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…


  • ​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.'”

  • “Transparent Farce”: Israel’s Latest Strategies of Deliberate Starvation

    The resumption of aid airdrops “approved by Israel and implemented on Saturday evening, does not reflect a genuine shift in the humanitarian response. Rather, it aims to mislead international public opinion and downplay the severity of the crime, diverting attention from Israel’s systematic starvation policy in the Gaza Strip, which has caused an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.” 

  • U.N. Still Hasn’t Declared a Famine in Gaza, a Year After Palestinian Groups Called for It

    “Secretary General Guteress should not allow Israel’s deliberate blocking of data collection to impede a formal famine declaration and provide cover for this genocide by starvation. The international community has sufficient evidence, including video documentation of starving children, testimonies from U.N. officials, and Israel’s own statements about cutting off food supplies to support an immediate…

  • Protests Demand Aid Get Into Gaza, Sanctions on Israel

    More than 100 organizations are demanding the entry and distribution of lifesaving aid to Gaza, see statement from Doctors Without Borders: “As the Israeli government’s siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families. With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organizations are witnessing…

  • Gaza: “Countries MUST Act to Stop Starvation”

    The Independent reports: “‘No one is spared’: Children are starving to death in Gaza and even the medics treating them faint from hunger.” AntiWar.com reports: “Fifteen More Palestinians Starve to Death in Gaza Due to US-Backed Israeli Blockade” and “Israeli Forces Kill 72 Palestinians in Gaza Over 24 Hours.” Michael Fakhri, UN Special Rapporteur on the Right…

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