September, 11 2008, 12:26pm EDT

For Immediate Release
Contact:
Michael T. McPhearson 314-303-8874
Elliott Adams 518-441-2697
VFP Calls for U.S. Withdrawal From Afghanistan and the Prosecution of Dick Cheney and George Bush for Crimes Against Humanity
Nationwide
Veterans For Peace held its
Annual National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota days before the start
of the Republican Convention. Over 400 veterans, military family
members and friends ranging from World War II to the current conflict
in Iraq gathered for workshops, discussions, inspirational speakers and
entertainment. Topics covered included Agent Orange, Depleted Uranium,
outreach to military personnel, PTSD and healing from war, military
sexual assault and others. Keynote speakers for the four day conference
were Father Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest and founder of the School
of Americas Watch; former Marine and chief United Nations Special
Commission (UNSCOM) Inspector in Iraq 1991-1998, Scott Ritter; Iraq War
Gold Star parent and former Minnesota State Senator Becky Lourey; the
author of the best seller "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most
Powerful Mercenary Army," Jeremy Scahill; and West Point graduate James
Yee, former Muslim Chaplin for the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay.
Veterans For Peace also passed sixteen resolutions taking stands on
topics ranging from increasing VFP commitment to greening the annual
convention, working to authorizing the creation of Veterans For Peace
Incarcerated Chapters to assisting disabled military personnel and
veterans. Three resolutions in particular stand out.
Veterans For Peace is calling for changes in military law and other
appropriate regulations so that military personnel can declare
themselves Conscientious Objectors to specific wars based on a
religious, moral, or legal basis. Current law calls for the objection
to all wars to qualify for CO status.
The group is calling for the government of the United States to
immediately withdraw all military and intelligence forces from
Afghanistan and Pakistan. This same resolution calls for the U.S.
government to provide humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan, in
non-coercive forms, to help them rebuild their own nation and their
lives in cooperation with other nations in the region; and to allow the
people of Afghanistan to freely determine their own government without
interference by the U.S.
Continuing with their efforts to impeach President Bush Jr. and Vice
President Cheney, VFP has pledged to take every appropriate measure to
insure that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and responsible members of
their administration are prosecuted for war crimes, crimes against
peace and crimes against humanity before any court claiming
jurisdiction in this country or abroad, for as long as they shall live.
Commenting on these resolutions, VFP Executive Director Michael
McPhearson said, "These three statements from our membership represent
many of the core values of our organization. We believe that service
members have the right to re-evaluate their decision to kill and change
their mind. We know that after all the killing is done the individual
soldiers must live with themselves and make sense of what they have
done. We believe that our political leaders must be held accountable
for their actions. This is a critical to a healthy and functional
democracy. We realize that to survive the challenges we face today,
like global warming, we must find ways to work together and war is not
viable."
To read full text of the resolutions please visit https://www.veteransforpeace.org/Convention_Resolutions_2008.vp.html
Veterans For Peace is a global organization of Military Veterans and allies whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by using our experiences and lifting our voices. We inform the public of the true causes of war and the enormous costs of wars, with an obligation to heal the wounds of wars. Our network is comprised of over 140 chapters worldwide whose work includes: educating the public, advocating for a dismantling of the war economy, providing services that assist veterans and victims of war, and most significantly, working to end all wars.
(314) 725-6005LATEST NEWS
Stateless Palestinian Woman Details 'Very Traumatizing' Abuse Suffered in ICE Detention
Trump administration immigration officials reportedly dismissed Ward Sakeik's ordeal as a "sob story."
Jul 06, 2025
A newlywed Palestinian woman from Texas released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention earlier this week says she was shackled for long periods, denied food and water, and subjected to other human rights abuses during nearly five months in ICE custody—all because she is a stateless person.
Ward Sakeik, 22, was born in Saudi Arabia to Palestinian parents from Gaza. Because Saudi Arabia does not grant birthright citizenship to the children of foreign nationals, Sakeik was officially stateless when her family legally emigrated to the United States when she was 8 years old.
