http://www.inthesetimes.com/archives/tags/administration/ In These Times features award-winning investigative reporting about corporate malfeasance and government wrongdoing, insightful analysis of national and international affairs, and sharp cultural criticism about events and ideas that matter. en-us Expression Engine jessica@inthesetimes.com seamus@inthesetimes.com Sat, 22 Dec 2001 13:05:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/1382/treaty_end/ It may be no accident that the Bush administration timed the release of the Osama bin Laden videotape on December 13 to coincide with the announcement later that day to unilaterally junk the once sacrosanct Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty, the first abrogation of an arms control treaty since the end of World War II. Of course, Bush’s desire to withdraw from the arms accord and move forward with his Star Wars scheme was an open secret. Signed in Moscow in May 1972, for the past 30 years the ABM treaty has served as a hallmark of arms control measures, limiting the development of a ballistic missile system that would give one superpower a decisive nuclear advantage over the rest of the… government: administration Akito Yoshikane Fri, 14 Mar 2003 13:46:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/436/spies_like_us/ In its drive to sell the world on its plans for war with Iraq, the Bush administration has deployed its intelligence agencies to spy on friendly governments and to doctor evidence to prove Iraqi wrongdoing. On January 31, Frank Koza, a National Security Agency official, sent a “Top Secret” memo to NSA agents and British intelligence, informing them that the NSA is spying on U.N. Security Council members “for insights as to how membership is reacting to the on-going debate.” In that memo, leaked to the Observer of London, Koza wrote that NSA is monitoring all communications of “UN Security Council members (minus US and GBR of course).” Specifically, Koza asks his agents to use their electronic surveillance “product lines”—bugging… government: administration media politics war in iraq Akito Yoshikane Mon, 21 Jul 2003 09:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/459/prescription_for_privatization/ Democrats who supported the dreadful Republican legislation for prescription drug coverage under Medicare, which passed the House and Senate in late June, rationalized their support as a case of the camel getting his nose into the tent. In years to come, they suggested, there will be opportunities to improve prescription drug coverage once the principle is established. But the camel that is likely to make the most progress into the tent is not the carrier of prescription drugs. It’s the one bearing the dangerous baggage of Medicare privatization. With this legislation—details of which will now be worked out in a House-Senate committee—Bush may undercut one of the most potent issues for Democrats in the next election (since the plan conveniently… government: administration government: congress medical and health Akito Yoshikane Mon, 04 Aug 2003 04:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/462/intelligence_report/ One of the most under-reported findings of the joint congressional inquiry into the suicide hijackings of 9/11, published July 24, is that U.S. intelligence had no evidence that Iraq was involved in the attacks or that it supported the al-Qaeda terrorist network that planned and carried them out. This disclosure contradicts the Bush administration, which cited links between Saddam Hussein’s regime and al-Qaeda terrorists as one of the reasons for attacking Iraq. The report bolsters the argument that the Bush administration cynically manipulated intelligence to justify invading Iraq. What’s more, it’s clear that the White House deliberately delayed the report’s release until the pre-emptive invasion was a fait accompli. The inquiry, conducted by a joint House and Senate committee, was… government: administration government: congress war in iraq Akito Yoshikane Tue, 19 Aug 2003 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/466/trading_in_terror/ What does it take to end a career in public service? Mere treason evidently doesn’t cut it, as has been made clear by the gaggle of current administration officials who were co-conspirators in the Iran/Contra scandal, among them retired Adm. John Poindexter. As President Reagan’s national security advisor, Poindexter engineered the secret deal to sell weapons to our avowed mortal enemies, the mullahs of Iran, and then used the proceeds to fund the Contras’ bloody rebellion against the elected Sandinista government of Nicaragua. Under George W. Bush, Poindexter’s more recent endeavors have included the Total Information Awareness project, an ambitious effort to collect and organize personal data on all Americans that would have rendered any conception of “privacy” quaint at… economy government: administration Akito Yoshikane Wed, 03 Sep 2003 12:55:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/468/rods_from_god/ With no fanfare, the Bush Administration is taking military control of what it terms “near space,” thereby laying claim to the area of the Solar System that lies between the Earth and the Moon’s orbit. “A key objective … is not only to ensure U.S. ability to exploit space for military purposes, but also as required to deny an adversary’s ability to do so,” is how the Pentagon’s 2001 Quadrennial Defense Review explained U.S. strategy. Indeed, the success of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq depended on the use of more than 50 military satellites to direct U.S. missiles and bombers to their intended targets. “I’d call this the first real space war,” says Brig. Gen. Larry Jones, commander of… government: administration government: military Akito Yoshikane Fri, 05 Sep 2003 07:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/348/military_families_against_the_war/ Millions of Americans are anxious about and even opposed to the American war on Iraq and to the bloody occupation that has followed it. But for Stan Goff, it’s personal. A career soldier and Vietnam veteran, Goff is an organizer of Bring Them Home Now, a fledgling movement of hundreds of relatives of U.S. troops in Iraq who say their family members in uniform are being made to fight an illegal and immoral war. Goff is also the parent of one of those soldiers, a son who