Sean Penn Interview Set to Air Saturday Night

Sean Penn's first interview since his trip to Iraq in mid-December is scheduled to air on CNN's "Larry King" program this Saturday night (January 11).

For background information, read the stories below and sidebars on Sean's statements. Or, go to http://www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR121502.htm

[Note the mention of the Not in Our Name Statement in this article-- Artists Network]

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, December 16, 2002; Page A16

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 15 -- Sean Penn would be the first to admit he's no pacifist. On-screen, he's played a sadistic soldier and a vicious murderer; off-screen, a paparazzi-punching pugilist. Yet, here was the brooding, bruising actor in the Iraqi capital today, cast against type as America's latest leading peace activist.

While other Hollywood celebrities sign letters, Penn decided to come to Baghdad to see for himself how Iraqis live and to contemplate ways of stopping a looming war he considers immoral. As U.N. inspectors fanned out across Baghdad searching for anthrax and sarin gas, Penn inspected hospitals and schools and streets in poor neighborhoods.

The 42-year-old Oscar-nominated actor may not be a household name here, but his fame was enough to secure meetings with senior Iraqi officials, and some everyday Iraqis turned their heads as he walked by. The movie they mentioned most? "Casualties of War."

Penn came, he said, out of a sense of duty as a U.S. citizen responsible for his country's conduct. "Somewhere along the line, the actions of this government are the actions of me," he said in a room at the Al-Rashid Hotel this afternoon, puffing on a cigarette and nursing an orange soda.

"And if there's going to be blood on my hands, I'm not willing to have it be invisible. I wanted to come to Iraq and see Iraqi faces -- children, adults, diplomats, anybody that implies -- and go home with some impressions that will not let me off the hook. . . . It's not abstract anymore."

During an interview and a separate news conference, Penn offered no particular criticism of Saddam Hussein's government. Instead, he challenged President Bush to put up or shut up by disclosing any evidence of weapons of mass destruction held by Iraq. Although he said he was not here to criticize the U.S. president, he predicted that Bush's political career would be destroyed if he went to war.

The actor's three-day visit, which ended late tonight, has drawn sharp criticism from those in the United States who find it distasteful for prominent Americans to do anything that could play into Hussein's hands.

Penn was careful to say he was not supporting Iraq, but that distinction could be lost in the pictures of him touring what many consider an enemy capital.

Penn said he came without consulting studio executives or PR mavens and brushed off any concern that he could become the "Hanoi Jane" Fonda of his era. "I worry more about an 18-year-old soldier who comes over here a patriot and goes back home dead," he said. "It's irrelevant if I come back and people dismiss me."

Penn's visit is the latest manifestation of a long struggle between Hollywood and Washington over issues of war and peace dating back to Fonda's visits to Hanoi during the Vietnam War. While largely quiet during President Bill Clinton's bombing of Baghdad in 1998 or his battle to liberate Kosovo in 1999, the entertainment elite has been gearing up in opposition to any U.S. war with Iraq.

A group of celebrities, including Susan Sarandon, Gore Vidal and Oliver Stone, recently signed a "statement of conscience" drafted by a group calling itself "Not in Our Name" asking Americans "to resist the injustices done by our government." In an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times this month, Robert Redford questioned Bush's claims to patriotism in the confrontation with Iraq, saying, "The Bush White House talks tough on military matters in the Middle East while remaining silent about the long-term problems posed by U.S. dependence on fossil fuels."

Perhaps incongruously, Penn has become one of the most visible in the give-peace-a-chance chorus. In October, he took out a $56,000 ad in The Washington Post styled in the form of an open letter to Bush in which he wrote, "I beg you, help save America before yours is a legacy of shame and horror."

Penn has played a succession of unsympathetic characters over the years, from the sergeant who kidnaps, rapes and kills a Vietnamese girl in "Casualties of War" to the brazen, brutal cop in "Colors" to the death-row inmate ministered to by Sarandon in "Dead Man Walking." During his since-ended marriage to Madonna, he made use of his fists to demonstrate his unhappiness with prying photographers.

Now married to actress Robin Wright Penn, he said his role as father of two children forced him to get involved in the Iraq debate. "I just came to a point of implosion in my frustration in some of what I was witnessing," he said in the interview.

The ad drew an invitation to visit Iraq from Norman Solomon, head of the Institute for Public Accuracy, a self-described progressive research organization. Accompanied by Solomon, Penn visited a water treatment facility bombed during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, met with Iraqis on the street and sat down with top officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

As he prepared to leave for Memphis, where he is shooting a movie, Penn was circumspect in describing his impressions of Iraq, saying he needed time to digest them. "The first thing I'm going to do is let the experience find its own organic place," he said.

With his hair falling in his face and a cigarette hanging from his mouth, the bad-boy actor acknowledged he hasn't always been able to turn the other cheek. "I'm not a pacifist," he said. "I'm not sure whether I'm ashamed to say that, but I'm not a pacifist."

But he added, "I hope this war does not happen."

© 2002 The Washington Post Company

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Actor Sean Penn on Friday weighed in on the international debate over a possible war with Iraq, paying for a $56,000 advertisement in the Washington Post accusing U.S. President George W. Bush of stifling debate and threatening civil liberties.

In an open letter to Bush taking up most of a page in the main section of the daily newspaper, the Oscar-nominated star of "I Am Sam" and "Dead Man Walking," urged the president to stop a cycle where "bombing is answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing."

"I beg you, help save America before yours is a legacy of shame and horror," Penn wrote, echoing voices of caution from around the world that have called for a measured response to allegations Iraq is developing weapons of mass destruction.

The letter was signed "Sincerely, Sean Penn, San Francisco, California." A spokesman for the Washington Post confirmed that it was placed by the Hollywood celebrity, who has starred in more than 40 movies.

