KURT BIDDLE Coordinator of the Indonesia Human Rights Network, Biddle said today: “The Indonesian military has declared martial law in the region of Aceh and just launched a full-scale military offensive…. Top-ranking Indonesian military officials have boasted that they will ‘crush’ the rebel Free Aceh Movement in six months. But the civilian population will be the hardest hit. The Indonesian government estimates that the number of refugees in Aceh will grow to 100,000 from the current 5,000. More than 12,000 people have been killed in the almost 27-year-old conflict.” KAREN ORENSTEIN Orenstein is the Washington, D.C., coordinator of the East…

NADA ELIA Elia is U.N. representative for the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association. She said today: “The New York Times reports that the U.S. and Britain have ‘indefinitely put off their plan to allow Iraqi opposition forces to form a national assembly’ and plan to ‘remain in charge of Iraq for an indefinite period.’ This is hardly unexpected given the Bush administration’s record of shifting justifications for whatever policy it wants to pursue. When U.S. claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction failed to materialize, the official spin shifted to bringing democracy to Iraq….” More Information More Information ANAS SHALLAL Founder…

HOLLY SKLAR Co-author of the book Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us, Sklar said today: “If you want to stimulate unemployment, deficits and inequality, keep cutting taxes. More than 2 million jobs have been lost on President Bush’s watch. Like the 2001 tax swindle, the 2003 tax cuts will hurt the economy, not help it. The Bush team wants to remake the tax system for the wealthy, increasingly exempting money from investments while taxing paychecks. They want a big deficit, as Reaganites did, to strangle public services they don’t like. In the words of…

BEAU GROSSCUP Author of The Newest Explosions of Terrorism and professor of international relations at California State University in Chico, Grosscup said on an Institute for Public Accuracy news release on April 3, 2003: “The U.S. invasion of Iraq increases the likelihood of attacks against the U.S.” He said today: “It would seem that this is the first shot fired from Al-Qaeda or other anti-Saudi monarchy elements since the invasion of Iraq, though it’s curious that they have not claimed responsibility…. Just as the U.S. government backed Saddam Hussein during the height of his atrocities and the Taliban were deemed…

Today’s lead story in the Washington Post about the U.S. proposal to lift the economic sanctions on Iraq — headlined “U.S. to Propose Broad Control of Iraqi Oil, Funds” — notes that “the proposal would give the United States far greater authority over Iraq’s lucrative oil industry than administration officials have previously acknowledged.” Also today, President Bush is giving a speech on his administration’s vision for a new Mideast. The following are available for comment: BERT SACKS Active for years with the humanitarian group Voices in the Wilderness, Sacks was fined by the U.S. government after going to Iraq and…

PRATAP CHATTERJEE Chatterjee is the author of the recent articles “Halliburton Makes a Killing on Iraq War” and “Cheney’s Close Ties to Brown and Root.” He said today: “The Cheney-Halliburton story is the classic military-industrial revolving door tale. As head of the Pentagon under George Bush senior, Cheney helped privatize army work on U.S. military bases to Halliburton. In 1995, after Cheney became the CEO of Halliburton, the company jumped from 73rd to 18th on the Pentagon’s list of top contractors. Cheney had brought with him a trusty Rolodex … Cheney continues to receive as much as $180,000 a year…

Each year the president issues a Mother’s Day Proclamation. The original Mother’s Day Proclamation was made in 1870. Written by Julia Ward Howe, perhaps best known today for having written the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1862 when she was an antislavery activist, the original Proclamation was an impassioned call for peace and disarmament. In the years following the Civil War her political activism increased, as did her condemnation of war. Here are the words to the original Mother’s Day Proclamation: “Arise then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism…

ELAINE HAGOPIAN Professor emerita at Simmons College, Hagopian said today: “The ‘roadmap’ is largely a façade so the Bush administration looks like it is doing something for peace. It is a great deal like Oslo, which was similarly not really rooted in international law and ended in shambles. Still, Oslo did succeed in ending the first Palestinian intifada, which is likely Sharon’s goal here — to end the second one.” JULES LOBEL Professor of constitutional and international law at the University of Pittsburgh, Lobel said today: “Bush’s anticipated statement tonight of declaring combat over, but not hostilities, furthers his policy…

On Friday (April 25) the Wall Street Journal reported on U.S. government plans to restructure Iraq’s oil industry. These plans, which would replace the oil ministry with a U.S. corporate model, are expected to be announced this week. The Journal reports that the Iraqi oil industry will be overseen by an “advisory board.” The board is slated to be headed by Philip Carroll, an American who is a former chief executive of Shell Oil, the U.S. arm of Royal Dutch/Shell Group. JAMES PAUL Executive director of the Global Policy Forum, which monitors policy-making at the United Nations, Paul is author…

NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon, co-author of Target Iraq, participated in three meetings with Tariq Aziz last fall and winter in Baghdad. He said today: “With Aziz in custody, top U.S. officials are patting themselves on the back. But they have only proven that victors are able to imprison the vanquished…. Aziz epitomized the urbanity of evil. He was articulate and deft at rationalizing government actions that caused enormous suffering. His similarities to top U.S. officials are much greater than we’re comfortable acknowledging.” Solomon is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. KATHY KELLY Co-founder of Voices in the Wilderness and…