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News Releases

  • Major Military Issues: Bombing Vieques, National Missile Defense, Terrorism Report

    ROBERTO RABIN Director of Vieques Historic Archives and a spokesperson for the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques, Rabin said today: “The people of Vieques, with the wide support of the Puerto Rican community, have mounted an intense campaign to end 60 years of U.S. Navy presence, exercises and destruction of the island of Vieques. Since the death of a civilian security guard on April 19, 1999, there have been protests…. The recent resumption of bombing on April 27 sparked widespread civil disobedience with over 150 people arrested for entering into the bombing zone as human shields to…

  • Interviews Available: What Kind of Globalization?

    The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are holding their spring meetings in Washington. The following critics of those institutions are available for interviews: NJOKI NJOROGE NJEHU Director of the 50 Years Is Enough Network, a coalition of over 200 U.S. grassroots groups dedicated to transforming the World Bank and the IMF, Njehu testified before the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. Today, she said: “Sub-Saharan Africa continues to pay back more to the World Bank and the IMF than it gets from those institutions. They should immediately cancel 100 percent of the debt of impoverished countries, as a bipartisan congressional commission…

  • On Bob Kerrey and Vietnam

    Former Sen. Bob Kerrey’s public statements during the last day — prompted by revelations about to be reported by the New York Times and “60 Minutes II” about a raid he led that killed unarmed civilians during the Vietnam War — have raised important issues. This afternoon, the following statement comes from Brian Willson, a former U.S. Air Force captain who served in Vietnam. BRIAN WILLSON After participating in the Vietnam War as a member of the U.S. Air Force, Willson became a peace activist. In 1987, in a civil disobedience action with other activists at a military base, Willson…

  • Peru Plane Downing: Broader Issues

    A front-page article in today’s Washington Post reports that the CIA was late in warning the Peruvian military not to fire on the civilian airplane carrying missionaries. The following analysts are available for interviews on broader U.S. policy questions: CECILIA ZARATE-LAUN Co-founder and director of the Colombia Support Network, Zarate-Laun said today: “The downing of the airplane in Peru makes more public the level of U.S. military presence in the Amazon area, which is rich in natural resources. The U.S. government is selling its ‘war on drugs’ to the American people as its solution to voracious drug consumption. But when…

  • FTAA: Liberty or Oppression?

    As he left the U.S. for the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit in Quebec today, President Bush said that the goal was to create a “hemisphere of liberty” and fight against “poverty, disease and ignorance.” Interviews are available with the following analysts who have a different assessment of the FTAA: CAROL PHILLIPS Director of the international department of the Canadian Auto Workers, Phillips said today: “In Quebec City today, the streets are shut down, there is a strong military presence in the city. They have put up a three-mile wall. The idea that what they are doing is…

  • Converging on Quebec: ‘Free Trade’ Issues

    Government ministers and heads of state from throughout the hemisphere are gathering in Quebec for the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit. For activist perspectives, see: www.indymedia.org. For in-depth analysis, see: www.zmag.org/a20quebec.htm. The following critics of the proposed FTAA pact are available for interviews: MARIA LUISA MENDONCA Director of the Global Justice Center in Brazil, Mendonca is currently in Quebec. She said today: “FTAA provides for the free circulation of capital and goods for the benefit of big multinational corporations, not civil society. Such an agreement prevents countries like Brazil from developing embryonic industries — it would force us…

  • A Week That Will Shake the Hemisphere?

    This Friday (April 20), leaders from 34 countries will gather in Quebec to chart the course of the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Protests by a range of human rights, environmental, labor and pro-democracy activists are planned. The following analysts are available for interviews: More Information LORI WALLACH Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, Wallach said today: “The FTAA negotiators are working behind closed doors to foist the failed NAFTA model onto the entire hemisphere — including the extreme new investor protections and rights that sank the Multilateral Agreement on Investment in 1999. Recently, in Buenos Aires, 20,000…

  • Police Brutality: Cincinnati Aftermath

    With Cincinnati in crisis amid protests against police shootings, the following analysts are available for interviews: DE LACY DAVIS The founder and president of Black Cops Against Police Brutality and a 15-year veteran of the East Orange, N.J., police department, Davis is a sergeant in the community services unit. He said today: “Often the victims of police brutality are minority males, usually black or Latino or poor whites. I’m a police officer, but the police cannot police the police. Until there’s a crisis, these issues are ignored, then we begin to see a system respond to their pain — and…

