TFG | Ridenhour

Press Release - 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Janine Jaquet
212-209-5442
janine@nationinstitute.org

IRAQ WAR WHISTLEBLOWER, ATLANTA-BASED INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER AND THE LEGENDARY DANIEL ELLSBERG TO RECEIVE AWARDS FOR “TRUTH-TELLING”

$30,000 in Prizes to Honor Legacy of My Lai Massacre Whistleblower Ron Ridenhour

New York – Former US diplomat in Iraq Joseph Wilson , who has publicly challenged the Bush Administration's claim that Iraq was shopping for uranium in Africa, is one of three inaugural winners of the Ron Ridenhour Awards, created this year by the Fertel Foundation and The Nation Institute in honor of My Lai Massacre whistleblower, Ron Ridenhour . The two other winners are Daniel Ellsberg , who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, and investigative journalist Deborah Scroggins , whose 2002 book Emma's War is an in-depth look at Sudan's long-running civil conflicts.

The awards, each of which carries a $10,000 cash stipend, memorialize and foster the spirit of Ridenhour's fearless truth-telling. The winners will receive their awards at a luncheon on October 15 at the National Press Club in Washington.

"The creation of these awards sends an important message," said Hamilton Fish, president of The Nation Institute. "The truth-tellers in our culture, whether journalists, corporate or government whistleblowers, or everyday citizens, should be honored for their courage, not intimidated or pressured to conform."

The awards and their recipients are:

• The Ron Ridenhour Award for Truth-Telling, awarded to an individual or organization that has brought an important issue to light. Winner Joseph Wilson , former ambassador to two African nations - Gabon, and São Tomé and Príncipe - and the senior American diplomat in Baghdad during the first Gulf War, was recognized for challenging the assertion in President Bush's State of the Union address that Iraq had sought to purchase significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Wilson investigated the charge at the request of the CIA on a trip to Niger and reported back that it was "highly unlikely." Wilson's revelation called into question the Bush Administration's truthfulness, and undermined its claim that it had ample evidence to justify an invasion of Iraq.

"Thanks to Joseph Wilson and those like him, we have access to truth instead of 'spin,' " said Fertel Foundation president Randy Fertel. "His courageous act came at a high personal cost, when this career diplomat and his wife were attacked by the conservative press. However, in the spirit of Ron Ridenhour and My Lai, the benefits of his action to foreign policy and to our democracy were great."

• The Ron Ridenhour Book Prize, awarded to a work that best reflects Ridenhour's values of truth-telling and social justice. Winner Deborah Scroggins is the author of Emma's War: An Aid Worker, Radical Islam, and the Politics of Oil - A True Story of Love and Death in the Sudan (Pantheon, 2002). It is both the riveting story of British aid worker Emma McCune and Riek Machar, the local warlord she marries, and a revealing look at Sudan: a world where international aid often fuels armies instead of the starving, and where the Islamic government is locked in battle with other religious and tribal groups over oil. Emma's War is being adapted as a film for Twentieth Century Fox starring Nicole Kidman .

"Scroggins connects the issues at the heart of the civil war with the very issues that are at present shaking the foundations of the West," said Fertel. "Reading Emma's War , we come to understand not only this local war but the ongoing global struggle of militant Islam against the encroachments of well-meaning Western modernism. "

• The Ron Ridenhour Courage Award, awarded to an individual in recognition of his or her courageous and lifelong defense of the public interest and passionate commitment to social justice. Winner Daniel Ellsberg is best known for leaking a 7,000-page document, which became known as the Pentagon Papers, which revealed that victory in Vietnam was far from certain, despite government assurances to the contrary. The publication of the Pentagon Papers in the New York Times and the Washington Post was a turning point in public opinion against the war.

"Ron Ridenhour's revelation of My Lai shone a bright spotlight on the way the American military sometimes functions in the field when the enemy is ambiguous and the field of battle especially treacherous," said Fertel. "Daniel Ellsberg knew a lot about that, too. His revelation of the Pentagon Papers illuminated as never before how the Pentagon and the White House functioned when fighting a war that was both unpopular and unwinnable. Always relevant, these are lessons we are still learning."

These annual prizes, in their first year, were established in honor of Vietnam veteran Ron Ridenhour. In 1969, he wrote to Congress and the Pentagon describing the horrific events at My Lai, the infamous Vietnam War massacre, bringing the scandal to the attention of the American public and the world. Ridenhour later became a respected investigative journalist, winning the George Polk Award for Investigative Journalism in 1987 for a yearlong investigation of a New Orleans tax scandal. He died in 1998 at the age of 52.

The awards are presented in conjunction with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, the Fund for Constitutional Government, the Government Accountability Project, and the Project on Government Oversight. Honorary board members include Dr. Helen Caldicott, Frances FitzGerald, David Halberstam, Molly Ivins, Susan Meisalas, Victor Navasky, Tim O'Brien and Calvin Trillin.

Additional information on the Ron Ridenhour Awards, the recipients and the Fertel Foundation is available at www.fertel.com. Photographs are also available. More information on The Nation Institute can be found at www.nationinstitute.org.
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