News Releases

  • * Americans Just Out of Baghdad * Iraqi Dead * War Profits * U.S. Safety * Taxpayers

    MICHAEL BIRMINGHAM, STEWART VRIESINGA JEFF GUNTZEL, STEPHANIE SCHAUDEL While information has become more difficult to get from Baghdad, 15 members of the Iraq Peace Team have left the Iraqi capital and just arrived in Amman, Jordan. They are available for interviews. About half the Iraq Peace Team, composed of Americans and other Westerners, remains in Baghdad. Other members of the group have returned to the U.S. recently and are reachable through the Chicago office. MARC HEROLD Author of the recent article “When ‘Precision’ Bombing Isn’t,” Herold is a professor at the University of New Hampshire and a consultant to the…


  • * Supporting Troops * Rumsfeld: Lightning Rod * City Teach-in * U.S. Credibility * ‘Unavoidable’ Deaths

    NANCY LESSIN and CHARLEY RICHARDSON Lessin and Richardson are founding members of Military Families Speak Out. They have a son who has been deployed in the Gulf and just learned that he will be going into Iraq. They are in touch with over 300 other families of people from every branch of the military currently deployed in the Gulf and can help arrange interviews. Lessin said today: “The most supportive thing that anyone can do for our troops right now is to halt this invasion and protect their lives as well as the people in Iraq. We need to end…


  • U.N. — Accessory After the Fact?

    DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program, Halliday said today: “The people of Iraq are being crushed brutally everyday as we watch our TV. The U.N. and international law are being set aside by the U.N. Security Council member states. The Secretary General provides a weak voice reminding us all of Charter provisions, but too late and too little….” PHYLLIS BENNIS 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. She said today: “International law, specifically the Geneva Conventions, requires the belligerent occupying…


  • Humanitarian Impact: Image and Reality

    Dr. APRIL HURLEY, MARTIN EDWARDS, Ret. U.S. Army Captain CHARLES LITEKY, KATHY KELLY, DANNY MULLER, Hurley and Edwards (al-Dar Hotel), Liteky and Kelly (al-Fanar Hotel) are in Baghdad with 20 other members of the Iraq Peace Team. Phone lines are intermittent. Team members are assessing damage, visiting hospitals and placing articles and photos on the web. Several additional team members have recently crossed into Iraq from Jordan. Muller, in Chicago, is in regular touch with team members. More Information JOY GORDON Gordon, a Fairfield University professor, wrote “Cool War: Economic Sanctions as Weapons of Mass Destruction,” which appeared in Harper’s…


  • Propaganda and War: Interviews Available

    JOEL CAMPAGNA Yesterday evening, the U.S. military intentionally bombed Iraq TV. Program coordinator on the Middle East and North Africa for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Campagna said: “Broadcast media is a civilian object under the Geneva Conventions and cannot be targeted unless it is used for military purposes (e.g. military communication).” CPJ also objected to the New York Stock Exchange pulling Al-Jazeera’s press credentials yesterday. More Information LAMIS ANDONI An independent journalist and analyst who has covered the Middle East for over two decades, including the Iran-Iraq war in the south of Iraq, Andoni is monitoring the Arab-language media.…


  • * Geneva Conventions * Water Supply * Following Orders * ‘Fragging’

    MARJORIE COHN A professor of law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Cohn said today: “While the U.S. government has objected to Iraq broadcasting photos of U.S. POWs, the U.S. government has allowed the very same thing…. Photos of Taliban prisoners of war and John Walker Lindh were continually broadcast on U.S. media outlets. The Pentagon is refusing to abide by the Geneva Convention with regards to the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay.” DENIS HALLIDAY, Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and former U.N. Assistant Secretary General, Halliday today criticized plans for the…


  • Crossing the Border

    DANIEL ELLSBERG Ellsberg, currently in Washington, D.C., authored the recent book Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. More Information DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program and former U.N. Assistant Secretary General of the U.N. BRIAN WILLSON Was in Vietnam as an Air Force officer, now active in Veterans for Peace. More Information ZAINEB ISTRABADI Associate director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program at Indiana University at Bloomington, an Iraqi-American. NORMAN SOLOMON Coauthor of the new book Target Iraq and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of international…


  • Bombing Baghdad

    The following analysts can comment on the bombing of Baghdad and will be available for interviews in the coming days and weeks as events develop. CHARLIE CLEMENTS, M.D, Clements is a Vietnam war veteran and recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights. He has just returned from a 10-day emergency mission to Iraq with other public health experts to assess the vulnerability of the civilian population. More Information More Information Ret. U.S. Army Captain CHARLES LITEKY, KATHY KELLY, MICHAEL BIRMINGHAM, Members of the Iraq Peace Team — Liteky, Kelly and Birmingham — are…


