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Major Foreign Policy Issues: Austrian Neo-Nazis, Sanctions on Iraq, NATO and War Crimes, Israeli Nukes

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MARTIN A. LEE
The author of “The Beast Reawakens,” a recent book about neofascism and right-wing extremism in Europe and the U.S., Lee said today: “The inclusion of Jorg Haider’s Freedom Party, a movement with openly fascist roots, in the national governing coalition in Austria is one of the most dangerous developments in contemporary European politics. Holocaust-deniers and neofascist ideologues are influential figures within the Freedom Party, and its dramatic rise to power has coincided with a sharp increase in racist violence in Austria, where shocking levels of anti-Semitism persist. There is reason to be concerned about a spillover effect on German politics.”

KATHY KELLY
Coordinator of Voices in the Wilderness, Kelly and her colleagues have been on a fast in front of the Capitol for nearly three weeks. They have been threatened with fines and imprisonment for unauthorized delivery of medicine and toys to Iraq. She said: “Yesterday, the Red Cross confirmed the findings of each of our 30 delegations to Iraq — hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children are unjustly paying the price for the U.S./UN economic sanctions.” Also this week, 70 members of Congress sent a letter to President Clinton (prepared by Reps. Tom Campbell and John Conyers) calling for an end to the economic sanctions.
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WALTER ROCKLER
Rockler, a former prosecutor at the Nuremberg War Crimes Trials and the first head of the Nazi-hunting unit of the Justice Department, said today of attempts by Canadian attorneys and other lawyers to prosecute NATO officials: “NATO policymakers clearly are guilty of war crimes in Yugoslavia, but the prosecution staff of the [International Criminal] Tribunal [for the Former Yugoslavia] is not independent, so they are not going to charge those who effectively appointed them. It’s like asking administration officials to jail their boss.”

SAM DAY
Former editor of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and coordinator of the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu, Day said: “Yesterday, due to the efforts of Issam Makhoul, a Palestinian member of the Knesset, the Israeli people were exposed to the truth of the massive Israeli nuclear arsenal by one of their own. But it was a dark day for the Knesset, which refused to listen as Makhoul was cut off by the assembly speaker halfway through his presentation. Makhoul noted that Israel is sitting on a time bomb, something that could trigger a nuclear holocaust in the Mideast and could cause an environmental disaster.”
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For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167