ARTICLES & EXCERPTS FROM A.N.S.W.E.R.'s 01/08/03 PRESS
CONFERENCE ANNOUNCING JANUARY 18 ANTI-WAR STRATEGY AND
SCENARIOS

Speakers at the Press Conference:

- Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General
- Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Partnership for Civil
Justice-LDEF
- Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American
Society Freedom Foundation
- Damu Smith, Black Voices for Peace
- Chuck Kaufman, Nicaragua Network
- Ihab Darwish, Free Palestine Alliance
- Brian Becker, International Action Center
- Ismail Kamal, Muslim Students Alliance
- Peta Lindsay, A.N.S.W.E.R. Youth and Student
Coordinator, Howard University student

Some of the news outlets that attended included:

CBS, New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press,
Pacifica, D.C.'s Newschannel 8, Reuters, Reuters & AP
Television, NPR, WAMU Radio (NPR Affiliate), BBC, ARD
German TV, La Jornada, Scripps Howard, Gannett News
Service, Akahata (Japanese newspaper), Der Spiegel

The following is an excerpt from an Associated Press
article

Sponsors Outline Anti-War Protest Plan
By HEATHER GREENFIELD
Associated Press Writer
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-anti-war-protest0108jan08,0,2283668.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


January 8, 2003, 4:33 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- The weekend of Martin Luther King Jr.'s
birthday is a perfect time for a big anti-war protest in
Washington, sponsors said Wednesday.

"The American people have very little time left to tell
President Bush that they don't want the U.S. to be an
aggressor nation and attack Iraq," said former Attorney
General Ramsey Clark, whose group International
A.N.S.W.E.R (Act Now to Stop War and Racism) is organizing
the Jan. 18 event.

"Martin Luther King weekend is a perfect time to say, 'No
War, Mr. President,'" Clark said. King's birthday is Jan.
15, celebrated as a federal holiday this year on Monday,
Jan. 20.

Calling King a "drum major for peace and justice," Mahdi
Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American
Society, noted that King spoke out against the Vietnam
War.

Actors Jessica Lange and Mike Farrell and demonstrators
from religious groups, labor organizations and schools are
among those planning to attend the event.

Demonstrators plan a rally on the west side of the
Capitol. They will then march to the Washington Navy Yard
where they will ask to inspect weapons of mass destruction
they say the government might have.

The march will travel through a relatively poor section of
Washington. Protesters say those residents will be hurt if
the United States diverts money from social programs to
pay for a war.


__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


The following is an excerpt from Reuters News Agency
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N08208855?view=PrinterFriendly

The International Answer coalition, represented by former
U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, said it expects
several tens of thousands of people to join its Jan. 18
protest in the U.S. capital.

"The American people have very little time left to tell
President Bush in their own voice ... they don't want our
United States of America to become an aggressor nation and
attack Iraq," Clark said at a news conference.

...

Organizers said they expected the United States to use a
Jan. 27 presentation by U.N. weapons inspectors to the
Security Council as a trigger for war. The inspectors
returned to Iraq in November after a new U.N. resolution
demanded arms inspections and threatened "serious
consequences" for violations.

Dozens of busloads of people are expected to gather
outside the U.S. Capitol for the Jan. 18 march, including
students from more than 400 colleges and high schools.

...

Although Americans' opposition to a possible war has made
few headlines, Clark said Americans were increasingly
apprehensive about the consequences of conflict in Iraq.

"The American people are almost anesthetized on this
subject, and they have to break through. But there is a
growing (peace) movement," he said.

"It's measured by going out into the churches and into the
schools, and where the people are, and seeing what they
are doing and saying. It has arisen overwhelmingly,
spontaneously from people as they realize how far we've
gone (toward war)."

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


The following is an excerpt from the Scripps-Howard News
Service
http://www.knoxstudio.com/shns/story.cfm?pk=IRAQ-PROTESTS-01-08-03&cat=AN

Activists will rally at the Capitol and march to the
Washington Naval Yard to stage a mock weapons inspection.
Brian Becker, spokesman for the coalition, joked that he
"expects unconditional and unfettered access" to U.S.
weapons of mass destruction.

The protest will mark the third in a series of anti-war
protests in Washington. Tens of thousands gathered in
April and more than 100,000 swarmed the city in October -
the largest peace rally in the capital since the Vietnam
War protests.

Activists note the turnout is evidence the Bush
administration does not have public support needed for a
prolonged war. "The Bush administration, we think, is
nervous," said Becker. They want a quick war, before
domestic opposition mushrooms, he said.

Former Rep. Cynthia McKinney, actress Jessica Lange and
Ron Kovic, Vietnam veteran and author of Born on the
Fourth of July, plan to speak in opposition to Bush's
preemptive policy at the rally.

Despite congressional approval for use of force and
renewed U.N. support for weapons inspections, peace
activists claim the political green light does not
"reflect the will of the people." They point to hundreds
of underreported protests across the nation as proof and
see the upcoming event as a last chance to stop a
potential war against Iraq.

Recent military build-up in the Persian Gulf region has
led many to believe the Bush administration is preparing
for war. Media reports say as many as 250,000 troops could
be deployed and about 50,000 troops are already there.
Officials won't confirm the number of troops in the
region, but families across the nation are waving goodbye
to their loved ones in the military.

Organizers say the increased number of troops in the
region show the Bush administration is preparing for war
regardless of the inspectors' findings. They also believe
the United Nations' Jan. 27 deadline for weapons
inspectors to report findings is more likely to create a
war than prevent one.

The inspections were "established as a diplomatic fig leaf
and a trigger for war," said Becker. If the report doesn't
uncover weapons of mass destruction, Becker said, the Bush
administration could claim Iraq is hiding them. But if the
report reveals Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, it
would be in violation of the resolution, he said. "It is a
classic Catch-22."


http://internationalanswer.org