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…


  • U.S. Demanding an “Occupation Arrangement”?

    JAMES PAUL Executive director of Global Policy Forum and author of several recent papers on Iraq, Paul said today: “The U.S./U.K. draft of a proposed U.N. Security Council resolution, leaked to The New York Times [published in the Oct. 2 edition], says that ‘Iraq shall provide … immediate, unconditional and unrestricted access to any and…

  • Missions to Baghdad: Value in Dialogue?

    JAMES ABOUREZK Members of Congress have been attacked for speaking out against U.S. policy while in Iraq. Former Sen. James Abourezk, who visited Iraq in mid-September, said today: “We’ve arrived at a very scary state in this country where people opposed to the administration are accused of not being patriotic. The real act of patriotism…

  • Interviews Available: New Congressional Visit to Iraq

    BERT SACKS Currently in Baghdad, Sacks is accompanying Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., who has begun a visit to Iraq along with two other members of Congress. Sacks is an activist with the Interfaith Network of Concern for the People of Iraq, based in Seattle. Also in Baghdad at: [email protected] More Information RAMZI KYSIA and DANNY…

  • Interviews Available as D.C. Protests Get Underway: World Bank and IMF: Problem or Solution?

    CAROLA KINASHA Kinasha is with the Tanzania Gender Networking Program. She said today: “The World Bank continues to support ‘user fees’ on primary health care in Tanzania, despite the opposition of women’s groups to this policy, and despite the fact that this policy blocks access to health care for the poor.” More Information SHELLY RAO…

  • Interviews Available: The U.S. Economy and War

    DEAN BAKER Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker said today: “The economy is facing the largest economic crisis since the great depression. The collapse of the stock market bubble destroyed more than $5 trillion of paper wealth, and the impending collapse of the housing bubble will destroy almost as much wealth….”…

  • Interviews on Iraq: Another UN Resolution?

    SCOTT RITTER Ritter, who was a chief UN weapons inspector in Iraq, is available for a very limited number of interviews. He said today: “It is clear that the U.S. government doesn’t want a peaceful resolution to this. It is bent on war. The move for a new Security Council resolution is a deliberate provocation…

  • Delegation to Iraq: Interviews Available

    On Thursday two more members of a delegation organized by the Institute for Public Accuracy returned to the United States from Iraq. The delegation included Rep. Nick Rahall, D-WV, who returned on Tuesday. Other delegation members now available for interviews are: JAMES ABOUREZK A former senator and author of Advise & Dissent: Memoirs of South…

  • Interviews Available on Iraq: Truth and Consequences

    JOHN C. BERG Professor and director of graduate studies of the government department at Suffolk University, Berg said today: “The current plans by Congressional leaders to give the president a blank check in advance would be an abdication of their constitutional responsibility. The whole history of Congressional attempts to authorize military action with conditions is…

  • “We Have Seen This Game Before”

    DENIS HALLIDAY Halliday is former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. Currently in his native Ireland, he said today: “Now the challenge is for the member states of the Security Council to do the right thing. By this I mean keep American military aggression at bay until the…

  • Members of U.S. Delegation to Baghdad Available for Interviews

    Interviews are available with members of a U.S. delegation to Iraq sponsored by the Institute for Public Accuracy. Members of the delegation met with Tariq Aziz and other Iraqi officials over the weekend. In Damascus: Rep. NICK RAHALL and former Sen. JAMES ABOUREZK, en route back to the U.S. from their visit to Baghdad. In…

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