ASIA RUSSELL Russell is a member of the Health GAP Coalition. She said today: “With the Cipro deal, Secretary Thompson did not want to set a precedent that could be used against the U.S. administration at the upcoming WTO meeting, where the issue of affordable AIDS drugs and patent rights in poor countries will be a major controversy. If U.S. officials had agreed to license production of generic ciprofloxacin, all their arguments against patent flexibility in poor countries seeking generic AIDS drugs would have fallen to pieces — and Robert Zoellick, the U.S. Trade Representative, wouldn’t tolerate that, no matter…

SUSAN WRIGHT Co-author of Preventing a Biological Arms Race and of the forthcoming book The Biological Warfare Problem: A Reappraisal for the 21st Century, Wright said today:”As the U.S. faces the threat of biological warfare at home, calls for strengthening defenses against biological warfare are certainly justified. But there is a deep contradiction in the U.S. position. Abroad, the government — under both the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations — has pursued a unilateralist policy that has weakened the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which bans biological and toxin weapons. This was done both directly — by supporting BW-related activities…

With Israeli tanks back in Palestinian population centers and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres in Washington, the following analysts are available for interviews: MITRI RAHEB Raheb is pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church in Bethlehem and author of I Am a Palestinian Christian. More Information SIMONA SHARONI Sharoni is professor of peace and conflict studies and Middle East politics at Evergreen State College and executive director of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development. On an August 3 news release from IPA, she said: “The targeted assassinations campaign against Palestinian leaders is likely to provoke a violent response.…

JEFFREY WINTERS Associate professor of political economy at Northwestern University, author of Power in Motion: Capital Mobility and the Indonesian State and co-author of the forthcoming Reinventing the World Bank, Winters said today: “Hardly anything has been accomplished at past Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit meetings and very little economics will be discussed at this one. It is mainly an opportunity for Bush to pressure Asian leaders on the U.S. military campaign as well as for some of them to strengthen their opposition to it, which is greater than has been reported. Bush may attempt to buy support, including ironically…

ROGER NORMAND Executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, Normand said today: “Millions in Afghanistan need immediate food aid in order to survive the harsh winter that begins in one month. Today is World Food Day; we call on all parties to allow humanitarian operations to resume.” More Information JIM JENNINGS President of Conscience International, a humanitarian aid organization, Jennings was in Afghani refugee camps in Pakistan this May. DOMINIC NUTT Spokesperson for Christian Aid in Islamabad, Nutt said today: “Air-dropping ration packs is about as useful as dropping leaflets telling Afghan people not to worry. Indeed,…

As Colin Powell visits Pakistan and India, the following analysts are available for interviews: ZIA MIAN Mian is co-editor of the book Out of the Nuclear Shadow and a researcher on South Asian security issues with the Program on Science and Global Security at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He said today: “The first and most immediate task is ensuring Pakistan’s stability: The longer the U.S. bombs Afghanistan, the more civilians get killed and the greater the refugee crisis, the more unstable the situation becomes. The second task is to cool tensions between India and…

SAM BARRATT Barratt is the spokesperson for Oxfam International in Islamabad. He said today: “So much more needs to be done to prevent mass starvation in Afghanistan this winter. Prior to the crisis, the World Food Program, with the help of Oxfam and other groups, was feeding 3.7 million people. That has stopped. The airdrops will — at the very best — feed 130,000 people.” More Information NASEER ARURI Chancellor professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Aruri is author of the book The Obstruction Of Peace: The U.S., Israel and the Palestinians and the essay…

MARK CRISPIN MILLER Professor of media studies at New York University, Miller is author of Boxed In: The Culture of TV and author of the forthcoming Spectacle: Operation Desert Storm and the Triumph of Illusion. He said today: “It’s all too easy to use the need for operational security as an excuse to abridge our democratic freedoms.” JANINE JACKSON STEVE RENDALL Jackson is program director of the media watch group FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting). She said today: “White House officials have shown that they’re going to restrict and even manipulate information in this bombing campaign, but it’s not…

CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON Professor of Communications at American University and author of the books Blowback, Science of Coercion and National Security Directives of the Reagan and Bush Administrations, Simpson said today: “The administration’s scapegoating of the U.S. Congress for supposedly leaking information is a good example of how extreme the administration’ secrecy policies are. The allegedly leaked information — a warning that terrorist retaliation could be expected following the current bombing of Afghanistan — was not really secret in any case. The Bush administration is setting about to dismantle 25 years of constitutional law that provides that the peoples’ records are…

JIM JENNINGS President of Conscience International, a humanitarian aid organization, Jennings was in Afghani refugee camps in Pakistan this May. He has been involved in humanitarian work for the past 20 years around the world. Jennings said today: “The conditions of the Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan earlier this year were the worst I have ever seen — and I have seen a lot. The camps inside Afghanistan are in even worse shape; for example in Herat there are 600,000 people on the verge of starvation. Food drops from high altitudes alone absolutely cannot provide sufficient and effective relief that…