Iraq War News (www.iraqwarnews.org) is the newest venture of the Public Education Center (PEC), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has operated the National Security News Service (NSNS) since 1989 and the Natural Resources News Service (NRNS) since 1993. At PEC, it is our belief that a well-informed citizenry makes better decisions in their personal and public lives. Thus, it is our mission to educate the public on crucial national security, human rights, and environmental issues through a unique relationship with the mass media.

Our career investigative reporters seek out substantive stories the media overlook amid the welter of daily deadlines, research the fundamentals, then offer them at no charge to major news outlets for further development and ultimately dissemination to tens of millions of people. Over the past eighteen years, this cost-effective method has been responsible for a significant number of ground-breaking stories on national security and environmental issues that otherwise would have gone unreported. Our work has appeared in books, magazines, on all the major television networks, and in every significant print outlet in the United States and overseas.

Stories we have developed have exposed covert US military aid to Saddam Hussein; a multi-billion dollar program to secretly resume above-ground nuclear testing (ultimately reported by CBS and the New York Times); video and details of a clandestine war game in Guam in which a nuclear weapon was lost (ABC news); a surreptitious arms deal between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the head of Peruvian intelligence (reported in Lima’s La Republic, that story brought down the Peruvian regime); and the first reports on private armies operating in Africa in exchange for conflict diamonds (60 Minutes and others). We provided assistance to numerous news organizations in uncovering the A.Q. Khan nuclear network and most recently reported on retired officials acting as paid network consultants (New York Times).

We are launching www.iraqwarnews.org to support the reporters, editors, and producers who believe, as we do, that there is a correlation between media coverage of the war and the public’s ability to make informed decisions about events in Iraq. It is unacceptable for major news outlets to reduce their commitment to Iraq war coverage, as they have done, when the stakes are so high. Our goal at Iraq War News is to provide nonpartisan, unbiased, authoritative information about the war in the belief that the truth about the war speaks for itself. We want to be the go-to outlet for information about the war 24-7, to keep it foremost in the minds of the public, decision-makers, and the media.

Every day, we will attempt to bring to light the best reporting, the most insightful interviews, and the most revealing documents about events surrounding the war. The site also will attempt to give voice to those who have experienced the war in ways that will shed new light on what for many is an inexplicable chapter in our national experience.

We welcome other news organizations—print, broadcast, and web—to pick up the stories, photos, and documents we post to our site, as long as they are fairly credited. We hope you will make www.iraqwarnews.org a regular stop on your web rounds. If you have a suggestion, contribution, complaint, or question, email or call us at anytime.