“I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. … “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world…

MELINDA MILES Founder and director of Let Haiti Live, a project of TransAfrica Forum, Miles has been doing relief and advocacy work on Haiti for more than a decade. She said today: “One year after Haiti’s devastating earthquake, there are over 1 million IDP’s [internally displaced persons], over 3,600 have died from a cholera epidemic…

In the U.S. till Thursday, Andy Worthington is author of The Guantánamo Files: The Stories of the 774 Detainees in America’s Illegal Prison. He just wrote the piece “Guantánamo Forever?” He is co-director of the film “Outside the Law: Stories from Guantánamo.”

Author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, Frederick Clarkson is editor of the book Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America. He is founder of the interactive blog “Talk to Action” about the religious right. He said today: “Jared Loughner may be many things. If police…

Miyoko Sakashita is senior attorney and director of the Oceans Program at the Center for Biological Diversity. She said today: “The Commission’s report confirms that the oil industry cannot be trusted, and the federal government is also to blame for being asleep at the wheel. There are systemic problems at the Department of the Interior…

In response to reports that the House will be reading aloud the Constitution on Thursday, attorney Robert Meeropol — founder and executive director of the Rosenberg Fund for Children — said today: “I hope that if that happens, Congress will take special note of Article III, Section 3, that defines treason, since rumors have been…

Bruce Fein was Associate Deputy Attorney General and General Counsel to the Federal Communications Commission under President Reagan and is author of the new book “American Empire: Before the Fall.” He recently wrote a piece titled “Ten Congressional Commandments,” which states: “The Constitution exclusively empowers Congress to authorize the initiation of war under Article I,…

David Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based journalist, author and founder of the online newspaper ThisCantBeHappening.net. He just wrote the piece “A Profound and Jarring Disconnect,” which states: “According to the latest poll conducted by CBS ’60 Minutes’ and the magazine Vanity Fair, 61 percent of Americans want to raise taxes on the wealthy as the primary…

Junaid Ahmad is assistant professor of law at Lahore University of Management Sciences in Pakistan. He said today: “The assassination of the ruling party’s governor of Pakistan’s largest province, the Punjab, adds one more to the list of high-profile political assassinations in the country. … The assassination and the chaos that has ensued happen at…

William Hartung, director of the Arms and Security Initiative at the New America Foundation and author of the new book Prophets of War: Lockheed Martin and the Making of the Military-Industrial Complex, said today: “The revelations of aggressive U.S. government advocacy for Boeing airliner deals underscore the extent to which U.S. foreign policy has become…