News Releases

  • China and the Bombing Campaign

    ROBERT WEIL Author of Red Cat, White Cat: China and the Contradictions of ‘Market Socialism’, Weil said: “The anger in China is widespread and is no doubt very genuine. Either it will stiffen the Chinese government reaction to the U.S., which would have its own serious consequences; or they won’t stand up to the U.S., which might result in a domestic backlash. There’s widespread feeling in China that the U.S. is bullying them, practicing gunboat diplomacy and this may be a final straw. There’s already a lot of political discontent about the economic situation — the increased class polarization, unemployment,…


  • Perspectives on Juvenile Crime

    While the White House Conference on Children, Violence and Responsibility has been in the spotlight, some researchers are questioning the focus of the event. Among those available for interviews are: VINCENT SCHIRALDI The director of the Justice Policy Institute, Schiraldi warned against Senate legislation to be submitted Tuesday that gives colleges access to juvenile records and allows for the jailing of kids in adult facilities. Schiraldi said: “In the wake of the tragedy in Littleton, more now than ever, the U.S. Senate needs to craft thoughtful legislation based on good data, not hyperbole. Many in the criminology community have deep…


  • Some Religious Perspectives on the War in Yugoslavia

    REV. DR. JOAN B. CAMPBELL General secretary of the National Council of Churches, Campbell was co-leader with the Rev. Jesse Jackson of the recent U.S. religious leaders’ mission to Belgrade, which culminated in their winning the release of the three captured American soldiers. “The National Council of Churches is a faith-based community that reaches out across boundaries of state and creed — even when our nations are at war,” she says. “That is why I went to Belgrade along with my fellow Christian, Muslim and Jewish religious leaders from the United States. In our time there with our Yugoslav counterparts,…


  • Russia and Negotiations

    The following analysts are available for comment on Russia and possibilities for negotiations: DAVID KOTZ Co-author of Revolution From Above: The Demise of the Soviet System and professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts, Kotz said: “The U.S. is trying to use Russia as a club to pressure Milosevic to submit to U.S. demands, rather than taking Russia up on its offer to serve as a genuine mediator to reach a compromise. Russia’s indebtedness to the IMF makes it appear that they can be pressured into acting as an agent for NATO. This is a very risky game to…


  • Last Night’s House Vote Makes It Official: The Bombing of Yugoslavia is Illegal

    JULES LOBEL Professor of Constitutional and International Law at the University of Pittsburgh MICHAEL RATNER Attorney, Center for Constitutional Rights Lobel and Ratner have litigated numerous cases challenging illegal wars including Dellums v. Bush, the case that forced President Bush to obtain congressional authority for the Gulf War in 1991. In a joint statement released today, they said: “In a remarkable vote against the war in Yugoslavia, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 213 to 213, failed to give the President the constitutionally required authorization he needed to carry on the air war against Yugoslavia. The Constitution grants…


  • New Attention to Unpublicized Provisions of Rambouillet

    WASHINGTON — New questions are continuing to emerge about the actual terms of the Rambouillet text. Milosevic’s refusal to sign Rambouillet was the cited reason that NATO began the bombing of Yugoslavia. Today, the Washington Post published an exchange between NATO spokesman Jamie Shea and a representative of the Institute for Public Accuracy: [The Washington Post, “For the Record,” Wednesday, April 28, 1999:] From a NATO press conference at the National Press Club Monday with spokesman Jamie Shea: Q: The Rambouillet Accords, appendix B in particular…called for the occupation of all of Yugoslavia…. Unrestricted passage throughout [its] air space, territorial…


  • Despite Denials from NATO Official, Questions Emerging

    Did Allies Demand Right to Occupy All of Yugoslavia? WASHINGTON — New questions are emerging about the actual terms of the Rambouillet accords prior to the initiation of NATO’s bombing of Yugoslavia. When NATO spokesman Jamie Shea appeared at the National Press Club in Washington yesterday, a representative of the Institute for Public Accuracy asked him to clarify provisions in the Rambouillet text that some analysts say allowed for the military occupation of all of Yugoslavia by NATO troops. Although Shea replied that “there was no intention whatsoever of having any kind of NATO occupation regime in Yugoslavia itself,” Appendix…


  • Is Prominent Think Tank a Bastion of Racist Theory?

