Commentators
Alda Benjamen
Associate Producer / PHD Candidate, Middle Eastern StudiesAlda Benjamen is a Ph.D. student at the University of Maryland majoring in the History of the modern Middle East and minoring in Women and Gender Studies. She earned a MA from the Near and Middle Eastern Civilization Department at the University of Toronto in 2008. For her Master’s thesis, Alda traveled to Iraq in the summer of 2007 to conduct research on civil society organizations. She also interviewed internally displaced people who had escaped central and southern Iraq for the Nineveh Plains and documented their stories – some of which are featured in Defying Deletion.
Dr. Donny George
Iraqi National MuseumDr. Donny George was a renowned archaeologist, anthropologist, author, curator, and scholar, who was visiting Professor of Anthropology at Stony Brook University in New York. He was internationally known as “the man who saved the Iraq National Museum." Dr. George became the international face of the plight of ancient sites and artifacts in Iraq, many of which had been stolen or destroyed since the war began in 2003. He was instrumental in recovering over half of the 15,000 Mesopotamian artifacts looted from the National Museum in Baghdad during the American-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A majority of the artifacts date back to 6,000 years from the ancient empires of Assyria and Babylonia.
Rosie Malek-Yonan
Author of The Crimson FieldRosie is the author of The Crimson Field, a historical and literary epic novel, based on real events and true family chronicles set to the backdrop of the Assyrian Genocide of 1914-1918 where 750,000 Assyrians were massacred by the Ottoman Turks, Kurds and Persians in Ottoman Turkey and in the Assyrian inhabited region of Urmia in northwestern Iran. The Crimson Field has been added to the State University of New York (SUNY) course curriculum. This is the first time that the Assyrian Genocide is recognized and studied at an institution of higher learning. In 2006, Rosie was asked to give a Congressional Testimony on behalf of the Assyrians linking the Assyrian Genocide of the last century as a continuation of what is happening to Assyrians in Iraq today.
Dr. John Eibner
Christian Solidarity InternationalSince taking up his post as chairman and CEO of Christian Solidarity International (USA) in 1990, Dr. John Eibner has become a preeminent human rights activist. He currently leads a movement working for greater action against the persecution facing Christian Assyrians in Iraq. In addition to his work in Iraq, Dr. Eibner has also directed human rights campaigns for Christian Solidarity International on behalf of persecuted Christians in Sudan, Egypt and in the former Soviet Union. He serves as Christian Solidarity International’s representative at the United Nations, Geneva, and has appeared before the U.S. House of Representatives, the Subcommittee on Africa, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. Frequently, Dr. Eibner briefs senior policymakers at the White House and the State Department about religious persecution abroad.
Waleeta Canon
Assyrian-American National CoalitionWaleeta currently resides in Sulaimaniya, Iraq as Director of Women and Gender Education at International Human Rights Law Institute. She earned her bachelors degree in Political Science from Loyola University in Chicago, and went on to pursue her Masters in Public Policy from the George Washington University in Washington, DC, where she lived and worked as an Assyrian activist for 5 years. She has spoken nationwide on the issue of Assyrian national rights and has appeared on various television programs such as Dan Rather Reports to discuss Assyrian issues in Iraq.
Michael Youash
Iraqi Sustainable Democracy ProjectMichael Youash is the current 'Project Director' of the Iraq Sustainable Democracy Project. He worked full-time in Washington from 2005 to 2009 and part-time since then. ISDP is a special project that has played an integral role in most major U.S./Washington-based policy activity in Iraq for Assyrian and other defenseless minorities; including, upwards of $35 million in spending in the Nineveh Plains and surrounding areas; the formation/start-up of a formal local police force in the Nineveh Plains; various congressional hearings and major deliberations on the plight of Assyrians and other minorities. ISDP empowers American and Iraqi decision-makers and policy developers on issues pertaining to vulnerable Iraqi minorities and also does the same for civil society and NGOs. Michael is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Toronto.
Peter BetBasoo
Assyrian International News AgencyPeter is an Assyrian from Iraq. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1973. He is the cofounder and director of the Assyrian International News Agency (www.aina.org), a news organization with a web of reporters throughout Iraq and the Middle East that has been closely following the plight of the indigenous Assyrians and other ethnic and religious minorities since the 2003 US-invasion of Iraq.
Joseph Kassab
Chaldean Federation of AmericaJoseph is the Executive Director of the Chaldean Federation of America (CFA). He is known for his long time (three decades) advocacy for human and religious rights for the Christian Assyrians. As an Assyrian-American belonging to the Chaldean Catholic Church, he has used his own money voluntarily to join numerous humanitarian delegations, visiting displaced Assyrian-Iraqis in Europe, the Middle East and Iraq to discuss their plights with world leaders, including Pope John Paul II in 1994. After joining the CFA in 2006, he spearheaded a massive resettlement initiative called Operation R-4 (Research, Relief, Resettlement, and Re-empowerment) which helped resettle and welcome thousands of Iraqi refugees to the United States of America. Joseph is the recipient of many awards from several private and public organizations and public offices for his outstanding humanitarian work.
Younadam Kanna
National Assembly of IraqYounadam is an Iraqi politician and a member of the National Assembly of Iraq. He was a member of the Iraqi Governing Council in 2003-2004 that was created following the Invasion of Iraq by the United States in 2003. A Christian Assyrian from northern Iraq, Kanna served in the Kurdistan administration in Iraq, first in its regional assembly, then as the minister for public works. He is the secretary general of the Assyrian Democratic Movement (Zowaa). He was elected to the National Assembly of Iraq as head of the Al-Rafideen National List in the January and later December 2005 elections. He is the first and currently one of few Christian Assyrian politicians to have a seat in the Iraqi Parliament. He has worked to secure rights not only for Assyrians but also other ethnic and religious minorities including Yezedis, Mandaens and Shabaks. He is currently the head of a committee that is to focus on the safety and prosperity of Assyrians and other minorities within the Nineveh Plains.