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Nobel Winner Criticizes US Invasion of Iraq, Prison Abuse
Dow Jones | 5/10/05 | AP Staff

Posted on 05/10/2004 12:35:44 PM PDT by BunnySlippers

Nobel Winner Criticizes US Invasion of Iraq, Prison Abuse

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP)--In much of the world's view, the U.S. has replaced the former Soviet Union as the global bully by its invasion of Iraq and mistreatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison, 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said Monday.

Ebadi, the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, was unequivocal that the U.S. should withdraw its troops from Iraq immediately and let the Iraqis rule themselves.

"I believe this wasn't a justified war to begin with," Ebadi said in an interview with The Associated Press before the start of a visit hosted by Syracuse University's College of Law.

"In the U.S.," she said, "it is often proclaimed that democracy is the ultimate value. I understand democracy to be the people's right to decide their own government. I would like to ask the U.S. government whether democracy is only good for Americans?

"You can't liberate people through the use of an occupying force," said Ebadi, whose appearance in Syracuse was the start of a speaking tour on U.S. campuses.

The Nobel award committee honored Ebadi for her advocacy of human rights and democracy in her homeland. Now an author and professor at the University of Tehran, she was recently included on Time magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people.

The 57-year-old Ebadi served as one of Iran's first female judges from 1975 until 1979, when she was forced to relinquish her position following the 1979 revolution that put more hardline Islamic forces in power.

The founder and leader of the Association for Support of Children's Rights in Iran, Ebadi has been the target of assassination attempts and spent time in prison. She has fought with conservative Muslim clerics over rights for women and children and has used her status as a lawyer to call for freedom of speech and equality under the law.

Ebadi criticized both the U.S. government and military for the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison that have drawn world outrage.

"I don't think the U.S. military has lost control, and yet if the U.S. really wanted, it could have prevented these abuses. I'm very sorry there wasn't a deeper commitment to preventing these atrocities," she said.

The Nobel laureate said President George W. Bush and the U.S. military had severely damaged the country's reputation abroad as a defender of human rights.

During her visit to the U.S., Ebadi will visit several other universities including Harvard and Stanford. She will speak at the U.N. later this month.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: iraqipow; shirinebadi
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To: BunnySlippers
If this lady was a true advocate of freedom for her people she wouldn't be working for the government she despises would she. Winning a Nobel prize loses whatever value it might have when recipients spout this kind of garbage.
21 posted on 05/10/2004 1:34:06 PM PDT by hgro
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To: vandykelastone
ANyone who would accept a nobel prize is not anyone we need to be listening to

One's thesis can lead one to counterintuitive conclusions.

22 posted on 05/10/2004 1:38:36 PM PDT by RightWhale (Destroy the dark; restore the light)
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To: dead
She wants freedom and democracy for Iranians, not Iraqis.

After the bitter memories of the Iran/Iraq war, who can blame her?

23 posted on 05/10/2004 1:38:45 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: hgro
The Nobel Prize lost whatever luster it had when it was awarded to Henry "realpolitick" Kissinger for his work in "ending" the Vietnam War. Giving it to Yasser Arafat was merely the icing on the cake. I'm expectantly waiting for the Nobel Prize Committee's next choice for peacemaker of the year: Musab al-Zarqawi.
24 posted on 05/10/2004 1:40:13 PM PDT by The Scourge of Yazid (Where did they get all those American Flags to burn? Is there a store or something over there?)
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To: BunnySlippers
It was Sadr, a man who entered Iraq after the war from Iran, who has caused the most trouble there. Let the people decide as long as militants from Iran and Syria come in to encourage the people to vote for them at the point of a gun.
25 posted on 05/10/2004 1:41:54 PM PDT by man of Yosemite ("When a man decides to do something everyday, that's about when he stops doing it.")
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To: muawiyah
As long as this "Prize Winner" doesn't have an absentee ballot for Florida, who gives a rat's ass?
26 posted on 05/10/2004 1:42:15 PM PDT by gipper81
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To: BunnySlippers
I wonder where this clown was when Iraqi soldiers were abusing Kuwaiti prisoners.
27 posted on 05/10/2004 1:44:32 PM PDT by Tempest (Don't blame me, I'm voting for Bush.)
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To: Pearls Before Swine
Even though it was Hussein who putatively 'started' the war by crossing into disputed territory, Iran was nearly as culpable as a result of Khomeini's reckless actions.

Remember that it was during the Iran-Iraq war that his government sponsored terrorism throughout the globe:providing funds, military training and religious guidance for Hezbollah, Amal and other Shiite militias waging war in Lebanon.

28 posted on 05/10/2004 1:46:04 PM PDT by The Scourge of Yazid (Where did they get all those American Flags to burn? Is there a store or something over there?)
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To: BunnySlippers
It appears one doesn't need to have a mind steeped in logic to win a Nobel Prize these days.
29 posted on 05/10/2004 1:48:43 PM PDT by PeoplesRepublicOfWashington
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To: BunnySlippers

Yeah well up yours too.
30 posted on 05/10/2004 1:53:51 PM PDT by Unicorn (Two many wimps around The democrats would rather win the WH then win the war-Tom Delay)
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To: Reelect President Dubya
Today was the watershed. It will begone in a week. Did you see the USA Today Gallop poll? Some of Bush's numbers went up! Had to laugh. It will head out to sea soon.
31 posted on 05/10/2004 2:03:32 PM PDT by CasearianDaoist
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To: ItsonlikeDonkeyKong
Even though it was Hussein who putatively 'started' the war by crossing into disputed territory, Iran was nearly as culpable

I don't disagree. I'm firmly of the "plague on both your houses" camp with respect to Iraq, past and present, and the Iran of the mullahs. I was just trying to think like a Nobel prize winner who might have hometown bias.

32 posted on 05/10/2004 2:50:32 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: muawiyah
I wonder if she's aware of the conditions of the 1991 cease-fire.

I wonder if she cares about the savagery and carnage Iraq would be filled with if there was no structure to handle grievances when we up and left? Even most Iraqis don't want us to leave immediately - eventually, yes, but not immediately.

33 posted on 05/10/2004 5:23:29 PM PDT by lepton ("It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of a thing he was never reasoned into"--Jonathan Swift)
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