  • Americans Intervening for Peace in the Middle East

    DANNY MULLER Muller is a coordinator with the Iraq Peace Team. He was in Iraq recently, and more than 20 members of the group are still there. Muller is in contact with them and information is regularly posted on the above web page. While phone lines are intermittent, after several attempts many callers are able to get through. Among the team members in Iraq: Ret. U.S. Army Captain Charles Liteky; Kathy Kelly; Michael Birmingham. HUWAIDA ARRAF Arraf is a member of the International Solidarity Movement. Another member of the group, Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed on March 16 when she…


  • White House Claims: A Pattern of Deceit

    President George Bush, March 17: “Under Resolutions 678 and 687 — both still in effect — the U.S. and our allies are authorized to use force in ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction…. Last September, I went to the U.N. General Assembly and urged the nations of the world to unite and bring an end to this danger. On November 8th, the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441, finding Iraq in material breach of its obligations, and vowing serious consequences if Iraq did not fully and immediately disarm.” John Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., urging support for Resolution…


  • Interviews Available: India and Pakistan

    PERVEZ HOODBHOY Professor of physics at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan, Hoodbhoy said today: “Nuclear affairs are now being guided by wishful, delusional thinking. The most frightening delusion is India’s trivialization of Pakistan’s nuclear capability…. Lacking any desire for political settlement … jihadists in Kashmir [are attempting to] provoke full-scale war between India and Pakistan,…

  • FBI Powers: Legal Analysts Sound Warning

    Some legal experts are criticizing the decision announced Thursday by Attorney General John Ashcroft to modify existing guidelines that govern FBI intelligence, foreign counter-intelligence investigations and domestic security terrorism investigations. Among those available for interviews: MICHAEL RATNER President of the Center for Constitutional Rights, Ratner said today: “The current Guidelines were established in the ’70s…

  • Bush-Pope Meeting: Interviews Available

    COLMAN McCARTHY A former Washington Post columnist, McCarthy is founder and director of the Center for Teaching Peace in Washington, D.C. and the author of I’d Rather Teach Peace. He said today: “I don’t imagine that the meeting will lead to anything meaningful, because both Bush and the Pope believe in the ‘just war’ theory.…

  • Bioterrorism: Interviews Available

    VICTOR SIDEL Past president of the American Public Health Association, author of the recent article “Bioterrorism Preparedness: Cooptation of Public Health?” and co-editor of War and Public Health and the forthcoming Terrorism and Public Health, Sidel said today: “The bill adopted Thursday by the Senate is likely to divert funds from essential public health services.…

  • “Liquidating the Legacy of the Cold War”?

    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: “I’m very disturbed by the Indian prime minister’s speech and his talk…

  • As O’Neill and Bono Tour Africa: Interviews Available

    U.S. Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill and rock star Bono have started a 10-day tour of Africa. The following policy analysts are available for interviews: SALIH BOOKER Executive director of Africa Action, Booker said today: “African governments are being held liable for the cost of failed and often grandiose development projects pushed by creditors. Now Africa’s…

  • Pre-9/11 Warnings: Interviews Available

    MARTIN LEE Author of The Beast Reawakens, a book that explores relations between U.S. intelligence and right-wing extremist groups, Lee said today: “There is abundant evidence that Bush administration officials engaged in a post-9/11 cover-up to avoid acknowledging what we now know to be true — that the FBI, CIA, and several foreign intelligence sources…

  • Clinton in East Timor: Interviews Available

    Former president Bill Clinton, at the request of the Bush administration, is leading the U.S. delegation to East Timor’s independence celebrations this weekend. The following are in the U.S. and East Timor: JOHN M. MILLER Media and outreach coordinator for the East Timor Action Network, Miller said today: When President Clinton cut military ties between…

  • Enron and Andersen: Interviews Available

    GREG PALAST Palast is co-author of the forthcoming book Democracy and Regulation. He said today: “The U.S. Senate is recoiling in phony shock and horror at the games Enron played to manipulate the California power market. The rip-offs, which Enron traders called ‘Get Shorty,’ ‘Deathstar,’ ‘Fat Boy,’ are simply variants on games Enron has been…

  • Spotlight on Cuba

    ANYA LANDAU, WAYNE SMITH Landau is a research associate with the Center for International Policy (based in Washington, D.C.). Smith is a senior analyst with the group. They are authors of the recent report “CIP Challenges Bolton on Cuba Bio-Terror Charges.” Landau is going to Cuba on Wednesday. More Information MARLENE ARZOLA Outreach coordinator for…

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