News Releases

MEL DUNCAN
Advocacy and outreach director for Nonviolent Peaceforce, Duncan said today: “Recent headline stories about Syria have reported that the CIA is deeply involved in the arms flows and that the rebel groups are setting up an alternative government — headed by a U.S. citizen — that seeks to rule the country after a rebel military victory. Islamic fundamentalists, armed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, play a major role in the foreign-backed rebel ‘coalition.’ The Russians and Iranians continue to arm the regime.

“Recently, a Syrian delegation, which our group helped organize, visited the U.S. and presented a different view of the conflict and its possible resolution. Representing the non-violent and secular opposition that has attracted increasing support in the war-weary country, they pointed out the dangers of the Islamic fighters gaining control and ruling a country with many diverse religious and ethnic groups. The non-violent movement calls for peacemaking and a negotiated settlement, rejecting foreign intervention on both sides of the conflict. In light of a stalemate on the military front, and the change in the mood inside Syria, the secular opposition may emerge as a major player for peace in the country.

“As the major powers trip over each other to flood weapons into the country, Syrian nonviolent civil society is not only being ignored but their existence denied by the diplomatic corps and media. It was refreshing to hear the Syrian delegation and to know that there is a movement struggling on the ground towards a peaceful settlement. Washington and its allies have been promoting a violent path which has proven to be a dead end. The rebel coalition, heavily influenced by Qatar and Saudi Arabia, cannot offer a democratic and secular future for the country. As support for the armed rebels wanes inside Syria, we need to promote the emerging forces for pluralism, democracy and peace.” See: “Syrian Delegates Push for Peaceful Resolution of Conflict.”

REESE ERLICH
Available for a limited number of interviews with major media, Erlich is a freelance foreign correspondent for the GlobalPost. He said today: “In recent weeks the Obama administration has leaked stories to The New York Times and other outlets indicating increased U.S. military support to ‘moderate’ and ‘nationalist’ groups in Syria. That includes the CIA vetting groups which then receive arms from Saudi Arabia. But Saudis are backing extremists seeking to impose a religious dictatorship on Syria, and the U.S. has little control once the arms reach Syria.”

In a recent GlobalPost article, Erilch wrote, “Based on a month of reporting in the region and in Washington, over a dozen sources have confirmed that wealthy Saudis, as well as the government, are arming some Syrian rebel groups. Saudi and Syrian sources confirm that hundreds of Saudis are joining the rebels. …

“In one documented case, a Saudi judge encouraged young anti-government protesters to fight in Syria rather than face punishment at home. Twenty-two year old Mohammed al-Talq was arrested and found guilty of participating in a demonstration in the north-central Saudi city of Buraidah.

“After giving 19 young men suspended sentences, the judge called the defendants into his private chambers and gave them a long lecture about the need to fight Shia Muslims in Syria, according to Mohammed’s father, Abdurrahman al-Talq.

“‘You should save all your energy and fight against the real enemy, the Shia, and not fight inside Saudi Arabia,’ said the father, quoting the judge. ‘The judge gave them a reason to go to Syria.’

“Within weeks, 11 of the 19 protesters left to join the rebels. In December 2012, Mohammed al-Talq was killed in Syria. His father filed a formal complaint against the judge late last year, but said he has received no response.”

The World Social Forum — a global gathering of activists and analysts — has just gotten under way in Tunisia, the birthplace of the Arab uprisings.

MASSOUD ROMADANI; or via media contact: Sha Grogan-Brown
World Social Forum organizer, member of the Committee for the Maghreb Regional Social Forum, Romadani is a Tunisian researcher on the uprisings in the region. “Chokri Belaid, a hero of our revolution, was assassinated here last month. Our revolution is under threat from rightwing Salafi forces here and Western governments that prioritize economic interests over the things we are fighting for: democracy, human rights, women’s rights, freedom of speech. These priorities led the U.S. to support the dictator Ben Ali and they haven’t changed. The U.S. alliance with Saudi Arabia and Qatar is undermining the uprisings.”

