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Coalition of the Coerced?

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Yesterday, White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer insisted that “the President is not offering quid pro quos” to other countries for their tacit support to invade Iraq. The following analysts take issue with such claims:

SARAH ANDERSON, PHYLLIS BENNIS, JOHN CAVANAGH
The Institute for Policy Studies is releasing a report today — “Coalition of the Willing or Coalition of the Coerced?” — which charges that member representatives on the U.N. Security Council are being recruited through coercion, bullying, and bribery. Anderson is a fellow at IPS specializing in global economy issues, Bennis is a Mideast and U.N. expert and Cavanagh is the director of the organization. The report is available at: www.ips-dc.org/coalition.htm.

SARAH ANDERSON, PHYLLIS BENNIS, JOHN CAVANAGH
The Institute for Policy Studies is releasing a report today — “Coalition of the Willing or Coalition of the Coerced?” — which charges that member representatives on the U.N. Security Council are being recruited through coercion, bullying, and bribery. Anderson is a fellow at IPS specializing in global economy issues, Bennis is a Mideast and U.N. expert and Cavanagh is the director of the organization. The report is available at: www.ips-dc.org/coalition.htm.

The report notes that during the build-up to the first Gulf War, the U.S. government “bribed China with post-Tienanmen Square diplomatic rehabilitation… The votes of several poor countries on the Council were purchased… And when Yemen … voted against the resolution authorizing war, a U.S. diplomat told the Yemeni ambassador, ‘that will be the most expensive “no” vote you ever cast.’ Three days later the U.S. cut its entire aid budget to Yemen.”

JAMES PAUL
Director of the Global Policy Forum, which monitors the U.N., Paul said today: “Washington is putting extreme pressure on Security Council members to vote for a new resolution that would lead towards invasion, though 11 members of the Council have said they are opposed. Meanwhile, the Bush administration has said that it will ‘act’ against Iraq — euphemism for invasion — regardless of what the U.N. does…. The text of the new resolution will not authorize war under the U.N. Charter, but Bush and Blair will portray it to their doubting publics as legitimizing the attack. If the U.S. bullies through a Council vote, it will be a public relations gambit, not an authentic expression of the will of the international community.”
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WILLIAM HARTUNG
Senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute, Hartung is author of the new article “Buying a Coalition” and “Welfare for Weapons Dealers: The Hidden Costs of NATO Expansion.”
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HENRY ROSEMONT
A leading scholar on China, Rosemont is author of several books and is currently visiting distinguished professor at Trinity University in Texas.

ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ
Co-author of the syndicated “Column of the Americas,” Rodriguez said today: “Through strong-arming, Bush expects the United Nations to behave the way legislatures function under despots: Either agree with me and rubber-stamp, or be dissolved…. The ‘coalition of the willing’ is composed primarily of the governments of former colonial European nations — though a majority of their own populations (England, Spain, Italy, Australia) strongly reject this 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