• It’s the War, Stupid

• Ten Organizations from
  Five States Address Proposed Uranium Mining

• Initiative Petition to
  ‘Use Public Power’ Will Open Up the Information Super Highway for Nebraskans

• 

• Don't Be Deceived

• The Folly Of Attacking Iran

• NFP Position on Rolling Back Affirmative Action

• 

• How U.S. Policy Is Undermining the Prospects for World Peace

• Crossing the Color Line In Nebraska

• ‘Swiftboating’ Geophysical Reality

• 

• The Cost of War for Iraq –
  A Damage Report

• REAL-LIFE STAR WARS

• Bjorn Lomborg’s Warm, Fuzzy World

• 

• U.S. Strategic Command Near Omaha: A Dangerous & Scary Neighbor

• What Can Be Done about StratCom?

• Randall Forsberg (1943-2007) on an Exit Strategy from Iraq

• 

• Nebraskans’ Bill for the Iraq War: $21,450 per Household (and growing)

• Cheney’s Fingerprints

• Psychologist Mary Pipher on ‘Inhuman Rights’

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• StratCom’s Goal of
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• Why Are We Waiting for Petraeus?

• There’s a Uranium Mine
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  Crow Butte Near Crawford

• 

• Why Aren’t More Nebraskans For Peace?

• The World Is Watching Whiteclay

• Red State: Blue State

• 

• What’s NFP’s Stance on the Mess in Iraq Now?

• The Hagel Policy Toward Iran

• Impeaching Cheney

• 

• StratCom In Nebraska

• StratCom On Campus

• Academic Freedom in the Age of Homeland Security

• Why Cheney Lost It When Joe Wilson Spoke Out…

• 

• WHY PEACE?

• Quaker Lobbyist Coming to Nebraska to Report on Iran Visit

• STRATCOM: Already Planning Pre-emptive Strike on Iran

• 

• VICTORY IN IRAQ

• What’s HOT in Global Warming?

• War & Debt

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• Fouling Our Nest

• Leaving Iraq, Honorably

• The Paul Revere of Global Warming

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• The Really Inconvenient Truth

• StratCom Conference Sells Space Dominance

• South Korean Military Base Threatens International Security

• 

• Tortured Logic

• NFP Year in Review

• Senator Ernie Chambers to Speak at 2006 Annual Peace Conference

• 

• The Declaration of Peace

• What Would Jesus Do
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• 

• One More Reason to Reduce Our Oil Usage

• Can Everyone Be Made to See the Light?

• 

• Nebraska Key to Creating A Sustainable Energy Future

• The Rev. Dr. William Sloane Coffin My Mentor & Friend

Quaker Lobbyist Coming to Nebraska to Report on Iran Visit

Don Reeves

Joe Volk, Executive Secretary of the Quaker lobby, the Friends Committee on National Legislation, is part of a 13-member religious delegation visiting government and religious leaders in Iran as of Nebraska Report press time. Volk will report first-hand to Nebraskans in a series of meetings March 27–March 30. (See below for tentative schedule.) The religious delegation’s visit is by invitation from Iranian President Ahmadinejad, who met with a 50-member religious delegation during his visit to the United Nations last September. The delegation expects to visit with President Ahmadinejad during this return visit that was arranged by the Mennonite Central Committee, but includes United Methodists, Roman Catholics and Episcopalians, as well as Mennonites and Quakers.

In his February 22 daily report from Iran, Volk reported their meeting that day with the deputy foreign minister of Iran, who said this was the “first time a U.S. group — religious or otherwise — had met with Iranian officials in the foreign ministry since the Iranian Revolution in 1979.”

Asked about Iran’s nuclear program, the foreign minister said that Iran is developing nuclear power, but is prepared to suspend enrichment activities and negotiate with the international community to ensure that its nuclear program complies with international safeguards. But, he added, Iran will not comply with the UN Security Council demand to suspend its uranium enrichment program as a precondition to talks.

This report matches what Mohammed El Baradei, the head of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported in announcing to the UN Security Council in mid-February, after years of inspections, that Iran has not complied with the UN Security Council resolution. Volk noted that “The UN Security Council will have to decide next steps, but I am impressed that El Baradei sees hopes for progress if both sides will come to the negotiations table. He has proposed a time-out, or simultaneous suspension of Iranian uranium enrichment and UN sanctions that could open up space for diplomatic negotiations.”

Volk said that the religious delegation is not in Iran to negotiate — but that the delegation is “reaching out to encourage a dialogue between our two nations in hope of averting a war. We see an openness to negotiations here in Iran.”

Volk continued, “The United States has not demonstrated a similar openness. In statements eerily familiar to the prelude to war in Iraq, the Bush Administration is warning that Iran may soon have nuclear weapons. But the Israeli intelligence agency, British intelligence and even the U.S. intelligence say Iran is years away from producing nuclear weapons, with still time to talk.”

Volk will report personally and more fully on his Iran visit in meetings in Omaha, Lincoln, Hastings and either Grand Island or Kearney March 27–30. To request a Volk appearance before your group, call Don Reeves (308-946-5409) or Paul Olson (402-475-1318). Visit the NFP website after mid-March for final details on Volk’s appearances.

Joe Volk’s Tentative Speaking Schedule in Nebraska:

Tuesday March 27, 7:00 p.m.

Public Meeting, Kearney

Wednesday March 28, 10:00 a.m.

Hastings College Chapel (a Kearney event is still under consideration)

Wednesday March 28, 7:00 p.m.

Public Meeting, Grand Island

Thursday March 29, 4:00 p.m.

UNL Student Union, UNL NFP Chapter

Thursday March 29, 7:30 p.m.

Trinity United Methodist Church, Lincoln

Friday March 30

Omaha: UNO, Creighton, media, Nelson, Hagel offices

Friday March 30, 7:00 p.m.

Public Meeting, Omaha

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