B'Tselem strongly condemns yesterday's attack in the Tel Aviv promenade, in which many civilians were killed and injured...
Attacks aimed at civilians undermine all rules of morality and law. Specifically, the intentional killing of civilians is considered a “grave breach” of international humanitarian law and a war crime. Whatever the circumstances, such acts are unjustifiable.
A Brazilian environmentalist has been shot dead, days after gunmen killed US nun who campaigned to protect the Amazon rain forest from loggers and ranchers vying for its natural resources. Authorities said Wednesday that Dionisio Ribeiro was shot in the head late Tuesday at the Tingua nature reserve near Rio de Janeiro. Colleagues say Ribeiro had received death threats for some time because of his efforts to stop poaching and the illegal felling of palm trees. Ribeiro's murder follows the recent shooting deaths of Sister Dorothy Stang, an environmental activist and advocate for the poor, and Daniel Soares da Costa, an advocate of landless peasants.
SYRACUSE, NY - The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a discrimination lawsuit today on behalf of a Utica couple kicked out of the wellness program at the Charles T. Sitrin Health Care Center, Inc., because they are lesbian. One of the plaintiffs suffers from severe osteoarthritis and other medical conditions and needs to use the facility’s pool to avoid losing her leg.
"It is shameful that a business that is supposedly committed to improving people’s health would deny this couple access solely because they are lesbians," said Sharon McGowan, a staff attorney for the ACLU’s Lesbian and Gay Rights Project, who is representing the couple. "This kind of discrimination will no longer fly now that sexual orientation discrimination is illegal in New York State."
The New York State anti-discrimination law became effective in 2003. The ACLU believes this is first time the law has been used to bring a legal challenge against a private business for refusing to serve gay people.
In a new report, NAFTA Chapter 11 Investor-State Cases: Lessons for the Central America Free Trade Agreement, Public Citizen describes how Canadian cattle producers are using NAFTA to demand $300 million in compensation from U.S. taxpayer funds, claiming that the Canadian cattle import ban instituted after mad cow disease was found in Canada violates their NAFTA rights. In addition, a Canadian tobacco company is using the private NAFTA tribunals to attack the U.S.tobacco settlements. The report is available here and is being released today at events in Washington, D.C., Sacramento and Olympia, Wash.
President George W. Bush recently released his comprehensive budget request for fiscal year 2006 (FY06). The administration has slightly reduced funding for the missile defense system and did provide significant cuts in new nuclear weapons requests while allowing for an increase in nuclear nonproliferation programs. And while the administration’s budget for renewable energy resources, clean vehicle tax credits, hydrogen energy research, and cleaner school buses address some of the nation’s energy and transportation needs, it fails to provide the long-term size and scope required to ensure a cleaner, more secure energy future. The Bush budget is also replete with a number of anti-environmental requests. Funding cuts for forest fire protections and endangered species, and a backdoor attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, are just a few examples of regressive policy initiatives within this budget. UCS will oppose cuts to many of these programs and will seek to support policies for a safer, more sustainable world.
Each of the steps Presidents Bush and Putin announced today are important...
Still missing-in-action, but now more possible, is a recognition by Presidents Bush and Putin that their strong leadership is required to bring about:
- Removal of the liability and access obstacles that have proved to be roadblocks to our cooperative threat reduction agenda so we can dramatically accelerate our work to secure nuclear weapons and materials.
- Transparency and accountability for tactical nuclear weapons in both the U.S. and Russian arsenals;
- A process for removing U.S. and Russian strategic nuclear weapons from hair-trigger alert, where they serve more as a grave danger than a deterrent;
- Transparency and cooperation, beginning with the U.S. and Russia, in preventing biological terrorism and the spread of infectious diseases. This must begin with transparency on biological defensive efforts between the U.S. and Russia.
- An acceleration of chemical weapons destruction, which is far behind the agreed-onscheduled.
On Thursday, January 20, I listened to George W. Bush take the oath of office as President. He made many promises. One promise he did not make is to end the torture his administration has not only tolerated but facilitated. It left me wondering what his promises to uphold the law and fight for freedom and liberty really mean...
Largely unnoticed with the focus on the war and insurgency in Iraq, and overshadowed by an upsurge in violence in Saudi Arabia, terrorist violence is also on the increase in neighboring Kuwait. The Kuwaiti government had been concerned that the preparations for the invasion of Iraq that began in late 2002 would spur an increase in violent attacks directed at either U.S. or coalition troops. During the run up to the invasion in March 2003 the Kuwaiti government ordered a large area along its border with Iraq vacated, and worked with Americans and others to keep the visibility of foreigners at a low level. In spite of this, there were several violent altercations between locals and individuals associated with military preparations for attacking Iraq. Several persons were injured and at least two died. The attacks were attributed to Kuwaiti “Afghans”—returnees from the wars in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya. But others also were implicated. A member of the national guard confessed to passing military information to Iraq, planning bomb attacks against utility installations, and plotting to assassinate Kuwaiti officials.
As the Kyoto Protocol comes into force this month, a carbon rush is gaining steam in the financial industry. Investors predict that the carbon trade could become one of the largest markets in the world with a trading volume of $60 - $250 billion by 2008 and some unlikely actors are gearing up to profit from this new, invisible market. Foremost among them is the World Bank.
The Kyoto Protocol requires industrialized country signatories to reduce their emissions by 5.2% below 1990 levels during the 2008-12 commitment period. However, the scientific community has determined that, to avoid dangerous climate change, greenhouse gas emissions reductions of over 60% below 1990 levels were necessary by 2000, rendering the commitments made at Kyoto insufficient. Moreover, some of the largest emitters--the United States and Australia --are not even participating in the protocol. And the Kyoto agreement is weakened further by the fact that virtually all of the emissions reductions required of industrialized nations can be achieved by trading carbon credits between nations, thus avoiding real reductions. For example, since Russia has already met and exceeded the Kyoto targets due to its economic collapse following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Soviet-era ghost emissions are now for sale to the highest bidder, creating the illusion of reductions where none have occurred.