HAMOUDA SOUBHI
Executive director of the Moroccan Network for Euro-Mediterranean NGOs, Soubhi said today: “This World Social Forum comes at a pivotal time for the Arab uprisings. We have overthrown dictators, but the struggle is not over. ‘Shock doctrine’ capitalism and religious conservatism are two major forces we are still struggling against, and often they are aligned together. For us this World Social Forum is important because it is rallying all the region’s social actors, from the issues of women, youth, the free media, development, the debt and immigration, and bringing movements from around the world to show international solidarity and support the social movements of the Maghreb/Mashrek region.”

CINDY WIESNER
Wiesner is executive director of Grassroots Global Justice Alliance, which just released a statement: “Emerging social movements across the globe (Spain, Greece, and Occupy in the U.S.) followed the footsteps of the movements in the region, and continue looking to Tunisia for inspiration from the stories of how strikes led by miners and women textile workers and extreme levels of unemployment amongst youth with academic degrees contributed to the overthrow of a dictator. However, after a year of rule by a three-party government, the urgent issues of rising prices and unemployment that sparked the revolution remain unresolved.”

Wiesner said today: “We are proud to be working as principled allies to people’s movements around the world, because so many of these problems have their roots in the U.S. … We are also in opposition to REDD [Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation] – a carbon trade market championed as a solution by wealthy nations that actually allows companies to continue polluting in communities of color in the U.S., and then take land from indigenous peoples around the world to plant crops that keep their profits high and ‘offset’ their pollution.”

MARIA POBLET
Executive director of Causa Justa::Just Cause in the San Francisco Bay Area, Poblet said today: “What is our solidarity song with the women of the Maghreb/Mashrek? How can we build the kind of solidarity that does not impose from the outside, but instead learns from frontline communities by walking alongside them, looking directly at the imbalances of power and privilege that threaten to fragment our movement, and finding common cause? The U.S. has supported Mubarak and other regressive forces in the region, and is sending drones and setting up military bases. We are seeking a different kind of relationship.”

ANGELA DALLARA [email]
Dallara is communications associate with Freedom to Marry. The group’s goal is “to end the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriage once and for all. Drawing on the history of other social justice movements in the United States, we know that victory will ultimately come from persuading either Congress or the Supreme Court to end marriage discrimination. To achieve that victory, we must secure the freedom to marry in a critical mass of states and grow majority support across the country.” Resources, including live blogging of the Supreme Court proceedings are available at: freedomtomarry.org.

MATTILDA BERNSTEIN SYCAMORE [email]
Author of The End of San Francisco, Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore said today: “Here we go again — as the powers-that-be in the United States devise new ways to stifle dissent, destroy the environment, privatize public resources, and continue the path of never-ending war, another debate about gay marriage between straight homophobes who think that all queers deserve to burn in hell and self-hating gays who think that all gay people deserve marriage — really, what’s the difference? The mainstream gay movement is now obsessed with obtaining straight privilege at any cost — marriage and military inclusion instead of ending these fundamental institutions of oppression; hate crimes legislation instead of abolishing the prison industrial complex; and maybe even ordination into the priesthood, such lovely icing on the wedding cake. What a nightmare — we need to get back to fighting for gender, sexual, social, and political self-determination for everyone, as a start.”

She is also editor of That’s Revolting! Queer Strategies for Resisting Assimilation. In 2008, she wrote the piece “Why One Queer Person Is Not Celebrating California’s Historic Gay Marriage Decision.”

BRAD REGA [email]
Rega has been camped out in front of the Supreme Court. He’s a grad student in anthropology at American University and an intern with the Institute for Public Accuracy. He said today: “Same-sex marriage is something new and for the most part has a relatively lesser sense of urgency compared to other gay rights and protections such as employment discrimination. For decades, it has been perfectly legal in many states to fire a person or deny promotion due to one’s sexuality. The Employment Non-Discrimination Act, which has been introduced in nearly every Congress for almost 20 years, includes protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation. … As one person in line at the Supreme Court mentioned to me ‘is it the MRC (Marriage Rights Campaign) or the HRC (Human Rights Campaign)?’”

