The White House is on the defensive about global warming today in the wake of statements by Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, head of the official U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who said he now believes the world has “already reached the level of dangerous concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” Pachauri’s statements — which included a call for immediate “very deep” cuts in pollution as necessary for humanity’s survival — are acutely embarrassing to the Bush administration because it strongly backed Pachauri for his current post. The following analysts are available for interviews: ROSS GELBSPAN Gelbspan is author of…

REED BRODY Brody is special counsel with Human Rights Watch and author of the article “Prisoner Abuse: What About the Other Secret U.S. Prisons?” and the report “The Road to Abu Ghraib.” He said today: “It is one thing to say you are on the side of freedom, it’s quite another to be a leader in promoting the rights that protect that freedom. If the Bush administration refuses to practice what it preaches, its ability to promote rights and freedom will inevitably be compromised. The United States is doing what every dictatorship and banana republic does when its abuses are…

The following will be available to comment on Bush’s speech today and underlying policies: STEPHEN ZUNES Zunes is a professor of politics and chair of the Peace and Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco, and Mideast editor of Foreign Policy in Focus. More Information SUSAN AKRAM Akram, associate professor at the Boston University School of Law, is available to talk about legal issues, particularly civil liberties and refugee rights. JACQUELINE CABASSO Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, Cabasso is available to comment on nuclear weapons generally and U.S. foreign policy with respect to nuclear weapons…

Sgt. KEVIN BENDERMAN, MONICA BENDERMAN At the Senate confirmation hearing for Condoleezza Rice today Sen. Barbara Boxer, apparently referring to members of the U.S. armed forces such as Sgt. Kevin Benderman, said: “You know, if you were rolling out a new product like a can opener, who would care about what we said? But this product is a war, and people are dead and dying, and people are now saying they’re not going to go back because of what they experienced there. And it’s very serious. And as much as I want to look ahead — and we will work…

MARK ENGLER Mark Engler, a writer based in New York City, is a commentator for Foreign Policy in Focus. He said today: “Those of us in wealthy nations believe that our governments donate generously to help these people. Yet many poor countries pay out more in debt service than they receive in aid — the Jubilee Debt Campaign reports that India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Maldives, and Indonesia together make over $23 billion in debt payments each year to multilateral banks and wealthy governments…. In advance of their upcoming meeting on January 12, officials from the Paris Club — a…

MICHAEL BROWN Author of a recent oped in the International Herald Tribune — “Palestinian Elections: Voting is Good. Freedom is Better” — Brown is the executive director of the nonprofit organization Partners for Peace. More Information ALI ABUNIMAH Abunimah is founder of the Electronic Intifada. He said today: “The election in the occupied territories is deeply flawed. Israel, the Palestinian Authority and many members of the international community have done all they can to ensure that the outcome is predetermined and there is no genuine contest of ideas or candidates. As significant, the vast majority of Palestinians do not live…

MARK DANNER Available for a limited number of interviews, Danner is author of the new book Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror and of an opinion piece in today’s New York Times, “We Are All Torturers Now.” In that op-ed, Danner wrote: “Through a process of redefinition largely overseen by Mr. Gonzales himself, a practice [torture] that was once a clear and abhorrent violation of the law has become in effect the law of the land. … Mr. Gonzales is unfit [to serve as attorney general] because the slow river of litigation is certain to…

ALFREDO QUARTO The Wall Street Journal recently published an article titled “On Asia’s Coasts, Progress Destroys Natural Defenses.” Quarto, executive director of the Mangrove Action Project, said today: “The severity of the current tsunami disaster is beyond comprehension. The tremendous force of the 9.0 earthquake that occurred off the coast of Sumatra caused extremely powerful tsunamis. This fact is soberly understood. Nevertheless, the immense loss in human life and property boggles the mind, and the ongoing reports from the multiple scenes of the disaster are nightmarish. What is more disturbing is the fact that the severity of this disaster could…

DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. Oil for Food Program in Iraq and assistant secretary general of the U.N., Halliday resigned in protest in 1998. Currently in New York City, he is available for a limited number of interviews. Halliday said today: “The Oil for Food ‘scandal’ is not a scandal of the United Nations, but rather of the member states, particularly of Washington and London.” More Information JOY GORDON Author of the article in the current issue of Harper’s magazine, “The U.N. is Us: Exposing Saddam Hussein’s Silent Partner,” Gordon said today: “What is being consistently overlooked is…

The White House is hosting a two-day conference on the economy with special emphasis on Social Security starting tomorrow. MARK WEISBROT Weisbrot is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and co-author, with Dean Baker, of Social Security: The Phony Crisis (University of Chicago Press). He said today: “The following facts have been left out of the debate on Social Security ‘reform’: — According to the numbers used by everyone, including the President’s Commission, Social Security can pay all promised benefits for the next 38 years without any changes at all. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO)…