Ann Wright grew up in Bentonville, Arkansas, and attended the University of Arkansas, where she received a master’s and a law degree. She also has a master’s degree in national security affairs from the U.S. Naval War College. After college, she spent thirteen years in the U.S. Army and sixteen additional years in the Army Reserves, retiring as a Colonel. She is airborne-qualified. In 1987, Col.Wright joined the Foreign Service and served as U.S. Deputy Ambassador in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan, and Mongolia. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2,500 people from the civil war in Sierra Leone, the largest evacuation since Saigon. She was on the first State Department team to go to Afghanistan and helped reopen the Embassy there in December 2001. Her other overseas assignments include Somalia, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada, Micronesia, and Nicaragua.
On March 19, 2003, the eve of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Ann Wright cabled a letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell, stating that without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the invasion and occupation of a Muslim, Arab, oil-rich country would be a disaster. Since then, she has been writing and speaking out for peace. She fasted for a month, picketed at Guantánamo, served as a juror in impeachment hearings, traveled to Iran as a citizen diplomat, and has been arrested numerous times for peaceful, nonviolent protest of Bush’s policies, particularly the war on Iraq. She has been on delegations to Iran and was in Gaza three times in 2009, following the Israeli attack on Gaza that killed 1,440 and wounded 5,000. She was an organizer for the Gaza Freedom March that brought 1,350 persons from 44 countries to Cairo, Egypt, in solidarity with the people of Gaza. She was on the May, 2010 Gaza flotilla that was attacked by the Israeli military. She lives in Honolulu.
Amnesty’s Shilling for US Wars
By Ann Wright and Coleen RowleyThe new Executive Director of Amnesty International USA – Suzanne Nossel – is a recent U.S. government insider. So it’s a safe bet that AI’s decision to seize upon a topic that dovetailed with American foreign policy interests, “women’s rights in Afghanistan,” at the NATO Conference ...
Chicago's Scaring Itself Silly While NATO – Not Protesters – Disrupts the City and the World
Scaring the American public silly is one of the tactics used by the government to get Americans to sacrifice their civil rights in ways they never thought they would. In Chicago, the public would have been disrupted by the mere presence of heads of state and senior military officials of ...
The Dark Side of the Prestigious Marine Barracks
According to Marine Corps lore, semper fidelis, a Latin phrase for “always faithful,” commands Marines to remain a “brotherhood, faithful to the mission at hand, to each other, to the Corps and to country, no matter what. Becoming a Marine is a transformation that cannot be undone and once made, ...
The pre-trial hearings for alleged Wikileaks whistleblower US Army PFC Bradley Manning hold some lessons for us all. One of the issues discussed in Manning’s April 25 pre-trial hearing has relevance for all of us. If soldiers or other government employees expose on the internet or in interviews with journalists ...
Protests Fill Tahrir Square, Again
It’s midnight Monday in the Middle East. The streets of Cairo are hopping. Egyptians are angry with the lack of change and the heavy handiness of the Egyptian military and police. I just arrived in Gaza after being in Cairo yesterday.People Calm until Police Arrived at Tahrir SquareLast night after ...
Israeli Hijacking of Gaza Freedom Waves Boats “Violent and Dangerous”
A press release from Irish Ship to Gaza (www.irishshiptogaza.org) reported that National Coordinator Fintan Lane was able to make a phone call Sunday afternoon, November 6, 2011, from the Israeli prison in which he and 13 other Irish citizens are being held.Israeli attack on freedom waves ships “violent and dangerous”Lane ...
Peace Prizes for War Presidents, Missile Tests on Day of Peace
The U.S. missile ‘defense” system is simply not defensive. It is offensive in every sense of the word and it is increasing tensions throughout the world. Even on the day where the world is to think about peace--- World Peace Day on September 21—you would not know that the day existed ...
Texas Man Making Dangerous Voyage to Site of 1967 Israeli Attack on the USS Liberty
Larry Toenjes, 74, from Clear Lake Shores, Texas, is sailing his 39-foot sailboat, the s/v Liberty, to the coordinates of the June 8, 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty that killed 34 sailors and wounded another 173. 207 were killed or wounded out of the 294 on board the ...
American Hunger Strikers at US Embassy in Athens, Greece, Met with DetentionLate in the day on July 3, 7 Americans began a peaceful, non-violent hunger strike across the street from the US Embassy in Athens, Greece to protest the July 2 arrest and imprisonment of Captain John Klusmire, the captain ...
Obama should support the Audacity of Hope, condemn Israeli naval blockade
This week, some 40 American citizens, including myself, will peacefully attempt to break Israel's illegal naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The flotilla that we will be a part of is expected to consist of 10 boats carrying human rights advocates from around the world and humanitarian aid for the ...
“Lawfare” is the latest form of Israeli-AIPAC attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Israel is hard at work to stop international citizen activists groups from 22 countries that form the Gaza Freedom Flotilla from sailing in less than 3 weeks to bring international attention to Israel’s brutal siege on Gaza. As a part of Israeli government propaganda, the civil society to civil society ...