JAMES S. HENRY, jhenry at sagharbor.com
Available for a limited number of interviews with major media, Henry is lead researcher for the report “The Price of Offshore Revisited” from the Tax Justice Network. Last year they estimated that total wealth in tax havens was between $21 trillion and $35 trillion dollars. He said today: “Cyprus is in crisis because its banks heavily invested in Greek bonds and Greek bondholders took a hair cut. It’s not because Cyprus is worse than other tax havens as many seem to be claiming. We found that it’s the 20th least transparent tax haven. So today is a good day for bankers in Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and the UK. Cyprus is in effect a victim of the ‘finance curse’ in that its economy was so dependent on the financial sector.

“There are several aspects to the Russian story that haven’t been fleshed out, including the Russian Gazprom eyeing energy reserves off of Cyprus. Another major aspect of the story that’s been largely overlooked is that whatever happens to the financial sector in Cyprus, it’s still a large corporate haven; they only have a 10 percent corporate tax rate. This tax haven model of ‘development’ needs to be seriously questioned. Tax havens are a major source of economic inequality and global poverty. They prevent local governments from effectively taxing wealthy individuals and corporations.

“In terms of the bigger picture, Cyprus is small; the issue is the state of the economy in Italy, Greece, etc.”

Henry is a regular contributor to The Real News, see his latest interview: “Cyprus Crisis Reveals Shadowy World of Tax and Money Laundering Haven.” He has also written for Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and other publications.

Henry was also just featured in “The Tax Free Tour” — a new in-depth look at global tax havens from Dutch Public TV that, among other things, answers the question: How does Apple only pay 1.9 percent on its overseas profits when the U.S. corporate tax rate is 35 percent? Also, see taxodus.net — an online game about global tax dodging. Henry is former chief economist at the international consultancy firm McKinsey & Co.

RABEEA EID, rabeea.eid at arabs48.com
Contrary to many media reports, the student who spoke up during Obama’s speech to students in Jerusalem was not protesting the imprisonment of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard. Rather, Eid, who is a student from the village of Eilaboun, which is inside Israel, spoke out to question U.S. policy toward the Palestinians. Specifically, Eid asked Obama in English: “President Obama, did you come to make peace or to support Israel and the Israeli occupation? How can you be democratic and support a Jewish country? Who killed Rachel Corrie? Did you see the apartheid wall when you came from Ramallah?” Reached today by the Institute for Public Accuracy, Eid said: “President Obama talked about the violence from settlers but he didn’t say anything against settlements — they are illegally built on occupied land. He didn’t talk about the apartheid wall that devastates life for many Palestinians. He talked about democracy and justice, but Israel is stopping democracy and justice. It’s an ethnic-religious state — such a state can’t be democratic.” Eid told the New York Times: “It is important for us that the American people know what is happening here, and to know that the money from their taxes is going for  weapons for Israel.” Eid also spoke to the Electronic Intifada.

JEREMY VARON, jvaron at aol.com
CHRISTOPHER KNESTRICK, cknest11 at gmail.com
The Guardian reports: “Guantanamo hunger strike much bigger than reported, rights group claims.” Varon and Knestrick are with Witness Against Torture, which is organizing solidarity hunger strikes and protests around the U.S. this week. Today the group released this statement: “Prisoners at the U.S. military prison camp in Guantanamo are entering their seventh week of a hunger strike and may die soon. Many prisoners were falsely accused and sold for a bounty to the U.S. Around half of all the prisoners of Guantanamo have been cleared to be released but are still being held indefinitely. Most of the prisoners have been held for over 11 years without charge or trial. This is illegal and morally wrong. Because they are in an indefinite or apparently never-ending imprisonment without being convicted of any crime they have little options to help themselves and no hope left. So they stopped eating at the beginning of February.”

ALEXANDER MAIN, main at cepr.net and via Dan Beeton, beeton at cepr.net
The AP reported on Saturday in “U.S. Aids Honduran Police Despite Death Squad Fears” that: “The U.S. State Department, which spends millions of taxpayer dollars a year on the Honduran National Police, has assured Congress that money only goes to specially vetted and trained units that don’t operate under the direct supervision of a police chief once accused of extrajudicial killings and ‘social cleansing.’ But The Associated Press has found that all police units are under the control of Director General Juan Carlos Bonilla, nicknamed the ‘Tiger,’ who in 2002 was accused of three extrajudicial killings and links to 11 more deaths and disappearances. He was tried on one killing and acquitted. The rest of the cases were never fully investigated.” The revelation comes a week after another AP investigative feature detailed current death squad activity within the Honduran police.

