Tom Andrews, a former Member of Congress from the first Congressional District of Maine, is the National Director of Win Without War, a coalition of forty-two national membership organizations including the National Council of Churches, the NAACP, the National Organization of Women, the Sierra Club, and MoveOn. Win Without War led the national campaign opposing the US invasion of Iraq and is now leading opposition to the Bush administration’s policy there.

Andrews’ leadership of Win Without War has thrust him into the national spotlight appearing on network television programs such as Meet the Press, NewsNight with Aaron Brown, Wolf Blitzer Reports, Lou Dobbs and Crossfire and through speeches and special events including an address to the National Press Club in Washington that was broadcast to a live national television and radio audience. Andrews is a widely known and respected strategist and organizer. Win Without War’s campaign to lobby Congress generated over 1 million calls in a single day and its global candlelight vigil led to over six thousand events in 136 nations throughout the world.

Andrews is President of New Economy Communications, a not-for-profit organization that provides strategic planning and communication services to individuals and groups working on human and labor rights issues at home and abroad. His clients include “No More Sweatshops – The Campaign for the Abolition of Sweatshop and Child Labor.” He is Senior Advisor to the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, chaired by Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. He has worked to promote democracy and human rights in emerging democracies throughout the world including Indonesia, Cambodia, Yemen, Algeria, Croatia, Serbia and Jordan and with international coalitions in Europe and East Asia.

He works on behalf of Nobel Peace Laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the National League of Democracy of Burma, the political party that won 82% of the seats in the parliament in Burma’s last democratic election but was denied the right to take office by Burma’s brutal military regime. In 2001 Andrews directed an international campaign for the release of Suu Kyi with the Nobel Peace Committee in Oslo Norway. The campaign featured 40 simultaneous events worldwide that included the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, former Philippine President Corozan Aquino, and twenty-one Nobel Peace Laureates. The events were connected through satellite television and the Internet.

Andrews’ twelve years in public political office earned him a reputation as a strong, principled and effective leader. The columnist Jack Anderson called Andrews "the most courageous member of Congress." Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate, called him "the most principled politician I have ever met."

He was elected to the Maine House of Representatives in 1982, the Maine Senate in 1984 and the United States Congress in 1990. In the Maine Senate Andrews served as Chairman of the Joint Standing Committees on Taxation, Economic Development, and State Government. Upon his arrival in Washington, Andrews was elected president of the class of newly elected Democrats. He served on the powerful Armed Services Committee as well as the Committee on Small Business and the Merchant Marine and Fisheries Committee and was a Deputy Majority Whip.

Andrews grew up on a farm in Easton, Massachusetts and moved to Maine to attend Bowdoin College where he earned a degree in Philosophy and Religion. A turning point in his life was the discovery of cancer in his right leg at the age of sixteen. "I made one of those classic deals with the Almighty: Let me live and I'll make it worth your while. I have literally been trying to keep my end of the bargain ever since." His home is in South Portland Maine.

Blog Entries by Tom Andrews

Guantanamo 2011?

Posted December 23, 2009 | 05:05 PM (EST)


Congress is apparently going to give al Qaeda and other jihadists who want to kill Americans at least two more years of their most potent recruitment tool: the Guantanamo Bay prison.

According to a front page story in the New York Times, Obama administration officials now believe that...

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Nation-Building in Afghanistan Instead of at Home Will Produce New "Misery Index"

Posted December 3, 2009 | 10:14 AM (EST)


Congressional Democrats Beware: Unemployment At Home + Casualties Abroad = Defeat at the Polls in 2010

President Obama's decision to nation-build in Afghanistan in the midst of the worst economic recession since the Great Depression is likely to produce a new Misery Index for Americans: The escalating numbers...

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Profiles In Hypocrisy: James Inhofe

Posted November 17, 2009 | 11:36 AM (EST)


Hypocrisy, thy name is James Inhofe when it comes to prosecuting terrorists.

Sen. Inhofe is all inflamed right now. Angry. Seems President Obama's decision to try 9/11 suspects like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed is "an extreme gamble" that puts the Unites States "at extreme risk." But history tells of a different...

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Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, others to finally face justice in NYC

5 Comments | Posted November 13, 2009 | 12:56 PM (EST)


Put on your fear flack jackets because the right wing attacks are a-coming.

So if you haven't heard yet - it's official. So-called 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad and four other Guantanamo Bay detainees are to be tried in New York City. All are facing prosecution in federal court...

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Stephen Colbert Signs Campaign Letter to Close Guantanamo Now (Video)

1 Comments | Posted October 30, 2009 | 10:23 AM (EST)


Rosanne Cash appeared on the Colbert Report last night to go toe-to-toe with Stephen Colbert on the use of music to torture at Guantanamo, and Rosanne made it clear: using music as torture is wrong and there's no gray area. The upshot? Colbert signed our campaign letter agreeing with General...

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The Company You Keep

Posted October 23, 2009 | 02:18 PM (EST)


As the saying goes, you can tell a lot about people by the company that they keep.

Yesterday's announcement by nationally acclaimed musicians that they were signing onto our National Campaign to Close Guantanamo Bay generated a harsh response from Liz Cheney and Bill Kristol's new right-wing organization "Keep...

