Progressive Groups Organize 200 Peace Vigils and Public Forums Across U.S. to Observe 1-Year Anniversary of Terrorist Attack

Interview with Medea Benjamin, founding director of Global Exchange, conducted by Scott Harris

As Americans observe the first anniversary of last years' attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, the nation is confronted with yet a new war on the horizon. The Bush administration, after successfully toppling the repressive Taliban government in Afghanistan and striking blows against the Al Qaeda network, is now poised to launch a new war on Iraq.

The initial anger many Americans felt after Sept. 11 was followed by mourning and sadness. Now, one year later, those emotions are mixed with a more sober assessment of the successes and failures of our nation's war against terrorism, the erosion of civil liberties and reflection upon the condition of America's democratic values.

Medea Benjamin is a founding director of the human rights group Global Exchange and a Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate from California in 2000. Over the past year, she organized two travel delegations to Afghanistan made up of relatives of Sept. 11th victims. More recently, Benjamin has helped coordinate hundreds of peace vigils, concerts, educational forums and interfaith prayer services across the country in observance of the first anniversary of last year's terrorist assault on New York City and Washington, D.C. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Medea Benjamin, who describes the events being planned in towns and cities around the Sept. 11th anniversary, and what she hopes these gatherings will achieve.

Contact Global Exchange by calling 1 (800) 497-1994 or visit their Web site at www.globalexchange.org

Related links:

United For Peace www.unitedforpeace.org

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