Alexander Main is senior associate for international policy at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. He is author of the recent blog post, “Fifty-eight Members of Congress ask for investigation of Honduras killings and policy review –- will Kerry and Holder act?” He said today: “For several years the U.S. administration ignored pleas from dozens of members of Congress demanding that human rights in Honduras take priority over the U.S.’s militarized security policy there. Despite the increasing number of reports of extrajudicial killings and attacks perpetrated by state security forces, the U.S. has continued to pump millions of dollars into Honduras’ corrupt police and military, claiming that no units suspected of abuses receive U.S. support. Now key members of Congress are finally taking concrete steps to force the administration to reconsider its Honduras policy, itself a cornerstone of the regional ‘war on drugs,’ which has empowered security forces and undermined civilian institutions and human rights.”

SANDY TOLAN, sandytolan at gmail.com
Author of The Lemon Tree: An Arab, A Jew, and the Heart of the Middle East and the forthcoming Children of the Stones, Tolan is associate professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at USC in Los Angeles. He just wrote the piece “Obama in the Holy Land: Occupation? What Occupation?” at his Ramallah Cafe blog.

Rev. MITRI RAHEB, mraheb at diyar.ps
Raheb is senior pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem; he is also president of Diyar Consortium and of Dar al-Kalima University College in Bethlehem. He said today: “President Obama didn’t land today with his helicopter just across the street from our college. He visited the Church of the Nativity just two blocks away from Christmas Lutheran Church. In and out in less than 30 minutes with no people in the church or at manger square — as if our city was a ghost town. Due a sand storm he had to drive. He had thus a chance to see how the wall and the settlements are strangling Bethlehem. President Obama visited the birthplace of the prince of peace who was born here 2,000 years ago. Yet in today’s political landscape we found more ‘peace talkers’ than ‘peacemakers.’ Twenty years of peace-talking between the Israelis and the Palestinian didn’t lead anywhere. On the contrary, it was during these years that the 25-foot-high wall was built around the ‘little town of Bethlehem’ making it as little as four square miles. It was during this period that new Jewish-only settlements were built on Bethlehem land, stealing from us the land — and all possibilities for growth. Will he do something about it? His name is Barack, the blessed. Jesus knew how to choose his words when he blessed the peacemakers.”

PETE MOORE, pwm10 at case.edu
Obama is slated to visit Jordan today. Professor of political science at Case Western Reserve University, Moore is author of Doing Business in the Middle East: Politics and Economic Crisis in Jordan and Kuwait. He said today: “Despite comparative quiet in Jordan, the same socio-economic discontent that drove protests in 2011 remains a fact of life in the Hashemite Kingdom. There are numerous factors why Jordanians have not followed in the 2011 footsteps but political leaders in Amman and Washington have good reason remain fearful.”

CHARLES KERNAGHAN, BARBARA BRIGGS, bbriggs at glhr.org
Kernaghan and Briggs are with the Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, which just released a report “President Obama May Very Well Clean Up The U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement,” which states: “Today, an estimated 79 percent of the workers toiling in Jordan’s garment export factories are guest workers from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India, China, Burma and Nepal. The overwhelming majority of them are young women who work grueling hours, six and seven days a week, while earning just 74.5 cents an hour. These workers have no rights. They are housed in primitive, crowded dorms. Worst of all, young women guest workers in many factories report that they are sexually abused.”

Robert Reich just wrote the piece “Selling the Store: Why Democrats Shouldn’t Put Social Security and Medicare on the Table,” which states: “Prominent Democrats — including the President and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — are openly suggesting that Medicare be means-tested and Social Security payments be reduced by applying a lower adjustment for inflation.

