FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 24, 2014

Contact: Alli McCracken, CODEPINK National Coordinator, 860 575 5692, Alli@codepink.org

CODEPINK Holds Candlelight Vigil for Peace;

Calls on Obama to Return his Nobel Peace Prize

When: 7:00 PM on Thursday, September 25, 2014

Where: The White House (1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, DC)

Visuals: The group will have a lighted banner and candles, a large Obama puppet with Nobel Peace Prize in one hand and bomb in the other, and will call for a moment of silence for all those who have died in the Middle East wars.

Washington, DC –– CODEPINK activists will gather at the White House to protest military intervention in Syria and Iraq against ISIS and call on Obama to return his Nobel Peace Prize. Activists will mourn those affected by war and call for nonviolent solutions to the conflicts in Syria and Iraq.

CODEPINK will read messages from people around the world, including Nobel Peace Laureates, saying why Obama should return the prize that he does not deserve.

CODEPINK staunchly opposes the use of military force in Iraq and Syria which both results in civilian deaths and is environmentally damaging. The decision to intervene militarily without authorization by Congress or the Security Council violates international law, the UN Charter, and is also in violation of the US Constitution.

“As a Peace Laureate, President Obama should be promoting political solutions that will cut funding, recruits, weapons and oil sales to ISIS, not bombing,” said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin.

“We are caught in a Catch-22 when it comes to the Middle East,” said CODEPINK youth organizer Anna Kaminski. “Intervening militarily only justifies and feeds further extremism. We look at war ahistorically too often and seem to never learn the most important lesson of all, violence begets violence. In solidarity we can end this, but we need everyone and we need them now.”

There will also be a protest held at noon in front of the White House by the ANSWER Coalition and CODEPINK.

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