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News Releases

  • A Bipartisan Lie — Rewriting History

    “This nation is very reluctant to use military force…. Military action is the very last resort for us.” — George W. Bush, October 28, 2003 “[Richard] Gephardt approved a Bush-Cheney policy where, for the first time in American history, we commit to war before exhausting our efforts to commit to peace.” — Howard Dean Campaign Statement, November 16, 2003 Here are just a few of the facts about U.S. foreign policy contradicting such claims: * In 1962, while trying to show that there were precedents for the use of armed force against Cuba, Secretary of State Dean Rusk produced for…

  • Christmas and Chanukah: Interviews Available

    JULIET SCHOR Professor of sociology at Boston College, Schor is author of the books The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don’t Need and Do Americans Shop Too Much? She is available for a limited number of interviews until Thursday. STAV ADIVI Adivi is a major in the Israeli Defense Forces. He said today: “I am a Zionist and an Israeli patriot. I am one of 1,200 who are refusing service in the West Bank and Gaza…. Chanukah is a celebration of victory and freedom. About 2,100 years ago, Judah Maccabee led the Jewish fight against the Greeks who…

  • Analysis on the Tenth Anniversary of NAFTA

    New Year’s Day 2004 will mark the tenth anniversary of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The following critics of NAFTA are available for interviews: ALEJANDRO NADAL FRANCISCO AGUAYO Nadal is the director of the Science and Technology program (PROCIENTEC) at El Colegio de Mexico and co-author of the article “Seven Myths About NAFTA and Three Lessons for Latin America.” He said today: “Between 1994-2003, minimum wages in Mexico lost 20 percent of their purchasing power.” Aguayo, a researcher at PROCIENTEC, said today: “Neither NAFTA nor the Free Trade Area of the Americas provide a means of addressing historical inequalities;…

  • * Venezuela * ‘Public Diplomacy’ * ‘Missile Defense’

    GREGORY WILPERT Wilpert is a journalist living in Venezuela and the author of an upcoming book on the Chavez presidency. More Information MARK WEISBROT Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot is currently in Venezuela. He said today: “Six months ago, when the opposition forces overthrew the democratically elected government of Venezuela and installed the head of the business federation as president, the Bush administration at first welcomed the coup, retreating the next day after it became clear that other countries in the Americas were not going to recognize the illegal government…. This time around, too, neither…

  • Interviews Available on Hollywood and Baghdad

    NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, which organized Sean Penn’s recent trip to Baghdad. Solomon will be returning from Baghdad late Tuesday afternoon. NORMA BARZMAN Author of the forthcoming The Red and the Blacklist: A Memoir of a Hollywood Insider, Barzman was blacklisted in 1949. She said today: “Since the blacklists, fear has been engendered into the American population.” JACK SHAHEEN Author of The TV Arab and Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People, Shaheen said today: “It’s encouraging that some individuals working in Hollywood are speaking their minds on American policy in…

  • Afghanistan Off the Radar?

    MARIAM RAWI, [in Pakistan], Rawi is a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. She said today: “We are not very hopeful of the outcome of the Loya Jirga currently convening in Kabul since it’s mainly composed of fundamentalists and warlords who continue to control most of the country. These men also had substantial influence in choosing the delegates. Women continue to be deprived of basic rights, and secular and democratic values are still gravely lacking in Afghanistan. Publications are banned and journalists imprisoned for criticizing the government. We are afraid to operate openly in our own…

  • New Developments in Case of U.S. Spying on U.N. Security Council: Former British Cabinet Minister Decries Prosecution of Whistleblower

    Former British cabinet minister Tony Benn has criticized the prosecution of a woman charged with violating his country’s Official Secrets Act in connection with the leaking of a secret memorandum from the U.S. National Security Agency. The memo described wiretaps of home and office telephones along with surveillance of emails of six “swing vote” delegations from nations with votes on the U.N. Security Council early this year as the U.S. and British governments unsuccessfully sought a resolution authorizing war on Iraq. Referring to Katharine Gun, who worked as a translator at Britain’s super-secret Government Communications Headquarters and now faces up…

  • After Sean Penn’s Visit to Iraq: Reflections and Possibilities

    NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, which organized Sean Penn’s recent trip to Baghdad. “After accompanying Mr. Penn during his visit to Baghdad, I’m heartened by the evident value of dialogue in the midst of this extremely ominous crisis,” Solomon said today. “His visit could inspire many Americans from various walks of life to explore how they can impede the momentum toward war, whether in Baghdad or at home in the United States.” More Information PAUL ROGAT LOEB Author of Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time, Loeb said today:…

