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| US: Red Lights on Capitol Hill
by Ken Sliverstein, Harpers
May 3rd, 2006
I reported last Thursday that Shirlington Limousine and Transportation, Inc., a firm allegedly used by defense contractor Brent Wilkes to provide prostitutes to ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham, is headed by a man who has a long criminal rap sheet and is also a contractor for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It was Mitchell Wade, another defense contractor who has acknowledged bribing Cunningham, and who is cooperating with investigators, who reportedly told prosecutors about Shirlington's relationship with Wilkes and the latter's alleged pimping scheme. (Wilkes's attorney denies the charge.) |
| US: Enron Prosecutor Questions Skilling's Story
by Vikas Bajaj and Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times
April 17th, 2006
A prosecutor tried to poke holes in the testimony of Jeffrey K. Skilling, the former Enron chief executive, today by boring in on stock sales he made in the months after he left the company and before the energy company declared bankruptcy. |
| US: The Enron Standard
by Lee Drutman, tompaine.com
April 13th, 2006
In a Houston courtroom this week, former Enron CEO Jeffrey Skilling took the witness stand to plead his innocence, telling jurors that “My life is on the line.” |
| US: Unwitting Shoppers Recruited for Wal-Mart PR Fight
by Marilyn Geewax, Cox News Service
April 4th, 2006
Last December, Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., created its own grassroots group, Working Families for Wal-Mart. It hired Edelman, a global public relations firm, to organize the group out of its Washington office and launch a nationwide campaign. |
| US: Proposals Call For Disclosure of Ties to Lobbyists
by Jonathan Weisman, Washington Post
March 27th, 2006
As long as there is no explicit quid pro quo, lawmakers can channel clients to lobbyists, who help secure home-district pet projects, or "earmarks," and in turn, those lobbyists can send part of their fees back in the form of campaign contributions. But in the wake of the corruption scandals of former representative Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.) and former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, congressional reformers want to shine a light on dealings that have even a whiff of impropriety.
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| US: Vague Law and Hard Lobbying Add Up to Billions for Big Oil
by Edmund L. Andrews, The New York Times
March 27th, 2006
Last month, the Bush administration confirmed that it expected the government to waive about $7 billion in royalties over the next five years, even though the industry incentive was expressly conceived of for times when energy prices were low. And that number could quadruple to more than $28 billion if a lawsuit filed last week challenging one of the program's remaining restrictions proves successful. |
| US: Former DeLay aide enriched by nonprofit
by R. Jeffrey Smith, Washington Post
March 25th, 2006
A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records. |
| US: Did a Group Financed by Exxon
Prompt IRS to Audit Greenpeace?
by Steve Stecklow, The Wall Street Journal
March 21st, 2006
Two and a half years ago, Public Interest Watch, a self-described watchdog of nonprofit groups, wrote to the Internal Revenue Service urging the agency to audit Greenpeace and accusing the environmental group of money laundering and other crimes. What is clear is where PIW has gotten a lot of its funding: Exxon Mobil Corp., the giant oil company that has long been a target of Greenpeace protests.
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| US: Fastow grilled about 'smoking gun' document
by Greg Farrell, USA TODAY
March 9th, 2006
A defense lawyer in the trial of former Enron CEOs Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling spent Thursday morning trying to undermine the testimony of the government's star witness and questioning the authenticity of a "smoking gun" document. |
| US: Skilling's Lawyer Portrays an Accuser as Out of Touch
by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times
February 16th, 2006
A lawyer for Jeffrey K. Skilling, a former Enron chief executive, tried Wednesday to portray the head of the company's broadband unit as an out-of-touch manager who was criticized for his free-spending ways and did not even know how many employees were working under him. |
| US: 10 Enron Players: Where They Landed After the Fall
by staff, The New York Times
January 29th, 2006
KENNETH L. LAY and his second in command, Jeffrey K. Skilling, were the public faces of Enron, painting a rosy picture of strong profits and healthy businesses. But as the facts began to tumble out, in the fall of 2001, the company swiftly collapsed, taking with it the fortunes and retirement savings of thousands of employees. |
| US: Big Test Looms for Prosecutors at Enron Trial
by Kurt Eichenwald, The New York Times
January 26th, 2006
"For the government, if they lose the Enron case, it will be seen as a symbolic failure of their rather significant campaign against white-collar crime," said John C. Coffee Jr., a professor at Columbia Law School. "It will be seen as some evidence that some cases are too complicated to be brought into the criminal justice process."
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| US: Taking Enron to Task
by Carrie Johnson, Washington Post
January 18th, 2006
Sean M. Berkowitz and a small group of government lawyers will be in the spotlight in the Jan. 30 trial of Enron's former leaders. The case is the capstone in the cleanup after an era of business misconduct that left investors billions of dollars poorer. The outcome could shape the public's -- and history's -- judgment of how effective it was. |
| US: Blunt, DeLay shared connections to lobbyist Abramoff
USA Today
January 11th, 2006
Roy Blunt, R-Mo., wrote at least three letters helpful to Abramoff clients while collecting money from them. He swapped donations between his and DeLay's political groups, ultimately enriching the Missouri political campaign of his son Matt.
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| US: Prosecutors Shift Focus on Enron
by Alexei Barrionuevo, The New York Times
January 11th, 2006
Government lawyers who will try the case against Enron's former chief executives, Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, have signaled that they intend to spend less time befuddling jurors with talk of Enron's accounting. |
| US: DeLay Tried, Failed to Aid Abramoff Client
by Suzanne Gamboa, Associated Press
January 10th, 2006
Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay tried to pressure the Bush administration into shutting down an Indian-owned casino that lobbyist Jack Abramoff wanted closed shortly after a tribal client of Abramoff's donated to a DeLay political action committee. |
| US: Lobby Firm Is Scandal Casualty
by Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and James V. Grimaldi, Washington Post
January 10th, 2006
One of Washington's top lobbying operations will shut down at the end of the month because of its ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former House majority leader Tom DeLay.
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| US: Fines in mining deaths cut back
by Thomas Frank, USA Today
January 10th, 2006
The nation's coal mines have been required to pay only a fraction of the federal fines imposed after deadly accidents since 1999, a USA TODAY analysis shows. |
| US: Call It the Deal of a Lifetime
by Landon Thomas, Jr., The New York Times
January 8th, 2006
It has been a wrenching professional and personal reversal for Michael Kopper, who three years ago became the first Enron executive to plead guilty to criminal charges and cut a deal with the government. Mr. Kopper was also the first high-ranking Enron employee to publicly admit to lying and stealing - in his case, more than $16 million - from the company.
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| US: Lobbyist's Firm Escapes Fallout From a Scandal
by By JONATHAN D. GLATER and ANNE E. KORNBLUT, The New York Times
January 8th, 2006
Greenberg Traurig was a politically well-connected law firm long before Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist who pleaded guilty last week to conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion, joined it about six years ago. |
| US: Lobbyist Pleads Guilty in Florida; Second Plea in 2 Days
by Abby Goodnough and Anne E. Kornblut, The New York Times
January 4th, 2006
A day after he pleaded guilty to three felony counts in Washington, Jack Abramoff, a once prominent Republican lobbyist, pleaded guilty today to two felony charges of conspiracy and fraud in a case stemming from his purchase of a casino boat line in 2000.
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| US: U.S. says Skilling mislead the SEC
CNN
January 4th, 2006
Prosecutors intend to argue that former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling attempted to deceive the Securities and Exchange Commission in a deposition he gave soon after the company's bankruptcy about his reason for selling 500,000 shares of Enron stock, according to a motion filed in a Houston federal court Tuesday. |
| US: The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail
by R. Jeffrey Smith, The Washington Post
December 31st, 2005
The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.
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| US: Former Top Enron Accountant Pleads Guilty to Fraud
by Simon Romero and Vikas Bajas, The New York Times
December 28th, 2005
The former chief accounting officer of Enron pleaded guilty today to a single felony charge of securities fraud and agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors, giving a significant lift to the government's case against the two leading figures in the scandal over Enron's collapse.
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| US: Donors underwrite DeLay's luxury lifestyle
by Larry Margasak and Sharon Theimer, Associated Press
December 20th, 2005
As Tom DeLay became a king of campaign fundraising, he lived like one too. He visited cliff-top Caribbean resorts, golf courses designed by PGA champions and four-star restaurants - all courtesy of donors who bankrolled his political money empire. |
| US: Shining Light on Corporate Political Gifts
by Floyd Norris, The New York Times
December 16th, 2005
Which politicians - and which political causes - are your companies financing? Will those contributions come back to haunt them as prosecutors go after lobbyists for expenditures that could be deemed contributions - or bribes? |
| US: Poll Shows Americans Distrust Corporations
by Claudia H. Deutsch, The New York Times
December 10th, 2005
Pollsters, researchers, even many corporate chiefs themselves say that business is under attack by a majority of the public, which believes that executives are bent on destroying the environment, cooking the books and lining their own pockets.
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| Britain: British Upset by Scale of Iraqi Ministry Corruption
The Guardian
August 23rd, 2005
British officials are seriously concerned about the level of corruption in the Iraqi defense ministry, after the embezzlement of vast amounts of money earmarked for the country's security forces.
