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WASHINGTON
- April 9 -
AS'AD ABUKHALIL,
abukhali@toto.csustan.edu
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,
LamisAndoni@yahoo.com
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 today: "As much as
Arab people want dictators to go, they don't want more U.S.-installed
regimes or more occupations. The U.N. should not allow the U.S.
to be installing regimes."
ROGER NORMAND,
rnormand@cesr.org, www.cesr.org
Executive director of the Center for Economic and Social Rights,
Normand said today: "Scenes of Iraqi jubilation at the end of
Saddam Hussein's oppressive rule come as no surprise to human
rights groups that have documented the Iraqi government's crimes
for over two decades. But this reaction should not be manipulated
by U.S. war planners to justify replacing an indigenous dictatorship
with a foreign military occupation designed to channel Iraq's
oil wealth to western companies like Halliburton. As an occupying
power under the Geneva Conventions, the U.S. now assumes two primary
legal obligations: first, to end the occupation as soon as possible
without installing either U.S. military rule or a U.S. puppet
over the country; and second, to allow independent humanitarian
relief agencies unimpeded access (not subject to Pentagon command)
to address the grave humanitarian crisis caused by war and sanctions."
ROBERT MÉNARD,
middle-east@rsf.org,
www.rsf.org
Secretary-general of Reporters Without Borders, Ménard said about
Tuesday's killings of several journalists: "The U.S. Army deliberately
and without warning targeted journalists."
NORMAN SOLOMON,
norman@accuracy.org,
www.accuracy.org,
www.contextbooks.com/new.html#target
Co-author of Target Iraq, Solomon visited Baghdad three times
last fall and winter. He said today: "The killing of journalists
at the Palestine Hotel is a reflection of Pentagon priorities
-- civilians are readily expendable if they get in the way. And
the U.S. attack that killed a journalist at the Al Jazeera office
reflects a 'might makes right' approach. We should condemn any
regime that endeavors to kill journalists because of their reporting.
Clearly the Bush administration falls into that category." Solomon
is executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy.
ROBERT JENSEN,
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu,
www.nowarcollective.com
Journalism professor at the University of Texas at Austin and
author of the book Writing Dissent, Jensen noted that while there
is a focus on some images -- like Hussein's statue going down
-- others, like Iraqi civilian deaths, are downplayed. [The new
web page www.RegularEverydayPeople.com
shows realities of war and terror.]
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