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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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  • Is Israel Lying About Using Cluster Bombs?

    When asked “Are you using cluster bombs in Lebanon?” Israeli ambassador Daniel Ayalon replied on Sunday: “No, we are not. We are not using anything which is not approved by the UN Conventions and Charters.” (Ayalon, along with former House speaker Newt Gingrich, was questioned by IPA’s Sam Hussseini and reporters from NBC and CNN…

  • Congress and Israel: Two Views

    STEPHEN ZUNES Zunes is Middle East editor for Foreign Policy In Focus and author of the book Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism.” His most recent piece is “Jihad Against Hezbollah,” in which he writes: “Just as Washington’s concerns about the threat from Iraq grew in inverse correlation to its military…

  • Behind the Moves at the UN

    BRENDAN SMITH JEREMY BRECHER Legal scholar Brendan Smith and historian Jeremy Brecher are co-authors of the recent article “A Road to Peace in Lebanon?” and co-editors of the book In The Name Of Democracy. Brecher said today: “If the U.S.-French Security Council proposal crashes, that will create enormous pressure for a plan — pushed by…

  • Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Atomic Bombings

    MARYLIA KELLEY Kelley is executive director of Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) located in Livermore, California. She said today: “On August 6 and 9, 61 years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cites of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, people from around the globe will gather to stop nuclear weapons and war.…

  • Claims vs. Facts on Qana

    Today, the Washington Post ran an op-ed headlined “The Rules of War,” by Moshe Yaalon, former chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces and now a distinguished military fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.(Full article) Yaalon was head of Israeli army intelligence when Israel bombed a civilian shelter in Qana in…

  • Real Consequences of War: · Health · Environment · Terrorist Groups

    CESAR CHELALA Chelala, an international public health consultant, wrote a recent article titled “In Gaza and Lebanon, Children Have Become Pawns,” which states: “Despite a formidable set of international laws protecting children’s rights, including the Convention of the Rights of the Child signed by Israel, Palestinian children are still paying a high price in the…

  • Castro and Cuba

    FRANCISCO G. ARUCA Host of a daily Spanish-language radio program, Radio Progreso in Miami, Aruca said today: “The Cuban-American community is not a monolith. Many of us are in favor of lifting the embargo and having a dialogue and negotiations.” More Information SAUL LANDAU Landau is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies and…

  • Will the UN Stop This War?

    ROBERT NAIMAN Naiman is national coordinator of the new D.C.-based advocacy group Just Foreign Policy, which issued a statement today saying: “Under international law the UN Security Council is supposed to act to stop crimes against peace but [it] cannot do so in this case because it is paralyzed by the veto of the Bush…

  • Qana Bombing Aftermath

    JUDITH BROWN CHOMSKY Judith Brown Chomsky is a cooperating attorney with the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is litigating a class action lawsuit in U.S. federal court in connection with Israel’s 1996 shelling of a UN compound also in Qana, Lebanon, which killed more than 100 civilians. She said today: “Ten years ago the U.S.…

  • Critical Voices on Lebanon

    RANA EL-KHATIB Now living in Beirut, el-Khatib is working with the YMCA focusing on getting relief and medical supplies to displaced people in Lebanon. She wrote a recent article, “Israel Sows Seeds of Hatred,” which was published in the Toronto Star. Her family is originally from Haifa. A book of her poetry is titled Branded:…

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