  • Captive Saddam: Looking Deeper

    DOUGLAS VALENTINE Valentine is available to assess U.S. military operations in Iraq. He is author of the book The Phoenix Program, about U.S. “counter-insurgency” operations in Vietnam. More Information MIKE LOPERCIO Lopercio just returned from a fact-finding trip to Iraq where his son Anthony is a solider. More Information ANAS SHALLAL Shallal is co-founder of Iraqi Americans for Peaceful Alternatives and founder of the Mesopotamia Cultural Society. He said today: “Saddam Hussein has come to symbolize so many things in the Arab and Muslim world. He is seen as a hero (this speaks volumes about the deficit of leaders we…

  • Text of Statement by Sean Penn At News Conference in Baghdad

    The actor and director Sean Penn made the following statement at a news conference in Baghdad on Sunday afternoon: I am a citizen of the United States of America. I believe in the Constitution of the United States, and the American people. Ours is a government designed to function “of”-“by”-and-“for” the people. I am one of those people, and a privileged one. I am privileged in particular to raise my children in a country of high standards in health, welfare, and safety. I am also privileged to have lived a life under our Constitution that has allowed me to dream…

  • Bombing Afghanistan

    JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley said today: “We have to ask, ‘Will this protect the U.S. from further attacks?’…. Military action should have been done through the Security Council at the United Nations. As it is — a U.S. and U.K. military action — it is illegal under international…

  • First Casualties of War

    ROGER NORMAND Executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights, which has recently put out several fact sheets on Afghanistan, Normand said today: “Afghanistan was one of the world’s poorest and most devastated countries even before this crisis. The UN has abandoned its relief operations, and all neighboring countries have sealed their borders.…

  • Foreign Policy and Terrorism

    ZIEBA SHORISH-SHAMLEY Founder and director of the Women’s Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan, Shorish-Shamley said today: “It is unfortunate that it took a tragedy of this magnitude for the world to take notice of the ongoing tragedy in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Several years ago, I quit my position as a university professor…

  • Opponents of Terrorism and War

    THOMAS GUMBLETON A Catholic Bishop from Detroit, Gumbleton said today: “The Pope has called for ‘peaceful negotiations and dialogue’ in the current crisis…. Some have rushed to portray us who are opposed to the Bush administration’s plans as naïve and lacking realism. But if you look at the facts, it is clear that it is…

  • Preventing Further Disaster

    HARVEY WASSERMAN A specialist in nuclear issues, Wasserman warns of the possibility of a terrorist attack on a nuclear facility. More Information CHRIS TOENSING Toensing is editor of Middle East Report. More Information PERVEZ HOODBHOY Hoodbhoy is a professor at Quaid-e-Azam University in Islamabad, Pakistan. More Information REV. GRAYLAN S. HAGLER Pastor at the Plymouth…

  • “Not in Our Names”

    Some family members of the victims killed in the September 11 attacks are speaking out in opposition to the administration’s apparent military plans. Judy Keane, who lost her husband Richard, said: “Bombing Afghanistan is just going to create more widows, more homeless, fatherless children.” [CNN, 9/25] Jill Gartenberg, whose husband Jim was killed, said that…

  • Legal Issues: * Where’s the Evidence? * Civil Liberties

    On Monday, President Bush said: “We’re acting based on clear evidence, much of which is classified, so it will not be disclosed.” Today, Attorney General Ashcroft testified in favor of granting the government new powers. The following legal analysts are available for interviews: JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley said…

  • The Economy: Now What?

    ROBERT POLLIN Professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, Pollin wrote “Economic Slide Makes Spending Respectable” in today’s Los Angeles Times. He said today: “U.S. economic policymakers have failed for almost a year to respond adequately to the looming global recession. As the stock market plunge makes clear, the calamitous events of…

  • Critical Voices

    PHYLLIS BENNIS Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and co-editor of Beyond the Storm: A Gulf Crisis Reader, Bennis said today: “In Bush’s speech we got no doctrine, no strategy, no evidence. What we did get was a lot of Wild West rhetoric — dead or alive material. In Afghanistan, 25 percent of the…

  • Military Options: Where Would They Lead?

    AS’AD ABUKHALIL Associate professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus and fellow at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, AbuKhalil is author of the article “Islam and the Study of Central Asia.” He said today: “Learning about Islam is not terribly instructive here, just as…

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