Why is there so much support for carbon trading? Well, there is plenty of money to be made. The average citizen won’t make any; instead, the very same corporations who fuel the problem--the large oil, gas, and coal companies--are among those who will profit from this trade in invisible gases. For instance, just last month, Danish power utility Energi E2 sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of the rights it had been granted free by its government to Shell Oil Company after mild temperatures kept the utility's carbon emissions below expected levels. No such free rights have been granted to ordinary Danish citizens, however.
One institution that is well versed in this complicated market is the World Bank. It was eight years ago that confidential documents1 were leaked to the Institute for Policy Studies from within the bank revealing the early internal debates and plans regarding the World Bank’s involvement in carbon trading.
... [T]he World Bank saw opportunity. One leaked document exposed World Bank plans to profit handsomely by charging a 5% commission on carbon transactions in a self-appointed role as a broker between Northern and Southern governments and industries. (The commission--which the bank now claims is merely to cover costs--will be closer to 8-10%.) With a potential market in CO 2 that could reach $2 billion by 2005, the World Bank noted in the leaked memo, it could quickly earn $100 million in one year--and that was just for starters.
Right now, there is a vacancy for the most senior post in official world development circles, a job that is of direct interest to billions of people across the globe. The process and candidates are shrouded in secrecy and the only candidates in the running are U.S. citizens.
The Bank’s critics regularly point out the gaps between its rhetoric and reality. But the fact that three White House staffers are responsible for drawing up the short list exposes particularly clearly how tightly the U.S. government controls the institution. Under a gentleman’s agreement from the 1940s the World Bank head and International Monetary Fund (IMF) deputy head are always U.S. citizens, while the head of the IMF is a European. The efforts to open up this system have come to nothing as neither side of the Atlantic has an incentive to be the first to make a change.
Among the early favored candidates on the rumor-mill were Colin Powell, Robert Zoellick, and even Bill Clinton. Powell was clearly out of favor with the Bush administration, however. He was reportedly not offered the Bank as a dignified escape route from State Department. Zoellick took a different career move, and is Condoleezza Rice’s deputy at the State Department. Clinton was always a long-shot under a Republican administration. Some commentators, however, say Bush could achieve a couple of objectives by promoting Clinton for the Bank position. First, it would be a boon for bipartisanship. Second, it might cramp Hillary’s style if she runs for U.S. president in 2008.
As the World Bank succession rumors abound, its credibility suffers.Meritocracy is absent. There is no clear process for selecting this position of global importance. It is not just outsiders who do not know what is happening. The World Bank Staff Association formally requested an opportunity to feed into the process of selecting a candidate. It was rapidly rebuffed by the alternative U.S. representative on the Bank’s executive board, Bob Holland. Holland , a Bush "pioneer" who raised at least $100,000 for the 2000 election campaign claimed hollowly: "the World Bank's presidential nomination process is being conducted in a fashion that preserves the World Bank's mission of reducing poverty through sustained growth and promoting responsible international development." (Read the letter: http://www.worldbankpresident.org/archives/SA_Holland_Response.jpeg)
Reporters Without Borders voiced alarm today about a new wave of kidnappings in Iraq after Raeda Wazzan, a presenter with the regional public TV station Iraqiya, was kidnapped yesterday in Mosul, 390 km north of Baghdad, probably with her 10-year-old son.
"With four journalists abducted in less than two weeks and one abortive kidnapping attempt, it is becoming increasingly difficult for both Iraqi and foreign journalists to work in Iraq, especially when they try to report in the field," the press freedom organization said.
"Journalists may under no circumstances be used as bargaining chips, and we call on all sides - the foreign and Iraqi armies and the armed groups - to respect the members of the press as neutral observers of the conflict," Reporters Without Borders added.
"Today President Bush, corporate lobbyists, and special interests are calling the class action bill (S. 5) passed by the House a 'victory'—but it is certainly a defeat for the working families of America.
"This brazen and shameless attack on Americans' legal rights was well-funded by the insurance, drug and other industries. Indeed, the U.S. Chamber of Congress openly acknowledged this week that it spent more than $53 million in 2004 alone on efforts to lobby this bill and others that undermine the legal rights of American families."The insurance, tobacco, drug, chemical and other industries that financed the propaganda campaign to force this bill through have also ignored vocal opposition from the National Conference of State Legislatures, 14 state attorneys general, the Conference of Chief Justices, the Federal Judicial Conference and Chief Justice Rehnquist of the United States Supreme Court.
(Friday, February 11, 2005)—The Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA) welcomed the news that President George Bush will attend a performance today of Lincoln: Seen and Heard, in the East Room of the White House. President Bush has always professed that he is proud to be the leader of the Republican Party, which was founded by President Abraham Lincoln—a trial lawyer whose successful pursuit of fair justice for his clients was renowned...
"It is unfortunate that in recent months, President Bush and special-interest groups who are opposed to meaningful legal protections for Americans have orchestrated a smear campaign against trial lawyers and the working families they represent. What's more, corporate lobbyists are spending millions of dollars to force through reckless and harmful legislation during the 109th Congress that would take away the legal protections of American families. It appears that GOP members have forgotten their roots. Abraham Lincoln was a trial lawyer." [ ATLA President Todd Smith]
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), reporting today from a three-week assessment in Darfur, called on the UN Security Council to step up security and establish an International Compensation Commission to provide reparations to Darfurians whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the recent conflict.
Focusing on the village of Furawiya in the northern part of West Darfur, PHR documented the full range of loss of livelihoods, including loss of community, economic structures, livestock, food production, wells and irrigation, farming capacity, and household structures. When this detail is applied to the estimated 700-2,000 villages destroyed in Darfur, the scale and cost of livelihood destruction is enormous. From the air and land, the PHR team also photographically documented the utter devastation of dozens of villages in the southern border with Chad.The findings bolster PHR's genocide assessment from its June 2004 investigation along the Chad/Sudan border that highlighted evidence of an organized attempt to affect group annihilation. In particular, PHR's livelihood study is applicable to Article 6c of the Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court which defines genocide as "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part."
All too often civilians have suffered directly or indirectly as a result. The recent fighting - the most intense witnessed for some time - began in Sulu Province on the island of Jolo on 7 February; it has led to significant loss of life on both sides and to the displacement of an estimated 27,600 civilians. On 14 February, eight people were reported killed and 150 wounded in bomb attacks in the capital, Manila, and on the island of Mindanao.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) urges the parties to the conflict to respect the basic rules of international humanitarian law enshrined in Article 3 common to the universally accepted 1949 Geneva Conventions and in 1977 Protocol II additional to the Conventions, which the Philippines has ratified, the customary rules on the conduct of hostilities applicable in non-international armed conflicts, and the relevant rules set down in other international treaties...
