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  • An Analysis of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441

    as Adopted on November 8, 2002 The Security Council, Recalling all its previous relevantresolutions, in particular its resolutions 661 (1990) of 6 August 1990, 678(1990) of 29 November 1990, 686 (1991) of 2 March 1991, 687 (1991) of 3 April1991, 688 (1991) of 5 April 1991, 707 (1991) of 15 August 1991, 715 (1991) of 11October 1991, 986 (1995) of 14 April 1995, and 1284 (1999) of 17 December 1999,and all the relevant statements of its President, PhyllisBennis, fellow at the Institute for PolicyStudies and author of the newbook Before and After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the September 11thCrisis:”According to…

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  • Detailed Analysis of October 7, 2002 Speech by Bush on Iraq

    Thank you for that very gracious and warm Cincinnati welcome. I’m honored to be here tonight. I appreciate you all coming. Tonight I want to take a few minutes to discuss a grave threat to peace and America’s determination to lead the world in confronting that threat. The threat comes from Iraq. It arises directly from the Iraqi regime’s own actions, its history of aggression and its drive toward an arsenal of terror. Chris Toensing, editor of Middle East Report: “This might indicate that Iraq is actively threatening the peace in the region. There is no evidence whatsoever that Iraq…

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  • A Detailed Analysis of the Draft UN Security Council Resolution Proposed by the U.S. Government

    (Latest publicly available version, October 23, 2002) PP1 Recalling all its previous relevant resolutions, in particular its resolutions 661 (1990) of 6 August 1990, 686 (1991) of 2 March 1991, 678 (1990) of 29 November 1990, 687 (1991) of 3 April 1991, 688 (1991) of 5 April 1991, 986 (1995) of 14 April 1995, and 1284 (1999) of 17 December 1999, and all the relevant statements of its President, PP2 Recognizing the threat Iraq’s noncompliance with Security Council resolutions and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles poses to international peace and security, Rahul Mahajan [www.rahulmahajan.com], author of…

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  • UN Security Council Resolutions Being Violated by U.S. Allies

    The following are some of the UN Security Council resolutions being violated by U.S. allies: Resolution 252 (1968) Israel: Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures that change the legal status of Jerusalem, including the expropriation of land and properties thereon. http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/bdd57d15a29f428d85256c3800701fc4/46f2803d78a0488e852560c3006023a8!OpenDocument 262 (1968) Israel: Calls upon Israel to pay compensation to Lebanon for destruction of airliners at Beirut International Airport. http://domino.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/bdd57d15a29f428d85256c3800701fc4/74cff7bff73f9ea1852560c30061d11b!OpenDocument 353 (1974) Turkey: Calls on nations to respect the sovereignty, independence, and territorial integrity of Cyprus and for the withdrawal without delay of foreign troops from Cyprus. www.pio.gov.cy/docs/un/security_council/res_353.htm 379 (1975) Morocco: Calls for the withdrawal of foreign forces…

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  • Is God “Neutral”?

    WASHINGTON — Ever since Sept. 11, some American religious leaders have been outspoken in calling for a peaceful response and respect for civil liberties. Their perspectives contrast sharply with President Bush’s bellicose invocations of religious rhetoric, as in his Sept. 20 address to Congress when he declared that “God is not neutral.” “Christians have a ‘just war’ teaching that in theory can be used to judge any war. In practice, the teaching serves to bless rather than judge wars,” said Sister Evelyn Mattern, a program associate at the North Carolina Council of Churches. “For example, the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops…

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  • As Bombs Fall, Critics Question U.S. Approach

    WASHINGTON – As the United States continued with air attacks on targets in Afghanistan, dubbed “strategic military locations” by Pentagon officials, peace advocates found their struggle pushed to the forefront. The U.S. strikes, comprised of cruise missiles launched from remote locations and bomber raids, were initial steps of what President Bush described as a “sustained, comprehensive and relentless” campaign against Taliban forces. According to the Washington Post, the attacks focused on Taliban strongholds in the south of Afghanistan, damaging airports and other military facilities in Kabul and Kandahar. Critics of the campaign questioned the approach behind these “strategic” strikes.

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  • Critics Blast Bush’s Call for “Lengthy Campaign”

    WASHINGTON – When President Bush took the national pulpit on September 20 to address a joint session of Congress, he faced perhaps his greatest challenge since his inauguration. Mainstream media pundits spoke at length of his need to rise to the occasion — to solidify the nation’s commitment to fighting terrorism. With the chamber’s applause still audible, the reports were already coming out. Bush’s approval rating had risen ten more points, to an astronomical 91 percent. His singling out of common citizens — some of whom sat in the audience — had captured the allegiance of skeptics. His calls for…

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  • Rethinking Welfare Reform

    WASHINGTON — With re-authorization of key “welfare reform” legislation due in the coming year, activists are mobilizing to place the rights of minorities and women foremost on the agenda. Many indict the current system — established by the 1996 passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act — as a racist and gender-biased structure that keeps the poor in poverty and further burdens disadvantaged families. The five-year-old legislation has in fact reduced welfare rolls. A White House report in 2000 said that the number of Americans on welfare had decreased from 5.5 percent in 1993 to 2.3 percent…

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  • Uncontrolled Burn: How congress is adding fuel to the western wildfires

    As wildfires rage through woodland in the West, critics are questioning the federal government’s role in protecting the National Forests. Recently, President Bush proposed a $175 million increase in commercial timber sales on public lands — a move that, along with a planned repeal of the “roadless rule” established by former President Clinton, has many suspicious of where the Bush administration’s true agenda lies. Big forest fires make the news every summer. Last year, over 7 million acres of U.S. land burned during wildfire season. Many forest advocates believe that wildfires are a naturally occurring, healthy phenomenon and should, to…

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  • Are Americans “Vacation Starved”?

