TLP in the News: Council on Foreign Relations and Commentary Magazine

Recently, the Council on Foreign Relations, a political think-tank, interviewed The List Project's Founder, Kirk Johnson. Click here to hear the podcast of the interview. In the interview, Johnson mentions the ever growing names on his list and relates how calls for help spike when an Iraqi working for the US is killed as torture to obtain the names of other Iraqi allies is frequently induced by the militants.

Furthermore, Max Boot had this to say in Commentary Magazine's blog:

Helping Iraqis who have helped us should not be a partisan issue. Senator Ted Kennedy, an opponent of the war, has sponsored legislation to increase the number of visas available and to expedite their processing in Baghdad. That’s a good start, but the prime imperative now is for President Bush to get off its keister and do more to help our allies. The administration’s foot-dragging in this regard is as inexplicable as it as counter-productive. We need some high level intervention to break through the bureaucratic logjam. If this requires personal attention from the commander-in-chief, so be it. We owe the Iraqis nothing less.

Boot's observation of the non-partisan nature of this issue is completely correct. He notes that Kennedy is against the Iraq War and the co-sponsors of that legislation that he so forcefully promoted and got enacted, speaks volumes about the true nature of the issue. Republican senators Susan Collins, Chuck Hagel, Gordon Smith, Olympia Snowe, George Voinovich, and hawkish independent Joe Lieberman all co-sponsored the Kennedy legislation. Indeed, resettling Iraqi allies is not in the narrow domain of any ideology or political party but transcends them thereby finding advocates from all avenues of our multifacted society.

Angelina Jolie steals some spotlight from Patreus to highlight Iraqi Refugees

We at The List Project Blog are generally an average looking bunch, so we always appreciate it when someone more aesthetically gifted gives his or her megaphone to the plight of Iraqi refugees. Yesterday, as General David Patreus gave his much anticipated report to the Senate, Oscar-winning actress and humanitarian activist Angelina Jolie brought the issue of Iraqi child refugees to the forefront in an appearance before the Council on Foreign Relations.

Watch the video highlights online:



The Washington Post reports:

Angelina Jolie nearly stole the limelight from Army Gen. David H. Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan C. Crocker yesterday with her own remarks on Iraq at the Council on Foreign Relations, which had to move the standing-room-only event to the ballroom of the Washington Club to accommodate the crowd and television cameras. Paparazzi and gawkers swarmed outside.

The actress's appearance on a panel discussing the plight of more than 1 million Iraqi child refugees was less upbeat than that of the U.S. officials who testified before two Senate committees yesterday.

"This population we're talking about is the future of Iraq," said Jolie, who has traveled twice to Iraq over the past year, as well as to Syria to visit Iraqi refugees. "So to reach them now, to help deal with their trauma and refocus their minds on a possible future should absolutely be one of our top priorities. We need these kids. . . . We need them to rebuild their country, to stabilize their country and eventually lead their country."