(New York, February 18, 2005)—The Azerbaijani government must conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into the death in custody of a prisoner convicted for his participation in the October 2003 post-election disturbances, Human Rights Watch said today.
On February 17, 20-year-old Algait Magaramov died in prison No.17, where he had been serving a three-year sentence. He was one of 125 people brought to trial on charges relating to violent clashes that erupted between security forces and demonstrators protesting fraud during the presidential election in October 2003.
“This is a tragic ending for a man caught up in a very unfortunate chapter in Azerbaijan's history,” said Rachel Denber, acting executive director of the Europe and Central Asia Division at Human Rights Watch. “It is the duty of the Azerbaijani authorities to find out what happened to this young man.”
(Cairo, February 22, 2005) The Egyptian state security forces arbitrarily arrested thousands of people and tortured detainees in the wake of the Taba Hilton bombing in October, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Four months later, as many as 2,400 detainees are still being held incommunicado.
The 48 page report, “Mass Arrests and Torture in Sinai,” documents how, in the weeks and months after the bombing that killed 30 people in the resort town of Taba, the State Security Investigation agency conducted mass arrests in northern Sinai without a warrant or judicial order as required by Egyptian law.
The Egyptian authorities have identified only nine suspects as responsible for the Taba attack, but the ministry of interior continues to hold an estimated 2,400 detainees. The government has not released information on the whereabouts of these detainees either to their families or lawyers representing them, and has not indicated if any have been charged with crimes.
On Feb. 17, 2005, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas ratified "scores" of death sentences for Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel or of other criminal charges. B'Tselem called on Abbas to commute the death sentences and abolish the death penalty. Following is the text of the letter:
As I am sure you know, for the past fifteen years, B’Tselem has been one of the most consistent and outspoken defenders of human rights in the Occupied Territories. Since the beginning of the current intifada, B’Tselem has published some forty reports and case studies regarding various aspects of Palestinian human rights. Most recently, we have published reports and conducted advocacy regarding punitive house demolitions, and the use of lethal force by the Israeli military. We have also published reports and conducted advocacy about the discriminatory road regime in the West Bank and the Separation Barrier.
I write you now to express my concern regarding reports in the press that you have ratified death sentences of Palestinians found guilty of "collaboration" with Israel...
Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International are calling on European countries to focus new anti-trafficking measures on protecting victims - not just national borders.
The call comes as a drafting group of representatives of the 46 Council of Europe member states (known as the CAHTEH) are due to begin their last meeting in Strasbourg on 22 February to finalise the draft European Convention Against Trafficking in Human Beings.
"The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) has already set out a blueprint for a convention that will focus on protecting the rights of trafficked people. Council of Europe member states must set a high standard when it comes to protecting trafficked peoples' rights - rather than settling for the lowest common denominator standards," said Mary Cunneen, Director of Anti-Slavery International, which has been working to eradicate slavery for over 160 years...
In particular, Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International call on CAHTEH to ensure that the European Convention against Trafficking requires that:
- trafficked persons are given access to necessary medical assistance;
- a minimum recovery and reflection period of at least 3 months is offered to all trafficked persons, and that the person's presence in the country is regularized and recognized during this time;
- minimum 6 months-renewable and permanent residence permits are issued to trafficked persons on the basis of the needs and risks of their personal situation and/or to ensure their presence during proceedings (against the traffickers and/or for compensation), and family reunification is available;
- trafficked persons are not detained, charged, or prosecuted for illegal entry or residence and activities which are a direct consequence of their situation as trafficked persons.
Iraqi women must have an active role in shaping the future of their country, a new report by Amnesty International said today. Iraqi authorities must take effective measures to protect women and to change discriminatory legislation that encourages violence against them.
Women and girls in Iraq live in fear of violence. The current lack of security has forced many women out of public life and constitutes a major obstacle to the advancement of their rights. Since the 2003 war, armed groups have targeted and killed several female political leaders and women's rights activists. The report Iraq: Decades of suffering - Now women deserve better documents how women and girls in Iraq have been targeted directly, because they were women, and how they suffered disproportionately through decades of government repression and armed conflict.
"Iraqi authorities must introduce concrete measures to protect women," said Abdel Salam Sidahmed, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International. "They must send a clear message that violence against women will not be tolerated by investigating all allegations of abuse against women and by bringing those responsible to justice, no matter what their affiliation."
Three wars and more than a decade of economic sanctions have been particularly damaging to Iraqi women. Under the government of Saddam Hussain, they were subjected to gender-specific abuses, including rape and other forms of sexual violence, or else targeted as political activists, relatives of activists or members of certain ethnic or religious groups.
The report demonstrates how gender discrimination in Iraqi laws contributes to the persistence of violence against women. Many women remain at risk of death or injury from male relatives if they are accused of behaviour held to have brought dishonour on the family.
NEW YORK--The American Civil Liberties Union today released files obtained from the Army revealing previously undisclosed allegations of abuse by U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. Among the documents are reports that a detainee who was beaten and seriously injured was forced to drop his claims in order to be released from custody.
"The torture of detainees is too widespread and systemic to be dismissed as the rogue actions of a few misguided individuals," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "The American public deserves to know which high-level government officials are ultimately responsible for the torture conducted in our name."
Republican leaders continue to plunge the U.S. House of Representatives into a crisis of credibility.
After purging the House ethics committee of members who dared scold House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) for his disregard of ethics rules, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), the new chair of the committee, a devout party loyalist, has just committed his first act as “ethics chief”: firing the two top ethics committee staff members who were instrumental in writing the rebukes against DeLay.
Ethics committee staff director John Vargo and chief counsel Paul Lewis have been given their walking papers. The decision smacks of retribution.
The labor market showed some signs of improvement in 2004; most notable in this regard was the job growth that occurred in every month of the year. This was the first year of consistent job growth since 2000, signaling the end of the jobless recovery. The unemployment rate also showed improvement, falling from an average of 6.0 percent in 2003 to an average of 5.5 percent for last year. On the other hand, several other indicators and comparisons depict a labor market that remains distinctly weak...
