NEIL WATKINS
Watkins, a project coordinator for the Center for Economic Justice, is scheduled to return to Washington from Genoa at 4 p.m. ET today (Monday). He said today: “The real story in Genoa, where the largest anti-corporate globalization protests yet took place, is the failure of the G-8 to cancel the debt of the poorest countries and respond to the call of the protesters to stop policies that are causing global economic apartheid.”
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ASIA RUSSELL
Russell is currently in Genoa and will be returning to the U.S. on Tuesday. She is a member of the Health Gap Coalition and of ACT UP Philadelphia. She said today: “The G-8 gave us empty gestures and pocket change instead of the war chest that’s desperately needed to fight the AIDS crisis. Bush stands out in his maneuvering to protect the super profits of the pharmaceutical giants — and in his opposition to countries that support generic competition and other sustainable-treatment access strategies that have been proven to drive prices down.”
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JACQUELINE CABASSO
Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, which analyzes U.S. nuclear weapons policies, Cabasso said today: “George W. Bush’s latest offer to cut offensive nuclear weapons in exchange for ‘defensive’ systems may not be as good as it sounds. All signs point to a leaner, meaner nuclear war fighting machine…. U.S. policies threaten to blur the distinction between conventional and nuclear warfare by lowering the political obstacles to the use of nuclear weapons. At the same time, every type of nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal is being upgraded. Make no mistake, the Bush administration’s nuclear weapons policy is ‘fewer, but newer.'”
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MICHAEL BEER
Director of Nonviolence International and a board member of the Indonesia Human Rights Network, Beer is a specialist in Southeast Asia. He is available for interviews on the ousting of Indonesian President Wahid as well as Secretary of State Powell’s visit to Southeast Asia.
For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
