accuracy.org

News Items

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • 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.

    Read more »

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • 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…

    Read more »

  • · Yeltsin · Tillman/Lynch Falsehoods

    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…

  • · Equal Pay Day · Biggest Bank Merger?

    VICKY LOVELL Today is Equal Pay Day. Lovell, director of employment and work/life programs at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, said today: “The wage ratio between women and men failed to narrow in 2006, and an earlier trend toward equal pay has stalled. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2006…

  • Israeli Military Shoots Nobel Peace Laureate

    MAIREAD CORRIGAN MAGUIRE Nobel Peace Prize recipient Maguire said today: “I was invited with my friend to attend a nonviolent conference in Bilin, a village outside Ramallah [in the West Bank], and to give a talk there, which I did. At the end of the conference, we were invited to participate in a nonviolent demonstration…

  • Where Is Iraq Headed?

    AARON GLANTZ An unembedded journalist and author of the book How America Lost Iraq, Glantz has reported extensively from Iraq since the spring of 2003. He said today: “Muqtada al-Sadr has millions of followers — many more than the Bush-backed government in the Green Zone. … He may be a Shi’ite fundamentalist, but even Sunnis…

  • Perspectives on Virginia Shooting

    MIKE MALES Author of the book “Kids & Guns:” How Politicians, Experts, and the Press Fabricate Fear of Youth, Males said today: “Mass shootings are common in the United States — we’ve had several in recent months in offices, and almost weekly in families. I cannot find another country where mass shootings are so common…

  • D.C. Emancipation Day: Taxation without Representation

    Today is D.C. Emancipation Day, an official holiday in the city of Washington (and the reason the IRS is closed today). The Washington Post notes in an editorial today: “On this day in 1862 President Abraham Lincoln signed an act that ended slavery in the District of Columbia. … [I]t’s appropriate that it serve as…

  • “Public Investment”: On a Dead-End Track?

    MAX SAWICKY In a real sense, trains are “symptomatic of what is wrong with the way people think about economic policy” — and the consequences for the United States are very serious. That’s the theme of a new essay by economist Max B. Sawicky. “Public spending is seen as a sink, not as a boost…

  • Military Families Across U.S. Responding to the Extension of Army War-Zone Stints

    The Pentagon announced this afternoon what Defense Secretary Robert Gates called “a difficult and necessary interim step” — extending the tours of duty of all active-duty Army troops currently in Iraq or Afghanistan from 12 months to 15 months. He said: “I realize this decision will ask a lot of American troops and their families.”…

  • Beyond Imus: What’s At Stake

    JILL NELSON A journalist and activist, Nelson is author of Straight, No Chaser: How I Became a Grown-Up Black Woman and editor of the anthology Police Brutality. She said today: “The absence of the voices of African American women in the current discussion of Don Imus’ comments emphasizes how irrelevant, powerless, and objectified black women…

  • Former British Ambassador on Lessons of Iran Crisis

    CRAIG MURRAY Available for a limited number of interviews, Murray is former head of the British Foreign Office’s Maritime Section. He has written extensively about the detention of the 15 Britons on his web page and was among the first to note that the boundary was contested. A piece he wrote entitled, “How I Know…

Mastodon