OSWEGO -- Syracuse peace activist Ed Kinane will
speak on "Iraq: Eyewitness to Invasion and Occupation" at 7 p.m.
Wednesday, April 14, in the main lounge of Hewitt Union. The campus
Coalition of Peace Education sponsors his admission-free talk.
Beginning in February 2003, Kinane spent five months
in Iraq as part of the Iraq Peace Team, sponsored by the Chicago-based
human rights group Voices in the Wilderness.
Kinane explained the team's presence before, during
and after the war, saying, "U.S. peace and justice activists need to
witness and, if possible, monitor U.S. occupations."
For its campaign before the war to lift the
sanctions on Iraq, Voices in the Wilderness was three times nominated
for the Nobel Peace Prize.
"I believe Iraqis would readily be friends and
allies of the U.S.," Kinane has written, "if the U.S. didn't prop up
tyrants (like Saddam before he outlived his usefulness) or appoint
puppets (like the Governing Council) over them. Or let U.S.
corporations steal their oil. Or hog the contracts to rebuild the
country. Or poison them with depleted uranium or maim and kill them."
Kinane, born and raised in Syracuse, has served the
Syracuse Peace Council as a staff member and more recently as a member
of the editorial board of the Peace Newsletter. He is a full-time peace
activist, having also worked with the campaign to close the School of
the Americas at Fort Benning and with Christian Peacemaker Teams in
Haiti.