Boulder Creek Resident Arrives in Baghdad with Iraq Peace Team

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press information: http://inlet.org/wade/press/

Seattle, WA, March 13 — Wade Hudson arrived in Baghdad today with six other members of the Iraq Peace Team (IPT), a project of Voices in the Wilderness. The delegates of IPT do not consider themselves to be 'human shields' but intend to stay in Baghdad in the event of an attack. There they will participate in vigils and other demonstrations to protest the war, provide support and assistance to the Iraqi people and witness, listen, observe, and report back on their experiences.

The twelve hour bus ride to Baghdad follows five days in Amman, Jordan where the delegates had waited for problems with their requested visas to be sorted out. Acquiring visas for travel to Iraq is known to be a cumbersome and unpredictable process under the best of circumstances, but the looming possibility of war further complicated the process.

Hudson, a resident of Boulder Creek, is a writer, anti-poverty worker, former mental health counselor, and lifelong community organizer. He has initiated a number of grassroots organizations including the Network Against Psychiatric Assault, Muni Coalition, Bay Area Transit Coalition, District Eleven Residents Association, Bay Area Committee for Alternatives to Psychiatry, Tenderloin Self-Help Center, Tenderloin Jobs Coalition, and the 509 Cultural Center. In 1989, after spending a year in Washington DC doing research on national economic policy, he founded the Solutions to Poverty Workshop, which developed a ten-point program for ending poverty, and organized the Campaign to Abolish Poverty, which persuaded Congressman Ron Dellums to introduce the Living Wage Jobs For All Act. Wade then wrote Economic Security for All: How to End Poverty in the United States and organized the Economic Security Project, which opened the Internet Learning Center as a place for low-income people to improve their computer skills. He also served on the national governing board for the Alliance for Democracy and initiated the San Francisco Progressive Challenge, which supported the Progressive Challenge organized by the Institute of Policy Studies.

Regarding his reasons for going to Iraq, Hudson said "With my tax dollars, my government is preparing to inflict untold death and suffering on Iraqi civilians even though most of the world opposes this war. This rush to war, based on bribery and threats designed to overcome the will of the people, is a challenge to democracy worldwide. So I am compelled to say 'not in my name' as strongly as I can."

"I've known about the work of the peacemaker community for some time, primarily through the work of David Hartsough. I just think that building a large peace force that could go into situations to help defuse and/or mediate or otherwise discourage violence is a great possibility. On a small scale, in places like villages in Columbia, there have been successes already."

Hudson will be available for comment via land and satellite telephone while such services remain operational. Updates from Wade’s journey, including entries from his Baghdad Journal mailing list, are available at ( http://inlet.org/wade/index.htm ).