War in Iraq: Crimes & Lies
Dave Lindorff
On Friday, January 13th, 2006, David Lindorff, a U.S. investigative journalist and writer, and Maurizio Torrealta, an Italian journalist with RAINEWS24, made a presentation to about seventy-five (75) people at an event organized by U.S. Citizens for Peace and Justice-Rome and the coalition of Rome peace groups, Romacittapertallapace. “Voices from the other America, Voices from the other Italy” was held at the Casa delle Culture in Trastevere. This was one of the first events of a new campaign entitled “Crimini e Bugie” (Crimes and Lies) whose intent is to inform the public about the crimes and lies, both U.S. and Italian, surrounding the war in Iraq and mobilize for two important dates, the vote for renewal of the Italian mission in Iraq in late January or early February and the International Day of Protest set for March 18.
Lindorff acknowledged that the mainstream media, both television and newspapers, was not showing the horrible images of war like it did during the Vietnam era. The American people are not seeing the body bags (2,000 and more) arriving back home. They are not seeing the decimated bodies of civilian victims of white phosphorous on their TV’s or the cover page of their local newspapers. He suggested that the internet is playing a role in keeping people informed and this needs to increase. Lindorff also mentioned that the peace movement has been reactivated, gave credit to the creativity of Cindy Sheehan and the Camp Casey efforts, and described a grassroots initiative that travels around the country with a pair of boots for each serviceperson lost in Iraq and how this was having an impact on public opinion.