Officials from the British Ministry of Defense had already warned US and Iraqi authorities against the squandering of money -- and have been proved right, on a catastrophic scale. |
| Ghana: Comparing "Hotel Kufuor" to other Presidential Scandals
by Katie Bell , Home Page Ghana
August 21st, 2005
COUNTS of massive corruption within governments weave their way through almost every nation. Yet, the accusations surrounding President Kufuors involvement in the Hotel Scandal seems negligible and overhand when compared to past and ongoing corruption scandals hitting the headlines elsewhere. It seems a bit of underhand dealing comes with the job. The question arises however, of where does one draw the line? |
| US: The Big Tug of War Over Unocal
by Steve Lohr, New York Times
July 6th, 2005
As the lobbying heats up in Washington over Unocal, a midsize American oil company, the battle lines in the takeover contest are now drawn clearly, if oddly, by its suitors. |
| BRAZIL: Paving the Amazon
by Marcelo Ballve, AlterNet
March 5th, 2005
In the aftermath of the assassination of Dorothy Stang, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio "Lula" da Silva is scrambling to appear green. But many fear that an unholy alliance between government and agribusiness will bring more forest destruction. |
| MEXICO: First Lady's Foundation Leaves Grey Areas
by Sara Silver, Financial Times
February 24th, 2005
Marta Sahagn de Fox, Mexico's first lady, has repeatedly denied using her philanthropic foundation (which has ties to Coca-Cola) to advance political ambitions. So it may be nothing more than coincidence that as the country moves towards elections next year, Vamos Mexico's media campaign has moved into high gear. |
| US: Of, By and For Big Business
by Robert Scheer, AlterNet
February 22nd, 2005
Here's the agenda, as laid out by the president and the Republicans who control Congress: First, limit people's power to right wrongs done to them by corporations. Next, force people to repay usurious loans to credit card companies that make gazillions off the fine print. Then, for the coup de grace, hand over history's most successful public safety net to Wall Street.
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| US: A New Target for Advisers to Swift Vets
by Glen Justice, New York Times
February 19th, 2005
Taking its cues from the success of last year's Swift boat veterans' campaign in the presidential race, a conservative lobbying organization has hired some of the same consultants to orchestrate attacks on one of President Bush's toughest opponents in the battle to overhaul Social Security. |
| US: Former JP Morgan Vice President Will Plead Guilty
by Jon Hurdle, Reuters
January 12th, 2005
Anthony Snell, a former vice president of the Wall Street firm, will on Thursday plead guilty to wire fraud offenses, after previously denying the charges, according to a statement from U.S. Attorney Patrick Meehan of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. |
| US: War is Bad for Business
by Jim Lobe, Foreign Policy In Focus
December 31st, 2004
On top of the human and financial costs of the war in Iraq, the Bush administration's foreign policy may be costing U.S. corporations business overseas, according to a new survey of 8,000 international consumers released this week by the Seattle-based Global Market Insite (GMI) Inc. |
| EU: Corporate Lobbying Grows
by Stefania Bianchi, Inter Press Service
December 22nd, 2004
Groups say corporate lobby groups, which include industrial associations, political consultants and cross-industry groups, are gaining "far too much political influence" in the European Union (EU) decision-making process, and are calling for the European Commission, the EU executive, "to curb the excessive influence" of such groups. |
| US: Departing Lawmakers Cash in Years of Service for Big Bucks
by Matt Stearns, Knight Ridder
December 22nd, 2004
With the 108th Congress now passed into history, another Washington tradition is playing out this month as departing members of Congress, rather than returning home, trade their years of service for big paychecks from lobbying groups, investment banks and law firms. |
| US: Lobbyists Try to Kill Philidelphia Inexpensive Wireless Plan
by Marc Levy, Associated Press
November 24th, 2004
Philadelphia's plan to offer inexpensive wireless Internet as a municipal service the most ambitious yet by a major U.S. city has collided with commercial interests including the local phone company, Verizon Communications Inc. |
| UK: British Companies Demand Relaxed Regulations
by David Hencke and Terry Macalister, Guardian (UK)
November 17th, 2004
Three of Britain's blue chip companies told the government they would boycott its export guarantee scheme unless tough new rules over bribery and corruption were relaxed. |
| US: Union Plans Four-Day Strike Against SBC
Associated Press
May 19th, 2004
The union representing 102,000 employees of SBC Communications Inc. said Wednesday it would stage a four-day strike starting Friday because of a deadlock in contract negotiations with the nation's second biggest local phone company. |
| US: Professors Back Kerry With Campaign Giving
by Brian C. Mooney, Boston Globe
May 18th, 2004
Voting with their checkbooks, college professors are breaking overwhelmingly for Senator John F. Kerry over President Bush, with the Democratic challenger raising nearly three times as much in campaign contributions from college campuses. The fund-raising trend contrasts sharply with the 2000 presidential race, when Bush raised slightly more money from academia than Al Gore. |
| Iraq: Oil-Slick James Baker
by Greg Palast, AlterNet
April 28th, 2004
There's nothing in the Iraq Strategy about democracy or voting. But there's plenty of detail about creating a free-market Disneyland in Mesopotamia, with "all" state assets and that's just about everything in that nation to be sold off to corporate powers. The Bush team secret program ordered: "... asset sales, concessions, leases and management contracts, especially those in the oil and supporting industries." |
| US: Medco Health to Settle Complaints
Associated Press
April 27th, 2004
In a case that could alter how prescriptions are filled, the nation's largest pharmacy benefits manager said Monday that it would pay $29 million to settle allegations by 20 states, including California, that it pressured doctors to switch patients' medications to benefit its bottom line. |
| US: Strengthening Bones, Raising Questions
by Denise Gellene, New York Times
April 23rd, 2004
Last fall, the National Kidney Foundation for the first time set treatment guidelines to prevent a complication from kidney failure that causes damage to bones. The guidelines were tough, and there was no drug on the market that would easily help a patient meet them. |
| US: Diebold Apologizes for Failure
by Ian Hoffman, Oakland Tribune
April 22nd, 2004
Poll workers in Alameda and San Diego counties hadn't been trained on ways around their failure, and San Diego County chose not to supply polls with backup paper ballots, crippling the largest roll-out of e-voting in the nation March 2. Unknown thousands of voters were turned away at the polls. |
| US: Merrill Lynch Ordered To Pay For Sexual Bias
by Patrick McGeehan, New York Times
April 21st, 2004
Merrill Lynch & Company, the nation's biggest brokerage firm, discriminated against women who worked as stockbrokers, according to a panel of arbitrators that has awarded $2.2 million to one of them. |
| Uganda: Coffee Project Faces Collapse
by Isabirye Musoke, The Monitor
April 21st, 2004
Failure to pay suppliers of planting materials is threatening plans to increase coffee production in the country. |
| UK: Secretary Stole From Goldman Bankers
by Nikki Tait, New York Times
April 20th, 2004
A former personal assistant to top Goldman Sachs bankers in London was behind bars on Tuesday night after being found guilty of stealing 4.4m from the personal accounts of her boss Scott Mead and two other bankers. |
| IRAQ: US Unearths Iraqi Front Companies
BBC
April 16th, 2004
Eight firms and five people have been named by US and UK investigators as fronts used to finance the activities of the former Iraqi regime. |
| Iraq: Whose Human Rights Is The Occupation Defending?
