[Peace-discuss] Fwd:[ANSWER]: Media Coverage of ANSWER Washington Press Conf

[jencart]

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ARTICLES & EXCERPTS FROM A.N.S.W.E.R.'s 01/08/03 PRESS  CONFERENCE ANNOUNCING JANUARY 18 ANTI-WAR STRATEGY AND  SCENARIOS

Speakers at the Press Conference:

- Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General 
- Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Partnership for Civil 
Justice-LDEF
- Mahdi Bray, Executive Director, Muslim American
Society Freedom Foundation
- Damu Smith, Black Voices for Peace
- Chuck Kaufman, Nicaragua Network
- Ihab Darwish, Free Palestine Alliance
- Brian Becker, International Action Center
- Ismail Kamal, Muslim Students Alliance
- Peta Lindsay, A.N.S.W.E.R. Youth and Student
Coordinator, Howard University student 

Some of the news outlets that attended included:

CBS, New York Times, Washington Post, Associated Press,  Pacifica, D.C.'s Newschannel 8, Reuters, Reuters & AP 
Television, NPR, WAMU Radio (NPR Affiliate), BBC, ARD 
German TV, La Jornada, Scripps Howard, Gannett News  Service, Akahata (Japanese newspaper), Der Spiegel

The following is an excerpt from an Associated Press 
article

Sponsors Outline Anti-War Protest Plan
By HEATHER GREENFIELD
Associated Press Writer
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-anti-war-protest0108jan08,0,2283668.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines


January 8, 2003, 4:33 PM EST

WASHINGTON -- The weekend of Martin Luther King Jr.'s  birthday is a perfect time for a big anti-war protest in 
Washington, sponsors said Wednesday. 

"The American people have very little time left to tell 
President Bush that they don't want the U.S. to be an 
aggressor nation and attack Iraq," said former Attorney  General Ramsey Clark, whose group International 
A.N.S.W.E.R (Act Now to Stop War and Racism) is organizing  the Jan. 18 event. 

"Martin Luther King weekend is a perfect time to say, 'No  War, Mr. President,'" Clark said. King's birthday is Jan. 
15, celebrated as a federal holiday this year on Monday, 
Jan. 20. 

Calling King a "drum major for peace and justice," Mahdi  Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American 
Society, noted that King spoke out against the Vietnam 
War. 

Actors Jessica Lange and Mike Farrell and demonstrators  from religious groups, labor organizations and schools are  among those planning to attend the event. 

Demonstrators plan a rally on the west side of the 
Capitol. They will then march to the Washington Navy Yard  where they will ask to inspect weapons of mass destruction  they say the government might have. 

The march will travel through a relatively poor section of  Washington. Protesters say those residents will be hurt if  the United States diverts money from social programs to  pay for a war. 


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The following is an excerpt from Reuters News Agency
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N08208855?view=PrinterFriendly

The International Answer coalition, represented by former  U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, said it expects 
several tens of thousands of people to join its Jan. 18 
protest in the U.S. capital.

"The American people have very little time left to tell 
President Bush in their own voice ... they don't want our  United States of America to become an aggressor nation and  attack Iraq," Clark said at a news conference.

...

Organizers said they expected the United States to use a  Jan. 27 presentation by U.N. weapons inspectors to the 
Security Council as a trigger for war. The inspectors 
returned to Iraq in November after a new U.N. resolution  demanded arms inspections and threaten