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News Releases

  • Pro-Bush Forces Working to Help Nader in Push to Get on Oregon Ballot

    The Oregonian newspaper reported Friday that “groups allied with President Bush are encouraging their conservative members to do the seemingly unthinkable: attend a convention Saturday to help put left-leaning independent candidate Ralph Nader on the Oregon presidential ballot. The groups — with the encouragement of some Republican political operatives — are telling their members that Nader would draw votes from Democrat Sen. John Kerry and boost Bush’s chances of winning Oregon.” AP says that “two conservative groups have been phoning people around Oregon this week, urging them to attend Ralph Nader’s convention … The groups make no bones about their…

  • * Cost of Iraq War * Negroponte’s Record in Honduras * Bush’s AIDS Claims * Survivors of Torture Speak Out * Regime Change in Guatemala: 50 Years Later

    PHYLLIS BENNIS, [via Emily Schwartz Greco] A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis is the primary author of the just-released report “Paying the Price: The Mounting Costs of the Iraq War,” which is available at the above web page. More Information LARRY BIRNS Birns is director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, which released the report “Negroponte: Nominee for Baghdad Embassy a Rogue for All Seasons.” He said today: “Though the Bush administration is strenuously attempting to portray Negroponte as a distinguished career Foreign Service professional, it should be recalled that his 1981-85 stint as ambassador to Honduras…

  • Clinton’s Domestic Legacies

    IDA HELLANDER, M.D. Executive director of Physicians for a National Health Program, Hellander said today: “The HMOs — which rose during the 1990s — are, in effect, practicing medicine by deciding which tests and treatments will be covered. They skimp on coverage to maximize their profits. When they deny medically necessary care for patients, they should be held accountable. The Supreme Court is taking us in the wrong direction. It’s precisely because of the grip of the giant HMO and drug company lobbies on our Congress that we don’t have a universal health care system like every other industrialized nation.…

  • Electronic Voting — Danger for Democracy

    DAN WALLACH Wallach is an assistant professor of Computer Science at Rice University in Houston specializing in building secure and robust software systems for the Internet. Along with colleagues at Johns Hopkins, Wallach co-authored a groundbreaking study that revealed significant flaws in Diebold’s AccuVote-TS electronic voting system. He said today: “Neither the source code [for the computerized voting systems] nor the results of any third-party certification analyses have been made available for the general population to study. The vendors claim that secrecy is a necessary requirement to keep their systems secure.” However after the source code for a voting system…

  • Military Contractors in Iraq: Privatizing Unaccountability and Torture?

    PRATAP CHATTERJEE Program director for CorpWatch, Chatterjee is the author of the recent articles “Controversial Commando Wins Iraq Contract” and “Private Contractors and Torture at Abu Ghraib, Iraq.” He said today: “Occupation authorities in Iraq have awarded a $293 million contract effectively creating the world’s largest private army to a company headed by Lieutenant Colonel Tim Spicer … who has been investigated for illegally smuggling arms and planning military offensives to support mining, oil, and gas operations around the world.” More Information WAYNE MADSEN Madsen, a former communications security specialist for the National Security Agency, is an investigative journalist and…

  • Why Is Dick Cheney Still Lying About Iraq and 9/11?

    “The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attacks reported Wednesday there was ‘no credible evidence’ that Saddam Hussein helped al-Qaeda target the United States.” — Associated Press, June 16 www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0616-01.htm Vice President Richard Cheney on Saddam Hussein: “He had long established ties with al-Qaeda.” — Associated Press, June 14 www.cnn.com/2004/US/South/06/14/cheney.terrorism.ap ANDREW RICE COLLEEN KELLY BOB McILVAINE Rice, Kelly and McIlvaine are members of Peaceful Tomorrows, a group of 9/11 victims’ relatives. Rice, chair of the 9/11 Commission for Sept. 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, said today: “Given that the … 9/11 commission has repudiated any connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s…

  • “A Nation of Laws”? Presidential Authority, Immunity and Torture

    REED BRODY “The torture and mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison was the predictable result of the Bush administration’s decision to circumvent international law,” Human Rights Watch said in a new report. Brody is special counsel with Human Rights Watch and author of that report, titled “The Road to Abu Ghraib.” He said today: “The report examines how the Bush administration adopted a deliberate policy of permitting illegal interrogation techniques and then spent two years covering up or ignoring reports of torture and other abuse by U.S. troops…. The only exceptional aspect of the abuse at Abu Ghraib…

  • * G-8 Summit Backstory * Iraq Resolution

    NEIL WATKINS, [in Georgia], MARIE CLARKE, [in Georgia Watkins is the outreach coordinator for Jubilee USA Network. He said today: “In this critical moment, Jubilee USA Network calls for … 100 percent cancellation of the debts of all impoverished nations without harmful conditions, not piecemeal and partial relief…. Jubilee USA Network recognizes Iraqi debt as odious and therefore it must be cancelled outright. This same principle should be applied to all nations paying a bill for their own oppression. Odious debt has been defined through international law as loans made to oppressive or dictatorial leaders who used the funds to…

