CODEPINK Interview: Omar Ziada on Current Protests in Iraq

We met Omar Ziada on our visit to Iraq before the U.S. Invasion with Shock and Awe. He was head of partnership and relations at the UNDP office in Baghdad and was very generous on our visit by teaching us about the food for oil program and showing us how it worked, what was in it and introduced us to women to talk about the experience. On our trip back to Iraq after the invasion we looked him up again, and we learned even more, he introduced us to his father who had been an ambassador for Iraq and Chief Advisor to the Iraq Parliament. Both have been generous with their wisdom, and we know well their love of Iraq and the heartbreak they have suffered from the U.S. invasion, they lost their country, their friends and members of their family. We are grateful that he was available to speak with us about what is happening currently, which of course he warned us of before the U.S. invasion.

Learn more about the lies and costs of the Iraq War:
https://www.iraqtribunal.org
https://www.codepink.org/cheney

About Omar Ziada: Omar is an Iraqi born in Japan who has traveled and lived around the world. He has worked in different sectors including industrial, financial and humanitarian organizations holding senior positions. He joined the United Nations Development Programme in Baghdad from 1998 till the end of 2003 after the U.S. invasion of Iraq. A witness and survivor of three wars, Iran’s invasion in 1980, the First Gulf War in 1991 and the U.S. Invasion in 2003. Fled Iraq at the end of 2003 before the sectorial war and has never returned. Currently working for a generics pharmaceutical company and residing in exile in Amman, Jordan.