News Releases

  • Afghanistan: What’s Happening?

    MARC HEROLD Herold, a professor at the University of New Hampshire, is the author of the just-released report “A Dossier on Civilian Victims of United States’ Aerial Bombing of Afghanistan: A Comprehensive Accounting.” He said today: “More than 3,700 civilians have been killed in Afghanistan directly from U.S. bombs since Oct. 7. For example, on Oct. 11, two U.S. jets bombed the mountain village of Karam, comprised of 60 mud houses, during dinner and evening prayer time, killing 100 to 160 people. On Dec. 1, as part of the intense bombing campaign of Tora Bora, B-52s bombed the villages Kama…


  • Iraqi Documents and U.S. Response

    HANS VON SPONECK Former head of the United Nations oil-for-food program in Iraq, Von Sponeck was recently in Iraq and is currently in Geneva. He said today: “The U.S. government’s actions amount to a campaign of severe political harassment. They should give Hans Blix the time to assess the documents. Bush disparaging Iraq when it is complying with total access for the weapons inspectors shows a disregard for the reality on the ground. The U.S. controlling of documents and sharing them with only the permanent members of the Security Council and not the 10 rotating members further intensifies the existing…


  • Iraq: * Medicine * Inspectors * ‘No-Fly’ Zones

    DANNY MULLER RAMZI KYSIA In Baghdad: KATHY KELLY Muller, Kysia and Kelly are members of the Voices in the Wilderness campaign. The U.S. government has given Voices delegates until tomorrow to pay $30,000 in penalties for taking medicine to Iraq. More Information ALICE SLATER Director of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, Slater said today: “No one is talking about our own violations of obligations to disarm, for example under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Our government is violating international law, even as it accuses Saddam Hussein of doing so. We see U.S. officials trying to upset the current disarmament…


  • Behind the War Lobby

    JONATHAN GRANOFF Director of the Global Security Institute, Granoff said today: “Richard Perle’s recent statements that the U.S. is determined to go to war regardless of Iraqi compliance with the weapons inspectors subverts the international system as well as the Constitution.” The Mirror in London reported on Nov. 20 that Richard Perle, head of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Review Board, in a meeting with British members of parliament, “admitted the U.S. would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons.” The article quoted a British member of parliament: “This makes a mockery of the whole process and exposes…


  • Iraq: Oil-For-Food; War No Matter What?

    DENIS HALLIDAY Halliday is former head of the UN oil-for-food program and a former UN Assistant Secretary General. The Security Council was expected to extend the oil-for-food program today. Halliday said today: “It’s good under the circumstances that the program is being extended for another six months — it keeps people alive — but it should not be necessary. We should have given the economy back to the Iraqis as a prelude to [the recent UN Security Council resolution] 1441. It would have made sense to get rid of the deadly economic sanctions as part of an agreement to ensure…


  • Will Inspectors Be Used for Spying on Iraq Again?

    As UN weapons inspectors arrived in Baghdad, Reuters reported that the head of the inspectors, Hans Blix, said he “could not rule out the possibility that there might be spies on his team. He added that any intelligence agents would be ordered off the group.” The following are portions of the public record and some analysts available for interviews: “U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has obtained what he regards as convincing evidence that United Nations arms inspectors helped collect eavesdropping intelligence used in American efforts to undermine the Iraqi regime, according to confidants who said he is deeply alarmed by…


  • Ramadan: Interviews Available

    JEANNE BUTTERFIELD Executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Butterfield said today: “The administration has taken a number of unprecedented actions which target the Muslim and Arab communities in the United States. They have denied the right to open hearings, the right to a day in court, the right to counsel. The government is not simply engaging in legitimate law enforcement profiling, but in ethnic and religious profiling.” More Information DR. LAILA AL-MARAYATI Founder of the Muslim Women’s League, Al-Marayati is a physician and is on the board of Kinder USA, a new charity founded by Muslim medical professionals.…


  • Decoding the New UN Resolution on Iraq: Myth-Shattering Analysis at Accuracy.org/un2

