JOSEPH GERSON Editor of The Sun Never Sets, a book about U.S. military bases worldwide, Gerson is director of the Peace and Economic Security Program at the American Friends Service Committee. He said today: “Behind the rhetoric of ‘liberation’ and not staying ‘a day’ longer than needed, the Bush administration is clearly working to create a client government which will allow the U.S. to maintain military bases for the long term, as it has recently done in Central Asia. The U.S. government, in effect, will be transforming Iraq into an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier for the United States.’ The U.S. government…

On Thursday, less than 24 hours after issuing a press release highlighting the apparent failures of the U.S. military’s humanitarian operations in Iraq, the international group Voices in the Wilderness was banned from meeting with the U.S. Civil Military Operations Center or with international journalists at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. The group asks: “If the freedom to critique U.S. policies in Iraq regarding humanitarian issues is being curtailed already, then exactly what does this mean for building ‘democracy’ there?” A photo of the military’s listing of which groups are allowed into the hotel (noting in capital letters that Voices…

Today, NASA administrator and former Secretary of the Navy Sean O’Keefe addressed the National Press Club about “NASA’s Strategic Plan.” The following analysts are available for interviews: ALICE SLATER Director of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, Slater said today: “NASA’s strategic plan involves the acceleration of militarizing space. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers was head of U.S. Space Command when it published its 1998 ‘Visions for 2020’ report which talked of ‘dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect U.S. interests and investment.’ In January 2001 the space commission chaired by Donald…

JAMES ABOUREZK A former U.S. senator, Abourezk has met with high-ranking Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad. He said today: “The proposal that Syria is reportedly putting forward at the U.N. for a Mideast free of weapons of mass destruction is a very good one.” Abourezk is in D.C. on Wednesday and Thursday. More Information SCOTT C. DAVIS Author of the new book The Road from Damascus: A Journey Through Syria, Davis recently returned from Syria; he spent the first several days of the invasion of Iraq in Syria. He has visited Syria repeatedly over the last 15 years and…

BILL FLETCHER President of TransAfrica Forum and co-chair of United for Peace and Justice, Fletcher said today: “The military action against Iraq is not just about controlling oil and not even just about empire. It’s about economic competition with other powers; about the Bush administration framing global capitalism in an image that it wants with its ‘new international economic architecture’ via the IMF and World Bank…. This will exacerbate the increasing economic polarization of the last 20 years, further impoverish much of the globe and send a message to all: displays of resistance will be met with force.” More Information…

AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus, is closely following events in the Arabic-language as well as English-language media and can address changes in Iraq and the region. He is author of the book Bin Ladin, Islam and America’s New “War on Terrorism.” LAMIS ANDONI An independent journalist and analyst who has covered the Mideast for over two decades, Andoni is also monitoring the Arabic-language media. She knew Tareq Ayub, the Al Jazeera correspondent who was killed yesterday by the U.S. military. [The web page http://english.aljazeera.net is back up after being hacked.] Andoni said…

ANDY SHALLAL Founder of Iraqi-Americans for Peaceful Alternatives, Shallal said today: “People are happy not just because Saddam is out, but also because they anticipate the end of 12 years of economic sanctions and the bombing…. When I was a kid in Iraq, we had coups and I would go out and jump in the street because it was the coolest thing. It’s like D.C. when the Redskins win the Super Bowl. The problem is what comes after.” RICK McDOWELL Working with American Friends Service Committee, McDowell is in contact with many relief organizations in Jordan trying to get humanitarian…

SIMONA SHARONI Sharoni has specialized in Northern Ireland as well as the Middle East and can compare and analyze the two. She is a professor of peace and conflict studies and Middle East politics at Evergreen State College and executive director of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development. MAIREAD CORRIGAN McGUIRE A Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her work in Northern Ireland and co-founder of the Peace People, Mairead Corrigan McGuire has been on a liquid fast since the invasion of Iraq began. She is holding a silent vigil in front of the White House every day from…

“To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” — International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, 1946 [ www.zmag.org/crisescurevts/nurletter.htm] “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state…” — U.N. Charter (Chapter I, Article 2) [www.un.org/aboutun/charter] “It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as…

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…