Last January, [Kathy Boylan], who lives at a Wyandanch shelter for Central American refugees, was among an international group of peace activists who tried to prevent the war by setting up tents in the Iraqi desert near the Saudi border. The protesters were at the camp when the bombing began. Then, last Easter, Boylan was among several antiwar protesters arrested at a military boatyard in Maine, where they poured what was described as a blood-like substance onto the hull of a missile cruiser.

The group also announced that the Setauket-based Medicine for Peace organization has sent a delegation of doctors and scientists to Baghdad with, among other intentions, plans to bring back as many as half a dozen ill Iraqi children for treatment. Among the hospitals that will care for the children are the University Hospital at Stony Brook - where the group's head, Dr. Michael Viola, teaches - and St. Francis Hospital in Roslyn. Viola led a similar trip to Iraq in June and brought back several children.