News Releases

  • The Anti-War Origins of Mother’s Day

    Each year the president issues a Mother’s Day Proclamation. The original Mother’s Day Proclamation was made in 1870. Written by Julia Ward Howe, perhaps best known today for having written the words to “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” in 1862 when she was an antislavery activist, the original Proclamation was an impassioned call for peace and disarmament. In the years following the Civil War her political activism increased, as did her condemnation of war. Here are the words to the original Mother’s Day Proclamation: “Arise then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism…


  • * Torture * Geneva Convention * Former Diplomats’ Letter * Praying for Peace

    LISA HAJJAR Hajjar wrote the article “Torture and the Future.” She said today: “Bush has finally issued statements apologizing for the treatment of Iraqis, for the ‘humiliation’ and ‘abuse’ that have shocked many. But he is not accurately describing what has been happening. It was torture; we are now finding that it has been systemic and rampant, according to an investigative report by U.S. Army General Antonio Taguba … Torture has a legal definition and consequences, and Bush is attempting to shield his administration from those consequences.” Hajjar, who teaches in the Law and Society Program at the University of…


  • Torture and War Crimes: Crucial Context

    CLIFF KINDY Kindy has spent two five-month stints over the last year and a half in Iraq with the Christian Peacemaker Team, which released a document entitled “Report and Recommendations on Iraqi Detainees” in January. Kindy has had substantial contact with Iraqi detainees and their families and with U.S. soldiers and higher-ups. More Information DAHR JAMAIL Baghdad correspondent for the Internet journal The NewStandard, Jamail has written several articles (one of them in January) about U.S. military torture of Iraqis. His most recent piece, “Telltale Signs of Torture Lead Family to Demand Answers,” is available at the above web page.…


  • WMDs: * U.S. Public Opinion * Solutions

    STEVEN KULL Kull is director of the Program on International Policy Attitudes which has recently released two studies: “U.S. Public Beliefs on Iraq and the Presidential Election” and “Americans on WMD Proliferation.” He said today: “Sixty percent of Americans believe that just before the war Iraq either had weapons of mass destruction or a major program for developing them. Few Americans perceive most experts as saying the contrary. Perceptions of what the experts are saying are highly correlated with intentions to vote for the president in the upcoming election. Among those who perceived experts as saying that Iraq had WMDs,…


  • “Global Democratic Revolution”

    GEORGE MONBIOT Monbiot, author of the new book Manifesto for a New World Order and winner of the 1995 United Nations Global 500 Award, is in New York City until Wednesday. He said today: “Many of the most important issues facing us — climate change, international debt, nuclear proliferation, war, the balance of trade between nations — can be resolved only at the global or the international level…. Our task is not to overthrow globalization, but to capture it, and to use it as a vehicle for humanity’s first global democratic revolution. “There is already a global governance system in…


  • Al-Jazeera: Blaming the Messenger?

    Secretary Rumsfeld: “I can definitively say that what al-Jazeera is doing is vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable.” Q: “Do you have a civilian casualty count?” Secretary Rumsfeld: “Of course not, we’re not in the city [Fallujah]. But you know what our forces do; they don’t go around killing hundreds of civilians. That’s just outrageous nonsense! It’s disgraceful what that station is doing.” — Donald Rumsfeld at Pentagon news conference, April 15 **** “Last week Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. defense secretary, accused the Arabic television station al-Jazeera of ‘vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable’ reporting for suggesting hundreds of civilians had died there. ‘It’s…


  • * Iraq * Bush and Cheney Before 9-11 Commission * Syria

    PHYLLIS BENNIS A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of several recent papers on Iraq at the above web page, Bennis said today: “Having a little sovereignty is like being a little pregnant. Either a country has sovereignty or it doesn’t. Under the U.S. plans, Iraq will not have real sovereignty.” More Information DENIS HALLIDAY Former head of the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq and assistant secretary general of the U.N., Halliday resigned in protest in 1998. Currently in New York, he is available until Friday for interviews on developments in Iraq. On the oil-for-food program, he…


  • Iraq: On-the-Ground Realities

    RAHUL MAHAJAN Just back from a three-week stay in Baghdad, Mahajan was in Fallujah on April 11. He is author of the book Full Spectrum Dominance: U.S. Power in Iraq and Beyond. Mahajan said today: “As the tense standoff over Fallujah and Najaf continues, we need to be clear about some things. U.S. actions include the occupation and deliberate closure of at least two hospitals and numerous cases of sniping at clearly-marked ambulances, including ambulances that had no fighters or weapons. The killing of likely well over 600 people following the killing of four Blackwater Security mercenaries is a heinous…


