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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>day of action on the 3rd anniversay of invasion of
Iraq</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Does anyone want to do anything in Sheffield
rel</FONT><FONT face=Arial size=2>ated/connected to the below. although the
workshop is in London we could still participate in the worldwide day of
action.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Lesley</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><B><BR></B><BR>"WHAT I HEARD ABOUT IRAQ" STREET THEATRE WORKSHOP<BR>A
practical workshop to prepare for the day of international<BR>readings of Eliot
Weinberger's celebrated anti-war work "What I heard
about<BR>Iraq."<BR><BR>WHERE:: The Front Studio, Diorama 1, 34 Osnaburgh St,
London NW1 3ND<BR>(nearest<BR>tube Great Portland Street)<BR>WHEN: 11am - 5pm,
Saturday 4 March<BR><BR>Organised by JNV, Surrey Code Pink and Voices
UK.<BR><BR>The 20th March has been called as an worldwide day of readings of US
poet<BR>Eliot Weinberger's amazing anti-war work "What I heard about Iraq",
which<BR>uses a<BR>carefully selected sequence of quotes from US and British
Government<BR>officials, soldiers and Iraqis to paint a devastating portrait of
the lies<BR>that led to the 2003 invasion and the horrors of the subsequent war
and<BR>occupation (see extract below).<BR><BR>Readings and performances will be
taking place from Calcutta to Luxembourg,<BR>Greece to Australia, and throughout
the U.S.<BR><BR>If you are interested in taking part in a reading on or around
the 3rd<BR>anniversary of the invasion - perhaps joining one of the small mobile
street<BR>theatre groups that will be performing around London - join us on 4
March<BR>for a (free!) day-long street theatre workshop, looking at practical
ways to<BR>make your event as effective as possible. No prior experience is
necessary<BR>and the workshop is also open to anyone who is interested in
incorporating<BR>elements of street theatre in their anti-war
activism.<BR><BR>You can find the complete text of "What I heard about Iraq"
(and it's<BR>sequel, "What I heard about Iraq in 2005") on-line at
www.voicesuk.org and<BR>sample adaptations for use by small mobile street
theatre groups will also<BR>be available shortly.<BR><BR>For more info. contact
Voices on 0845 458 2564 or e-mail
voices@voicesuk.org<BR><BR>************************************<BR>WHAT I HEARD
ABOUT IRAQ (EXTRACT)<BR><BR>I heard Colonel Gary Brandl say: ‘The enemy has got
a face. He’s called<BR>Satan. He’s in Fallujah and we’re going to destroy
him.’<BR><BR>I heard a marine commander tell his men: ‘You will be held
accountable for<BR>the facts not as they are in hindsight but as they appeared
to you at the<BR>time. If, in your mind, you fire to protect yourself or your
men, you are<BR>doing the right thing. It doesn’t matter if later on we find out
you wiped<BR>out a family of unarmed civilians.’<BR><BR>I heard
Lieutenant-Colonel Mark Smith say: ‘We’re going out where the bad<BR>guys live,
and we’re going to slay them in their zip code.’<BR><BR>I heard that 15,000 US
troops invaded Fallujah while planes dropped<BR>500-pound bombs on ‘insurgent
targets’. I heard they destroyed the Nazzal<BR>Emergency Hospital in the centre
of the city, killing 20 doctors. I heard<BR>they occupied Fallujah General
Hospital, which the military had called a<BR>‘centre of propaganda’ for
reporting civilian casualties. I heard that they<BR>confiscated all mobile
phones and refused to allow doctors and ambulances to<BR>go out and help the
wounded. I heard they bombed the power plant to black<BR>out the city, and that
the water was shut off. I heard that every house and<BR>shop had a large red X
spray-painted on the door to indicate that it had<BR>been searched.<BR><BR>I
heard Donald Rumsfeld say: ‘Innocent civilians in that city have all
the<BR>guidance they need as to how they can avoid getting into trouble. There
aren<BR>’t going to be large numbers of civilians killed and certainly not by
US<BR>forces.’<BR><BR>I heard that, in a city of 150 mosques, there were no
longer any calls to<BR>prayer.<BR><BR>I heard Muhammad Abboud tell how, unable
to leave his house to go to a<BR>hospital, he had watched his nine-year-old son
bleed to death, and how,<BR>unable to leave his house to go to a cemetery, he
had buried his son in the<BR>garden.<BR><BR>I heard Sami al-Jumaili, a doctor,
say: ‘There is not a single surgeon in<BR>Fallujah. A 13-year-old child just
died in my hands.’<BR><BR>I heard an American soldier say: ‘We will win the
hearts and minds of<BR>Fallujah by ridding the city of insurgents. We’re doing
that by patrolling<BR>the streets and killing the enemy.’<BR><BR>I heard an
American soldier, a Bradley gunner, say: ‘I was basically looking<BR>for any
clean walls, you know, without any holes in them. And then we were<BR>putting
holes in them.’<BR><BR>I heard Farhan Salih say: ‘My kids are hysterical with
fear. They are<BR>traumatised by the sound but there is nowhere to take
them.’<BR><BR>I heard that the US troops allowed women and children to leave the
city, but<BR>that all ‘military age males’, men from 15 to 60, were required to
stay. I<BR>heard that no food or medicine was allowed into the city.<BR><BR>I
heard the Red Cross say that at least 800 civilians had died. I heard
Iyad<BR>Allawi say there were no civilian casualties in Fallujah.<BR><BR>I heard
a man named Abu Sabah say: ‘They used these weird bombs that put up<BR>smoke
like a mushroom cloud. Then small pieces fall from the air with long<BR>tails of
smoke behind them.’ I heard him say that pieces of these bombs<BR>exploded into
large fires that burned the skin even when water was thrown on<BR>it.<BR><BR>I
heard Kassem Muhammad Ahmed say: ‘I watched them roll over wounded people<BR>in
the streets with tanks.’<BR><BR>I heard a man named Khalil say: ‘They shot women
and old men in the streets.<BR>Then they shot anyone who tried to get their
bodies.’<BR><BR>I heard Nihida Kadhim, a housewife, say that when she was
finally allowed to<BR>return to her home, she found a message written with
lipstick on her<BR>living-room mirror: FUCK IRAQ AND EVERY IRAQI IN IT.<BR><BR>I
heard General John Sattler say that the destruction of Fallujah had<BR>‘broken
the back of the insurgency’.<BR><BR>I heard that three-quarters of Fallujah had
been shelled into rubble. I<BR>heard an American soldier say: ‘It’s kind of bad
we destroyed everything,<BR>but at least we gave them a chance for a new
start.’<BR><BR>I heard that only five roads into Fallujah would remain open. The
rest would<BR>be sealed with ‘sand berms’, mountains of earth. At the entry
points,<BR>everyone would be photographed, fingerprinted and have iris scans
taken<BR>before being issued identification cards. All citizens would be
required to<BR>wear identification cards in plain sight at all times. No
private<BR>automobiles would be allowed in the city. All males would be
organised into<BR>‘work brigades’ rebuilding the city. They would be paid, but
participation<BR>would be compulsory.<BR><BR>I heard Muhammad Kubaissy, a
shopkeeper, say: ‘I am still searching for what<BR>they have been calling
democracy.’<BR><BR>I heard a soldier say that he had talked to his priest about
killing Iraqis,<BR>and that his priest had told him it was all right to kill for
his government<BR>as long as he did not enjoy it. After he had killed at least
four men, I<BR>heard the soldier say that he had begun to have doubts: ‘Where
the fuck did<BR>Jesus say it’s OK to kill people for your
government?’<BR><BR><BR></DIV></BODY></HTML>