Yesterday when asked whether “there is a clandestine, secret nuclear weapons program right now underway in Iran?” Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: “We haven’t seen any concrete evidence to that effect” (transcript available). MUHAMMAD SAHIMI Sahimi is professor of chemical engineering at the University of Southern California. His articles…

Labeling Iranian government groups “terrorist,” the Bush administration Thursday placed a new set of sanctions on Iran. NOAM CHOMSKY Available for a very limited number of interviews, Chomsky is author most recently of Interventions. He said today: “When we or our allies and clients carry out terror (or aggression), it’s the justified use of force…

EDMUND GHAREEB Professor at American University, Ghareeb is author of several books including The Kurdish Question in Iraq and The Kurdish Nationalist Movement. Ghareeb can assess the strategic interests of the various political operators. More Information SUREYA SAYADI, MD An Iraqi Kurdish doctor and academic now living in the U.S., Sayadi is an activist and…

THOMAS W. SWETNAM Co-author of the piece “Warming and Earlier Spring Increase Western U.S. Forest Wildfire Activity” in Science magazine, Swetnam is director of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research and Dendrochronology at the University of Arizona. He said today: “Increasing numbers of large forest fires and total area burned in the western United States are…

CNN reports this afternoon: “The Bush administration on Monday requested an additional $42.3 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing the 2008 request for total war funding to $189.3 billion.” ANITA DANCS Dancs is research director of the National Priorities Project. She said today: “If Congress passes this, it would bring the Iraq…

The IMF and World Bank are beginning their Fall meetings in Washington, D.C., later this week. REV. DAVID DUNCOMBE Rev. Duncombe, a United Church of Christ minister from Washington State, will end a 40-day fast during a prayer breakfast on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Rev. Duncombe, who is 79, will be joined by several members…

CHRIS KUTALIK TIFFANY TEN EYCK Chris Kutalik is editor of Labor Notes, based in Detroit Michigan. Tiffany Ten Eyck is a correspondent for the magazine. They co-wrote the piece “Jobs, Wages, Health Care, Pensions — All in Jeopardy as Chrysler Is Sold to Private Firm” shortly after Daimler-Chrysler agreed to sell Chrysler to the buyout…

Last week, the Senate voted 75­23 for the Biden amendment. Today, the Washington Post published a piece by Joseph Biden Jr. (D-Del.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Leslie H. Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations in which they write “our plan is not partition…” The following analysts are available…

On October 4, 1957, the launch of Sputnik had enormous impacts on U.S. society. Fifty years later, the anniversary on Thursday provides an opportunity to assess those impacts — and to reassess the political priorities and hopes for technology in present-day American life. NORMAN SOLOMON Writing about Sputnik in his new book Made Love, Got…

LARRY SOLOMON Former UAW Local 751 president in Decatur, Ill., Solomon worked at Caterpillar for 34 years. He said today: “The UAW better be very careful about this Voluntary Employees Beneficiary Association that GM is pushing. “For years, we were told by Caterpillar that we were getting an invisible paycheck in the form of free…