- Among nearly all groups of workers, wages fell, relative to inflation.
- Over the course of 2004, job growth fell 1.4 million short of the amount that would be typical for a recovery.
- Due to the relatively modest amount of job creation, long-term unemployment levels remained exceptionally high, with the number of unemployed individuals exhausting their regular state, unemployment benefits and not receiving additional aid hitting a record level of 3.5 million.
These problems of falling wages, inadequate job creation, long-term unemployment, and a safety net that’s failing to protect job losers have contributed to a recovery that is considerably unbalanced. The economic growth that has occurred has flowed to corporate profits to a degree unseen in the post-World War II period, leaving relatively little for compensation.
OTTAWA — The federal government will have an estimated $45 billion in surplus over the next three years – money that could significantly reduce poverty and inequalities in Canada and lay to rest overheated squabbles over cash transfers to the provinces, says the 2005 Alternative Federal Budget (AFB).
“Investing in the nation’s social infrastructure is long overdue. After sitting on eight consecutive years of surplus budgets, with another $45 billion coming down the pike, any other action by this government would be inexcusable.”
In order to begin the critical process of rebuilding the federation and repairing fragile federal-provincial relations, the AFB would:
- assure adequate funding for the Canada Social Transfer (CST) by increasing funding for the transfer by more than $13 billion over the next 3 years;
- build in accountability and transparency by dividing the social transfer into separate Social Transfer and Post-Secondary Education funds and having a separate envelope for each social item within the CST; and
- attack poverty in Canada by increasing the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the GST credit, creating a national child care program, enhancing the EI program, creating affordable housing, increasing OAS and GIS benefits and providing significant funds to address the needs of Aboriginal communities.
"If you have your rights abused in a college course (e.g. unfair grading, one-sided lectures, stacked reading lists), please report this abuse ." – David Horowitz's Academic Freedom Abuse Center
VERSUS
Description of complaint: "I know the paper was pretty much great because I spell checked it and proofred [sic] it twice. I got an [sic] D- just because the professor hates families and thinks its [sic] okay to be gay." – Database Entry, Anonymous Ohio State Student, 2/9/05
AUSTIN, Feb. 15- Nearly 39,000 highly skilled jobs would be created in Texas if the state legislature passes a bill requiring 20 percent of the state's electricity come from clean renewable sources such as wind, bioenergy, and solar power, according to the new study released today by the Union of Concerned Scientists. Increasing the current Texas renewable electricity standard from about 3 percent by 2009 to 20 percent by 2020 would provide a significant source of new income for rural communities, save consumers money on their energy bills by reducing natural gas and electricity costs, and provide more tax revenues for school districts.
UCS analyzed the longer-term goals of both the 20 percent by 2020 and 10,000 MW by 2015 plans. The study, Increasing the Texas Renewable Energy Standard: Economic and Employment Benefits, found that increasing the current Texas standard to 20 percent by 2020 would boost the state's economy with benefits such as:
- 38,290 new high-skilled jobs in manufacturing, construction, operation, maintenance, and other industries.
- $9.4 billion in new capital investment for renewable energy facilities.
- $1.1 billion in new property tax revenues for local school districts.
- $696 million in revenue to farmers, ranchers, and rural landowners for producing biomass energy and from wind power land leases.
- $5.6 billion in savings on consumer electricity and natural gas bills.
"It is difficult if not impossible for an outsider to assess North Korea's nuclear capabilities or fully understand its motivations and intentions with respect to its nuclear weapons program. But it's not difficult to see how North Korea might feel increasingly threatened by the United States. Pyongyang's latest pronouncement comes after the U.S. has labeled North Korea part of the 'axis of evil,' identified North Korea as a potential nuclear target in its most recent Nuclear Posture Review, invaded and occupied Iraq, purportedly to eliminate 'weapons of mass destruction,' made repeated military threats against both Iran and North Korea, and blatantly disregarded its own disarmament obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."
- Jacqueline Cabasso, Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation
Your Feb. 15 editorial "Self-Inflicted Wounds," about the torture of prisoners, is right on target. For the United States to torture prisoners, or outsource torture, is not only ineffectual, "it debases this nation at home and abroad."
There is another thing: One leads by example. If the United States wishes to encourage greater respect for human rights in the world, it must set a good example. It is doing the exact opposite, so that on Jan. 19, the Cuban government handed formal protest notes to United States representatives in Havana and Washington on the abuse of prisoners at the Guantánamo Naval Base, which, as the notes pointed out, is on Cuban territory.
What chutzpah, one might say. Perhaps, but what did we expect? At a time when the our country is calling Cuba an outpost of tyranny and demanding that it release political prisoners, our own abuse of prisoners at Guantánamo puts the shoe on the other foot.
One can imagine the Cubans asking, "Are we to do as you say, or as you do?"Wayne S. Smith
15 February 2005 – Palestinian women are suffering massively from malnutrition, especially when they are pregnant and nursing, and have high rates of poverty as widowed heads of household, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a new report to a UN women's rights panel.
The UN World Health Organization (WHO) says that during a home visit programme in the period under review, October 2003 to September 2004, "69.7 per cent of 1,768 expectant women, within one month of delivery, were found to be anaemic," Mr. Annan's report to the Economic and Social Council's (ECOSOC) Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) says.
Israel's policy of restricting the movement of goods and persons "impacted greatly on food security, which led to a decline in both the quantity and quality of food of 73 per cent of the West Bank and Gaza populations, with four out of 10 households identified as chronically insecure" by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the report says.
Delaying pregnant women at Israeli checkpoints has resulted in "women delivering their babies while waiting to pass, which has led to maternal and infant deaths," it says. These delays also negatively affected women's access to family planning and obstetric care, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) says.
Dear President Akaev,
We are writing to express concern about several developments surrounding Kyrgyzstan’s forthcoming parliamentary election, scheduled for February 27...
