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News Releases

  • Perspectives on Bombing and Impeachment

    DENIS HALLIDAY The former head of the U.N.’s “oil-for-food” program, Halliday told the Institute for Public Accuracy on Friday afternoon: “The military strikes constitute a futile and short-run irrational action of desperate men.” More Information GWENDOLYN MINK A professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz, Mink said: “If there is a right-wing conspiracy, Bill Clinton must be calling the shots. He’s turned feminists into defense attorneys for alleged sexual harassers. He’s turned people of color into defenders of a president whose crime and welfare policies hurt us. Now, he’s turned Democrats who have been cautious about…

  • Iraq Bombing: Interviews Available

    BISHOP THOMAS GUMBLETON A Catholic Bishop from Detroit, Gumbleton has just returned from Iraq. More Information ERIK GUSTAFSON A U.S. soldier during the Gulf War and now the executive director of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, Gustafson said: “The people of Iraq are not their government. Dictators are answerable to no one. And yet, it is the blood of innocent Iraqi civilians that has already begun to flow.” KATHY BERGEN A specialist on the Middle East for the American Friends Service Committee, Bergen said: “On the eve of momentous religious holidays for all three Abrahamic faiths, the U.S.…

  • Iraq and Impeachment: Interviews Available

    MICHAEL RATNER An attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ratner is author of a forthcoming American Journal of International Law article titled “Bypassing the Security Council: Use of Force and the Iraqi Inspection Regime.” On Wednesday afternoon, Ratner said: “Clinton’s repeated attacks on Iraq and his bombing of a pharmaceutical plant in the Sudan are impeachable. They violate the Constitution, which gives Congress the power to declare war, and the War Powers Resolution. Also, the U.N. Security Council has not given any authority to bomb Iraq for allegedly violating the inspection regime. A bombing would violate our Constitution —…

  • Other Voices on Impeachment

    ALAN HIRSCH The author of For the People: What The Constitution Really Says About Your Rights, Hirsch has just written A Citizen’s Guide to Impeachment. Says Hirsch: “The guide is not intended to make the case for or against impeachment, but to help people follow and understand the process. It also discusses a range of scenarios. For example: Can a subsequent House rescind articles of impeachment adopted by a previous House? May the Senate convict the President but decide not to remove him from office? Can the Senate convict on grounds not stated in the House’s articles of impeachment?” STANLEY…

  • Available for Comment on Pinochet Decision

    JOYCE HORMAN Horman is the widow of American Charles Horman, whose execution by Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s forces in the days after the 1973 coup was the subject of the film “Missing,” starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. Ms. Horman has continued to pursue the case legally. MICHAEL RATNER An attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is representing the Horman family, Ratner said: “This is a watershed victory for human rights and for the people of Chile. We should now examine the role of the CIA in Pinochet’s crimes. Everyone, including world leaders, whether in the U.S. or other…

  • Three Perspectives on Impeachment Uproar

    GWENDOLYN MINK “The president and his defenders cry ‘sexual McCarthyism’ as a defense against charges that he perjured himself in a sexual harassment case. These appeals to sexual privacy are both damaging to women and hypocritical,” says Mink, a professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz and author of Welfare’s End. She adds: “‘Privacy’ is precisely the mantra that has been used against women to keep our issues — from harassment to incest to domestic violence — out of the purview of justice. We all cherish our privacy; but we also know that privacy does not…

  • Analysis of Clash Between IMF and World Bank

    A new report by the World Bank is sparking controversy because of its criticism of the IMF’s policies related to the Asian economic crisis. Among those available for comment are: ROBERT NAIMAN A research associate at the Preamble Center who specializes in assessing the impacts of economic globalization, Naiman said: “The good news is that the World Bank admits that punishingly high interest rates have destroyed these economies and that nations need controls on capital flows. The bad news is that it still funds IMF bailout packages that impose impossibly harsh austerity conditions on developing countries.” More Information CATHERINE CAUFIELD…

  • Critics Denounce Exxon-Mobil Merger

    Responding to today’s announcement that Exxon has agreed to purchase Mobil, critics say that the merger of the two oil giants would mean a vast consolidation of economic power and a serious threat to the global environment. The proposed Exxon Mobil Corp. would be the largest energy company in the world. Among the researchers and policy analysts available for interviews are: WENONA HAUTER Hauter, director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project, said: “We’re talking about putting back together Standard Oil, which was broken up 90 years ago. Consumers are eventually going to pay the price for this since it…

