WASHINGTON - January 28 - JIM NAURECKAS, jnaureckas@fair.org, www.fair.org/press-releases/kamel.html, www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0226-01.htm, www.fair.org/extra/0305/kamel.html, www.fair.org/extra/0307/wmdhunt.html, www.fair.org/press-releases/iraq-weapons.html

David Kay testified today in Congress about his inability to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Naureckas is editor of Extra!, the magazine of FAIR, which has published numerous pieces on the "missing" weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Naureckas said today: "Media are puzzling over how the intelligence could have been so wrong about Iraqi weapons. The administration and the media both ignored the main message of Iraq's most important defector, Saddam Hussein's son-in-law Hussein Kamel: He told the U.N. and the U.S. in 1995 that all of Iraq's banned weapons had been destroyed. Press and state rejected this information for the same reason: It wasn't the story they wanted to tell."

BRIAN WILLSON, bw@brianwillson.com, www.brianwillson.com/awolkerry.html

Willson, a former U.S. Air Force captain who served in Vietnam, first met Kerry in 1971 during protests on Capitol Hill. In the 1980s, Willson was one of "Kerry's Commandos" or "the dog hunters"; and then-Lt.-Gov. Kerry appointed Willson to his Vietnam Veteran's Advisory Committee. In October 2002, Willson wrote "An Open Letter to Senator John Kerry on Iraq" the day after Kerry gave his pro-war speech in the Senate. [See: www.johnkerry.com/pressroom/speeches/spc_2002_1009.html]

GWENDOLYN MINK, grmink@verizon.net

Mink is the author of the book Welfare's End and is currently writing a book on the Democratic party. She said today: "The Kerry campaign seems to be focused on demonstrating the candidate's martial virtue to win over the warrior electorate. Combined with Kerry's unapologetic defense of his vote giving President Bush carte blanche to invade Iraq, the masculinist Kerry campaign raises disturbing questions about just how much Kerry would change current foreign and military policy. Worse, in its appeal to combat veterans, the Kerry campaign has totally ignored pressing gender issues. Kerry did not attend the Lifetime Women's Issues forum in New Hampshire on Sunday. He has not offered any proposals to advance women's equality and economic well-being, especially the equality and well-being of poor women in poor families that have been left behind. Quite the contrary. On election night in New Hampshire, Kerry pointed to his support for 'welfare reform' to prove his centrist credentials."

STEVEN KULL, skull@his.com, www.policyattitudes.org

Kull is director of the Center on Policy Attitudes and coauthor of the book Misreading the Public. He said today: "When you go through the issues, there's fairly low approval for the administration. That's the case on education, Social Security, healthcare, prescription drugs -- and even on Iraq, approval has dipped. The only area where Bush still gets good approval is the 'war on terrorism.' I don't know that the public is fully aware of how out of step the administration is with the public." [The following web page helps people determine which candidates agree with them on the issues: www.presidentmatch.com.]

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