News Releases

  • The Anti-War Origins of Mother’s Day

    Each year the president issues a Mother’s Day Proclamation. The original Mother’s Day Proclamation was made in 1870. Written by Julia Ward Howe, perhaps best known today for having written the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1862 when she was an antislavery activist, the original Proclamation was an impassioned call for peace and disarmament. In the years following the Civil War her political activism increased, as did her condemnation of war. Here are the words to the original Mother’s Day Proclamation: “Arise then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism…


  • * Torture * Geneva Convention * Former Diplomats’ Letter * Praying for Peace

    LISA HAJJAR Hajjar wrote the article “Torture and the Future.” She said today: “Bush has finally issued statements apologizing for the treatment of Iraqis, for the ‘humiliation’ and ‘abuse’ that have shocked many. But he is not accurately describing what has been happening. It was torture; we are now finding that it has been systemic and rampant, according to an investigative report by U.S. Army General Antonio Taguba … Torture has a legal definition and consequences, and Bush is attempting to shield his administration from those consequences.” Hajjar, who teaches in the Law and Society Program at the University of…


  • Torture and War Crimes: Crucial Context

    CLIFF KINDY Kindy has spent two five-month stints over the last year and a half in Iraq with the Christian Peacemaker Team, which released a document entitled “Report and Recommendations on Iraqi Detainees” in January. Kindy has had substantial contact with Iraqi detainees and their families and with U.S. soldiers and higher-ups. More Information DAHR JAMAIL Baghdad correspondent for the Internet journal The NewStandard, Jamail has written several articles (one of them in January) about U.S. military torture of Iraqis. His most recent piece, “Telltale Signs of Torture Lead Family to Demand Answers,” is available at the above web page.…


  • WMDs: * U.S. Public Opinion * Solutions

    STEVEN KULL Kull is director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes which has recently released two studies: “U.S. Public Beliefs on Iraq and the Presidential Election” and “Americans on WMD Proliferation.” He said today: “Sixty percent of Americans believe that just before the war Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction or a major program for developing them. Few Americans perceive most experts as saying the contrary. Perceptions of what the experts are saying are highly correlated with intentions to vote for the president in the upcoming election. Among those who perceived experts as saying that Iraq had WMDs,…


  • “Global Democratic Revolution”

    GEORGE MONBIOT Monbiot, author of the new book Manifesto for a New World Order and winner of the 1995 United Nations Global 500 Award, is in New York City until Wednesday. He said today: “Many of the most important issues facing us — climate change, international debt, nuclear proliferation, war, the balance of trade between nations — can be resolved only at the global or the international level…. Our task is not to overthrow globalization, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity’s first global democratic revolution. “There is already a global governance system in…


  • Al-Jazeera: Blaming the Messenger?

    Secretary Rumsfeld: “I can definitively say that what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable.” Q: “Do you have a civilian casualty count?” Secretary Rumsfeld: “Of course not, we’re not in the city [Fallujah]. But you know what our forces do; they don’t go around killing hundreds of civilians. That’s just outrageous nonsense! It’s disgraceful what that station is doing.” — Donald Rumsfeld at Pentagon news conference, April 15 **** “Last week Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, accused the Arabic television station al-Jazeera of ‘vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable’ reporting for suggesting hundreds of civilians had died there. ‘It’s…


  • * Iraq * Bush and Cheney Before 9-11 Commission * Syria

    PHYLLIS BENNIS A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of several recent papers on Iraq at the above web page, Bennis said today: “Having a little sovereignty is like being a little pregnant. Either a country has sovereignty or it doesn’t. Under the U.S. plans, Iraq will not have real sovereignty.” More Information DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and assistant secretary general of the U.N., Halliday resigned in protest in 1998. Currently in New York, he is available until Friday for interviews on developments in Iraq. On the oil-for-food program, he…


  • Iraq: On-the-Ground Realities

    RAHUL MAHAJAN Just back from a three-week stay in Baghdad, Mahajan was in Fallujah on April 11. He is author of the book Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond. Mahajan said today: “As the tense standoff over Fallujah and Najaf continues, we need to be clear about some things. U.S. actions include the occupation and deliberate closure of at least two hospitals and numerous cases of sniping at clearly-marked ambulances, including ambulances that had no fighters or weapons. The killing of likely well over 600 people following the killing of four Blackwater Security mercenaries is a heinous…