  • Available for Timely Interviews This Week

    About IMPEACHMENT: ROBERT PARRY A former Newsweek correspondent and the current editor of I.F. magazine, Parry has been examining the Clinton scandals, the Starr investigation and the way the special prosecutor system has evolved. More Information About IRAQ: BISHOP THOMAS GUMBLETON A Catholic Bishop from Detroit who has been to Iraq and will be going again next month, Gumbleton has opposed U.S. militaryaction against Iraq and the U.S./U.N. economic sanctions on Iraq. More Information PHYLLIS BENNIS A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s U.N., Bennis has just returned from…

  • Health Activists Blast Proposed Tobacco Settlement, Denounce Failure to Deal With Expansion Overseas

    WASHINGTON — While attorneys general from some states are touting a tentative deal with the tobacco industry, opponents say that one of the biggest problems with the proposed settlement is that it completely ignores the international operations of cigarette companies. Among the tobacco foes available for interviews are: ROSS HAMMOND Hammond, an economist and author of a new report on the international tobacco industry, said: “Big Tobacco has gone global to make up for declining sales in the United States. These companies now sell more cigarettes abroad than they do in the United States. Largely because of this overseas expansion,…

  • Who Profits From This War?

    PRATAP CHATTERJEE Chatterjee is author of the new book Iraq Inc. and has traveled to Iraq twice. He said today: “Nineteen months after the invasion, most services [in Iraq] have not been restored, the bills have reached astronomical proportions and Iraqis have very few jobs. Iraqi security guards get less than 1 percent of their…

  • Whose Vote Counts?

    WILLIAM BOONE Boone is a professor of political science at Clark Atlanta University. He said today: “In this election cycle many problems remain unresolved — and many of those problems disproportionately impact African-American and Hispanic communities. One major problem is the confusing patchwork of rules and regulations governing the restoration of voting rights of ex-felons.…

  • Major Economic Issues: * Budget Deficit * Health Care * Social Security * Minimum Wage

    WILLIAM SPRIGGS An economist and editor of the book The State of Black America 1999, Spriggs said today: “Bush says that he plans to cut the budget deficit in half. For this fiscal year, the Congressional Budget Office projects a deficit of $415 billion. That’s slightly more than the entire non-military, non-homeland security discretionary budget…

  • Electoral Equality: An Idea Whose Time Has Come?

    JULIE BROWN Brown is the campaign director for Make Your Vote Count, a Colorado group supporting Amendment 36, which would proportionally allocate Colorado’s nine electoral college votes. She said today: “In 1893, Colorado defied the critics and became the first state to give women the right to vote. On Nov. 2, Colorado has the opportunity…

  • * Facts on Tax Cuts * Bush Lies on Civil Liberties

    LEE FARRIS Farris is the senior organizer on tax policy at United for a Fair Economy. She said today: “This new round of corporate tax cuts comes at a time when our country has a record $415 billion deficit, and when many of the largest and most profitable corporations already are not paying their fair…

  • Iraq War Veterans and Military Families

    A news conference includes Mike Hoffman and Fernando Suarez del Solar next to the Arizona State University debate location at 10 a.m. local time today. The news conference is at the Twin Palms Hotel, 225 East Apache, Tempe (S.W. corner of Apache Blvd. and Mill Ave.), across Apache Blvd. from the ASU debate location and…

  • * Maathai’s Nobel Prize * Unemployment Numbers * DeLay’s Scandals

    Professor Wangari Maathai of Kenya has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2004. She is founder of the Green Belt Movement. More Information NJOKI NJOROGE NJEHU Njehu is director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network and worked with the Green Belt Movement for several years. Professor Maathai is both a mentor and a…

  • Scaring Away Voters in U.S Elections

    JACQUELINE JOHNSON Johnson is the executive director of the National Congress of American Indians. She said today: “In South Dakota’s June special election, erroneous signs were posted at the polls where Lakota people were voting in a special Congressional election. The signs read, ‘No ID, No vote.’ Many would-be voters went home feeling intimidated by…

  • Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: * U.S. Veto and Election * One State? * On the Ground in Gaza

    PHYLLIS BENNIS A 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 as well as the article “Veto” about the U.S. government’s repeated use of its veto of U.N. Security Council resolutions critical of Israel. She said today: “The U.S.…

  • Elections in Afghanistan and Iraq: Free and Fair?

    J. ALEXANDER THIER Thier was a legal advisor to Afghanistan’s constitutional and judicial reform commissions. He is currently a fellow at the Hoover Institution and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. He said today: “By most measures, Afghanistan seems far from ripe for democracy. As President Hamid Karzai…

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