9/13: IRAQ VETS, MILITARY FAMILIES IN THE BAY AREA SPEAKING OUT

IRAQ VETS, MILITARY FAMILIES IN THE BAY AREA SPEAKING OUT

Tuesday, September 13
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
405 South Tenth St
(Tenth and San Salvador)
San Jose, CA

U.S. Tour of Duty Presents
DIRECT FROM CAMP CASEY

Over 100,000 people, including many from the Bay Area, came to Crawford, Texas, in
August to support Cindy Sheehan's challenge to the Bush administration to explain
its war in Iraq.?A simple request from a bereaved mother inspired and galvanized the
peace movement.?Come find out what Camp Casey was like on the ground from people who
were there, hear first-hand accounts of the war being fought in our name, and learn
why the movement launched in Crawford by military families, vets, and activists is
turning the tide.

Featured guests direct from Camp Casey:
*NADIA McCAFFREY (Member of Gold Star Families for Peace, son was killed last year
in Iraq)
KAREN MEREDITH (Member of Gold Star Families for Peace, son was killed last year in
Iraq)
RAY McGOVERN (Former CIA analyst, featured in "Uncovered: The War on Iraq")
SEAN O'NEILL (Iraq veteran, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War)
JEFF PATERSON (Former Marine, official Camp Casey blogger)
JESSE DYEN (Singer-songwriter, Camp Casey volunteer)

Plus a 16-minute film by MARK MANNING
"CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE"
Featuring exclusive footage of the U.S. bombardment of Falluja and its aftermath

Hosted by AIMEE ALLISON
Army conscientious objector

Suggested donation: $10 (Nobody turned away)
For more information call 408.294.4564 (San Jose) or visit
http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=42525558&u=391707
Cosponsored by South Bay Mobilization
(http://en.groundspring.org/EmailNow/pub.php?module=URLTracker&cmd=track&j=42525558&u=391708)
and Not In Our Name
Special thanks to St. Paul's United Methodist Church

RAY McGOVERN served as a CIA analyst for 27 years. From 1981 to 1985 he conducted
daily briefings for Ronald Reagan's vice president, George Bush, the father of our
current president. Ray is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity, and is co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an
outreach ministry in the inner city of Washington. He is featured in Robert
Greenwald's "Uncovered" and John Pilger's "Break the Silence."

NADIA McCAFFREY is known as the mother who defied President Bush by allowing the
media to view the flag-draped coffin of her son, Patrick.? After Patrick was killed
in the Iraq war (in June of 2004), Nadia traveled to the Middle East with filmmaker
Mark Manning, who made a 30-minute film ("Journey to Peace") about the trip.? They
sought answers to what causes wars, and met with Iraqi mothers.? Nadia explains her
purpose: "I wanted to look them in the eye and share their pain."

MARK MANNING traveled to Jordan in January of 2005 to document Gold Star mom Nadia
McCaffrey's meetings with Iraqi mothers.? He then became the only "unembedded"
western journalist to enter Falluja immediately following the U.S. bombardment.? He
spent three weeks filming "Caught in the Crossfire" inside the ravaged ancient city.
His exclusive footage provides a rare glimpse of the innocent victims' plight, and
dispels the myths of war and the nature of the "enemy."? U.S. Tour of Duty
frequently screens this 16-minute documentary at its events.

SEAN O'NEILL is a decorated Marine who served in Iraq twice, first during the 2003
invasion, and again from March to July in 2004. In "Amazing Disgrace" he suggests
his commanding officers knew from the very beginning there were no weapons of mass
destruction in Iraq. He reveals that ?two weeks into it, we were told that we
wouldn't need our chemical suits anymore, we didn't have to wear them, and we didn't
need our gas masks." Sean, who suffered ear damage from a firefight in Iraq, has
been awarded the Purple Heart, Navy Achievement Medal, and Combat Action Ribbon.

KAREN MEREDITH is a member of Gold Star Families of Peace and the mother of Lt. Ken
Ballard, who was killed in Najaf, Iraq on May 30, 2004.

JEFF PATERSON was the first military service person to publicly speak out against
and be imprisoned for opposing the 1991 Gulf War.? After declaring his intent to
resist "a war for oil, power, and profit," US Marine Corporal Paterson sat on the
runway instead of boarding a transport plane with his artillery battery as they
deployed to the Middle East.? Jeff is currently on the national staff of the Not in
Our Name project.

AIMEE ALLISON was an Army combat medic who won an honorable discharge as a
conscientious objector during the Persian Gulf War.? Today she counsels and supports
soldiers seeking CO status and serves on the steering committee of the San Francisco
College Not Combative Initiative to ban military recruiters from public school
campuses.? Aimee is also working with CODEPINK to pass resolutions calling for the
return of the National Guard from Iraq.

Screening Two Short Films

"Journey to Peace" & "Caught in the Cross Fire"
With Guest Speakers Nadia McCaffrey, a Gold Star Mother & Filmmaker Mark Manning

"Journey to Peace" features the personal outreach of Nadia McCaffrey. She is known
as the mother who defied President Bush by allowing the media to view the flag
draped coffin of her son, Patrick.?? He was shot multiple times with automatic
weapons and killed in an ambush, June 22, 2004 near Balad, Iraq.? Patrick was the
first California National Guardsman to be killed in the 58 year history of the 579
Engineer Battalion.? After his death, Nadia traveled to the Middle East with
filmmaker Mark Manning.?They sought answers to what causes wars and met with Iraqi
mothers.? Nadia explains her purpose, "I wanted to look them in the eye and share
their pain." She has since, traveled through Europe conducting interviews in Paris
with FRANCE3 TV and radio, and ARTE CHANNELS TV [EU].?She spent 23 days in Belgium
and Jordan, meeting with magazine, newspaper, radio and TV. In the US: Good Morning
America, Today's show, Paula Zhan show, Aaron Brown show, CNBC, CNN news, many
more... media outlets.? Her message is sympathy, compassion and peace as the means
to ending the immorality of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"Caught in the Cross Fire" is a new, never-seen-before short film, focusing on the
American attack on Falluja.? The American public has been fed media propaganda to
justify a war crime--resulting in a humanitarian, social, moral and ethical
disaster.? Mark Manning was the only un-embedded western journalist to enter Falluja
after the U.S. bombardment.? He spent three weeks filming inside the ravaged ancient
city.? His footage provides a rare glimpse of the innocent victims' plight and
dispels the myths of war and the nature of the "enemy."

"To learn that not only you suffer, but the other person also suffers, the other
group of people also suffers when you touch the suffering in other people you want
to help, and when you want to help, compassion is born in you, you don't suffer
anymore, and you are motivated by the desire to do something, to be something for
other people and that is Peace". ~ Thich Nhat Hahn~ Zen Buddhist monk, scholar,
poet, philosopher, nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. for the Nobel Peace Prize
for his tireless work to end the Vietnam War
Educate, Involve, & Mobilize for Peaceand Justice
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---------------
This is an announcement from South Bay Mobilization, an organization working to
oppose U.S. interventions that violate rights of self-determination abroad and
undermine civil liberties, economic rights, and environmental protections here at
home.

Send comments, unsubscribe requests, or calendar items to info [at] southbaymobilization.org