The (Eureka, Calif.) Times-Standard
April 25, 2003
By Sara Watson Arthurs
The former Humboldt County resident who traveled to Iraq to serve as a “human shield” is now back at home in Mexico.
Writer and activist John Ross went to Iraq in February as part of a caravan of 35 “human shields” hoping to protect Iraqi civilians at various locations from harm. Ross stationed himself at the Daura Oil Refinery in Baghdad.
He was one of five shields expelled from Iraq in early March after a dispute over where the western peace activists should be deployed to deter possible U.S. military strikes.
Senior Iraqi official Abdul-Razzaq al-Hashimi at that time told a heated meeting of about 100 human shields in Baghdad that the five were undermining what he termed the noble and courageous spirit of other volunteers. Eventually all the human shields chose to leave of their own volition and were gone before the United States launched its attack on Iraq.
