JAMES JENNINGS President of Conscience International, a humanitarian relief organization, Jennings has traveled to Sudan on humanitarian missions in the past and is currently organizing another one to be undertaken this year. He said today: “The crisis in Sudan is so massive and complicated that many deaths will likely occur before an adequate mechanism for humanitarian intervention can be found. There is plenty of blame to go around — one might say that the world community has once again declared the patient inoperable after carelessly watching the tumor grow for years. Even so, we need to act, even though it…

With the 15th International AIDS Conference underway in Bangkok, American policy watchdogs charged today that the Bush administration is implicated in a conflict of interest with the drug industry. The following analysts are available for interviews from Thailand and from the United States. ASIA RUSSELL SHARONANN LYNCH Both Russell and Lynch are with the group Health GAP, and they are both currently in Bangkok attending the International AIDS Conference. Russell said today: “Abner Mason is a member of the Bush administration’s Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS and chair of its International Subcommittee, as well as the president of a drug…

Citizens for a Sound Economy, a national organization led by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R., Texas), is widening its efforts to help presidential candidate Ralph Nader get on the ballot in pivotal states. A recent news release from the corporate-backed group says it plans to pursue those efforts “in key battleground states like Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.” John Stauber, founder and executive director of the Center for Media and Democracy, said today: “The Republican machine is mobilizing for Nader. Major Republican funders are sending checks to Nader, and a far-right industry-funded front group, Citizens for a…

The International Court of Justice ruled today on the legality of the wall the Israeli government has been constructing in the occupied West Bank. On its web page, the Israeli newspaper Haartz headlines the story: “World Court: West Bank Separation Barrier Violates International Law, Israel Must Tear It Down.” The following are available for interviews: SUSAN AKRAM JOHN QUIGLEY NADIA HIJAB Akram is a professor at Boston University College of Law and author of the article “The Case On The Legality Of Israel’s Wall At The International Court Of Justice.” Professor of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley wrote…

The Boston Globe reported on Monday: “Sifting through old classified materials in the days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, FBI translator Sibel Edmonds said, she made an alarming discovery: Intercepts relevant to the terrorist plot, including references to skyscrapers, had been overlooked because they were badly translated into English…. Edmonds said she made another troubling discovery: One of her colleagues admitted being a member of an organization with ties to the Middle East that was a target of an FBI investigation. The colleague, also a Turkish translator, invited Edmonds to join the group, assuring her that her FBI credentials…

ROBERT BRYCE Available for a limited number of interviews, Bryce is author of the books Pipe Dreams: Greed, Ego, and the Death of Enron and Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America’s Superstate. More Information ALEX KNOTT Political editor of the Center for Public Integrity, Knott said today: “The ties between Enron executives and President Bush have been very close and the Center has found that this closeness is reflected in the more than $600,000 that company employees have lavished upon the president throughout his career. Only recently surpassed, the Center first identified Enron as Bush’s top…

CHRIS KROMM Kromm is executive director of the Institute for Southern Studies and publisher of Southern Exposure magazine. He said today: “Edwards’ populist side — his famous campaign message of the ‘two Americas’ — isn’t just rhetoric: Edwards has pushed for a patient’s bill of rights, closing corporate tax loopholes, overhauling NAFTA, and beefing up laws to protect union organizing. He has opposed school vouchers and privatizing Social Security. He’s also pro-choice, opposes federal efforts to ban gay marriage, and gets high marks from environmental groups. But he lost some progressive supporters with his early and unapologetic support of the…

ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ and PATRISIA GONZALES Rodriguez and Gonzales co-write the “Column of the Americas.” They said today: “Feeling under siege, the right wing believes that the whole world is unfairly ganging up on the president and his inspired policies. The left, on the other hand, is exasperated at the inability to drive a sharp distinction between Kerry and the imposter they love to loathe. “Rather than pull our hair out about who to vote for, perhaps we should instead first decide what kind of country we want to live in. What kind of future. What kind of World we want…

ELLEN FRANK Author of the just-released book The Raw Deal: How Myths about Deficits, Inflation and Wealth Impoverish America, Frank said: “Today, the Fed’s Open Market Committee is meeting behind closed doors to decide whether or not to raise interest rates. Raising interest rates, even by a quarter point, would signal the Fed’s clear intention to begin reining in U.S. economic growth, ostensibly to prevent inflation, though the core inflation rate is currently less than 2 percent. For nearly three years, job growth has been stagnant and real wages have declined. Only in the past few months has the labor…

PRATAP CHATTERJEE Author of the forthcoming book Iraq Inc., Chatterjee is project director CorpWatch, an Oakland-based corporate watchdog group. He has traveled to post-invasion Iraq twice to investigate reconstruction contracts. Chatterjee said today: “Will the companies that have contracts to rebuild Iraq and design democracy vanish in the middle of the night like Paul Bremer did on Monday, after having failed in their task, when the money runs out? Fifteen months after the invasion, most services have not been restored, the bills have reached astronomical proportions and Iraqis have very few jobs. Iraqi security guards get less than one percent…