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News Releases

  • * Spanish Election * Aristide Back in the Caribbean * Israeli Occupation: Rachel Corrie Anniversary * Korea Impeachment

    CAROLA REINTJES Director of international affairs for the Spanish non-governmental organization IDEAS, Reintjes said today: “The Spanish electorate punished the ruling party for participating in a war opposed by 90 percent of the people, and also for manipulating the media, lying to the public and exploiting people’s fears for electoral gain in the aftermath of the bombings. The bombings also triggered a national debate on how to prevent terrorism for the long term.” BEAU GROSSCUP Grosscup is author of the book The Newest Explosions of Terrorism and professor of international relations at California State University in Chico. AMY GOODMAN, [via…

  • * Trade Deficit * Jobs

    MARK WEISBROT Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Weisbrot said today: “The newly released record trade deficit numbers underline the fact that the United States cannot go on borrowing more than 5 percent of GDP each year, indefinitely, from the rest of the world. This current account (mostly trade) deficit has gotten very little attention as compared to the federal budget deficit, although it is at least as important. Some implications: (1) developing countries that are offering costly concessions (in such proposed agreements as the FTAA or CAFTA) in exchange for access to the U.S. market will…

  • * Prisoner Aristide? * Back from Central African Republic * Haiti Case Against the U.S.? * National Endowment for Destabilization?

    BILL FLETCHER President of TransAfrica Forum, Fletcher said today: “Like so many people concerned about the situation in Haiti, I am perplexed by the lack of response to the de facto imprisonment of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Though the U.S. claims that President Aristide left Haiti voluntarily, this seems to fly in the face of the difficulty which he has had communicating with the outside world, his not knowing which country he was going to until 20 minutes prior to landing, and the obstacles put in the way of his supporters visiting him in the Central African Republic. It defies credibility…

  • * Firefighters React to New Bush Ads * 9/11 Families — Firefighter Mom Traveling to Afghanistan * International Women’s Day in Afghanistan and Washington

    HAROLD SCHAITBERGER, [contact: Jim McBride] Jeff Zack Schaitberger, the general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, AFL-CIO, issued the following statement today after President Bush unveiled new political ads that use images of firefighters on September 11, 2001: “I’m disappointed but not surprised that the President would try to trade on the heroism of those firefighters in the September 11 attacks. The uses of 9/11 images are hypocrisy at its worst….” More Information ADELE WELTY DAVID POTORTI COLLEEN KELLY Adele Welty lost her son, Timmy, a NYC firefighter, at the World Trade Center on September 11. She, Potorti…

  • Squeezing Life Out of Haiti

    JEAN BELIARD LUCIEN General manager of Radio Lakay, a New York City-based radio station that serves Haitian-Americans, Jean Beliard Lucien said today: “An elected government has been overthrown by an armed rebellion under the watch of the U.S…. This year is the bicentennial of Haiti’s independence. Aristide’s asking France to pay back for money that Haiti was forced to pay for its independence is one of the leading causes of his fall; once he did that, France set out to destroy Aristide’s image…. I have been critical of Aristide, he failed to really root out corruption, but the people who…

  • *Aristide

    Some news outlets have reported that Jean-Bertrand Aristide resigned his democratically elected presidency in Haiti on Sunday. But TransAfrica Forum founder Randall Robinson told CNN during an interview Monday afternoon that he’d received a phone call from Aristide — and the Haitian leader said that he was “abducted by 20 American soldiers.” BILL FLETCHER Fletcher is president of TransAfrica Forum More Information LAURA FLYNN A former assistant to President Aristide from 1996 to 2000, Flynn is now with the Haiti Action Committee. More Information MARAGARITE LAURENT Laurent is founder and chair of the Haitian Lawyers Leadership Network ADAM HOCHSCHILD Hochschild…

  • Manipulating the U.N.: Interviews Available * Spying on Annan to Wage War * Controlling Haiti

    Yesterday Clare Short, a former British cabinet minister, said that Britain spied on U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan during the build-up to the invasion of Iraq. Short’s revelations came the day after the British government dropped charges against Katharine Gun, a former British intelligence employee who in early 2003 leaked a U.S. National Security Agency memo describing a “surge” in U.N. spying aimed at winning authorization for war on Iraq — targeted “against” delegations from swing countries on the Security Council. Short’s charges were not denied by Tony Blair when he addressed the issue Thursday. JAMES PAUL Executive director of…

  • With Charges Dropped in U.N. Spying Case, Bush and Blair Governments Face Scrutiny

    “I have no regrets, and I would do it again,” former British intelligence employee Katharine Gun said on Wednesday in London, just after the government dropped charges against her for violating the Official Secrets Act. In early March 2003, the Observer newspaper in Britain published a U.S. National Security Agency memo describing a “surge” in U.N. spying aimed at winning authorization for war on Iraq — targeted “against” delegations from swing countries on the Security Council. Katharine Gun, who leaked the memo, faced two years in prison. In Washington, the Institute for Public Accuracy issued a statement Wednesday praising Gun…

  • *Haiti * Corporatizing Iraq * Sharon’s Wall

    EUGENIA CHARLES-MATHURIN MALINDA MILES Co-Director of Haiti Reborn/Quixote Center, Charles-Mathurin said today: “The United States has helped create this opposition to destabilize and undermine Haiti’s nascent democracy…. The U.S. is the only party which can bring to the negotiation table these groups which include members of the CIA-linked FRAPH death squads and the former brutal army of Haiti, FAD’H, which killed over 5,000 people from 1991-1994…. President Aristide, the constitutional president, has pledged that he would step down from power when his term comes to a close. In accordance with the Haitian Constitution, he cannot run again. His commitments have…

  • Politics of Economics: * Outsourcing * Jobs and Unemployment

    DOUG HENWOOD Author of After the New Economy, Henwood said today: “It seems the default explanation for the weak state of the job market more than two years after the official end of the recession is outsourcing. Or, in the crude form, foreigners are stealing our jobs. Reality is a lot more complicated than that. In manufacturing, most countries — including, to almost everyone’s surprise, China — are losing jobs. And in services, jobs lost to outsourcing would be made up by two or three months of normal job growth. But we’re not getting normal job growth, and the reasons…

  • Iraq Analysts Available

    JOHN QUIGLEY Professor of Law, Ohio State University. Specialist in the Mideast and in international law. “There is no basis in any Security Council resolution for unilateral military action by the U.S.” BARBARA LUBIN Executive director, Middle East Children’s Alliance More Information JEFF GUNTZEL Traveled recently to Iraq with Voices in the Wilderness, delivering medicine…

  • Iraq Sanctions: What’s the Policy?

    Whether the United States bombs Iraq or not, there are reports that the U.S. is changing its policy to a more sanctions-based approach. While many are claiming that Iraq would be rid of the sanctions if it complied with the weapons inspections, an examination of U.S. policymakers’ statements since the Gulf War suggests otherwise: April…

  • Environmentalists Urge Clinton to Live Up to Rhetoric

    With the Earth’s climate on the table as delegates from more than 160 nations gather in Buenos Aires for a global climate summit, some U.S. specialists are voicing concern that the White House is not honoring its promises. Among those available for comment: ROSS GELBSPAN Gelbspan, author of The Heat Is On: The Climate Crisis,…

  • Victories for Campaign Finance Reform in Two States Likely to Inspire Grassroots Efforts Nationwide

    Statewide ballot measures for campaign finance reform won approval Tuesday in Arizona and Massachusetts. Activists say those victories will inspire a groundswell of efforts around the country to clean up the elections process at the grassroots. “This sends a message nationwide,” said Kaia Lenhart, political director of Arizonans for Clean Elections. “There’s no doubt about…

  • Election Issues That Weren’t

    As the 1998 campaign nears its end, some observers contend that key realities of American society have remained out of focus. Several policy analysts are available for interviews on subjects they say have gone largely overlooked during this campaign season: JOHN C. BERG Director of Graduate Studies at the Government Department of Suffolk University, Berg…

  • Social Security: Economists Call for Realism

    Three economists issued statements Friday warning against unrealistic scenarios for privatizing Social Security. The researchers took aim at a new book put out this week by the Cato Institute (Common Cents, Common Dreams) which argues for privatization. They are available for interviews on Social Security policy options. RICHARD Du BOFF Professor of Economics at Bryn…

  • Pinochet Arrest Raises New Questions in Washington

    WASHINGTON — The arrest of former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet has focused new attention on the record of his regime, which remained in power for 17 years after the 1973 coup that toppled Chile’s democratically elected government. Some pointed questions are being raised about the Washington-based Cato Institute’s current embrace of Jose Pinera, who…

  • Analysts Decry Inaction by Congress on HMO Reform

    WASHINGTON — The failure of Congress to pass legislation on health care reform before adjournment has angered many Americans. A number of doctors and health care analysts are available for interviews about Congressional inaction on a patient bill of rights to address problems with HMOs. Some of these specialists regard such a bill of rights…

  • Social Security: Would Privatization Help Minorities?

    WASHINGTON — A range of organizations today criticized rosy claims about Social Security privatization for Latinos and African Americans. At a presentation in Washington organized by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, the widely cited Heritage Foundation was faulted for “technical errors” and “gross inaccuracies” in its claims that racial minorities would fare better…

  • “Surplus” and Poverty in America

    WASHINGTON — While President Clinton announces budget surplus figures today, some economists and poverty specialists are challenging the idea that poverty is receding as a national problem. Among those available for comment are: ANURADHA MITTAL Policy Director at the Institute for Food and Development Policy – Food First, Mittal said: “Extreme poverty is growing fastest…

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