Dear NileMedia readers: Why is the Media ignoring dedicated political activists like the folks who are conducting a 40 day fast in front of the UN? We are constantly amazed by the news that we recieve at NileMedia that always gets buried by the mass media boys. It is not every day that Americans undertake to fast for 40 days to protest againsy their government's policy of imposing murderous sanctions on the people of Iraq. It appears that the press lords have decided to put Americans on a very strict news diet. If it is not about Chandra or Sharks, it will not be on the menu. Our Stalinist media corporations are no longer in the business of selling news, but selling views; their views. If you want facts, go read an English or French newspaper. The arrogant Israel firsters, cock sure of their control over the media industry, believe that their marketing of overtly racist policies goes unnoticed by the rest of America. With each day, the internet is putting new dents in their teflon shield. The news gets through to enough people who know exactly how the news is 'fixed' and by who. Do, do your part to hasten the day when the media barons at CNN and FOX bite the dust. Let your friends know what the mass media refuses to cover.

Commentary of Ahmed Amr, NileMedia Editor

The following message is from Voices in the Wilderness.

Dear friends

I write today after returning from an august delegation to Iraq and a visit with the dozen Voices folks conducting a 40 day fast outside the UN in NYC. I was amazed by the spirit of survival, strength, and sincerity in the people I was with in both Manhattan and in Baghdad.

Please consider the following actions, in solidarity with those in NYC and throughout the US fasting and who today, Wednesday 22, took part in another act of civil disobedience on the steps of the US Mission to the UN.

1. Sign and circulate the "Pax Christi petition" that Hans Von Sponeck will present in DC this October. It is on the front page of www.vitw.org
2. Contact your local representatives and encoourage them to contact the US Mission, or call James Cunningham's office, acting US ambassador to the UN at 212 415 4000, press 2 , and type in CUNNINGHAM, and very politely encourage a meeting with those maintaing a daily vigil, many of whom offer first hand experience from travel to Iraq, can supply comprehensive facts and research, and have continual correspondence with UN official both in Iraq and throughout the world.
3. Help circulate following Press Release on today's actions and continue to support fasters at breaking_ranks@yahoo.com

in peace,

danny muller
w/ Voices in the Wilderness

Breaking Ranks:
A Fast to End the Siege of Iraq

Contact: Breaking Ranks Fast
ON SITE: Johannes Limberger 646-208-2098/ 773 447 3964
Chicago office: Daniel Muller 773-784-8065

Ten Arrested at US Mission to the UN Protesting Sanctions of Iraq

For Immediate Release, New York City, Wednesday, August 22, 2001, 11:00 a.m.,
Ten members of Voices in the Wilderness have just been arrested after bringing a symbolic meal of lentils and rice to the steps of the US Mission to the UN, inviting members of the staff and the Ambassador's office to share the meal across from the US Mission to the UN, (45th Street and First Avenue).

Members of the group are on the seventeenth day of a 40 day fast calling for an end to sanctions against Iraq. Last week, the NYPD arrested twelve people for approaching the steps of the US Mission with their meal and their message. Charged with obstruction and criminal trespass, they face trial on September 20. Fasters returned today to continue bringing their message to the US Mission, some of them having recently travelled to Iraq, in direct violation of US law and the 11 year embargo. Among them, Kathy Kelly, nominated for this year's Nobel Peace Prize, states, "We are trying to encourage the member states of the UN to 'break ranks' with the US in its insistence on endless sanctions for Iraq. We also ask for the US to seek reconciliation with the peoples of Iraq, to stop the continued bombing and terror, and to embrace peaceful means to solve any conflict between the two nations."

Those arrested are Ceylon Mooney, Memphis, TN, Kathy Kelly, Chicago, IL, MikiLu Peters, Chicago, IL, Nate Peters, Chicago, IL, Rev. Jerry Zawada, OFM, Hammond, IN, Peter De Mott, Ithaca, NY, Athir Shayota, Harlem, NY, Ed Lewinson, New Jersey, Felton Davis, New York, NY, Cynthia Banas, Vernon, NY. In an August 20, 2001 letter of invitation to the US Mission to the UN, the group wrote: We are again inviting you to partake with us in a simple meal of cooked lentils, rice, and bread, along with unpurified water, (we don't want to drink it and neither do Iraqi people). The meal symbolizes our concern because many Iraqis have subsisted on this food for eleven years. It also represents our earnest interest in breaking bread with you."

We'd like to discuss the perspective of Mr.Hubert Vedrine, the French Foreign Minister, who stated: "Economic sanctions on Iraq are cruel, ineffective and dangerous: they are cruel because they punish exclusively Iraqi people and the weakest among them. They are ineffective because they don't touch the regime which is not encouraged to cooperate and they are dangerous because they accentuate the disintegration of Iraqi society." (Hubert Vedrine, August 2, 2000, Reuters)

Several of us have seen and heard, first hand, evidence of the disintegration Mr.Vedrine deplores. We mean you no harm or inconvenience in wanting to talk with you. And of course we are easily available as we vigil outside your building each day.

For more information, call the Breaking Ranks cell phone numbers or contact the Chicago office (above)