News Releases

  • Bombing of Yugoslavia: One Year Later

    JAN HARTSOUGH Shortly after the bombing of Yugoslavia started a year ago today, Hartsough traveled to the Balkans with a social-change organization called Crabgrass. She also attended the Women in Black international conference in October 1999 in Montenegro. She said today: “A police force that can establish law and justice in Kosovo still has not been established. I’m concerned about the prospects of another outbreak of war in the Balkans, this time in Montenegro.” More Information JEREMY SCAHILL Pacifica Radio’s “Democracy Now” program. He reported from Yugoslavia during the bombing last spring. Today he said: “One year after the initiation…


  • While Senate Holds DOE Hearing Today, Nuclear Victims Blast Narrow Scope

    WASHINGTON — While the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee holds a hearing today to focus on health and safety issues at two Department of Energy atomic plants, representatives of workers and others subjected to radiation exposure say that the Senate panel is dodging a wide array of serious problems at DOE nuclear facilities across the country. Reporters and producers are invited to directly contact the following people for interviews: TRISHA PRITIKIN The daughter of nuclear workers at the Hanford facility near Richland, Wash., Pritikin has serious thyroid ills. Both her parents died of cancer. “My brother died shortly after birth, in…


  • Foreign Policy Issues: India, Taiwan and Russia

    NEIL TANGRI Field director for the Multinationals Resource Center, Tangri has worked in India on development issues. He said today: “The past 10 years have seen dramatic changes in the Indian economy. Frustrated by corruption and a sense of losing the economic race to China and the ‘tiger’ economies, Indian politicians on both the right and left have thrown their support behind economic reform policies of privatization, deregulation, and increased international commerce. These policies have buoyed the fortunes of the wealthy to an unprecedented degree, but also increased poverty. Clinton’s trip to India will attempt to ensure a firm U.S.…


  • “New Economy” or Stock Bubble?

    As the stock market continues to rise, many analysts are proclaiming a “New Economy.” They argue that computer technologies have created a market not bound by the physical constraints of the old industrial economy. But are we becoming increasingly unprepared for a downturn? Among the critics of the New Economy available for interviews are: ELLEN FRANK Professor of economics at Emmanuel College in Boston, Frank said today: “Market economies have long periods of growth and then recessions. Since World War II, we’ve had an infrastructure in place to deal with a recession: full employment budgeting, a welfare system, food stamps…


  • Congressional Commission Slams IMF; Analysts Available for Interviews

    The new report from the International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission, created by Congress in 1998, is adding to calls for drastic reform of the International Monetary Fund. The “Meltzer Commission” report urges full cancellation of the debts owed by poor countries to the IMF and the World Bank as well as significant reduction of the role of these institutions. Congressional hearings on these issues begin this week. The following analysts are available for interviews: MARIE CLARKE Co-director of the Quixote Center, Clarke said: “A Congressional Commission with members across the political spectrum came together with the common message of 100…


  • Beyond “Super Tuesday”

    LEONARD WILLIAMS Professor of political science at Manchester College and co-author of the recent Campaigns and Elections article “‘Moderates Win’ and Other Political Myths,” Williams said today: “In part the election fits the standard scenario of the more established candidates winning after a bit of trouble. But up to this point in the campaign there’s been more of a progressive ideological center of gravity than in years. There’s an emphasis on promoting education, protecting Social Security, having a Patients Bill of Rights and campaign finance reform. If you’d said all these things 10 years ago, you’d be laughed off the…


  • Pinochet’s Release

    JOYCE HORMAN Joyce Horman is the widow of Charles Horman. Along with another U.S. citizen, Frank Teruggi, he was detained and murdered in September 1973 in the days following Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s bloody military coup backed by the U.S. government. She has worked to uncover the facts about his murder for more than 26 years. Today she said: “With this decision to allow Pinochet to go to Chile rather than face justice in Spain, it becomes even more important to press the U.S. intelligence agencies to release the remaining documents they have on the cases of Charles Horman and Frank…


  • Religion and Politics

    REV. JIM WALLIS Editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, Rev. Wallis said: “Al Gore and George W. Bush have talked about how much Jesus influenced them. The question has been whether that’s an appropriate thing for a candidate to talk about. It is very appropriate for a candidate to speak of their personal faith — if they say what it means in relation to public policy issues. So what would Jesus say about poverty in the midst of prosperity? What would Jesus say about 44 million Americans without health insurance?…. Talking about whether Bush’s speech at Bob Jones University will affect how…


  • Bradley and McCain: Insurgents?

    MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD Editor of The Progressive, Rothschild said: “Bradley doesn’t represent a real alternative to Gore or McCain or Bush. He supports the death penalty. He favors tougher sanctions on Iraq. Along with Gore, he has been a leading proponent of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization; and he, like Gore, has carried water for the pharmaceutical companies. Bradley’s health plan is a far cry from universal care, and he leaves the insurance companies firmly in command. He voted for aiding the contras in 1986. Bradley — like Gore, McCain and Bush — is for bloated Pentagon spending and has…


  • Scientist’s Resignation Raises Questions About Nuclear Policy

    A month ago, Andreas Toupadakis held a classified position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. But he resigned his post, voicing criticisms of U.S. nuclear policy. Interviews are available with Dr. Toupadakis and other nuclear policy analysts: ANDREAS TOUPADAKIS Prior to joining the staff at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s “Stockpile Stewardship” program on nuclear weapons, Toupadakis worked at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Shortly after resigning, he issued an open letter which reads in part: “I have seen how easy it is for nuclear contamination to occur, and how hard it is to clean it up…. Do nations possess nuclear, chemical…


  • * Perspective on Bush in Europe * Meeting with the Pope * Venezuela Vote * Global Poll Finds Negative Views of U.S.

    ANDRE GUNDER FRANK Author of numerous books including The European Challenge and co-editor of The World System, Frank is available for a limited number of interviews. He said today: “A subject rarely spoken about but that underlies many issues is the rivalry between the dollar and the euro. OPEC is moving toward using the euro…

  • Beyond the Special Effects of “The Day After Tomorrow” — Climate Change, Environmental Disasters and Gas Prices

    JULIA VERVILLE, PETER FRUMHOFF, [via Linda Gunter] Verville is a staff scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists specializing in climate impacts. She said today: “Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are higher today than they have been for 400,000 years. The Earth is already warming and will continue to warm in the coming…

  • U.S. “Bluewashing” Its Occupation of Iraq?

    PHYLLIS BENNIS President Bush claimed today that “Brahimi made the decisions” regarding the makeup of the new Iraqi governing body, which he described as a step toward “freedom and democracy.” A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of the book Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today’s UN, Bennis said today: “White…

  • Repeat of “Felon” Purging That Tilted Florida Election?

    GREG PALAST Palast is author of the New York Times best-selling book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, an expanded election edition of which has just been released. He said today: “Florida has announced a surprise new purge of its voter rolls targeting 40,000 of its own citizens. Following the 2000 race, my investigative team…

  • Gaza Crisis * Iraq Oil Revenue

    MAHER NASSER Nasser, a representative of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, is based in New York. He said today: “The bombings are only the most visible sign of distress in Gaza. There is a humanitarian catastrophe occurring in the Israeli-occupied territories, largely because of Israeli blockades. Now, in Gaza, about…

  • Soldier Facing Court-Martial Blew Whistle on Torture

    On Wednesday, the court-martial of Staff Sgt. Camilo Mejia begins at Ft. Stewart in Georgia. After returning for a period from Iraq, Mejia was AWOL for several months, and then filed for conscientious objector status. He has publicly spoken out on the war, saying: “I could not continue to do the things I was doing…

  • Halliburton Under Renewed Fire

    PRATAP CHATTERJEE Chatterjee is program director for CorpWatch and recently returned from his second investigative trip to Iraq. He is one of the authors of the report “Houston, We Have a Problem,” an “alternative annual report” on Halliburton which will be released on May 18, the day before Halliburton’s shareholder meeting. Chatterjee said today: “Our…

  • * Iraq Occupation Bill to the Taxpayer * Sanctions on Syria * World Economic Forum in Jordan * Aristide and South Africa * Indian Election

    DOUG HENWOOD Author of the book After the New Economy, Henwood said today: “I feel a little callous about talking about the economic impact of the war in Iraq, which seems like an afterthought next to the human toll. But at a time when civilian budgets are being cut at every level, when clinics are…

  • Rumsfeld in Iraq * Prisons in the USA

    SUAAD AL-MAHDAWY Suaad Al-Mahdawy works with the Iraqi Human Rights Society. Reached in Iraq, she said today: “This is not liberation, we cannot do what we please in our own country. But Rumsfeld can come whenever he wants and pretend to care while occupying us.” RANIA MASRI Masri is a fellow at the Institute for…

  • * Torture * Context * Rumsfeld

    CLIFF KINDY Kindy is quoted in “Chain of Command,” the latest article by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker. Kindy has spent two five-month stints over the last year and a half in Iraq with the Christian Peacemaker Team, which released a document entitled “Report and Recommendations on Iraqi Detainees” in January, available at the…

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