News Releases

  • Wider Perspectives on Senate Trial

    As the Senate trial of President Clinton continues, here are the perspectives of some analysts — available for interviews — outside the crossfire of Republicans and White House allies. TED GLICK The national coordinator of the Independent Progressive Politics Network, Glick said: “We hear a lot about polls and what people think of Clinton and the Republicans, but how many people feel that neither party truly offers a genuine choice worth voting for? This country desperately needs an independent, grassroots movement of the people, those who don’t vote (over half the population) and those who do while holding their noses.…


  • Outside the Partisian Boxes: Other Views of Senate Trial

    By now, the public is very familiar with the partisan arguments over whether the Senate trial of President Clinton should continue. This week, loyal Democrats and Republicans are spinning as fervently as ever. But some other positions don’t fit into the partisan trenches. The Institute for Public Accuracy offers different perspectives on impeachment and the Senate trial. While these views vary, all are outside the standard partisan boxes. The following analysts are available for interviews: CLARENCE LUSANE Professor of political science at American University and author of “Race in the Global Era: African Americans at the Millennium,” Lusane said: “Much…


  • The Day After “State of the Union” Speech, Critics Charge Double Standard for Parents

    Some researchers said Wednesday that President Clinton’s proposal to provide a tax credit for parents who stay home to care for their children is based on a double standard. The specialists contended that Clinton’s new plan is at odds with his welfare reform policy. Among those available for interviews: MIMI ABRAMOVITZ A professor of social policy at the School of Social Work at Hunter College, Abramovitz said that “the $250 tax credit proposed by the president for stay-at-home parents — mostly mothers — usefully recognizes the value of women’s work in the home as does the popular income-tax deduction for…


  • Assessing the “State of the Union”: Social Security, Education, Health Care

    With President Clinton’s State of the Union address focusing attention on such issues as Social Security, education and health care, the following policy analysts are available for interviews: SOCIAL SECURITY MARK WEISBROT Economist and research director at the Preamble Center, Weisbrot said: “Social Security never did need saving; proposals to `reform’ the system are driven by politics and Wall Street’s enormous interest in privatization, and not by any problem with the program’s finances. The reason that this charade has lasted so long is that so many of the major players have an interest in pretending that there is a problem…


  • With National Spotlight on the Senate, Campaign Finance Is a Simmering Issue

    With all eyes now on the Senate, advocates of campaign finance reform are pointing to the vast amounts of money that were required for the 100 senators to win their seats. Among those analysts available for interviews are: GWEN PATTON Archivist of the Montgomery Pioneer Voting Rights Activists at Trenholm State Technical College in Alabama, Patton said: “Getting money out of politics is the unfinished business of the voting rights struggle. The money barrier is a device to keep poor and black people from running. That in my opinion is the main obstacle today. We must have a fair, level…


  • A Renewed Debate: Guns vs. Butter

    The Joint Chiefs of Staff told a congressional panel Tuesday afternoon that the nation needs a substantial boost in military spending. But some policy analysts dispute those assertions. The following researchers are available for interviews: WILLIAM HARTUNG A senior fellow of the World Policy Institute at the New School for Social Research and author of a recent paper entitled “The Military-Industrial Complex Revisited,” Hartung said: “A lot of this is politically motivated. The Joint Chiefs in the fall decided to break with Clinton, since he was in a weakened state. They gave a laundry list of what they wanted, while…


  • Assessing Some Key Trends of 1998

    Two of the most important trends during the past year seem certain to have major impacts in 1999 and beyond — the momentum of “merger mania” and the unraveling of America’s safety net. Experts critical of these developments can be contacted directly by editors, reporters and producers: ** Merger Mania ** ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of Essential Action, a Ralph Nader-founded corporate accountability group, Weissman points out that “1998 has witnessed an unprecedented merger spree.” He adds: “Exxon plans to gobble Mobil for nearly $80 billion. BP is taking over Amoco for $58 billion. In telecommunications, Bell Atlantic and GTE plan…


  • Role of Former High Official in Pinochet Dictatorship Is Now Subject of Pointed Questions in United States

