News Releases

  • A Bipartisan Lie — Rewriting History

    “This nation is very reluctant to use military force…. Military action is the very last resort for us.” — George W. Bush, October 28, 2003 “[Richard] Gephardt approved a Bush-Cheney policy where, for the first time in American history, we commit to war before exhausting our efforts to commit to peace.” — Howard Dean Campaign Statement, November 16, 2003 Here are just a few of the facts about U.S. foreign policy contradicting such claims: * In 1962, while trying to show that there were precedents for the use of armed force against Cuba, Secretary of State Dean Rusk produced for…


  • Christmas and Chanukah: Interviews Available

    JULIET SCHOR Professor of sociology at Boston College, Schor is author of the books The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need and Do Americans Shop Too Much? She is available for a limited number of interviews until Thursday. STAV ADIVI Adivi is a major in the Israeli Defense Forces. He said today: “I am a Zionist and an Israeli patriot. I am one of 1,200 who are refusing service in the West Bank and Gaza…. Chanukah is a celebration of victory and freedom. About 2,100 years ago, Judah Maccabee led the Jewish fight against the Greeks who…


  • Analysis on the Tenth Anniversary of NAFTA

    New Year’s Day 2004 will mark the tenth anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The following critics of NAFTA are available for interviews: ALEJANDRO NADAL FRANCISCO AGUAYO Nadal is the director of the Science and Technology program (PROCIENTEC) at El Colegio de Mexico and co-author of the article “Seven Myths About NAFTA and Three Lessons for Latin America.” He said today: “Between 1994-2003, minimum wages in Mexico lost 20 percent of their purchasing power.” Aguayo, a researcher at PROCIENTEC, said today: “Neither NAFTA nor the Free Trade Area of the Americas provide a means of addressing historical inequalities;…


  • * Venezuela * ‘Public Diplomacy’ * ‘Missile Defense’

    GREGORY WILPERT Wilpert is a journalist living in Venezuela and the author of an upcoming book on the Chavez presidency. More Information MARK WEISBROT Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot is currently in Venezuela. He said today: “Six months ago, when the opposition forces overthrew the democratically elected government of Venezuela and installed the head of the business federation as president, the Bush administration at first welcomed the coup, retreating the next day after it became clear that other countries in the Americas were not going to recognize the illegal government…. This time around, too, neither…


  • Interviews Available on Hollywood and Baghdad

    NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, which organized Sean Penn’s recent trip to Baghdad. Solomon will be returning from Baghdad late Tuesday afternoon. NORMA BARZMAN Author of the forthcoming The Red and the Blacklist: A Memoir of a Hollywood Insider, Barzman was blacklisted in 1949. She said today: “Since the blacklists, fear has been engendered into the American population.” JACK SHAHEEN Author of The TV Arab and Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, Shaheen said today: “It’s encouraging that some individuals working in Hollywood are speaking their minds on American policy in…


  • Afghanistan Off the Radar?

    MARIAM RAWI, [in Pakistan], Rawi is a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. She said today: “We are not very hopeful of the outcome of the Loya Jirga currently convening in Kabul since it’s mainly composed of fundamentalists and warlords who continue to control most of the country. These men also had substantial influence in choosing the delegates. Women continue to be deprived of basic rights, and secular and democratic values are still gravely lacking in Afghanistan. Publications are banned and journalists imprisoned for criticizing the government. We are afraid to operate openly in our own…


  • New Developments in Case of U.S. Spying on U.N. Security Council: Former British Cabinet Minister Decries Prosecution of Whistleblower

    Former British cabinet minister Tony Benn has criticized the prosecution of a woman charged with violating his country’s Official Secrets Act in connection with the leaking of a secret memorandum from the U.S. National Security Agency. The memo described wiretaps of home and office telephones along with surveillance of emails of six “swing vote” delegations from nations with votes on the U.N. Security Council early this year as the U.S. and British governments unsuccessfully sought a resolution authorizing war on Iraq. Referring to Katharine Gun, who worked as a translator at Britain’s super-secret Government Communications Headquarters and now faces up…


  • After Sean Penn’s Visit to Iraq: Reflections and Possibilities

    NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, which organized Sean Penn’s recent trip to Baghdad. “After accompanying Mr. Penn during his visit to Baghdad, I’m heartened by the evident value of dialogue in the midst of this extremely ominous crisis,” Solomon said today. “His visit could inspire many Americans from various walks of life to explore how they can impede the momentum toward war, whether in Baghdad or at home in the United States.” More Information PAUL ROGAT LOEB Author of Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time, Loeb said today:…


