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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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  • Israel’s Attacks on West Bank

    “The Israeli army closed the West Bank completely, no movement is allowed. In H2 in Hebron, the Israeli army is imposing [a] curfew on the families. Many families left their homes and many communities from area C left too.”

  • UN Official Resigns, Calling Israel’s Attack “Genocide” — Will a Nation Invoke the Genocide Convention?

    “With the International Criminal Court refusing for years to hold Israel accountable and with the U.S. government blocking everything at the Security Council, the application of the Genocide Convention may be the only remaining legal mechanism to stop what Israel is doing. All that’s needed is a State Party to invoke it to start the…

  • Israel Bombs Refugee Camp; “No Human Being Can Exist”

    “At any moment, without warning, at any time of the day or night, any apartment building in the densely populated Gaza Strip can be struck by an Israeli bomb or missile. Some of the stricken buildings simply collapse into layers of concrete pancakes, the dead and the living alike entombed in the shattered ruins. …”

  • In “Grotesque Hoax” Biden Admin Not Just “Green Lighting” Israeli Ethnic Cleansing — “It’s Bankrolling It”

    “Supporting Israeli efforts to forcibly transfer Palestinians to Egypt would make U.S. officials liable for complicity in war crimes. Article 8 of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court includes the ‘Deportation or forcible transfer of population’ as a war crime. Article 25 of the same statute defines individual criminal responsibility and states that…

  • Biden Damaging His Re-Election Chances with Policy Toward Israel

    In a story headlined “Democrats Splinter Over Israel as the Young, Diverse Left Rages at Biden,” the New York Times reports: “The Democratic Party’s yearslong unity behind President Biden is beginning to erode over his steadfast support of Israel in its escalating war with the Palestinians, with a left-leaning coalition of young voters and people…

  • Mental Health Practice and Palestine

    The Israeli state has used the mental health professions to further its occupation.

  • “The West Exempts Israel from Compliance with International Law”

    “In February 2024 the International Court of Justice will pronounce on the legality of this occupation. Hopefully this will pave the way for a new dispensation from which an independent Palestinian State will emerge. Until then the world will watch Israel’s assault with mixed feelings. Western Powers like U.S., U.K., Germany, Canada, France, Netherlands and…

  • * Gaza “Catastrophic Disaster” * Indigenous Struggle * On the Ground

    “Oxfam said Gaza is also virtually out of clean water, making some of the food that has been let in, such as rice and lentils, useless since people do not have clean water or fuel to prepare them. The group said Israeli airstrikes have hit bakeries and supermarkets, further straining the food supply. The electricity…

  • Palestinians in Gaza Do Have Somewhere to Go: Their Homes in Israel

    “Statistically, the majority of the persons killed in Gaza in the past two weeks must be from families displaced in 1948. Many more of their number are at risk of being killed in like fashion in the coming weeks.”

  • On Israel: Lawyer Who Applied Genocide Convention for Bosnia Recommends it Now for Palestinians

    The U.S. government has twice vetoed calls for a ceasefire during the current crisis at the UN Security Council. Al Jazeera reports: “Nearly 90 countries were on the speakers’ list for Tuesday’s debate including about 30 foreign ministers and deputy ministers, with many echoing calls for a ceasefire and a halt to attacks on Palestinian civilians…

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