CLE Seminar Speaker

Bert Sacks

Bert Sacks has traveled to Iraq nine times since 1996. On his most recent trip in September 2002, he accompanied Jim McDermott, his Congressman, and Representatives David Bonior and Mike Thompson.

He has led five delegations of the Chicago-based anti-sanctions group Voices in the Wilderness. He has also facilitated three delegations to Iraq sponsored by Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility (WPSR).

Bert was on the first WPSR delegation which the Seattle Post-Intelligencer covered in an 8-page special report "Life and Death in Iraq."

He has been active in the Seattle area since 1995 in educating about the effects of sanctions on Iraq, organizing protests, arranging for visiting speakers, and working to educate for fairer media coverage of the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Iraq caused by US/UN economic sanctions.

Bert lived in Israel for five years. He speaks Hebrew and has worked there as a volunteer on different kibbutzim and as an electronics and software engineer.

He left Israel in 1984 but has returned several times, including a 1996 trip with the Compassionate Listening Project — a citizen diplomacy effort which works for reconciliation by understanding both sides of the conflict.

He grew up around Boston, attended Dartmouth College, Boston University, and the University of California at Berkeley. He has worked professionally as an electronics engineer and a software programmer. He lives in Seattle.

The website www.concernforiraq.org contains more information about Bert, including the $10,000 fine which the U.S. Treasury Department has imposed on him for his 1997 trip to Iraq to deliver medicines in violation of U.S. sanctions law.