News Releases

  • * Tax Cuts * Greenspan * Jobs

    ELLEN FRANK Professor of economics at Emmanuel College in Boston and author of the forthcoming book Money Illusions, Frank said today: “Bush’s economic plan is unlikely to create jobs or growth as he claims. His plan centers on giving more money to wealthy investors with the supposition that they will invest this excess windfall in projects which will create jobs and growth. The reality is that wealthy investors are already swimming in money and unable to find sustainable growth avenues for their excess cash…. The terrible job market may squeeze wages, and with proposed tax cuts and federal spending increases…


  • U.S. Bases: Interviews Available

    JOSEPH GERSON Editor of The Sun Never Sets, a book about U.S. military bases worldwide, Gerson is director of the Peace and Economic Security Program at the American Friends Service Committee. He said today: “Behind the rhetoric of ‘liberation’ and not staying ‘a day’ longer than needed, the Bush administration is clearly working to create a client government which will allow the U.S. to maintain military bases for the long term, as it has recently done in Central Asia. The U.S. government, in effect, will be transforming Iraq into an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier for the United States.’ The U.S. government…


  • * Humanitarian Crisis * Lifting the Sanctions

    On Thursday, less than 24 hours after issuing a press release highlighting the apparent failures of the U.S. military’s humanitarian operations in Iraq, the international group Voices in the Wilderness was banned from meeting with the U.S. Civil Military Operations Center or with international journalists at the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. The group asks: “If the freedom to critique U.S. policies in Iraq regarding humanitarian issues is being curtailed already, then exactly what does this mean for building ‘democracy’ there?” A photo of the military’s listing of which groups are allowed into the hotel (noting in capital letters that Voices…


  • “NASA’s Strategic Plan”

    Today, NASA administrator and former Secretary of the Navy Sean O’Keefe addressed the National Press Club about “NASA’s Strategic Plan.” The following analysts are available for interviews: ALICE SLATER Director of the Global Resource Action Center for the Environment, Slater said today: “NASA’s strategic plan involves the acceleration of militarizing space. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers was head of U.S. Space Command when it published its 1998 ‘Visions for 2020’ report which talked of ‘dominating the space dimension of military operations to protect U.S. interests and investment.’ In January 2001 the space commission chaired by Donald…


  • * Syria * Iraq * Antiquities * Terrorist Groups

    JAMES ABOUREZK A former U.S. senator, Abourezk has met with high-ranking Syrian officials, including President Bashar Assad. He said today: “The proposal that Syria is reportedly putting forward at the U.N. for a Mideast free of weapons of mass destruction is a very good one.” Abourezk is in D.C. on Wednesday and Thursday. More Information SCOTT C. DAVIS Author of the new book The Road from Damascus: A Journey Through Syria, Davis recently returned from Syria; he spent the first several days of the invasion of Iraq in Syria. He has visited Syria repeatedly over the last 15 years and…


  • * Why War? * WMD * Oil * IMF — World Bank

    BILL FLETCHER President of TransAfrica Forum and co-chair of United for Peace and Justice, Fletcher said today: “The military action against Iraq is not just about controlling oil and not even just about empire. It’s about economic competition with other powers; about the Bush administration framing global capitalism in an image that it wants with its ‘new international economic architecture’ via the IMF and World Bank…. This will exacerbate the increasing economic polarization of the last 20 years, further impoverish much of the globe and send a message to all: displays of resistance will be met with force.” More Information…


  • Iraq: From Tyranny to What?

    AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California State University at Stanislaus, is closely following events in the Arabic-language as well as English-language media and can address changes in Iraq and the region. He is author of the book Bin Ladin, Islam and America’s New “War on Terrorism.” LAMIS ANDONI An independent journalist and analyst who has covered the Mideast for over two decades, Andoni is also monitoring the Arabic-language media. She knew Tareq Ayub, the Al Jazeera correspondent who was killed yesterday by the U.S. military. [The web page http://english.aljazeera.net is back up after being hacked.] Andoni said…


  • * After Saddam * Garner and Chaliabi * Rachel Corrie’s Legacy

    ANDY SHALLAL Founder of Iraqi-Americans for Peaceful Alternatives, Shallal said today: “People are happy not just because Saddam is out, but also because they anticipate the end of 12 years of economic sanctions and the bombing…. When I was a kid in Iraq, we had coups and I would go out and jump in the street because it was the coolest thing. It’s like D.C. when the Redskins win the Super Bowl. The problem is what comes after.” RICK McDOWELL Working with American Friends Service Committee, McDowell is in contact with many relief organizations in Jordan trying to get humanitarian…