    Today the Institute for Public Accuracy released a detailed analysis of the new UN Security Council resolution on Iraq. The assessments feature conclusions of several legal and political analysts. The multifaceted critique is available at: www.accuracy.org/un2 Among the analysts who are available for interviews: JAMES PAUL Executive director of the Global Policy Forum, which monitors policy-making at the United Nations, Paul is author of a series of papers including “Iraq: The Struggle for Oil.” He said today: “This resolution takes a hard-line approach that will almost certainly lead to war. Thirteen members of the Security Council were opposed to this…


  • Veterans’ Day: Interviews Available

    DAVID CLINE Currently national president of Veterans for Peace and a longtime coordinator of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Cline is a disabled combat veteran. He said today: “Bush is using the terrorist attacks of September 11 to wage endless war abroad and reduce freedom here at home. The veterans are one of the groups who have some sense of the reality of war. We’ve been used by our government to enforce unjust policies. We’re also used to justify future military attacks; the government doesn’t care about us much until they need us to wave the flags for a new…


  • Analysts Available on New UN Iraq Resolution

    As the Bush administration pushes for a UN Security Council resolution vote on Iraq, the following analysts are available for interviews: DENIS HALLIDAY Halliday is a former UN Assistant Secretary General and headed the UN’s food-for-oil program in Iraq. Available for limited interviews, Halliday said today: “Even if the Iraqis wanted to comply — and it’s not clear to me that they do — I doubt that they could comply with this resolution. It has components that are simply geared toward Mr. Bush’s war. If the Iraqis close the door on an inspector in a bike shop at 3 in…


  • Alternatives to More Violence?

    ALI ABUNIMAH Vice president of the Arab-American Action Network, Abunimah drove from Chicago to New York City just after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. His writings since then have elicited substantial response. He said today: “While we grieve and come to terms with this outrage, people in the Mideast and in the…

  • Terror Aftermath: Deeper Analysis

    JILL NELSON Author of Volunteer Slavery: My Authentic Negro Experience and a columnist for MSNBC, Nelson said today: “What we can do is demand leadership. Not the leadership of politicians angling for pet projects like missile defense shields or casting about for somewhere to lay the blame and someone to wage war upon. We certainly…

  • A Way Out?

    At the National Cathedral today, President Bush said “this nation is peaceful.” The following analysts are available for interviews. HOWARD ZINN A renowned historian who has authored numerous books including A People’s History of the United States, Zinn was a bombardier during World War II. He said today: “The images on television horrified and sickened…

  • “Blowback”?

    RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW Director of The Shalom Center and author of Godwrestling — Round 2, Waskow said today: “Even the greatest oceans do not shield us; even the mightiest buildings do not shield us; even the wealthiest balance sheets and the most powerful weapons do not shield us. The lesson is that only a world…

  • Another Gulf of Tonkin Resulution?

    FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Boyle said today: “According to the facts in the public record so far, this was not an act of war and NATO Article 5 does not apply. President Bush has automatically escalated this national tragedy into something it is not in…

  • Terrorism Aftermath

    ROBERT JENSEN Author of the forthcoming book Writing Dissent and an associate professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Jensen said today: “The last time the U.S. responded to a terrorist attack, on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, it was innocents in Sudan and Afghanistan who were in the way. We…

  • Racism Conference

    The UN conference on racism in Durban, South Africa is scheduled to end on Friday. The following analysts are available for interviews: HUMBERTO R. BROWN Coordinator for the African and African Descendants Caucus, one of the main caucuses of the conference in Durban, Brown said today: “Colonization and slavery should be considered crimes against humanity,…

  • Attica, 30 Years Later

    Next week marks the 30th anniversary of the uprising at Attica prison in upstate New York. In 1971, on Sept. 13 — four days into a rebellion by 1,281 prisoners demanding humane treatment — more than 500 state troopers assaulted the prison compound, under orders from Gov. Nelson Rockefeller. The troopers’ gunfire killed 29 inmates…

  • Education Issues as School Year Begins

    WASHINGTON — With the start of the school year, Education Secretary Rod Paige is speaking today at the National Press Club. The following analysts are available for interviews: JOHN TAYLOR GATTO Former New York State Teacher of the Year and author of the recently released book The Underground History of American Education, Gatto said today:…

  • Labor Day

    HOLLY SKLAR Co-author of the just-released book Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us, Sklar said today: “A job should keep you out of poverty, not keep you in it. Most Americans believe that. But as we celebrate Labor Day, hardworking Americans [who are] paid minimum wage have to choose…

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