“I was moved around like cattle.”
Ward Sakeik, US college graduate and homeowner, speaks out following 140 days in ICE hellhole pic.twitter.com/bNTgs7362h
— World Socialist Web Site (@WSWS_Updates) July 5, 2025
Sakeik's parents subsequently applied for—and were denied—asylum in the U.S. but were allowed to remain legally in the country pending routine check-ins with ICE.
After graduating high school and the University of Texas, Arlington, starting a wedding photography business, marrying a U.S. citizen, and beginning the process of obtaining a green card, Sakeik and her husband went on their honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She was detained shortly after arriving back in the United States after Customs and Border Protection agents flagged her for flying over international waters—a move that Department of Homeland Security officials said violated immigration policy.
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Sakeik said unhygienic conditions at the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas—where an ICE officer was shot in the neck during a Friday evening attack—caused widespread illness among detainees.
"The restrooms are also very, very, very unhygienic," she said. "The beds have rust everywhere. They're not properly maintained. And cockroaches, grasshoppers, spiders, you name it, are all over the facility. Girls would get bit."
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Sakeik said she now plans to advocate on behalf of women and girls imprisoned by ICE.
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While some local officials blamed what they said were faulty forecasts from the National Weather Service—which has been hit hard by staffing cuts ordered by the Trump administration's Department of Government Efficiency in line with Project 2025—meteorologists and climate scientists including Daniel Swain of the University of California, Los Angeles have refuted such allegations, citing multiple NWS warnings of potentially deadly flooding.
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As Jeff Masters and Bob Henson wrote Saturday for Yale Climate Connections:
Many studies have confirmed that human-caused climate change is making the heaviest short-term rainfall events more intense, largely by warming the world's oceans and thus sending more water vapor into the atmosphere that can fuel heavy rain events. Sea surface temperatures this week have been as much as 1°F below the 1981-2010 average for early July in the western Gulf [of Mexico] and Caribbean, but up to 1°F above average in the central Gulf. Long-term human-caused warming made the latter up to 10 times more likely, according to the Climate Shift Index from Climate Central.
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It’s hard to make the Texas flood tragedy worse, except to know that on the same day Trump signed a bill to stop our efforts to defeat the climate change that is causing increased frequency of disastrous floods. And giving us more expensive electricity. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/05/c...
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— Governor Jay Inslee (@govjayinslee.bsky.social) July 5, 2025 at 9:29 AM
Instead of taking action to combat the planetary emergency, the Trump administration is ramping up fossil fuel production while waging war on clean energy and climate initiatives. The so-called One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed into law by Trump on Friday slashes the tax credits for electric vehicles and other renewable technologies including wind and solar energy that were a cornerstone of the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.
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Metropolitan Police arrested at least 27 protesters who gathered in central London on Saturday to publicly support Palestine Action, a nonviolent direct action group now officially designated a terrorist organization by the U.K. government.
According to Middle East Eye, Palestine defenders including 83-year-old Rev. Sue Parfitt, a former government attorney, an emeritus professor, and health workers gathered by a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Parliament Square, where they held signs reading, "I OPPOSE GENOCIDE, I SUPPORT PALESTINE ACTION."
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Members of the group Defend Our Juries publicly declare their opposition to Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza and their support for the proscribed group Palestine Action while Metropolitan Police officers look on before arresting them during a July 4, 2025 demonstration in London. (Photo: Kristian Buus/In Pictures via Getty Images)
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At midnight, Palestine Action will be proscribed under the Terrorism Act.Their real “crime”? Exposing the UK’s role in arming Israel’s genocide.This is a dark day for our democracy.Criminalising non-violent resistance won’t silence the truth.We are all Palestine Action 🇵🇸
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— Zarah Sultana MP (@zarahsultana.bsky.social) July 4, 2025 at 2:38 PM
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