“This is even before they’ve started budget negotiations with Republicans — who still refuse to raise taxes on the rich, close tax loopholes the rich depend on (such as hedge-fund and private-equity managers’ “carried interest”), increase capital gains taxes on the wealthy, cap their tax deductions, or tax financial transactions.

“It’s not the first time Democrats have led with a compromise, but these particular pre-concessions are especially unwise.”

MAX RICHTMAN, PAMELA CAUSEY [email]
Richtman is president of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. Causey is communications director of the group. Today Richtman wrote a letter to Obama that his pledges regarding Social Security have been “contradicted by statements made in recent months that both the chained CPI and Medicare means-testing remain a part of your deficit reduction proposal. The ‘chained CPI’ is not a ‘technical tweak, and no amount of rationalization can make it so. In reality, the chained CPI is a benefit cut for the oldest and most vulnerable Americans who would be least able to afford it. To offer to trade it away outside the context of a comprehensive Social Security solvency proposal ignores the fact that Social Security does not even belong in this debate because it does not contribute to the deficit. Cutting Social Security benefits to reduce the deficit is unacceptable to the vast majority of Americans across all ages and political affiliation.

“Likewise, we are concerned about proposals to raise the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67 and to increase the Social Security full retirement age from 67 to 69. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone is living longer or is able to work into their late 60s. While life expectancy has risen six years in the top half of income earners, workers in the bottom half have only gained 1.3 years. What is more, the bottom 40 percent of income earners depend on Social Security for nearly 90 percent of their total income. Benefit cuts through the chained CPI and delaying access to Medicare for millions of Americans would harm seniors, people with disabilities and children; and have a disproportionately negative affect on women and communities of color.

“When taken together, these benefit cuts will generate a tsunami of seniors living in poverty. …”

CINDY CORRIE [email]
CRAIG CORRIE [email]
Cindy and Craig are parent of Rachel Corrie; there have been a series of events the last several days commemorating her killing ten years ago by Israeli troops in Gaza. Together, Cindy and Craig founded Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice. Craig Corrie recently wrote the piece “Ten Years on I Want Answers for my Daughter Rachel Corrie,” which states: “On March 16, 2003, my daughter Rachel Corrie was crushed to death under a bulldozer driven by an Israel Defense Forces soldier. The bulldozer was manufactured in the United States by Caterpillar, Inc. and paid for by U.S. foreign military financing aid. My tax dollars paid for the machine used to kill my daughter. In a telephone conversation the next day, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon promised President Bush a ‘thorough, credible, and transparent’ investigation into Rachel’s killing with a report to the U.S. Government. In response, April 24, 2003, our family received a printed PowerPoint presentation circulating in Congress purporting to explain the death of our daughter. This report, created by officers in command of the IDF unit that killed Rachel, concluded, ‘Ms. Corrie was not run over by a bulldozer, but sustained injuries caused by earth and debris which fell on her during bulldozer operation.’

“Not only was this statement not supported by accounts from Rachel’s friends and their photographs, it was subsequently contradicted by ‘Captain R.S.,’ the highest ranking IDF officer on the scene. In Haifa District Court in April 2011, he pointed to the blade marks on the ground in one of the photos, and swore he knew in the first minute that the bulldozer had run over Rachel. …

“What then would I ask President Obama to do as he makes his way to Israel and Palestine? Assure Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas alike that we will stand with them for the just aspirations of all their citizens, including the equal recognition to their right to be free of threats to their homes, families, farmland, and future. Explain that the U.S. will no longer support financially or diplomatically the apartheid system embodied in the occupation of Palestine and in the treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel.”

STEPHEN ZUNES [email]
Professor of politics and chair of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of San Francisco, Zunes said today: “There has always been a fundamental contradiction between the United States being the sole mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the primary military, economic, and diplomatic supporter of the Israeli government, which continues to illegally occupy and colonize Palestinian land seized in the 1967 war.”

In his statement on the tenth anniversary of the Iraq invasion today, President Obama referred to “30,000 Americans wounded in Iraq.”

MATT HOWARD, [email]
Communications director of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Howard said today: “Hundreds of thousands of vets are suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. Many are suffering from military sexual trauma — an estimated one out of three military women. The VA now estimates that 22 veterans per day are committing suicide. Only half of this generation of veterans are even registered with the VA.”

