Activist quits her day job to recruit human shields Major Barf Alert)

Santa Barbara News-Press ^ | 01/30/03 | Leah Etling

[Inspectorette]

Activist quits her day job to recruit human shields

1/30/03
By LEAH ETLING

Liev Aleo has been on the front lines of Santa Barbara's peace marches for the last five months, singing, shouting and raising her arms in exuberant peace signs.

But the 27-year-old, an Indiana native who has lived in California for just a year, could find herself on the front lines of a war when she goes to Iraq as a human shield in February.

A former secretary at UCSB, Ms. Aleo quit her job in November to focus all her energy on a Web-based peace group she founded last year.

Become the Change asks visitors at www.becomethechange.org to pledge to join a worldwide shield effort.

Her Web site is one of a number around the world, and some are already sending people to Iraq. According to the BBC, two groups of shields equaling about 200 people left the United Kingdom last week. One group is organized by a former United States marine.

A caravan of British citizens organized through www.humanshields.org is going to Baghdad via Paris, Amsterdam and Istanbul. That group hopes to grow to thousands by the time they get to the Middle East.

It's unclear if any Americans have already left for Iraq.

"Mostly it's a word-of-mouth effort," Ms. Aleo said. She broached the idea at a September peace rally downtown and received positive feedback. Establishing a Web site took a few weeks and soon the e-mails were pouring in.

The site asks those who pledge to state how many other human shields would have to go to Iraq for them to feel comfortable going. Some people said five, others 500, others 10,000.

"I beg my loving wife's forgiveness and make this pledge," wrote one New York City man. The U.S. government has told Iraq that using human shields at potential bombing locations will be considered a war crime and there is no guarantee that sites where the shields might take up residence would be spared.

There are nearly 500 messages in her in-box, and Ms. Aleo devotes most of her waking hours to replying to them, contacting other shield coordinators and helping other future human shields with their travel arrangements.

"Once I realized that there was something I could do to stop a war and save hundreds of people from dying, that was all I could morally do," she said of her decision to quit her job.

A friend who supports her cause is providing housing and she has received donations that cover her living expenses while she works on coordinating the shield.

Ms. Aleo would like her shield to have at least 100 people in Iraq at all times. Those who have pledged to join her are asked to organize groups in their own cities or countries.

Many are from Australia and New Zealand. One man e-mailed from China. In California, Bay Area residents make up the majority of pledgers. She says there are lots of human shield pledges from Santa Barbara, but just one other confirmation. That man did not return calls and e-mails.

Most people who are committed to the shield effort, which requires about $2,000 for travel expenses, are making their own plane reservations. Some have found out about the British convoy and joined up with them. Others are flying to Jordan or Turkey and then making their way to Iraq.

Besides the imminent danger of war, Ms. Aleo has received death threats and hate mail from those who disagree with her cause.

"If I get called up, I will shoot every last one of you," one e-mailer wrote. Her Web site is hacked regularly and she fears there may be countless pledges that were sent but never received.

Some people think the movement could play right into Saddam Hussein's hands.

Congressman Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, noted that the Iraqi dictator was quite content to turn his own people into human shields during the Gulf War, placing his weapon stockpiles and command centers atop shelters and hospitals.

"I would not endorse or support (Americans volunteering as human shields). I don't want to see anybody go into harm's way," he said, adding that he hasn't taken a position on military action.

Despite his opposition to their actions, Mr. Gallegly said he respects each person's right to oppose the war in whatever peaceful way they choose.

"Far be it from me to be judgmental on that," he said. "I'm sure the people who are doing that believe very strongly in their decision."

The shields will be given placards in Arabic that say: "Hello! I am a member of the international human shield. Please graciously allow us to live among you in your country until this crisis has passed."

Ms. Aleo hopes that Iraqis will welcome them into their homes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that they will, she said. Her efforts to contact the Iraqi Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Iraqi government for visas and information have not been successful, but the British human shield group has offered to share their visas with her human shield members.

Though she would grieve if any shield members are killed, Ms. Aleo believes her cause is worth dying for.

"If some of the shield members will die in trying to make the world at least a little better than this, it's a risk we consider worth taking," she said.

She says she's given little thought to the prospect of losing her own life.

"I'm telling people that there's a risk, but I would feel tremendously more guilty by sitting by and doing nothing," she said. "I think it's way nobler for a person to travel to a place for peace rather than to go there for war."

She has based much of her philosophy for Become the Change on a talk she heard Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi, give at Santa Barbara City College in June 2002. Mr. Gandhi, who has endorsed her action, said the only way to peace is through mainstream citizen non-violence.