Quoting Bush's declaration that the world was either "with us or against us" in the war on terrorism launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks, Penn, 42, said Bush was marginalizing critics, manipulating the media and promoting fear.

Those actions and "your administration's deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you claim," wrote Penn.

"Sacrificing American soldiers or innocent civilians in an unprecedented preemptive attack on a separate sovereign nation may well prove itself a most temporary medicine," he said.

Copyright 2002 Reuters. All rights reserved.

Text of Statement by Sean Penn At News Conference in Baghdad

The actor and director Sean Penn made the following statement at a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday afternoon:

I am a citizen of the United States of America. I believe in the Constitution of the United States, and the American people. Ours is a government designed to function "of"-"by"-and-"for" the people. I am one of those people, and a privileged one.

I am privileged in particular to raise my children in a country of high standards in health, welfare, and safety. I am also privileged to have lived a life under our Constitution that has allowed me to dream and prosper. In response to these privileges I feel, both as an American and as a human being, the obligation to accept some level of personal accountability for the policies of my government, both those I support and any that I may not. Simply put, if there is a war or continued sanctions against Iraq, the blood of Americans and Iraqis alike will be on our hands.

My trip here is to personally record the human face of the Iraqi people so that their blood -- along with that of American soldiers -- would not be invisible on my own hands. I sit with you here today in the hopes that any of us present may contribute in any way to a peaceful resolution to the conflict at hand.

I thank Norman Solomon and the Institute for Public Accuracy for facilitating my visit.

Sean Penn
December 15, 2002

Mr. Bush: Good morning sir. Like you, I am a father and an American. Like you, I consider myself a patriot. Like you, I was horrified by the events of this past year, concerned for my family and my country. However, I do not believe in a simplistic and inflammatory view of good and evil. I believe this is a big world full of men, women, and children who struggle to eat, to love, to work, to protect their families, their beliefs, and their dreams. My father, like yours, was decorated for service in World War II. He raised me with a deep belief in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, as they should apply to all Americans who would sacrifice to maintain them and to all human beings as a matter of principle.

Many of your actions to date and those proposed seem to violate every defining principle of this country over which you preside: intolerance of debate ("with us or against us"), marginalization of your critics, the promoting of fear through unsubstantiated rhetoric, manipulation of a quick comfort media, and position of your administration's deconstruction of civil liberties all contradict the very core of the patriotism you claim. You lead, it seems, through a blood-lined sense of entitlement. Take a close look at your most vehement media supporters. See the fear in their eyes as their loud voices of support ring out with that historically disastrous undercurrent of rage and panic masked as "straight tough talk."

How far have we come from understanding what it is to kill one man, one woman, or one child, much less the "collateral damage" of many hundreds of thousands. Your use of the words, "this is a new kind of war" is often accompanied by an odd smile. It concerns me that what you are asking of us is to abandon all previous lessons of history in favor of following you blindly into the future. It worries me because with all your best intentions, an enormous economic surplus has been squandered. Your administration has virtually dismissed the most fundamental environmental concerns and therefore, by implication, one gets the message that, as you seem to be willing to sacrifice the children of the world, would you also be willing to sacrifice ours. I know this cannot be your aim so, I beg you Mr. President, listen to Gershwin, read chapters of Stegner, of Saroyan, the speeches of Martin Luther King. Remind yourself of America. Remember the Iraqi children, our children, and your own.

There can be no justification for the actions of Al Qaeda. Nor acceptance of the criminal viciousness of the tyrant, Saddam Hussein. Yet, that bombing is answered by bombing, mutilation by mutilation, killing by killing, is a pattern that only a great country like ours can stop. However, principles cannot be recklessly or greedily abandoned in the guise of preserving them. Avoiding war while accomplishing national security is no simple task. But you will recall that we Americans had a little missile problem down in Cuba once. Mr. Kennedy's restraint (and that of the nuclear submarine captain, Arkhipov) is to be aspired to.. Weapons of mass destruction are clearly a threat to the entire world in any hands. But as Americans, we must ask ourselves, since the potential for Mr. Hussein to possess them threatens not only our country, (and in fact, his technology to launch is likely not yet at that high a level of sophistication) therefore, many in his own region would have the greatest cause for concern. Why then, is the United States, as led by your administration, in the small minority of the world nations predisposed toward a preemptive military assault on Iraq? Simply put, sir, let us re-introduce inspection teams, inhibiting offensive capability. We buy time, maintain our principles here and abroad and demand of ourselves the ingenuity to be the strongest diplomatic muscle on the planet, perhaps in the history of the planet. The answers will come. You are a man of faith, but your saber is rattling the faith of many Americans in you. I do understand what a tremendously daunting task it must be to stand in your shoes at this moment. As a father of two young children who will live their lives in the world as it will be affected by critical choices today, I have no choice but to believe that you can ultimately stand as a great president. History has offered you such a destiny. So again, sir, I beg you, help save America before yours is a legacy of shame and horror. Don't destroy our children's future. We will support you. You must support us, your fellow Americans, and indeed, mankind. Defend us from fundamentalism abroad but don't turn a blind eye to the fundamentalism of a diminished citizenry through loss of civil liberties, of dangerously heightened presidential autonomy through acts of Congress, and of this country's mistaken and pervasive belief that its "manifest destiny" is to police the world. We know that Americans are frightened and angry. However, sacrificing American soldiers or innocent civilians in an unprecedented preemptive attack on a separate sovereign nation, may well prove itself a most temporary medicine. On the other hand, should you mine and have faith in the best of this country to support your leadership in representing a strong, thoughtful, and educated United States, you may well triumph for the long haul. Lead us there, Mr. President, and we will stand with you. Sincerely, Sean Penn San Francisco, California