Video of May 17th panel discussion:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSJXkIOr7Sc&feature=player_detailpage
Correction:
Hans von Sponeck was Assistant Secretary-General and Humanitarian Coordinator
for Iraq for the United Nations and not NATO.
*****
Coalition
Against the NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda (CANG8)
May 16,
2012
Unprecedented Protester vs. NATO Debate Is On for Thursday
Night
CHICAGO: After some difficulties lining up pro-NATO
participants, a widely-publicized debate about NATO that may be without
precedent is on for 6 PM to 7 PM, Thursday, May 17 at the Pritzker Military Library , 104 S.
Michigan Avenue. The debate will be webcast and can be viewed at www.pritzkermilitarylibrary.org ,
will also be available to the media via The Chicago Switch at PML.1
Last
week after NATO leaked news about the impending debate and the debaters on its
side, those debaters pulled their participation from the event. Anti-NATO
forces led by the Coalition Against the NATO/G8 War & Poverty Agenda
(CANG8), organizers of the big Sunday, May 20th march on the NATO summit,
lobbied to have the debate in a much larger venue so that all who wished to
witness it in person could do so, but pro-NATO forces refused to participate in
such an event. Therefore, there will only be a small, invitation-only audience
evenly split between the two sides.
CANG8 insisted also that the event
be open to the media, and were successful in reaching agreement on that
principle. Nonetheless, due to limited space at the Pritzker Library, media
participants are asked to RSVP, bring photo identification, and a press pass or
other documentation indicating which outlet(s) they are
representing.
An effort will be made to accommodate all media
personnel, but in the event that we run out of space, outlets that have RSVP'd
will be given preference. Doors open at 5:30 PM. Outlets are asked to RSVP by
sending an email to Email address removed
Representing anti-NATO
protesters will be Iraq Veterans Against the War Chicago Chapter President Iris
Feliciano. Feliciano is served in the Marine Corps on Active Duty from 1996 to
2005 and on Reserve Duty from 2006 to 2010, and served in Operation Enduring
Freedom. Also representing the protesters will be Rick Rozoff, an
internationally recognized researcher on NATO and author of the Stop NATO
website.
Representing the pro-NATO side will be Ambassador J.D.
Bindenagel and John Allen Williams, Ph.D. Bindenagel is a former U.S. Ambassador
and career diplomat who served in Germany during the end of the Cold War, and
was involved in debates on NATO security policy and membership. Williams is
Professor of Political Science at Loyola University Chicago. He is a retired
Captain in the U.S. Naval Reserve and served with the NATO Inter-Allied
Confederation of Reserve Officers (CIOR).
The moderator will be Richard
E. Friedman, President of the National Strategy Forum. Friedman also serves as
Counselor to the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National
Security. Mr. Friedman was an Air Force Officer during the Korean War, and
served on the Army Science Board.
The CANG8 wishes to thank Mr. Friedman
and the National Strategy Forum for approaching us to propose the debate, and
then lining up others on the pro-NATO side to engage in it. The National
Strategy Forum also kindly opened the pages of its journal, National Strategy
Forum Review, to allow CANG8 organizer Andy Thayer publish an article about why
he opposes NATO.
