On Sunday, March 9th, 2008, as part of the International Iraq Conference in Berlin, international punk rock star and peace activist, Nina Hagen, will moderate a panel discussion entitled Forbidden Knowledge in a World Turned Upside-Down. 

Nina Hagen is an internationally acclaimed musician and performer, German icon, and a passionate peace activist. An opera prodigy by age nine, Nina Hagen has an extraordinary vocal range, and is best known as the “mother of punk rock.”  Her political views were influenced by her step-father, Wolf Biermann, a well known revolutionary and anti-establishment singer-songwriter, as well as by her paternal grandfather’s death in the Sachenhausen concentration camp.

Humboldt University, Berlin

The Alternatives to War and Occupation: International Iraq Conference 2008 will take place at the Humboldt University and at the House of Democracy and Human Rights, in Berlin, March 7th – 9th.

Other presenters include:

Dr. Khair El-Din Haseeb

Dr. Khair El-Din Haseeb, Director General of Beirut’s Center for Arab Unity Studies, the Arab world’s most prominent think-tank and sponsor of the 250-page peace plan entitled Planning Iraq’s Future: A detailed project to rebuild post-liberation Iraq. According to Karen Button[1], the book “was written over the past two years by 108 Iraqis that consciously included Sunni and Shi’a Muslims, Assyrian Christians, Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, and other minorities. Two-thirds of the Iraqis still reside inside the country, the other third, outside.
Unlike some other plans, like that put forward in January by Ali Allawi, former Iraqi Defense Minister and current advisor to Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki, none of the Iraqis who worked on this plan have ties to the current government.
That’s important, maintain authors of the new initiative. Precisely because the new Iraqi government is backed by occupation forces means it will never hold legitimacy in the eyes of Iraqi citizens and always be a target by resistance forces, says Dr. Khair El-Din Haseeb.”

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Congressman (D-Ohio) Dennis Kucinich (www.kucinich.us) is the only Democratic presidential candidate to vote against the Iraq War and all subsequent funding. He authored the first plan to get out of Iraq shortly after the illegal war was started. Kucinich’s voice in the Democratic presidential debates was effectively silenced by mega-corporations, many with links to the industrial war machine. Highly questionable and possibly illegal methods were used to exclude his message of peace from several debates, resulting in his forced absence from the presidential race. Kucinich has also authored legislation to create a Department of Peace in the U.S. Kucinich is the 2003 recipient of the prestigious Gandhi Peace Award, an award given for “contributions made in the promotion of international peace and good will” and therefore he stands in the company of past recipients Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. Linus C. Pauling, César Chávez and former U.N. Secretary General, U Thant.

Dr. Hans von Sponeck

Dr. Hans von Sponeck, former U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in Iraq (1998-2000), and board-member of Transnational Foundation for Future & Peace Research (TFF), will speak on "Sanctions, Occupation, War – An Account of Two Decades of Western Iraq Politics."  www.transnational.org

Céline Nahory

Céline Nahory, Switzerland, co-author of the June 2007 NGO report, War and Occupation in Iraq[2] by Global Policy Forum. This indispensable resource was produced by and co-published by thirty Non-Governmental Organizations. In 12 comprehensive chapters, the authors provide an informative analysis, concluding with recommendations for action. Among the topics covered are: destruction of cultural heritage, the killing of civilians, torture and other atrocities, displacement and mortality, corruption, fraud, attacks on cities and the effects of long-term military bases.

Clifton Hicks

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