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For Immediate Release
February, 02 2011, 08:20pm EDT
Contact:
Medea Benjamin, +011 20 225750966 or +011 20 225750627 (at the Lotus Hotel in Cairo) medea@globalexchange.org, Skype: medeabenjamin, Twitter: @medeabenjamin and @codepinkalert
Alli McCracken, 860-575-5692, alli@codepink.org
CODEPINK Peace Activists Join Egyptians on the Ground in Cairo, Available for Phone Calls, Interviews
Eye-witness Accounts of Mubarak Unleashing His Thugs on Peaceful Egyptian Protesters
WASHINGTON
Human rights activists from the organization CODEPINK joined Egyptian protesters
this week in Cairo as perhaps the only international solidarity delegation on
the ground in the country. They have been in the streets with the
Egyptian people for the last five days. Several members of the group of nine
activists are available by phone for interviews this week. Tomorrow the
delegation plans to do a solidarity action at the US Embassy. Medea
Benjamin, a leader of the delegation and co-founder of CODEPINK Women
for Peace, is currently available by cell phone in Cairo at 011 20-107148431.
The activists report that Egyptians have been excited to see their
message of solidarity from the American people. Many Egyptian
protesters are carrying signs that say "My address is Tahrir square
until Mubarak leaves" and they are holding firm. The activists also
report that many Egyptian youth seem ecstatic that President Obama has
acknowledged their voice in Egypt's political affairs but they want him
to put more pressure on Mubarak to step down. Women are in the streets
and have played a major role in the grassroots movement for democracy
in Egypt. Today, as violence towards peaceful demonstrators escalates, the activists said rumors have circulated
that the pro-Mubarak agitators are paid supporters of the dictator.
The international CODEPINK delegation had been en route to Gaza via
Egypt but with the Rafah
border closed they are unable to enter Gaza, and remain in Cairo. The
activists will stay in Cairo until they can safely make
their way to Gaza, where they intend to continue their delegation for
peace. The delegation includes people from the US, Canada, Australia,
the UK, Switzerland and India. This is CODEPINK's ninth trip to Egypt
and Gaza in the past two years.
CODEPINK is calling on the
President, State Department, and Congress to stop funding the Mubarak
regime, which currently receives over $1.8 billion dollars in military
assistance annually from the US.
See photos from CODEPINK delegation in Egypt here: https://bit.ly/idIODQ
For more information on CODEPINK in Egypt, see the latest news and e-alerts at: www.codepink.org
For more information about the delegation to Gaza: https://bit.ly/f9Ca2X
CODEPINK is a women-led grassroots organization working to end U.S. wars and militarism, support peace and human rights initiatives, and redirect our tax dollars into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming programs.
(818) 275-7232LATEST NEWS
'Stupidity' of Iran War Becoming Increasingly 'Undeniable Even to Its Supporters,' Says Analyst
"We’re entering an even more dangerous moment," said foreign policy expert Matt Duss.
Mar 10, 2026
President Donald Trump may believe that his unprovoked and unconstitutional war with Iran is "very complete, pretty much," but one foreign policy expert thinks that is highly wishful thinking.
Matt Duss, executive vice president at the Center for International Policy and former foreign policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), argued in a Tuesday social media post that the negative consequences of Trump's attack on Iran are just starting to be felt, with no option for a quick ending.
"We’re entering an even more dangerous moment," Duss wrote, "as the stupidity of this war becomes undeniable even to its supporters, who realize they’re about to be revealed as morons yet again and are desperate to turn this into something they can spin as a win. Their only option is escalation."
Shortly before Duss offered his analysis of the situation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held a news conference in which he dialed up belligerent rhetoric against Iran while declaring the war "a laser-focused, maximum-authority mission, delivered with overwhelming and unrelenting precision."
Hegseth is serving a buzzword salad this morning: "Overwhelming and unrelenting precision. No hesitation. No half measures. As President Trump declared yesterday, we're crushing the enemy is an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force" pic.twitter.com/WQ19jkPpJB
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 10, 2026
"No hesitation, no half measures," Hegseth continued. "As President Trump declared yesterday, we're crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force."
Hegseth's bluster did not impress Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who vowed on Tuesday to drag Hegseth before the Senate to answer questions about the war, which the president launched early on a Saturday morning without any authorization from the US Congress.
"I'm joining together with my allies in the United States Senate to use the leverage we have to force a debate and a vote in the Senate on the authorization of war," Murphy said. "I think if the Senate took that vote, it would fail, and that would allow us to stop this illegal, disastrous war in Iran."
Murphy went on to note that "the Constitution is crystal clear" that Trump does not have the power to unilaterally declare war, even though that is precisely what he did less than two weeks ago.