Regrettably, a series of troubling statements made by you and other government leaders seems designed to intimidate and impugn civil society activists and members of the political opposition. Government statements have treated the opposition as “extremists” and accused independent and opposition-affiliated media of subversion. Your government has also suggested that mass popular movements are merely creations of the West and has dismissed the concerns of these movements. These statements reject the ‘Ukraine scenario’ and at the same time degrade the idea of human rights. In Georgia and Ukraine popular movements used peaceful and democratic means to reverse the outcome of illegitimate and unfair elections and to ensure that the will of the people determined the make-up of the government.
In addition, a number of statements about mass protests seem aimed at undercutting the legitimacy of freedom of assembly and at intimidating critics of your government. Especially disturbing are reports of statements that you made claiming that human rights are internal affairs and questioning the legitimacy of election observers.
Human Rights Watch respectfully submits this testimony to the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources as it addresses harm reduction-based approaches to HIV prevention among injection drug users...
Restricting access to proven HIV prevention strategies, or censoring or distorting factual information about their effectiveness, is not only poor public health policy, but also an impediment to the realization of the human right to seek and impart information of all kinds, the right to the highest attainable standard of health, and the right of life. Human Rights Watch accordingly recommends:
- That the U.S. government publicly reaffirm the evidence-base behind harm reduction strategies for HIV prevention, as established in its own government-funded studies;
- That the U.S. government withhold funding from programs that censor or distort information about the evidence behind harm reduction, including needle exchange, and redirect funding to proven strategies;
- That the U.S. government lift the ban on using federal funds for needle exchange programs; and
- That state and local governments lift all legal restrictions on harm reduction programs, including restrictions on needle exchange, and prohibit enforcement of “drug paraphernalia” laws against persons in possession of syringes for the purpose of disease prevention.
Amnesty International condemns the killing of 74-year-old Sister Dorothy Stang, on February 12, in Anapú, Brazil. Sister Dorothy was shot several times as she walked to attend a meeting.
Sister Dorothy, a nun and native of Ohio in the US, worked as a human rights and environmental activist in the Amazon for over thirty years and had been subject to constant death threats as a result of her work. This is the latest of hundreds of killings of trade unionists, environmentalists and land activists in the Brazilian state of Pará that Amnesty International has documented over decades. The violence has been exacerbated by the long-term neglect shown by state and federal authorities to fighting impunity and protecting human rights defenders at risk.
Amnesty International is calling on federal and state authorities to ensure a permanent end to the violence and fear suffered by so many in the state. Federal authorities recently promised to address the vulnerability of human rights defenders in the area, and it is vital that these promises are backed up with swift action. These measures must include steps to disarm and disband all illicit armed militia, judicial and police reforms to ensure an effective response to such violence, and immediate measures to protect human rights defenders and land activists from death threats.
As the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, prepares to brief the UN Security Council on the report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, Amnesty International is calling on the United States of America (USA) and other Security Council members to immediately implement the Commission's recommendations.
Amnesty International reiterated its concern that the USA is refusing to adopt the Commission of Inquiry’s recommendation that the situation in Darfur should be referred to the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
"The Sudanese people's right to justice, truth and full reparations should not be overridden by the political interests of any State," said Kolawole Olaniyan, Director of the Africa Programme of Amnesty International.
Despite Veolia’s global track record of corruption, broken promises, environmental degradation, price-gouging, obfuscation, misdirection and secrecy, the world’s largest water company continues to enjoy substantial support within powerful pockets of financial and political circles. In some instances, the private water industry has garnered that support the old-fashioned way—by bribing officials.
But support for Veolia, and for the private water industry generally, also stems from ideology, specifically the fashionable variety wherein government is viewed as an incompetent, inefficient, even outdated construct bloated by idle bureaucrats, while market forces and the “ownership society”are celebrated as humanity’s panacea.
What the water privateers, their champions and apologists are loathe to admit is that while companies like Veolia have profited from a cultural wave in celebration of the free market, market forces have nothing whatsoever to do with water delivery. Water service is a natural monopoly. Once Veolia lands its preferred contract, which is to say one that lasts so long it will outlive the contract negotiators, dissatisfied communities do not have the option of simply waking up one morning and turning to a competitor. The promise of private sector superiority in the water sector is a hoax.
The risks, however, are not. While publicly operated water systems are managed to deliver clean, safe and affordable water to you and your family, privately operated systems are managed to get as much money as possible from you and your family.
MYTH 1: CAFTA will grant new competitive advantage for Central American textiles/apparel over products from China and the few other nations expected to dominate the quota-free market.
FACT: Textiles and apparel produced in the CAFTA countries already enter the U.S. duty-free under the Caribbean Basin Initiative and its successor programs.
MYTH 2: CAFTA will help Central America maintain its U.S. market share after quota elimination.
FACT: Central America will lose market share because China and India can produce the same goods more cheaply than Central America, even after shipping, and CAFTA cannot remedy this fact.
MYTH 2-redux: CAFTA will help Central America maintain its U.S. market share after quota elimination.
FACT: Central America will lose with or without CAFTA because “correction” of the unsustainable U.S. trade and current account deficits will shrink the overall size of U.S. import market.
MYTH 3: Proximity to the United States will allow Central America to beat China by filling a niche as a just-in-time provider for large U.S. retailers after quota elimination.
FACT: Location is not everything. Central American industry doesn’t have the scale, productivity or skill level to provide this kind of niche service.
MYTH 4: Because China may impose export taxes and the United States is considering “safeguard”measures 24 against some Chinese textile and apparel products, passing CAFTA quickly will allow Central American countries a chance to get a “head start” for successful competition for a zero-protection era.
FACT: Even with the proposed tariffs and safeguards, nothing in CAFTA would make Central American export prices competitive with that of Chinese exports.
At around 10:30 AM, I saw one of the soldiers pop his head out of the roof of the jeep and aim his weapon at us. I heard a shot being fired and then two or three more. I saw Salah a Din fall backwards without making a sound. Blood was streaming down his chest. I tried to pick him up but he was too heavy. Then a vehicle came from the east. The driver got out of the car, picked Salah a-Din up and took him to the clinic.
