News Releases

  • Global Conference Getting Underway: AIDS and Drugs

    The 13th International Conference on AIDS will be held in Durban, South Africa from July 9 to 14. The following analysts are available for interviews: ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of Essential Action, Weissman said today: “While Africa is experiencing an epidemic that ranks among the worst in world history, the multinational drug companies — which produce the drugs that can treat and extend the lives of those with HIV/AIDS — are focusing not on the humanitarian tragedy but on their bottom lines. There’s plenty of blame to go around for the HIV/AIDS epidemic, but certainly high up on the list are…


  • Interviews Available: Israeli-Palestinian Summit, Clashes in Northern Ireland

    SIMONA SHARONI Co-chair of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development, Sharoni — a long-time professor of conflict resolution and peace studies — has traveled with students to Northern Ireland and the Mideast several times. Some of her students are currently international observers in Northern Ireland. She said today: “There are a few striking similarities between the situation in Israel/Palestine and the North of Ireland, and the prospects for long-lasting peace in both regions. In both cases, albeit for different reasons, the United States has positioned itself as a key player. Yet, the Clinton administration and the State Department…


  • Interviews Available: Nazi Link to German Scandal, Elian and the Cuba Embargo, Sunday’s Mexican Election

    MARTIN A. LEE Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl is scheduled to testify before a parliamentary inquiry on Thursday. In the Los Angeles Times on June 25, free-lance investigative journalist Martin A. Lee exposed the Nazi link to the current slush fund and influence-peddling scandal in Germany involving Kohl. Lee traces the roots of the corruption scandal to Kohl’s close relationship with Fritz Ries, an influential German industrialist who made a fortune during the Third Reich from expropriating “Aryanized” Jewish property and from slave labor in factories near Auschwitz. After the war, Ries became Kohl’s principal patron within the West German…


  • Interviews Available: Genome and Philip Morris / Nabisco

    JONATHAN KING Professor of molecular biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, King is on the board of the Council for Responsible Genetics. He said today: “The determination of human gene sequences represents the outcome of 50 years of public investment in basic biomedical research. The publicly released gene sequence data provide important inputs into understanding the biological basis of human health and disease…. Our genes were inherited from our parents through their parents and previous generations; their sequences are not inventions of corporate or any other scientists. The patenting of human genes by Celera, Human Genome Sciences and other…


  • Death Penalty

    Gary Graham is scheduled to be executed at 7 P.M. Eastern Time. The following analysts and critics of the death penalty are available for interviews: WILLIAM HARRELL Executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, Harrell said today: “We are outraged by the board’s failure to halt this execution. The judicial system has failed us, the Board of Pardons and Paroles has failed us and the governor has failed us. This is the greatest proof that the time for a moratorium on executions in Texas is now.” The president of the board of the ACLU of Texas, Greg…


  • “Prosperity and Progress”?

    Inequalities, Health-Care Coverage, Estate Tax CHARLES ANDREWS The author of the forthcoming From Capitalism to Equality, Andrews said today: “Before we celebrate the economy’s alleged prosperity and progress, we should tally the exhaustion it is causing. The average husband-and-wife family works six hours today for every five hours worked in 1979. The percentage of employees who work 49 hours a week or more rose from 13 percent in 1976 to 20 percent today. If there is a bit of prosperity today in our role as consumers, the deeper truth is that today’s economy consumes people’s lives.” SARA NICHOLS National spokesperson…


  • Interviews Available: Father’s Day

    WILL GLENNON Glennon is author of Fathering: Strengthening Connection with Your Children No Matter Where They Are, for which he interviewed 180 fathers, aged 15 to 87, almost all of whom cried during their interviews. He said today: “Fathers need to get deeply engaged in the upbringing of their children. Fathers don’t want to be isolated, children don’t want them to be disconnected and mothers don’t want them to be absent — physically or emotionally. But we have patterns of how we raise our children which keep fathers distant, cost them emotionally, cause pain in their relationships, making boys more…


  • Arafat’s Visit to U.S.