Today IVAW launched the “Right to Heal” campaign with the Federation of Workers Councils and Unions in Iraq, Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq and Center for Constitutional Rights. In a joint statement, they said: “If the president really wants to mark the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq war, in addition to remembering the 30,000 U.S. service members wounded or killed, he should also acknowledge the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives lost and ruined by the U.S. invasion, the poisoned land, the harm to human rights, women’s rights and worker’s rights in Iraq under the U.S.-backed government, and the generation of orphaned children with no one to care for them. And he should make concrete efforts to repair that damage and to provide proper care for not only the Iraqis still suffering from the trauma of the war but for U.S. veterans as well. The war is not over for any of us.”

The groups also filed a petition with the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to request a hearing on the U.S.’s responsibility for the human costs of the war.

See from Neiman Watchdog: “How many U.S. soldiers were wounded in Iraq? We have no idea,” which states: “The true number of military personnel injured in Iraq is in the hundreds of thousands — maybe even more than half a million — if you just go a bit beyond the Pentagon’s narrowly-tailored definition of ‘wounded in action’. So why isn’t anyone keeping track?”

US special forces veteran links General Petraeus to torture in Iraq – video trailer

Reuters reports: “A dozen car bombs and suicide blasts tore into Shi’ite districts in Baghdad and south of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing more than 50 people on the 10th anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion that ousted Saddam Hussein.”

MAGGIE O’KANE, via Christine Crowther, [email]
O’Kane is executive producer of a new documentary from the Guardian on Iraq — which is “one of the great untold stories of the Iraq war, how just over a year after the invasion, the United States funded a sectarian police commando force that set up a network of torture centers to fight the insurgency. It was a decision that helped fuel a sectarian civil war between Shi’ite and Sunni that ripped the country apart. At its height, it was claiming 3,000 victims a month. This is also the story of James Steele, the veteran of America’s Dirty War in El Salvador. He was in charge of the U.S. advisers who trained notorious Salvadoran paramilitary units to fight left-wing guerrillas. In the course of that civil war, 75,000 people died and over 1 million people became refugees. Steele was chosen by the Bush administration to work with General David Petraeus to organize these paramilitary police commandos. …

“The thousands of commandos that Steele let loose came to be mostly made up of Shi’ite militias, like the Badr Brigades, hungry to take revenge on the Sunni supporters of Saddam Hussein. Steele oversaw the commandos, mostly made up of militias. They were torturing detainees for information on the insurgency.” O’Kane was recently interviewed by The Real News.

RAED JARRAR, [email]
Jarrar recently wrote the piece “A Decade After Iraq War Began, We Should Make Amends,” which states: “I was born in Iraq, and in 2003, I was in Baghdad. My family and I spent the first weeks of March preparing for the U.S.-led invasion. I was in charge of storing gas for the generator, placing tape across windows, and hiring a contractor to dig a well in our backyard.

“As we feared, President George W. Bush launched his war of choice on March 20. We survived, but we were among the lucky ones. Millions of Iraqis have been killed, injured or displaced. One of the most developed countries in the region at the time of the invasion, Iraq now is among the worst in terms of infrastructure and public services. Baghdad ranks lowest in the quality of life of any city in the world, according to a recent global survey from the consultant group Mercer. Moreover, the Iraqi national identity has been replaced by ethnic and sectarian affiliations.

“I am half Sunni and half Shi’ite — or ‘Sushi,’ as Iraqis jokingly call kids of mixed marriages. I was never asked my sect before 2003. I did not know who from my friends was a Sunni or a Shiite until then. But now, these sectarian divisions have become a core component of Iraq’s new identity, and they continue to threaten its territorial integrity and national unity. …

“No apology has been given to Iraqis, no politicians have been prosecuted, no pundits have been held responsible, and no compensation has been given to Iraq. If you don’t support the idea of compensating Iraq, consider this: Kuwait has been receiving compensation from a country that illegally and immorally invaded it in 1990. That country … is Iraq.” Jarrar is now communications director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.