News Releases

  • U.S. Demanding an “Occupation Arrangement”?

    JAMES PAUL Executive director of Global Policy Forum and author of several recent papers on Iraq, Paul said today: “The U.S./U.K. draft of a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution, leaked to The New York Times [published in the Oct. 2 edition], says that ‘Iraq shall provide … immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to any and all areas, facilities,…’ and ‘Any permanent member of the Security Council may request to be represented on any inspection team with the same right and protections….’ This is one of several booby traps in the text to make sure that the Iraqis don’t accept it.…


  • Missions to Baghdad: Value in Dialogue?

    JAMES ABOUREZK Members of Congress have been attacked for speaking out against U.S. policy while in Iraq. Former Sen. James Abourezk, who visited Iraq in mid-September, said today: “We’ve arrived at a very scary state in this country where people opposed to the administration are accused of not being patriotic. The real act of patriotism is not to fall into line behind a president who is desperately trying to get us into a war — but to raise questions to save lives and our national morality.” EDWARD L. PECK Peck is a former chief of mission to Iraq and deputy…


  • Interviews Available: New Congressional Visit to Iraq

    BERT SACKS Currently in Baghdad, Sacks is accompanying Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., who has begun a visit to Iraq along with two other members of Congress. Sacks is an activist with the Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq, based in Seattle. Also in Baghdad at: [email protected] More Information RAMZI KYSIA and DANNY MULLER of the Iraq Peace Team BARBARA LUBIN, director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance More Information LEAH WELLS Wells is peace education coordinator of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation. Voices in the Wilderness is a humanitarian group opposed to sanctions and bombing of Iraq.…


  • Interviews Available as D.C. Protests Get Underway: World Bank and IMF: Problem or Solution?

    CAROLA KINASHA Kinasha is with the Tanzania Gender Networking Program. She said today: “The World Bank continues to support ‘user fees’ on primary health care in Tanzania, despite the opposition of women’s groups to this policy, and despite the fact that this policy blocks access to health care for the poor.” More Information SHELLY RAO Coordinator of the Economic and Social Justice Program at the Ecumenical Center for Research, Education and Advocacy in Fiji, Rao said today: “We have been told by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank that our countries’ debts are ‘sustainable,’ but our people lack…


  • Interviews Available: The U.S. Economy and War

    DEAN BAKER Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker said today: “The economy is facing the largest economic crisis since the great depression. The collapse of the stock market bubble destroyed more than $5 trillion of paper wealth, and the impending collapse of the housing bubble will destroy almost as much wealth….” More Information DIANA ZUCKERMAN President of the National Center for Policy Research for Women & Families, Zuckerman said today: “The threat of war has sent the stock market reeling, undermined consumer confidence, and is putting enormous pressure on Congress to cut health and safety net…


  • Interviews on Iraq: Another UN Resolution?

    SCOTT RITTER Ritter, who was a chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, is available for a very limited number of interviews. He said today: “It is clear that the U.S. government doesn’t want a peaceful resolution to this. It is bent on war. The move for a new Security Council resolution is a deliberate provocation to scuttle inspectors. The Iraqis acceded to the international community’s demands on the weapons inspectors. They should be held accountable; they will be held accountable. The inspectors should do their job, Iraq should comply and the UN should ensure that the inspectors are not misused…


  • Delegation to Iraq: Interviews Available

    On Thursday two more members of a delegation organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy returned to the United States from Iraq. The delegation included Rep. Nick Rahall, D-WV, who returned on Tuesday. Other delegation members now available for interviews are: JAMES ABOUREZK A former senator and author of Advise & Dissent: Memoirs of South Dakota and the U.S. Senate, Abourezk said today: “I am pleased that the Iraqi government has decided to again admit UN inspectors. We hope it will lead to a genuine reduction of tensions, not just a postponement of military action. In any case, a new…


  • Interviews Available on Iraq: Truth and Consequences

    JOHN C. BERG Professor and director of graduate studies of the government department at Suffolk University, Berg said today: “The current plans by Congressional leaders to give the president a blank check in advance would be an abdication of their constitutional responsibility. The whole history of Congressional attempts to authorize military action with conditions is that the conditions are meaningless — this was true of the Tonkin Gulf Resolution in 1965; with the intervention in Lebanon in the 1980s; and with the many attempts to limit military aid to repressive governments in Central America. It is not enough to say…


  • “We Have Seen This Game Before”