by David Bacon, US Labor Against The War
April 15th, 2004
The disaster that is the occupation of Iraq is much more than the war that plays nightly across U.S. television screens. The violence of grinding poverty, exacerbated by economic sanctions after the first Gulf War, has been deepened by the US invasion. Every day the economic policies of the occupying authorities create more hunger among Iraq's working people, transforming them into a pool of low-wage, semi-employed labor, desperate for jobs at almost any price. |
| US: Harvard Donors Aid Kerry
by Kevin Joy, Boston Globe
April 13th, 2004
Professors and other employees of Harvard University have donated $140,600 to US Senator John F. Kerry's various campaigns since 1984, including several big donations from prominent academics in recent months, a review of campaign documents shows. |
| US: Nuclear Industry Powers Back Into Life
by David Teather, The Guardian
April 13th, 2004
Twenty-five years after the United States suffered its worst nuclear accident, the moribund atomic energy industry has begun to show signs of life. A consortium of seven of the biggest companies in the business, including a division of British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL), now says it intends to apply for the first licence to build a commercial nuclear plant in the US since the near disaster at Three Mile Island. |
| US: Higher Wages Mean Higher Profits
by Stanley Holmes, Wendy Zellner, Business Week
April 12th, 2004
Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST ) handily beat Wall Street expectations on Mar. 3, posting a 25% profit gain in its most recent quarter on top of a 14% sales hike. The warehouse club even nudged up its profit forecast for the rest of 2004. So how did the market respond? By driving the Issaquah (Wash.) company's stock down by 4%. One problem for Wall Street is that Costco pays its workers much better than archrival Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT ) does and analysts worry that Costco's operating expenses could get out of hand. "At Costco, it's better to be an employee or a customer than a shareholder," says Deutsche Bank (DB ) analyst Bill Dreher. |
| UK: Cooking the Books at Parmalat
by Fred Kapner, Financial Times
April 12th, 2004
Eight billion reasons to destroy Parmalat 'Account 999': Damning computer file survives to reveal the enormous scale of accounting irregularities at the Italian dairy group, |
| Iraq: Halliburton's Role In Iraq - from Meals to Oil
by Sue Pleming, Reuters
April 12th, 2004
Texas company Halliburton, which has seven workers missing in Iraq, is the U.S. military's biggest contractor there, responsibe for everything from preparing meals for U.S. troops to repairing Iraq's oil infrastructure. |
| Iraq: Contractors Put Reconstruction On Hold
by Nicolas Pelham, Financial Times
April 11th, 2004
Many of Iraq's reconstruction projects are being put on hold after a spate of foreign kidnappings and attacks on convoys in Baghdad grounded foreign and Iraqi contractors. |
| US: Boeing Sex-Bias Case to Go to Trial
by David Bowermaster, The Seattle Times
April 10th, 2004
class-action lawsuit that accuses Boeing of discriminating against 28,000 current and former female workers in Puget Sound will go to trial May 17, a federal judge ruled yesterday. |
| Colombia: Workers Starved For Justice
Green Left Weekly
April 7th, 2004
From March 15 to March 27, workers at Colombia's Coca-Coca bottling plant went on hunger strike, in a desperate attempt to improve their working conditions. Carlene Wilson, a member of the Socialist Alliance and Workers Power, and an activist in Melbourne's Colombia Demands Justice campaign, explains why their struggle is so important. |
| US: Domestic Oil Companies, Not OPEC, Mostly to Blame for High Gas Prices
Consumers Union
April 7th, 2004
Domestic Oil Companies' Consolidation, Restricting Supplies Biggest Cause of Soaring Gas Prices OPEC Actions Only Part of the Reason For Record Pump Prices In testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust subcommittee, two leading consumer groups placed much of the blame for higher gasoline prices on domestic oil companies. The groups noted that consolidation in the refining industry has enabled large oil companies to restrict the supplies that make it to the pump, sending gas prices higher and leading to windfall profits. |
| US: Pentagon Asks Congress For Environment Waivers
The Associated Press
April 7th, 2004
The Defense Department wants the government to ease environmental laws to avoid costly cleanups of military ranges and give states more time to handle air pollution from training exercises. |
| US: California Voters Reject Wal-Mart Initiative
by John M. Broder, The New York Times
April 7th, 2004
Voters in Inglewood, a racially diverse working-class suburb of Los Angeles, have soundly rejected a ballot initiative to permit construction of a 60-acre Wal-Mart shopping complex exempt from virtually all state and local regulation. |
| US: Many Companies Avoided Taxes While Profits Soared
by John D. Mckinnon, Wall Street Journal
April 6th, 2004
More than 60% of U.S. corporations didn't pay any federal taxes for 1996 through 2000, years when the economy boomed and corporate profits soared, the investigative arm of Congress reported. The disclosures from the General Accounting Office are certain to fuel the debate over corporate tax payments in the presidential campaign. Corporate tax receipts have shrunk markedly as a share of overall federal revenue in recent years, and were particularly depressed when the economy soured. By 2003, they had fallen to just 7.4% of overall federal receipts, the lowest rate since 1983, and the second-lowest rate since 1934, federal budget officials say." |
| World: Lenders Urge World Bank to Reject Oil, Mining Pullout
by Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service News Agency
April 5th, 2004
International investment banks are lobbying the World Bank to rebuff the recommendations of an independent study that urged the global lender to bail out of gas, oil and mining projects. |
| Iraq: Safety Fears Halt Iraq Trade Fair
BBC
April 1st, 2004
A massive trade fair in Baghdad has been cancelled just days before it was to start, after the US State Department warned it could by targeted by rebels. |
| Iraq: Attack Slays Iraqi Employee Of Bechtel
by David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle
March 25th, 2004
An Iraqi working for Bechtel Corp. in Baghdad died in a mortar attack last week, the San Francisco construction firm's first known loss to the violence roiling the country. |
| China: Chip Makers Exchange Barbs in Corporate Espionage Suit
by Laurie J. Flynn, Los Angeles Times
March 25th, 2004
Semiconductor Manufacturing International, China's largest maker of custom chips, accused Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Wednesday of conducting a "smear campaign" after Taiwan Semiconductor filed new documents this week in its lawsuit accusing the Chinese company of corporate espionage. |
| US: Lockheed In Raptor Deal With Pentagon
by Demetri Sevastopulo, Financial Times
March 24th, 2004
Lockheed Martin on Tuesday reached an agreement to sell 22 Raptor jet fighters to the US air force after the Pentagon decided to proceed with operational testing of the controversial aircraft next month. |
| Australia: Watchdog Condemns NAB
BBC
March 24th, 2004
Australia's financial watchdog has said the country's biggest bank put profit before probity, leading to a US$184m (102m) currency trading scandal. National Australia Bank "failed at every level" to implement proper controls on risk management, the regulator said. |
| Belgium: European Union Fines Microsoft $613m
by Paul Geitner, Associated Press
March 24th, 2004
The European Union slapped Microsoft Corp. with a $613 million fine Wednesday for abusively wielding its Windows software monopoly and ordered sanctions that go well beyond the U.S. antitrust settlement -- setting up what could be another lengthy court battle. |
| Haiti: Companies Covet Post-War Rebuilding Contracts
by Rick Westhead, Toronto Star
March 23rd, 2004
Nation-rebuilding projects in countries such as Iraq, the Congo and Haiti have spawned a growing industry as private-sector companies compete to win contracts to aid in the rebuilding efforts. Some analysts say the business now generates as much as $200 billion (U.S.) a year. |
| US: For Wall Street Chiefs, Big Paydays Continue
by Patrick McGeehan, New York Times
March 23rd, 2004
As investor outrage over executive compensation rattled corporate boardrooms last year, some companies changed the way they set pay for their top officers. But the message apparently did not register on Wall Street, where chief executives like Sanford I. Weill of Citigroup and E. Stanley O'Neal of Merrill Lynch collected their biggest paychecks ever in 2003 - $44 million and $28 million. |
| Iraq: Nour USA Ltd's Delivery Delays
by Tom Shanker and Eric Schmitt, New York Times
March 22nd, 2004
Senior American commanders in Iraq are publicly complaining that delays in delivering radios, body armor and other equipment have hobbled their ability to build an effective Iraqi security force that can ultimately replace United States troops here. |
| India: An Outsourcing Giant Fights Back
by Saritha Rai, New York Times
March 21st, 2004
To his compatriots, Azim Premji is the Bill Gates of India. By transforming his family-owned vegetable oil business into a global technology powerhouse, Mr. Premji has become the country's richest citizen, with a net worth hovering around $8 billion. |
| EU: Microsoft's Last-Ditch Offer Is Rejected
by Daniel Dombey, Financial Times
March 18th, 2004
The European Commission said it had been unable to reach a settlement with Microsoft after considering the software group's last-ditch offer to end the long-running antitrust battle. |
| US: Don't Expect Fed To Limit Banks' Bad Behavior
by Steven Pearlstein, Washington Post
March 17th, 2004
How many financial scandals does a banking company have to be involved in before the Federal Reserve will finally conclude it isn't up to the task of taking control of yet another big bank? |
| US: New School's Labor War
by Tom Robbins, Village Voice
March 17th, 2004
Despite a mail-in vote last month in which a majority of part-time faculty members casting ballots voted to be represented by a division of United Auto Workers, university president and former U.S. senator Bob Kerrey is asking that the results be thrown out, saying the vote wasn't sufficiently representative of employees. |
| US: FleetBoston, BofA To Pay $675 Million
by Josh Friedman, Los Angeles Times
March 16th, 2004
Bank of America Corp. and FleetBoston Financial Corp. agreed Monday to pay $675 million in fines and restitution in the biggest settlement yet in the scandal over mutual fund trading abuses. |
| US: Technically Speaking Still a Hub
by Joseph Menn, Los Angeles Times
March 15th, 2004
The Silicon Valley remains a land of headquarters, but much of the work has shifted to cheaper labor markets overseas. The house is pretty much the same as the others on Woodford Drive, except for the plastic sign on the wall that says "Easic Corp." Inside, in the dining room and family room, there's a daybed for the dog, brass plaques memorializing the chip-design firm's patents and five employees setting strategy, reviewing software and sending e-mail to programming colleagues in Romania. |
| US: A Wave Of Desalination Proposals
by Bettina Boxall, Los Angeles Times
March 14th, 2004
More than 20 projects to make seawater fit for the tap are being considered in the state. Those from private firms stir debate over public's interests. It's purified seawater, stripped of its salts and ready for the tap. MacLaggan's firm, Poseidon Resources |
| Trinidad: Life In Point Fortin
