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· Yeltsin · Tillman/Lynch Falsehoods

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DAVID KOTZ
Coauthor (with Fred Weir) of the new book Russia’s Path from Gorbachev to Putin, Kotz said today: “Yeltsin did not bring freedom and democracy to Russia, as we are so often told. These were substantially achieved under Gorbachev in the last years of the Soviet Union. Yelstin rode these reforms to power, then presided over the giveaway of Russia’s valuable assets to high officials and financial operators. Yeltsin’s gradual constriction of democracy in the 1990s was the logical outcome of his policies, which impoverished the great majority while enriching a favored few. This laid the groundwork for the increasingly repressive Russian state we see today.” Kotz is professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.
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JOHN R. MACARTHUR
UPI reports that Army Ranger Pat Tillman’s brother Kevin Tillman told the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the government had told “deliberate and calculated lies” about his brother’s death. The panel also heard testimony regarding the alleged rescue of Jessica Lynch.

MacArthur is publisher of Harper’s Magazine and author of the book Second Front: Censorship and Propaganda in the Gulf War. He said today: “During virtually every war, the government has tried to cover up incidents of ‘friendly fire’ and fragging (when enlisted men kill their officers). What’s remarkable about this government is the shamelessness with which they take their own poster boys, people who really thought they were doing the right thing, and use them like widgets.

“But this is largely an outcome of when the initial rationale for war is based on lies. The government claims it’s trying to free a people or get rid of weapons of mass destruction, when in fact it has other goals. When you start with lies and have to keep covering up, they multiply.”

In October 2002, MacArthur wrote the article “Sounds Fishy, Mr. President: To Drum Up Rage Against Iraq, Bush Senior and Junior Have Been Known to Tell Tall Tales.” In early 2003, he wrote the piece “The Lies We Bought: The Unchallenged ‘Evidence’ For War.”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167