truthout freedom and democracy awards

Truthout has just announced the winners of the first annual Truthout Freedom and Democracy Awards.
These awards have been granted to three individuals who have done the most in the past year to promote freedom and democracy. These recipients will each receive an honorarium of $1,000 to assist them in continuing their work.

This year's recipients, in alphabetical order, are:

  • Gold Star Mother of US Army Spc. Casey Sheehan and peace activist Cindy Sheehan, who has taken her protest of the War in Iraq to the president's doorstep and worked tirelessly to bring an end to US engagement in Iraq.
  • 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, US Army, the first commissioned military officer to publicly refuse to deploy to Iraq, stating that the war was not legal.
  • Ann Wright, former member of the military and a US State Department Foreign Service member who resigned her post in protest of the Iraq War and has joined the fight to end the war.
Each of these recipients has shown a deep commitment to efforts to strengthen freedom and democracy in a time of great need. Truthout salutes these honorees for their work.

Excellent choices! We all know Cindy Sheehan, and if you read this blog, you should know who Ehren Watada is. If you're not familiar with Ann Wright, here's an Amy Goodman interview with her.

At first I confused Wright with Karen Kwiatowksi, who was featured in Why We Fight.

Here's Ann Wright writing about the impending invasion of Iran, the Geneva Conventions and the Nuremberg Principles.

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