Gold Star Families Take Secret Trip to Iraq

Delegation provides SacUnion with an exclusive account of trip

SacUnion Staff Report
Published: November 3, 2006 20:43 Last
Updated: November 6, 2006, 7:48 am

In a stunning and historic trip under the utmost secrecy, a delegation of families of fallen U.S. troops have traveled to Iraq to counter critics of the war effort, just days before the Nov. 7 midterm elections. The delegation of “Gold Star Families” agreed to provide the Sacramento Union with an exclusive account of their trip to Iraq based on the assurance that news of their mission would not be published until they had safely left Amman, Jordan.

So secret is their trip that even members of the Bush Administration were kept in the dark about their planned activities. They’ve come to Iraq from cities throughout America as part of a 12-person delegation in a history-making effort – no other coordinated group of “Gold Star Families” has ever traveled to Iraq, and they come with a message that is sure to ignite a firestorm of debate. Adding to the explosive nature of the trip is that it comes amid new reports from The New York Times that Saddam Hussein had a nuclear weapons program under development. Some analysts indicated Hussein could have been 1-2 years away from developing a usable nuclear weapon.

“The American people are shown a skewed picture of the situation in Iraq day after day by the international news media. We felt it was time to allow the families of U.S. troops who died in Iraq to come see the progress being made in Iraq and report it back to the American people ,” said Melanie Morgan, Chairman of Move America Forward.

So our news media are so biased and ineffective that civilian monitors have to travel at their own expense into a dangerous situation in order to get the truth back to the U.S.? That's just despicable and a good reason to get out and vote tomorrow!