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News Releases

  • Putin and Bush: Below the Surface

    At his news conference with President Vladimir Putin this afternoon, President Bush talked of a shared commitment to “peace and progress” along with “free markets and the rule of law.” As the two leaders continue to meet this week, the following analysts are available for interviews: DAVID KOTZ Co-author of Revolution From Above: The Demise of the Soviet System and professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Kotz said today: “There are reasons to be wary of the newly developed closer relationship between the Putin and Bush administrations…. The tactical importance of Russian help for the administration’s…

  • Trade and Terrorism: Interviews Available

    * Fast Track SARAH ANDERSON Director of the Global Economy Project of the Institute for Policy Studies, Anderson said today: “As they pressure Congress to vote as soon as possible on a controversial bill to renew trade promotion authority, also known as ‘fast track,’ Bush administration officials are arguing that America needs more free trade to fight Bin Laden. Robert Zoellick, U.S. Trade Representative, argues that there is an ‘inextricable link’ between economic prosperity and global security. But fast track is not the right approach to achieving global prosperity. U.S. forcefulness in trade negotiations has resulted in trade deals that…

  • WTO and War: “Invisible Hand and Invisible Fist”?

    MARTIN KHOR Khor, director of the Third World Network, is now in Doha, Qatar for the WTO summit. He said today: “An unbalanced draft Declaration has been transmitted by the WTO General Council chair to the Doha meeting. This is another example of the untransparent, discriminatory, biased and manipulative process of decision-making at the WTO that favors a few developed countries at the expense of the many developing countries.” ANURADHA MITTAL Mittal, co-director of Food First, is in Doha (and will be posting updates to www.foodfirst.org). ROBERT McCHESNEY Co-author of The Global Media: The New Missionaries of Corporate Capitalism and…

  • “Globalization” in a Time of War

    The World Trade Organization is scheduled to begin its long-awaited summit in Qatar on Friday. SOPHIA MURPHY BEN LILLISTON Communications coordinator at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Lilliston said today: “The form of globalization represented by the WTO will do little to lessen the threat of terrorism. In fact, it is driving greater divisions between the rich and poor — between developed and developing countries.” Director of the Trade Program for IATP, Murphy said today: “Despite the collapse of the WTO talks in Seattle, it seems developed countries’ governments have learned nothing. We are now presented with a…

  • War on Terrorism?

    WILLIAM HARTUNG Hartung, senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute, wrote the article “The New Business of War.” He said today: “After almost four weeks of bombing, even some top U.S. military planners now admit every major military target has already been hit several times over. Yet the Taliban’s hold on power is at least as strong as it was before the bombing. In the meantime, civilian casualties are mounting. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has engaged in twisted logic worthy of Orwell’s 1984, claiming that the U.S. is not responsible for the civilian casualties caused by its bombing…

  • United We Stand?

    KATE MARTIN or KEN GUDE Director of the Center for National Security Studies, Martin said today: “We do not live in a country where the government can keep secret who it arrests, where detainees are being held, or the charges against them. The secret detention of more than 1,000 people over the past few weeks is frighteningly close to the practice of ‘disappearing’ people in Latin America.” Ken Gude is a policy analyst with the group, which is demanding information from the government on the detainees under the Freedom of Information Act. More Information BETSY LEONDAR-WRIGHT or RICHARD PERL Communications…

  • Afghanistan and Iraq

    PETER BOUCKAERT Senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, for the last three weeks Bouckaert has been interviewing five to ten Afghan refugees in Quetta and Peshawar daily. He said today: “We have seen an increase in the impact of the bombing campaign on the civilian population. There’s a broader range of targets being hit — the International Committee of the Red Cross has been hit twice in Kabul and other aid organizations have also been affected. It’s clearly more than just radar stations and airfields. I don’t think that the U.S. is targeting civilians, but some serious targeting errors are…

  • Bombing Halt Now or Mass Starvation by Thanksgiving?