    WASHINGTON — While former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet continues to face the possibility of prosecution in Spain for human-rights abuses, a former high official in his regime is the subject of growing controversy in Washington. An article published Tuesday (Dec. 22) in Investor’s Business Daily condemns Jose Pinera’s role in Chile and raises questions about his current relationship with the Cato Institute, a prominent Washington think tank. “It strains credulity why top officials at that well-heeled organization have continued to embrace” Pinera, says the newspaper article, which was written by the directors of two U.S. organizations, the Council on…


  • Rule of Law and the Bombing of Iraq

    In a little-noticed speech on the House floor last Thursday, Rep. David Skaggs (D-Colo.) said: “President Clinton acted in violation of the Constitution in ordering these attacks without authority of Congress.” Among the legal scholars available for comment are: MICHAEL RATNER Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights in New York City FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law at Champaign RICHARD FALK Professor of International Law at Princeton University JULES LOBEL Professor of Constitutional and International Law at the University of Pittsburgh Relevant legal citations: U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8: “The Congress shall…


  • 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…


  • U.S. Doctors Back From Gaza: Israeli Marksmen Shooting Children in the Head

    They wrote: “On March 25 the two of us, an orthopedic surgeon and a trauma surgeon, traveled to the Gaza Strip to work at Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis. We were immediately overwhelmed by the overflowing sewage and the distinct smell of gunpowder in the air. We made the short journey from the Rafah…

  • Will Israel Go the Way of Apartheid South Africa?

        Alfred de Zayas said today: “On 30 Sept. 1974 the General Assembly adopted resolution 3206. The resolution approved the rejection of the credentials of the South African delegation by the Credentials Committee. Since then South Africa was effectively banned from participating in the work of the General Assembly. Today the General Assembly should…

  • Far-Right Summit in Spain

    A far-right summit took place in Spain, organized by Spain’s right-wing Vox party, with right-wing attendees from across the European Union, in preparation for the EU elections taking place in June. 

  • Israeli Bombing Shows “Complete Disregard for the Lives of Civilians in Gaza”

    Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) just released a statement, reporting that: “On the night of May 26, the trauma stabilization point supports” for the group “in Tal al Sultan, Gaza, recorded 180 wounded patients and 28 dead after Israeli airstrikes hit a camp sheltering displaced people in a designated safe zone. Most of the…

  • ICJ Orders Israel to Halt Military Offensive

    UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber just posted on X: “BREAKING: The #ICJ has just ruled in favor of additional provisional measures in the Genocide case against Israel, ordering Israel to immediately halt its military offensive and other activities in Rafah and to allow aid and genocide investigators in.” He added that the 13-2 decision “was supported…

  • The “Palestine Exception to Free Speech” and its Predecessors

    “During the first half of the 20th century, a political policing apparatus crystalized in the U.S. Local police developed anti-communist ‘red squads,’ the FBI developed a sprawling domestic intelligence program targeting ‘subversives’ and congressional committees investigated ‘un-American activities’ and threats to ‘internal security.’ … To this day, the U.S. has continued to surveil speech in…

  • Health Outcomes in Gaza

    A physician and author is giving talks at universities on the health and human rights consequences of the war in Gaza. Some of the talks have been suppressed by university sponsors.

  • Connections Between Ireland and Palestine

    “Arthur James Balfour, then Britain’s foreign secretary and the declaration’s signatory, had previously served as chief secretary of Ireland. He was best known for ordering police to open fire on an 1887 land reform protest in Mitchelstown, Co Cork. Resulting in three deaths, the incident earned him the sobriquet Bloody Balfour.”

  • Netanyahu Warrant Boosts Dissonance Among American Jews

    “Jews are going to have to make a painful reappraisal of the project that imposes a ‘Jewish’ state in Palestine,” the piece says. It adds: “The essential fight against antisemitism cannot mean ongoing degradation and suppression of another people. After 75-plus years of violently taking, while piously talking of a desire for peace, the disconnect…

  • The Israel-Affiliated Organization Leading the Backlash Against Student Protests

    “Among those addressing a crowd of Israeli-flag-waving counterprotesters, with the encampment holding the pro-Palestinian demonstrators directly behind them, was Israel’s Consul General to the Pacific Southwest, Israel Bachar. Also speaking was Jonathan Greenblatt, the CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. Then came Carr, who announced that the fight had begun. ‘We will take back our streets.…

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