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…


  • “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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