just last month was sent into Iraq to work as an army mechanic. “My son wrote an e-mail back that he’s already been under attack by mortars twice,” says Goff. Bring Them Home… activism government: administration government: military social justice war in iraq Akito Yoshikane Tue, 16 Dec 2003 16:54:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/492/dissing_dubya/ As you know, many of us are more outraged over this presidency than perhaps any other (which is saying something). We’re also exasperated with the Democratic Party which, our dreams of Green aside, is currently the only lot that can possibly get these theocrats out of office. But as we’re learning from the mainstream media, whose latest negative news peg about Howard Dean is that he’s too “angry” to be president, we’re not supposed to display our fury over Team Bush’s multiple crimes. Angry just doesn’t go with the PR-driven, entertainment-oriented nature of modern campaigning. At the same time, as “The Daily Show” reminds us every night, Team Bush does provide America with many laughable moments. I mean, really, that… government: administration politics election 2004 Akito Yoshikane Tue, 17 Feb 2004 15:11:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/705/judicial_disappointments/ With a stalled economy and ongoing attacks against U.S. troops, judicial appointments seemingly lack the immediacy and scope to register among Americans’ concerns this election season. But relegating the president’s power to make lifetime appointments to the lower tiers of political consideration sets dangerous precedent—and could impact the rights of ordinary citizens for decades to come. Federal judges play a critical role on such issues as civil rights, reproductive rights, and environmental and consumer protections. And as the recess appointment of Charles W. Pickering Sr. most recently demonstrated, President Bush is bent on packing the federal courts with ideological extremists who have shown a willingness to rewrite statues, distort precedent, and misrepresent facts to justify positions against many of our… civil liberties gender government: administration government: judiciary politics race social justice Akito Yoshikane Thu, 19 Feb 2004 15:17:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/706/the_bush_budget/ There are few surprises in President Bush’s 2005 budget. The main contours follow the same pattern as his past budgets, with more tax cuts oriented toward the wealthy and increased spending on the military and homeland security. The result of this pattern of taxation and spending is large deficits that will prove unsustainable in the not-very-distant future. At first glance, increases in military spending in the Bush budget do not appear very large. The budget proposes that military spending increase to $467 billion in 2009 from $433 billion in the 2004 budget, with spending actually declining slightly to $429 billion in 2005. However, the proposed spending does not include any appropriations for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. Bush intends… economy government: administration government: congress Akito Yoshikane Thu, 19 Feb 2004 15:44:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/708/faulty_intelligence/ The commission appointed by President George W. Bush to look into WMD-related “intelligence failures” can be considered “independent” only if the word now means “subordinated and allied.” The members lack the expertise required to uncover what really went wrong, and their limited mandate sidesteps the central question: Did the administration hype intelligence reports to march the United States into war? Rather than allowing Congress to name the members and determine the scope of their investigation, the intelligence commission was established by executive fiat and is a mixture of centrists and right-wing ideologues—suggesting that Bush is less concerned with unraveling the Iraq fiasco than deflecting criticism until after the November elections. Co-chairmen are Laurence Silberman, a retired appeals court judge appointed… government: administration government: agencies government: congress politics war in iraq Akito Yoshikane Tue, 02 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/711/war_profiteering_and_you/ So the vice president’s former employer’s been in the news a lot lately. Bilking the U.S. government for millions in Kuwaiti oil imports to Iraq, turning the other way as employees take bribes, overcharging the Army for food served in mess halls. It gets to feeling like the whole “reconstruction effort” is just some bloated, corrupt muddle of patronage and war profiteering. But then comes February’s “Rebuilding Iraq: Small Business Subcontracting Opportunities,” convened near O’Hare Airport outside Chicago. Sponsored by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and featuring speakers from—you guessed it—Halliburton, among others, the daylong seminar was intended to show that profiting from the Bush administration’s foreign policy is anyone’s game. “We are literally here at the direction of the… corporations economy government: administration war in iraq Akito Yoshikane Sat, 13 Mar 2004 01:46:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/522/the_international_wrong/ The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) seems to be the only governmental body concerned about the Bush administration’s controversial role in the recent regime change in Haiti. Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s duly elected president, charged he was the victim of a coup d’etat February 29 that was aided and abetted by U.S. forces. “One could say that it was a geo-political kidnapping,” he said, or “terrorism disguised as diplomacy.” Aristide made these charges in a statement broadcast on Pacifica Radio’s “Flashpoints News” magazine following his arrival in the Central African Republic, after being spirited away from Haiti by gunpoint. He said U.S. officials in Port-au-Prince told him that he and his family were unlikely to survive attacks by armed rebels and that… elections government: administration international affairs politics race social justice south america Akito Yoshikane Thu, 18 Mar 2004 09:00:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/406/china_nuclear_ties/ Bejing—Documents declassified March 6 indicate that while President Bush was crusading against Iraq’s mythical nuclear program, three other “axis of evil” countries—Libya, Iran and North Korea—were building nuclear weapons that could reach New York using missile designs provided by Pakistan and China, both of whom are U.S. allies in the war against terror. The documents, dating from 1965 to 1997, reveal that “China provided assistance to Pakistan’s program to develop a nuclear weapon capability” and stalled U.S. investigations through deceptions, false promises and lies. And even today, the CIA cannot confirm that China has cut illicit nuclear ties with its client states. The International Atomic Energy Agency, investigating Libya and Iran’s illicit nuclear programs, already has said they were based… government: administration international affairs asia Akito Yoshikane Fri, 26 Mar 2004 16:43:01 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/525/transparency_now/ After months of refusing to admit that his administration may be guilty of misleading the American people on the rationale for going to war in Iraq, President Bush finally acknowledged in February the need for an “independent” commission to consider the possible misuse of American intelligence. The use of this “intelligence” led us into a conflict in which more than 560 Americans have been killed and more than 3,000 have been wounded, along with untold numbers of Iraqis and noncombatants. The decision to name the Commission on the Investigation of U.S. Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction was long overdue. Congress, the American people and especially our troops expect credible and thorough answers into how and why our nation went… government: administration government: congress war in iraq Akito Yoshikane Wed, 31 Mar 2004 16:42:00 -0600 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/526/halfway_there/ We’re not accustomed to giving President George W. Bush kudos for a job well done, but in one regard he’s exceeded all expectation: Junior has succeeded in turning half the population solidly against him. In the last three months, Bush’s approval ratings nationwide have dipped by 10 percentage points, and a recent study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press shows that internationally he’s viewed with similar disdain. His crotch-grabbing conduct in the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq has made the United States a global pariah, but it’s his cold indifference to facts on the ground that have cost him at home. Take the economy. Addressing voters recently in Ohio, a state brutalized… government: administration election 2004 war in iraq Akito Yoshikane Tue, 06 Apr 2004 23:17:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/410/meltdown_madness/ President Bush has always been a good friend to the nuclear industry, but his recent overtures should sound alarm bells. The White House has begun pushing to replace governmental safety standards at federal nuclear facilities with requirements penned by contractors. As Rep. Ted Strickland (D-Ohio) quipped, “It’s like the fox guarding the hen house.” What prompted the Bush administration’s move? Congress insisted the government start fining contractors for violations. The proposed weakening of safety standards would affect more than 100,000 nuclear plant workers and comes at an especially lousy time to lower their morale. A strike by 276 operations and maintenance workers was narrowly averted in January at the Indian Point 3 plant, 35 miles north of midtown Manhattan. When… environment government: administration regulation Akito Yoshikane Tue, 13 Apr 2004 12:45:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/412/rove_sweet_rove/ On a quiet Sunday afternoon in late March, more than a dozen yellow school buses crept up the street of a high-end Washington, D.C. neighborhood and parked in front of the home of Karl “Bush’s Brain” Rove, senior policy advisor to President Bush. Members of National People’s Action (NPA), a national coalition of community organizations, poured onto Rove’s lawn demanding that the White House support the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act. The activists surrounded Rove’s home chanting, blowing whistles and carrying posters with the message, “Rove: Don’t steal the dream!” If passed, the DREAM Act would grant in-state college tuition for children of immigrants who have graduated from high school and who have lived in the… activism education government: administration race social justice Akito Yoshikane Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:00:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/529/the_blame_game/ Heightened public interest in the workings of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, better known as the 9/11 Commission, is a welcome expression of public engagement. But the scope of that interest has been severely constricted by the Commission’s limited focus on a partisan blame game. For two days of Commission hearings in late March, the public heard a parade of experts, staff aides and ex-officials talk about the failures of intelligence and policymaking that allowed the attacks of September 11, 2001. The highlight of the hearing was the dramatic testimony of former counterterrorism director Richard Clarke, who charged that the Bush administration failed to prevent the attacks. Clarke’s testimony and recently published book, Against All… government: administration international affairs middle east Akito Yoshikane Thu, 15 Apr 2004 08:02:00 -0500 http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/413/the_task_at_hand/ The Bush administration has until June 1 to turn over secret documents involving Vice President Dick Cheney’s energy task force or provide the legal grounds to withhold them. U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman instructed the departments of the Interior and Defense, as well as several other government agencies, to make public thousands of pages of documents on the day-to-day operations of the classified meetings and records of the task force’s executive director, Energy Department employee Andrew Lundquist. In his March 31 ruling, Friedman rejected arguments by the Bush administration that records from the meetings—including the names of those present—are protected by executive privilege. He found that the documents involve issues of public interest and importance and therefore fall under… environment government: administration politics Akito Yoshikane