Antiwar Radio - Phyllis Bennis - 8/31/2010 - 1 of 2

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Scott Horton Interviews Phyllis Bennis

Scott Horton, August 31, 2010

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Phyllis Bennis, director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, discusses the mosque hysteria ginned up to bolster Iraq and Afghan War support, Ground Zero's rhetorical conversion into hallowed ground -- encouraging religious fervor and holy war, what Bush should have said and done after 9/11, why the only uncertainty of new Israel/Palestine peace talks is what Obama will do when they fail and how the negotiations are grounded in juvenile conflict resolution instead of international law.

MP3 here. (1848)

Phyllis Bennis is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies where she directs the New Internationalism Project. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. She has recent articles published in YES! magazine and Alternet. While working as a journalist at the United Nations during the run-up to the 1990-91 Gulf War, she began examining U.S. domination of the UN, and stayed involved in work on Iraq sanctions and disarmament, and later the U.S. wars and occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In 1999, Phyllis accompanied a delegation of congressional aides to Iraq to examine the impact of U.S.-led economic sanctions on humanitarian conditions there, and later joined former UN Assistant Secretary General Denis Halliday, who had resigned his position as Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq to protest the impact of sanctions, in a speaking tour. In 2001 she helped found and remains on the steering committee of the U.S. Campaign to End Israeli Occupation. She works closely with the United for Peace and Justice anti-war coalition, co-chairs the UN-based International Coordinating Network on Palestine, and since 2002 has played an active role in the growing global peace movement. She continues to serve as an adviser to several top UN officials on Middle East and UN democratization issues.