10/9 - University of Scranton Justice Club Hosts Presentation on Terrorism

The University of Scranton's Justice Club will host a free public lecture by the "Mirror of Truth" Bus Tour, a project of Voices in the Wilderness, Veterans for Peace and Pax Christi. The presentation, which addresses the issues of terror and weapons of mass destruction, will be held on Wednesday, October 16, at 8 p.m., in the Houlihan-MacLean Center.

During their presentations, members of Voices who have traveled to Iraq will describe the effects of U.S.-led economic sanctions.

"During the Gulf War, bombing by the U.S. government destroyed Iraq's water supply and sewage systems, and let loose all this cholera and typhus and e. coli," said Michael J. Carley, tour coordinator. "Then for 12 years afterwards, the sanctions thwarted most of Iraq's attempts to fight these diseases. So effectively, what you get is a massive unleashing of biological warfare on the people of Iraq."

"The idea is to get folks to realize that the 'enemy' is not Afghanistan, or Iraq, or the U.S. The enemy is these terror weapons," said Rev. G. Simon Harak, S. J., tour coordinator. "We all have to unite to oppose them, wherever they are - even in the U.S."

Beginning at ground zero in New York City on September 11, the two-month-long tour will visit over 100 sites on the east coast, including churches, mosques, universities and high schools. The bus will also visit sites where the U.S. government experiments with, manufactures, and prepares for sale or use, weapons of mass destruction. The tour will end in November at Ft. Benning, Georgia. There, delegates will participate at the annual School of the Americas protest organized by SOAWatch. Activists, artists, religious leaders and professors will join the tour at various sites to give presentations and concerts, and to coordinate nonviolent actions.

The Mirror of Truth Tour calls for Americans to bear some accountability for the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and to create nonviolent alternatives to war.

Co-founded by 3-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee Kathy Kelly, Voices has brought nearly 50 delegations to Iraq in violation of federal law and U.S.-led economic sanctions.