"Dissent: Voices of Conscience" - Colonel Ann Wright Speaks in Sacramento Oct 17, 7 - 9pm,

Wednesday, Oct 17, 7 - 9pm, Dissent: Voices of Conscience, Colonel Ann Wright resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service in March 2003 over several disagreements with the Bush Admin. including their decision to attack Iraq and their curtailing of civil liberties. Wright's newly published book will be available at the talk. Time Tested Books, 1114 21st St, Sacramento. 916-448-7157; sypeaceact [at] jps.net

Dissent: Voices of Conscience
Government Insiders Speak Out Against the War in Iraq
Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright and Susan Dixon
Foreword by Daniel Ellsberg

With the publication of former CIA Director George Tenet's "At the Center of the Storm," many people asked why didn't he resign when he knew the intelligence was being cooked to create war. One columnist responded that no one resigns on moral principle, they just talk about it later.

"Dissent: Voices of Conscience" profiles more than three dozen members of the Bush administration and "Coalition of the Willing" allies who did resign or blow the whistle on administration lies and abuses. Former State Department diplomat and retired Army Colonel Ann Wright resigned her post as Deputy Ambassador in 2003 anticipating the tragedy of going to war with Iraq, and has spent the past four years traveling worldwide speaking out for peace. This is her story and the story of dozens of others in government who leaked documents, blew the whistle, refused to deploy, or resigned to protest this administration's policies. Coauthor Susan Dixon is an instructor in the geography of war and peace at the University of Hawai'i.

$15.00 Trade Paperback. ISBN 978-097733844
Published by Koa Books, PO Box 822, Kihei, HI 96753 http://www.koabooks.com
Distributed to the trade by SCB Distributors, http://www.scbdistributors.com

Biography for Mary A. (Ann) Wright
Ann Wright resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service on March 19, 2003, while serving as Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Mongolia. She resigned due to her disagreement with the Bush administration’s decision to go to war in Iraq without the authorization of the UN Security Council, the lack of effort in resolving the Israel-Palestinian situation, the lack of policy on North Korea and unnecessary curtailment of civil liberties in the United States.

Ms. Wright joined the Foreign Service in 1987 and served as Deputy Chief of Mission of US Embassies in Sierra Leone, Micronesia and briefly in Afghanistan. She received the State Department’s Award for Heroism for her actions during the evacuation of 2500 persons from the civil war in Sierra Leone, the largest evacuation since the evacuation of Saigon in 1974.

Ms. Wright was on the first State Department team to go to Kabul, Afghanistan. She helped reopen the US Embassy in Kabul in December, 2001 and worked in Afghanistan for five months, serving in the last month as Deputy Chief of Mission (Deputy Ambassador).

Ms. Wright’s other overseas assignments include Somalia with both the US mission and as chief of the Justice Division (reconstituting the Somali police, judicial and prison systems) of the United Nations Mission to Somalia (UNOSOM). She also served in US Embassies in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Grenada, Micronesia and Nicaragua.

Before entering the Foreign Service, she served in the Army and has a combined regular Army/Army Reserve service time of 29 years. She served primarily in special operations units and attained the rank of colonel. While on military duty in 1982 and 1983 in Grenada, she was on the US Army’s International Law team and participated in civil reconstruction work following the US “rescue” mission. Colonel Wright is airborne qualified.

Ms. Wright has Master’s and Law Degrees from the University of Arkansas and a Master’s Degree in National Security Affairs from the US Naval War College, Newport, Rhode Island. Ms. Wright has been featured in articles in the Washington Post magazine, Government Executive magazine, Foreign Service Journal, Ms magazine and has been interviewed by radio and TV networks. In 2003, she participated in the documentary film “Uncovered: The Truth About the Iraq War” and in June, 2005 provided oral and written testimony to the US Congressional hearing on the importance of the Downing Street memos.

In August, 2005 Ms. Wright spent 26 days in the ditches at Camp Casey, Crawford, Texas with Cindy Sheehan putting pressure on President Bush to answer the question of why the war on Iraq is a “noble” cause. She was a speaker on one of three buses that left Crawford traveling though the eastern United States that met in Washington, DC for the September 24-26 anti-war weekend. Ms. Wright was arrested on September 27, 2005 with 372 others for demonstrating without a permit in a peaceful, non-violent end-the-war protest in front of the White House. She was also arrested on October 26 in front of the White House during the commemoration of the deaths of 2000 US service members and over 100,000 Iraqis. She was also arrested on November 23, 2005 in Crawford, TX to challenge a restrictive ordinance that prohibited use of the ditches for camping; and July 11, 2006 challenging the nomination of one of the Bush administration’s architects of torture, DOD General Counsel, William Haynes, for a life-long appointment as a judge on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Ms. Wright traveled to Amman, Jordan in August, 2006 to talk with Iraqi parliamentarians about their peace plan. She participated in the Close Guantanamo delegation that traveled to Cuba in January 2007 to commemorate the 5th anniversary of prisoners held in Guantanamo.

Ms. Wright lives in Honolulu, Hawaii. She writes on current US foreign policy and speaks to university classes and civic groups in the United States and internationally.