Joan Baez has put herself on the line countless times when it was neither safe nor fashionable. She sang about freedom and civil rights everywhere. In 1964 she withheld 60% of her income tax from the IRS to protest military spending. As the war in Vietnam escalated, she traveled to Hanoi with the U.S.-based Liaison Committee, and helped establish Amnesty International on the West Coast. The soundtrack to those times was provided by a stunning soprano whose natural vibrato lent a taut, nervous tension to everything she sang. Joan's still powerful voice is in evidence on her new album, "Dark Chords on a Big Guitar," a fresh collection by contemporary songwriters including Ryan Adams, Steve Earle, and Natalie Merchant.

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of Global Exchange and Code Pink. She is a powerful and charismatic human rights activist who has struggled for social justice for over 20 years. Ever since the tragic events of 9/11, Medea has been organizing against a violent response. In October 2002, she made national news for interrupting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld as he pitched his plans for war against Iraq to Congress. After the invasion, she traveled several times to Iraq to organize Occupation Watch International Center in Baghdad. At the start of 2005, Medea accompanied a delegation of U.S. military families to the Iraqi/Jordanian border to bring a shipment of humanitarian aid for people in Falluja and those most in need.

Cher is a singer, Academy Award-winning actress, and longtime human rights activist. During the Vietnam War, she visited with wounded American troops, and recently did the same with soldiers maimed by the conflict in Iraq. Moved by her visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, Cher phoned C-Span without revealing her identity, speaking as an American citizen shocked and dismayed by what she saw. "This is the most heartbreaking time of my life," she said, "and I've experienced a lot of presidents."

David Cross is a comedian-writer-actor and co-star of Fox's hit comedy series, "Arrested Development." As a stand-up comic, his scorching monologues often skewer the current state of American political discourse. His most recent album, "Shut up You F*cking Baby" was nominated for a 2004 Grammy for Best Comedy Album. CMJ Music Monthly said that Cross "swims upstream to confront the emptiness and crass commercialism of flag waving."

Daniel Ellsberg is a writer, lecturer, activist, and legendary whistleblower. In 1967 he worked on a top- secret study of U.S. decision-making in Vietnam, which later came to be known as the Pentagon Papers. In 1969 he photocopied the 7,000-page study and gave it to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in 1971 he gave it to the New York Times, Washington Post, and seventeen other newspapers. His trial, on twelve felony counts posing a possible sentence of 115 years, was dismissed in 1973 on grounds of governmental misconduct, which led to the convictions of several White House aides, and figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon.

Melvin A. Goodman, a former CIA analyst who appears prominently in Robert Greenwald's "Uncovered," is senior fellow of the Center for International Policy. He is the co-author of "Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives Are Putting the World at Risk."

Tim Goodrichserved in the U.S. Air Force and was in the Middle East during theinvasion of Afghanistan. He has also visited Iraq as part of a GlobalExchange trip in January of 2004. Tim is the co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War.

Dustin Hoffman is an Oscar and Emmy-winning actor. His dedication to his craft is legendary, and his vocal stand on human rights is compassionate and heartfelt. In early 2005, while promoting his film "Meet The Fockers" in Paris, he made an open plea for the world to show greater humanity, and try at last to learn from its violent history. Only days after the world remembered the liberation of Auschwitz 60 years ago, Hoffman spoke of a photograph he had seen of a six-year-old Iraqi girl whose parents had been killed in the conflict there. "I don't separate the deaths of six million people from that little girl," he said. "Her life has been altered irrevocably forever."

Dahr Jamail spent eight months in Iraq as one of only a few independent U.S. journalists in the country.  His dispatches at www.dahrjamailiraq.com are widely recognized as an important media resource.  He writes for such publications as The Asia Times, The Sunday Herald, The Nation, and The Guardian.  Dahr also serves as a special radio correspondent for the BBC, Democracy Now!, and many other stations around the globe.

Lance Corporal Jeff Key, United States Marine and Iraq veteran, went on CNN's "Paula Zahn Now" on March 31, 2004 to say to five million people what he at one time would not have said to one other person.  Jeff had decided to finally stop lying about his sexuality, and use the military's ban on gays to exit the Marine Corps so as to avoid killing innocent people for corporate gain.  He later turned his story into a critically acclaimed one-man show, "The Eyes of Babylon."  LA Weekly calls Jeff "an unstoppable force" and Backstage West says he "could some day change the world."

Mark Manning traveled to Jordan in January of 2005 to document Gold Star mom Nadia McCaffrey's meetings with Iraqi mothers.  He then became the only "unembedded" western journalist to enter Falluja immediately following the U.S. bombardment.  He spent three weeks filming inside the ravaged ancient city.  In "Caught in the Crossfire", his exclusive footage provides a rare glimpse of the innocent victims' plight, and dispels the myths of war and the nature of the "enemy."

Kevin Martin is the Executive Director of Peace Action,America's largest grassroots peace organization. His writing hasappeared in The New York Times, The Nation, The Village Voice, TheChicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, The Chicago Reader, Z magazine andmany other publications. He has appeared on CNN, National Public Radio,and Fox News Network.

