Advertisement

U.S. Corporations Charged with Plundering Patriotism

WASHINGTON, Nov. 6 (IPS) -- Major U.S. corporations are profiting far too much from the wave of patriotism that has swept the country since the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks, say civic, environmental and labour groups.

They are pressing Congress to delay action on a mounting pile of legislation which, if approved, would add to the windfall big business and the wealthy have collected over the last six weeks.

Since Sep. 11, "members of Congress have served up a non-stop buffet of corporate pork legislation," says Ralph Nader, the Green Party's presidential candidate last year and the founder of a network of U.S. public-interest and consumer groups.

"Under the guise of national security our federal treasury is being raided and our democratic rights are being taken away while Congress feeds sympathetic campaign contributors at taxpayer expense, sends working people to fight, and leaves the unemployed, the disenfranchised, and American families to suffer," Nader adds.

Nader and others say they are incensed by economic stimulus legislation in Congress that provides more than 200 billion dollars

Anti-Terrorism Gives Cover to New Abuses -- UN OFFICIAL

A senior U.N. official expressed serious concern Tuesday over the erosion of human rights in the wake of the Sep. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.

Mary Robinson, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, told delegates that some countries -- which she refused to identify by name -- are introducing measures in apparent violation of core human rights safeguards.

Non-violent activities are being considered as terrorism in some countries while "excessive measures" are being taken to suppress or restrict individual rights, Robinson said. These restrictive measures cover rights to privacy, fair trial, asylum, political participation, freedom of expression, and peaceful assembly.

"We should be mindful of such fundamental principles as the presumption of innocence, non-discrimination and due process of law," she said.

Since Sept. 11, the United States has detained more than 1,000 people, largely Muslims or those of Middle Eastern origin, in its ongoing investigation of the terrorist attacks.

Several human rights organizations have complained that the

Journalism and Bombing in Afganistan

AUSTIN, Texas -- Say, here's an item: A group of right-wing journalists famed for their impartiality has set themselves up as the Patriotism Police. No less distinguished a crowd than Rush Limbaugh, Matt Drudge, The New York Post editorial page and the Fox News Channel --- quite a bunch of Pulitzer winners there -- are now passing judgment on whether media outlets that do actual reporting are sufficiently one-sided for their taste.

With the insouciance toward fact for which he is so noted, Limbaugh erroneously reported that Peter Jennings had been highly critical of President Bush for disappearing on Sept. 11. The Dittoheads flooded ABC with complaints. The bone of contention since has been over the reporting of civilian casualties in Afghanistan.

Been there, done that. Yes, bombing causes the deaths of innocent civilians, a fact not mitigated by referring to them as collateral damage, nor by repeated references to "pinpoint bombing," an absurd combination of words. By the Pentagon's own analysis, even our smart bombs often miss. Among our more memorable recent errors were hitting the Red

Reparations and Our Rendezvous with History

The twenty-first century truly began-politically, socially, and psychologically-with two epochal events: the World Conference Against Racism, held in Durban, South Africa this summer, and the terrorist attacks of September 11 which destroyed the World Trade Center towers and part of the Pentagon. These events were directly linked.

At Durban, the Third World, led primarily by African Americans and African people, attempted to renegotiate their historically unequal and subordinate relationships with western imperialism and globalized capitalism. "Reparations" was seen by black delegates at Durban as a necessary precondition for the socioeconomic development of a black community in the U.S., as well as for African and Caribbean nation-states. September 11th was a violent statement by fundamentalist Muslims demanding an end to American imperialism's economic and political subordinate relationships throughout the Arab world. Both events symbolized a challenge to the U.S.'s uncritical support for Israel, and were to some extent expressions of solidarity with the Palestinians. The aftermath of both

Bloomberg's Victory and the Triumph of Business

After billionaire Michael Bloomberg won the race to become New York's next mayor, the French news agency AFP noted that he "was among the first to see how the information age could serve investors in unprecedented -- and lucrative -- ways." In recent months, Bloomberg's campaign spent at least $50 million from his vast personal fortune, made possible by a media environment teeming with reverence for accumulation of wealth.

Bloomberg News became a far-reaching wire service during the 1990s as financial news gradually loomed larger in mass media. The operative definition of "general interest news" kept tilting. Mainstream outlets steadily shifted resources and priorities to the business of covering business.

