Today in Labor History January 25, 2003: Fifty activists left London for Baghdad to serve as human shields. They intended to stop the U.S.-led coalition troops from bombing civilians. Kenneth O'Keefe, an ex-U.S. marine and Persian Gulf War veteran led the action. They called it the TJP (Truth Justice Peace) Human Shield Action to Iraq. He believed that thousands of human shields would make the invasion politically impossible. However, Saddam Hussein deported him several days before the invasion. And they never came close to attracting thousands of volunteers. At best, no more than 500 human shields made it to Iraq before the March invasion. None of the human shields died in the war. And the coalition forces did not destroy any of the sites where they were staying.