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…


  • The Environment: Behind the Rhetoric

    PATTI GOLDMAN A managing attorney with Earthjustice Defense Fund, Goldman said today: “Differences between Bush and Gore include the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, which came up in the debates. There are also differences in the priority and strategies for recovering Pacific salmon…. Gore favors having labor and environmental protection in trade agreements while Bush has not…

  • Bush and Gore Agree Death Penalty Deters; But What Are the Facts?

    Last night, presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore agreed that the death penalty is an effective deterrent. “I think the reason to support the death penalty is because it saves other people’s lives,” Bush said during the debate. Gore agreed, saying: “I support the death penalty…. I think it is a deterrence. I…

  • Big Oil Gets Bigger: Chevron and Texaco

    Chevron has just agreed to acquire Texaco for $36 billion. This follows the BP-Amoco and Exxon-Mobil mergers. The following analysts are available for comments: WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project, Hauter said today: “This trend towards more consolidation in the oil industry is bad for consumers in the long run and…

  • Perspectives on Mideast Crisis

    MARC ELLIS Director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University in Texas and author of Oh Jerusalem: The Contested Future of the Jewish Covenant, Ellis said today: “The escalation of the Israeli helicopter gunships firing into civilian areas is just appalling…. Justice would mean a shared real sovereignty of all of…

  • Interviews Available on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

    ALLEGRA PACHECO An Israeli Jewish human rights lawyer who represents Palestinians in the West Bank, Pacheco is now a fellow at the Bunting Institute at Radcliffe. She wrote in The New York Times last week: “Since 1994, Palestinians have seen the influx of 50,000 new Jewish settlers into the West Bank and Gaza, the paving…

  • Revolution in Yugoslavia?

    ROBERT HAYDEN Director of the Center for Russian and East European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh and author of Blueprints for a House Divided: The Constitutional Logic of the Yugoslav Conflict, Hayden said today: “The army has broken with the regime. The state media has been taken over by the opposition. It’s a real…

  • Beyond Debate for Bush and Gore

    STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER Co-director of the Center for National Health Program Studies at Harvard University, Woolhandler said today: “On Medicare, Gore supports what is happening now — seniors slowly being forced into HMOs — while Bush supports accelerating the process. Bush cloaks his privatization of Medicare as ‘choice,’ but it means choosing between restrictive HMO ‘A’…

  • Debate Commission Says Gore-Bush Only: Responses Available

    The Commission on Presidential Debates has formally announced that it intends to exclude all third party candidates from the presidential debates. Phil Donahue (who is a member of the Committee to Elect Ralph Nader President) wrote in the Sunday Los Angeles Times: “If Ralph Nader is excluded from the presidential debates, many issues important to…

  • Key Economic Issues: Oil, IMF, Euro

    WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy Project, Hauter said today: “Oil interests have used their enormous political power — which has increased with Exxon-Mobil and other mergers — to stop public policies that advance energy efficiency and conservation. Lehman Brothers reported recently that profits from the four largest oil companies are expected…

  • Analysts Available on National Association of Broadcasters

    The National Association of Broadcasters, which lobbies for the commercial broadcast industry, is holding its annual radio convention in San Francisco through September 23. Nonviolent protests are planned. These analysts are available for interviews: ROBERT McCHESNEY Professor at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois and author of Rich Media, Poor Democracy:…

Mastodon