At around 10:30, I saw one of the soldiers stick his head out of the roof of the jeep and aim his weapon towards a group of children playing about 150 meters away from him. He shot one bullet and then I heard two of three more. I saw one of the children fall to the ground. I didn’t understand what could be the cause for the shooting. The children had been playing all morning. They were chasing each other. I could hear them laughing and talking. They don’t have a club or a park to play in. They gather in the alleyways and yards that are between the houses. One of the kids was playing with a toy gun. These are the toys that our children play with. They live in a reality of gunfire and violence and play games like “Arabs against the army.” They act out all the parts of this game - the soldiers shooting people, then a funeral for whoever was shot.
New York, February 10, 2005 - Since the end of January 2005, fighting between rebels groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s (DRC) Djugu region in the eastern Ituri province has displaced thousands of Congolese. A number of people have seen their homes destroyed, and sought refuge in the neighboring villages of Tche, north of Bunia, and Kawa, on the banks of Lake Albert.
Following a request from the Afghan Ministry of Health and an assessment of the needs, Italian Cooperation, working in conjunction with the Italian Red Cross and the ICRC, distributed 45 tonnes of wood and over 400 blankets on 1 February to families living in a makeshift camp at Chaman-i-Babrak on the outskirts of Kabul. A similar distribution was carried out to 60 families living in another tented camp, Shahi Shahid, the following day.
Nearly 200 families – about half the camp's residents – benefited from the aid provided in Chaman-i-Babrak. While it certainly did not cover all the needs, it was a start. A further distribution is planned.
In Washington, D.C., on February 11, 2005 attorneys filed a petition for habeas corpus late yesterday in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the hundreds of unrepresented people who remain detained by the United States Government at Guantánamo Bay. These nameless detainees join more than 70 whose cases challenging their continued imprisonment are already being addressed in federal court.
The suit, spearheaded by lawyers from the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), is captioned “John Does Nos. 1-570 v. Bush” because the Bush Administration has continued to withhold the identities of the detainees it keeps in indefinite detention. Until now, without the names of the detainees and without physical access to them, lawyers have been unable to help those who wish to seek their day in court under the Supreme Court’s decision last June in Rasul v. Bush. In that case, also brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Supreme Court held that each detainee has the right to challenge his detention in federal court. Seven months later, the Bush administration continues to disregard the Supreme Court’s decision by blocking the detainees from meaningful access to attorneys or the courts.
SAN FRANCISCO - Parents in a northern California public school district and civil liberties groups are urging the district to terminate the use of Radio Frequency Identification tags (RFIDs) in mandatory ID badges that track students’ movements.
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"Forcing our child to be tracked with a RFID device -- without our consent or knowledge -- is a complete invasion of our privacy," parents Michael and Dawn Cantrall said in a statement. The couple filed a formal complaint against the Brittan Elementary School Board in Sutter, California on January 30 after meeting with several school officials. "Our 7th grader came home wearing the ID badge prominently displayed around her neck - if someone wants to harm her, the mandatory school ID card has just made that task easier."
Four years of Republican control and a jobless recovery have wiped out more union jobs in manufacturing and pushed more public sector workers into nonunion positions. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently released new data on union membership for 2004, documenting the ongoing decline in private sector unionization and an alarming drop in public sector unionization as well. The total number of workers represented by unions fell by 361,000 to 17.1 million, or 13.8 percent of the labor force, down from 14.3 percent in 2003.
The number of workers who are union members fell by 304,000 to 15.8 million, or 12.5 percent of the labor force, down from 12.9 percent in 2003, 13.3 percent in 2002, and 20.1 percent in 1984. More than one-third of the loss occurred in the manufacturing sector.
The most disturbing trend is documented in the data on union membership by age group. The percentage of workers 16 to 24 years old who are union members fell to 4.7 percent in 2004 from 5.1 percent in 2003.
Voting Rights: Despite promising to unite the nation and improve its election system, the President failed to act swiftly toward election reform.•He did not provide leadership to ensure timely passage and swift implementation of the HelpAmerica Vote Act (HAVA) of 2002. Thus, Congress did not appropriate funds for electionreform until almost two years into his presidency.
•The administration seated the federal election reform oversight board 11 months behind schedule, resulting in delayed fund distribution to states. Consequently, states did not have the equipment, infrastructure, or guidance they needed to meet HAVA’s deadlines, including implementation of statewide voter registration databases, development of voter complaint procedures, and installation of new voting equipment.
Equal Educational Opportunity: Early in his administration, the President widely promoted an education reform proposal, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and garnered bipartisan support. Despite its worthy goals, however, NCLB has flaws that will inhibit equal educational opportunity and limit its ability to close the achievement gap.
•NCLB does not sufficiently address unequal education, a major barrier to closing the achievement gap between minority and white students.
•NCLB defers to states responsibility for defining achievement and adopting assessment measures. Educators fear that, unless there are safeguards in place, states will attach high stakes to tests, punishing students for the system’s failure to teach.
•Students, especially those who are minority, limited English proficient, low income, or have a disability, disproportionately attend schools that do not have the resources to provide necessary learning tools and, thus, are more likely to be identified as low performers and subject to sanctions.
•The lowest performing schools are also the poorest, amplifying the need for sufficient resources. However, President Bush has not aggressively pushed for increased funding, leaving NCLB underfunded every year except its first.
Affirmative Action: The President’s stance on affirmative action is equivocal at best. President Bush has tried to please both supporters and opponents, a tactic that has resulted in a misleading and vague position. He has not exhibited strong leadership on this issue where leadership is vital.
•In 2001, the administration asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a case challenging a Department of Transportation program for disadvantaged businesses. In announcing and discussing the case, it was clear that the administration was not basing its position on support for affirmative action, but procedural technicalities with the case.
•The administration later filed briefs with the Supreme Court challenging programs that allow race to be considered as one factor among many in college admissions decisions, discrediting existingcase law and arguing erroneously that this practice amounted to a quota.
•Instead of promoting affirmative action in federal contracting and education, the administration promotes “race neutral alternatives,” even though in some situations they are not applicable and in others not overly effective at maintaining diversity.
•President Bush frequently speaks about the importance of diversity and exhibits such a standard within his own Cabinet. However, his actions with respect to affirmative action are not in line with that professed commitment as he has undercut programs designed to achieve diversity.
Fair Housing: Policies instituted under the Bush administration have diminished housing opportunities for poor, disproportionately minority families.
•The President shifted resources away from rent assistance for the poor and toward home purchasing programs for minorities. Although a worthwhile effort, the President’s A Home ofYour Own program is hampered by insufficient funding to relieve the chronic affordable housing crisis...
