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News Releases

  • Military Spending Claims Draw Fire

    WASHINGTON — Projections for the Pentagon budget by one of the nation’s most prominent think tanks drew criticism today from several specialists in military spending. The Heritage Foundation’s new report, “Current Budget Priorities May Have Serious Defense Consequences,” was faulted for its claim that by 2020, “the downward trend in defense would result in the virtual elimination of defense spending.” Among those available for comment are: WILLIAM D. HARTUNG A Senior Fellow of the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research, Hartung said: “A similar projection based on the first four years of the Reagan military buildup…

  • Whitewash of IMF Role Charged

    WASHINGTON — A new report on the Asian economic crisis, put out by Washington’s best-known think tank on international economic issues, is drawing fire for its favorable assessment of the International Monetary Fund. Released by the Institute for International Economics, the report is titled “The Asian Financial Crisis: Causes, Cures, and Systemic Implications.” It has come under swift attack from economists who question why IMF bailout policies — including high interest rates, spending cuts, and mass layoffs — were let off the hook in the report. Among those available for comment are: MARK WEISBROT Research Director of the Preamble Center…

  • Debate Heats up on Social Security and Savings

    WASHINGTON — On the eve of the National Summit on Retirement Savings, some analysts are denouncing new efforts to tilt the debate on savings and Social Security. The Heritage Foundation released a report Tuesday, entitled “How Government Policies Discourage Savings,” calling for privatization of Social Security. But scholars and other researchers said today that such policy prescriptions would do irreparable damage to Social Security rather than save it. Among those available for interviews are: JANE D’ARISTA A lecturer in the International Banking and Financial Law Studies Program at Boston University School of Law, D’Arista said: “We have a dual system,…

  • Arms Experts Warn Against Missile Defense Push

    India-Pakistan Nuclear Escalation Deemed No Excuse for New SDI WASHINGTON — Some arms experts expressed concern today over efforts to revive a new version of the Strategic Defense Initiative promoted during the 1980s by the Reagan administration. A recent report from the Heritage Foundation following nuclear tests in South Asia declared that President Clinton “should respond immediately by committing the United States to the development of an emergency missile defense program and to early deployment of a global missile defense system.” But a variety of policy analysts said that such “missile defense systems” are dubious at best. Among those available…

  • Pakistan’s N-Tests Heighten Concerns of U.S. Nuclear Survivors

    Atomic Veterans and Downwinders Speaking Out on Pakistani Blasts After today’s nuclear detonations by Pakistan, some Americans who have experienced atomic testing firsthand are stepping up their efforts to warn against fueling a nuclear arms race. While commentators from think tanks join with U.S. government officials in assessing the Pakistani tests, more acute concerns are being expressed by Americans who have seen mushroom clouds rise. Among those available for interviews are: WILLIAM BIRES In 1951, Bires — then a 22-year-old private in the U.S. Army — witnessed several aboveground nuclear bomb tests at close range in Nevada. Now, Bires expresses…

  • Supporters of Test Ban Denounce Efforts to Stall Treaty

    India’s Nuclear Blasts Being Used as Excuse, Critics Charge WASHINGTON — Efforts are underway to scuttle the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty under the guise of urging a go-slow approach by the Senate in the wake of India’s nuclear tests, some experts said Friday. Citing a new statement from the Heritage Foundation titled “India’s Nuclear Tests Show Folly of Rushing Test Ban Treaty,” critics said that such declarations are part of an emerging effort to kill the test ban on Capitol Hill. Among those available for comment are: SAM DAY Day, former editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, said:…

  • Social Security Panel Attacked as “Dangerous Farce”

    Critics Blast “Poisonous Recipe” For Retirement Policy WASHINGTON — A national consortium of public-policy experts denounced proposals released today that would transform Social Security by setting up individual investment accounts and hiking the retirement age to 70. The proposals came from a private panel of politicians, economists and business executives called the National Commission on Retirement Policy. The commission was handpicked by a conservative think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “The commission is a dangerous farce,” said the Institute for Public Accuracy, a nationwide consortium of policy experts. “From the outset, the panel was rigged. It purposely…

  • As G-8 Leaders Gather, “Free Trade” Arguments Rage in U.S.

