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TRADE RESOURCE CENTER
CURRENT UPDATES: January 29, 2004
Dear Friends, As the campaign season heats up, we are up to our ears in speeches, policy positions and the drama of the presidential race. In the midst of all the hubabaloo, there are many...a plethora... in fact it is reasonable to say that there is a rich abundance of new, interesting and important reports that provide crucial insights and information. We share seven highlights with you. We don't want to leave you with the impression that all we do is read reports... Not at all. We have been busy promoting Bill Hartung's new book, "How Much are You Making on the War, Daddy?" And the response that been great!! For those of you in and around New York City and Washington, we are holding book party events in early February. Email Frida (berrigaf@newschool.edu) for more information.
For those of you who do not live in DC or NYC, we invite you to buy the book and organize a book event in your community. Books can be ordered online at www.nationbooks.org.
We've been doing lots of other stuff too, but we'll save that for another Update, coming soon to your inbox.
Best, Bill Hartung
In this update: Reports, Reports, Reports
Among the findings: GEORGE W. BUSH: The top career donor for Bush is the scandal-ridden Enron Corp. The President's campaign has already raised more money than any other candidate in history in the year before the election, $85.2 million (numbers are as of Sept. 30, 2003). His personal assets are $8.8 - $21.9 million. Bush, who has signaled an interest in Social Security privatization, numbers financial firms Merrill Lynch & Co., Credit Suisse First Boston, UBS Paine Webber and Goldman Sachs Group among his top ten patrons. JOHN KERRY: Campaign has raised over $20 million; personal assets are $198-$839 million (almost all through his wife's wealth). Top patrons include Fleet Boston Financial Corp., Time Warner and law firms. He wrote letters to the FCC asking it to delay its spectrum auction, keeping in line with his brother's law firm, which represents the telecommunications industry and has given the senator more than $222,000. HOWARD DEAN: Campaign has raised over $25 million; personal assets are $2 - $5 million. In his 11 years as governor, Dean did not propose a law requiring financial disclosures for legislatures or executive branch officials. Vermont is one of just three states with no such disclosure laws. JOHN EDWARDS: Campaign has raised more than $14 million; personal assets are $8.7-$36.5 million, largely from suing for medical malpractice. Most of his largest contributors are law firms. WESLEY CLARK: Campaign has raised over $3 million; there is insufficient data on his personal wealth. His top patron is Citigroup. Acxiom, a company that was seeking Homeland Security contracts, paid Clark hundreds of thousands of dollars for his help in persuading the government to buy the company's wares. Clark was a registered lobbyist while he served as a military analyst on CNN, and was still a lobbyist when he declared his candidacy.
A. "RECONSTRUCTION RACKET" IN IRAQ The investigative team spent three weeks in Iraq visiting project sites, analyzing contracts, and interviewing dozens of administrators, contract workers, and U.S. officials. Among the findings: 1. Despite over eight months of work and billions of dollars spent, key pieces of Iraq's infrastructure - power plants, telephone exchanges, and sewage and sanitation systems - have either not been repaired, or have been fixed so poorly that they don't function. 2. San Francisco-based Bechtel has been given tens of millions of dollars to repair Iraq's schools. Yet many haven't been touched, and several schools that Bechtel claims to have repaired are in shambles. One "repaired" school was overflowing with unflushed sewage. 3. Inflated overhead costs and a byzantine maze of sub-contracts have left little money for the everyday workers carrying out projects. In one contract for police operations, Iraqi guards received only 10% of the money allotted for their salaries; Indian cooks for Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root reported making just three dollars a day. B. UNRAVELING THE KNOWN UNKNOWNS:
This Special Report from the British American Security Information Council seeks to answer central questions like: Why did the US and UK governments exaggerate the threat? Or were they themselves misled by available pre-war intelligence on Iraq's WMD capability? The report concludes, "there is nothing to be found. This means that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair made a WMD mountain out of what, at best, was a molehill." Authors David Isenberg and Ian Davis provide a timely update and summary of the evidence accumulated by the U.S. inspectors in Iraq and from other public sources over the past eight months. C. WMD IN IRAQ: EVIDENCE AND IMPLICATIONS
III. THE WAR ON TERRORISM A new report from the U.S. Army War College calls Bush's war on terror "unfocused" and the war in Iraq "unnecessary." The report, "Bounding the Global War on Terrorism," released in December, warns that the U.S. is "on a course of open-ended and gratuitous conflict with states and non-state entities that pose no serious threat to the U.S." Author Jeffrey Record also notes, "The global war on terrorism as presently defined and conducted is strategically unfocused, promises much more than it can deliver, and threatens to dissipate U.S. military and other resources in an endless and hopeless search for absolute security." Download the full report using the link above or email Rita.Rummel@carlisle.army.mil to request a copy.
IV. HUMAN RIGHTS AND THE ARMS TRADE A. Human Rights Watch World Report for 2004
The 407-page WORLD REPORT 2004: HUMAN RIGHTS AND ARMED CONFLICT includes 15 essays on a variety of subjects related to war and human rights, from Africa to Afghanistan, from sexual violence as a method to warfare to the new trends in post-conflict international justice. In a departure from past practice, the World Report 2004 does not include summaries of human rights events in the more than 70 countries where Human Rights Watch works. Instead, up-to-date information on those countries has been posted at www.hrw.org B. THE PAIN MERCHANTS: U.S. Exporting Tools of Torture
The report, THE PAIN MERCHANTS: Security Equipment and its Use in Torture and Other Ill-Treatment, found that in 2002, the United States exported millions of dollars worth of torture equipment: including $14.7 million dollars worth of electro-shock weapons and $4.4 million in restraints used for torture. "Although torture is endemic in Saudi Arabia, Smith & Wesson had no qualms about exporting approximately 10,000 leg-irons to Riyadh, and, apparently sharing this lack of concern, the Bush administration approved the sale," said William Schulz, executive director of Amnesty's U.S. branch, AIUSA. Reports | Recent News Coverage | Updates
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