News Releases

  • “Madman Theory” in War

    Thomas Reifer contends that we are drifting into an uncontained and potentially global war in which world leaders are deliberately acting mad. This “madman” approach is particularly dangerous in the nuclear age. Today, the number of armed conflicts around the world are higher than at any time since World War II.


  • Iran and U.S. Clash at Nuclear Meeting

    “Despite being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), since its 1979 revolution … Iran has come under unprecedented scrutiny by the IAEA. … Meanwhile, Israel — one of only four NPT non-signatories (Pakistan, India and North Korea are the others) and the only state in the Middle East actually possessing nuclear weapons — has remained free from any meaningful international oversight.”


  • Israel Illegally Attacks Flotilla to Gaza

    “The Israel regime’s attack on yet another humanitarian flotilla is a grave breach of international humanitarian law, a violation of the law of the sea, an extension of its genocide in Palestine to international and Greek waters, and a product of the impunity granted to it by complicit Western states. The regime’s lawlessness is shared by every state with ships in the Mediterranean or citizens on board the flotilla that could have protected the flotilla but did not. They must act now.”


  • Lindsey Graham’s Path to a Civil War in Lebanon

    “The Israeli government is refusing to back down from its declared intention of seizing a large portion of southern Lebanon. Soon after the ceasefire was announced, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Tel Aviv had ‘not yet finished the job’ in Lebanon.


  • State Dept. Says Iran War “At the Request” of Israel, Claims Self-Defense in War it Started

    “The State Department said in a statement last week that the U.S. is in conflict with Iran “at the request” of Israel, an acknowledgment of Israel’s role in steering the U.S. into the war, which the U.S. has dubbed ‘Operation Epic Fury.’ The statement was issued by the State Department’s legal adviser, Reed D. Rubinstein, who attempted to provide a legal justification for the war.”


  • Israel Continues “Journocide” During “Ceasefire”

    “Israel has killed at least 14 journalists, including Khalil, in Lebanon since October 2023, according to CPJ. In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed over 260 Palestinian journalists since October 2023, making it the deadliest war for journalists ever recorded.”


  • The War Powers Resolution Is Not What You’ve Been Told

    “The same law says that a president who launches a war in any of those three situations, then has 48 hours to submit his first report explaining himself, and 60 days after that report (62 days total — plus a possible extra 30) to entirely knock it off. But none of those three situations exists. So, the president must immediately knock it off — must, in fact, have never started the war.”


  • The “Wonderful” War on Iranian Pistachios

    “The Resnick family, owners of The Wonderful Company and dominant players in California’s pistachio industry, have used political influence to secure vast water rights in drought-stricken regions, at the expense of local communities. The 2025 documentary Pistachio Wars examines their longstanding backing of pro-Israel lobbying groups, arguing that hawkish policies toward Iran align with their commercial interests, as weakening a key global competitor benefits their bottom line.”


  • Is Lebanon Giving Up Its Sovereignty for “Peace?”

    “This afternoon the young man seen running from the vehicle received a call from the Israeli army telling him he could die alone or die with his family in the car. He ran from the vehicle into a field and was struck and killed by an Israeli drone. This is not the first time that the Israeli army has used this tactic. It is pure barbarism. Abject terrorism.”


  • Priests Against Genocide

    “Italian priests took to the streets in Rome and other cities in late September 2025 under the banner Preti Contro il Genocidio (Priests Against Genocide). Since then, the movement has expanded rapidly, now including more than 2,200 priests-among them, bishops and cardinals-in over 54 countries.”


  • Bush and Freedom

    REED BRODY Brody is special counsel with Human Rights Watch and author of the article “Prisoner Abuse: What About the Other Secret U.S. Prisons?” and the report “The Road to Abu Ghraib.” He said today: “It is one thing to say you are on the side of freedom, it’s quite another to be a leader…

  • Inauguration: Policy and Protest

    The following will be available to comment on Bush’s speech today and underlying policies: STEPHEN ZUNES Zunes is a professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, and Mideast editor of Foreign Policy in Focus. More Information SUSAN AKRAM Akram, associate professor at the Boston…

  • Rice Nomination — Context and Contradictions

    Sgt. KEVIN BENDERMAN, MONICA BENDERMAN At the Senate confirmation hearing for Condoleezza Rice today Sen. Barbara Boxer, apparently referring to members of the U.S. armed forces such as Sgt. Kevin Benderman, said: “You know, if you were rolling out a new product like a can opener, who would care about what we said? But this…

  • * Tsunami Debt Relief * Volcker Oil-for-Food Report * Zoellick at the State Department

    MARK ENGLER Mark Engler, a writer based in New York City, is a commentator for Foreign Policy in Focus. He said today: “Those of us in wealthy nations believe that our governments donate generously to help these people. Yet many poor countries pay out more in debt service than they receive in aid — the…

  • Palestinian Elections; “Salvador Option” for Iraq

    MICHAEL BROWN Author of a recent oped in the International Herald Tribune — “Palestinian Elections: Voting is Good. Freedom is Better” — Brown is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Partners for Peace. More Information ALI ABUNIMAH Abunimah is founder of the Electronic Intifada. He said today: “The election in the occupied territories is…

  • Gonzales Confirmation Hearings; Ohio Vote Challenge

    MARK DANNER Available for a limited number of interviews, Danner is author of the new book Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror and of an opinion piece in today’s New York Times, “We Are All Torturers Now.” In that op-ed, Danner wrote: “Through a process of redefinition largely overseen by…

  • Perspectives on Tsunami Disaster

    ALFREDO QUARTO The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled “On Asia’s Coasts, Progress Destroys Natural Defenses.” Quarto, executive director of the Mangrove Action Project, said today: “The severity of the current tsunami disaster is beyond comprehension. The tremendous force of the 9.0 earthquake that occurred off the coast of Sumatra caused extremely powerful…

  • Oil for Food: What’s the Real Scandal?

    DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. Oil for Food Program in Iraq and assistant secretary general of the U.N., Halliday resigned in protest in 1998. Currently in New York City, he is available for a limited number of interviews. Halliday said today: “The Oil for Food ‘scandal’ is not a scandal of the United…

  • Social Security: The Manufactured Crisis

    The White House is hosting a two-day conference on the economy with special emphasis on Social Security starting tomorrow. MARK WEISBROT Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press). He said today: “The following facts have…

  • Reporter Who Examined CIA-Contra-Cocaine Link Dies

    AP reported this weekend that “Gary Webb, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter who wrote a controversial series of stories linking the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angeles, has died at age 49…of an apparent suicide.” AP wrote: “Webb’s 1996 series in the Mercury News alleged that Nicaraguan drug traffickers had sold tons of…

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