Kathy Kelly: The Children of Iraq and Lebanon

From the website, "Voices for Creative Nonviolence": "Kathy Kelly, 54, of Chicago, IL, is co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She helped initiate Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the UN/US sanctions against Iraq in 1996. For bringing "medicine and toys" to Iraq in open violation of the UN/US sanctions, she and other campaign members were notified of a proposed $163,000 penalty for the organization, threatened with 12 years in prison, and eventually fined $20,000, a sum which they’ve refused to pay. Voices in the Wilderness organized 70 delegations to visit Iraq in the period between 1996 and the beginning of the "Operation Shock and Awe" warfare (March 2003). Kelly has been to Iraq twenty four times since January 1996, when the campaign began. In October 2002, she joined Iraq Peace Team members in Baghdad where she and the team maintained a presence throughout the bombardment and invasion. Kelly left Iraq on April 19, 2003 and has returned three times, most recently in May of 2006 when she traveled to northern Iraq. Along with three other Voices activists, Kathy was in Beirut, Lebanon during the final days of the Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006. They subsequently reported from southern Lebanon following a ceasefire. During the first two weeks of the Gulf War, she was part of a peace encampment on the Iraq-Saudi border called the Gulf Peace Team. Following evacuation to Amman, Jordan, (February 4, 1991), team members stayed in the region for the next six months to help coordinate medical relief convoys and study teams. In 1988 she was sentenced to one year in prison for planting corn on nuclear missile silo sites. Kelly served nine months of the sentence in Lexington KY maximum security prison. Kelly in Beirut, Lebanon during the final days of the Israel-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006 Kelly has taught in Chicago area community colleges and high schools since 1974. From 1980 — 198...

Channel: iTunes Video Length: 0s Date Found: Thu, Aug 19 2010 3:53 AM Category: News Date Produced: Tue, Oct 30 2007 3:49 AM View Count: 0