SECOND CONGRESSIONAL FORUM ON HOW TO BRING TROOPS HOME FROM IRAQ

From the Progressive Caucus

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representatives Lynn Woolsey (D-California), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Maurice Hinchey (D-New York), and Maxine Waters will be co-chairing a second forum on ending U.S. military operations in Iraq and bringing U.S. troops home, while helping the Iraqis regain control over their country and their future.

What: Bipartisan Congressional Forum on How to Bring the Troops Home
from Iraq
When: Thursday, April 27, 2006
9:00 AM - 11:00 A.M.
Where: 2325 Rayburn House Office Building
Who: Hosted by U.S. Representatives Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, Maurice
Hinchey, and Maxine Waters, plus other Members of Congress

Witnesses to include:
• Paul Pillar, Former National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000-2005 and long career in the CIA, faculty member of the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University, and author of Foreign Affairs feature article in March/April issue
entitled “Intelligence, Policy, and the War in Iraq”

• U.S. Congressional sponsors of pending legislation specifying plans
and timelines for concluding U.S. military operations in Iraq
and bringing home U.S. troops (U.S. Representatives Jim McGovern and Barbara Lee)

• Ms. Faiza al-Arji. She is a native Shia Iraqi, married to a Sunni Iraqi. They have three sons who currently live in Amman, Jordan. She will speak about her family’s experiences in Iraq before and during the war and subsequent occupation.

• Dr. Dahlia Wasfi. She was born to a Jewish mother and an Iraqi father. She recently put her medical career on hold to visit with family members in Iraq,

and recently returned from a three-month stay in Basra and Baghdad. She will describe her experiences in Iraq and discuss the life of Iraqis under occupation.

• Charlie Anderson (Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class, U.S. Navy-Ret.) He served with the Marine Crops’ Second Tank Battalion during the invasion of Iraq. He is now the Southeast Regional Coordinator of Iraq Veterans Against the War and will discuss his experiences in the military during the war in Iraq.