Palace Of The End
''Palace of the End'' is a play by Judith Thompson, that consists of three monologues telling tales related to Iraq before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The first two are based on real people Lynndie England and David Kelly and the third is fictional. ''Palace of the End'' was published in 2007 by Playwrights Canada Press. The play ran in Los Angeles in 2007, at Canadian Stage Company in Toronto in 2008, at Playwrights Horizons in New York in 2008 at the Frank Theatre Studio in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 2009 and at the Arcola Theatre in London in 2010. It won the 2007–08 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Awards at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The monologues The monologue’s titles are "My Pyramids", "Harrowdown Hill", and "Instruments of Yearning". “My Pyramids” refers to the Abu Ghraib human pyramids. The speaker is Lynndie England, the United States Army reservist who become the face of the Abu Ghraib to ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Judith Thompson
Judith Clare Thompson, OC (born September 20, 1954) is a Canadian playwright who lives in Toronto, Ontario. She has twice been awarded the Governor General's Award for drama, and is the recipient of many other awards including the Order of Canada, the Walter Carsen Performing Arts Award, the Toronto Arts Award, The Epilepsy Ontario Award, The B'nai B'rith Award, the Dora, the Chalmers, the Susan Smith Blackburn Award (a global competition for the best play written by a woman in the English Language) and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award, both for Palace of the End, which premiered at Canadian Stage, and has been produced all over the world in many languages. She has received honorary doctorates from Thorneloe University and, in Nov. 2016, Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. Early years Thompson was born in Montreal, Quebec, the daughter of William Robert Thompson, a geneticist and the head of the Department of Psychology at Queen's University at Kingston ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Backstage (magazine)
''Backstage'', also previously written as ''Back Stage'', is an American entertainment industry trade publication. Founded by Allen Zwerdling and Ira Eaker in 1960, it covers the film and performing arts industry from the perspective of performers, unions, and casting, with an emphasis on topics such as job opportunities and career advice. The brand encompasses the main ''Backstage'' magazine, and related publications such as its website, ''Call Sheet'' (formerly ''Ross Reports'')—a bi-monthly directory of talent agents, casting directors, and casting calls, and other casting resources. The publication was founded in, and originally focused primarily on New York City and the U.S. east coast. In the 1990s, ''Back Stage'' established the Los Angeles-based ''Back Stage West'', which competed primarily with the longer-established ''Drama-Logue''; in 1998, ''Drama-Logue'' was acquired by ''Back Stage'' and merged into ''Back Stage West''. In 2008, both versions were merged into a sin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Persian Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led Liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991. On 2 August 1990, Iraq invaded the neighbouring State of Kuwait and had fully occupied the country within two days. Initially, Iraq ran the occupied territory under a puppet government known as the "Republic of Kuwait" before proceeding with an outright annexation in which Kuwaiti sovereign territory was split, with the "Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District" being carved out of the country's northern portion and the "Kuwait Governorate" covering the rest. Varying specu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ba'ath Party
The Arab Socialist Baʿath Party ( ar, حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي ' ) was a political party founded in Syria by Mishel ʿAflaq, Ṣalāḥ al-Dīn al-Bītār, and associates of Zaki al-ʾArsūzī. The party espoused Baʿathism (from Arabic ''baʿth'' meaning "renaissance" or "resurrection"), which is an ideology mixing Arab nationalist, pan-Arabism, Arab socialist, and anti-imperialist interests. Baʿathism calls for unification of the Arab world into a single state. Its motto, "Unity, Liberty, Socialism", refers to Arab unity, and freedom from non-Arab control and interference. The party was founded by the merger of the Arab Baʽath Movement, led by ʿAflaq and al-Bitar, and the Arab Baʽath, led by al-ʾArsūzī, on 7 April 1947 as the Arab Baʿath Party. The party quickly established branches in other Arab countries, although it would only hold power in Iraq and Syria. The Arab Baʿath Party merged with the Arab Socialist Movement, led by Akram ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iraqi Intelligence Service
: The Iraqi Intelligence Service (Arabic: جهاز المخابرات العراقي, ''Jihaz Al-Mukhabarat Al-Eiraqii''), full name in Arabic language , Arabic]: جهاز المخابرات العامة العراقية "Jihaz almukhabarat aleamat aleiraqiat" literally:Iraqi General Intelligence Service - also known as the مخابرات Mukhabarat, General Directorate of Intelligence, or Party Intelligence, was an 8,000-man agency and the main state intelligence organization in Ba'athist Iraq, Iraq under Saddam Hussein. The IIS was primarily concerned with international intelligence collection and analysis but also performed many activities inside Iraq in conjunction with the Directorate of General Security as a secret police organization. The most important section of the IIS was Directorate 4: the Secret Service. One of the well known Directors was Rafi' Dahham Mejwel Al-Tikriti ( ar, رافع دحام مجول التكريتي) the former Iraqi Ambassador to Turkey and the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United Nations Monitoring, Verification And Inspection Commission
The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) was created through the adoption of United Nations Security Council resolution 1284 of 17 December 1999 and its mission lasted until June 2007. UNMOVIC was meant to replace the former United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) to carry on with the mandate to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and to operate a system of ongoing monitoring and verification to check Iraq's compliance with its obligations not to reacquire the same weapons banned by the Security Council. Background and UNMOVIC's predecessor UNSCOM UNSCOM was created with the adoption of United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 in April 1991. Lack of cooperation between UNSCOM and the Iraqi government, plus Saddam Hussein's failure to provide unfettered access to UN arms inspectors, led the United States and the United Kingdom to launch air strikes during Operation Desert Fox. Along with founded suspicion of the ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Iraq And Weapons Of Mass Destruction