"You should be furious about that," Murphy said, "because this is maybe the most dangerous thing a president can do: Send your sons and daughters to die overseas without your consent."
A group of us in the Senate are demanding public hearings on Trump's disastrous war with Iran with Secretary Hegseth and Rubio. And we've introduced a half dozen war powers resolutions to force the Senate to vote every day on the war if the hearings don't happen. pic.twitter.com/UayrSfoJEb
— Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) March 10, 2026
Murphy's statement earned kudos from Duss, who promoted his message on social media.
"This is the way," wrote Duss. "No business as usual."
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'We Carry Nothing But Weapons of Peace,' Said Priest Days Before Israel Killed Him in Lebanon
Father Pierre al-Rahi stayed in his southern town to help support parishioners who were unable to flee Israeli's attacks.
Mar 10, 2026
Pope Leo XIV was among those expressing grief Monday over the killing of Father Pierre al-Rahi, a Maronite Catholic priest, in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanese town of Qlayaa, days after he had insisted on staying in the region despite evacuation orders, in order to care for residents there.
Agence France-Presse reported that it was unclear why Israel targeted a home where a couple lived in Qlayaa at about 2:00 pm Beirut time on Monday. Up to now, Israeli forces had largely left the community untouched in their attacks on Lebanon in retaliation against Hezbollah, which has launched rockets at Israel in response to the Israeli-US war on Iran in recent days.
After a first strike was launched by a tank, wounding the owners of the house, al-Rahi was among the neighbors who rushed to the scene to help the residents. The priest was injured in a second strike and later died at a hospital from his injuries. Several other civilians were also wounded in the attack.
The pope expressed "profound sorrow for all the victims of the bombings in the Middle East over the last few days—for the many innocent people, including many children, and for those who were providing them with aid, such as Father Pierre El-Rahi, a Maronite priest killed this afternoon in Qlayaa."
Al-Rahi, who was 50, was killed days after speaking publicly in support of Lebanese civilians who are "defending our lands."
"As our forefathers said, we are only defending our land," said al-Rahi of the community members who were staying in the southern town in defiance of Israeli demands that the evacuate. "We are defending ourselves peacefully. None of us carry weapons. We carry nothing but the weapons of peace, goodness, love, prayer, and more prayer."
"That's why we want to preserve the fact that we are here on our land today," said the priest.
Three days ago, Father Pierre Al-Rai, the parish priest in the village of Al-Qlayaa in southern Lebanon, welcomed the Lebanese government’s recent decision declaring that any military or security activity outside the authority of the state is illegal—referring to the government’s… pic.twitter.com/BhxIk1rcGd
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) March 9, 2026
One Lebanese commentator said al-Rahi was "a priest with prayers. Murdered in broad daylight."
Israel's military has been bombing what it claims are Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon over the past week, and civilians have reported that residential areas are increasingly being targeted.
Qlayaa Mayor Hanna Daherl told Asia News that Israel claimed "there were fighters in the house, but that's not true. These are lies."
"Inside, there were only the residents of the house and people from the village who came to help the wounded," said Daher.
Israel demanded last week that residents of southern Lebanon—where about 200,000 people live—immediately leave and head north of the Litani River, but al-Rahi was among many clergy members who said they would stay to support civilians who couldn't leave their homes.
Aid to the Church in Need International told OSV News that "despite the growing insecurity in southern Lebanon, many priests and religious sisters have chosen to remain with their communities. Many Christian families have also stayed in their villages, unwilling to abandon their homes, land, and livelihoods."
Father Toufic Bou Merhi, a parish priest of two communities in the area, told EWTN News that fleeing the region would mean “living on the street or trying to rent a house, but people can’t afford it.”
He said the killing of al-Rahi has deeply impacted the local Catholic community, whose members are "weeping over the tragedy and, at the same time, are very afraid."
"Until now, people didn’t want to leave their homes in Christian villages, but in this situation, everything has changed,” Bou Merhi told EWTN News.
The French charity L'Oeuvre d'Orient, which supports Christians in the Middle East, condemned "in the strongest possible terms these acts of war, which aim to destabilize all of Lebanon and kill innocent civilians."
"The death of a priest who refused to leave his parish is yet another escalation of senseless violence," said the group. "L'Oeuvre d'Orient also denounces the risk of annexation and the disappearance of villages south of the Litani River, particularly historic Christian villages."
The Lebanese Health Ministry said Sunday that at least 394 people, including 42 women and 83 children, had been killed in Lebanon by Israeli forces since they began retaliating against Hezbollah.
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Trump Makes 'Most Blasé Admission of a War Crime by a US President in History'
Critics blasted Trump as "sadistic" for justifying attack on unarmed Iranian ship, which killed over 100 sailors, because it was "more fun" for US forces than capturing it.
