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---------- From: "Cey Mooney" <ceymooney@hotmail.com> To: ceymooney@hotmail.com Subject: FUNERAL PROCESSION Date: Sun, Mar 24, 2002, 3:33 pm prep session: today-sunday 24 march 7pm @ mid-south peace and justice center in first congregational church, 1000 s. cooper, back door, 7pm FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Dr. Nabil Bayakly, Director, Masjid Al-Noor, 432 0761 Ceylon Mooney, Board Member, Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, 725-4990 FUNERAL PROCESSION AND BURIAL SERVICE in memory of civilians and civil liberties killed by ongoing war and terror, Voices for Peace, a campaign of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, and the Masjid Al-Nour are holding a funeral procession and burial service for the civilians and civil liberties killed by the terrorist attacks of September 11 and the ongoing "War Against Terror." In appropriate funeral attire, participants and spectators will gather at Court Square at 1:00PM. A funeral procession to the Federal Plaza begins at 1:30PM. At the Federal Building, 167 N. Main, a burial service will be held. “We gather to demand an immediate end to the inexcusable killing of civilians by U.S. bombs in Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine; we gather in memory of civilians killed by terrorist attacks in Israel and the United States,” says Memphian Ceylon Mooney, who has traveled to Iraq twice as a nonviolent peace activist. Mourners and an 8-foot-tall grim reaper walking on stilts will accompany the funeral procession and service. Pallbearers will carry a coffin to the burial site in front of the Federal Building at 167 N. Main. At the gravesite burial service, participants will offer eulogies for the departed. "The greatest honor to my brother's life would be that his death would mark the end of this vicious cycle of violence," says Ryan Amundson, whose brother was killed at the Pentagon on September 11. "For my family and I, my brother's death as a justification for the violent death of more innocent people and more American troops is an indignity." This dramatic funeral condemns the September 11 terror attack and mourns for the victims and their families while calling for an immediate end to the "War Against Terror" here and abroad. To lament the loss of domestic civil liberties, the service concludes with the “burial” of the Bill of Rights, another American casualty in the War Aganst Terror. Susan Goering, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland, wrote, "Passage of the U.S.A. Patriot Act gives the government new and unchecked powers that can be used against Americans who are not under criminal investigation, immigrants who are within our borders legally and those whose First Amendment activities are deemed by the attorney general to be threats to national security.” WAR AND TERROR, HERE AND ABROAD--TALKING POINTS Operation: Enduring Freedom has yet to unearth the prime suspect behind the September 11 terrorist attacks yet continues to kill more innocent people in the name of the innocent people killed on September 11.The BBC reports that U.S.forces killed 106 Afghan civilians when they dropped bombs on the village of Qalaye Naizi, in eastern Afghanistan. In December, American warplanes hit a convoy transporting tribal elders to the inauguration of the Afghanistan government in Kabul, killing roughly 65 people. University of New Hampshire Professor Marc Herold, who has compiled a conservative estimate from mainstream media, puts the civilian death toll from U.S. air strikes at roughly 4,000. U.S. military aid to Israel continues to arm the conflict, and U.S. weapons continue to kill civilians. The Israeli human rights group B’tselem reports, Since September 29: -812 Palestinian civilians were killed by Israeli security forces' gunfire in the Occupied Territories, of whom 190 were minors under the age of 18. -15 Palestinian civilians killed by Israeli civilians, including one two month- old baby girl. -12 Palestinian citizens of Israel killed within Israel by the Israeli Police -234 Israeli civilians were killed by Palestinians, including 47 under the age of 18. -5 foreign Citizens were killed by Israeli security forces gunfire. 12 years of economic sanctions against Iraq has yet to bring about any change in government yet continues to punish an entire nation. UNICEF reports that, under economic sanctions, the under-five mortality rate has more than doubled, one in every 3 Iraqi children suffers from chronic malnutrition, and top UN agency officials cite an excess of one million civilian deaths as a result of economic sanctions against Iraq. The “War Against Terror” attacks freedom civil liberties. The PATRIOT Act and expanded powers for domestic spying attack constitutional freedom and civil liberties. Under this act, suspects can be indefinitely detained without charges for up to six months, with the police and FBI given wide-ranging powers to conduct searches of homes and offices, intrude into the private financial transactions and intercept phone, mail and Internet communications. Democracy requires free speech and public access to information, which has been limited by the executive repeal of the Presidential Papers Act and the unofficial repeal of the Freedom of Information Act. _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk