The Bush administration says that human shields will not prevent US bombs from falling on Baghdad.

Last month, War Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called Iraq’s deployment of human shields “murder” and “a violation of the laws of armed conflict and a crime against humanity.”

Army Gen. Tommy Franks, who would run the military campaign against Iraq, said that U.S. war planners would not “necessarily” take the human shields into account.

And Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina has asked John Ashcroft to provide him with a legal assessment of American human shields going to or already in Iraq. Fox News reported yesterday that Graham is “vehement in his opposition to Americans who go to Iraq and calls them 'treasonous.' He said he believes the full force of the law should be applied to those American citizens who give aid or comfort to our enemies.”

Yesterday, Juan Gonzalez and I spoke to Kathy Kelly of Voices in the Wilderness and writer John Ross who are both choosing to remain in Baghdad in spite of an imminent attack by US forces.

• Kathy Kelly, human shield in Iraq, co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness, and two-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee.
• John Ross, human shield, journalist and author of several books including The War Against Oblivion: The Zapatista Chronicles, and Rebellion From the Roots.

Related link:

• Voices In The Wilderness