by Roxanne Stapleton, Trinidad and Tobago Express
March 14th, 2004
Persons at the strike camp say the strike started because of poor wages, inhumane conditions and very bad industrial relations. Things took a turn for the worse, they said, when they tried to have negotiations with Bechtel and contractor DMC (a Germany-based company). |
| Canada: Black Sues Hollinger For $173m
by Saeed Shah, The Independent
March 10th, 2004
Lord Black of Crossharbour, the disgraced media baron, has launched a new round in his legal battle with Hollinger International, with a $173m claim for fees and damages. |
| Germany: World Cup Organisers Shaken By Alpine Bribery
by Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters
March 10th, 2004
Germany's World Cup organisers said on Wednesday they were "shaken" and deeply hurt by charges of corruption that have been levelled at top Munich soccer executives over the construction of the city's new stadium. |
| Mexico: Color It Green And See How It Fills Politicians' Pockets
by Ginger Thompson, The New York Times
March 10th, 2004
The airwaves have been flooded with grainy, muffled videotapes that appear to show some of Mexico's leading politicians and their operatives involved in egregious acts of venality. For the most part, the tapes show the same old misdeeds long considered signatures of Mexican politics. But one of the tapes confirmed a new development - small parties have become big businesses too. |
| US: Federal Prosecutors Seek to Indict Reliant
by Elizabeth Douglass, Los Angeles Times
March 9th, 2004
Federal prosecutors plan to indict a Reliant Resources Inc. unit on charges that it withheld much-needed electricity to boost prices during California's energy crisis, the Houston-based power company said Monday. |
| US: Kool Cigarettes in New Flavors Draw Criticism
by Nat Ives, New York Times
March 9th, 2004
Brown & Williamson Tobacco has begun promoting new versions of Kool cigarettes that are likely to draw attention not just for their high-design packages but also for their flavors: Caribbean Chill, Midnight Berry, Mocha Taboo and Mintrigue. As much as the new Kools may bolster the company's bottom line, their sugary names seem certain to raise the voltage further in the already charged debate on cigarette marketing and teenagers. |
| US: Nissan Sued Over Theft-Prone Headlights
by Ronald Smothers, New York Times
March 8th, 2004
State consumer regulators and the attorney general sued the automaker Nissan North America on Monday, charging that the company had deliberately concealed from owners of some of their Maxima models that its ultrabright xenon headlamps were a popular target for thieves. |
| Saudi Arabia: Foreign Concerns Make Deals to Search for Gas
by Simon Romero, New York Times
March 7th, 2004
Saudi Arabian officials said on Sunday that they were seeking to strengthen ties with China and Russia after allowing energy companies from those countries to be among the first foreign businesses to explore Saudi natural gas reserves in more than three decades. |
| US: A Heroic Defense And a Cruel System
by David Bacon, San Francisco Bay Area Independent Media Center
March 4th, 2004
The southern California grocery strikers are true working-class heroes. Seventy thousand held fast to their strike over four and a half months, a remarkable achievement in the current "jobless recovery." |
| US: IBM Settles Suit Over Toxic-Chemical Claims
Los Angeles Times
March 3rd, 2004
IBM Corp. settled a lawsuit Tuesday over claims that a worker's exposure to chemicals at the company's plant in New York caused her child to be born with birth defects. |
| South Korea: Kia Plans Car Plant in Slovakia
by Samuel Len, New York Times
March 3rd, 2004
The move, which had been expected, was the latest by Hyundai in expanding overseas as its home market becomes increasingly crowded. Kia's decision is another coup for Slovakia, where cheap labor and proximity to Western Europe are making it a popular destination for automakers. |
| Mexico: Community Radio Stations Up Against The Wall
by Diego Cevallos, Inter Press Service News Agency
March 2nd, 2004
According to spokespersons for the National Chamber of the Radio and Television Industry (CIRT), which is demanding the immediate closure of all community radio stations, the non-profit broadcasters foment piracy of the airwaves and incite guerrilla groups. |
| US: Fleet Specialist To Pay $59.4 Million Fine
Associated Press
March 2nd, 2004
Fleet Specialist, one of the five New York Stock Exchange specialist firms that have settled illegal trading charges with the Securities and Exchange Commission, will pay $59.4 million in fines and restitution, its parent company said Tuesday. |
| US: FERC Claims Jurisdiction on Gas Plant
by Deborah Schoch, Los Angeles Times
February 27th, 2004
The federal position on a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in Long Beach sets up a possible conflict with state regulators. |
| UK: California Seeks Say in Long Beach Gas Terminal Plan
by Deborah Schoch, Los Angeles Times
February 26th, 2004
In an unusual protest filed with federal regulators this week, the state Public Utilities Commission complained that it had tried -- and failed -- since October to get Mitsubishi to apply to the agency for permission to build a terminal for liquefied natural gas in the Port of Long Beach. |
| Kazakhstan: Oil Majors Agree to Develop Field
by Heather Timmons, The New York Times
February 26th, 2004
A consortium of international oil companies formally agreed on Wednesday to proceed with a $29 billion development of the Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan, the largest oil discovery since Prudhoe Bay in Alaska more than 30 years ago. |
| World: WB to Work on Oil, Gas and Mining Projects
Financial Times
February 26th, 2004
The president of the World Bank and his management colleagues will reject several of the crucial recommendations of a review about the extractive industries - oil, gas and mining - they themselves instituted. In particular, they will oppose the idea that the Bank should phase out all oil projects within five years. |
| Congressional Inquiry Necessary for War Profiteering
Campaign to Stop the War Profiteerers
February 25th, 2004
The Pentagon and State Department criminal fraud investigations of Halliburton concerning their handling of a fuel contract in Iraq are an important first step - but point to the need for bold action on the part of the President and Congress to ensure accountability of military contractors, according to the Campaign to Stop the War Profiteers. |
| UK: Watchdogs Call Government on Unethical Sales
BBC
February 25th, 2004
The government is allowing British arms manufacturers to sell to some of the most dangerous and repressive regimes in the world, two charities claim. A dramatic rise in the sale of arms components to these regimes undermines the government's own ethical policies, say Oxfam and Amnesty International. |
| Iraq: Pentagon Opens Criminal Inquiry of Halliburton
by Richard A. Oppel Jr., New York Times
February 24th, 2004
Pentagon officials said Monday night that they have opened a criminal fraud investigation of Halliburton, the giant Texas oil-services concern, in an inquiry that will examine "potential overpricing" of fuel taken into Iraq by one of the company's subcontractors. |
| Contractors are Cashing in on the War on Terror
World Policy Institute
February 24th, 2004
"With the Pentagon budget at $400 billion per year and counting, plus a new Department of Homeland Security with a $40 billion per year budget, plus wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that have cost $180 billion to date, these are lucrative times to be a military contractor." |
| US: Ex-Enron Boss Charged with Fraud
by Mark Tran, Guardian (London)
February 19th, 2004
Jeff Skilling, the former chief executive of Enron, has been charged with 42 counts of fraud, insider trading and giving false statements to auditors in a federal indictment released today. The indictment also includes new charges against former Enron chief accounting officer, Rick Causey, who pleaded not guilty to six fraud counts last month. |
| Chad: The Making Of An African Petrostate
by Somini Sengupta, New York Times
February 18th, 2004
Oil is bringing big changes to Chad, some cultural, like the one Mr. Elie worries about, others practical, like the way the World Bank will be overseeing how Chad manages its new wealth. Chad, among the poorest countries in the world, is now Africa's newest petrostate. |
| USA: Tyson Hit With $1.28 Bn Verdict
by Bob Burgdorfer, Reuters
February 17th, 2004
Tyson Foods Inc., the nation's largest meat producer, was hit with a $1.28 billion judgment on Tuesday by a federal jury that said the company manipulated the cattle market and must change its buying practices. |
| USA: Halliburton Stops Billing U.S. for Meals Served to Troops
by Eric Schmitt, New York Times
February 17th, 2004
Seeking to defuse a growing election-year issue, the Halliburton Company said Monday that it had stopped billing the Pentagon for the cost of feeding American troops in Iraq and Kuwait until a dispute over the number of meals served is resolved. |
| US: Who Gives the Most Money
by Alex Knott, Center for Public Integrity
February 13th, 2004
Investment companies dominated President George W. Bush's $47 million fourth quarter fundraising, driven by networks of top individual contributors, according to a recent supplement to "The Buying of the President 2004," a book by the Center for Public Integrity detailing the financial interests behind each presidential candidate. |
| Kuwait: Halliburton Deal Brings Probe
CNN
February 11th, 2004
Kuwait's parliament agreed Wednesday to investigate whether the government misused public funds when it signed a contract with Halliburton Corp. to supply fuel to U.S. troops in Iraq. |
| US: What Did the Vice-President Do for Halliburton?
by Jane Mayer, The New Yorker
February 10th, 2004
Halliburton blamed the high costs on an obscure Kuwaiti firm, Altanmia Commercial Marketing, which it subcontracted to deliver the fuel. In Kuwait, the oil business is controlled by the state, and Halliburton has claimed that government officials there pressured it into hiring Altanmia, which had no experience in fuel transport. Yet a previously undisclosed letter, dated May 4, 2003, and sent from an American contracting officer to Kuwait's oil minister, plainly describes the decision to use Altanmia as Halliburton's own "recommendation." |
| US: Making Money On Terrorism
by William D. Hartung, The Nation
February 5th, 2004
We all know that Halliburton is raking in billions from the Bush Administration's occupation and rebuilding of Iraq. But in the long run, the biggest beneficiaries of the Administration's "war on terror" may be the "destroyers," not the rebuilders. The nation's "Big Three" weapons makers--Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Northrop Grumman--are cashing in on the Bush policies of regime change abroad and surveillance at home. |
| Romania: Commission Investigating How Bechtel Won Contract
by Phelim McAleer, Financial Times
February 5th, 2004
The European Commission is investigating the award - without a tender - of a $2.5bn (2bn, 1.4bn) Romanian motorway contract to the politically well-connected US company Bechtel. Gnther Verheugen, EU enlargement commissioner, is examining the contract for a 450km road that would be Romania's key transport link with central Europe. He is responding to complaints by Bucharest-based EU diplomats who claim the process was not transparent. |
| Iraq: Occupation, Inc.
by Pratap Chatterjee and Herbert Docena, Southern Exposure
February 4th, 2004
Bechtel's projects are examined by freelance journalists. Locals complain of shoddy work, problems with schools, sewage, electricity, gas lines, and low wages. |
| IRAQ: Life More Difficult Now?