    SARAH ZAIDI Research director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, Zaidi is Pakistani. CESR has produced three comprehensive fact sheets on Afghanistan since September 11. She said today: “Relief officials on the ground are warning that millions — literally millions — of Afghan civilians will starve to death this winter unless the U.S. military suspends its attacks and allows the UN to re-establish effective food distribution. We are talking about women, children and the poorest of the poor, who have no means to access food in this war zone.” More Information JIM JENNINGS President of Conscience International, a…

  • *Cipro Patenting * Civil Liberties

    ASIA RUSSELL Russell is a member of the Health GAP Coalition. She said today: “With the Cipro deal, Secretary Thompson did not want to set a precedent that could be used against the U.S. administration at the upcoming WTO meeting, where the issue of affordable AIDS drugs and patent rights in poor countries will be a major controversy. If U.S. officials had agreed to license production of generic ciprofloxacin, all their arguments against patent flexibility in poor countries seeking generic AIDS drugs would have fallen to pieces — and Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Trade Representative, wouldn’t tolerate that, no matter…

  • * Bio-Warfare * “Blowback” * Nukes

    SUSAN WRIGHT Co-author of Preventing a Biological Arms Race and of the forthcoming book The Biological Warfare Problem: A Reappraisal for the 21st Century, Wright said today:”As the U.S. faces the threat of biological warfare at home, calls for strengthening defenses against biological warfare are certainly justified. But there is a deep contradiction in the U.S. position. Abroad, the government — under both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations — has pursued a unilateralist policy that has weakened the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which bans biological and toxin weapons. This was done both directly — by supporting BW-related activities…

  • Trump’s Big Caribbean War Lie

    “The evidence that the U.S. Navy’s buildup in the Caribbean is not about combating drugs but rather regime change in Venezuela is overwhelming. Perhaps the most obvious is that the U.S. is obliterating small boats and their crews, rather than capturing the men and forcing a confession from them. No names are released.“

  • Trump and Nuclear Threats

    “The U.S. government has withdrawn from various nuclear weapons treaties, including the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty during the George W. Bush administration and the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in Trump’s first administration. It has been in violation of its disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Biden administration made U.S. nuclear policy more aggressive in…

  • U.S. “Ceasefire” a “Ploy to Sabotage the Rule of Law” — Again

    Mokhiber added: “We are indeed seeing another ploy by the U.S. government working in collusion with the secretariat of the U.N. to sabotage the rule of law as well as the work of many in the U.N. system who are trying desperately to uphold the U.N. Charter.”

  • The Long History of Long Covid

    Writing for Truthout, Jesse Hagopian, a longtime educator with long Covid, details how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has harmed Americans with long Covid by shutting down the Office of Long Covid Research and Practice, gutting funding, and derailing trials and studies. Hagopian did extensive research to “situate this moment of disability caused by Covid, contextualized…

  • MIT, Palestinian Grandmother Among Targets of “Lawfare” Regarding Israel

    “There are differences, but the MIT case involves many of the same concepts as Ali’s case. In both, the plaintiffs are trying to use the courts to weaponize the law to attack protected speech. They are trying to prohibit protests against Israel’s actions using civil rights law. They are using different statutes, but both rely on much the same type…

  • Rabbis Are Not a Monolith in New York City Mayoral Campaign

    An open letter from rabbis across the country recently called State Assemblymember Zohran Mamdani a threat to the “safety and dignity of Jews in every city.” But rabbis––and New York City-based rabbis in particular––are not a monolith, and many openly support Mamdani and his campaign for mayor. 

  • “Occupy Wall Street: An American Dream”

    Michelle Fawcett’s new documentary, “Occupy Wall Street: An American Dream,” examines how a populist upsurge swept the nation, put oligarchs on their back foot, and revived working-class politics. 

  • U.N.: Gaza “Proxy Occupation Force” or Protection Force?

    “The colonial powers that carved up Palestine for their European settler colony, granted the colony full impunity as it carried out its bloody 100-year project of ethnic cleansing, and then supported it in two years of open genocide, are now plotting to finish the job with a U.S. and Western directed proxy occupation force manned…

  • Challenging Israel’s Impunity

    Jereski states that “the U.S. government has worked to subvert international law and we need to bring an end to Israel’s impunity.” He notes that while the U.S. is trying to legitimize Israeli control of more of Gaza, the UN Uniting for Peace resolution of Sept. 18, 2024 “Demands that Israel brings to an end without delay its unlawful presence in…

  • The Washington Post vs. Social Spending

    Writing for FAIR, Conor Smyth argues that the Washington Post has erred in its recent coverage of European social spending. In an article this month titled “Europe’s High Quality of Life Is Getting Hard to Afford. Just Ask France,” the Post argues that Europe needs to embrace cuts. 

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