CARAH ONG Ong is Iran Policy Analyst at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation. She said today: “Rep. Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic leadership decided to pull language from the supplemental appropriations bill which stated that no funds may be authorized for military operations in or related to Iran unless specifically authorized by the…

WES HAMILTON Hamilton, a Vietnam War veteran, is one of more than 30 people who have been arrested in the last week protesting the military’s use of the Port of Tacoma, Washington. Late Friday night, the police used tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters. Video is here. The military has been using the Port…

HECTOR DE LA CUEVA Hector de la Cueva is director of the Center for Labor Research and Union Consultation (the Spanish acronym is CILAS). He said today: “Bush is in Latin America in part to promote ‘free trade,’ but this does not look good to most people in Mexico. Since NAFTA, wages have gone down…

MARIA LUISA MENDONÇA Maria Luisa Mendonça is in São Paulo where Bush will be arriving this afternoon; protests are expected. She is director of the Social Network for Justice and Human Rights and can address a host of issues pertaining to Brazil and Latin America. Most recently, she co-wrote an article in the newspaper Brazil…

A just-released report from the Oxford Research Group in the U.K. indicates that an attack on Iranian nuclear facilities could actually accelerate Iran’s acquisition of nuclear weapons. The report has gotten substantial notice in much of the world, but minimal coverage in the U.S. FRANK BARNABY Barnaby is nuclear issues consultant to Oxford Research Group…

ROBERT PARRY Parry, a former reporter for The Associated Press and Newsweek, has written a number of books about Washington politics including, most recently, Secrecy & Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq. He said today: “Criminal trials are imperfect vehicles for discovering the full truth about a political or a national…

AP has reported: “The Bush administration selected a design Friday for a new generation of atomic warheads, taking a major step toward building the first new nuclear weapon since the end of the Cold War nearly two decades ago. “The military and the Energy Department selected a design developed by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory…

CHRIS KROMM Executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies, Kromm founded Gulf Coast Reconstruction Watch in October 2005 to watchdog the Katrina recovery. He is co-author of the newly released report “A New Agenda for the Gulf Coast,” which documents the state of the Gulf and shows what steps leaders in Washington can take…

EDWARD L. PECK Peck, a former U.S. chief of mission in Iraq and former ambassador to Mauritania, was deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration. He said today: “Issuing threats, and/or demanding significant concessions before talks can start has nothing whatever to do with engaging in diplomacy. Bellicose,…

DEAN BAKER Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker said today: “A lower stock market is good for a lot of people. If corn prices fell 30 percent, that would be bad for you if you’re a corn farmer, but good for you if you weren’t and ate a lot of corn.…