Institute for Public Accuracy
915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045
(202) 347-0020 *  http://www.accuracy.org *  ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

PM Thursday, April 10, 2003

* After Saddam * Garner and Chalabi * Rachel Corrie's Legacy

ANDY SHALLAL, (703) 220-7007,  ashallal@cox.net
Founder of Iraqi-Americans for Peaceful Alternatives, Shallal said today:
"People are happy not just because Saddam is out, but also because they anticipate the end of 12 years of economic sanctions and the bombing....
When I was a kid in Iraq, we had coups and I would go out and jump in the street because it was the coolest thing. It's like D.C. when the Redskins win the Super Bowl. The problem is what comes after."

RICK McDOWELL, cell: 011-962-79-501-5612,  rjpmcd@aol.com
Working with American Friends Service Committee, McDowell is in contact with many relief organizations in Jordan trying to get humanitarian assistance into Iraq.

BITTA MOSTOFI, DANNY MULLER, (773) 784-8065, cell: (917) 217-6809,
 vitw@vitw.org,  http://www.iraqpeaceteam.org
They are coordinators of the Iraq Peace Team. Mostofi has been in contact with members of the group still in Baghdad as well as some who have left Iraq. Muller said: "For 12 years, the U.S. government has repeatedly moved the goal posts for lifting the economic sanctions, maintaining a situation of crushing poverty no matter what Iraq did. These sanctions impoverished the people and laid siege to the country, killing hundreds of thousands of innocents and setting the stage for the current invasion. The U.S. declared the end of the Gulf War in 1991, but that war never ended. The economic strangulation of Iraq for 12 years has now facilitated, after three weeks of bombing, the cessation of Iraqi economic activity, the destruction of civilian infrastructure, and a hostile situation where even the Red Cross has had to shut down, causing further devastation to the Iraqi people. We cannot allow the goal posts to continually be moved in order to secure a
U.S. occupation in the name of democracy."

ROBERT DREYFUSS, (703) 619-0275,  rcdreyfuss@msn.com,
 http://www.prospect.org/authors/dreyfuss-r.html
Available for a limited number of interviews, Dreyfuss is author of several articles on the future of Iraq for The American Prospect magazine, including "Tinker, Banker, NeoCon, Spy: Ahmed Chalabi's Long and Winding Road from (and to?) Baghdad," which documents, among other things,
Chalabi's being "sentenced to 22 years of hard labor for embezzlement, fraud..." in 1989 by Jordan. Dreyfuss is also author of a forthcoming article on Jay Garner, the retired general and former president of weapons maker SY Technology who is now slated to be the "civilian" head of Iraq.
The article notes Garner's ties to the Israeli military and his signing of a letter in 2000 praising Israel's treatment of Palestinians.

CINDY and CRAIG CORRIE, (360) 866-2053,  rachelsmessage@the-corries.com,
 http://www.rachelcorrie.com,  http://www.palsolidarity.org
The Corries are the parents of Rachel Corrie, who on March 16 was killed by an Israeli army bulldozer while she was trying to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in the Gaza Strip. Rachel was a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement, a group of Palestinian and international activists who use nonviolent, direct-action methods of resistance to confront the Israeli occupation. Today is Rachel's birthday and a bill has
been introduced in Congress regarding her death. The Corries said today:
"Rachel wanted to bring attention to the plight of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Territories, a people she felt were largely invisible to most Americans.... We continue to have grave concern for the safety of
Palestinians and for the international volunteers in the Gaza Strip and West Bank." Another ISM volunteer, Brian Avery, was shot in the face on Saturday by Israeli forces.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167


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