Connett became involved in political activism in 1968. He volunteered for Eugene McCarthy's presidential campaign, where he met Allard K. Lowenstein. Lowenstein and Connett founded the American Committee to Keep Biafra Alive, in response to the famine caused by the Biafran War. In 1971, Connett co-founded Operation Omega, a non-violent group taking humanitarian aid into East Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Paul's wife Ellen was arrested during one of Omega's trips into East Pakistan and spent two months imprisoned there.