Speakers:Thursday Feb 28 - Detroit Mercy

[noamnety]

Speak for Peace Tour

Iraqi Raed Jarrar and Patricia McCann, Specialist E-4, who served in Iraq with the
Illinois National Guard, will be speaking at the University of Detroit Mercy, 4001
W. McNichols Road, (Life Sciences Building Room 115) on Thursday, Feb. 28 at 7:30PM.

* Raed Jarrar is an Iraqi political analyst currently based in Washington, DC. A
professional architect, Jarrar obtained his first degree from the University of
Baghdad in 2000. Jarrar continued postgraduate studies at the University of Jordan
in Amman, Jordan where he researched community-based post-war reconstruction in
Iraq. After a few days of the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, he became the country
director for the only door-to-door casualty survey group in post-war Iraq. He then
established a grassroots organization that coordinated with political leadership
and civil society throughout Iraq in order to rebuild Iraqi civil society and physical
infrastructure, implementing hundreds of community-based projects with minimal funding.

In 2005, Jarrar moved to California and has continued to contribute to a series
of Iraq-related projects. On the environment, he worked as consultant and translator
for UNEP-Japan to preserve Iraqi marshlands. Then he worked as political analyst
and interpreter for an UNDP-Iraq-sponsored conference in South Africa on the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission, where he cultivated strong relationships with numerous
leaders across the Iraqi political and religious spectrums.

In early 2007, Jarrar became the Iraq consultant for the American Friends Service
Committee (AFSC) in Washington, DC. He endeavors to advance discourse between Iraqi
leaders and members of the U.S. Congress. To that end, he has organized a series
of meetings between U.S. and Iraqi officials and helped facilitate the publication
of a number of op-eds by Iraqi leaders in prominent U.S. newspapers.

* Patricia McCann, Specialist E-4, served in the 133rd Signal Battalion of the Illinois
National Guard from 2000-2006 as a MSE Systems Switching Operator. In March of 2003,
her unit was attached to the 234th Signal Battalion from the Iowa National Guard
and was deployed to Iraq for one 15-month tour of duty. In Iraq, Patricia was stationed
at Log Base Seitz, a logistics base in west Baghdad near the town of Abu Ghraib.

During her tour of duty, Patricia witnessed many injustices perpetuated and enforced
by the U.S. military directed toward both Iraqi civilians and lower enlisted U.S.
military soldiers including the illegal use of force, sexual harassment, inadequate
medical treatment and the abuse of rank by commissioned and non-commissioned officers.
After completing her tour, Patricia and other members of her unit were denied education
and medical benefits they had been promised.

Since returning from Iraq, Patricia has become a committed activist in the G.I.
rights, de-militarization of schools and anti-war movements. She is an active member
of the Iraq Veterans Against the War, serving as the Treasurer of the Chicago Chapter
and is a Program Associate of the American Friends Service Committee's Truth
and Recruitment program. Patricia is pursuing a degree in English Education at the
University of Illinois at Chicago and plans to teach in Chicago public high schools.
Patricia is 25 years old.