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News Releases

  • * Americans Just Out of Baghdad * Iraqi Dead * War Profits * U.S. Safety * Taxpayers

    MICHAEL BIRMINGHAM, STEWART VRIESINGA JEFF GUNTZEL, STEPHANIE SCHAUDEL While information has become more difficult to get from Baghdad, 15 members of the Iraq Peace Team have left the Iraqi capital and just arrived in Amman, Jordan. They are available for interviews. About half the Iraq Peace Team, composed of Americans and other Westerners, remains in Baghdad. Other members of the group have returned to the U.S. recently and are reachable through the Chicago office. MARC HEROLD Author of the recent article “When ‘Precision’ Bombing Isn’t,” Herold is a professor at the University of New Hampshire and a consultant to the…

  • * Supporting Troops * Rumsfeld: Lightning Rod * City Teach-in * U.S. Credibility * ‘Unavoidable’ Deaths

    NANCY LESSIN and CHARLEY RICHARDSON Lessin and Richardson are founding members of Military Families Speak Out. They have a son who has been deployed in the Gulf and just learned that he will be going into Iraq. They are in touch with over 300 other families of people from every branch of the military currently deployed in the Gulf and can help arrange interviews. Lessin said today: “The most supportive thing that anyone can do for our troops right now is to halt this invasion and protect their lives as well as the people in Iraq. We need to end…

  • U.N. — Accessory After the Fact?

    DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program, Halliday said today: “The people of Iraq are being crushed brutally everyday as we watch our TV. The U.N. and international law are being set aside by the U.N. Security Council member states. The Secretary General provides a weak voice reminding us all of Charter provisions, but too late and too little….” PHYLLIS BENNIS Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis is author of the book Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11th Crisis. She said today: “International law, specifically the Geneva Conventions, requires the belligerent occupying…

  • Humanitarian Impact: Image and Reality

    Dr. APRIL HURLEY, MARTIN EDWARDS, Ret. U.S. Army Captain CHARLES LITEKY, KATHY KELLY, DANNY MULLER, Hurley and Edwards (al-Dar Hotel), Liteky and Kelly (al-Fanar Hotel) are in Baghdad with 20 other members of the Iraq Peace Team. Phone lines are intermittent. Team members are assessing damage, visiting hospitals and placing articles and photos on the web. Several additional team members have recently crossed into Iraq from Jordan. Muller, in Chicago, is in regular touch with team members. More Information JOY GORDON Gordon, a Fairfield University professor, wrote “Cool War: Economic Sanctions as Weapons of Mass Destruction,” which appeared in Harper’s…

  • Propaganda and War: Interviews Available

    JOEL CAMPAGNA Yesterday evening, the U.S. military intentionally bombed Iraq TV. Program coordinator on the Middle East and North Africa for the Committee to Protect Journalists, Campagna said: “Broadcast media is a civilian object under the Geneva Conventions and cannot be targeted unless it is used for military purposes (e.g. military communication).” CPJ also objected to the New York Stock Exchange pulling Al-Jazeera’s press credentials yesterday. More Information LAMIS ANDONI An independent journalist and analyst who has covered the Middle East for over two decades, including the Iran-Iraq war in the south of Iraq, Andoni is monitoring the Arab-language media.…

  • * Geneva Conventions * Water Supply * Following Orders * ‘Fragging’

    MARJORIE COHN A professor of law at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Cohn said today: “While the U.S. government has objected to Iraq broadcasting photos of U.S. POWs, the U.S. government has allowed the very same thing…. Photos of Taliban prisoners of war and John Walker Lindh were continually broadcast on U.S. media outlets. The Pentagon is refusing to abide by the Geneva Convention with regards to the prisoners being held at Guantanamo Bay.” DENIS HALLIDAY, Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and former U.N. Assistant Secretary General, Halliday today criticized plans for the…

  • Crossing the Border

    DANIEL ELLSBERG Ellsberg, currently in Washington, D.C., authored the recent book Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers. More Information DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program and former U.N. Assistant Secretary General of the U.N. BRIAN WILLSON Was in Vietnam as an Air Force officer, now active in Veterans for Peace. More Information ZAINEB ISTRABADI Associate director of the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program at Indiana University at Bloomington, an Iraqi-American. NORMAN SOLOMON Coauthor of the new book Target Iraq and executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy. JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of international…

