KHALIL BENDIB Bendib is a cartoonist; his first collection of cartoons is titled “It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet in Order to Save It!” His latest cartoon depicts Bush repeatedly claiming to be reaching a “turning point” in Iraq while in fact he is just going around in circles; see it here. Bendib said…

MOUNZER SLEIMAN Sleiman is Washington bureau chief for the magazine Almustaqbal Alarabi, which is published by the Center for Arab Unity Studies, based in Beirut, Lebanon. The director of the Center for Arab Unity Studies, Dr. Kheir deen Haseeb, an Iraqi native, recently proposed a 21-point plan to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and…

“Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats,” the Washington Post reported in a front-page article on May 24. “The eagerness for talks demonstrates a profound change in Iran’s political orthodoxy, emphatically erasing…

CELESTE ZAPPALA ELAINE JOHNSON NANCY LESSIN “It serves no purpose to have more and more servicemen and women die in an unjust and unjustifiable war, and have more families experience the unbearable and unending pain that my family has experienced,” said Celeste Zappala, mother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker, the first Pennsylvania National Guardsman to die…

GREG PALAST Palast is an internationally recognized expert on regulation of power markets and coauthor of the book Regulation and Democracy. He said today: “Just like Al Capone, who went to jail for failing to file his taxes, Lay is convicted merely of stock fraud. This is nothing compared to the manipulation by Lay and…

The Jerusalem Post is reporting today: “Amid a lengthy round of applause, including a standing ovation from U.S. lawmakers, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the U.S. Congress…” EDWARD L. PECK EUGENE BIRD Peck, a former chief of mission to Iraq, was deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration.…

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets with U.S. President Bush today and speaks to a joint meeting of both chambers of Congress on Wednesday. The U.S. government does not publicly acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal. MORDECHAI VANUNU Vanunu is a former Israeli nuclear technician who in 1986 revealed through The Sunday Times of London the…

JOHN SIFTON Sifton is a researcher with Human Rights Watch. He said today: “Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine colonel, has provided key new facts about the Haditha incident. If what Rep. Murtha is saying regarding the Haditha incident is indeed true, this can only be considered a serious war crime. Retaliations…

CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON Professor of Communication at American University and author of the books Blowback, Science of Coercion and National Security Directives of the Reagan and Bush Administrations, Simpson said today: “There are two problems here: One is that the capability to collect this type of information is built into the networks involved. The other is…

“I have two paths in front of me, both of them lawful, one FISA, one the presidential — the president’s authorization.” — Michael Hayden, National Press Club, January 23, 2006 “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance … may be conducted.” — FISA; 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2511(f)…