REESE ERLICH Coauthor of the new book Target Iraq, Erlich said today: “While the U.S. government and media say oil is an important factor influencing other countries, such as France and Russia, they rarely acknowledge oil as a motivating factor for U.S. policy…. If a pro-U.S. regime privatizes Iraqi oil, then U.S. companies would stand to make billions of dollars by dividing up the industry. This would give U.S. corporate interests substantially more power over the global oil flow and the global economy.” MICHAEL RENNER Currently in New York City, Renner is author of the report “Post-Saddam Iraq: Linchpin of…

A new USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll found that — “when it comes to U.S. policy toward Iraq” — Americans trust Secretary of State Colin Powell more than President Bush by a margin of 63-24 percent. With Powell appearing before the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, the following analysts are available for interviews, offering perspectives on Powell’s record that run counter to conventional wisdom: NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon is co-author of the new book Target Iraq, which includes an extensive assessment of Powell’s role in relation to Iraq during late 2002. The book also critiques milestones of Powell’s career in Washington, including his…

LLOYD J. DUMAS Dumas is the author of Lethal Arrogance: Human Fallibility and Dangerous Technologies and is a professor of political economy at the University of Texas at Dallas. He said today: “The tragic breakup of the space shuttle Columbia as it re-entered the atmosphere this morning once more underlines the vulnerability of highly complex technologies. It is too early to know what caused the shuttle to disintegrate — human error, technical failure, or something else. But the lesson is clear: when fallible human beings interact with powerful technologies, failures are inevitable. This time, the failure took the lives of…

The Institute for Public Accuracy today released an in-depth analysis of key claims in President Bush’s State of the Union Address, drawing on the work of more than 20 analysts. The critique — available at www.accuracy.org/2003 — focuses on issues of foreign policy and the domestic economy. Contributing analysts who are available for interviews include: JILL NELSON Author and columnist, Nelson is available for a general assessment of the address. DEAN BAKER Baker is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. DIANA ZUCKERMAN Zuckerman is president of the National Center for Policy Research for Women and Families. DOUG…

A former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, Denis Halliday, will be available for interviews back in New York City on Tuesday afternoon and evening. He will also be available for interviews in London on Thursday and Friday. Halliday, who headed the U.N. oil-for-food program, has just returned from three days in Iraq. On Sunday night in Baghdad, he met with Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz. Halliday was accompanied on the trip by Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, who also participated in the meetings with Sabri and Aziz.…

BAGHDAD — A former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations said tonight that the United States and Britain are proceeding with plans to “annihilate Iraqi society, a catastrophe that would be heightened by the threatened use of tactical nuclear weaponry.” Denis J. Halliday told a news conference in Baghdad that he was “greatly impressed by the courage and vibrancy of the Iraqi people I met both in the Baghdad souk and in the elite lobby of the Al Rashid Hotel. I am hugely respectful of the cool manner in which ordinary people face up to the threat of war…

AMER ABDELHADI Manager of an independent radio station, TMFM, in the West Bank city of Nablus, Abdelhadi said today: “The city is under a very brutal curfew, with Israeli soldiers increasing their abuses. There is a lot of speculation that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is hoping this will increase the chances for suicide bombings which he hopes would help him in the upcoming election.” More Information PHYLLIS BENNIS Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis is author of the just-released Understanding the U.S.-Iraq Crisis: A Primer. Bennis said today: “A U.S.-led alliance would not be a ‘coalition of…

KATHY KELLY, STEPHANIE SCHAUDEL, DANNY MULLER Dr. DAVID HILFIKER, BERT SACKS Voices in the Wilderness campaign members who have refused payment of $50,000 in fines for their previous travel to Iraq will hold a press conference at the National Press Club (Tuesday, January 21 at 9:30 a.m.) to announce future delegations and assert continued readiness to challenge both economic sanctions and U.S.-led warfare against Iraq. Returned activists will offer testimony, photographs, and information, based on their recent travel to Iraq as members of the Iraq Peace Team. JAMES JENNINGS Jennings is president of Conscience International and coordinator of “U.S. Academics…

With major anti-war protests set for Washington and San Francisco this weekend, the following are available for interviews: SUSAN WRIGHT Author of Biological Warfare and Disarmament: New Problems/New Perspectives, Wright is available for a limited number of interviews. She said today: “The focus on these shells illustrates the kind of double bind that is being applied on Iraq by the Bush administration: If nothing is found, the administration argues that the weapons must be hidden. If something is found, there is then an attempt to argue that Iraq has violated the UN resolution. Either way, this is not a cause…

Quotations from King’s speeches on war and peace, as well as on racism and exploitation, are available at: www.accuracy.org/press_releases/PR011702.htm Following are excerpts and links to audio from his sermon at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967: I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government…. There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when you say, “Be nonviolent toward Jim Clark,” but…