  • Bush and Blair in Belfast

    SIMONA SHARONI Sharoni has specialized in Northern Ireland as well as the Middle East and can compare and analyze the two. She is a professor of peace and conflict studies and Middle East politics at Evergreen State College and executive director of the Consortium on Peace Research, Education and Development. MAIREAD CORRIGAN McGUIRE A Nobel Peace Prize laureate for her work in Northern Ireland and co-founder of the Peace People, Mairead Corrigan McGuire has been on a liquid fast since the invasion of Iraq began. She is holding a silent vigil in front of the White House every day from…


  • War Crimes?

    “To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime, it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” — International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg, 1946 [ www.zmag.org/crisescurevts/nurletter.htm] “All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state…” — U.N. Charter (Chapter I, Article 2) [www.un.org/aboutun/charter] “It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove, or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, such as…


  • “Madman Theory” in War

    Thomas Reifer contends that we are drifting into an uncontained and potentially global war in which world leaders are deliberately acting mad. This “madman” approach is particularly dangerous in the nuclear age. Today, the number of armed conflicts around the world are higher than at any time since World War II.

  • Iran and U.S. Clash at Nuclear Meeting

    “Despite being a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), since its 1979 revolution … Iran has come under unprecedented scrutiny by the IAEA. … Meanwhile, Israel — one of only four NPT non-signatories (Pakistan, India and North Korea are the others) and the only state in the Middle East actually possessing nuclear weapons –…

  • Israel Illegally Attacks Flotilla to Gaza

    “The Israel regime’s attack on yet another humanitarian flotilla is a grave breach of international humanitarian law, a violation of the law of the sea, an extension of its genocide in Palestine to international and Greek waters, and a product of the impunity granted to it by complicit Western states. The regime’s lawlessness is shared…

  • Lindsey Graham’s Path to a Civil War in Lebanon

    “The Israeli government is refusing to back down from its declared intention of seizing a large portion of southern Lebanon. Soon after the ceasefire was announced, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Tel Aviv had ‘not yet finished the job’ in Lebanon.

  • State Dept. Says Iran War “At the Request” of Israel, Claims Self-Defense in War it Started

    “The State Department said in a statement last week that the U.S. is in conflict with Iran “at the request” of Israel, an acknowledgment of Israel’s role in steering the U.S. into the war, which the U.S. has dubbed ‘Operation Epic Fury.’ The statement was issued by the State Department’s legal adviser, Reed D. Rubinstein, who attempted…

  • Israel Continues “Journocide” During “Ceasefire”

    “Israel has killed at least 14 journalists, including Khalil, in Lebanon since October 2023, according to CPJ. In Gaza, the Israeli military has killed over 260 Palestinian journalists since October 2023, making it the deadliest war for journalists ever recorded.”

  • The War Powers Resolution Is Not What You’ve Been Told

    “The same law says that a president who launches a war in any of those three situations, then has 48 hours to submit his first report explaining himself, and 60 days after that report (62 days total — plus a possible extra 30) to entirely knock it off. But none of those three situations exists.…

  • The “Wonderful” War on Iranian Pistachios

    “The Resnick family, owners of The Wonderful Company and dominant players in California’s pistachio industry, have used political influence to secure vast water rights in drought-stricken regions, at the expense of local communities. The 2025 documentary Pistachio Wars examines their longstanding backing of pro-Israel lobbying groups, arguing that hawkish policies toward Iran align with their commercial interests,…

  • Is Lebanon Giving Up Its Sovereignty for “Peace?”

    “This afternoon the young man seen running from the vehicle received a call from the Israeli army telling him he could die alone or die with his family in the car. He ran from the vehicle into a field and was struck and killed by an Israeli drone. This is not the first time that…

  • Priests Against Genocide

    “Italian priests took to the streets in Rome and other cities in late September 2025 under the banner Preti Contro il Genocidio (Priests Against Genocide). Since then, the movement has expanded rapidly, now including more than 2,200 priests-among them, bishops and cardinals-in over 54 countries.”

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