    Critics Say That Even Prominent Foes of IMF Fail to Grasp Problem WASHINGTON-While President Clinton and leaders of seven other industrialized nations gather in Britain, debates over key global economic issues continue to rage back in the United States. On the eve of the annual G-8 summit, which will consider the International Monetary Fund’s role in the economic crisis roiling Indonesia and other Asian countries, the Heritage Foundation released a position paper urging Congress to block further appropriations for the IMF. The influential think tank contended that the IMF has “failed to demonstrate the ability to promote economic stability and…

  • Study Finds Conservative Think Tanks Prevalent in 1997

    Brookings, Heritage, AEI and Cato Are Most Often Cited WASHINGTON-A study released Thursday found that conservative think tanks dominated much of the national debate last year. The joint study-conducted by sociologist Michael Dolny for Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) and the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA)-found that in 1997, right-leaning think tanks accounted for 53 percent of media citations, while progressive or left-leaning ones received 16 percent. Of the 25 leading think tanks studied, three of the top four had a conservative slant. The centrist Brookings Institution (2,296 cites) was the most frequently mentioned, followed by the conservative Heritage…

  • Full Disclosure Urged for ACLU’s Ties With Tobacco Firms

    Spotlight on Donations Earmarked for Smoking-Related Issues WASHINGTON ­ New questions are emerging about financial ties between the tobacco industry and the American Civil Liberties Union. An article in the latest Nieman Reports, published by Harvard’s Nieman Foundation, cites internal ACLU documents that shed light on contributions from cigarette makers Philip Morris and R.J. Reynolds to the national ACLU, its affiliates and the ACLU Foundation. The article, by former Washington Post reporter Morton Mintz, says that most of the money ­ totaling more than $1 million since 1987 ­ was earmarked for a national ACLU task force advocating “smokers’ rights.”…

  • “Historic” $100K Settlement from University of Maryland for Unlawfully Suppressing Pro-Palestinian Student Speech

    The group has just announced a “historic victory. … The university has now agreed to a $100K settlement, the largest ever for pro-Palestine student speech known in the U.S. But this isn’t just about the money. It’s about forcing institutions to recognize that Palestinian voices cannot and will not be silenced.”

  • Palestinian Women on Hunger Strike to Demand Israel Return Body of Peace Activist Killed by Israeli Settler

    “More than 60 Palestinian women have launched a hunger strike to demand Israel return the body of a peace activist killed by an Israeli settler last week in the occupied West Bank. The body of Awda Hathaleen, who was shot and killed on Monday as Israeli settlers moved in to bulldoze his village, is still…

  • Preventing Criticism of Israel by Defining It as Antisemitic

    “In 2016, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), a group of 35 mostly European countries, drafted what it called a working definition of antisemitism. The Alliance had been founded in 1998 to promote Holocaust education and, in its own words, to ‘strengthen governmental cooperation to work towards a world without genocide.’ All too sadly, right now, its definition…

  • Nuclear Threats 80 Years After Hiroshima and Nagasaki

    “While we have succeeded in preventing the direct use of nuclear bombs since World War II, Daniel Ellsberg and others have highlighted that the U.S. government has used nuclear weapons repeatedly since 1945, like a thief uses a gun. It doesn’t have to detonate the weapon over a city, simply threatening to do so achieves a strategic purpose.”

  • ​LGBTQI+ Communities at Greater Risk of Losing Healthcare Access 

    While anti-trans and anti-DEI legislation is making it harder for a wide range of Americans to access healthcare, new survey findings show that LGBTQI+ people are at greater risk of losing access to healthcare under the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

  • Two-State Rhetoric Used as “Cover” for Israel’s Genocide and Continuing the Occupation?

    Many media outlets have been reporting on Saudi Arabia and France holding a conference at the UN for “recognising Palestinian statehood.” This narrative is scrutinized in an in-depth video with Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada: “UK, France, Canada ‘recognizing Palestine’ to cover up support for Israel’s genocide.” 

  • Ralph Nader: “Palestinian Holocaust,” 500,000 Dead

    “You can’t have a tiny enclave, the size geographically of Philadelphia, with 2.3 million people, have 170,000 tons of bombs, all kinds of artillery, sniper fire, denial of food, water, medicine, health care, all kinds of infectious diseases, destroying homes, apartment buildings, markets, religious institutions, educational institutions, anything that stands, anything that moves — 75…

  • Judge in Epstein Case Has Financial Conflicts of Interest

    Judge Loretta Preska “through her husband’s law firm” has “connections to a number of other financial institutions tied to Epstein, throwing an even darker shadow on her prior sealing of these documents.” Preska’s spouse is Thomas Kavaler, “a fifty-year veteran of Cahill Gordon & Reindel.” The firm “defended Deutsche Bank after it was sued by…

  • “Healthcare Deserts”Have Worsened Since 2021

    A new report from GoodRx finds that healthcare deserts––areas that lack adequate access to and infrastructure for healthcare services––exist in about 80 percent of counties in the United States. Nearly 60 percent of counties have more than one type of healthcare desert, and roughly one in three Americans are affected by healthcare deserts. Pharmacy deserts…

  • Amazon Union Leader Beaten by Israeli Military

    “’The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that upon arrival in Israeli custody, U.S. human rights defender, Christian Small, was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals,’ wrote the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on Instagram. ‘They choked him and kicked him, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back.'”

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