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Iraq Under Siege | About the Author
Contributors
Ali Abunimah: A media analyst and activist, and frequent commentator on Palestine and the Middle East, Abunimah is vice-president of the Arab American Action Network, a Chicago-based social service and advocacy organization, and co-founder of The Electronic Intifada website (electronicintifada.net). Visit Ali Abunimah's web page.
Dr. Huda S. Ammash: Ammash is an environmental biologist and professor at Baghdad University and is a researcher at the Iraqi Academy of Science. Ammash earned her PhD from the University of Missouri. She has conducted extensive research and written numerous scientific papers on the environmental and biological impact of sanctions.
Anthony Arnove: Arnove worked for seven years as an editor at South End Press before becoming a freelance editor and writer. A regular contributor to ZNet, his writing has appeared in The Nation, International Socialist Review, Monthly Review, Socialist Worker, Z Magazine, In These Times, Financial Times, and other publications. An activist based in Brooklyn, New York, he is a member of the International Socialist OrganizationNational Writers Union. He contributed to The Struggle for Palestine (Haymarket Press), edited Terrorism and War, a collection of new interviews with Howard Zinn (Seven Stories Press), and is on the editorial board of International Socialist Review. Arnove is also a member of the Iraq Speaker's Bureau.
Naseer Aruri: Aruri is the Chancellor Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and is chair of the board of the Trans-Arab Research Institute. He has lectured and written widely on Middle East politics and history. He is the author of Dishonest Broker: The United States, Israel, and the Palestinians (South End Press). He is also the editor of Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return (Pluto) and co-editor of Revising Culture, Reinventing Peace: The Influence of Edward W. Said (Interlink).
Barbara Nimri Aziz: An anthropologist and journalist, Aziz has written extensively on Iraq since her first visit there in 1989. Her articles have appeared in the Christian Science Monitor, Toward Freedom, and several anthologies including Food for Our Grandmothers (South End Press). She has contributed essays on Iraq to Metal of Dishonor (1999) and Genocide by Sanctions (1998), both published by the International Action Center. Aziz hosts a weekly radio public affairs magazine on Pacifica WBAI Radio from New York. She is also executive director of the Radius of Arab American Writers, Inc.
David Barsamian: Barsamian lives in Boulder, Colorado, and is the producer of the award-winning syndicated radio program, Alternative Radio. A regular contributor to The Progressive and Z Magazine, Barsamian is the editor of Eqbal Ahmad: Confronting Empire (South End Press/Pluto), the editor of Propaganda and the Public Mind, a collection of interviews with Noam Chomsky (South End Press/Pluto), and author of The Decline and Fall of Public Broadcasting (South End Press).
Phyllis Bennis: Bennis is a Fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. She is an author and journalist and has written about UN and Middle East issues for almost twenty years. Her most recent books include Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN, second edition (Olive Branch Press) and Before and After: US Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis (Olive Branch Press). She also co-edited Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis.
George Capaccio: Capaccio is a writer, storyteller, and teacher based in Arlington, Massachusetts. He has traveled to Iraq on eight delegations to document the impact of sanctions. Capaccio has written on Iraq for The Progressive and other publications. His poetry collection, While The Light Still Trembles, won the 1999 PeaceWriting Award from the University of Arkansas. Capaccio is a member of Voices in the Wilderness.
Noam Chomsky: Chomsky is Institute Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published fourteen books with South End Press, including Pirates and Emperors, Old and New: International Terrorism in the Real World, Rogue States: The Rule of Force in World Affairs, and Propaganda and the Public Mind (in the UK by Pluto Press).
Robert Fisk: Fisk is an award-winning reporter for The Independent newspaper in London (www.independent.co.uk). He served as Middle East correspondent for The Times (London) from 1976 to 1987 and for The Independent since 1987. Fisk received the 1998 Amnesty International UK Press Award. He is a seven-time winner of the British International Journalist of the Year Award (most recently in 1995 and 1996). Fisk currently lives in Beirut. His writing appears in The Nation, The Independent, and other publications worldwide. His classic book Pity the Nation was released in a third edition by Oxford Paperbacks in 2001.
Denis J. Halliday: Secretary-General Kofi Annan appointed Denis J. Halliday to the post of United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq in September 1997. He served as an Assistant Secretary-General until he resigned the post in protest of sanctions in Fall 1998. Prior to that, Halliday served in the UN for 34 years, including as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Resources Management and Director, Division of Personnel, United Nations Development Program (UNDP). Halliday has spent most of his long career with the United Nations in development and humanitarian assistance-related posts both in New York and overseas, primarily in South-East Asia. Halliday graduated from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland and holds an MA in Economics, Geography and Public Administration.
Kathy Kelly: An activist based in Chicago, Illinois, Kelly helped initiate Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the sanctions against Iraq. For bringing medicine and toys to Iraq in open violation of the sanctions, she and other campaign members have been notified of a proposed $163,000 penalty for the organization and threatened with twelve years in prison. Kelly has been to Iraq numerous times. She has taught in Chicago-area community colleges and high schools since 1974, and is active with the Catholic Worker movement. Read more about Kelly's work in Iraq.
Rania Masri: Masri is a human rights advocate, writer, researcher, and environmental scientist. Masri is the director of the newly formed Southern Peace Research and Education Center at the Institute for Southern Studies. Masri has a doctorate from North Carolina State University. She is a national board member of Peace Action, the Arab Women's Solidarity Association's representative to the United Nations, and the coordinator of the Iraq Action Coalition. She is a contributor to The Struggle for Palestine (Haymarket Press).
Dr. Peter L. Pellett: Pellett is Professor Emeritus of Nutrition at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He served on four United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization missions to Iraq. He has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization, UNICEF, US Department of Agriculture, World Food Program, and National Academy of Sciences. Pellett is a board member of the International Nutrition Foundation for Developing Countries. He is the Editor in Chief of Ecology of Food and Nutrition.
John Pilger: Pilger is a documentary filmmaker, journalist, and author. He has twice won Britain's highest award for journalism, Journalist of the Year. He has been named International Journalist of the Year and his documentaries have won Academy awards in the United States and United Kingdon. His most recent documentaries for London-based Independent Television (ITV) include Paying the Price: Killing the Children of Iraq and Palestine Is Still the Issue. Pilger's documentary Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy has been shown in theaters internationally. A regular contributor to the Guardian and New Statesman, he is the author of Hidden Agendas (New Press), Heroes (South End Press), and The New Rulers of the World (Verso).
Sharon Smith: Smith was the national coordinator of the signature ad campaign to end sanctions. A leading member of the International Socialist Organization in Chicago, she was active in building opposition to the 1991 Gulf War. A member of the National Writers Union, she is a regular columnist for the Socialist Worker newspaper, as well as a frequent contributor to the International Socialist Review. She is author of End of the American Dream (Haymarket).
Voices in the Wilderness: Since March 1996, Voices has led numerous delegations to hospitals and clinics in Iraq, breaking the siege imposed by the sanctions. Voices advocates nonviolence as a means for social change. The organization opposes the development, storage, and use—in any country—of any weapons of mass destruction, be they nuclear, chemical, biological, or economic. Read more about Voices' current work in Iraq.
Howard Zinn: Zinn is Professor Emeritus at Boston University. He is the author of numerous books, including A People’s History of the United States, the plays Emma and Marx in Soho (South End Press), The Zinn Reader, and the autobiographical You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train. He lives with his wife, Roslyn, in Massachusetts and lectures widely on history and contemporary politics.
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