Sky Barnhart

Government insiders speak out against the war in Iraq.This is the only time in my many years serving America that I have felt I cannot represent the policies of an administration of the United States…I believe the administration’s policies are making the world a more dangerous, not a safer, place. I feel obligated morally and professionally to set out my very deep and firm concerns on these policies and to resign from government service, as I cannot defend or implement them.
—Ann Wright’s letter of resignation to Secretary of State Colin Powell

In 2003, as the United States continued its march to war in Iraq, Army Colonel (Ret.) and diplomat Ann Wright faced a difficult decision. She had served her country for all of her adult life, including 16 years as a diplomat and the Deputy Chief of Mission in U.S. embassies in Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia; and 29 years in the U.S. Army/Army Reserves participating in civil reconstruction projects after military operations in Grenada, Panama and Somalia. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism for leading the evacuation of a large part of the international community from Sierra Leone in 1997.

But Col. Wright was deeply concerned about the government’s insistence on going to war with Iraq without the United Nation’s authorization. She was also troubled by the administration’s failure to confront the North Korean nuclear crisis or engage in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and by the unnecessary curtailment of U.S. civil rights after the events of Sept. 11, 2001.

On March 19, 2003, she became the third U.S. diplomat to resign in protest during the run-up to war in Iraq. But this is not just Wright’s story.

Dissent: Voices of Conscience is the story of an alarming number of government insiders and active-duty military personnel who leaked documents, spoke out, resigned, or refused to deploy in protest of government actions they felt were illegal.

Wright and Susan Dixon—an instructor in the geopolitics of war and peace at the University of Hawai‘i, Manoa—tell the stories of these men and women who risked their careers, their reputations, and even their freedom out of loyalty to the Constitution and all it stands for.

These are not anti-government, anti-American voices, but those who love and serve their country with body and soul. That’s what makes their straightforward accounts so disturbing.

Among the most haunting is the 13-page memorandum from Coleen Rowley, Chief Counsel, FBI Minneapolis Field Office, to FBI Director Robert Mueller. With candor and courage, Rowley questions Mueller as to why FBI headquarters obstructed measures that could have helped disrupt the Sept. 11 attacks. Mueller and other senior FBI officials consistently denied that the FBI had any information that Islamic terrorists might be planning an attack involving hijacked airplanes; despite information to the contrary obtained by Rowley’s office. “I have deep concerns that a delicate shading/skewing of facts by you and others at the highest levels of FBI management has occurred and is occurring,” Rowley writes.

Other fascinating components of Dissent include detailed resignation letters from British government officials and statements from resisters such as Lt. Ehren Watada. The book’s foreword is by Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers during the Vietnam War.

On Friday, Dec. 21, at 5:30 p.m., Gallerie Ha in Wailuku (across from Café Marc Aurel) will host a reading and book signing by the authors. The event is cosponsored by Maui Peace Action, Hawai‘i Institute for Human Rights and CODEPINK Maui.

5 out of 5 Shakas