by Pratap Chatterjee and Herbert Docena, Southern Exposure
February 4th, 2004
Bechtel's projects are examined by freelance journalists. Locals complain of shoddy work, problems with schools, sewage, electricity, gas lines, and low wages. |
| Israel: Sharon Says Says He Won't Quit Over Bribe Scandal
by Harvey Morris, Financial Times
January 21st, 2004
Ariel Sharon attempted on Thursday to quell speculation that might be forced out of office by a corruption scandal after a businessman was charged with bribing him, telling an Israeli newspaper that he had no intention of resigning. |
| UK: Foreign Aid Goes to Neoliberal Recipients
by George Monbiot, Guardian (London)
January 6th, 2004
The Adam Smith Institute, the ultra-rightwing lobby group, now receives more money from Britain's Department for International Development (DfID) than Liberia or Somalia, two of the most desperate nations on Earth. |
| Italy: Berlusconi Plans Decree After Media Bill Fails
New York Times
December 17th, 2003
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi moved Tuesday to protect one of his family's television businesses after President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi rejected a bill that critics say would have benefited Mr. Berlusconi's media empire. On Monday, Mr. Ciampi refused to sign the bill, which would relax limits on media ownership, and sent it back to Parliament in a setback for Mr. Berlusconi's political and media interests. The prime minister said Tuesday that his cabinet would adopt an emergency decree to shield Mediaset, the biggest private broadcaster in Italy, from the fallout. The Berlusconi family controls the company. |
| South Korea: Conglomerates Involved in Slush Scandal
BBC
December 15th, 2003
The man who narrowly lost last year's presidential race in South Korea has admitted his campaign finances included $42m in illegal donations. Lee Hoi-chang, of the Grand National Party, made the admission in a televised news conference, then turned himself in to state prosecutors. The shock statement is the latest twist in a scandal which also threatens President Roh Moo-hyun, since four former aides have been implicated. |
| Kenya: Officials, Banks in $1bn Corruption Probe
by William Wallis and David White, Financial Times
December 15th, 2003
At least $1bn of illegal gains made by former and serving politicians and civil servants in Kenya has been uncovered in a secret international investigation over the past six months, according to Kenyan anti-corruption officials. |
| US: For Dean, 'Captive' Insurance a Vermont Boon
by Michael Kranish, Boston Globe
December 12th, 2003
During Dean's 11 years as Vermont governor, he enacted tax breaks that attracted to the state a "Who's Who" of corporate America -- including Enron -- to set up insurance businesses. Indeed, Dean said in 2001 that he wanted Vermont to "overtake Bermuda" as the "world's largest" haven for a segment of the insurance industry known as "captives," which refers to firms that help insure their parent companies. |
| Thailand: Prime Minister Mixes Business and Politics
by Shawn W. Crispin, Far Eastern Economic Review
December 11th, 2003
Former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra has used his great popularity to pursue a variety of business-friendly policies. But critics say that the appearance is growing of policies that favour friends and family. |
| Russia: Why Business Votes with its Wallet
by James Arnold, BBC
December 4th, 2003
An intriguing revelation following the recent arrest of Mikhail Khodorkovsky was the news that the billionaire tycoon gave money to nearly all political parties - including the communists. It's odd that Russia's richest man felt the need to subsidise the organisation dedicated to destroying his privileges. More interesting still is the question of just what Mr Khodorkovsky thought he was getting in return for his largesse. In post-Soviet Russia, links between business and politics have always been both close and murky. |
| US: Bush's Brother Has Contract to Help Chinese Chip Maker
by Warren Vieth and Lianne Hart, Los Angeles Times
November 27th, 2003
Neil Bush, a younger brother of President Bush, has a $400,000-a-year contract to provide business advice to a Chinese computer chip manufacturer, according to court documents. At the same time the Bush administration is promising to crack down on alleged trade abuses by the Chinese, Neil Bush as agreed to strategize with China's Grace Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., the documents show. |
| France: Sleaze Scandal Winds Up as Oil Chiefs are Jailed
by Jon Henley, The Guardian
November 13th, 2003
France's mammoth Elf corruption case, probably the biggest political and corporate sleaze scandal to hit a western democracy since the second world war, drew to a close yesterday as three key former executives of the oil giant were jailed for up to five years. |
| Russia: State Freezes Shares of Oil Giant
by Andrew Jack, Arkady Ostrovsky and Lina Saigol, Financial Times
October 30th, 2003
Russian prosecutors on Thursday froze a 44 per cent block of shares in Yukos, the country's largest oil group, in a sharp escalation of the crisis surrounding the company and its owners. The move, which was immediately denounced as illegal by the company, followed the arrest on Saturday of Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the chief executive and largest shareholder, on criminal charges of fraud and tax evasion totalling $1bn. |
| World: Company Is Foreign at Tax Time, but Seeks Americans-Only Work
by David Cay Johnston, New York Times
October 18th, 2003
A big oil-well drilling company that has used one law to escape American taxes by taking addresses in Bermuda and Barbados is now trying to use another law to qualify for business open only to American companies. Competitors are crying foul, saying they cannot survive if the Bermuda-Barbados company, Nabors Industries, is allowed to vie for contracts while paying little or nothing in taxes. |
| Kazakhstan: ChevronTexaco Quizzed in Bribery Probe
by Joshua Chaffin, Financial Times
September 11th, 2003
ChevronTexaco is being questioned by the Justice Department as prosecutors broaden an investigation into alleged bribery in Kazakhstan's oil industry. The US oil company received a subpoena from federal prosecutors in New York asking it to testify before a federal grand jury about a Kazakh oil and gas project in which the company was participating. |
| US: Southern Co. Hires Clean Air Act Regulator
by Margaret Mewkirk, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
September 4th, 2003
Southern Co. hired a new congressional lobbyist this week, and a Washington-based environmental group is crying foul. The lobbyist is John Pemberton, chief of staff of the division of the federal Environmental Protection Agency that delivered a key Clean Air Act victory last week to the nation's coal-fired utility industry, led by Southern Co. |
| USA: Political Parties Take Money from Crooks
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, CommonDreams.org
July 9th, 2003
The two major political parties are crooked. Without shame, they take big money from criminals. Corporate Crime Reporter last week released a report documenting $9.3 million given by convicted criminals to the Democrats and the Republicans in the 2002 election cycle. |
| USA: Westar Energy Review Finds Efforts to Sway Key Republicans
by Pete Yost, Associated Press
June 5th, 2003
Key Republicans, including House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, solicited campaign donations from a financially strapped utility that was seeking their help in winning an exemption from a federal law, according to internal company records.The lawmakers denied on Thursday there was any connection between the donations and the exemption. Federal law forbids the seeking or granting of government business in exchange for donations. |
| USA: Enron Used U.S. Government to Bully Developing Nations
by Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service
May 30th, 2003
Defunct energy giant Enron used the U.S. government to coerce the World Bank and poor nations to grant concessions and resolve its investment problems, according to documents and correspondence released by the Treasury Department. |
| USA: Interior Department Investigates Official's Role as Oil Lobbyist
by Katharine Q. Seelye, The New York Times
May 12th, 2003
Responding to a request from Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut and a candidate for president, the inspector general of the Interior Department is investigating possible conflicts of interest involving a top Interior official who used to be a lobbyist for the oil, gas and mining interests he now regulates. |
| Nigeria: Halliburton Pays Bribes to Lower Taxes
by David Ivanovich, Houston Chronicle
May 8th, 2003
WASHINGTON -- A Halliburton Co. subsidiary paid bribes totaling $2.4 million to a tax official in Nigeria in an effort to obtain favorable tax treatment, the company has revealed. |
| USA: Bechtel to Rebuild Iraq
by David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle
April 18th, 2003
Bechtel Corp., the San Francisco construction giant known for its global reach and high-powered political connections, won a contract Thursday worth up to $680 million to rebuild Iraqi roads, schools, sewers and hospitals damaged in the war. |
| Iraq: Reconstruction and U.S. Interest
Globe and Mail
April 1st, 2003
Even before winning the war, the United States appears intent on managing the peace and the costly reconstruction on its own. This opens Washington to criticism that the conflict is partially about profiteering, rather than simply the removal of a vile dictator and the introduction of some stability to a volatile region. |
| China: Chip Makers Exchange Barbs in Corporate Espionage Suit
by Laurie J. Flynn, New York Times
March 25th, 2003
Semiconductor Manufacturing International, China's largest maker of custom chips, accused Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing on Wednesday of conducting a "smear campaign" after Taiwan Semiconductor filed new documents this week in its lawsuit accusing the Chinese company of corporate espionage. |
| USA: Cheney is Still Paid by Pentagon Contractor
by Robert Bryce in Austin, Texas and Julian Borger in Washington, The Guardian
March 12th, 2003
Halliburton, the Texas company which has been awarded the Pentagon's contract to put out potential oil-field fires in Iraq and which is bidding for postwar construction contracts, is still making annual payments to its former chief executive, the vice-president Dick Cheney. |
| USA: General/Defense Contractor to Rebuild Iraq
by David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle
February 26th, 2003