Back in 1970, when PBS launched "Wall Street Week" with Louis Rukeyser, the program was conspicuous. Now it's just one of many national TV shows -- most of them daily -- focusing on the quest for high returns. After "Moneyline" premiered on CNN in 1980, cable television news grew while embracing the world of investment. In 1989, General Electric opted to

Assassination of Digna Ochoa

The investigation into the assassination of Digna Ochoa is in the hands of Mexico City’s Attorney General, not the Federal Attorney General, according to President Vicente Fox. In a political dig at Mexico City Mayor Lopez Obrador and an effort to distance his own administration from the high-profile case, President Fox characterized the murder as “one more incident that happened in Mexico City.” Fox went on to ‘offer Mexico City’s Attorney General broad collaboration with information, with investigation, but the responsibility is theirs.” Lopez Obrador said that the assassination must be understood in the “context of paramilitaries and caciques throughout the nation.”

On October 29, Secretary of Government Santiago Creel installed a permanent government desk dedicated to the protection of human rights workers. However, members of the Miguel Agustin Pro Human Rights Center (PRODH), where Digna worked for many years, expressed a lack of confidence in the Fox administration. A spokesperson for PRODH cited the Federal Attorney General’s office, which is headed by former army General Rafael Macedo de la

GMO Sneak Attack Fizzles-USA and Europe

Stubborn opposition by labor, public interest, and environmental groups over the past several years stopped Clinton, and now Bush, from gaining "expedited" "Fast Track" negotiation powers. Fast Track legislation, if approved by Congress, would enable the White House to circumvent public opposition and expand legally binding trade treaties such as the WTO (a treaty which up until now has not been yet been fully applied to agriculture). Fast Track would also help Bush implement new corporate-instigated trade regimes such as the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Under Fast Track procedures, Congress can only vote yes or no on new treaties proposed by the White House, giving up for five years the power to modify or change trade rules, even when these regulations supercede or nullify local, state, or national laws in force in the US or other nations. WTO-imposed rules can nullify laws: protecting sea dolphins or turtles; import laws providing support for sustainable small farms in the developing world; laws banning hormone-tainted beef; laws regulating GMOs; or laws banning city or state purchases from sweatshops or making

Other Agbiotech Aggressions

Fast Track lobbying and diplomatic arm-twisting is just the tip of the iceberg. Other recent moves by government and industry on the biotech front include the following:

. Don't worry about the monarchs. Based on incomplete and short-term (industry-funded) studies, the global media dutifully reported in September that GE corn doesn't kill a "significant" number of monarch butterflies. The Gene Giants were shaken by studies published in 1999 showing that Bt corn pollen killed monarch butterflies. Never mind that the same indentured scientists who reached the recent "don't worry" conclusion admitted that one variety of GE corn-now to be taken off the market-does indeed kill monarchs and their relatives. Never mind that Bt corn kills beneficial soil microorganisms and beneficial insects such as the lacewing or ladybug. And never mind that all GE herbicide resistant crops, such as corn or soybeans sprayed with Roundup or other broad spectrum herbicides, kill the monarch caterpillar's sole food source, the milkweed plant. In addition, as Dr. Rebecca Goldberg, a public interest biotech expert, told the New

Homeland Security Issues

AUSTIN, Texas -- We Texans are sleeping more soundly at night now that Land Commissioner David Dewhurst is on the job as state director of Homeland Security, preventing attacks on important cultural monuments, such as the statue of the roadrunner in Fort Stockton. Dewhurst normally spends his time laboring on anti- litter campaigns, but he is fully qualified to ensure Homeland Security on account of he was once in the CIA doing something in Latin America we'd probably rather not know about.

On his regular watch, all Dewhurst has done for Texans' security is permit the Longhorn Pipeline Co. to build through populated areas without so much as an environmental impact statement, thus endangering the lives of thousands, if you believe those alarmist environmentalist types. Just the man for the job.

We would feel even better about this if alert eyes had not noted a peculiar error in a recent Dewhurst political ad in the Texas Monthly (he' s running for lieutenant governor, which has (SET ITAL) nothing (END ITAL) to do with the governor naming him security czar). In this four-page,

The Case of the Blid Predator

The usual bosh is getting into the press about the technological prowess of U.S. weaponry as deployed against Afghanistan. He's been getting some great scoops in his New Yorker dispatches, but in this instance, Seymour Hersh ran some amazing rubbish in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago about the capabilities of the Predator unmanned reconnaissance vehicle. So did Thomas Ricks in the Washington Post in a story titled "U.S. Arms Unmanned Aircraft/Revolution In Sky Above Afghanistan." The Predator is made by General Atomics, a San Diego-based company, and each plane costs $20.5 million, which is a bargain in this day and age, though you don't get much for your money.

Hersh described a Predator operation over Afghanistan wherein the machine was supposedly "capable of beaming high-resolution images ... identified a group of cars and trucks fleeing the capital (Kabul) as a convoy carrying Mullah Omar, the Taliban leader ... The Predator tracked the convoy to a building where Omar, accompanied by a hundred or so guards and soldiers, took cover." At this point, the Predator's controllers could have

Pages

Subscribe to Freepress.org RSS