BERN JOHNSON Today is Earth Day. Johnson is the executive director of the U.S. office of the Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide, which works with activist attorneys in 60 countries to protect the environment through law. He said today: “Not only has the current administration abandoned environmental protection at home, but it is pressuring other countries to weaken environmental protections….” More Information KIMBERLY LARSON Deputy political director of State Public Interest Research Groups, Larson said today: “Los Angeles has the largest municipal utility in the country and only 3 percent comes from renewable energy; over 50 percent comes from coal.” She…

JACK COHEN-JOPPA FELICE COHEN-JOPPA They are coordinators of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu. Jack Cohen-Joppa said today: “Mordechai Vanunu, a former nuclear technician who revealed Israel’s nuclear capacity to the London Sunday Times in 1986, is scheduled to be released from prison Wednesday. Vanunu has been jailed by Israel for 18 years, most of it in solitary confinement. In 1986, after supplying the Sunday Times with pictures and details of Israel’s nuclear capacity, Vanunu was drugged and smuggled to Israel. Israel has not signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Both the U.S. and Israeli governments have refused to comment…

MATT ROTHSCHILD Rothschild is editor of The Progressive magazine and author of a piece about last night’s Bush news conference — titled “A Scary Performance, and a Signal for Slaughter” — in which he writes that the president’s performance was scary because of such statements as: “Our commanders on the ground have got the authority necessary to deal with violence, and will — and will in firm fashion.” Rothschild comments: “Here is the president saying that U.S. troops, who have already killed more than 600 Iraqis in the last week, will have a free hand. That is a signal for…

NAT HENTOFF A writer for the Village Voice with a focus on civil liberties and author of the book The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering Resistance, Hentoff said today: “A primary problem of interagency cooperation, then as now, is the imperious culture of the FBI. As police chiefs around the country still say, the FBI is a reluctant sharer of information.” More Information KATE MARTIN Martin is director of the Center for National Security Studies. She said today: “The issue that needs to be more fully addressed is who and what the FBI was investigating before…

RAHUL MAHAJAN Currently in Baghdad, Mahajan was just in Fallujah. He is regularly posting to a blog at the above web page. Mahajan is author of the book Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond. Mahajan said today: “During the course of roughly four hours at a small clinic in Fallujah, I saw perhaps a dozen wounded brought in. Among them was a young woman, 18 years old, shot in the head. She was having a seizure and foaming at the mouth when they brought her in; doctors did not expect her to survive the night. Another likely…

MOHAMAD BAZZI Currently in Baghdad, Bazzi is Middle East bureau chief for Newsday and is available for a limited number of interviews. He recently won the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. The award specifically cited stories Bazzi wrote in July 2003 “that helped explain the driving forces behind the Iraqi insurgency…. At a time when U.S. officials were denying that they faced an organized guerilla campaign, Bazzi revealed details about the militia’s inner workings that contradicted the White House’s official line…. Bazzi’s report on their personal stories suggested that the U.S. could face a jihadist movement in Iraq…

WRIGHT SALISBURY Salisbury’s son-in-law Ted Hennessy Jr. was killed on 9/11 when his flight, AA 11, was crashed into the World Trade Center. After today’s tesimony by Condoleezza Rice, he said this afternoon: “Ms. Rice offered a lot of detail which was not particularly relevant to the questions asked. The main question — why did the president and his cabinet not hold a meeting on the Al Qaeda threat until a few days before 9/11 — was not answered, except to assert that Al Qaeda did not seem to be a clear and present threat. The fact that Richard Clarke…

JOHN DEAN Dean, former counsel to President Nixon, is author of the just-released book Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush More Information BOB MCILVAINE McIlvaine lost his son Bobby in the World Trade Center. He is currently in New York City and will be in D.C., where he will attend the hearings. McIlvaine said today: “The tip of the iceberg is now finally being acknowledged with Clarke’s testimony: The administration did not do all it could to prevent 9-11. Clarke gets noticed because he was an insider, but the pattern of the administration’s lack of straightforwardness…

DAVID ENDERS Currently in D.C., Enders edited Baghdad Bulletin and has spent much of the last year in Iraq. He will be returning there in mid-April. He said today: “In Fallujah, as a mission to avenge the deaths of four ‘contractors’ killed there last week is underway, it is important to note: The four men killed, who have often been referred to as ‘civilian contractors’ in the press, worked for a private security company from North Carolina. Private soldiers in Iraq are combatants — they kill and detain Iraqis…. There are more private soldiers (over 10,000) in Iraq at the…

JARED BERNSTEIN, [via Karen Conner] Jared Bernstein is a senior economist with the Economic Policy Institute and co-author of the report “Missing the moving target: Meager job growth and the poor track record of the administration’s job forecasts.” He said today: “The jobs paradox continues with the March 2004 jobs report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting a whopping 308,000 new jobs, at the same time as the unemployment rose from 5.6 to 5.7 percent. Today’s unemployment numbers show that for the first time since the ‘jobs and growth’ tax cut went into effect in June 2003 the administration…