A controversial World Trade Organization services agreement that will be discussed at this week’s WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong poses a serious threat to state and local authority over land use policy, according to a briefing paper released by Public Citizen. SARA JOHNSON Johnson is state and local outreach coordinator for Public Citizen’s Global…

DAHR JAMAIL Jamail is an independent journalist who reported for eight months from inside Iraq after the invasion. His most recent piece is “An Increasingly Aerial Occupation.” More Information VERA BEAUDIN SAEEDPOUR Editor of Kurdish Life and founder of the Kurdish Library, Saeedpour is available to comment on the election and other developments in Iraq.…

SIDNEY WOLFE, M.D. The Associated Press reports that Monday’s mistrial “leaves Vioxx’s maker Merck & Co. with the prospect of facing a new jury that could hear allegations that the company withheld information from the New England Journal of Medicine about a 2000 Vioxx study so the drug would appear safer than it was.” Wolfe…

The World Trade Organization’s Ministerial Conference will take place Dec. 13-18 in Hong Kong. MARK WEISBROT An economist and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot said today: “According to a recent World Bank study [‘Agricultural Trade Reform and the Doha Development Agenda’], even a very successful Doha Round would lead to…

In his Nobel Prize lecture on Wednesday the playwright Harold Pinter stated: “The invasion of Iraq was a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was an arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the…

JOHN SUGG Sugg has covered the controversies around Sami Al-Arian, who was acquitted on terrorism charges Tuesday, for more than a decade. Sugg said today: “This case was entirely an attack on Constitutional rights, especially the First Amendment. The government of Israel wanted Al-Arian silenced, and our government obliged. Meanwhile, while the FBI and federal…

BRENDAN SMITH JEREMY BRECHER Smith and Brecher wrote the recent article “Ban Torture or Protect Torturers?” which includes an analysis of the McCain amendment on torture, noting that “McCain’s amendment is accompanied by one from Senator Lindsey Graham that bans the appeals that prisoners at Guantánamo have used to take their cases to civilian courts.”…

SIBEL EDMONDS Edmonds is director of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, which has released a document titled “National Security Experts Censored by the 9/11 Commission.” Edmonds worked as a language specialist for the FBI’s Washington Field Office. During her work there, she reported serious acts of security breaches, cover-ups, and intentional blocking of intelligence. After…

EDGARDO LANDER Lander is professor of social sciences at the Central University of Venezuela in Caracas. LARRY BIRNS Birns is director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs based in Washington. He said today: “Venezuela’s faltering middle-class opposition parties have announced that they would boycott the Dec. 4 legislative elections. Far from a principled and high-minded…

On Tuesday, Virginia Gov. Mark Warner commuted the sentence of Robin Lovitt to life in prison; Warner stated that evidence had been destroyed in violation of state law. The state of North Carolina is currently scheduled to execute Kenneth Lee Boyd this Friday, which would make him the 1,000th person executed since the U.S. reinstated…