    WASHINGTON — When President Bush clocked out to start on a 30-day vacation at his Texas ranch, a collective lament was in the air from much of the population: “When do we get a break?” The vacation brings to 52 days the president’s total vacation time since his swearing-in last January, a number that dwarfs the average eight days of vacation most U.S. small business employees receive each year, according to Joe Robinson, director of the Work to Live campaign. Robinson, declaring America to be “the most vacation-starved country in the industrialized world,” is one of many people leading the…

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  • Wall Street and Washington Downgrade America

    SCOTT KLINGER, scottklinger at businessforsharedprosperity.org Klinger is Director of Tax Policy for Business for Shared Prosperity, a network of forward-thinking business owners, executives and investors committed to building enduring economic progress on a strong foundation of opportunity, equity and innovation. He said today: “Wall Street and its Washington representatives downgraded America with disinvestment in Main…

  • Remembering Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the Age of Fukushima

    “Against the backdrop of the disastrous Fukushima nuclear plant accident, I will speak of the absolute need for Japan to not only work to ban nuclear weapons but also to completely eradicate dependence on nuclear energy.” -Matashichi Oishi, a radiation victim from Bikini Atoll, the site of a U.S. hydrogen bomb test in 1954. See:…

  • U.S. “Special Operations” Forces Expanding

    NICK TURSE, nat9 at columbia.edu, http://www.tomdispatch.com, https://twitter.com/#!/NickTurse Turse is a fellow at Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute and author of “The Case for Withdrawal from Afghanistan.” He recently wrote “A Secret War in 120 Countries: The Pentagon’s New Power Elite.” In the article he says: “From a force of about 37,000 in the early 1990s, Special…

  • Unemployment Insurance Hit by “Drastic” Budget Cuts

    CHRISTINE OWENS, via Norman Eng, neng at nelp.org, @NelpNews Owens is the executive director of the National Employment Law Project, which just released a report titled “Unraveling the Unemployment Insurance Lifeline.” She said today: “It’s disconcerting that these lawmakers would expend so much energy making cuts to state unemployment insurance programs when more people are…

  • Debt Deal Creates “‘Catfood Commission’ on Steroids”

    GWENDOLYN MINK, wendymink at gmail.com Available for a limited number of interviews, Mink is co-editor of the two-volume Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy and author of Welfare’s End. She said today: “The debt deal certainly is better than the Boehner Bill, and better still than the Tea Party…

  • “Super Congress” Budget Deal a “Turkey;” a “Lesson in Investment Theory of Political Parties”

    THOMAS FERGUSON, thomas.ferguson at umb.edu Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston and a senior fellow of the Roosevelt Institute. He said today: “Even by American legislative standards, this deal is a turkey and it’s totally appropriate that the new bipartisan Congressional committee should have to report at Thanksgiving. The…

  • “Medicare Is the Answer, Not the Problem”

    Saturday is the 46th anniversary of Medicare. MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D.,  mdpnhp at gmail.com Flowers is congressional fellow for the 18,000-member Physicians for a National Health Program. She has written recently: “Medicare Is the Answer, Not the Problem. Both Democrats and Republicans are missing the point by putting the emphasis on controlling Medicare and Medicaid costs…

  • Debt Ceiling “Theatre” not a “Balanced Approach”

    DAVE JOHNSON, djohnson at ourfuture.org, @dcjohnson Johnson is a fellow at Campaign for America’s Future. He said today: “Poll after poll shows that the public gets it. People understand that our deficits were caused by tax cuts for the wealthy, wars and increases in military budgets and the effects of the recession, and they want…

  • Environmentalist Sentenced to Two Years in Jail; Thousands of Political Arrests Since Obama Inauguration

    Reuters reports: “An environmental activist was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday in a federal court in Salt Lake City for defrauding the U.S. government by posing as a bidder for oil and gas drilling rights on Utah public lands. Tim DeChristopher, 29, had submitted the phony bids to derail an auction of…

  • Potential Medicaid Cuts Threaten Women, Elderly and Minorities

    STACY SANDERS, ssanders at wowonline.org, @wowonlinewow Sanders is the director of the Elder Economic Security Initiative, a branch of Wider Opportunities for Women. She said today: “With a decline in employer-based pensions and losses in personal retirement plans due to the recession, older Americans are struggling to make ends meet. Health care costs are a…

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