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…


  • Palestinian Groups on Famine, Call for International Protection

    “The systematic destruction of food systems, restrictions on the entry of aid, chaos perpetuated through continuous displacement orders, widespread bombardment, cooperation with and arming of gangs that loot aid and prevent its reach to affected populations, and the militarization of humanitarian aid (by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation) are all explicit manifestations of genocidal intent.”

  • DNC Will Vote on Resolutions About Gaza and Israel This Week

    Three national activist organizations — Progressive Democrats of America, RootsAction and Our Revolution — have announced their support for a resolution for “an immediate ceasefire, an arms embargo and suspension of military aid to Israel” that is set for consideration by the Democratic National Committee this week.

  • Famine Declared in Gaza, Stepping up Calls for Peacekeepers

    He states: “They have the majority of votes, and most importantly, millions of people are demanding this. Ordinary people are trying to break through an illegal blockade to deliver humanitarian aid, to implement international law their governments are failing to do. Why else do we have peacekeepers if not to end genocide and prevent starvation?”

  • Unpacking the Narrative of AI Job Loss

    Writing for FAIR, Conor Smyth argues that corporate media––including The Atlantic, ABC, PBS, CBS, the New York Times and Axios––has spun an exaggerated narrative that artificial intelligence is tanking the job market for new college graduates. AI, he writes, is stealing far fewer jobs than the public might believe, and this narrative serves as a…

  • HHS Reinstates Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines

    Under pressure from anti-vaccine activists, the Department of Health and Human Services has reinstated the Task Force on Safer Childhood Vaccines, claiming that the committee will “improve the safety, quality, and oversight of vaccines administered to American children.” The Task Force was disbanded in 1998. 

  • The Case for Military Intervention to Stop the Gaza Genocide

    Noor⁩ has been warning that France and Saudi Arabia “will hijack momentum for a military intervention and instead call for a ‘stabilisation force’ to effectively perpetuate the conditions of occupation and apartheid.” See video. 

  • NIH Is Sowing “mRNA Distrust”

    The director of the National Institutes of Health, Jay Bhattacharya, stated on Steve Bannon’s podcast that contracts for mRNA research were being canceled because the public lacks trust in the technology. Bhattacharya blames declining uptake of the mRNA Covid-19 boosters on lack of public trust in the technology. But experts say that the public does…

  • Embargo Against Israel

    Hever has worked with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement and recently testified at the UN Palestine Committee on its behalf. See his speech: “The Nakba Has Never Ended.” He said that a full global military embargo is “the bare minimum required by international law.” He drew parallels with sanctions placed on apartheid South Africa. See a recent report…

  • Encouraging Healthcare Workers to Resist ICE

    Writing in The Nation, social psychiatrist Eric Reinhart urges healthcare workers to resist the expansion of ICE into hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes, as well as the war on medical science and federal health programs for vulnerable U.S. residents. The Trump administration is “transforming medicine into a tool of authoritarian repression,” Reinhart contends. He writes…

  • Mental Health Practitioners in Gaza

    As of late 2024, across Gaza and the West Bank, 800,000 people had received some sort of mental health or psychosocial support for their trauma. For The New Yorker, Mohammed Mhawish chronicled the work of mental health clinicians attempting to offer these services in Gaza. He spoke with the Institute for Public Accuracy about the difficulty of…

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