Environmental Justice: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under this administration,despite some attempts, has not always been successful in advancing the cause of environmental justice.
•Although it developed an action plan for ensuring environmental justice goals are met, the agency has not developed measures of accountability and progress.
•EPA has taken few actions to ensure that minority and low-income persons are not disparately affected by environmental contamination and has failed to develop a standard for assessing how exposure to hazards affects public health.
•EPA has de-emphasized the significance of minority and low-income populations in its environmental justice efforts.
•The administration has developed environmental proposals without adequate participation from minority populations, and has thus failed to consider the civil rights consequences of its actions.
Racial Profiling: Early in his term, President Bush promised to end racial profiling. Although he has not completely fulfilled that promise, he issued guidelines to prohibit racial profiling in federal law enforcement, an action unprecedented among U.S. Presidents. President Bush took other actions,however, that had negative effects.
•The administration responded to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks by instituting regulations that facilitate profiling rather than prevent it. Immigrants and visitors from Arab and Middle Eastern countries were subjected to increased scrutiny, including interviews, registration, and in some cases removal.
•Early on, some federal agencies denounced profiling in the performance of their agents’ routine duties, but the administration did not introduce governmentwide policies complete or comprehensive enough to have measurable positive effects after September 11.
•Commendably, two years later, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued guidelines that prohibit federal agents from making enforcement decisions based on race or ethnicity. However, the guidelines contain a broad and loosely defined exception that permits race targeting if law enforcement alleges that individuals are suspected of posing a national security threat. This exception allows profiling in certain undefined circumstances and potentially gives cover to abusers.
Hate Crimes: The administration paid little attention to hate crimes until after September 11. Since then, the President’s words and actions have conveyed mixed messages.
•Immediately after the attacks, the administration declared that acts of violence and discrimination against Arab Americans, Muslims, and those perceived to be of Middle Eastern descent would not be tolerated. The executive branch launched a coordinated campaign to prevent hate crimes against such individuals.
•The administration did not sustain its strong rhetoric after September 11. Neither did President Bush support passage of the Local Law Enforcement Act, a proposal that would protect gay men and lesbians, and persons with disabilities from hate crimes.
•President Bush has further stated that “all violent crimes are crimes of hate,” a view which does not acknowledge the bias associated with such acts.
Immigrants: This report examines three administration immigration proposals or policies. All lack strong civil rights protections for immigrants.
•President Bush has made encouraging comments about the extension of rights to immigrant workers, but has not followed through with action. For example, he initially considered granting amnesty to approximately 3 million undocumented Mexican immigrants in 2001, but subsequently terminated his efforts. In January 2004, the President again proposed a temporary worker program for undocumented immigrants but has not pushed for its passage.
•President Bush has endorsed policies that allow discrimination against certain groups in the processing of asylum requests. For instance, on the unproven claim that Haitian refugees may threaten national security, President Bush granted authority to federal agents to hold them in detention indefinitely without bond until their cases are heard by an asylum court. The UnitedStates does not apply such policy to any other immigrant group.
•Following the terrorist attacks, the administration instituted policies that singled out immigrants from Middle Eastern and Muslim countries. The DOJ allowed local law enforcement to contact and question visitors, citizens, and other residents. It also detained witnesses on minor violations, held many in secret in harsh conditions, and did not inform them of charges against them. The administration limited available channels for legal entry and began requiring individuals from selected countries to register and submit fingerprints and photographs upon arrival.
Native Americans: President Bush has acknowledged the great debt America owes to Native Americans. However, his words have not been matched with action. Commission reports document that the President has not effectively used the stature of his office to speak out on ending discrimination against Native Americans. Nor has he engaged in a consistent effort to alleviate their problems. He has not applied resources to improving conditions or adequately funded programs that serve Native peoples. For example:
•President Bush has not requested sufficient funding for tribal colleges and universities, has proposed terminating $1.5 billion in funding for education programs that benefit Native Americans, and has not provided adequate resources to meet NCLB goals that apply to Indian Country.
•For 2004, the administration requested $3.6 billion for the Indian Health Service, the primary provider of Native American health care. This falls far short of the $19.4 billion in unmet health needs in Native communities.
•President Bush’s budget requests for housing programs have not approached the $1 billion required to meet the demand, and consequently, Native Americans have an immediate need for 210,000 housing units.
•In 2003, President Bush terminated funding for critical law enforcement programs, including the Tribal Drug Court Program. Experts agree that problems with the criminal justice system in Indian Country are serious and understated.
Women: President Bush’s record on women’s issues is mixed. Economic gains for which he has paved the way are overshadowed by other actions that have set back women’s rights. For example:
•The Bush administration closed the White House Office for Women’s Initiatives and Outreach and attempted to close the Women’s Bureau at the Department of Labor (DOL). It retreated amid objections from women’s groups.
•The administration withdrew Department of Education guidance on sexual harassment in schools from the Internet and ended distribution of information on workplace rights of women.
•President Bush attempted to redirect Title IX enforcement, but ceased his effort after overwhelming public expressions of support for the law.
•The administration commendably launched a plan to improve women’s access to capital by creating a Web site for women entrepreneurs and holding related conferences, but at the sametime abolished DOL’s Equal Pay Initiative.
Gay Men and Lesbians: President Bush appointed some gay rights supporters to Cabinet and administration positions. However, other actions he and his administration have taken have almost completely eclipsed the efforts he made. For example:
•In 2003, Attorney General John Ashcroft did not allow a Gay Pride Month celebration at DOJ, even though it had been an established program at the agency. He relented after protestations, but did not permit the use of agency funds, even though they are used for other heritage and history commemorations.
•President Bush opposes the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and Hate Crimes Prevention Act, both of which include protections for gay individuals.
•In 2004, the Office of Special Counsel removed documents pertaining to sexual orientation discrimination in the federal government from its Web site. Only after the action was publicized did the administration direct that the materials be re-posted.
•President Bush has stated unequivocal support for a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages. If passed, the amendment would be the first in U.S. history to limit rather than preserve and expand the rights of a group.