    DENIS HALLIDAY Halliday is former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. Currently in his native Ireland, he said today: “Now the challenge is for the member states of the Security Council to do the right thing. By this I mean keep American military aggression at bay until the UN inspectors have a genuine opportunity to work and for Iraq to demonstrate fullest cooperation. Whereas the military might of the U.S. has forced movement, let us not allow that same might to corrupt the UN into decisions or actions in breech of human rights…


  • Members of U.S. Delegation to Baghdad Available for Interviews

    Interviews are available with members of a U.S. delegation to Iraq sponsored by the Institute for Public Accuracy. Members of the delegation met with Tariq Aziz and other Iraqi officials over the weekend. In Damascus: Rep. NICK RAHALL and former Sen. JAMES ABOUREZK, en route back to the U.S. from their visit to Baghdad. In a story in the Washington Post today entitled “Congressman Sees Hope For Return of Inspectors: Bush’s Call for Ousting Hussein Cited as Obstacle,” the Post reports that “[Rahall said] there was a ‘strong possibility’ Iraq would agree to unrestricted U.N. weapons inspections if President Bush…


  • UN Suspending Israel * Ireland

    “Israel’s abusive repudiation of the very idea of the United Nations, its escalating and lethal violation of countless international norms, its repeated, deadly attacks on UN sanctuaries and peacekeepers justifies its expulsion.”

  • Targeting the Post Office

    “President-elect Donald J. Trump has confirmed the incoming administration’s interest in exploring privatization of the United States Postal Service (USPS). Privatization would repudiate the Postal Service’s public service mission. The public postal system exists to serve all, delivering such critical items as medications and lab tests, not to turn a profit. No profit-making company would…

  • Israel’s Impunity Extends to Destroying Syria’s Ability to Defend Itself

    “Regardless of who ultimately controls a future government in Damascus, Israel exploited the chaos following Assad’s fall to make sure that Syria does not retain the military capacity to defend itself. And Israel did so with the tacit support of Joe Biden and his administration, who repeated Israel’s argument that it was acting pre-emptively in…

  • Genocide Denial

    “Imagine for a moment that a magnitude 8 earthquake occurred somewhere in the world, and the Western corporate media refused to use the word ‘earthquake’ in reporting it, instead talking ambiguously of a ‘tectonic incident’ that had caused buildings to collapse and people to die.”

  • Espionage Act Defendant Asif Rahman Will be Held in Pre-Trial Detention

    “Based on pure speculation the government claimed Rahman was ideologically motivated and therefore more dangerous than other defendants. If taken to its logical conclusion, it would mean the government believes whistleblowers who act out of the public interest are a greater threat than spies who betray their country for financial gain.” 

  • Trying to Make Sense of RFK Jr.

    “It’s absolutely true that RFK Jr. is an unusual political figure. But it’s also true that he has deep roots in our politics going all the way back to his uncle, John F. Kennedy. The Kennedys have always been present in our political system because mainstream Democrats have tried to recapture the political magic of…

  • Israel Bombing Gaza, Lebanon, Syria

    “HTS has every reason to approach the UN Security Council and to charge Israel with aggression, both for Israel’s encroachment on territory of Syria beyond the illegally occupied Golan Heights, and for Israel’s bombing of Syria’s naval fleet and other military sites.”

  • Insurance CEO Shooting Highlights Street Crime vs Corporate Crime Contrast

    “We often view street violence as a moral failing deserving punishment; in the corporate world, we often view decisions that cause harm as unfortunate but necessary byproducts of business. But the public’s shocking reaction to Thompson’s shooting suggests that people are interpreting the ruthless tactics of private health insurers as forms of violence akin to…

  • Threats to Regulation of Formaldehyde

    New reporting from ProPublica found that under the incoming Trump administration, regulations to curb formaldehyde are under threat. Formaldehyde is one of the most widespread toxic pollutants and causes more cancer than any other air pollutant. Under President Biden, the Environmental Protection Agency will release its final health assessment of formaldehyde by the end of…

  • Syria’s Future: Democracy or Subservience to U.S., Turkey and Israel?

    “The Israeli bombardment of Syrian military facilities had weakened the Syrian armed forces’ logistical and ordinance capabilities. These attacks had been sustained and painful for the Syrian armed forces…. The nearly three years of conflict in Ukraine had certainly denied Syria the ability to call upon further Russian assistance for the protection of Damascus or…

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