  • Reagan’s Foreign Policies: Beyond the Myths

    BILL FLETCHER President of TransAfrica Forum, Fletcher said today: “Reagan had this ability to project warmth and compassion while implementing incredibly draconian foreign and domestic policies. One example of this was his stubborn resistance to sanctions against the apartheid regime of South Africa.” More Information JOSEPH GERSON Director of the American Friends Service Committee’s Peace and Economic Security Program and the author of the book The Deadly Connection: Nuclear War and U.S. Intervention, Gerson said today: “The idea that Reagan won the Cold War by increasing the military pressure on the Soviet Union is one of the great myths that…

  • From Reagan to Now: Assessing Domestic Policies

    JILL NELSON Author of the book Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-Up Black Woman, Nelson is critical of “the current orgy of accolades” for Reagan. She said today: “On civil rights Reagan was a complete disaster. He tried to gut the Civil Rights Commission, to stop the extension of the Voting Rights Act in 1982. His administration was relentless in its attacks on affirmative action. Not only did he nominate Robert Bork to the U.S. Supreme Court, but he got an incredible number of white male right-wingers onto the judiciary. He tried to grant tax-exempt status to segregated…

  • Bombing of Yugoslavia: One Year Later

    JAN HARTSOUGH Shortly after the bombing of Yugoslavia started a year ago today, Hartsough traveled to the Balkans with a social-change organization called Crabgrass. She also attended the Women in Black international conference in October 1999 in Montenegro. She said today: “A police force that can establish law and justice in Kosovo still has not…

  • While Senate Holds DOE Hearing Today, Nuclear Victims Blast Narrow Scope

    WASHINGTON — While the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee holds a hearing today to focus on health and safety issues at two Department of Energy atomic plants, representatives of workers and others subjected to radiation exposure say that the Senate panel is dodging a wide array of serious problems at DOE nuclear facilities across the country.…

  • Foreign Policy Issues: India, Taiwan and Russia

    NEIL TANGRI Field director for the Multinationals Resource Center, Tangri has worked in India on development issues. He said today: “The past 10 years have seen dramatic changes in the Indian economy. Frustrated by corruption and a sense of losing the economic race to China and the ‘tiger’ economies, Indian politicians on both the right…

  • “New Economy” or Stock Bubble?

    As the stock market continues to rise, many analysts are proclaiming a “New Economy.” They argue that computer technologies have created a market not bound by the physical constraints of the old industrial economy. But are we becoming increasingly unprepared for a downturn? Among the critics of the New Economy available for interviews are: ELLEN…

  • Congressional Commission Slams IMF; Analysts Available for Interviews

    The new report from the International Financial Institutions Advisory Commission, created by Congress in 1998, is adding to calls for drastic reform of the International Monetary Fund. The “Meltzer Commission” report urges full cancellation of the debts owed by poor countries to the IMF and the World Bank as well as significant reduction of the…

  • Beyond “Super Tuesday”

    LEONARD WILLIAMS Professor of political science at Manchester College and co-author of the recent Campaigns and Elections article “‘Moderates Win’ and Other Political Myths,” Williams said today: “In part the election fits the standard scenario of the more established candidates winning after a bit of trouble. But up to this point in the campaign there’s…

  • Pinochet’s Release

    JOYCE HORMAN Joyce Horman is the widow of Charles Horman. Along with another U.S. citizen, Frank Teruggi, he was detained and murdered in September 1973 in the days following Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s bloody military coup backed by the U.S. government. She has worked to uncover the facts about his murder for more than 26 years.…

  • Religion and Politics

    REV. JIM WALLIS Editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine, Rev. Wallis said: “Al Gore and George W. Bush have talked about how much Jesus influenced them. The question has been whether that’s an appropriate thing for a candidate to talk about. It is very appropriate for a candidate to speak of their personal faith — if they…

  • Bradley and McCain: Insurgents?

    MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD Editor of The Progressive, Rothschild said: “Bradley doesn’t represent a real alternative to Gore or McCain or Bush. He supports the death penalty. He favors tougher sanctions on Iraq. Along with Gore, he has been a leading proponent of NAFTA and the World Trade Organization; and he, like Gore, has carried water for…

  • Scientist’s Resignation Raises Questions About Nuclear Policy

    A month ago, Andreas Toupadakis held a classified position at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. But he resigned his post, voicing criticisms of U.S. nuclear policy. Interviews are available with Dr. Toupadakis and other nuclear policy analysts: ANDREAS TOUPADAKIS Prior to joining the staff at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s “Stockpile Stewardship” program on nuclear weapons,…

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