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News Releases

  • Dr. King: Beyond the Dreamer

    Quotes from speeches and sermons of Martin Luther King, Jr. (full texts available at www.stanford.edu/group/King) From “The Drum Major Instinct”: Nations are caught up with the drum major instinct. “I must be first.” “I must be supreme.” “Our nation must rule the world.” And I am sad to say that the nation in which we live is the supreme culprit. www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/sermons/680204.000_Drum_Major_Instinct.html From “The Most Durable Power”: If you succumb to the temptation of using violence in your struggle, unborn generations will be the recipients of a long and desolate night of bitterness, and your chief legacy to the future will…

  • Enron: Interviews Available

    WENONAH HAUTER Director of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass Energy & Environment Program and co-author of the report “Blind Faith: How Deregulation and Enron’s Influence Over Government Looted Billions from Americans,” Hauter said today: “The Bush administration should immediately release all communications it has had with Enron because its selective disclosure of Enron contacts so far doesn’t tell the whole story. For example, on Feb. 17, 2001, Bush’s Secretary of the Treasury, Paul O’Neill, announced that the administration was scrapping an international treaty negotiated by Bill Clinton that would have ended the ability of U.S. corporations to utilize off-shore tax havens…

  • * Colombia * Haiti * Turkey

    SANDRA ALVAREZ, via Jason Mark The peace talks in Colombia, which seemed on the verge of collapse, have been extended until Jan. 20. Today the Washington Post reports that, according to administration officials, the “Bush administration is considering expanding U.S. counternarcotics assistance to Colombia to give more aid to that country’s counterinsurgency war against leftist guerrillas.” Alvarez, Colombia program coordinator for Global Exchange, will be traveling to Colombia from Jan. 17 to 27. She said today: “The resumption of the peace talks marks an important moment for Colombians and people worldwide who support a negotiated solution to that country’s conflict.…

  • * U.S. vs. Iran? * Otto Reich

    KAVEH EHSANI A contributing editor for Middle East Report and for Goft-o-Gu (“Dialogue” in Farsi), Ehsani — who is writing a book on Iran — said today: “A stable Afghanistan is in Iran’s interest. Obviously, Iran is concerned about undue influence that other powers like the U.S., Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the Russians, may exercise over the shaping of Afghanistan. It has been precisely this kind of external unprincipled interference that has destabilized and reduced Afghanistan to its present state. Iran has also been guilty of interference there in the past. But it has suffered seriously as a result of the…

  • Too Early to Declare Hunger Crisis Averted in Afghanistan

    The Associated Press reported yesterday that Afghan villagers in Bonavash are starving while attempting to survive by eating grass. The following statement, released today (Jan. 9) by the Institute for Public Accuracy, is from James Jennings, president of the humanitarian aid organization Conscience International. Jennings will return to Afghanistan on Jan. 16 for the group’s third mission since May, bringing assistance with food, blankets and health care. [See: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10129-2002Jan7.html,www.msnbc.com/news/682220.asp?0SB=I413 ] Statement by JAMES JENNINGS [Contact: [email protected]]: It is too early to declare a humanitarian disaster averted in Afghanistan. Early in the Afghan campaign the U.S. recognized that it was necessary…

  • The Economy: Bush vs. Daschle?

    DOUG HENWOOD Author of Wall Street, Henwood said today: “It’s nice to see the Democrats doing something other than rolling over. It’s too bad, though, that Daschle is spending so much time on the importance of fiscal discipline — an obsession of Wall Street, but not any broader constituency — when 2.6 million workers have lost their jobs over the last year, and millions more are worried that they’ll be next. And investment and employment tax credits won’t help much; businesses only invest and hire when sales and profits look good, which they don’t right now. Daschle and his colleagues…

  • * India-Pakistan * Israel-Palestine * Argentina

    ANITA WEISS Co-editor of Power and Civil Society in Pakistan (Oxford University Press, 2001) and professor of international studies at the University of Oregon, Weiss said today: “If this situation is not diffused and tensions escalate further between India and Pakistan, it will play into the hands of extremist and sectarian groups in Pakistan. Many people in Pakistan feel they have been good allies to the U.S., but I doubt the U.S. will come to Pakistan’s assistance, militarily, against India. The ensuing social unrest will further exacerbate an already tense situation and the result may well be politically and economically…

  • * Just Back from Afghanistan * Legal Status of Walker * Otto Reich: Backer of Terrorist? * Argentina Meltdown

    JIM JENNINGS President of Conscience International, a humanitarian aid organization, Jennings has just returned from his third trip to Afghanistan. He said today: “The public is being shielded from the extent of civilian casualties; if people saw the war close up, they would not be so enthusiastic about it. I witnessed this ‘collateral damage’ in the form of children with legs blown off, eyes blinded, and internal organs damaged — they were reportedly playing with a U.S.-dropped cluster bomb when it exploded. One boy of about 10, Zarwali, lost his left foot. They were driven over bombed-out roads for two…

  • Dissenting Voices At a Time of War and Faith

    SISTER EVELYN MATTERN Program associate at the North Carolina Council of Churches, Mattern said today: “Christians have a ‘just war’ teaching that in theory can be used to judge any war. In practice, the teaching serves to bless rather than judge wars. For example, the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops recently invoked the ‘just war’ teaching with regard to Afghanistan. In their hurry to support the president, they failed even to mention one of the main criteria for a just war: that it can be declared only after every other effort has failed. It has yet to be revealed, I think,…

  • * ABM * Bin Laden * Israel * Tribunals

    ALICE SLATER Director of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, Slater said today: “The Rumsfeld report on space [www.defenselink.mil/pubs/space20010111.html] and the Pentagon’s ‘Visions for 2020’ report [PDF: www.peterson.af.mil/usspacecom/visbook.pdf] show that the government plans to militarize space and to dominate and control that military high ground for economic interests. The ABM Treaty stands in their way. China and Russia are aware of that. Bush’s move is also a terrible assault on written promises the U.S. government made in May regarding the Non-Proliferation Treaty. We should instead be working to secure nuclear material to prevent a terrorist attack.” More Information…

  • 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…

  • Presidential Lying: The Sordid Details

    Many critics of President Clinton contend that his record of deception has uniquely disgraced the office of the presidency. But historian Howard Zinn, the author of the best-selling A People’s History of the United States, says: “There is a long history of presidents who have lied to us and deceived us, about governmental actions that…

  • Impeachment in Perspective

    WASHINGTON — As the nation considers the future of the Clinton presidency, some legal scholars and policy analysts are putting the Starr report in a broader context of governmental wrongdoing. Among those available for comment: FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Boyle said: “The impeachment clause is meant…

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