WASHINGTON — While President Clinton announces budget surplus figures today, some economists and poverty specialists are challenging the idea that poverty is receding as a national problem. Among those available for comment are: ANURADHA MITTAL Policy Director at the Institute for Food and Development Policy – Food First, Mittal said: “Extreme poverty is growing fastest among young children. The United States already has the highest child poverty rate in the industrialized world.” More Information DIANA PEARCE Professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Washington in Seattle, Pearce said: “What is happening at the median hides what…

Many critics of President Clinton contend that his record of deception has uniquely disgraced the office of the presidency. But historian Howard Zinn, the author of the best-selling A People’s History of the United States, says: “There is a long history of presidents who have lied to us and deceived us, about governmental actions that led to the deaths of thousands, even millions of people.” Here are a few of the examples cited by Zinn: President Truman “described Hiroshima — just devastated by a U.S.-dropped atomic bomb — as ‘an important Japanese army base.’ More than 100,000 civilians — men,…

WASHINGTON — As the nation considers the future of the Clinton presidency, some legal scholars and policy analysts are putting the Starr report in a broader context of governmental wrongdoing. Among those available for comment: FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Boyle said: “The impeachment clause is meant to deal with crimes against the state, subverting the Republic. Starr has not yet presented evidence of such a threat to the Republic. This is not to say that there is no reason to impeach Clinton. There are grounds for impeachment — for example, the…

WASHINGTON — On Sept. 11, 1973, a military coup brought down Chile’s democratically elected government. Twenty-five years later, a prominent U.S. think tank is touting a former high official in the Chilean dictatorship as a visionary for privatization of Social Security in the United States. At the Washington-based Cato Institute, Jose Pinera — who was Chile’s Minister of Labor and Social Security from 1978 to 1980 — now chairs the think tank’s Project on Social Security Privatization. “Pinera was the Pinochet dictatorship’s labor minister at a time when the country’s trade union movement was enduring one of its worst periods…

Special Citation Will Be Presented Thursday in Washington WASHINGTON — Twenty-five years after a military junta seized power in Chile, a special presentation in Washington on Thursday will focus attention on a prominent U.S. think tank that touts a former high official in the Chilean dictatorship as a visionary for privatization of Social Security in the United States. The current co-chair of the Cato Institute’s Project on Social Security Privatization, Jose Pinera, was Chile’s Minister of Labor and Social Security from 1978 to 1980. According to Cato, Pinera “was the architect of that country’s successful pension reform.” After a coup…

Sept. 11 Will Mark Quarter Century Since Military Takeover Twenty-five years ago — on Sept. 11, 1973 — the military seized power in Chile. President Salvador Allende died in the bloody coup, which ushered in more than a decade and a half of dictatorship under Gen. Augusto Pinochet. In 1989, Chile returned to a democratic system with a civilian government. The upcoming quarter-century anniversary provides an opportunity to examine the realities of recent Chilean history as well as key economic issues that currently loom large in Chile and elsewhere in the Western Hemisphere. During the past two decades, Chile has…

Interviews are available with these specialists on Russia and the International Monetary Fund: DAVID KOTZ Professor of Economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and coauthor of Revolution from Above: The Demise of the Soviet System (Routledge, 1997), Kotz said: “The dominant theme that the problems in Russia are due to not having the courage to follow the IMF advice is almost the opposite of the facts. Russia has followed the IMF more closely than anyone could have expected. The result is that the people have been impoverished. Now, the IMF is demanding more of the same. (Imagine if…

Whatever the truth about President Clinton’s private life may be, many supporters assert that his public policies have been beneficial to American women. But some scholars are pointing to evidence that Clinton administration policies have actually been very harmful to women with scant economic resources. “In one broad stroke, his major legislative initiative — welfare reform — rolled back the rights of all mothers who find themselves in need of economic assistance,” says Gwendolyn Mink, a professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. The welfare law, signed by Clinton two years ago in late August, includes…

Interviews are available with these specialists on international law and the Middle East: LAURIE KING-IRANI Editor of Middle East Report. More Information PHYLLIS BENNIS Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. More Information YVONNE HADDAD Professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University. BARBARA LUBIN [currently in Jerusalem] Director, Middle East Children’s Alliance. FRANCIS BOYLE A professor of International Law at the University of Illinois College of Law, Boyle said: “The U.S. attacks were clearly illegal. Particularly the attack on Sudan was without reason. The Sudanese government can probably sue the U.S. in the World Court over this.”…

WASHINGTON—While “terrorism experts” are theorizing about the culprits in the embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, it may be helpful to consider the track records of such commentators. Here is a selection of statements by widely cited terrorism experts: VINCENT CANNISTRARO: According to Cannistraro, a former head of CIA counter-intelligence, the Oklahoma City bombing had “the marks of a Middle Eastern group.” (Washington Times, 4/20/95) Cannistraro has claimed that environmentalists are seeking to eradicate humanity with killer viruses: “There are small organized clandestine cells working on the development of technologies to diminish or even eliminate the race of man from…