U.S. to Advise Diplomats to Leave Mideast

AP ^ | February 7, 2003 | BARRY SCHWEID

[Indy Pendance]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department plans to advise nonessential U.S. diplomats and family members to leave Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, two U.S. officials said Friday.

Also expected was a travel warning advising Americans to stay away from Iraq.

The moves coincide with growing indications that President Bush may authorize the use of force against Iraq to get rid of its weapons of mass destruction.

The diplomats and the family members would go home at U.S. expense, leaving only essential American personnel at the U.S. embassies in Tel Aviv, Amman, Damascus and Beirut.

The decision was made on the advice of American diplomats in the embassies. It was not based on a specific threat to U.S. personnel but on the security situation generally, said one of the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Hundreds of U.S. diplomats and family members could be involved in the departures.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Also expected was a travel warning advising Americans to stay away from Iraq.

These State Department people are real masters of the obvious.

[Indy Pendance]

But then again, we've got women who think they can stop saddam...

U.S. Women Plan Peace Trip To Iraq

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. -- Three New York women calling themselves the Hudson Valley Peace Brigade say they're heading to Iraq Saturday for a 10 day mission of peace.

They set up the trip through a group called Voices in the Wilderness. The international group has brought hundreds of people in and out of Iraq since the Gulf War as a challenge to war and U.N. sanctions.

The women deny they're going over to act as "human shields" against an attack. Manna Jo Greene says their bodies won't stop bullets or bombs. She says what they're hoping to do is bring a message of peace.

They also plan to plant a "peace pole" in Baghdad, deliver art supplies for children and dig ditches to hold water in the event of war.

[tet68]

Also expected was a travel warning advising Americans to stay away from Iraq.

Don't drink the water, watch the exchange rate, and
DO NOT have sex with mustached men.

DO not let Iraqi's store anything in your car or room.

If your commode is glowing, please ask for another room.

Members of the Democrat congressional delegation, feel free to ignore these precautions.( You will anyway.)

[Go Gordon]

Three New York women calling themselves the Hudson Valley Peace Brigade say they're heading to Iraq Saturday for a 10 day mission of peace.

I hope they have their will updated, and their estate in order.

[muggs]

They also plan to plant a "peace pole" in Baghdad, deliver art supplies for children and dig ditches to hold water in the event of warWell it looks like they better hurry up if they expect to dig many ditches.

[Democratic_Machiavelli]

Interesting.

It makes sense why we're at Level Orange (or was it Fucshia?)

[Indy Pendance]

Puce, I believe.

[thermodynamics]

Why don't these hippy left overs, go do something constructive for American poverty in Central Miss or Central Los Angeles. Where are they during peace time. Hopefully they wear pink shirts so they're easier to hit with the bombs!!!

These TRAITORS dis-gust me!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Yep. The State Department is intending to err on the side of caution. The kicker is: they're not erring, somebody out really is dumb enough to head for Iraq when they're going to be bombed in about 20 minutes.

[thermodynamics]

Talking about the 3 Hudson valley women going to Iraq on Saturday.... Got Sidetracked!

[Indy Pendance]

I totally understood what you were saying. (Must be an engineering thing)

[thermodynamics]

LOL!!!

[WestCoastGal]

They were just on Hannity & Colmes. I just cannot understand how people grow up into adulthood to be so stupid???????? We must be brainwashing our own people into believing this crud.

They raised $11,000 to fund their trip....

[Indy Pendance]

One of my college kids wanted to go to Mexico, Cancun, I think, for spring break. When I told her about all the warnings being issued to Americans in foreign countries, she said, "Hey, these terrorists could attack popular tourist places." She's thinking of South Padre or Florida now.

Liberals are just a box of rocks.

[sonsofliberty2000]

http://www.nonviolence.org/vitw/



Wacko only begins to .......

[sonsofliberty2000]

Here's a gem:

---

Americans Resist US Fines and Continue Travel to Iraq


January 20, 2003

Contacts:
On Site DC: Kathy Kelly (917)217-6809
Stephanie Schaudel (917)567-5048
Chicago: Danny Muller (773)784-8065


"Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles those who wield it. It's a sword that heals."
--Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.


Washington, DC-- Voices in the Wilderness campaign members who have refused payment of $50,000 in fines for their previous travel to Iraq will hold a press conference at the National Press Club, West Room, Tuesday January 21st, at 9:30 a.m., to announce future delegations and assert continued readiness to challenge both economic sanctions and US led
warfare against Iraq. Returned delegates will offer testimony, photographs, and information, based on their recent travel to Iraq as members of the Iraq Peace Team.

Voices in the Wilderness (VitW), a campaign to end economic sanctions and military warfare against ordinary Iraqis, has, since 1996, sent over sixty delegations to Iraq, breaking economic sanctions through incurring travel related expenses from transporting medical supplies. In November, 2002, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed penalties on VitW and select members, with a total of $50,000 in fines.

Voices in the Wilderness has responded by refusing payment, and instead raising funds for an increase in delegations and aid. In January 2003, Voices in the Wilderness was nominated, for the third time, for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Presently, over a thousand Americans have contributed to the campaign by publicly declaring their commitment to break sanctions and find peaceful resolutions to US disputes with Iraq.

At the press conference, Voices in the Wilderness will present:

a full list of over 200 delegates from 34 states who have traveled to Iraq and are available for interviews
samples of medicines and toys they are accused of having brought to Iraq
correspondence between Voices in the Wilderness and the US Treasury Department


Future delegations organized by Voices in the Wilderness will depart from the US on January 26th, February 3rd, and February 8th, 2003. to participate in the Iraq Peace Team.

Voices in the Wilderness members call for an end to the embargo which is a completely unjustified form of collective punishment that has cost the lives of over a million Iraqi citizens in the last twelve years and denied the people their fundamental human rights to housing, employment, education, and healthcare. They declare their support for nonviolent, diplomatic alternatives to war against Iraq (such as the US is presently employing in the case of North Korea), including the implementation of a previous UN resolution proposing the negotiated removal of Weapons of Mass Destruction from all countries in the Middle East-not just Iraq. They concur with Mr. Denis Halliday, former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq, who believes that now the only hope for avoiding war, in which so much innocent blood would be shed, is "for the American peoplthemselves to demonstrate that they will not tolerate, they will not support, they will not give their lives nor their money, for military aggressionagainst the people of Iraq."

[Indy Pendance]

Voices in the Wilderness has increased delegations with the Iraq Peace Team and has asserted continued readiness to challenge both economic sanctions and US led warfare against Iraq. With Treasury Dept. fines of $50,000 levied against VitW, Voices has refused payment and is raising money and medicine toward humanitarian and peacemaking efforts in Iraq.

[snip]

In response to the threat of military action against Iraq, we have initiated the Iraq Peace Team. For reports from our team on the ground, frequently updated news & analysis, and action ideas, please visit iraqpeaceteam.org.

You can join their mailing lists!

[Indy Pendance]

GMTA!

[piasa]

They aren't going to have time to get much digging done.

I think the new craters will hold water just fine, though.