ATTN: Bay Area: Veterans For Peace/U.S. Tour of Duty in your area

[Mabus]

U.S. Tour of Duty Presents
DIRECT FROM CAMP CASEY
2 big events with
IRAQ VETS, MILITARY FAMILIES & BAY AREA NEIGHBORS

Over 100,000 people, including many from the Bay Area, came to Crawford, Texas in August to support Cindy Sheehan's challenge to the Bush administration to explain its war in Iraq. A simple request from a bereaved mother inspired and galvanized the peace movement. Come find out what Camp Casey was like on the ground from people who were there, hear first-hand accounts of the war being fought in our name, and learn why the movement launched in Crawford by military families, vets, and activists is turning the tide.

Monday, September 12
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
Grand Lake Theater
3200 Grand Avenue
Oakland, CA 94610

Tuesday, September 13
7:00 PM to 9:00 PM
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
405 South 10th Street
San Jose, CA 95112

Both events will benefit the Veterans For Peace hurricane relief effort and U.S. Tour of Duty

Featured guests direct from Camp Casey:

NADIA McCAFFREY (Member of Gold Star Families for Peace, son was killed last year in Iraq)
KAREN MEREDITH (Member of Gold Star Families for Peace, son was killed last year in Iraq)
RAY McGOVERN (Former CIA analyst, featured in "Uncovered: The War on Iraq")
SEAN O'NEILL (Iraq veteran, member of Iraq Veterans Against the War)
JEFF PATERSON (Former Marine, official Camp Casey blogger)
JESSE DYEN (Singer-songwriter, Camp Casey volunteer)

Plus a 16-minute film by MARK MANNING
"CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE"
Featuring exclusive footage of the U.S. bombardment of Falluja and its aftermath

Hosted by AIMEE ALLISON, Army conscientious objector

Suggested donation: $10 (Nobody turned away)

For more information call 510.452.3556 (Oakland) and 408.294.4564 (San Jose) or visit www.ustourofduty.org

Co-sponsored by San Jose Peace Center, Not In Our Name and CODEPINK

Special thanks to Grand Lake Theater and St. Paul's United Methodist Church


RAY McGOVERN served as a CIA analyst for 27 years. From 1981 to 1985 he conducted daily briefings for Ronald Reagan's vice president, George Bush, the father of our current president. Ray is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, and is co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an outreach ministry in the inner city of Washington. He is featured in Robert Greenwald's "Uncovered" and John Pilger¹s ³Break the Silence.²


NADIA McCAFFREY is known as the mother who defied President Bush by allowing the media to view the flag-draped coffin of her son, Patrick. After Patrick was killed in the Iraq war (in June of 2004), Nadia traveled to the Middle East with filmmaker Mark Manning, who made a 30-minute film ("Journey to Peace") about the trip. They sought answers to what causes wars, and met with Iraqi mothers. Nadia explains her purpose: "I wanted to look them in the eye and share their pain."


MARK MANNING traveled to Jordan in January of 2005 to document Gold Star mom Nadia McCaffrey's meetings with Iraqi mothers. He then became the only "unembedded" western journalist to enter Falluja immediately following the U.S. bombardment. He spent three weeks filming "Caught in the Crossfire" inside the ravaged ancient city. His exclusive footage provides a rare glimpse of the innocent victims' plight, and dispels the myths of war and the nature of the "enemy." U.S. Tour of Duty frequently screens this 16-minute documentary at its events.


SEAN O'NEILL is a decorated Marine who served in Iraq twice, first during the 2003 invasion, and again from March to July in 2004. In "Amazing Disgrace" he suggests his commanding officers knew from the very beginning there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He reveals that ³two weeks into it, we were told that we wouldn't need our chemical suits anymore, we didn't have to wear them, and we didn't need our gas masks." Sean, who suffered ear damage from a firefight in Iraq, has been awarded the Purple Heart, Navy Achievement Medal, and Combat Action Ribbon.


KAREN MEREDITH is a member of Gold Star Families of Peace and the mother of Lt. Ken Ballard, who was killed in Najaf, Iraq on May 30, 2004.


JEFF PATERSON was the first military service person to publicly speak out against and be imprisoned for opposing the 1991 Gulf War. After declaring his intent to resist "a war for oil, power, and profit," US Marine Corporal Paterson sat on the runway instead of boarding a transport plane with his artillery battery as they deployed to the Middle East. Jeff is currently on the national staff of the Not in Our Name project.


AIMEE ALLISON was an Army combat medic who won an honorable discharge as a conscientious objector during the Persian Gulf War. Today she counsels and supports soldiers seeking CO status and serves on the steering committee of the San Francisco College Not Combative Initiative to ban military recruiters from public school campuses. Aimee is also working with CODEPINK to pass resolutions calling for the return of the National Guard from Iraq.

*********
A friend of mine, who is on one of the buses from Camps Casey, sent me this and asked me to post for California DU'ers.