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Classified McChrystal Report: 500,000 Troops Will Be Required Over Five Years in Afghanistan

27 Comments | Posted September 24, 2009 | 11:22 AM (EST)


Congress Should Hold Hearings on Alternatives to Major Escalation

Embedded in General Stanley McChrystal's classified assessment of the war in Afghanistan is his conclusion that a successful counterinsurgency strategy will require 500,000 troops over five years.

This bombshell was dropped by NBC reporter Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC's...

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Celebration, Fear and Loathing on National Sovereignty Day

1 Comments | Posted June 30, 2009 | 12:10 PM (EST)


Today marks a new a national holiday in Iraq, the "Day of National Sovereignty." Iraqis are celebrating with music and dancing as U.S. combat forces continue their pull-out of Iraqi cities and turn security responsibility over the Iraqi government.

Don't be surprised, however, if the spike in violence that came...

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Glass Half Full: House Democratic Caucus Backs McGovern Afghanistan Exit Amendment

Posted June 25, 2009 | 04:35 PM (EST)


For those concerned the U.S. is becoming mired in a military quagmire in Afghanistan there was good news and bad news on the House floor this afternoon:

The good news is that a majority of House Democrats just voted (131-114) to support the McGovern amendment to the...

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Got a Minute? Congressman McGovern and 80% of Afghans Need You

1 Comments | Posted June 25, 2009 | 11:54 AM (EST)


Just now, the House of Representatives finished debate on Congressman McGovern's amendment to the Defense Authorization bill calling for an exit strategy for the war in Afghanistan. With voting on all amendments scheduled for later today, Congressman McGovern and the 80% of Afghans who oppose an escalation of foreign troops...

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Common Sense vs. the Military-Industrial-Political-Complex on the Floor of the U.S. House Today

1 Comments | Posted June 24, 2009 | 12:25 PM (EST)


The more things change at the polls, the more they apparently stay the same in Congress. The Defense bill that the House Armed Services Committee is presenting today on the House floor is the first opportunity for this Democratic Congress to turn the page on the Bush administration's disastrous approach...

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Congress Needs to Hear From Us Today on Afghanistan

1 Comments | Posted June 23, 2009 | 10:04 AM (EST)


This week Congress is set to authorize $550 billion in defense spending and, with it, an additional $130 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite a Democratic President and a Democratic majority in Congress, the military industrial complex is once again running up the score: the House...

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Congress Should Vote No on War Funding Bill

12 Comments | Posted June 16, 2009 | 12:25 PM (EST)


Today, the House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on yet another supplemental funding bill , this time providing nearly $80 billion to continue waging the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (the total bill is now at $106 billion). And, just like they have done repeatedly in years past, progressive...

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Time to Stand Up as Congress Stands Down with War Funding Bill

5 Comments | Posted May 15, 2009 | 11:49 AM (EST)


How is it that, after winning the White House and strong Congressional majorities in 2008, Democrats are still playing defense when it comes to national security? How is it that those same politicians who were handed a mandate for change in November are, just a few months later, losing the...

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NO EXIT: Congressman Seeks to Fill Gap in Afghanistan War Funding Bill

Posted May 8, 2009 | 11:45 AM (EST)


Congressman Jim McGovern (D-MA) is bothered by what's missing in the Supplemental Appropriation for Iraq and Afghanistan: an exit.

His modest proposal to fill that gap? Include a provision that requires the administration to develop an exit strategy for its military escalation in Afghanistan and report...

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House Appropriations Committee Moves Against Iraq Mission Creep

Posted May 7, 2009 | 12:37 PM (EST)


There is good news from the House Appropriations Committee today: Members voted in Congressman Sam Farr's (D-CA) amendment to the supplemental funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan. This amendment takes two important steps to push back against the disconcerting signs of mission creep in Iraq:

1) It puts Congress on...

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The Missing Exit Strategy for Afghanistan

3 Comments | Posted May 6, 2009 | 12:54 PM (EST)


President Obama said it best when he talked about U.S. policy in Afghanistan on the CBS news program 60 Minutes last month: "There's got to be an exit strategy".

Well, there isn't one. There is an escalation of 21,000 US forces and there is a wartime spending bill requesting...

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Welcome to "Obama's War"

Posted March 27, 2009 | 04:54 PM (EST)


Maybe it's a generational thing, but as someone who was growing up as LBJ's war was tearing his administration down, I had a pit in my stomach as I watched President Obama announce his "Af-Pak" policy as Secretaries Clinton and Gates watched approvingly at his side.

I can't shake this...

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Shoot First, Ask Questions Later? Say It Ain't So, Mr. President

Posted February 18, 2009 | 01:01 PM (EST)


Yesterday's announcement by the White House that the president was ordering 17,000 more US troops into Afghanistan was particularly troubling to many of us who - unlike Mr. Limbaugh and his followers on Capitol Hill - actually want President Obama to succeed.

As a candidate, President Obama offered -...

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Out of Iraq in 16 Months: Yes We Can -- Yes We Must

Posted January 28, 2009 | 08:23 AM (EST)


Those who supported the Bush invasion and military occupation of Iraq are back at it, warning that President Obama could "imperil" Iraq if he keeps his campaign promise to remove US combat forces within 16 months.

Outgoing Iraqi Ambassador Ryan Crocker told reporters last week that "the greatest error the...

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