  • Interviews Available on Negroponte: * Meaning of “Sovereignty” * Support for Death Squads

    ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS Conteris is a Latin America human rights activist. He was detained and released in the Capitol after speaking up Tuesday at U.N. Ambassador John Negroponte’s Senate confirmation hearing on his nomination to be ambassador to Iraq. Negroponte was U.S. ambassador to Honduras during the Nicaragua Contra war in the early 1980s. At the hearing Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) asked Negroponte if “the sovereign Iraqi government of July 1 would not have veto authority over military involvement in [a situation like] Fallujah? … If they have sovereignty, Mr. Ambassador, what does that mean? …” Negroponte: “That is why…


  • “A Politics for Reproductive Justice”

    GWENDOLYN MINK Mink is the author of the book Welfare’s End and is scheduled as a speaker at the March for Women’s Lives on April 25 in Washington. She said today: “On Sunday, women of color of all classes and low income women of all races will raise new voices in the struggle for reproductive liberty. The March for Women’s Lives will transform the politics of ‘choice’ into a politics for reproductive justice. The struggle for reproductive justice is about more than Roe v. Wade. It’s about securing both rights and resources that assure every woman equality as a reproductive…


  • Trump Dominates UN, Israel Ethnically Cleanses in Lebanon

    “The UN Security Council will consider another outrageous resolution [Friday], this time drafted by Bahrain (the current UNSC President and a US-Israel ally). A month into the U.S.-Israel unlawful aggression on Iran, the draft is entirely silent on the aggression, its perpetrators, and on ending the attacks, and instead seeks to expand the conflict by…

  • The DNC’s Disconnect with Democrats on Israel

    As the Democratic National Committee, the governing body of the Democratic Party, prepares to convene its semiannual meeting on April 9 in New Orleans, activists are pushing to bring the party into line with the views of registered Democrats on Israel. The DNC Resolutions Committee will meet to consider 32 proposed resolutions, including seven resolutions…

  • Trump: Threats, Lies and Videotape

    “In a primetime address, President Donald Trump reiterated his threat to destroy Iranian energy infrastructure and provided no timeline for an end to his illegal war.”

  • Statement from the Board of Directors and Executive Director of the Institute for Public Accuracy

    The Institute for Public Accuracy has received dismayed inquiries about a recent post on the personal X account of Sam Husseini, who is IPA’s communications director and senior analyst. The post––“BREAKING: Iran kills FIVE BILLION PEOPLE”––was not attributed to or in any way endorsed by IPA, nor would such content ever appear on an IPA…

  • Misleading Spin About the SAVE Act

    The SAVE Act would “throw up obstacles for all voters, making it more difficult for them to access their rights,” FAIR media analyst Julie Hollar writes. She argues that many mainstream media outlets have failed to properly cover the dangers of the SAVE Act or to debunk Republicans’ false claims about voter fraud, instead falling…

  • Jewish Power Party Wins Death Penalty by Noose

    “The Knesset’s approved legislation will no longer perform the death penalty via lethal injection but rather transform the execution of Palestinian detainees into a colonial spectacle. In other words, the original mode of colonial execution has been restored as the chosen method of capital punishment par excellence.“

  • Murderers Who Flee to Israel

    “A member of an offshoot of the Jewish Defense League — designated by the FBI as a ‘known violent extremist organization’ — was allegedly building explosive devices to target the home of Nerdeen Kiswani in a chilling act of political violence. The defendant reportedly planned to flee to Israel following the attack.”

  • Israel Committing “Journocide”

    “What we’re see is journocide — an attempt at killing all those who risk their lives to get on-the-ground information to us.”

  • Pentagon Protests

    On Thursday, McGovern spoke at and moderated the event “Press Briefing: Imminent Threat — or Ruse? Intel on Iran a Flashback to Iraq?“ organized by the Eisenhower Media Network at the National Press Club. He was a top CIA analyst for decades and a founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. Thursday evening, he went…

  • Subimperial” BRICS: “Talk Left, Walk Right”

    “Subimperial BRICS bloc is the rabies-addled ‘dog that didn’t bark,’ when confronted by even Trump’s excesses of imperialism and Netanyahu’s genocide. But occasionally when some in the pack do bark left, we should not be distracted or surprised when – as any Palestinian knows — they simultaneously bite right.”

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