    One of the most influential think tanks in the United States also houses several of the nation’s most controversial pundits on race issues. In a new analysis, researcher Deborah Toler scrutinizes what she calls the “race desk” at the American Enterprise Institute. Toler, a policy analyst with the Institute for Public Accuracy, contends that mainstream AEI conservatives and racist hate groups such as the Council of Conservative Citizens share a preoccupation with managing the emerging majority of people of color in the United States. According to AEI fellows, African Americans in particular constitute a major threat to Western civilization. In…


  • NATO: Critical Analysis

    BASIC (British American Security Information Council) BASIC can arrange interviews with Admiral Sir James Eberle, former NATO commander-in-chief; Otfried Nassauer of the Berlin Information Center for Transatlantic Security; and other NATO experts. More Information HUSSEIN IBISH Foreign policy analyst at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Ibish said: “The Clinton administration has made it perfectly clear that it regards ethnic cleansing as a legitimate tool of statecraft. The U.S. backed ethnic cleansing when the Croatians did it to the Serbs [in 1995], Turkey to the Kurds [throughout the 1990s] and Israel to the Palestinians [in 1948]. In fact, what this war is…


  • Colorado and Kosovo: What is NATO Teaching Our Children?

    President Clinton on the school shootings: “We must do more to reach out to our children and teach them to express their anger and to resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons.” MARY JOAN PARK A peace educator and director of Little Friends for Peace, a peace camp for young people, Park contrasted Clinton’s statement on the Colorado shootings with his bombing of Yugoslavia. When Clinton said children should “resolve their conflicts with words, not weapons,” Park’s son asked: “Why doesn’t he do it?” Park said today: “Violence unleashes more violence. Yes, Mr. Clinton, let’s talk about it, not fight…


  • Bush’s Tax Cuts: Who Benefits?

    JOEL BLAU Blau, a professor of social policy at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, said today: “Bush is marketing a tax policy that redistributes money upward. Earn money as a worker, and you are taxed; make money in the stock market, and you will be taxed less; accumulate enough money, and…

  • After Sharon’s Victory: Assessing Prospects for Peace

    RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW Waskow, director of The Shalom Center, is on the steering committee of Break the Silence, an ad hoc group of American Jews who “support Israel and a Palestinian state living at peace alongside Israel.” He is among the signers of a statement being released today on behalf of the Olive Trees For…

  • Interviews Available on Energy Crisis: “We Are at a Crossroads”

    While governors from 10 western states met with federal officials in Portland, Ore., today to discuss the regional energy crisis, critics in California and the Pacific Northwest were calling for fundamental changes in government policies on electric power generation. The following policy analysts are available for interviews: EUGENE ROSOLIE The director of the Green Power…

  • Ashcroft and Anti-Abortion Extremism: Widow of Dr. Barnett Slepian and Others Question Whether Ashcroft Would Protect Abortion Providers

    In recent years, the U.S. Justice Department and its Task Force on Violence Against Reproductive Health Care Providers have been credited with preventing violence. Although John Ashcroft testified he would protect abortion providers, many doubters, citing his record, are speaking out. “I have rarely spoken to the media in the two years since my husband’s…

  • World Trade Organization Meeting: Will Protests Be Allowed?

    The World Trade Organization has indicated that it will hold its next ministerial meeting at the beginning of November in Qatar. This has prompted objections from human rights groups and critics of the WTO concerned that Qatar will not allow protests. The WTO is expected to make its official selection within the next two weeks.…

  • Behind the California Blackouts

    MEDEA BENJAMIN Founding director of Global Exchange and spokesperson for the Campaign for Public Power Now, a new coalition of consumer, community and environmental groups, Benjamin said today: “Dozens of municipalities throughout the state, including Los Angeles and Sacramento, have no power crisis because they publicly own and control their power systems…. Governor Gray Davis…

  • Final Election Results

    Al Gore: 50,996,116 George W. Bush: 50,456,169 In the nationwide popular vote, Gore received 539,947 more votes than Bush. Source: The Associated Press

  • Interviews Available on Norton

    WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, Hauter said today: “Americans are proud of the progress made over the past three decades to clean up our environment. George W. Bush’s nomination of Gale Norton for Secretary of the Interior would turn back the clock…. For instance, she was a strong…

  • Southern Partisan T-Shirt Identical to One Worn by Timothy McVeigh at Time of Arrest

    Factual Background: Mid-1990s Southern Partisan sells T-shirts celebrating the Lincoln assassination with a quote from John Wilkes Booth (“Sic Semper Tyrannis”) on the front, and Jefferson’s quote about liberty requiring “the blood of patriots and tyrants” on the back. April 19, 1995 Timothy McVeigh is arrested after bombing the Oklahoma City federal building, wearing a…

  • New Concern on Ashcroft Record: Discriminatory Voter Registration

    Critics expressed concern today about a previously unexamined aspect of the record of attorney general nominee John Ashcroft — his successful efforts to block legislation designed to equalize access to voter registration in the St. Louis area. As governor, Ashcroft twice vetoed measures passed overwhelmingly by the Missouri legislature that sought to make it possible…

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