August, 27 2008, 06:51pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020, (202) 421-6858; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167
Biden and Dividing Iraq
WASHINGTON
Reuters
recently reported: "Across racial and religious boundaries, Iraqi
politicians ... bemoaned Democratic presidential contender Barack
Obama's choice of running mate, known in Iraq as the author of a 2006
plan to divide the country into ethnic and sectarian enclaves."
VERA BEAUDIN SAEEDPOUR
Editor of Kurdish Life and the International Journal of Kurdish Studies,
Saeedpour is available for a limited number of in-depth interviews. She
said today: "Remember when Biden based his candidacy in the Democratic
primary on his plan to partition Iraq? Alas, the plan was not of his
making. It was made in Israel as part of a larger plan to 'break up the
Sea of Arabs,' in other words to divide the Middle East along ethnic
and sectarian lines in order to guarantee Israel regional hegemony. The
messenger was Council on Foreign Relations head Leslie Gelb, who
boasted that he had persuaded Biden to come aboard during a
three-and-a-half hour hold-over in an airport lounge. ..."
AARON GLANTZ
Author of the book How America Lost Iraq and co-author of the upcoming book Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan,
Glantz reported extensively from Iraq as an unembedded journalist from
2003 to 2005. He has been covering U.S. war veterans since his return.
Glantz said today: "Very few politicians have been wrong more on Iraq
than Biden. He was wrong when he voted for the invasion of Iraq and and
his ideas for managing the occupation of Iraq have been consistently
awful. His efforts to force the Bush administration to split Iraq in
three has helped fan the flames of civil war. Iraqis have been hopeful
about the possibility of change that would come with the election of
Barack Obama, but in Biden they will actually get someone with a record
worse than George Bush."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
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"The United States has been a leader in the global fight to eradicate polio, which is poised to become only the second disease in history to be eliminated from the face of the earth after smallpox," said Liza Barrie, Public Citizen's campaign director for global vaccines access. "Undermining polio vaccination efforts now risks reversing decades of progress and unraveling one of the greatest public health achievements of all time."
Public Citizen is among various organizations that have criticized President-elect Donald Trump's choice of Kennedy to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, with the watchdog's co-president, Robert Weissman, saying that "he shouldn't be allowed in the building... let alone be placed in charge of the nation's public health agency."
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According to the newspaper:
Mr. Siri is also representing ICAN in petitioning the FDA to "pause distribution" of 13 other vaccines, including combination products that cover tetanus, diphtheria, polio, and hepatitis A, until their makers disclose details about aluminum, an ingredient researchers have associated with a small increase in asthma cases.
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The Times pointed out that experts consider placebo-controlled trials that would deny some children polio shots unethical, because "you're substituting a theoretical risk for a real risk," as Dr. Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, explained. "The real risks are the diseases."
Ayman Chit, head of vaccines for North America at Sanofi, told the newspaper that development of the vaccine began in 1977, over 280 million people worldwide have received it, and there have been more than 300 studies, some with up to six months of follow-up.
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Asked about RFK Jr.'s anti-vaccine record during a Time "Person of the Year" interview published Thursday, the president-elect said that "we're going to be able to do very serious testing" and certain vaccines could be made unavailable "if I think it's dangerous."
Trump toldNBC News last weekend: "Hey, look, I'm not against vaccines. The polio vaccine is the greatest thing. If somebody told me to get rid of the polio vaccine, they're going to have to work real hard to convince me. I think vaccines are—certain vaccines—are incredible. But maybe some aren't. And if they aren't, we have to find out."
Both comments generated concern—like the Friday reporting in the Times, which University of Alabama law professor and MSNBC columnist Joyce White Vance called "absolutely terrifying."
She was far from alone. HuffPost senior front page editor Philip Lewis said that "this is just so dangerous and ridiculous" while Zeteo founder Mehdi Hasan declared, "We are so—and I use this word advisedly—fucked."
Ryan Cooper, managing editor at The American Prospect, warned that "they want your kids dead."
Author and musician Mikel Jollett similarly said, "So if you're wondering if Donald Trump is trying to kill your kids, yes, yes he is."
Multiple critics altered Trump's campaign slogan to "Make Polio Great Again."
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) responded with a video on social media:
Without naming anyone, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), a polio survivor, put out a lengthy statement on Friday.
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Others have called on Biden—who earlier this month pardoned his son Hunter Biden after promising he wouldn't—to grant clemency to people including Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier and environmental lawyer Steven Donziger.
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As Israel continues to decimate the Gaza Strip with American weapons, 77 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives this week demanded that the Biden administration "provide a full assessment of the status of Israel's compliance with all relevant U.S. policies and laws, including National Security Memorandum 20 (NSM-20) and Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act."
Reps. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), and Chrissy Houlahan (D-Pa.) spearheaded the Thursday letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, with less than six weeks left in President Joe Biden's term.
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