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by Medea Benjamin

Outraged by Senator Lieberman's comments on CBS last Sunday on wanting to bomb Iran, CODEPINK and members of Iranian, Iraqi, Israeli and Jewish communities will hold a meeting on Thursday with the Senator himself.  Lieberman's aggressive comments prompted one CODEPINK member, Leslie Angeline, to start a hunger strike until she meets with the Senator. Angeline is now into the 5th day of her hunger strike.

In response to Lieberman's statements on CBS that "we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians", dozens of representatives from various international peace communities will present the Senator with photos of Iranian children and tens of thousands of petition signatures from Americans urging diplomacy not military action with Iran.  These will include a petition that has gathered 103,548 signatures.

Hunger-striker Leslie Angeline, 50, from California, and CODEPINK cofounder Medea Benjamin will lead the discussion along with Ross Pourzal, director of the Iranian group against US military intervention in Iran (CASMI) and Iranian peace advocate Marjan Shallal.

WHEN: Thursday June 14, 4:30pm
WHERE: Senator Lieberman's Office- 706 Hart Office Building

"When I heard that Lieberman said he thought we should have military action against Iran, I couldn't help but think of the 70% of the Iranian population who are under the age of 30-—the age of my son. Iran is a country of warm, kind, and generous children and their families. We cannot bomb these kids," says Angeline, who recently returned from a citizen diplomacy delegation to Iran organized by the international human rights organization, Global Exchange.

"We are anxious to meet with Senator Lieberman to explain why an attack on Iran would turn 70 million Iranians, now mostly friendly to the US, into enemies and would undermine US security," states Ross Pourzal of CASMI.

In addition to pressuring Sen. Lieberman, CODEPINK will now launch a campaign pressuring all Presidential candidates to support peace talks and diplomacy and abandon a preemptive, oppressive "all options on the table" Iran policy.

CODEPINK women and men from around the country will continue their political pilgrimage to Congressional hearings, member offices, hallways and public debates to demand an end to the US military occupation of Iraq.

Visit www.codepinkalert.org for more information on CODEPINK and their new Presidential candidate pressure campaign.

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