ALEXANDER THIER
Thier was an officer-in-charge for the UN humanitarian office in Afghanistan. He is co-author of the new report “Planning Considerations for International Involvement in Post-Taliban Afghanistan.” He said today: “Political space must be created in Afghanistan to allow representative, non-military leadership to emerge. At the Bonn meeting, there is a very notable absence of more direct representation of the Afghan people, with mostly the military and the king’s camp having a voice. If these same warlords are not persuaded to behave differently than they did during their rule between 1992 and 1996, there is a real danger that, like before, several quasi-states will emerge…”

MICHAEL ALBERT
Editor of Z Magazine, Albert said today: “Hunger persists and even grows in the land we are ostensibly saving…. In response to terror we (a) delegitimated any legal recourse… (b) unleashed far more massive terror to maintain credibility, and (c) moved to curtail civil liberties at home and redistribute income upwards.”
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AMBER AMUNDSON, RYAN AMUNDSON
DAVID PATORTI
These three people lost family members in the September 11 attacks. They are participating in a peace walk from Washington, D.C. to New York City. Family stories and statements are available at www.nonviolence.org/vitw/Walk%20H&P.html

DENIS HALLIDAY
The UN Security Council on Thursday afternoon voted to revise sanctions against Iraq within six months and extend the existing UN oil-for-food program until then. Halliday headed that program and is a former UN Assistant Secretary General. He co-wrote an article in today’s Guardian of London with Hans von Sponeck, another former head of the oil-for-food program. Halliday said today: “There’s no basis to continue bombing — or start a new bombing campaign on the people of Iraq. It has legislation outlawing Al Qaeda and Wahabbism. There’s no evidence of terrorist links.”
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THOMAS NAGY
Associate professor at George Washington University, Nagy is the author of the cover story in the September issue of The Progressive magazine, “The Secret Behind the Sanctions: How the U.S. Intentionally Destroyed Iraq’s Water Supply.” He said today: “The U.S. government intentionally used bombing and sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country’s water supply, leading to a humanitarian catastrophe the Pentagon predicted. This is outlined in documents which have been partly declassified, such as a January 22, 1991 Defense Intelligence Agency document entitled ‘Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities.’ Due mainly to the sanctions, contaminated water continues to be the leading cause of deaths of children in Iraq today.”
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ALI ABUNIMAH
Vice president of the Arab-American Action Network, Abunimah said today: “On Monday, Ari Fleischer repeated the well-worn fabrication that ‘Iraq unilaterally threw them [the UN weapons inspectors] out.’ In fact, the inspectors were withdrawn suddenly on December 16, 1998 by Richard Butler, then the head of the now-defunct inspection agency UNSCOM, in anticipation of a U.S. attack…”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167