  • Captive Saddam: Looking Deeper

    DOUGLAS VALENTINE Valentine is available to assess U.S. military operations in Iraq. He is author of the book The Phoenix Program, about U.S. “counter-insurgency” operations in Vietnam. More Information MIKE LOPERCIO Lopercio just returned from a fact-finding trip to Iraq where his son Anthony is a solider. More Information ANAS SHALLAL Shallal is co-founder of Iraqi Americans for Peaceful Alternatives and founder of the Mesopotamia Cultural Society. He said today: “Saddam Hussein has come to symbolize so many things in the Arab and Muslim world. He is seen as a hero (this speaks volumes about the deficit of leaders we…


  • Text of Statement by Sean Penn At News Conference in Baghdad

    The actor and director Sean Penn made the following statement at a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday afternoon: I am a citizen of the United States of America. I believe in the Constitution of the United States, and the American people. Ours is a government designed to function “of”-“by”-and-“for” the people. I am one of those people, and a privileged one. I am privileged in particular to raise my children in a country of high standards in health, welfare, and safety. I am also privileged to have lived a life under our Constitution that has allowed me to dream…


  • Pesticides Causing Antimicrobial Resistance

    A coalition of conservationists, farmworkers and public health groups petitioned the Trump administration to ban the use of drugs as pesticides when they are crucial for humans, citing the dangers of cross-resistance to medically important antibiotics and antifungals. This fall, the World Health Organization warned that antimicrobial resistance threatens families worldwide. The petition requests that…

  • U.S. Bombs Somalia for 100th Time this Year

    “AFRICOM said the strikes targeted the ISIS affiliate in Somalia’s northeastern Puntland region. … AFRICOM said that the airstrikes were launched on November 21 and November 22 about 37 miles southeast of the Gulf of Aden port city of Bosaso, where U.S.-backed forces have been fighting against an ISIS affiliate in the Caal-Miskaad Mountains.”

  • Psychotherapists Challenging Insurance Company Denials

    The Psychotherapy Action Network has created an Insurance Toolkit that includes an Insurance Guide and Insurance Tracker. The guide outlines what psychotherapists and patients should know when insurance companies deny or question care, while the tracker aims to document obstacles dealing with insurance and reimbursement. 

  • Israel Strikes Beirut, Has Violated Lebanese “Ceasefire” 10,000 Times in Last Year

    “The strike comes after an unprecedented escalation in threats of launching a major military campaign that would not amount to a war according to Israeli officials. It was the first time the southern suburbs were hit since July. It comes only two days after Lebanese president Joseph Aoun said in a speech, on the occasion…

  • “The UN Embraces Colonialism” and Israel Escalates Bombing Gaza, Moving Yellow Line

    Not since the UN partitioned Palestine in 1947 against the will of the indigenous people, setting the stage for 80 years of Nakba, has the UN acted in such a baldly colonial (and legally ultra vires) way, and trampled so recklessly on the rights of a people.

  • “How to Monkeywrench a Genocide”

    Police in England and Wales arrested more than 140 people on Tuesday, the first day of coordinated protests against the UK government’s proscription of the direct action group Palestine Action. This is happening as a trial of members of the group begins.

  • “America First Global Health Strategy”

    The State Department’s new America First Global Health Strategy and reorganization of foreign assistance “fundamentally change the structure and goals of U.S. foreign aid in a way that marginalizes children,” writes an advocate for international children’s issues and global health. The shift moves foreign assistance toward a focus on serving the U.S.’s “national security” interests.…

  • Israel Continuing to Block Aid to Gaza

    Dr. Sidhwa said: “Israel continues to block approximately half of healthcare workers with Emergency Medical Teams. No reason for the denials is given.”

  • UNSC Reported to Back Trump Plan, Palestinians Outraged

    “The U.S. is pushing for a vote on the U.N. Security Council by Monday on the U.S.-Israel colonial land grab in Gaza. The U.S. draft would ignore the findings of the International Court of Justice and U.N. human rights bodies, violate key provisions of international law, reward and normalize the perpetrators of the genocide, punish…

  • U.S. and Israel Trying to Consolidate “Land Grab in Gaza” Using U.N.

    “The co-perpetrators of the genocide are seeking U.N. authorization to take over the lives of the survivors and normalize the status of the perpetrators. Russia and China must stand firm against this abomination, and the UNGA must move now under Uniting for Peace to provide protection for Palestine and accountability for the Israeli regime.”  

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