The retired general tapped by the Bush administration to oversee rebuilding of post-war Iraq was, until just a few weeks ago, an executive at a leading defense contractor working on missile systems that would be used to bomb Baghdad. |
| USA: GOP Threats Halt GAO Cheney Suit
by Peter Brand and Alexander Bolton, The Hill
February 20th, 2003
Threats by Republicans to cut the General Accounting Office (GAO) budget influenced its decision to abandon a lawsuit against Vice President Dick Cheney, The Hill has learned. |
| USA: US Begins Secret Talks to Secure Iraq's Oilfields
by Nick Paton Walsh in Moscow, Julian Borger in Washington, Terry Macalister and Ewen MacAskill, The Guardian/UK
January 23rd, 2003
The US military has drawn up detailed plans to secure and protect Iraq's oilfields to prevent a repeat of 1991 when President Saddam set Kuwait's wells ablaze. |
| Italy: Police Arrest Parmalat Fraud Suspects
by John Tagliabue, New York Times
January 1st, 2003
The S.E.C. has filed a complaint against Parmalat, accusing the company and Mr. Tanzi of selling about $1.5 billion of securities to American investors while engaging in fraud. People close to the company said the investigation was increasingly focused on financial institutions. One institution, Bank of America, became involved in the case earlier this month after it declared that documents appearing to certify an account it supposedly held of a Parmalat subsidiary in the Cayman Islands with the equivalent of $4.2 billion in it were forgeries. |
| USA: Congress Rewards Corporate Tax Evaders With US Taxpayers' Money
by Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
December 2nd, 2002
As the war on terror shows troubling signs of becoming a war of error, the Bush administration is waging a far more successful war on behalf of its corporate backers. The latest victory comes courtesy of Congress' 11th hour reversal of a provision in the Homeland Security Bill banning government contracts for companies that move offshore to avoid paying U.S. taxes. |
| USA: Drug Industry Poised to Reap Political Dividends
by Vicki Kemper, Los Angeles Times
November 8th, 2002
Few industries campaigned harder than pharmaceutical manufacturers to elect Republicans to the new Congress, and few industries are better positioned to reap the rewards of the election returns, analysts said Thursday. |
| USA: Enron Election Fallout Expected to be Minor
by Michael Hedges, Houston Chronicle
October 22nd, 2002
WASHINGTON -- After Enron went through its high-profile collapse, elected officials trembled at the price they might have to pay this November. |
| USA: Harken and Halliburton Back in the News
The Daily Enron
October 10th, 2002
First, the Wall Street Journal and Boston Globe let loose on W. Bush. The papers disclosed that while a director and paid consultant for Harken Energy Bush had actively participated in the creation of off-the-books accounting gimmicks to hide company debt and raise the company's stock price. The deal, which the company did in conjunction with Harvard Management, created an off-the-books partnership strikingly similar to the kind Enron used to accomplish the same goals -- and which Bush has condemned. |
| USA: Bush Oil Firm Did Enron-Style Deal
by Greg Frost, Reuters
October 9th, 2002
BOSTON -- President Bush's former oil firm formed a partnership with Harvard University that concealed the company's financial woes and may have misled investors, a student and alumni group said in a report on Wednesday. |
| USA: Beach Banking Babylon
by Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate
September 26th, 2002
AUSTIN, Texas -- The economy is a mess. We are now in the second dip of a double-dip recession. (''Looks like a W,'' say the economists, another reason why economists are not famous for their humor.) Six and a quarter trillion dollars has disappeared from the stock markets. We have so far to go in cleaning up corporate corruption, it makes the Augean stables look like spilt milk. |
| US: Recasting the Web, Info Commons to Cash Cow
by Karen Charman, Extra!
August 26th, 2002
If the Bush administration lets large media conglomerates and local telephone companies have their way, the Internet as we know it -- that free-flowing, democratic, uncensored information superhighway -- could soon be a thing of the past. |
| USA: Chief Economic Advisor Undermines Bush on SSI Reform
by Stephen Pizzo, Daily Enron
August 19th, 2002
Was I the only editorial writer that noticed the remarkable comment by President Bush's chief economic advisor Saturday? Lawrence Lindsey was doing his bit this weekend to put the best possible face on last week's embarrassingly vacuous Waco economic summit. One of his stops was CNN's Novak, Hunt & Shields. |
| US: In Tough Times, a Company Finds Profits in Terror War
by Jeff Gerth and Don Van Natta Jr., New York Times
July 12th, 2002
The Halliburton Company, the Dallas oil services company bedeviled lately by an array of accounting and business issues, is benefiting very directly from the United States efforts to combat terrorism.From building cells for detainees at Guantnamo Bay in Cuba to feeding American troops in Uzbekistan, the Pentagon is increasingly relying on a unit of Halliburton called KBR, sometimes referred to as Kellogg Brown & Root. |
| USA: Corporate Misdeeds Foment Corruption in Developing Countries
by Emad Mekay, Inter Press Service
July 12th, 2002
WASHINGTON -- The multinational firms recently fingered for corrupt practices in the United States may be practicing similar operations on a larger scale in developing countries, say long-time corporate watchdogs. |
| US: Tech Industry Pushes Homeland Security Legislation
by D. Ian Hopper, Associated Press
July 10th, 2002
The companies making new homeland security devices, such as bomb detectors and biological weapon alarms, want the government to pick up the tab if their products fail and they are sued. |
| USA: Bush Wall Street Road Show Flops
by Stephen Pizzo, The Daily Enron
July 10th, 2002
There was more than a little of the surreal to President Bush's speech yesterday. The speech, billed as a major policy address on Bush's get-tough-on-corporate-crime agenda, came amidst days of news revelations of President's own questionable behavior as an executive of Harken Energy. |
| USA: Can Bush Scold Wall Street with a Straight Face?
by Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times
July 9th, 2002
For President Bush to pretend to be shocked that some of the nation's top executives deal from a stacked deck is akin to a madam feigning surprise that sexual favors have been sold in her establishment. Dubya may have gaps in his education, but ignorance of ''aggressive accounting'' techniques and other scams they don't teach in Biz 101 is not one of them. |
| USA: In Effort to Save Self Bush Undermines Reform
The Daily Enron
July 9th, 2002
Over the 4th of July weekend, stories about Bush's questionable behavior as an executive of Harken Energy became grist for the weekend talk shows. With today's Wall Street policy speech looming, the President and his men hoped that addressing the inevitable press questions about Harken the day before would take the steam out of the issue today. |
| USA: Cracking Down on Corporate Crime, Really
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, CommonDreams.org
July 4th, 2002
Here is one of the most remarkable aspects of the still-unfolding financial scandals swirling around Worldcom, Xerox, Global Crossing, Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco and a growing number of other companies: The fraud occurred in the most heavily regulated and monitored area of corporate activity |
| USA: Memo Cited Bush's Late SEC Filings
by Mike Allen, Washington Post
July 3rd, 2002
An internal Securities and Exchange Commission memo from 1991 says President Bush repeatedly failed to file timely reports of his business interests and transactions before his election as Texas governor. |
| US: Energy Task Force Documents Show Industry Influence
by Cat Lazaroff, Environment News Service
May 22nd, 2002
Vice President Richard Cheney's energy task force met with industry representatives 25 times for every one contact with conservation and public interest groups, shows a review by the group whose lawsuit prompted the release of thousands of Energy Department documents. The review was released the same day that the energy agency delivered another 1,500 pages of previously withheld task force information. |
| US: Internal Memos Connect Enron to California Energy Crisis
by Mark Martin, San Francisco Chronicle
May 7th, 2002
Energy traders for Enron used elaborate schemes with nicknames like ''Death Star'' and''Get Shorty'' to manipulate California's electricity market and boost profits, according to internal company memos released by federal regulators Monday. |
| USA: DeLay, Enron and the Marianas
The Daily Enron
April 4th, 2002
House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-TX) relishes in describing the Marianas as his personal Galapagos Islands. The 14-island chain of Pacific Islands has long been DeLay's image of a perfect business environment -- virtually devoid of business or environmental regulations. Only one other entity, Enron, curried more favor with DeLay. |
| US: New Hot Line Links CEOs to White House
by Tiffany Kary, CNET News.com
April 3rd, 2002
A high-security communications network linking government leaders to some of technology's biggest names in the event of a national disaster will be unveiled early next month, officials say. Inspired by the breakdown in communication on Sept. 11, when frantic calls overwhelmed phone lines, the so-called CEO Link will be used to shuttle high-priority news between government officials and executives. |
| USA: Documents Show Bush Energy Plan Fuelled By Industry
by Danielle Knight, Inter Press Service
March 28th, 2002
The administration of President George W. Bush relied exclusively on the advice of energy companies - many of which donated large sums of money to the Republican Party - in formulating its controversial energy strategy, according to government documents released this week. |
| USA: Employees Win Round in Enron Suit
by Christian Murray, Newsday
February 21st, 2002
The thousands of Enron employees who saw their 401(k) plans wiped out will be able to take the energy trader to court Monday, following a federal bankruptcy ruling in Manhattan yesterday. |
| US: Microsoft's Lobbying Efforts Eclipse Enron
by Matt Loney, ZDNet (UK)
February 12th, 2002
Microsoft's budget for political lobbying exceeded that of Enron, the judge residing over the antitrust case has heard. The software giant's budget for its Political Action Committee (PAC) increased from about $16,000 in 1995 to $1.6 million in 2000, according to Edward Roeder, a self-styled expert on efforts to influence the U.S. government, and founder of Sunshine Press Services, a news agency devoted to investigating money in politics. |
