JOY GORDON Gordon has written extensively on the Oil-for-Food program, including articles in Harper’s Magazine and Le Monde Diplomatique. She said today: “The Volcker Committee’s final report focuses a great deal on improprieties that had little impact on the Oil-for-Food program. Where it adds up the actual money involved, it finds that the amount of…

JORDAN FLAHERTY Flaherty is a union organizer from New Orleans and editor of Left Turn magazine. He wrote the article “Notes from Inside New Orleans,” and a series of follow-up pieces about the devastation and prospects for reconstruction in New Orleans. He is now in Tennessee. More Information CURTIS MUHAMMAD Muhammad is co-founder of Community…

ROBIN ROCQUE Rocque said today: “I’m one of the fortunate. My family evacuated New Orleans early Sunday morning, before the horror. We sat in my uncle’s living room, in Arcadia, La., and stared at the television. I am a native New Orleanian and I had a difficult time identifying my city’s landmarks through water and…

NANCY LESSIN Lessin is a founder of Military Families Speak Out. She said today: “The numbers we have are that there are 11,000 National Guard personnel from Louisiana, of whom about 3,000 are in Iraq with most of the heavy equipment. This included generators and high-water and other vehicles which could assist with the rescue…

“It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security…

ROSS GELBSPAN Today’s Boston Globe features a piece by Gelbspan titled “Katrina’s Real Name” in which he writes: “The hurricane that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming. When the year began with a two-foot snowfall in Los Angeles, the cause was global warming. “When…

RICK JAHNKOW Jahnkow works with two San Diego-based organizations: the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities as well as the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft. He said today: “The Pentagon is having major shortfalls recruiting people. … High school students are getting a distorted picture of the military and war from recruiting ads…

A full transcript and video of Pat Robertson’s recent statement advocating the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are available at Media Matters. The following are available for interviews: Rev. GRAYLAN SCOTT HAGLER Rev. Hagler has written the article “Pat Robertson Is Not a Christian.” He is national president of Ministers for Racial, Social and…

GREG ROLLINS A member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, Rollins has just returned from a three-month stay in Iraq, his fourth visit to that country. He has written several articles including “The Other Iraq,” “A Police State” and “Life in the Green Zone.” More Information DANIEL ELLSBERG Ellsberg is author of the book Secrets: A…

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is touring famine-stricken Niger today. KEVIN PHELAN In a statement released today, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Doctors Without Borders stated: “Recently-begun food distributions in Niger are not reaching those with the greatest needs, especially children under five years of age in the worst-affected areas. … The U.N. was slow to…