News Release Archive - War: Info, Analysis, Policy Options

The Hill reported Tuesday that Sen. Rand Paul’s, R-Ky., actions in the Senate “might cause the Patriot Act to lapse at the end of the week.”

BRUCE FEIN, bruce at thelichfieldgroup.com
Fein was deputy attorney general under President Ronald Reagan and is author of “Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy” and “American Empire: Before the Fall.”

This week he testified against the PATRIOT Act on behalf of the Campaign for Liberty. He said: “The 342-page USA PATRIOT Act passed without inquiry into whether arming the government with muscular investigatory tools justified the corresponding intrusions on the right to be left alone — the right most valued by civilized people. The PATRIOT Act was portrayed as a necessary defense against foreign agents and international terrorists. Citizen liberties were relegated to extras in a Cecil B. De Mille cinematic extravaganza. …

“The PATRIOT Act was misnamed. Thomas Paine lectured: ‘It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from its government.’ Accordingly, the true patriots of the Constitution and the Republic are the ‘band of brothers’ who stood or are standing in opposition. They understand that the secret of happiness is freedom. And the secret of freedom is the courage to accept risk as inherent to an enlightened and civilized existence.”

SHAHID BUTTAR, also, via Amy E. Ferrer,  media@bordc.org, http://www.bordc.org
Buttar is executive director of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee. He said today: “Congress is currently debating whether to reauthorize a handful of government surveillance powers among a vast range created by the PATRIOT Act ten years ago. The most problematic provisions of the PATRIOT Act are not part of the discussion, and the three that are have been insulated from criticism by the leadership in both the House and Senate, which have avoided and actively suppressed debate. [Read more...]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will address a joint meeting of Congress tomorrow.

NOURA ERAKAT, nourae at mac.com
Erakat works as an adjunct professor of international human rights law in the Middle East at Georgetown University and is the U.S.-based legal advocacy coordinator for the Badil Center for Palestinian Refugee and Residency Rights. She is also a contributing editor to Jadaliyya.com.

She said recently on Democracy Now: “What Israel has been doing is trying to create its own de facto borders, and therefore not recognizing that there is an armistice line [the 1967 border].”

SAM HUSSEINI, samhusseini at gmail.com, washingtonstakeout.com
Communications director for the Institute for Public Accuracy, Husseini recently wrote the piece “The Absurd U.S. Stance on Israel’s Nukes: A Video Sampling of Denial,” which states: “The upshot of the professional wrestling ‘fight’ between Obama and Netanyahu the last several days is that they both want the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be decided by ‘negotiations between the parties.’ These ‘negotiations’ are between a nuclear armed Goliath Israel and largely defenseless Palestinians. It’s like ‘negotiations’ between the Corleone family and a bandleader — except we’re not even supposed to notice the Corleone family comes to the table with huge guns drawn.”

ABBA SOLOMON, abbasolomon at gmail.com
Solomon is the author of the new book The Speech, and Its Context: Jacob Blaustein’s Speech, ‘The Meaning of Palestine Partition to American Jews. Solomon addressed efforts by Palestinians to achieve statehood by going to the United Nations. He said: “The Israeli and U.S. governments are saying [such moves] would be ‘anti-peace’ because [they would be] unilateral (i.e., without Israeli approval).” Solomon notes however: “In 1947 and early 1948, some Jewish factions felt it was important to reach [an] agreement with Arab Palestinians, but were over-ruled by militants who disparaged the idea of reaching agreement, and celebrated the decision later.” In his book he notes: “Discussing [Judah] Magnes and his Ehud group, which had been for a negotiated, bi-national state, [Former Israeli Foreign Minister Abba] Eban said: ‘The doctrine of “established fact” has been entirely vindicated against that of “prior consent.”‘”

RAE ABILEA, codepink.rae at gmail.com
Abiela is spokesperson and media coordinator for Move Over AIPAC [American Israel Public Affairs Committee], which held a conference this weekend in Washington, D.C. coinciding with AIPAC’s own annual convention. Among those at the Move Over AIPAC conference were Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, Jewish Voice for Peace Director Rebecca Vilkomerson, editor of “The Only Democracy” Jesse Bacon, Donna Nevel of “Jews Say No!” and Hanna King of the group Young, Jewish, and Proud. Epstein explained her desire to attend the conference, saying that “AIPAC pretends to speak for all Jews, but it certainly does not speak for me or other members of the Jewish community in this country who are committed to equal rights for all.” See: “Protesters create stir before Obama speech.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

AIMEE ALLISON, aimee at rootsaction.org
Co-Executive Director of RootsAction, Allison said today: “Obama will need the support of progressives in his reelection bid, but the biggest issues — from closing Guantanamo to ending war in Iraq to protecting the social safety net haven’t been addressed.” The group released a video today titled “Louder Than Words” featured on their webpage: RootsAction.org.