| USA: Enron Lobbyist Plotted Strategy Against Democrats
by Mark Z. Barabak, Los Angeles Times
February 11th, 2002
While the Bush administration was drafting its national energy policy, a leading lobbyist for Enron Corp. was plotting strategy to turn the plan into a political weapon against Democrats, according to a newly obtained memo. |
| US: Bush Sr.'s Ties to Global Crossing
by David Lazarus, San Francisco Chronicle
February 11th, 2002
President Bush had good reason to take an interest in Enron's demise. Aside from his close personal ties to the Houston energy giant, nearly three dozen of his senior appointees owned Enron shares upon arriving at the White House last year. |
| USA: Enron Chair Gave List of Favored Names to White House
by Marcy Gordon, Associated Press
February 1st, 2002
A few months after the White House got a list of recommended candidates from former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, a friend and backer of President Bush, two of them were appointed to a federal energy commission. |
| USA: Enron Got Its Money's Worth
by Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times
January 24th, 2002
The administration's energy program, developed by Vice President Dick Cheney in secret meetings -- six of them with Enron officials -- could have been written by lobbyists for the now failed company. |
| USA: Fired Andersen Partner Refuses to Testify on Enron
by Kevin Drawbaugh and Susan Cornwell, Reuters
January 24th, 2002
A fired partner of auditor Andersen refused to testify to Congress on the destruction of evidence in the collapse of energy giant Enron, prompting lawmakers to say he was frustrating their probe. |
| USA: Enron's New $5 Billion Black Hole
by Jamie Doward, The Observer (UK)
January 20th, 2002
Investigators probing the accounts of collapsed energy giant Enron are examining what happened to more than $5 billion in loans and investments the company made to subsidiaries kept off its balance sheet. The scale of the black hole opening up looks as if it could dwarf previous estimates. |
| USA: VP Tried to Aid Enron in India
by Timothy J. Burger, New York Daily News
January 18th, 2002
Vice President Cheney tried to help Enron collect a $64 million debt from a giant energy project in India, government documents obtained by the Daily News show. |
| USA: Bush Faces Flak Over Links to Defense Contractor
by Jason Niss, The Independent (UK)
January 13th, 2002
President George W Bush's administration, already on the back foot over its connections with the collapsed energy giant Enron, faces questions over a massive defence contract which aided an investment firm with Bush family links. |
| USA: Bush Advisers Cashed in on Saudi Gravy Train
by Maggie Mulvihill, Jack Meyers and Jonathan Wells, Boston Herald
December 11th, 2001
Many of the same American corporate executives who have reaped millions of dollars from arms and oil deals with the Saudi monarchy have served or currently serve at the highest levels of U.S. government, public records show. |
| US: Enron's Legacy
by David Morris, AlterNet
December 3rd, 2001
Kenneth Lay is living proof that one person can change the world. His company, Enron, may be in shambles. In three months, it may no longer exist. But for the rest of our lives we will live in a world redesigned by Kenneth Lay. |
| USA: Lobbyists Asked Which Regulations to Cut
by Michael Grunwald, Washington Post
November 4th, 2001
Republican congressional aide Barbara Kahlow sent the e-mail to a dozen business lobbyists on Sept. 26: ''Here's our non-public chart,'' it said. She underlined ''non-public'' and put it in boldface. |
| US: Economic Stimulus With Corporations in Mind
by Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times
October 27th, 2001
Late last winter, when President Bush was shaping his $1.35 trillion tax cut, corporate lobbyists were told to wait, their turn would come. And now, their turn is here. The $100 billion tax-cut bill narrowly passed by the House this week and sent to the Senate has been lauded by the White House as a broad stimulus package that will pull the United States economy out of a stall made worse by the terrorist attacks. |
| US: Opportunists Use the Crisis to Push Agenda
by Naomi Klein, The Herald (Glasgow, Scotland)
October 4th, 2001
There are many contenders for biggest political opportunist since the September 11 atrocities. Politicians ramming through life-changing laws while telling voters they are still mourning; corporations diving for public cash; pundits accusing their opponents of treason. |
| USA: Wartime Opportunists
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation
September 6th, 2001
Corporate interests and their proxies are looking to exploit the September 11 tragedy to advance a self-serving agenda that has nothing to do with national security and everything to do with corporate profits and dangerous ideologies. |
| USA: Big Oil, Gas Funding Ads for Bush's Energy Policy
by William E. Gibson, Orlando Sentinel
August 19th, 2001
The big oil and gas companies that spent nearly $2 million to help elect President Bush last year are pouring millions more into an advertising campaign this summer to help sell his energy policy in Congress. |
| USA: Bush Administration OKs Drilling on Native Lands
by Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times
May 22nd, 2001
A federal land agency on Monday upheld billionaire Philip Anschutz's right to drill an exploratory oil well in an area of south-central Montana where Native American tribes want to preserve sacred rock drawings. |
| USA: African Governments Spend Millions on Lobbying
by Jim Lobe, Inter Press Service
May 20th, 2001
African governments are paying millions of dollars to lobbyists in hopes of influencing Washington's policy, according to an examination of US government files. |
| US: Media Giants Lobbying to Privatize Airwaves
by Jeremy Rifkin, The Guardian (London)
April 28th, 2001
Imagine a world in which a handful of global media conglomerates like Vivendi, Sony, BskyB, Disney, and News Corporation own literally all the airwaves all over the planet and trade them back and forth as 'private electronic real estate'. A strategy is beginning to unfold in Washington DC to make that happen. |
| Africa: U.S. Covert Action Exposed
by Eric Ture Muhammad, Final Call
April 25th, 2001
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-Ga.) led the voices of castigation that claimed the U.S. Government, the UN, private militias and western economic interests possessed complete knowledge of pending civil unrest in Africa and fed the fray between African nations. Their aim was to use war, disease, hunger and poverty as covers while continuing the centuries-old practice of rape and exploitation of the continent's human and mineral resources, testimonies charged. |
| USA: The Dioxin Deception
by Tamara Straus, AlterNet
April 3rd, 2001
Behind Closed Doors reveals that year after year the publication of the EPA's report on dioxin has been stalled due to pressure from the chemical industry. |
| USA: 500 Protest Enron Plant
by David Fleshler, Sun-Sentinel
March 27th, 2001
More than 500 people packed the Pompano Beach Civic Center on Monday night in a formidable display of opposition to Enron Corp.'s plans for a power plant next to Florida's Turnpike. |
| USA: Corporate Power in Overdrive
by Robert B. Reich, New York Times
March 18th, 2001
There's no longer any countervailing power in Washington. Business is in complete control of the machinery of government. The House, the Senate and the White House are all run by business-friendly Republicans who are deeply indebted to American business for their electoral victories. |
| USA: Federal Worker Fired For Posting Refuge Map
by Lisa Getter, Los Angeles Times
March 15th, 2001
Last week, Ian Thomas posted a map on a U.S. government Web site of the caribou calving areas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area the Bush administration wants to open up for oil exploration. This week, Thomas is looking for a new job. |
| USA: Mom vs. Mastercard
by Jennifer Bauduy, TomPaine.com
February 27th, 2001
Bankruptcy laws were originally established to give people like the Trapps an opportunity to overcome financial misfortunes with a ''fresh start.'' But credit card companies, banks and other lending institutions -- some of President George W. Bush's and Congress's strongest campaign contributors -- say people are abusing the system. |
| USA: The Pharmaceutical Industry Stalks the Corridors of Power
by Julian Borger, The Guardian Unlimited
February 13th, 2001
In this pantheon of corporate muscle, no industry wields as much power as the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA), a pressure group breathtaking for its deep pockets and aggression, even by the standards of US politics. |
| USA: Bush Cabinet Ties to Tobacco Lobby
by Marc Kaufman, Washington Post
January 21st, 2001
Thompson, Ashcroft and Norton are among a number of figures in the Bush administration who have been relatively helpful to the tobacco industry and who could take positions that would signal a marked change in the federal government's approach to cigarette makers. |
| World: WHO Denounces Interference by Tobacco Industry
by Gustavo Capdevila, Inter Press Service
January 16th, 2001
The tobacco industry exerted pressure in Switzerland throughout recent decades to prevent the approval of stricter measures against smoking, says a study sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO). |
| US: The Corporate Conservative Administration
by Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, Focus on the Corporation
January 11th, 2001
Pushing beyond the corporate corrupting frontiers blazed by the Clinton administration, the Bush team is making clear that it intends to deliver on its campaign promises to strengthen Big Business's grip over government policy-making. |
| USA: Corporate Friendly Lobbyists Set to Overhaul Policy
by Michael Kranish, Boston Globe
January 8th, 2001
As President-elect Bush's campaign chairman, Don Evans helped raise nearly $100 million by relying heavily on corporate chieftains who became Bush ''pioneers.'' Now, the commerce secretary nominee is in an extraordinary position to help the business of the pioneers. |
| USA: Protests Planned at Bush Inauguration
Associated Press
December 22nd, 2000
Demonstrators who shut down a global trade meeting in Seattle last year and brawled with police at the Republican National Convention plan to show up in force for President-elect Bush's inauguration next month. |
| USA: Critics Warn Bush Presidency Disastrous for Environment
by Brian Hansen, Environment News Service
December 13th, 2000
Bush briefly outlined a number of issues he plans to address as president, including public education, social security, prescription drug coverage for seniors, tax relief, and strengthening the military. He made no mention of the environment. |
