Ken O'Keefe - Baghdad

international | anti-war / imperialism | press release Monday January 05, 2004 11:04 by Ken O'Keefe - Truth Justice Peace (TJP) universalkinship at yahoo dot com

To Burn U.S. Passport in Baghdad

Irish Citizen Burns U.S. Passport - Ex-U.S. Marine, Gulf War Veteran & Truth Justice Peace (TJP) Human Shield Iraq Founder to Burn U.S. Passport in Baghdad

When – 10 AM, January 7, 2003
Where – Firdos Square - Baghdad’s Infamous Saddam Statue Toppling site
Contact – universalkinship@yahoo.com (checked throughout the day)

Ken O'Keefe

Ken O’Keefe to read the following statement at Firdos Square;
“First of all I want smile and express my deepest love for my entire human family and our infinitely beautiful and irreplaceable home; planet Earth. What I do I do for truth not lies; for justice not tyranny, for peace not war, for love not hate.

"And now I shall let my personal venom flow and commit the following act of defiance in condemnation of the illegal invasion and ongoing occupation and mass murder of the Iraqi people by my birth nation of the United States. The burning of my passport is an exercise in the inherent human right of self determination in accordance with international law after having my U.S. passport returned to me twice by the U.S. Department of State. My personal act affirms once and for all the lawful and undeniable completion of my renunciation of U.S. citizenship that began on March 1, 2001. I AM NOT A UNITED STATES CITIZEN! I am a lawfully registered World citizen in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) with ultimate allegiance to my entire human family and to planet Earth.

“My act of defiance additionally affirms my solidarity with all colonised and oppressed peoples and specifically the Iraqi people; Iraqi people who collectively reject America’s occupation and the blatantly unrepresentative puppet government America intends to force on them. Iraqi people who like America’s Founding Fathers exercise their inherent and lawful right to resist occupation and tyranny; only in this case it is a united America and Britain that are the Imperial tyrants. Iraqi people who also peacefully demand their lawful right to true self determination which requires the end of U.S. presence and influence in Iraq’s internal affairs.

Let the entire world and especially America citizens acknowledge the following two hard facts;
1. There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq aside from those brought by the United States; which shamefully includes cluster bombs that litter this country now; this is a patent crime against humanity in itself
2. There is no threat now in Saddam Hussein for the American people

Therefore America must pull out of Iraq without delay. To not do so proves America to be the single greatest threat to the safety and security of our world and indeed the world’s number one terrorist.

“I state loud and clear, I am not anti-American, I am a true American and I call on all genuine American patriots to reject the orders of the Vietnam War deserter and Constitutional traitor George W. Bush and to remove this traitor from his undemocratic de facto post; impeach him at the least for his criminal negligence on September 11, 2001. As a former United States Marine and Gulf War veteran I call on my American brothers and sisters to put down their weapons and refuse service in Iraq. And lastly I state my love of the American people whether friend or foe and I call on them to support their troops for real; BRING AMERICA’S SONS AND DAUGHTERS HOME NOW!

“Power to the People!”

Ken Nichols O’Keefe – World citizen #321831 (www.worldservice.org)
(end of statement followed by passport burning and media questions)

Background - In what is a monumental irony Ken Nichols O’Keefe, the initiator or the Human Shield Action to Iraq that attracted the attention of world leaders and more importantly people around the globe, was forced under duress, to request a U.S. passport at the American Consulate in Rome on February 12, 2003. This request became necessary after the Turkish Government unlawfully deported of Mr. O’Keefe and thus prevented his peaceful transport through Turkey, on his way to Iraq to act as a Human Shield. Had Mr. O’Keefe not made his reluctant request he could have been denied the inherent right to travel to Iraq (UDHR – Article 13 sec. 2) stand with the Iraqi people in defiance of America’s subsequent invasion.

Mr. O’Keefe respectfully invites all Iraqi people to join him in his non-violent act of defiance and solidarity.