United National Antiwar Coalition National Conference 2012 (Stamford, CT)

Date 

Add to My Calendar Saturday, March 24, 2012 12:00am

Location 

Friday, March 23 – Sunday, March 25, the United National Antiwar Coalition (UNAC) will host its 2012 National Conference at the Stamford Connecticut Hilton. The theme is Say No to the NATO/G8 Wars & Poverty Agenda: A Conference to Challenge the Wars of the 1% Against the 99% at Home and Abroad.

Address: Stamford Connecticut Hilton (From NYC, one stop from Harlem/125th St. on Metro North commuter line)

CCR will participate in 2 UNAC forums:

1) Saturday, March 24 @ 9-10 AM plenary panel, "The NATO/G* Summits: Our Response to their Agenda of War and Austerity" will feature Leili Kashani, CCR's Advocacy Program Manager.

2) Saturday, March 24 @ 5:45-7:15 PM,"Understanding & Organizing Against Expanding Wars & Repression in Yemen, Pakistan, Bahrain"
Chair & Organizer: Leili Kashani (Advocacy Program Manager, CCR)
Speakers:
Ann Wright, Madiha Tahir, Maria LaHood, and Nada Alwadi.

Ann Wright spent 13 years in the U.S. army and 16 additional years in the Army Reserves from which she retired as a Colonel, and worked in the U.S. State Department before resigning in 2003 on the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq--which she considered a violation of international law. She was one of the "Hancock 38" activists found guilty in December 2011 for their role in a protest against U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Wright has been very active in building resistance to drone strikes, and in the peace movement more broadly. Wright has been on delegations to Iran and was in Gaza three times in 2009, following the Israeli attack on Gaza that killed 1,440 and wounded 5,000. She was an organizer for the "Gaza Freedom March" that brought 1,350 persons from 44 countries to Cairo, Egypt, in solidarity with the people of Gaza, and she was on the May, 2010 Gaza flotilla that was attacked by the Israeli military. She also helped organize the U.S. Boat to Gaza, The Audacity of Hope, in the 2011 Gaza flotilla.

Maria LaHood is a Senior Staff attorney at CCR who specializes in international human rights litigation, seeking to hold government officials and corporations accountable for torture, extrajudicial killings, and war crimes abroad. Her cases have included Al-Aulaqi v. Obama, which sought to prevent the “targeted killing” of a U.S. citizen in Yemen in violation of constitutional and international law, and draw attention to expanding U.S. covert wars in Yemen and beyond.

Madiha R. Tahir is an independent multimedia and print journalist who has recently returned from Pakistan, where she interviewed and photographed individuals who have survived U.S. drone attacks or lost loved ones to such attacks. She has traveled extensively throughout Pakistan from Balochistan to Swat as well as to rural, flood-affected areas. Her work has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The National, The Columbia Journalism Review, The Herald (Pakistan), The Friday Times, as well as on Democracy Now!, PRI’s The World, Global Post and other outlets. Tahir is co-editor of a forthcoming volume, Dispatches from Pakistan with historian Vijay Prashad and editor Qalandar Bux Memon.

Nada Alwadi is a Bahraini journalist, writer and researcher. Since 2003 she has been covering politics and human rights issues in Bahrain and the Middle East. Alwadi covered the recent crackdown in Bahrain for several international media outlets including USA Today. Alwadi co-founded the Bahraini Press Association with other prominent Bahraini journalists last year. This Association focuses on freedom of expression in Bahrain, and defends local and international journalists who have been attacked or targeted by the Bahraini authorities. Alwadi holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication with an emphasis on women’s political empowerment in the media.

Visit UNAC National Conference 2012 for the full schedule of events and to register today!

Last modified 

March 20, 2012