  • Bombing Baghdad

    The following analysts can comment on the bombing of Baghdad and will be available for interviews in the coming days and weeks as events develop. CHARLIE CLEMENTS, M.D, Clements is a Vietnam war veteran and recipient of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of Physicians for Human Rights. He has just returned from a 10-day emergency mission to Iraq with other public health experts to assess the vulnerability of the civilian population. More Information More Information Ret. U.S. Army Captain CHARLES LITEKY, KATHY KELLY, MICHAEL BIRMINGHAM, Members of the Iraq Peace Team — Liteky, Kelly and Birmingham — are…

  • Americans Intervening for Peace in the Middle East

    DANNY MULLER Muller is a coordinator with the Iraq Peace Team. He was in Iraq recently, and more than 20 members of the group are still there. Muller is in contact with them and information is regularly posted on the above web page. While phone lines are intermittent, after several attempts many callers are able to get through. Among the team members in Iraq: Ret. U.S. Army Captain Charles Liteky; Kathy Kelly; Michael Birmingham. HUWAIDA ARRAF Arraf is a member of the International Solidarity Movement. Another member of the group, Rachel Corrie, 23, was killed on March 16 when she…

  • White House Claims: A Pattern of Deceit

    President George Bush, March 17: “Under Resolutions 678 and 687 — both still in effect — the U.S. and our allies are authorized to use force in ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction…. Last September, I went to the U.N. General Assembly and urged the nations of the world to unite and bring an end to this danger. On November 8th, the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441, finding Iraq in material breach of its obligations, and vowing serious consequences if Iraq did not fully and immediately disarm.” John Negroponte, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., urging support for Resolution…

  • Poverty of Ideas?

    As President Clinton tours poor areas of the United States, analysts are available to comment on past and future policy choices: MIMI ABRAMOVITZ Professor at the School of Social Work at Hunter College and author of Regulating the Lives of Women, Abramovitz said: “It’s positive, and long overdue, that Clinton is addressing these issues, but…

  • Analysts on Medicare

    The following health-care policy specialists are available for interviews on the new Clinton plan for Medicare: DON McCANNE, M.D. A member of the National Coalition to Protect, Improve and Expand Medicare, Dr. McCanne said today: “Including prescription coverage in Medicare is definitely a step in the right direction, but it is still inadequate because it…

  • Gore and AIDS Drugs

    Vice President Gore’s role in setting policies for AIDS drugs in countries such as South Africa has become a simmering issue. These analysts are available to explain why: ROBERT WEISSMAN Co-director of the Essential Action organization founded by Ralph Nader and co-author of Corporate Predators, Weissman said: “Africa is suffering from an AIDS epidemic that…

  • Health Care: Big Issues

    Yesterday, for the first time, the American Medical Association voted to endorse unionization for doctors. Also, there is renewed discussion of a patients’ bill of rights. The following analysts are available to discuss these and other health care policy issues: DIANE LARDIE National coordinator for the Universal Health Care Action Network, Lardie said: “Ten years…

  • G-7 Meeting: Interviews Available

    NJOKI NJOROGE NJEHU Director of 50 Years Is Enough Network, Njehu will be in Cologne with other members of the Jubilee 2000 movement. “So far the proposals the G-7 have put forward are woefully inadequate,” she said. “They are still maintaining adherence to IMF structural adjustment programs as qualifying criteria for countries to receive minimal…

  • Clinton and Child Labor Rights

    In his speech today at the International Labor Organization Conference in Geneva, President Clinton said: “We must wipe from the Earth the most vicious forms of abusive child labor. Every single day, tens of millions of children work in conditions that shock the conscience… There are children handling dangerous chemicals; children forced to work when…

  • Russians in Kosovo: Analysis

    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 Monday: “The Russians’ preemptive move into Kosovo is a consequence of the two-track strategy that NATO followed regarding ending the war. The first track was their insistence on a NATO force…

  • Was This War Necessary?

    While many are claiming the peace agreement shows that Milosevic backed down, some analysts are suggesting that essentially the same agreement could have been achieved without bombing. They point to U.S. demands at Rambouillet in February that are absent from the current agreement. While some elements of the new accords remain unclear, apparent major differences…

  • Mental Health

    The White House Conference on Mental Health convened today in Washington. These policy analysts are available for interviews: DR. PETER BREGGIN Author of Back to Prozac and Talking Back to Ritalin: What Doctors Aren’t Telling You About Stimulants for Children, Breggin said: “Psychiatric drugs are far more dangerous than the public is led to believe.…

  • Voices on Yugoslavia

    GEORGE KENNEY A former Yugoslavia desk officer at the U.S. State Department, Kenney said: “An unimpeachable press source who regularly travels with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told [me] that, swearing reporters to deep-background confidentiality at the Rambouillet talks, a senior State Department official had bragged that the United States ‘deliberately set the bar higher…

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