  • Interviews Available on Negroponte: * Meaning of “Sovereignty” * Support for Death Squads

    ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS Conteris is a Latin America human rights activist. He was detained and released in the Capitol after speaking up Tuesday at U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte’s Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to be ambassador to Iraq. Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras during the Nicaragua Contra war in the early 1980s. At the hearing Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) asked Negroponte if “the sovereign Iraqi government of July 1 would not have veto authority over military involvement in [a situation like] Fallujah? … If they have sovereignty, Mr. Ambassador, what does that mean? …” Negroponte: “That is why…


  • “A Politics for Reproductive Justice”

    GWENDOLYN MINK Mink is the author of the book Welfare’s End and is scheduled as a speaker at the March for Women’s Lives on April 25 in Washington. She said today: “On Sunday, women of color of all classes and low income women of all races will raise new voices in the struggle for reproductive liberty. The March for Women’s Lives will transform the politics of ‘choice’ into a politics for reproductive justice. The struggle for reproductive justice is about more than Roe v. Wade. It’s about securing both rights and resources that assure every woman equality as a reproductive…


  • Epstein’s Work with Israel: New Revelations

    “Jeffrey Epstein used his political network and financial resources to help broker a security cooperation agreement between the governments of Israel and Mongolia, according to a trove of leaked emails from former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. This new set of emails between Barak and Epstein has largely been ignored by the mainstream press, but…

  • Scientists Speak About Federal Agencies

    For Nature, Virginia Gewin spoke to 19 current and formal federal agency scientists at the EPA, CDC, NASA, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the National Institutes of Health. Her article serves as a resource documenting the kind of work that federal agency scientists have historically done and are no…

  • The “Magic Mistake” and “Enemy of the Sun”

    The book has a forward by Greg Thomas who teaches Black Studies and Literature at Howard University and discovered the misattribution, calling it “a magic mistake of revolutionary solidarity and kinship.”

  • “Covid Misinformation Star” Robert Malone

    Robert Malone is a household name in the anti-vaccine movement. The New York Times has called him a “Covid misinformation star.” A medical doctor and infectious disease researcher, Malone is a frequent guest on conservative podcast shows and is well-known for spreading misinformation about the safety and efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines. Throughout the pandemic, Malone…

  • Gaza Shelter Aid Blocked as Winter Nears: “The International Community Must Act Now”

    “More than three weeks into the ceasefire, Gaza should be receiving a surge of shelter materials, but only a fraction of what is needed has entered. The international community must act now to secure swift and unimpeded access.”

  • Slower Genocide, Rape Victim Fears for Life, Israel’s Potemkin Village Plans for “East Gaza”

    Shehada highlights that Israel continues airstrikes and attacks in the remaining area of Gaza, (West Gaza), and still prevents delivery of crucial humanitarian relief, including food, medicine and the desperately needed tents, prefab homes and construction materials which will be even more necessary during the winter months. The genocide continues at a slower pace.

  • Threats to First Amendment Rights

    For Documented, Anna Oakes writes that rulings in high-profile cases targeting noncitizen university students who have engaged in pro-Palestine speech, like those of Mohsen Mahdawi and Rümeysa Öztürk, could redefine First Amendment protections.  ANNA OAKES; [email protected]      Oakes is an independent journalist based in New York City. Oakes told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “For the…

  • Should Black People Be Allowed to Vote?

    “Asked by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut whether he would support bringing back ‘laws in this country to only allow white people to vote,’ Bozell refused to give a direct answer.“

  • Trump Seeks U.N. Blessing for Gaza Scheme

    “U.N. Security Council delegations, led by the U.S. as the co-perpetrator of the genocide in Palestine, with the support of complicit countries like the U.K. and France, and with the cooperation of U.S. client states in the region, are conspiring to merge elements of the French-Saudi colonial plan, with the U.S. colonial plan, in order…

  • Jews, Zionism and Mamdani

    “This is not a new debate. Anti-Zionism has existed since the birth of Zionism itself. The American Council for Judaism has proudly stood in this tradition since 1942, representing what was once the mainstream stance of the Reform movement: that Jewish identity, ethics, and community do not depend on nationalism, and that Jewish life flourishes…

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