Mar 10, 2026
President Donald Trump said the US Navy chose to sink an Iranian frigate, killing more than 100 sailors last week, because it was "more fun" than capturing the vessel, even though the ship posed no threat.
Though death tolls vary, Iran's state media organization, the Islamic Republic News Organization, reported on Sunday that 104 crew members were killed in the attack and that 32 others were injured when a US submarine torpedoed the Iranian warship IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean on March 4 as it departed from the Milan Peace 2026 naval drills hosted in India.
The Dena was more than 2,000 miles away from the Persian Gulf when it was attacked, far from the hostilities unleashed last weekend when the US and Israel launched a war against Iran. Contradicting US claims, Iranian and Indian officials have said it was not armed.
In what political commentator Adam Schwarz described as "the most blasé admission of a war crime by a US president in history," Trump on Monday casually recounted the US Navy's decision to attack the ship before a gathering of Republicans at a Congressional Institute event, a GOP-aligned nonprofit retreat organizer.
He suggested that the Navy blew the boat up not to neutralize a threat, but purely for its own sake.
After making the exaggerated boast that Iran's navy is "gone" following aggressive US bombing, Trump said at first he "got a little upset" with the military brass who ordered the sinking of the Dena, which he said they described as a "top-of-the-line" vessel.
Trump said he asked: "Why don't we just capture the ship? We could have used it. Why did we sink them?"
He said that an unspecified official told him, "It's more fun to sink them."
As the crowd laughed, Trump went on, chuckling himself: "They like sinking them better. They say it's safer to sink them. I guess it's probably true."
Iran's deputy foreign minister, Saeed Khatibzadeh, described the ship as operating in a purely "ceremonial" role and said it was "unloaded" and "unarmed" at the time of the attack last week.
Rahul Bedi, an independent defense analyst in India, told the Associated Press that while the ship may have used some limited non-offensive ammunition during naval exercises, drill protocol requires “the participating platforms to be unarmed.”
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has claimed the vessel was a "predator ship," while the US Indo-Pacific Command has said claims that the ship was unarmed are "false." However, it has provided no evidence that it posed a threat at the time of the attack.
The attack itself was likely legal under the rules of naval warfare, even if the ship was unarmed, though its ethical and tactical justification has been called into question.
"A military ship might be a lawful target," Phyllis Bennis, the co-director of the Institute for Policy Studies' New Internationalism Project told Common Dreams. "But firing on any ship—any people, anywhere—for 'fun' represents the kind of immoral depravity that this White House is infamous for."
Bennis added that "failing to do everything possible to rescue those aboard is certainly a war crime," as the Second Geneva Convention requires militaries to take all possible measures to search for and collect the shipwrecked, wounded, and sick.
The Dena's 32 survivors, as well as dozens of dead bodies, had to be pulled from the water by a Sri Lankan joint rescue operation following a distress call. The survivors were quickly rushed to a local hospital in Galle City.
Hegseth has previously come under fire for reportedly ordering a second strike on shipwrecked sailors who survived the bombing of an alleged drug trafficking boat in the Caribbean.
Many have described that attack on September 2 as an exceptionally blatant war crime in a broadly illegal campaign that has extrajudicially killed at least 156 people.
In carrying out its war against Iran, Hegseth has emphasized that the US would not abide by what he called "stupid rules of engagement."
Thousands of civilian targets, including schools, hospitals, and residential areas, have reportedly been attacked by US and Israeli strikes, according to the Iranian Red Crescent.
As of Monday, Iranian Deputy Health Minister Ali Jafarian said at least 1,255 people have been killed, including 200 children and 11 healthcare workers.
Though it may have still technically been legal, journalist Mark Ames, the co-host of the geopolitics podcast Radio War Nerd, argued that attacking a ship that posed no threat shows that Trump is "cowardly scum" who "gets his kicks killing those who can’t fight back."
"The ship was unarmed. That’s why Trump and Hegseth chose to murder them," Ames wrote on social media. "Tormenting those who can’t fight back is its own sadistic pleasure."
Bennis added that even if attacking the ship itself was lawful in a vacuum, it took place before a backdrop of brazen "illegality."
"This entire shocking episode represents a clear US violation of what the Nuremberg trials identified as the 'supreme international crime': the crime of aggression," she said. "The US had no legal right to go to war against Iran. The [United Nations] Security Council had not authorized the use of force, and there was no 'armed attack' from Iran against the US that required immediate self-defense.
"Without either of those, the UN Charter is very clear that no country may attack another country," she continued. "To do so, as the Nuremberg judges found, constitutes the crime of aggression—the ultimate crime."
NOTE: This piece has been updated following publication to include additional comments.
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