Foreign Policy: Bush’s European Visit, Pentagon Papers, Vieques

Share

GREGORY PALAST
Columnist for the London Observer, Palast said today: “There’s a sense in Europe that Bush is threatening and menacing. He’s not viewed as just a buffoon, as he is by many in the United States. Global warming, Star Wars and the death penalty are very serious issues in Europe. Bush is not viewed as having the authority to pursue his policies on these issues since he is widely regarded as having stolen the election.”
More Information

ANDREAS ZUMACH
Based in Geneva, Zumach writes on NATO, the Balkans and the UN for Die Tageszeitung and is affiliated with a number of NGOs.
More Information

MARJORIE COHN
An associate professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, Cohn said today: “The Bush administration, baffled at the exclusion of the U.S. from the UN Commission on Human Rights, is also miffed that NATO won’t agree to the United States’ proposed ‘missile defense’ plan. Throughout his European tour, Bush will find consistent hostility to the U.S. refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, expansion of its use of the death penalty and insistence on a missile defense shield. We will hear rhetoric from Bush about a ‘partnership’ between the U.S. and Europe. But, as a U.S. Army officer stationed in Bosnia told the Los Angeles Times, ‘The only thing the Europeans need us Americans for is the leadership.’ The United States is dependent on Europe not just for a global market, but also to host U.S. military bases as a counterweight against Russia, and as a corridor for the transportation of Caspian oil. But the U.S. jealously guards its role as sole superpower.”
More Information

WILLIAM HARTUNG
Hartung is senior research fellow at the World Policy Institute and co-author of “Toward a New Nuclear Posture: Challenges for the Bush Administration,” “Welfare for Weapons Dealers, 1998: The Hidden Costs of NATO,” and “Tangled Web: The Marketing of Missile Defense, 1994-2000.”
More Information

KERT DAVIES
Davies is USA Climate Campaign Coordinator for Greenpeace.
More Information

DANIEL ELLSBERG
Today is the 30th anniversary of the first publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times.
More Information

ROBERTO RABIN
The Navy is expected to resume bombing of Vieques on Monday. Rabin is director of Vieques Historic Archives and a spokesperson for the Committee for the Rescue and Development of Vieques.
More Information

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; David Zupan, (541) 484-9167