News Items

  • Election Reforms: Falling short

    WASHINGTON — Proponents of progressive election reform gave cautious approval to the recent report issued by a commission assigned to investigate the improvement of federal elections. Many critics, however, point to several obstacles that remain in the way of free and fair elections throughout the United States. The report, issued by the National Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford, was presented to President Bush. Among its recommendations are provisions regarding increases in equipment standards and stepped-up federal funding for the administration of elections.

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  • Son of Star Wars: Another arms race?

    WASHINGTON — Reports emerging from the Pentagon about plans to test a “Space Bomber” are drawing accusations that the U.S. government is attempting to engage in another arms race. The bomber, a spacecraft reportedly capable of destroying targets on the other side of the globe within 30 minutes, is a key component of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s plan to modernize U.S. weaponry. The satellite is currently under production by NASA and Lockheed Martin, a leading military contractor. Pentagon claims that the bomber can cause greater and deeper ground damage from a virtually unassailable height have many critics questioning it as…

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  • ExxonMobil: Facing a boycott

    ExxonMobil, one of the biggest corporations on the planet, is now facing a boycott spearheaded by activist groups protesting the company’s policies at home and abroad. The boycott was launched by PressurePoint, a grassroots organization looking to “take real action on climate change and corporate influence,” according to Chris Doran, campaigns director for the group. “The U.S. government’s climate change policy is the ExxonMobil policy,” Doran says. “What sort of democracy do we have when one company can buy off our political process for its own gains?” ExxonMobil is a charter member of the Global Climate Coalition, an influential industry…

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  • Beyond the Ford-Firestone Uproar: Critics blast lack of regulation, accountability in SUV safety

    WASHINGTON – Recent congressional hearings probed the accountability of Ford and Firestone in many incidents where car or tire malfunctioned, causing injury or death. The hearings also questioned the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal government’s chief regulator of automobile safety, and its role in providing the public with adequate information. While the blame-placing among corporate executives and congressional subcommittees occurred on Capitol Hill, several analysts decried the lack of accountability being demanded of the corporations involved. Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, pointed to a lack of regulation of sport utility vehicles and rollover standards.

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  • NEWS BRIEFING WITH LAWRENCE SUMMERS, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY RAYMOND OFFENHEISER, PRESIDENT, OXFAM

    Questions from IPA appear below in bold HEADLINE: NEWS BRIEFING WITH LAWRENCE SUMMERS, SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY RAYMOND OFFENHEISER, PRESIDENT, OXFAM DEBT RELIEF TO POOR COUNTRIES AND OXFAM EDUCATION NOW AWARD INTRODUCTION: MARTA ARIAS LOCATION: NATIONAL PRESS CLUB, WASHINGTON D.C. BODY:

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  • Ten Real Reasons To Impeach Clinton

    We all seem to have lost our sense of proportion. Why are the political leaders of the United States and the major media talking of impeaching Bill Clinton for lies about sex, surely not the most important sins of his administration? If Clinton is to be impeached, why do it for frivolous reasons? I can think of at least ten reasons to impeach him, for acts far more serious than his dalliance with Monica Lewinsky or his lies to Kenneth Starr. I am speaking of matters of life and death for large numbers of people. 1. Clinton approved, very early…

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  • Autopsy Of A Disaster: The U.S. Sanctions Policy On Iraq

    For a shorter version of this timeline, click here. Myth: The Sanctions Will be Lifted When Iraq Complies with the U.N. Inspections April 3, 1991: U.N. Security Council passes Resolution 687 which states that upon “the completion by Iraq of all actions contemplated in” specific paragraphs of the resolution, “the prohibitions against financial transactions … shall have no further force or effect.” The paragraphs cited have to do with weapons inspections. Other paragraphs in the resolution have to do with “return of all Kuwaiti property seized by Iraq” and Iraqi liability for losses and damage resulting from Iraq’s occupation of…

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  • Over 100 Journalists to Blinken: Stop Arming Israel

    News outlets, press freedom organizations, and more than 100 journalists, including four Pulitzer Prize winners, have written to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, urging the U.S. to immediately cease sending weapons to Israel amid the country’s widespread killing of journalists in Palestine. The letter (which can be found here) was initiated by the Courage…

  • Israel’s Assassination Program and Its Ties to U.S. Intelligence

    “For decades the U.S. and Israel have had highly secret intelligence-sharing arrangements that have included ‘frameworks’ dealing with the topic of providing assistance for assassinations”

  • Activists Demand Action from UN to Stop Genocide

    “As many members of the UN Security Council said in their meeting on Tuesday, they must move to action. The Algerians and Palestinians talked about sanctions. We have a resource page on that and have been urging states to take bilateral necessary actions. Of course, the U.S. government’s veto prevents the Security Council from doing…

  • No Harbour for Genocide in Greece

    “All UN Missions with Mediterranean ports were formally advised on August 6 in a letter signed by dozens of top international legal experts that permitting these vessels to transit through their territorial waters or to provision them at ports within their jurisdiction amounts to complicity in grave violations of international law, including apartheid and genocide.…

  • Routines of State Control in Israel: Imprisonment, Torture and Mass Death

    “When you read the 94 pages of the B’Tselem report, which causes you to lose sleep, you understand that it wasn’t an exceptional incident, it’s the routine of torture, which has become a policy.”

  • Public Universities and Gaza

    A tenured political science professor at Indiana University was suspended from the university, potentially as retaliation for his criticism of the administration’s immediate response to October 7. Sinno’s suspension reflects the climate at public universities across the country. A law was passed this spring by the Republican supermajority in the Indiana state legislature, effectively abolishing tenure…

  • Opposing Israel’s Dangerous Gamble Before It’s Too Late

    Israel’s failure to comply with international treaties and humanitarian law signal an acute need for other countries to organize weapons embargoes, cease trade deals, and provide support for civilian peacekeepers to bring about a permanent ceasefire.

  • Sinwar Named Leader of Hamas After Beirut and Tehran Attacks

    It is widely expected that Iran and Hezbollah will retaliate against Israel. The State Department has refused to acknowledge that Iran has a right to defend itself.

  • AIPAC Misinformation Targets Cori Bush

    “On the ground in St.Louis the amount of money being poured in to smear Rep. Bush and misinform voters is astonishing”

  • The Pregnancy Police

    A new book, The Pregnancy Police, details how pregnant Americans have faced arrest and prosecution for supposed crimes against fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses since long before the overturning of Roe v. Wade. 

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