MERIP
Media Resource List, June 27, 2005
AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS
on the following topic:
- Bush to address the nation about Iraq on June 28
JAMES
PAUL
James Paul is executive
director of the Global Policy Forum in New York. He is founding
chair of the NGO Working Group on the UN Security Council
and author of well over 100 articles and reviews. In anticipation
of Bush's speech on Iraq, he said today: “The world now knows
from the Downing Street leaks that George W. Bush manipulated
facts and intelligence to sell his policy of war in Iraq. In
the United States, fear-driven public gullibility has steadily
given way to skepticism and opposition. Further lies and phony
promises of Iraqi democracy from an oil-besotted president
are unlikely to win back public support for his sordid and
morally bankrupt adventure.”
SAMI
ZUBAIDA
Sami Zubaida is professor emeritus of politics and sociology,
Birkbeck College, University of London. His research and writing
focus on religion, law and nationalism in the culture and
politics of the Middle East, including politics and society
in Iraq in the twentieth century. He
said today: “There is very little hope of ending the insurgency
in Iraq in the foreseeable future. Negotiating with amenable
Sunni Arab elements to bring them into government is good,
but will it work? By all accounts, the Baath Party is regrouping.
They cannot easily overcome the now entrenched Shia and Kurds,
so will this lead to civil war? How committed is the Bush
administration to Kurdish rights, especially if a Sunni-Shiite
Arab deal is brokered at the expense of the Kurds?”
CHRIS
TOENSING
Chris Toensing is editor of Middle East Report and
executive director of the Middle East Research and Information
Project. He said today: “Americans may hear a smidgen more
straight talk on Iraq than they are accustomed to when Bush
speaks tomorrow. The grim realities are too obvious to deny
completely. Public backing for the Iraq war may have gone
south for good, but far greater and more organized dissent
will be required to compel this highly ideological administration
to change its policy dramatically. The reason, in a word,
is oil.”
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