ROBERT JENSEN
Author of the forthcoming book Writing Dissent and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Jensen said today: “The last time the U.S. responded to a terrorist attack, on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, it was innocents in Sudan and Afghanistan who were in the way. We were told that the U.S. missiles hit only military targets but the Sudan target turned out to be a pharmaceutical factory. There are calls for a ‘massive response’ but let us not forget that, if the pattern of past U.S. actions holds, such a response will kill innocent people like the ones in New York and the hijacked airplanes.”
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SIMONA SHARONI
Sharoni is director of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development and professor of conflict resolution and international politics at the Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington.
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BEAU GROSSCUP
Grosscup is author of The Newest Explosions of Terrorism and professor of international relations at California State University in Chico.

STEPHEN ZUNES
Chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, Zunes said today: “Military responses usually result only in a spiral of violent retaliation. Similarly, simply bombing other countries after the fact will not protect lives. Indeed, it will likely result in what Pentagon planners euphemistically call ‘collateral damage,’ i.e., the deaths of civilians just as innocent as those killed in New York City. And survivors bent on revenge.”
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KATHY KELLY
Coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, a group openly violating the economic sanctions against Iraq, Kelly and her colleagues have been fasting in front of the U.S. mission to the United Nations. She said today: “On Tuesday, Colin Powell condemned ‘people who feel that with the destruction of buildings, with the murder of people, they can somehow achieve a political purpose.’ Mr. Powell is correct. But in a sense, he holds up a mirror to U.S. policy of causing massive civilian suffering in Iraq. It’s a painful time to look into that reality, but we hope that along with the grief, we can use Powell’s sentiment to form deeper compassion and understanding.”
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LLOYD J. DUMAS
Professor of political economy at the University of Texas at Dallas and author of Lethal Arrogance, Dumas is an expert on terrorism. He said today: “All the money we’ve poured into missile defense, B-2 bombers and F-22s is of no use in preventing or defending against this kind of horrendous attack….”

PHYLLIS BENNIS
A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis said today: “We must be careful not to jump to premature conclusions…. This is not a ‘war’ that can be won by military means.”
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KIT GAGE
Gage is national coordinator for the National Coalition to Protect Political Freedom, a civil liberties organization.

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167