Iraq actively researched and later employed weapons of mass destruction (WMD) from 1962 to 1991, when it destroyed its chemical weapons stockpile and halted its biological and nuclear weapon programs as required by the United Nations Security Council. The fifth president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, was internationally condemned for his use of chemical weapons during the 1980s campaign against Iranian and Kurdish civilians during and after the Iran–Iraq War. In the 1980s, Saddam pursued an extensive biological weapons program and a nuclear weapons program, though no nuclear bomb was built. After the Gulf War (1990–1991), the United Nations (with the Government of Iraq) located and destroyed large quantities of Iraqi chemical weapons and related equipment and materials; Iraq ceased its chemical, biological and nuclear programs. In the early 2000s, U.S. President George W. Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair both asserted that Saddam Hussein's weapons programs were still active ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abu Ghraib Torture And Prisoner Abuse
During the early stages of the Iraq War, members of the United States Army and the CIA committed a series of human rights violations and war crimes against detainees in the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, including Physical abuse, physical and sexual abuse, torture, rape and the killing of Manadel al-Jamadi. The abuses came to public attention with the publication of photographs of the abuse by CBS News in April 2004. The incidents caused shock and outrage, receiving widespread condemnation within the United States and internationally. The Presidency of George W. Bush, George W. Bush administration claimed that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were isolated incidents and not indicative of U.S. policy. This was disputed by humanitarian organizations including the International Committee of the Red Cross, Red Cross, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch; these organizations stated that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were part of a wider pattern of torture and brutal treatment at American ov ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib (; ar, أبو غريب, ''Abū Ghurayb'') is a city in the Baghdad Governorate of Iraq, located just west of Baghdad's city center, or northwest of Baghdad International Airport. It has a population of 189,000 (2003). The old road to Jordan passes through Abu Ghraib. The government of Iraq created the city and Abu Ghraib District in 1944. The placename has been translated as "father of little crows" (in the sense of "place abundant in small crows"), but this translation has been suspected of being a folk etymology, and the name may be related to ''gharb'' ("west") instead. Abu Ghraib was known for the Abu Ghraib Infant Formula Plant, which Western intelligence agencies perennially claimed to be a biological weapons production facility. The plant was built in 1980 and painted with a dappled camouflage pattern during the Iran–Iraq War. It was bombed during the Gulf War, and the Iraqi government allowed CNN reporter Peter Arnett to film the destroyed building along w ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe (also referred to as The Fringe, Edinburgh Fringe, or Edinburgh Fringe Festival) is the world's largest arts and media festival, which in 2019 spanned 25 days and featured more than 59,600 performances of 3,841 different shows in 322 venues. Established in 1947 as an alternative to (and on the fringe of) the Edinburgh International Festival, it takes place in Edinburgh every August. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe has become a world-leading celebration of arts and culture, surpassed only by the Olympics and the World Cup in terms of global ticketed events. As an event it "has done more to place Edinburgh in the forefront of world cities than anything else" according to historian and former chairman of the board, Michael Dale. It is an open access (or "unjuried") performing arts festival, meaning there is no selection committee, and anyone may participate, with any type of performance. The official Fringe Programme categorises shows into sections for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Freedom Of Expression Awards
Index on Censorship is an organization campaigning for freedom of expression, which produces a quarterly magazine of the same name from London. It is directed by the non-profit-making Writers and Scholars International, Ltd (WSI) in association with the UK-registered charity Index on Censorship (founded as the Writers and Scholars Educational Trust), which are both chaired by the British television broadcaster, writer and former politician Trevor Phillips. ''Index'' is based at 1 Rivington Place in central London. WSI was createdScammell, Michael (1984), "How Index on Censorship Started", in Theiner, George, ''They Shoot Writers, Don't They?'', London: Faber & Faber, pp. 19–28. . by poet Stephen Spender, Oxford philosopher Stuart Hampshire, the publisher and editor of ''The Observer'' David Astor, and the writer and expert on the Soviet Union Edward Crankshaw. The founding editor of ''Index on Censorship'' was the critic and translator Michael Scammell (1972–1981), who still ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Amnesty International
Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says it has more than ten million members and supporters around the world. The stated mission of the organization is to campaign for "a world in which every person enjoys all of the human rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights instruments." The organization has played a notable role on human rights issues due to its frequent citation in media and by world leaders. AI was founded in London in 1961 by the lawyer Peter Benenson. Its original focus was prisoners of conscience, with its remit widening in the 1970s, under the leadership of Seán MacBride and Martin Ennals to include miscarriages of justice and torture. In 1977, it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. In the 1980s, its secretary general was Thomas Hammarberg, succeeded ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |