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…

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,…

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…

MICAH SIFRY A senior analyst with Public Campaign, Sifry said today: “It’s obscene that some of corporate America thinks this is the moment to cash in on all their access and influence in Congress with unwarranted tax rebates and unnecessary bailouts. By a margin of 56 to 32 percent, the public chooses increased government spending over new tax cuts, according to a Gallup Poll. But Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill says not to worry. The $100 billion House bill will provide 300,000 new jobs, he told the Sunday TV talk shows. That works out to $333,333 in corporate welfare for every…

CONNIE GARCIA Garcia is a policy advocate for the San Diego-based Environmental Health Coalition, one of the oldest grassroots environmental and social justice organizations in the United States. She said today: “While the evidence is clear that NAFTA has failed to protect the environment, the president is promoting it as a model for the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Fast track would allow Bush to negotiate the FTAA without being hampered by public input. It was fast-track authority that allowed the closed-door negotiation of NAFTA with Canadian, U.S. and Mexican trade officials and multinational corporations — with no input…

ALI ABUNIMAH Abunimah wrote an op-ed article that appears in today’s New York Times. He is vice president of the Arab-American Action Network. [AAAN’s offices were burned by an arsonist yesterday, according to investigators. No motive is yet known.] More Information More Information RABBI ARTHUR WASKOW Director of The Shalom Center, Waskow said today: “Shortly before the latest suicide bombings, the mass-circulation right-of-center Israeli newspaper Yediot Achronot ran a prominent front-page analysis pointing out that Hamas had suspended suicide bombings, but was sure to return to them, since Sharon had once again turned to assassinating Hamas’ leaders. Surely Sharon knew…

Attorney General John Ashcroft is apparently planning to loosen safeguards that have restricted FBI surveillance of religious and political groups. The following critics of the move are available for interviews: NKECHI TAIFA Nkechi Taifa is director of the Equal Justice Program at the Howard University School of Law. She said today: “Ashcroft would like us to trust the FBI with sweeping new powers. This is the FBI that tried to disrupt and destroy numerous nonviolent organizations ranging from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to the Committee In Solidarity with the People of El Salvador to Students for a Democratic Society.…

DOUG HELLER Consumer advocate with the Santa Monica-based Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, Heller said today: “Enron created itself through a growing corporate vision: If you want market share, create a market, even if there is no need for it. The ‘make a market’ mantra, in conjunction with Enron chairman Kenneth Lay’s longstanding ties to political leaders — Lay was one of President Bush’s biggest donors and was an energy advisor to Vice President Cheney — shifted the nation’s energy system from regulated monopolies to a deregulated, wholesale market-based system with few rules. Lay took in $141.6 million in…

ALEXANDER THIER Thier was an officer-in-charge for the UN humanitarian office in Afghanistan. He is co-author of the new report “Planning Considerations for International Involvement in Post-Taliban Afghanistan.” He said today: “Political space must be created in Afghanistan to allow representative, non-military leadership to emerge. At the Bonn meeting, there is a very notable absence of more direct representation of the Afghan people, with mostly the military and the king’s camp having a voice. If these same warlords are not persuaded to behave differently than they did during their rule between 1992 and 1996, there is a real danger that,…

In the wake of the announcement by a panel of academic experts that the U.S. economy has been in a recession since March, the following analysts are available for interviews: JULIANNE MALVEAUX An economist based in Washington, D.C., Malveaux said today: “It’s not news to anyone that we’re in a recession — most people are already experiencing it, so they don’t need an economist to tell them that. But certain communities are feeling it more than others. In October, the general unemployment rate increased by a half point, but by a full point for African Americans. Most states and cities…