Ray McGovern served as a CIA analyst for 27 years. From 1981 to 1985 he conducted daily briefings for Ronald Reagan's vice president, George Bush Senior. Ray is on the Steering Group of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, and is co-director of the Servant Leadership School, an outreach ministry in the inner city of Washington. He is featured in Robert Greenwald's "Uncovered" and John Pilger's "Break the Silence."

Jeff Norman is the Executive Producer of U.S. Tour of Duty and the director of "Amazing Disgrace: The Betrayal of Soldiers and their Families."

Sean O'Neill is a decorated Marine who served in Iraq twice, first during the 2003 invasion, and again from March to July in 2004. In "Amazing Disgrace" he suggests his commanding officers knew from the very beginning there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He reveals that “two weeks into it, we were told that we wouldn't need our chemical suits anymore, we didn't have to wear them, and we didn't need our gas masks." Sean, who suffered ear damage from a firefight in Iraq, has been awarded the Purple Heart, Navy Achievement Medal, and Combat Action Ribbon.

Patton Oswalt plays Spence Olchin on the popular CBS sitcom "The King of Queens." He is an irreverent and opinionated comedian whose first special, "No Reason to Complain," recently premiered on Comedy Central. Patton likes to rant about anything and everything, and an archived collection of his hilarious outbursts can be found on his website, under the heading "Daily Spew."

Rick Overton is a comedian, actor, writer, and creative consultant. He has recently guest-starred on "Joan of Aracadia," "According to Jim" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm," and is a regular contributor to E! Entertainment's "Most Sensational Crimes of Fashion." Rick won an Emmy award for his work as the head writer of Dennis Miller's HBO series.

Pablo Paredes, a Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class, refused to board his ship bound for Iraq in December of 2004. He showed up on the pier in San Diego wearing a t-shirt that read, "Like a Cabinet Member, I Resign." The Navy announced in March that Pablo would face a special court-martial, the military equivalent of a civilian misdemeanor trial. In May of 2005, however, a military judge ordered no jail time, sentencing him instead to three months hard labor. Pablo joined Fernando Suarez del Solar in his 241-mile March for Peace this past March.

Edward Peck was Chief of Mission in Iraq from 1977 to 1980, and was deputy director of President Reagan's anti-terrorism task force. Only weeks after the September 11 attacks, Peck appeared on CNN, and said that those who attacked the towers do not hate us because of our freedoms, or "because Britney Spears has a belly button or because we export hamburgers. They hate us because of things they see us doing in their part of the world that they definitely do not like."

RENO is a stream of consciousness style solo comedic performer living in New York City.  She adapted her show "Reno in Rage and Rehab" into an ACE Award-nominated HBO comedy hour.  Her show "Reno Once Removed" was commissioned by Lincoln Center and sold out with rave reviews, before moving to the Joseph Papp Public Theater and a national tour.  Reno's show "Rebel Without a Pause: Unrestrained Reflections on September 11th" opened on October 4th, 2001 at La Mama ETC in New York City, where it was extended several times due to critical acclaim.  It later reopened for a commercial run Off-Broadway, with Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner as Executive Producers. "Rebel" is Reno's rapid-fire witness of the events of September 11th, and how they affected her personally, in the context of the world at large.

Jonathan Richman,with his 1970s Boston-based band The Modern Lovers, was at theforefront of the proto-punk movement begun by the Velvet Underground.Since those days, he has constantly performed as a solo artist, and hisidiosyncratic, often funny and touching music has given him a fiercelyloyal cult following. His reputation grew with his appearance as thetroubadour in the hit film "There's Something About Mary." Histwentieth album, "Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eye Shadow," hasjust been released.

Susan Shaer is the Executive Director of WAND (Women's Action for New Directions). She has been a political activist for over 20 years, consulting with progressive candidates, pioneering a "WomenIn" network to encourage women to run for office in Massachusetts, directing the Clearinghouse for Women Cadidates at the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard, managing and consulting on campaigns. Currently, Susan is a consultant for the National Democratic Institute, training women candidates in other countries and helping emerging democracies.

Michelle Shocked is a soulful and poetic singer-songwriter with strong ties to grassroots politics. She has lent her voice to many causes, including environmental racism, and an ongoing opposition to the Iraq invasion. She worked on the Dennis Kucinich presidential campaign, and is a member of Code Pink and A.N.S.W.E.R.'s anti-war coalition. In 2003, she traveled to Africa with the initiative "Save Africa's Children." Michelle's own independent record label is called Mighty Sound. She is the only artist of her stature to own and publish her complete song catalog. Her powerful a cappella rendition of Steve Goodman's "The Ballad of Penny Evans," is one of the most moving moments in "Amazing Disgrace."

Fernando Suarez del Solaris the father of Lance Corporal USMC Jesus Alberto Suarez del SolarNavarro, who was killed on March 27, 2003 in Iraq when he stepped on aU.S. cluster bomb. (Cluster bombs are banned under the GenevaConvention.) Fernando recently visited Iraq with Global Exchange and adelegation of military families, and he founded the Guerrero Azteca Project, a counter-recruitment organization, in honor of his son.