SHAHID MAHMOOD Mahmood was the editorial cartoonist for Dawn, a national newspaper in Pakistan. He is now internationally syndicated with the New York Times Syndicate. He recently wrote a piece titled “The Dream That Was Benazir Bhutto,” which states: “I too was swept-up in that initial euphoria and as a budding political cartoonist remember drawing…

SAMEER DOSSANI Director of 50 Years Is Enough, a group that scrutinizes major international financial institutions, Dossani, a Pakistani-American, said today: “While the death of Benazir Bhutto is the latest in a long and tragic line of blood that has been spilled in Pakistan’s history, it should not detract from our analysis of her legacy.…

DAVID ENDERS Enders is a journalist who has spent nearly half of the last four years in Iraq and is author of the book “Baghdad Bulletin.” He said today: “Any progress the military is claiming to have made in Iraq should be looked at in the big picture: the prison population is larger than ever,…

MATT WATERMAN Waterman is the designer of a web page that allows people to select their positions on various political issues and ranks the presidential candidates according to how closely their views match, creating a political “blind taste test.” He said today: “Five months after launch we’ve had over 200,000 people use the tool to…

ARNIE ALPERT ANNE MILLER Alpert is New Hampshire program coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee. Miller is director of New Hampshire Peace Action. Alpert said today: “During the months leading up to its first-in-the-nation presidential primary, New Hampshire residents really do get the chance to meet all the candidates. With a little skill, preparation,…

RAED JARRAR Currently in Washington, D.C., Jarrar, who was born and raised in Iraq, is Iraq consultant for the American Friends Service Committee. He will be testifying at a hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday, titled: “The Extension of the United Nations Mandate for Iraq: Is the Iraqi Parliament Being Ignored?” Jarrar…

DAVID HIMMELSTEIN STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER Himmelstein and Woolhandler are professors of medicine at Harvard University and the co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program. They just had an oped in the New York Times in which they write: “In 1971, President Nixon sought to forestall single-payer national health insurance by proposing an alternative. He wanted…

ROBERT LIPSYTE “Jock Culture” correspondent for Tomdispatch.com, Lipsyte is author of several books on sports; most recently Yellow Flag, a novel about stock car racing. He said today: “By investigating itself, Major League Baseball headed off a larger and tougher investigation that the government would have done — and would have been happy to do…

JOHN ENTELIS Co-author of The Algerian Civil War and numerous other books on Algeria and North Africa, Entelis said today: “The bombing today [in Algeria] is in effect a continuation of the coup that took place in 1992 when the military overthrew the Islamic government. The resulting civil war left 200,000 dead. The violence has…

WILLIAM BURNS Senior fellow at the Santa Clara Law School focusing on international environmental law, Burns said today: “The U.S. government is claiming that it is willing to engage in international negotiations to address climate change; however, it continues to resist binding commitments despite the fact that voluntary efforts have proven to be an abject…