News Releases

  • * Americans Just Out of Baghdad * Iraqi Dead * War Profits * U.S. Safety * Taxpayers

    MICHAEL BIRMINGHAM, STEWART VRIESINGA JEFF GUNTZEL, STEPHANIE SCHAUDEL While information has become more difficult to get from Baghdad, 15 members of the Iraq Peace Team have left the Iraqi capital and just arrived in Amman, Jordan. They are available for interviews. About half the Iraq Peace Team, composed of Americans and other Westerners, remains in Baghdad. Other members of the group have returned to the U.S. recently and are reachable through the Chicago office. MARC HEROLD Author of the recent article “When ‘Precision’ Bombing Isn’t,” Herold is a professor at the University of New Hampshire and a consultant to the…


  • * Supporting Troops * Rumsfeld: Lightning Rod * City Teach-in * U.S. Credibility * ‘Unavoidable’ Deaths

    NANCY LESSIN and CHARLEY RICHARDSON Lessin and Richardson are founding members of Military Families Speak Out. They have a son who has been deployed in the Gulf and just learned that he will be going into Iraq. They are in touch with over 300 other families of people from every branch of the military currently deployed in the Gulf and can help arrange interviews. Lessin said today: “The most supportive thing that anyone can do for our troops right now is to halt this invasion and protect their lives as well as the people in Iraq. We need to end…


  • U.N. — Accessory After the Fact?

    DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program, Halliday said today: “The people of Iraq are being crushed brutally everyday as we watch our TV. The U.N. and international law are being set aside by the U.N. Security Council member states. The Secretary General provides a weak voice reminding us all of Charter provisions, but too late and too little….” PHYLLIS BENNIS Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis is author of the book Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis. She said today: “International law, specifically the Geneva Conventions, requires the belligerent occupying…


  • Humanitarian Impact: Image and Reality

    Dr. APRIL HURLEY, MARTIN EDWARDS, Ret. U.S. Army Captain CHARLES LITEKY, KATHY KELLY, DANNY MULLER, Hurley and Edwards (al-Dar Hotel), Liteky and Kelly (al-Fanar Hotel) are in Baghdad with 20 other members of the Iraq Peace Team. Phone lines are intermittent. Team members are assessing damage, visiting hospitals and placing articles and photos on the web. Several additional team members have recently crossed into Iraq from Jordan. Muller, in Chicago, is in regular touch with team members. More Information JOY GORDON Gordon, a Fairfield University professor, wrote “Cool War: Economic Sanctions as Weapons of Mass Destruction,” which appeared in Harper’s…


  • Propaganda and War: Interviews Available

    JOEL CAMPAGNA Yesterday evening, the U.S. military intentionally bombed Iraq TV. Program coordinator on the Middle East and North Africa for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Campagna said: “Broadcast media is a civilian object under the Geneva Conventions and cannot be targeted unless it is used for military purposes (e.g. military communication).” CPJ also objected to the New York Stock Exchange pulling Al-Jazeera’s press credentials yesterday. More Information LAMIS ANDONI An independent journalist and analyst who has covered the Middle East for over two decades, including the Iran-Iraq war in the south of Iraq, Andoni is monitoring the Arab-language media.…


  • * Geneva Conventions * Water Supply * Following Orders * ‘Fragging’

    MARJORIE COHN A professor of law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Cohn said today: “While the U.S. government has objected to Iraq broadcasting photos of U.S. POWs, the U.S. government has allowed the very same thing…. Photos of Taliban prisoners of war and John Walker Lindh were continually broadcast on U.S. media outlets. The Pentagon is refusing to abide by the Geneva Convention with regards to the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay.” DENIS HALLIDAY, Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and former U.N. Assistant Secretary General, Halliday today criticized plans for the…


  • Crossing the Border

    DANIEL ELLSBERG Ellsberg, currently in Washington, D.C., authored the recent book Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. More Information DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program and former U.N. Assistant Secretary General of the U.N. BRIAN WILLSON Was in Vietnam as an Air Force officer, now active in Veterans for Peace. More Information ZAINEB ISTRABADI Associate director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program at Indiana University at Bloomington, an Iraqi-American. NORMAN SOLOMON Coauthor of the new book Target Iraq and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of international…


  • Bombing Baghdad

    The following analysts can comment on the bombing of Baghdad and will be available for interviews in the coming days and weeks as events develop. CHARLIE CLEMENTS, M.D, Clements is a Vietnam war veteran and recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights. He has just returned from a 10-day emergency mission to Iraq with other public health experts to assess the vulnerability of the civilian population. More Information More Information Ret. U.S. Army Captain CHARLES LITEKY, KATHY KELLY, MICHAEL BIRMINGHAM, Members of the Iraq Peace Team — Liteky, Kelly and Birmingham — are…


  • Americans Intervening for Peace in the Middle East

    DANNY MULLER Muller is a coordinator with the Iraq Peace Team. He was in Iraq recently, and more than 20 members of the group are still there. Muller is in contact with them and information is regularly posted on the above web page. While phone lines are intermittent, after several attempts many callers are able to get through. Among the team members in Iraq: Ret. U.S. Army Captain Charles Liteky; Kathy Kelly; Michael Birmingham. HUWAIDA ARRAF Arraf is a member of the International Solidarity Movement. Another member of the group, Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed on March 16 when she…


  • White House Claims: A Pattern of Deceit

    President George Bush, March 17: “Under Resolutions 678 and 687 — both still in effect — the U.S. and our allies are authorized to use force in ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction…. Last September, I went to the U.N. General Assembly and urged the nations of the world to unite and bring an end to this danger. On November 8th, the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441, finding Iraq in material breach of its obligations, and vowing serious consequences if Iraq did not fully and immediately disarm.” John Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., urging support for Resolution…


  • 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…

  • “U.S.-Israel Axis is the Greatest Threat Facing Humanity Today”

    “A murderous bombing campaign in Iran, continuing genocide in Palestine, serial aggression abroad, belligerent occupation of several countries, acts of transnational terrorism, repression at home, schemes to profit from murder and colonization, systematic coverup of the Mossad-Epstein operations, massive corruption of the public and private sectors across the West, sanctions against human rights defenders and…

  • “Board of Peace” Threat and Uniting for Peace Opportunity

    The Friends of the Hague Group has released a sign-on letter which urges members of The Hague Group “to rectify their previous failure to support co-chair Colombian President Petro’s commitment to introduce a Uniting for Peace resolution at the UNGA to ensure protection for Palestinians. Multinational protection through the United Nations is the primary demand…

  • Israel Maintained Security and Surveillance Equipment at Epstein Residence

    “The Israeli government installed security equipment and controlled access to a Manhattan apartment building managed by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a set of emails recently released by the Department of Justice. The equipment was installed starting in early 2016 at 301 E. 66th Street — the residence where former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak…

  • Rev. Jesse Jackson Did Not Have Establishment Media on His Side

    Robert Borosage writes in an obituary of the Reverend Jesse Jackson that in both 1984 and 1988, Jackson faced a “skeptical, often hostile press, with little money for paid advertising, [and] Jackson relied on generating free media and drawing big crowds.” Yet Borosage argues that Jackson’s “brilliance and his greatest legacy [are] that the mission,…

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