| USA: Cheney Made Millions Off Oil Deals with Hussein
by Martin A. Lee, San Francisco Bay Guardian
November 13th, 2000
During former defense secretary Richard Cheney's five-year tenure as chief executive of Halliburton, Inc., his oil services firm raked in big bucks from dubious commercial dealings with Iraq. Cheney left Halliburton with a $34 million retirement package last July when he became the GOP's vice-presidential candidate |
| USA: Gore Campaign Challenges Florida Vote
by Daniel J. Wakin, Reuters
November 9th, 2000
Vice President Al Gore's campaign announced an all-out effort today to contest Florida's presidential election result, demanding a recount by hand in four counties and promising to support legal challenges as the dispute grew increasingly bitter. |
| USA: Ralph Nader's No Pat Robertson
by Gregory Palast, Left Labour Review (Britain)
November 8th, 2000
I cast the vote that dare not speak its name: so shoot me, I voted Nader. But my shame is not in electing George W. I'm more nagged by an unflattering parallel between Nader's campaign and the 1988 run for President by that Bible-banging, sticky-fingered televangelist Pat Robertson. |
| USA: Green Voters Create American Presidential Cliffhanger
Environment News Service
November 8th, 2000
It all comes down to Florida. Despite winning the popular vote by an estimated 220,000 votes, Democratic candidate Vice President Al Gore may yet lose the presidential election, based on a handful of absentee ballots in Florida and the turnout of Green Party voters. |
| USA: Ex-EPA Head Reilly Accuses Gore of Sell-Out
U.S. Newswire
November 2nd, 2000
Former EPA Administrator William Reilly testified on Tuesday that a top Gore aide encouraged him to issue a trial-burn permit for the WTI incinerator located in East Liverpool -- despite Gore's promises not to before the people of the Ohio River Valley. |
| USA: Lesser-Evil Voting Is a Hard Sell to His Sons
by Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times
October 31st, 2000
Being a columnist is hardly the influential position it's cracked up to be. For weeks I've been trying to convince Ralph Nader voters that they have an obligation to vote for Al Gore or risk right-wing domination of government's three branches. For me, it's a no-brainer since George W. Bush has named Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as his role models for the three to five Supreme Court appointments he's likely to make. |
| USA: Nader Challenges Presidential Debate Funding
by Leslie Gevirtz, Reuters
October 6th, 2000
Lawyers for Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader sought on Thursday to toss out corporate financing of the presidential debates, arguing before a federal appeals panel that such funding was illegal. |
| USA: Government Ties Helped Cheney and Halliburton Make Millions
by John Rega, Bloomberg News
October 6th, 2000
While the comment came in a light-hearted exchange with his Democratic opponent Joe Lieberman, Cheney's reply left out how closely Dallas-based Halliburton's fortunes are linked to the U.S. government. The world's largest oil services firm is a leading U.S. defense contractor and has benefited from financial guarantees granted by U.S. agencies that promote exports. |
| USA: Nader Campaign Draws Big Crowds
by Damian Whitworth, Times of London
October 3rd, 2000
If the race for the White House was won by whoever drew the biggest crowd there would be no contest. The next president would be a gaunt man in a crumpled suit who travels on discounted senior citizen's tickets and delivers long, rambling speeches. He is Ralph Nader, the consumer advocate turned Green Party presidential candidate. |
| USA: Koch Industries Indicted for Air, Hazardous Waste Violations
by Brian Hansen, Environment News Service
October 2nd, 2000
A Texas based oil conglomerate and four of its employees were indicted last week on 97 counts of violating federal clean air and hazardous waste laws. The charges come less than one year after the company was slapped with the largest civil penalty ever levied under federal environmental statutes. |
| USA: Ralph Nader's Racial Blindspot
by Vanessa Daniel, Colorlines
September 1st, 2000
By contrast, Ralph Nader is actually addressing some of the big issues affecting people of color. In tackling thorny topics such as corporate globalization, environmental abuse and child poverty, Nader often speaks to problems that have their most devastating affects in communities of color. |
| USA: Los Angeles Police Defend Crackdown on Protest
by Arthur Spiegelman, Reuters
August 15th, 2000
Civil liberties groups threatened to sue the Los Angeles Police Department Tuesday, saying it shot innocent people in the back with rubber bullets as they peacefully left a Democratic Convention protest, but the city's top cop said he felt good about police actions. |
| USA: Los Angeles Activists Target Corporate Greed
by Christine Hanley, Associated Press
August 14th, 2000
Activists organized protests against corporate greed, oil company abuses and the lack of campaign finance reform to mark Monday's opening of the Democratic National Convention. |
| USA: Oil Corporations Woo Democrats
Associated Press
August 14th, 2000
While Democrats will be partying all across Tinseltown this week, these events go far beyond typical convention-week soirees. Each is aimed at the Democrat who would take over a key committee if the party managed to regain control of Congress in the November elections. |
| USA: U'wa March Trashes Gore
by Tamara Straus, AlterNet
August 14th, 2000
To put it mildly, the U'wa are a touchy issue for Gore. The presidential candidate owns between $500,000 and $1 million in Occidental stock and his father, Al Gore Sr., served as chair of the board for 28 years, earning an annual salary of $500,000. The elder Gore was such a close political ally of the company that Armand Hammer, Occidental's founder and CEO, liked to say that he had Gore ''in my back pocket.'' |
| USA: Lieberman's Big Donations From Big Businesses
by Elizabeth Shogren, Los Angeles Times
August 9th, 2000
An analysis of campaign-finance records released yesterday by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics also showed that Lieberman has received more contributions this election cycle from insurance companies than any other senator. |
| USA: Reform Party Suffers Raucous Split
by Megan Garvey, Los Angeles Times
August 9th, 2000
A meeting of Reform Party leaders in Long Beach erupted in chaos Tuesday, with screaming, shoving matches, a walkout by loyalists to party founder Ross Perot and a declaration that social conservative Pat Buchanan is now guaranteed the fractured party's presidential nomination. |
| USA: Joe Lieberman, Bad For The Jews, Bad For The Country
by Michael Lerner, Excerpted from Belief.net
August 7th, 2000
Among the candidates considered by Al Gore for the vice-presidential nomination, Joseph Lieberman is likely to accelerate the process in which the two major parties seem to be merging into one pro-business, pro-wealthy, elitist, and morally tone-deaf governing force. |
| USA: Bush the Main Act for TV Convention
by Frazier Moore, Associated Press
August 4th, 2000
Humorist Bill Maher began ABC's ''Politically Incorrect'' Thursday with rousing words. ''We finally had the big moment tonight that America was waiting for at the Republican National Convention,'' he said. ''The end.'' |
| USA: Protests Rock GOP, End in 282 Arrests
by John Nichols, The Nation
August 1st, 2000
''Whose streets? Our streets!'' chanted thousands of activists as they poured into the downtown Philadelphia for what may well have been the most raucous day of demonstrations outside a national convention since Chicago in 1968. |
| USA: GOP's Empty Promises to People of Color
by Richard Fellinger, Philadelphia Weekly
August 1st, 2000
This marks the second consecutive convention in which the GOP is trying to sell itself to minorities and progressive whites. Remember that patronizing ''big-tent'' rhetoric from San Diego four years ago? |
| USA: Anti-Poverty Activists March in Philadelphia
by David Morgan, Reuters
July 31st, 2000
Thousands of protesters, led by people in wheelchairs, marched on the Republican National Convention on Monday to demand economic rights for people oppressed by poverty and homelessness. |
| USA: Touring the Real Philly
by Jennifer Bleyer, AlterNet
July 30th, 2000
''There are 250,000 families living below the poverty line in Philadelphia, and 40,000 abandoned houses that the city has boarded up. That's an incredible disconnect that the Republicans won't be talking about this week!'' shouts activist Tamzin Cheshire. |
| USA: African-American Community Takes a Deeper Look at Ralph Nader
by Cedric Muhammad, BlackElectorate.com
July 28th, 2000
The logic, according to Democrats and Gore supporters is that by voting for Ralph Nader, people are only taking votes away from Al Gore and helping Gov. Bush walk into the White House -- directly benefiting from Gore's loss of the traditional Democratic votes that Nader represents. But can any self-respecting Black honestly say that Blacks have benefited under Clinton-Gore -- enough to automatically extend their reign for another 4 years -- with no questions asked? |
| USA: Dick Cheney's Oil Connections
Drillbits and Tailings (Project Underground)
July 25th, 2000
Having ensured the continued flow of cheap oil from the Gulf by waging a war with Iraq, and after his boss, George Bush's ouster from office by Clinton in 1992, Dick Cheney turned his attention to the corporate world. |
| USA: Health Care Firms Spend Big to Head Off Reforms
by Jeff Leeds, Los Angeles Times
July 23rd, 2000
With billions of dollars in profits on the line, the health care industry is waging the largest national advertising campaign ever conducted by a political special interest, with a price tag for the election cycle that could approach $90 million--more than either of the major presidential candidates is expected to spend. |
| USA: Army of Protestors Prepare to Greet GOP
by Thomas Ginsberg, Philadelphia Inquirer
July 9th, 2000
Three weeks before Republicans hold their national convention, it appears the number of protesters gathering in Philadelphia could rival the 30,000 delegates and party members attending the convention itself. |
| India: Clinton's Corporate Entourage
by Amit Srivastava, Special to CorpWatch
March 20th, 2000
Violence in Kashmir and nuclear proliferation are dominating the mainstream headlines on President Clinton's trip to South Asia. And while security issues are clearly on the agenda in Clinton's meetings with Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the press is ignoring an equally significant part of the trip: trade. |
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