FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 29, 2012
CONTACT:
Medea Benjamin, 415-235-6517, medea@codepink.org
Alli McCracken, 860-575-5692, alli@codepink.org
Follow @codepink
CODEPINK Activists Speak Out
During Condoleezza Rice Speech At Republican Convention-Related Event,
Hold Her Accountable for War Crimes
Raw footage: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3ko--2SIY8&feature=plcp
Tampa, FL— At 1:00 pm, August 29, 2012 two
activists from the peace group CODEPINK spoke out during Condoleezza Rice's
speech at the ONE/US Global Leadership coalition event. Retired Colonel Ann
Wright, who served 29 years in the US Military, stood up and spoke out when
Rice touted the “compassionate” policies of the Bush administration. “You
cannot be compassionate and kill people in the war of choice, the war on Iraq,”
Col. Wright said, “I'm an Army Colonel, I am a former US diplomat, and these
wars of choice that both the Republicans and the Democrats have had are
terrible for our national security.”
Shortly after Col. Ann Wright made her statement, 29 year old Rae
Abileah, co-director of CODEPINK, was moved to speak after Condoleezza Rice
made a statement about September 11th as the justification for
invading Afghanistan. “The blood of Iraqi children is on your hands! Thousands
of young soldiers my age have lost their lives unnecessarily in a war based on
Condoleezza Rice and the Bush administration's lies,” said Abileah. “True patriotism does not look like illegal
bombing and lying into war that kills innocent civilians.”
When asked why she disrupted Rice's speech, Col. Wright stated,
“Condoleezza Rice is a war criminal because of the lies of the Iraq war and the
deaths of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the
death of American military soldiers.” She added, “It's important for us to hold
war criminals of the Bush administration accountable, even though the Obama
administration will not.”
CODEPINK has campaigned for the past ten years
for accountability for public officials who knowingly led the US into illegal
and amoral wars.
CODEPINK, founded in 2002, is a women-initiated
grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the war in Iraq,
stop new wars, and redirect our resources into health care, education and other
life-affirming activities. www.codepink.org
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