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AFTERMATH
Headlines
from the Iraq War were awash with numbers, from money spent to targets
hit to civilians harmed. The war's aftermath is not about numbers. It
is about names and families, birthdays celebrated and anniversaries
mourned. It is about struggling to cope and rebuilding hope. A distinguished
panel will gather after the September 22th Aftermath performance
to discuss this difficult time in Iraqi's history, as the US pulls out,
and how civilians have and will continue to survive. Panelists include:
Anil Soni, board director of the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict
(CIVIC) and CEO of the William J. Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative; Manal
Omar, an Iraq expert and program officer at the United States Institute
for Peace; Jonathan Tracy ex-military lawyer and assistant director
of the National Institute for Military Justice; and Christina Asquith,
an award-winning journalist and author who reported extensively from
Baghdad and recently released a book on Iraqi women titled "Sisters
in War: A story of love, family, and survival in the New Iraq".
Each panelist will give a brief statement followed by questions.
About
CIVIC
Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC) advocates on behalf
of victims of armed conflict, working to ensure they receive recognition
and assistance from warring parties. CIVIC persuaded the US Congress
to establish programs for war victims in Afghanistan and Iraq, guides
victims to assistance, brings the human cost of war to the attention
of policymakers and the public, and is advocating a new global standard
of conduct that warring parties should help where they have hurt. http://www.civicworldwide.org/
Panelist Bios
Moderator
Anil Soni, CIVIC Board Director
From 2004 to 2005, Anil Soni served as the executive director of Friends
of the Global Fight, a nonprofit that advocates in the United State
for increased public leadership and private engagement to support the
Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Previously, Soni
served as the adviser to the executive director of the Global Fund in
Geneva, where he provided senior policy counsel to guide the organization’s
development and operations in its first two years. Soni was also a consultant
at McKinsey and Company, where he served such clients as the Bill &
Melinda Gates Foundation and the Botswana Ministry of Health. He also
worked in the White House Office of National AIDS Policy and nongovernmental
organizations in Ghana and the Middle East. Soni graduated magna cum
laude from Harvard College in 1998 and is currently COO of the HIV and
AIDS initiative of the William J. Clinton Foundation in Manhattan, working
with manufacturers to reduce the cost of medications for people living
with HIV or AIDS in developing countries.
Panelist
Manal Omar, Iraq Expert
Manal Omar joined USIP as a program officer for the grant program in
August 2008. Previously, she was regional program manager for the Middle
East for Oxfam - Great Britain, where she responded to humanitarian
crises in Palestine and Lebanon. Omar has extensive experience in the
Middle East. She worked with Women for Women International as regional
coordinator for Afghanistan, Iraq and Sudan. Omar lived in Baghdad from
2003 to 2005 and set up operations in Iraq. She launched her career
as a journalist in the Middle East in 1996. UNESCO recruited her to
work on one of her first lead assignments in Iraq in 1997-1998. Omar
worked more than three years with the World Bank’s development
economics group. She has carried out training programs on in Yemen,
Bahrain, Afghanistan, Sudan, Lebanon, Occupied Palestinian Territories,
Kenya and many other countries. In 2007, Islamic Magazine named her
one of the ten young visionaries shaping Islam in America. She holds
an M.A. in Arab studies from Georgetown University and a B.A. in international
relations from George Mason University.
Panelist
Jonathan Tracy, Former CPT US Army, Judge Advocate
Jonathan has been the Assistant Director of the National Institute of
Military Justice at American University Washington College of Law since
July 2008. Jonathan served on active duty as a judge advocate in the
United States Army from 2002-2005. He served as a prosecutor, claims
judge advocate, an operational law attorney, and an administrative law
attorney. In 2003-04, Jonathan deployed with Second Brigade, First Armored
Division to Baghdad Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. In that
capacity, he served as a claims judge advocate adjudicating over one
thousand claims filed by local Iraqis for damage and death allegedly
caused by U.S. military forces. He also served as a magistrate at Camp
Cropper where he reviewed detainee files of those captured by coalition
forces to determine if there was probable cause to continue their detention.
After leaving active duty, Jonathan provided technical expertise and
advice on U.S. policy of compensating civilian casualties of armed conflict
to the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict and serves as their
military legal advisor. With CIVIC he drafted proposed U.S. legislation
creating a mechanism to compensate civilian victims of U.S. combat activities.
Jonathan was also a Human Rights and National Security Fellow at the
Carr Center for Human Rights Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of
Government, Harvard University.
Panelist
Christina Asquith, Journalist/Author
An award-winning journalist for over 14 years, Christina has written
for The New York Times, The Economist, The Christian Science Monitor,
The Guardian and was a staff writer at The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her
new book, “Sisters in War: Love, Survival and Family in the New
Iraq” is based off of the 18 months she lived in and reported
from Baghdad, Iraq. Christina is also a board member of ASUDA-USA, which
aids Iraqi women and Iraqi refugees in the US.
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