What is Irresponsible and Provocative -- Israel’s Blockade of Gaza or The Gaza Flotilla?
In the latest Israeli diplomatic attempt to stop the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, Israel leaned on the Obama administration to put heavy pressure on the Government of Turkey to refuse to allow Turkish ships to join the international citizen activist initiative to end Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza. Israeli diplomats have ...
The Gaza Freedom Flotilla-One Year Later and Another Flotilla on the Horizon
On May 27, 2011, UN Secretary General Bon Ki-moon in letters sent to countries in the Mediterranean stated that the Gaza situation was “unsustainable” and Israel should take "further meaningful and far-reaching steps" to end the blockade of Gaza.Bowing to Israeli pressure, Bon Ki-moon also asked those countries to dissuade ...
"If we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that they can stop a nonviolent campaign by inflicting massive violence." 1961, Diane Nash, Freedom Ride organizer *** Alice Walker, one of America's premier writers, poets and civil rights ...
Commander-in-Chief Influence on Bradley Manning’s Court-Martial?
The challenges to President and Commander-in-Chief Obama and his administration on the treatment of Bradley Manning continue, particularly on Obama’s pre-trial statement of guilt that Manning “broke the law.” Can a military court-martial consider the Commander-In-Chief’s comment on Manning’s guilt as government malfeasance similar to the conduct of President Nixon ...
A Campaign To Free Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning is accused of telling the truth. He now faces decades in prison for letting Americans see the truth about our wars on Iraq and Afghanistan by allegedly leaking the “Collateral Murder” videos -- of two Reuters’ journalists being shot and killed by a U.S. helicopter -- to WikiLeaks. ...
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June 19th, 2012
Amnesty’s Shilling for US Wars
By Ann Wright and Coleen RowleyThe new Executive Director of Amnesty International USA – Suzanne Nossel – is a recent U.S. government insider. So it’s a ...
May 19th, 2012
Chicago's Scaring Itself Silly While NATO – Not Protesters – Disrupts the City and the World
Scaring the American public silly is one of the tactics used by the government to get Americans to sacrifice their civil rights in ways they ...
May 8th, 2012
The Dark Side of the Prestigious Marine Barracks
According to Marine Corps lore, semper fidelis, a Latin phrase for “always faithful,” commands Marines to remain a “brotherhood, faithful to the mission at hand, ...
April 26th, 2012
The pre-trial hearings for alleged Wikileaks whistleblower US Army PFC Bradley Manning hold some lessons for us all. One of the issues discussed in Manning’s ...
November 22nd, 2011
Protests Fill Tahrir Square, Again
It’s midnight Monday in the Middle East. The streets of Cairo are hopping. Egyptians are angry with the lack of change and the heavy handiness ...
November 6th, 2011
Israeli Hijacking of Gaza Freedom Waves Boats “Violent and Dangerous”
A press release from Irish Ship to Gaza (www.irishshiptogaza.org) reported that National Coordinator Fintan Lane was able to make a phone call Sunday afternoon, November ...
September 6th, 2011
Peace Prizes for War Presidents, Missile Tests on Day of Peace
The U.S. missile ‘defense” system is simply not defensive. It is offensive in every sense of the word and it is increasing tensions throughout the world. ...
May 17th, 2011
"If we allowed the Freedom Ride to stop after so much violence had been inflicted, the message would have been sent that they can stop ...
July 14th, 2011
American Hunger Strikers at US Embassy in Athens, Greece, Met with DetentionLate in the day on July 3, 7 Americans began a peaceful, non-violent hunger ...
April 29th, 2011
Commander-in-Chief Influence on Bradley Manning’s Court-Martial?
The challenges to President and Commander-in-Chief Obama and his administration on the treatment of Bradley Manning continue, particularly on Obama’s pre-trial statement of guilt that ...
June 29th, 2011
Obama should support the Audacity of Hope, condemn Israeli naval blockade
This week, some 40 American citizens, including myself, will peacefully attempt to break Israel's illegal naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. The flotilla that we ...
September 21st, 2010
A Campaign To Free Bradley Manning
Bradley Manning is accused of telling the truth. He now faces decades in prison for letting Americans see the truth about our wars on Iraq ...
April 26th, 2012
The pre-trial hearings for alleged Wikileaks whistleblower US Army PFC Bradley Manning hold some lessons for us all. One of the issues discussed in Manning’s ...
June 9th, 2011
“Lawfare” is the latest form of Israeli-AIPAC attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla
Israel is hard at work to stop international citizen activists groups from 22 countries that form the Gaza Freedom Flotilla from sailing in less than ...
'The East'
Why have you started a comedy festival in northern Michigan in the middle of winter?
Because if you were here in the dead of winter in the middle of nowhere (which is actually somewhere to us), you'd need a few laughs too ... Continue Reading
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