News Releases

  • Coalition Calls for Schumer to Step Aside as Minority Leader

    The electronic billboard, circulating around the Capitol throughout Tuesday and Wednesday, reads: “Chuck Schumer has failed to provide real leadership against a war-crazed Trump administration” and “Chuck Schumer: Step Aside as Minority Leader.” Groups participating in the campaign include RootsAction, World BEYOND War, Just Foreign Policy, Veterans For Peace, and Peace Action.


  • Israel: Ally? * Iran * USS Liberty

    Common Dreams reports: “The Israeli military bombed Iran on Monday shortly after U.S. President Donald Trump urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to respond to an Iranian missile barrage, which came in retaliation for Israel’s earlier bombing of Beirut.” On Monday afternoon, Rep. Thomas Massie made remarks about the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty 59 years ago today, during the 1967 war, including calling for a “long overdue” investigation; see video. 


  • Rubio Refuses to Address Threat of Israel’s Nuclear Weapons

    The Washington Post recently noted: “‘There is a low boil of unease about Israel’s nuclear program and what could compel them to use nuclear weapons short of facing a WMD attack,’ said an administration official.”


  • SNAP Cutbacks and $1.5 Trillion for War: Food Not Bombs a Solution?

    McHenry said today: “I have spent my entire adult life sharing food with the hungry but this policy of forcing people already struggling to spend hours of their week just to get assistance that is not enough to provide food for the month is one of the cruelest hunger policies I have witnessed. For many relying on food stamps, it is already a full time job looking for employment let alone finding a place to safely sleep.”


  • Pope’s Call for Peace and Resistance and the Pentagon Protests

    They assembled on the right-hand side of the Pentagon entrance to protest, they said, the U.S. and Israeli war against Iran — a war His Holiness Pope Leo XIV declared unjust, immoral, in violation of international law, and against the Gospel. Standing or kneeling, they began to sing and pray for peace. All 27 were arrested without incident and charged with interfering with agency functions.


  • Israel Escalates Attack on Lebanon, Threatens Beirut

    “Trump claimed in two posts on Truth Social after his call with Netanyahu that some sort of ceasefire had been agreed to, though Israeli attacks continue in southern Lebanon and Hezbollah continues to fire at Israeli forces.“


  • Colombia Elections to Proceed to Runoff Between Left-Wing and Far-Right Candidates

    “Colombia held presidential elections yesterday. Among a field of several candidates, far-right criminal defense attorney Abelardo de la Espriella leads with nearly 44 percent of the vote while left-wing Senator Iván Cepeda of the governing Pacto Histórico party came in second with nearly 41 percent. Since no candidate reached the 50 percent threshold needed to avoid a second-round, the two candidates will proceed to a runoff on June 21.“


  • Congress “Moves to Integrate U.S. and Israeli Militaries”

    “Buried in the House’s version of the 2027 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) released [last week], is section 224, entitled ‘United States-Israel Defense Technology Cooperation Initiative.’ The provision would arguably do more to intertwine the U.S. military with the Israeli military than the more than $200 billion (inflation adjusted) in military assistance Israel has received from the U.S. since its founding in 1948.”


  • Beyond AIPAC: Protesting the American Jewish Committee

    While many focus solely on AIPAC as “the pro-Israel lobby,” a group of activists note the power of other groups like the American Jewish Committee. This weekend, these activists are protesting outside the AJC’s annual “Global Forum” in Washington, D.C.


  • Bolivia Government Demonizing Protesters

    “The chaotic Paz administration continues to give mixed messages on dialogue as it politically persecutes protest leaders and moves closer to the Bolivian equivalent of martial law. The right, the government and privileged Bolivians continue to stigmatize social movements as bloodthirsty, vandals linked to drug trafficking, although they are on the streets to guarantee subsistence and to force Paz’s resignation. The far right and rightwing para-state groups that enjoy impunity … push the Paz closer to repression, creating the potential for an acceleration and massification of human rights violations.”


  • Nuclear Posturing: Interviews Available

    In his news conference on Wednesday afternoon, President Bush responded to several questions about nuclear policies. The following analysts are available for interviews: JOHN BURROUGHS Executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy, Burroughs said: “Contrary to what Bush said today, the Nuclear Posture Review [NPR] expands the circumstances in which nuclear weapons could…

  • Israel-Palestine: What Paths to Peace?

    KHADER SHKIRAT A visiting fellow at Harvard Law School and director of the Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights and the Environment based in Jerusalem, Shkirat said today: “This is not ‘a war by two sides’ — two armies poised against each other. Israel is occupying and oppressing Palestinians. The Israeli military forces…

  • * Shadow Government * “Bunker Busters”

    CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON Professor of communication at American University and author of National Security Directives of the Reagan and Bush Administrations, Simpson is available for limited interviews. He said today: “Senate Majority Leader Daschle knew or certainly should have known that there are contingency plans for a shadow government. But he apparently did not know that…

  • Interviews Available on Domestic Policy Issues

    WENONAH HAUTER Hauter is director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project. She said today: “It is outrageous that the Department of Energy had to be taken to court to be forced to release the documents relating to Vice President Cheney’s energy task force. We will look forward to the documents becoming public and seeing…

  • Back from Afghanistan: Interviews Available

    KELLY CAMPBELL DAVID POTORTI Family members of Sept. 11 victims have formed a non-profit organization seeking effective alternatives to war as a response to the terrorist attacks. Peaceful Tomorrows favors the creation of an Afghan victims fund to match the outpouring of support for U.S. victims. Four family members have recently traveled to Afghanistan to…

  • War in Colombia

    A fierce assault by thousands of U.S.-backed Colombian government troops — launched on Friday to retake a large safe-haven region controlled by rebels for three years — has already resulted in confirmed reports of civilian deaths. The Bush administration is now seeking more than $500 million in additional aid to the Bogota regime, which would…

  • Pentagon and Propaganda

    CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON Associate professor of communication at American University and author of the books Blowback and Science of Coercion, Simpson said today: “Donald Rumsfeld strongly implied last night that the Department of Defense is not running covert operations in its military operations. The truth of the matter is that U.S. psywar and covert operations against…

  • * Iraq * China * Korea * Milosevic Trial

    DENIS HALLIDAY Halliday is a former UN Assistant Secretary General and ex-head of the UN oil-for-food program. He said today: “The International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors were in Iraq just two weeks ago. Those types of monitoring programs could be expanded to include chemical and biological weapons capability, but re-starting an Iraq-specific regime like UNMOVIC…

  • “Covering the Uninsured”: Remedy or Placebo?

    In recent days, a coalition of 13 groups has begun a $10 million ad campaign, “Covering the Uninsured.” The coalition released data showing that 2001 witnessed the largest one-year increase in the number of uninsured Americans in nearly a decade. Participants include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFL-CIO, AARP, the Business Roundtable, American Medical Association,…

  • The Olympics: Some Downsides

    HELEN LENSKYJ Lenskyj is author of Inside the Olympic Industry: Power, Politics, and Activism and the forthcoming The Best Olympics Ever? Social Impacts of Sydney 2000.She is professor of sociology at the University of Toronto. Lenskyj said this afternoon: “How much do the Olympics really cost and who ends up paying? The International Olympic Committee…

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