The actor and director Sean Penn made the following statement at a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday afternoon: I am a citizen of the United States of America. I believe in the Constitution of the United States, and the American people. Ours is a government designed to function “of”-“by”-and-“for” the people. I am one of those people, and a privileged one. I am privileged in particular to raise my children in a country of high standards in health, welfare, and safety. I am also privileged to have lived a life under our Constitution that has allowed me to dream…

MICHAEL RATNER Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights. More Information JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley was an expert witness in Pol Pot’s trial. EDWARD HERMAN Professor emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania, Herman is author of many books including The Real Terror Network. He said today: “Saddam Hussein faces a trial sponsored by a ‘coalition’ that has captured him after an act of aggression in violation of the UN Charter — the Nuremberg Tribunal called such acts the ‘supreme crime’ — and whose leaders therefore should be in front of Saddam…

“International law? I better call my lawyer; he didn’t bring that up to me.” — George W. Bush, responding yesterday to a question about U.S. policy in Iraq violating international law BENJAMIN FERENCZ Ferencz was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials for Nazi war crimes after World War II and is available for a limited number of interviews. He said today: “It’s a sad commentary when the president of the United States has apparently no knowledge or concern for international law. We said at Nuremberg that we would be bound by laws — that they would apply equally to all.…

SAYURI MIYAZAKI PAT ELDER Miyazaki and Elder will accompany Japanese survivors of the atomic bomb [Hibakusha] as they deliver signatures on a global petition to the Smithsonian Museum. The petition states: “The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum has announced that it has completely restored the B-29 bomber Enola Gay, which dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima…. The public display devotes a great deal to the performance characteristics and the like of the Enola Gay, but is said to restrict itself to a brief reference to the dropping of the atomic bomb…. Of the 140,000 people estimated to have died…

HEATHER BOUSHEY An economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Boushey said this afternoon: “Payroll employment grew by only 57,000 jobs in November and unemployment fell to 5.9 percent. November’s employment is still 235,000 jobs fewer than last year, even though the economy has added 328,000 jobs since July. While there are some positive indicators, the overall employment picture is much weaker than is typical during a recovery. November’s job growth is much lower than the previous two months, indicating that the labor market is not picking up. Manufacturing continued to shed jobs, losing 17,000 last month, although…

GREG MELLO Director of the Los Alamos Study Group, Mello said today: “The Energy and Water Appropriations Bill signed by President George W. Bush yesterday is a milestone in the further nuclearization of U.S. foreign policy. The weapons to be developed are explicitly for potential use against targets in many countries, not just one or two. The fact that these weapons would add little military utility while generating large ‘collateral damage’ — medical, political, legal, and moral — suggests that they are being driven more by institutional and ideological ‘push’ than any military ‘pull.’ … It is unlikely that the…

Relatives of U.S. military personnel stationed in Iraq are currently in Baghdad. They are meeting with members of the Governing Council and ordinary Iraqis, as well as with U.S. soldiers including their loved ones stationed in Iraq. Today they expressed surprise at the dire conditions of schools and hospitals that they have visited. They also report that many Iraqis they encounter want direct elections. In the United States, media can contact: Andrea Buffa [[email protected]] and Victoria Cunningham [[email protected]]. They are in touch with members of the delegation and can arrange interviews upon their return to the U.S. after December 8.…

FERNANDO SUAREZ DEL SOLAR Fernando Suarez del Solar (whose primary language is Spanish) is the father of Jesus Alberto Suarez del Solar Navarro, who died in Iraq on March 27. He will be leaving on a delegation for Iraq this Saturday and is available for a limited number of interviews. He said today: “Bush goes and looks like he loves the troops with his posturing. We will be going to Iraq and speak with people in the streets, with the Iraqis and with the troops to try to find out what is happening…. Bush says he wants to make a…

BRYAN STEVENSON Executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative of Alabama, Stevenson said today: “The legitimacy of the death penalty in the United States has been so undermined — by inadequate legal services to the poor, unreliable administration of criminal justice and political exploitation by elected officials trying to prove they’re tough — that it cannot be appropriately applied to anyone, including John Muhammed. We have already learned that many of the 3,600 people on death row in the U.S. are innocent, many have been wrongly or unfairly sentenced, many have been treated differently because of racial bias and most…

The following people are available for interviews. Note that Baghdad is 8 hours ahead of Eastern Time. JAMES JENNINGS President of the humanitarian aid organization Conscience International and a longtime professor of Middle East and Islamic Studies, Jennings has worked extensively in Iraq. He last traveled to Iraq with Congressman Nick Rahall and former Senator James Abourezk in a trip sponsored by the Institute for Public Accuracy in mid-September. Now in Baghdad until Friday (Nov. 22), Jennings said today: “On his arrival here, chief weapons inspector Hans Blix raised two important points. First, Blix talked about the importance of the…