29. The airport and its
radar tower that guides civilian air traffic were hit by
U.S. missiles on August 27.

On behalf of the delegation, Ramsey Clark issued the
following statement:

"We came to Basra to visit the hospitals and interview
doctors and patients about the state of health care in
Basra. We had planned to come to Basra because the region
is suffering stunning cancer rates. This area in Iraq was
the site of the greatest use of depleted uranium weapons
by U.S. air force in the Gulf War eleven years ago."

"Two days before we arrived in Basra U.S. war planes
struck again killing and wounding more than twenty people.
We visited one of the wounded at the Basra Training
Hospital and we interviewed workers in the area who saw
and heard the gigantic explosion at approximately 11:00 am
Sunday morning August 25. While we were in Basra, U.S. war
planes carried out two more major bombing attacks against
the airport in Mosul and against civil and service
installations in Al-Nukhayb, located south of Baghdad. We
will inspect the airport at Mosul tomorrow.

"People in the United States must recognize that the war
against Iraq goes on every day as the Bush administration
prepares for a major land and ground war. The economic
sanctions are a central part of the decade-long war waged
against Iraq by the United States. Bombing and sanctions
constitute an integrated strategy designed to overthrow
the government in Iraq and replace it with a proxy regime
similar to what exists in Afghanistan. The U.S. government
falsely declares that its campaign against Iraq is
motivated by a concern over Iraq's potential possession of
non-conventional weapons. The real goal is to dominate
this strategic and oil-rich region and to destroy any
government and people that desire to maintain their
independence."

"We witnessed in Basra the care provided to the large
number of adults and children who are suffering high rates
of cancer. Certain childhood cancers, for instance, have
increased by a huge factor in the last few years. While
they can be treated by combination drug therapy protocols,
Iraqi hospitals are unable to effectively import all of
the medicines needed for the protocol. As a consequence,
almost all the children with these cancers perish. It is
the U.S. imposed sanctions that makes access to the full
protocol impossible. Deliberately obstructing sick
people's access to medicines that would keep them alive
otherwise must be understood as murder."

"It is urgent that this country be allowed to trade, buy
and sell all the products necessary to sustain and improve
life. U.S. imposed sanctions have killed more than a
million Iraqis. The near-daily bombing since 1998 has
killed hundreds if not thousands of people. The U.S.
government is guilty of violating the basic tenets of
international law as a wages aggression against Iraq. We
are urging all progressive people in the United States and
elsewhere to take immediate action to end the criminal
campaign against Iraq."

The delegation also includes Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an
attorney and co-founder of the Partnership for Civil
Justice-LDEF and member of the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition
steering committee; Johnnie Stevens, co-director of the
People's Video Network; Kadouri al-Kaysi, coordinator of
the Committee in Solidarity with the Iraqi People; and
Brian Becker, co-director of the International Action
Center and member of the A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition steering
committee.

Telephone interviews with Ramsey Clark and other members
of the delegation can be arranged through Tony Murphy at
212-633-6646.