    The following analysts are available for interviews about the U.S. visit by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat scheduled to begin on Wednesday: NASEER ARURI Professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, former board member of Amnesty International and author of The Obstruction of Peace: The U.S., Israel, and the Palestinians, Aruri said today: “The approach of Syria’s Hafez Assad toward Israel was based on equality, land for peace, an international framework, and normalization with Israel after it fully withdraws from occupied territory. By contrast, Arafat’s approach — despite lip service to the contrary — is open-ended. It would…


  • Study Finds Conservative Think Tanks Predominant

    Brookings Leads; Left-of-Center Think Tanks Decrease WASHINGTON — A study released today found that conservative think tanks and the centrist Brookings Institution dominated much of the national media debate last year. Of the 25 leading think tanks studied, Brookings had the most citations (2,883), twice as many media mentions as the next-ranked conservative/libertarian Cato Institute (1,428 cites). The conservative Heritage Foundation, which had rivaled Brookings in prominence a few years ago, has fallen to third place (1,419 cites), while the conservative American Enterprise Institute (1,263 cites) is the fourth most cited think tank in the U.S. media. These four think…


  • Analysts Available on Microsoft Decision

    The following analysts are available to comment on the Microsoft decision: NORMAN HAWKER Hawker is a law professor at Western Michigan University specializing in antitrust issues. JUDY SLOAN Sloan is a professor at Southwestern University Law School in Los Angeles. ROBERT LANDE Lande is senior research scholar at the American Antitrust Institute and professor of law at the University of Baltimore. More Information For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167 More Information More Information


  • State “Defend the Guard” Movement Gains Momentum Nationwide

    “In recent years, Defend the Guard bills have been introduced in a majority of states, and the bill has passed the New Hampshire House, Arizona Senate, Virginia House of Delegates, and Idaho Senate. The proposal has drawn support from an unusual coalition of veterans, families of National Guard members, constitutional scholars, peace advocates, and civil…

  • Gulf Countries Crackdown

    “Since the beginning of the war on Iran, GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries have launched a sweeping crackdown on freedom of expression. The most concerning escalation is happening in Bahrain, where DAWN has confirmed that authorities have arrested at least 148 people for peaceful protest and online expression. They have charged activists with treason and…

  • Campaign Launches for Jeffries and Schumer to Step Aside

    A coalition of antiwar groups launched a national campaign on Wednesday calling for Representative Hakeem Jeffries and Senator Chuck Schumer to step aside from their positions as minority leaders.  Jeff Cohen, cofounder of RootsAction, said: “Schumer and Jeffries have failed their party and country through wobbly leadership when firmness and clarity are needed in opposing…

  • UN Security Council Again “Bows to U.S. Empire”

    UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber just posted: “For the second time in four months (see res. 2803), the UN Security Council has today bowed to the US empire (and its vassals) and ignored international law on its behalf, and neither Russia nor China have acted to stop it through their veto rights. In the middle of the…

  • Preparations for Military Draft Called Out

    “A diverse coalition is mobilizing opposition to a recently-passed federal law that seeks to step up preparations for and readiness to activate a military draft. The new law authorizes the federal Selective Service System (SSS) to begin using automated involuntary registration to increase the number of individuals currently listed in the agency’s database of potential…

  • Are Trump and Netanyahu Trying to Fuel an Arab-Iranian War?

    “Israel and the U.S. are desperate to draw Arab countries into a direct confrontation with Iran to deplete those same countries and get Muslims to destroy each other (especially Gulf countries that have been competing with the West in attracting capital, talent and investments). This way Israel would emerge on top as the region’s uncontested…

  • The War with Iran is Already Costing Billions

    In a new fact sheet, the Institute for Policy Studies explains that the war with Iran is already costing U.S. taxpayers billions of dollars. “Daily operations in and around Iran for these major military systems are costing… an estimated $59.3 million per day. That [money] could instead cover the daily costs of Medicaid for more…

  • Israel Expands War, Executes Mass Expulsion in Lebanon

    “Nearly 60,000 people have been displaced over the previous 24 hours alone, according to Lebanon’s state-run media outlet, the National News Agency, adding to the tens of thousands who have already fled their homes since Monday.”

  • Will the International Community Stand up to Aggression?

    “The UN Security Council is paralyzed because the United States will veto any resolution condemning its own actions. …. The Hague Group [which has announced an emergency meeting], or any member state, should introduce a UN General Assembly resolution declaring the U.S.-Israel assault on Iran a violation of the UN Charter and a war of…

  • The U.S. and Israel Have Killed in How Many Countries in the Last Year?

    The United States has bombed seven countries in the past 12 months: Venezuela, Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen and Iran. Asad Abukhalil notes: “Israel bombed eight countries: Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt ‘by mistake’ and Iran.” Drop Site News reports: “Black smoke was seen rising from inside the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait City following…

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