"The scientific consensus is clear: global warming is already underway, human burning of fossil fuels is primarily responsible, and we must act very soon to have any hope of minimizing the most harmful impacts of climate change. To have a fighting chance to keep global warming within safe levels, countries like the United States must reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by 80 percent below 2000 levels by 2050—and we must begin to make those reductions right away."Regrettably, the Bush Administration has not only failed to demonstrate leadership, but has actively worked to misrepresent climate science. That abject failure of leadership is not only increasing the risks of global warming but also holding back U.S. companies. Far from hurting our economy, an aggressive rollout of clean energy technologies will help move our economy into the future and create hundreds of thousands of high quality jobs.
"What we need now is leadership that responds to the science with action. Today, a bipartisan group of senators and representatives are providing that leadership with the introduction of the Climate Stewardship Act. The Act creates an economy-wide market-based mechanism to begin the reduction of global warming emissions. We applaud Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) and Representatives Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD) and John Olver (D-MA) for their commitment to taking action on this critical issue...
The U.S. Senate today has given banks, credit card companies, insurers, HMOs, drug manufacturers and other big corporations a green light to defraud and deceive consumers without fear of being held accountable. Passage of the class action legislation will mean that most class action lawsuits will not be heard in either state courts or federal courts. Innocent consumers who are victimized by predatory lending, car repossessions, fraudulent billing practices and other corporate abuses will be locked out of the courthouse.
This action by a Republican-controlled Senate is a Washington power grab that takes power away from the states and renders most state consumer protection laws unenforceable by consumers.
The President’s budget contains reductions in an array of domestic programs, including programs in the education, health care, housing, veterans, and various other areas. The budget debate now moves to Capitol Hill. There has been no discussion, however, in the Administration or Congress of another potential way to reduce projected deficits — canceling or deferring two significant tax cuts enacted in 2001 that have not even yet started to take effect and that will benefit only households with high incomes.
These provisions will only be fully effective in 2010. The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that they will reduce revenues by $9 billion in 2010, rising to $16 billion in 2015. The ten-year cost of these provisions when they are fully in effect (2010 through 2019) would be $146 billion.[1] When the associated interest payments on the national debt of $51 billion are added in, the cost rises to $197 billion over this ten-year period.
The Administration’s budget calls for $214 billion in reductions over five years in annually appropriated domestic programs outside homeland security, compared to current funding levels adjusted only for inflation. These programs, generally referred to as “discretionary” programs, encompass a broad array of public services such as education, environmental protection, transportation, veterans’ health care, medical research, law enforcement, and food and drug safety inspection.
One unusual aspect of this budget is the omission of information about how these cuts would affect particular programs. The budget fails to provide proposed funding levels for individual appropriated programs for years after 2006 — the first time since 1989 that an Administration’s budget has lacked this type of information. As a consequence, the published, widely available budget documents released by the Administration on February 7 provide programmatic details on how the Administration would achieve only the first $18 billion of these cuts, the reductions that would occur in 2006. Some $196 billion in domestic cuts — all of the reductions in years 2007 through 2010 — are left unidentified.
The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) distributed a 42-question survey to more than 1,400 USFWS biologists, ecologists, botanists and other science professionals working in Ecological Services field offices across the country to obtain their perceptions of scientific integrity within the USFWS, as well as political interference, resources and morale. Nearly 30 percent of the scientists returned completed surveys, despite agency directives not to reply—even on personal time.Large numbers of agency scientists reported political interference in scientific determinations.
- Nearly half of all respondents whose work is related to endangered species scientific findings (44 percent) reported that they "have been directed, for non-scientific reasons, to refrain from making jeopardy or other findings that are protective of species." One in five agency scientists revealed they have been instructed to compromise their scientific integrity—reporting that they have been "directed to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information from a USFWS scientific document,"such as a biological opinion;
- More than half of all respondents (56 percent) knew of cases where "commercial interests have inappropriately induced the reversal or withdrawal of scientific conclusions or decisions through political intervention;" and
- More than two out of three staff scientists (70 percent) and nearly nine out of 10 scientist managers (89 percent) knew of cases "where U.S. Department of Interior political appointees have injected themselves into Ecological Services determinations." A majority of respondents also cited interventions by members of Congress and local officeholders.
- Three out of four staff scientists and even higher proportions of scientist managers (78 percent) felt that the USFWS is not "acting effectively to maintain or enhance species and their habitats, so as to avoid possible listings under the Endangered Species Act;"
- For those species already listed as threatened or endangered under the ESA, more than two out of three scientists (69 percent) did not regard the USFWS as effective in its efforts toward recovery of those listed species;
- Nearly two out of three scientists (64 percent) did not feel the agency "is moving in the right direction;" and
- More than two-thirds of staff scientists (71 percent) and more than half of scientist managers (51 percent) did not "trust USFWS decision makers to make decisions that will protect species and habitats."
- More than a third (42 percent) said they could not openly express "concerns about the biological needs of species and habitats without fear of retaliation" in public while nearly a third (30 percent) did not feel they could do so even inside the confines of the agency;
- Almost a third (32 percent) felt they are not allowed to do their jobs as scientists;
- A significant minority (19 percent) reported having "been directed by USFWS decision makers to provide incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information to the public, media or elected officials;" however,
- Scientific collaboration among USFWS scientists, academia and other federal agency scientists appears to be relatively untainted by this chilling effect, with a strong majority (83percent) reporting they felt free to collaborate with their colleagues on species and habitat issues.
- More than nine out of ten (92 percent) did not feel that the agency "has sufficient resources to adequately perform its environmental mission;" and
- More than four out of five (85 percent) said that funding to implement the Endangered Species Act is inadequate.
Executive director of the Western States Legal Foundation, which focuses on nuclear policy, Cabasso said today: "While the U.S. turns its sights on Iran, accusing that country of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons program, U.S. nuclear weapons spending has quietly grown by 84 percent since 1995 -- several years after the Cold War ended. This year the U.S. will spend nearly $7 billion to maintain and modernize nuclear warheads, usable for decades to come, and many billions more to operate and modernize its delivery and command and control systems. Altogether, the United States is spending about $40 billion annually on nuclear forces. Ten thousand nuclear warheads, with some 2,000 on hair-trigger alert, remain in the U.S. arsenal, each one many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped 60 years ago."
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