  • U.S. Crew Release: Analysts Available

    JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of law at Ohio State University specializing in international law, Quigley said today: “From what we know, China basically complied with international law.” L. LING-CHI WANG Director of Asian American Studies at the University of California at Berkeley and editor of the two-volume anthology The Chinese Diaspora, Wang said: “China could have announced its decision to confiscate the spy plane and place the crew in solitary confinement, like we did with Wen Ho Lee…. It did not. On the other hand, the White House, without knowing what had happened, started with arrogance and belligerence, demanding the immediate…

  • Budget: Analysts Available

    FRANCES FOX PIVEN Distinguished professor of political science and sociology at the graduate school at the City University of New York and coauthor of The Breaking of the American Social Compact, Piven said today: “Presumably ‘conservatives’ in power in Washington today are against a government role in redistributing wealth. But in fact, redistribution is exactly what they are about, not from the rich to the middle class and the poor, but from all of us to the very wealthy. This is clear in their tax package which shifts the burden of taxation to ordinary people. And it will also be…

  • Rubio Claims U.S. Only Defensive, Then U.S. Attacks Civilian Ship, Violating International Law

    “The incident marks at least the second time the U.S. military fired on a civilian ship in the Gulf of Oman while enforcing the blockade.”

  • Washington Post Quotes Official About “Fresh Scrutiny” Over Israel’s Nuclear Threat

    He wrote the in-depth article “The Israeli Nuclear Weapons Program,” which makes numerous points including: “During the 1973 war, Israel used nuclear blackmail to force Kissinger and Nixon to airlift massive amounts of military hardware to Israel.” He stresses that Israel’s nuclear weapons program should not be compared with the North Korean, Indian or Pakistani programs.…

  • Israeli Targeting of Flotilla Part of Continued Attack on Gaza

    Al Jazeera reports: “Two activists from a Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla have been presented before an Israeli court days after they were abducted following their detention with 175 other campaigners by Israel in international waters near Greece.”

  • The Role of Democrats in Iran Policy

    Some experts say that Democratic lawmakers and the Biden administration missed key opportunities to shift course on Iran, with the result of a deepening crisis shaped by a longstanding reluctance or refusal to prioritize diplomacy. In 2024, Sina Toossi wrote that President Biden’s approach to Iran was “particularly self-defeating.” 

  • “Madman Theory” in War

    Thomas Reifer contends that we are drifting into an uncontained and potentially global war in which world leaders are deliberately acting mad. This “madman” approach is particularly dangerous in the nuclear age. Today, the number of armed conflicts around the world are higher than at any time since World War II.

  • Iran and U.S. Clash at Nuclear Meeting

    “Despite being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), since its 1979 revolution … Iran has come under unprecedented scrutiny by the IAEA. … Meanwhile, Israel — one of only four NPT non-signatories (Pakistan, India and North Korea are the others) and the only state in the Middle East actually possessing nuclear weapons –…

  • Israel Illegally Attacks Flotilla to Gaza

    “The Israel regime’s attack on yet another humanitarian flotilla is a grave breach of international humanitarian law, a violation of the law of the sea, an extension of its genocide in Palestine to international and Greek waters, and a product of the impunity granted to it by complicit Western states. The regime’s lawlessness is shared…

  • Lindsey Graham’s Path to a Civil War in Lebanon

    “The Israeli government is refusing to back down from its declared intention of seizing a large portion of southern Lebanon. Soon after the ceasefire was announced, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Tel Aviv had ‘not yet finished the job’ in Lebanon.

  • State Dept. Says Iran War “At the Request” of Israel, Claims Self-Defense in War it Started

    “The State Department said in a statement last week that the U.S. is in conflict with Iran “at the request” of Israel, an acknowledgment of Israel’s role in steering the U.S. into the war, which the U.S. has dubbed ‘Operation Epic Fury.’ The statement was issued by the State Department’s legal adviser, Reed D. Rubinstein, who attempted…

  • Israel Continues “Journocide” During “Ceasefire”

    “Israel has killed at least 14 journalists, including Khalil, in Lebanon since October 2023, according to CPJ. In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed over 260 Palestinian journalists since October 2023, making it the deadliest war for journalists ever recorded.”

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