"It takes Gandhi's message and carries it forward into entirely new proportions, something that will actually stop this war and promote a nonviolence resolution to the conflict," she said.

[Timesink]

Enjoy death, bimbo! Can I have your CDs?

[Guillermo]

At least she is willing to do what so many of us ask the anti-US freaks to do...

[Timesink]

Ken Nichols O'Keefe, a former U.S. marine...

"Do any of you people know who Charles Whitman was?"

No response.

"None of you dumbasses knows?"

COWBOY raises his hand.

"Private Cowboy?"

"Sir! He was that guy who shot all those people from that tower in Austin, Texas, sir!"

"That's affirmative! Charles Whitman killed twenty people from a twenty-eight-story observation tower at the University of Texas from distances up to four hundred yards! ... Anybody know who Lee Harvey Oswald was? Private Snowball?"

"Sir! He shot Kennedy, sir!"

"That's right! And do you know how far away he was?"

"Sir, it was pretty far! From that book suppository building, sir!"

The recruits laugh at "suppository."

"All right, knock it off! Two hundred and fifty feet! He was two hundred and fifty feet away and shooting at a moving target! Oswald got off three rounds with an old Italian bolt action rifle in only six seconds and scored two hits, including a head shot! Do any of you people know where these individuals learned to shoot? Private Joker?"

"Sir! In the Marines, sir!"

"In the Marines! Outstanding! Those individuals showed what one motivated marine and his rifle can do! And before you ladies leave my island, you will be able to do the same thing!"

[pfflier]

Quick...go to Hollywierd. Hundreds have expressed their discontent with our foreign policy. Let them demonstrate their convictions (sorry Winona, no pun intended) by doing something like standing outside a bio agent factory.

PS Don't count on them keeping their word or some would already be in France surrendering.

[Doctor Mongo]

Re: twit. Anybody want to buy a vowel?

[dennisw]

http://161.58.5.90/fmj/supsitry.wav

[dennisw]

O'Keefe looks a more like a lunatic ex con, than a marine. Did he go stir crazy in some prison?

He reminds me of some kooky occultist or Satanist lite. Like the deceased Satanist Anton LaVey

[sport]

Who is paying her?

[anymouse]

I wonder if she realizes that her "fearless leader," O'Keefe is a neo-nazi? Oh well, another entrant in Darwin's contest.

[Search4Truth]

That's how I see it. Some people are too stupid to live. We should not concern ourselves with the consequences of their folly. Except of course, when their folly concerns us.

[Poohbah]

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle coined the phrase "Think of it as evolution in action" in their novel Oath of Fealty, and it just started running amok:

"Raise the speed limit. Think of it as evolution in action."

"Repeal seatbelt laws. Think of it as evolution in action."

"Legalize crack. Think of it as evolution in action."

[tet68]

""Hello! I am a member of the international human shield. Please graciously allow us to live among you in your country until this crisis has passed."


And just how many languages are they going to print these up in?

Iraqi
Iranian
North Korean
Pakistani
?????

Maybe they'd be better off just printing them up in sign language.

[Inspectorette]

Who is paying her?

She'd like us to think she's relying on the kindness and generosity of like-minded individuals. I would guess, however, that she's being funded by A.N.S.W.E.R. or some such radical group.

[driftless]

Ditto. It changed my mind thirty years ago. Every would-be leftist should read it.

[oioiman]

I hope they blow them all to f?*&in# hell.

[LibKill]

More human shields. As many as they can get there.

You have a great idea. Line them up!

This way we get rid of Saddam AND the commie scum who infest our body politic.

TWOFER!

[Jonathon Spectre]

These human shields should be the first target. The wages of treason and all that.

[irv]

But the 27-year-old, an Indiana native who has lived in California for just a year, could find herself on the front lines of a war when she goes to Iraq as a human shield in February

Working to win herself a Darwin Mega-Award by recruiting others just as empty-headed as herself. Amazing!

[Robert A Cook PE]

And just who is "donating" her living expenses and all this computer and phone time?

Comes to around 50-60,000 per year to take care of a person's reasonable expenses all told in the real world - though these guys are not really in the real world. And they certainly aren't paying taxes.

Wonder if they are on welfare/gov. grant/"student fare"?

.... Somebody is footing the bill.

[SuziQ]

A former secretary at UCSB, Ms. Aleo quit her job in November to focus all her energy on a Web-based peace group she founded last year.

Wow, she must have saved a lot of her income in order to afford this. Otherwise, who's paying for her little 'peace train'?