Posted by CODEPINK Staff
Dear Mr. Houston,
I hope this letter finds you well. You don’t know me, but my name is Farah Muhsin Al Mousawi and I am an Iraqi citizen living in the United States. I wanted to address a letter to you personally in the light of your company’s recent decision to include former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as a fourth board member. I salute your work as a young and ambitious entrepreneur who has helped reshape the way we see and use technology. I also salute you for choosing a woman to be a member of your board, however, your choice of this particular person could not be more wrong!
You may have read by now the hundreds of articles and comments posted about your choice of the former Secretary of State. It seems obvious to many people, including myself, that she is a terrible candidate for your board, especially when she signed off on the Patriot Act to limit the privacy of individuals in the USA, and especially when your company is promoting itself as a trustworthy cloud service that people can trust to share their documents. But I will share with you this:
You and I are almost the same age, and we both lived in opposite worlds. I grew up in Iraq and my country was attacked and invaded, and you grew up in the US and yours, too, was attacked on 9/11, but because of President George W. Bush’s mistake my country ended up losing a lot.
On the eve of March 19, I was woken by the sounds of the sirens and bombing in my city. I felt the ground shake and the beaming light that broke into the room is a sight. I could never forget as I see it every time I close my eyes.
I saw American armed troops marching down my streets, creating military stations out of schools and hospitals. Hundreds of buildings were demolished and millions of lives were either killed or forced to leave their homes, including mine.
Lives in Iraq continue to be affected by this war that was waged on false pretenses by President George W. Bush and six key members of his administration, including Condoleezza Rice. Rice’s input and support of the war on Iraq before and during 2003, and her defending the decision to destroy my country continue to be part of the dark legacy of George Bush.
If her decisions as National Security Advisor and then Secretary of State has lead to the ultimate invasion of a sovereign nation (that ultimately lead to spending more than $3 trillion and lives of nearly 4,000 US troops, hundreds who are wounded, and more than 100,000 Iraqi lives), imagine what damage it will bring to your company that you have built and worked so hard on its success.
In fact, how could anyone trust any liar?
As an Iraqi citizen affected by the war, and as a young woman of your age, I urge you to reconsider your decision to include Condoleezza Rice as a board member of DropBox.
Your success is not contingent upon the welcoming of someone who was instrumental in killing innocent civilians and encouraged governmental spying on citizens of this country.
As there is more to discuss, I look forward to a response from your office.
Letter delivered to DropBox headquarters in San Francisco on Monday, April 14 at 9am. Watch the video! Sign the petition!