Direct from Iraq, independent journalist Urban Hamid

Sunday, March 19 at Noon
Direct from Iraq, independent journalist Urban Hamid

At the Not in Our Name office, 3945 Opal Street (at 40 Street, near Broadway), Oakland

Please RSVP as space is limited. Refreshments will be served. Donation requested.

Not In Our Name is honored to host Iraqi-Swedish journalist Urban Hamid for an intimate discussion and a preview of his new video footage from Iraq.

"The US has turned Iraq from a secular dictatorship into a theocracy" -Urban Hamid

Some of the questions Mr. Hamid will confront include: 1) What does the U.S. mean by "democracy", and what is the reality of this in Iraq? 2) Why do the people of Ramadi now oppose the occupation, whereas they once welcomed US troops? 3) Who is the resistance, and how should people view them?

Mr. Hamid has spent most of the last three years in Iraq, including as recently as December. Because of his close connections with Iraq and the amount of time he has spent on the ground, he is able to describe in great detail the complexities the Iraqi attitude towards the American occupation, the resistance and the conflicts between different religious and ethnic groups within the country. His video footage also appears in Michael Moore's documentary "Fahrenheit 911", and the Shocking and Awful program "The Real Face of Occupation".

Urban Hamid was born and raised in Sweden by his Swedish mother and Iraqi father. During the last ten years, Mr. Hamid as also reported extensively from the Philippines, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Egypt, Palestine, Kirgiqistan, Iran, Cambodia, Chiapas (Mexico), China, Mongolia, and Vietnam.

This one day visit to the Bay Area is part of a U.S. tour sponsored by Deep Dish TV.