KEVIN GRAY, kevinagray57 at gmail.com
Today is Malcolm X’s birthday. Gray is author of The Decline of Black Politics: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama. He said today: “Cornel West for all his class contradictions isn’t so far off the mark when he says ‘Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men.’ Obama’s White House can have the black entertainment-minstrel class come to the White House through a revolving door because they’re safe. Yet meeting with black leadership — elected and not, to include the black press — has to be done behind closed doors or with no record of what was discussed behind those doors.

“And in the face of depression-level unemployment in the black community, Obama’s response to black critics is ‘cut me some slack’ instead of ‘make me do it.’

“If Malcolm X were alive — and had for the most part, the same politics he had at the time of his death — no doubt Obama would repudiate Malcolm and his history quicker than he rejected Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan.

“Barack Obama is for protecting empire, structural white supremacy and the global capitalist elites, that’s the job he volunteered to do. Malcolm was for the recognition of human and civil rights protections for all individuals.”

Background: IPA news release, “Malcolm X’s Legacy” which includes quotes from Malcolm X

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167

JOSEPH MASSAD, jam25 at columbia.edu
Massad is associate professor of modern Arab politics and intellectual history at Columbia University. He said today that Obama’s “silence on demonstrations in monarchies (Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan, Morocco) and the mild criticisms of Yemen stood in stark contrast with the vehemence of his criticisms of Syria and Libya. The belated mention of Bahrain stood out as a sign of a lack of courage, as now weeks after the Bahraini revolution has been crushed through use of a U.S.-supplied and supported Gulf mercenary force, Obama mustered the courage to speak about ongoing arrests there. In the case of Syria, the criticisms started from day one.”

Massad recently wrote the piece: “The future of the Arab uprisings: The U.S., with its allies, has already begun plans to subvert the Arab Spring to save its own regional hegemony,” which states: “The situation in Arab countries today is characterized as much by the counter-revolution sponsored by the Saudi regime and the United States as it is by the uprisings of the Arab peoples against U.S.-sponsored dictatorial regimes.

“While the U.S.-Saudi axis was caught unprepared for the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings, they quickly made contingency plans to counter the uprisings elsewhere, especially in Bahrain and Oman, but also in Jordan and Yemen, as well as take control of the uprisings in Libya (at first) and later in Syria. Attempts to take control of the Yemeni uprising have had mixed results so far.”

NICK TURSE, nat9 at columbia.edu
Turse is a fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute and author of The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan. He recently wrote the piece “Obama’s Reset: Arab Spring or Same Old Thing? How the President and the Pentagon Prop Up Both Middle Eastern Despots and American Arms Dealers,” which states: “For months now, the world has watched as protesters have taken to the streets across the Middle East to demand a greater say in their lives. In Tunisia and Egypt, they toppled decades-old dictatorships. In Bahrain and Yemen, they were shot down in the streets as they demanded democracy. In the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, they called for reforms, free speech, and basic rights, and ended up bloodied and often in jail cells. In Iraq, they protested a lack of food and jobs, and in response got bullets and beatings.

“As the world watched, trained eyes couldn’t help noticing something startling about the tools of repression in those countries. The armored personnel carriers, tanks, and helicopters used to intimidate or even kill peaceful protesters were often American models.

“For decades, the U.S. has provided military aid, facilitated the sale of weaponry, and transferred vast quantities of arms to a host of Middle Eastern despots. Arming Arab autocrats, however, isn’t only the work of presidents past. A TomDispatch analysis of Pentagon documents finds that the Obama administration has sought to send billions of dollars in weapons systems — from advanced helicopters to fighter jets — to the very regimes that have beaten, jailed, and killed pro-democracy demonstrators, journalists, and reform activists throughout the Arab Spring.”

Turse is associate editor of TomDispatch.com, one of the webpages blocked to State Department employees. In his speech at the State Department today Obama lauded internet freedom: wemeantwell.com.

Reuters report: “U.S. announces $60 billion arms sale for Saudi Arabia”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167