Kenneth O'Keefe

Kenneth Nichols O'Keefe (July 21 1969 - ) born Kenneth Roy Nichols (he legally took the surname of his wife, Ruth O'Keefe) is a former U.S. Marine who served in the 1991 Gulf War. He is a peace and justice activist renowned mainly for organizing an international group of volunteers to head for Baghdad in January 2003, to act as human shields, in the hope that this would avert the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Born in Napa, California; he grew up in Southern California. He graduated from Mira Mesa High School (San Diego) in 1987. He joined the U.S. Marines and was stationed at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina where he held the position of SAW gunner (squad automatic machine gun) within his fire team.

After serving in the Gulf War he became disillusioned with American values. He embraced ecological values, moved to Hawaii and started his own business called Deep Ecology which took part in green sea turtle rescues. He was also active in the Hawaiian independence movement.

He has made several attempts to renounce his U.S. citizenship since then, and is now living as an asylum seeker in the Netherlands.

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