Monday, June 30, 2008
Media Release from the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223 Phone: 804.644.5834
E-mail: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com Web: www.DefendersFJE.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2008
MEDIA CONTACTS: Ana Edwards (804-517-4049) and Phil Wilayto (804-247-3731)
July 3 Richmond program to addressthreat of war against Iran
A public program titled “Iran: Stopping the next war before it starts,” is to be held July 3, 2008, in Richmond, Va. The date is the 20 th anniversary of the day a U.S. warship shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft in the Persian Gulf, costing the lives of nearly 300 men, women and children.
The program, sponsored by the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church, 324 N. 29th St., Richmond, VA 23223. The program is free. Child care will be provided and light refreshments will be served.
Members and friends of the Defenders will read a letter by Iranian Capt. Habib Ahmadzadeh to U.S. Capt. Will Rogers, commander of the USS Vincennes, the ship that shot down Iran Airbus 655. The U.S. government maintained the shooting was a mistake – and then awarded a medal to Capt. Rogers. Capt. Ahmadzadeh, writing as one military officer to another, asks a series of pointed questions about how such a disaster could have happened.
The program will also include a showing of the documentary film “Bam 6.6” by Iranian-born director Jahangir Golestan-Parast. The film tells the story of the 6.6-magnitude earthquake that in 2003 leveled the ancient city of Bam in southern Iran, killing 40,000 people. The disaster and the heroic rescue efforts that followed – including by members of the Virginia Task Force Rescue Team – are seen through the eyes of two U.S tourists, Tobb Dell'Orro and his Jewish-American fiancee, Adele Freedman. The film strips away cultural and religious differences to reveal the deep humanity of the Iranian people.
The Defenders are a community organization affiliated with the Virginia Anti-War Network. In July 2007, members of the Defenders and VAWN organized a five-person People's Peace Delegation to Iran, which toured the country for 11 days, meeting with students, veterans, peace activists, clerics, working people and the country's vice president in charge of tourism. During one of these meetings, Capt. Ahmadzadeh asked the delegation to help publicize his letter to Capt. Rogers, in the hope that it would encourage a better understanding between the U.S and Iranian peoples.
The program will be chaired by Ana Edwards, chair of the the Defenders' Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project. Edwards' opening remarks will include a report on the current efforts to reclaim Richmond's long-neglected “Burial Ground for Negroes.” Richmond's oldest Black cemetery now lies abandoned under a downtown parking lot recently acquired by Virginia Commonwealth University.
The group reading of Capt. Ahmadzadeh's letter will be presented by Phil Wilayto, editor of The Richmond Defender newspaper and organizer of the People's Peace Delegation to Iran. Wilayto is to be interviewed July 2 by Press TV, the Iranian English-language television channel.
The film “Bam 6.6” will be introduced by Rostam Pourzal, U.S. president of the Campaign Against Sanctions & Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII), a VAWN affiliate. Pourzal is a frequent commentator in the national and international media on Iran and U.S.-Iranian relations.
For more information, please contact the Defenders at (804) 644-5834 or by e-mail at DefendersFJE@hotmail.org
To post to this group, send email to defenders-announcements@googlegroups.com
Media Release from the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality
PO Box 23202, Richmond, VA 23223 Phone: 804.644.5834
E-mail: DefendersFJE@hotmail.com Web: www.DefendersFJE.org
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 26, 2008
MEDIA CONTACTS: Ana Edwards (804-517-4049) and Phil Wilayto (804-247-3731)
July 3 Richmond program to addressthreat of war against Iran
A public program titled “Iran: Stopping the next war before it starts,” is to be held July 3, 2008, in Richmond, Va. The date is the 20th anniversary of the day a U.S. warship shot down an Iranian civilian aircraft in the Persian Gulf, costing the lives of nearly 300 men, women and children.
The program, sponsored by the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality, is scheduled to start at 7 p.m. at Asbury United Methodist Church, 324 N. 29th St., Richmond, VA 23223. The program is free. Child care will be provided and light refreshments will be served.
Members and friends of the Defenders will read a letter by Iranian Capt. Habib Ahmadzadeh to U.S. Capt. Will Rogers, commander of the USS Vincennes, the ship that shot down Iran Airbus 655. The U.S. government maintained the shooting was a mistake – and then awarded a medal to Capt. Rogers. Capt. Ahmadzadeh, writing as one military officer to another, asks a series of pointed questions about how such a disaster could have happened.
The program will also include a showing of the documentary film “Bam 6.6” by Iranian-born director Jahangir Golestan-Parast. The film tells the story of the 6.6-magnitude earthquake that in 2003 leveled the ancient city of Bam in southern Iran, killing 40,000 people. The disaster and the heroic rescue efforts that followed – including by members of the Virginia Task Force Rescue Team – are seen through the eyes of two U.S tourists, Tobb Dell'Orro and his Jewish-American fiancee, Adele Freedman. The film strips away cultural and religious differences to reveal the deep humanity of the Iranian people.
The Defenders are a community organization affiliated with the Virginia Anti-War Network. In July 2007, members of the Defenders and VAWN organized a five-person People's Peace Delegation to Iran, which toured the country for 11 days, meeting with students, veterans, peace activists, clerics, working people and the country's vice president in charge of tourism. During one of these meetings, Capt. Ahmadzadeh asked the delegation to help publicize his letter to Capt. Rogers, in the hope that it would encourage a better understanding between the U.S and Iranian peoples.
The program will be chaired by Ana Edwards, chair of the the Defenders' Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project. Edwards' opening remarks will include a report on the current efforts to reclaim Richmond's long-neglected “Burial Ground for Negroes.” Richmond's oldest Black cemetery now lies abandoned under a downtown parking lot recently acquired by Virginia Commonwealth University.
The group reading of Capt. Ahmadzadeh's letter will be presented by Phil Wilayto, editor of The Richmond Defender newspaper and organizer of the People's Peace Delegation to Iran. Wilayto is to be interviewed July 2 by Press TV, the Iranian English-language television channel.
The film “Bam 6.6” will be introduced by Rostam Pourzal, U.S. president of the Campaign Against Sanctions & Military Intervention in Iran (CASMII), a VAWN affiliate. Pourzal is a frequent commentator in the national and international media on Iran and U.S.-Iranian relations.
For more information, please contact the Defenders at (804) 644-5834 or by e-mail at DefendersFJE@hotmail.org
To post to this group, send email to defenders-announcements@googlegroups.com 
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