Multinational Monitor

OCT 2000
VOL 21 No. 10

FEATURES:

Star Wars, Continued: The Boondoggle that Won't Stop, and the Corporate Money that Keeps it Going
by William D. Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca

Fueling Genocide: Talisman Energy and the Sudanese Slaughter
by Gabe Katsh

Corporate Farming Comes to Pakistan: The Harvest of Globalization & Business Influence
by Muddassir Rizvi

The Money Trail: Corporate Investments in U.S. Elections Since 1990
by Robert Weissman

INTERVIEW:

The Injudicious Judiciary: Private Judicial Seminars and the Public Trust
an interview with
Doug Kendall

DEPARTMENTS:

Behind the Lines

Editorial
The Failure of the Academy

The Front
Melbourne Mobilization
- Jungle 2000

The Lawrence Summers Memorial Award

Names In the News

Resources

Political Investments

Star Wars, Continued: The Boondoggle that Won't Stop, and the Corporate Money that Keeps it Going

by William D. Hartung and Michelle Ciarrocca

The National Missle Defense (NMD) system has the potential to rank as the most expensive boondoggle ever. Cost projections for the NMD system range from the Congressional Budget Office estimate of $60 billion for the "limited" two-site system currently being tested to as much as $240 billion for a more "robust," multi-tiered approach that many Republicans, including Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush, are pushing for.

With much to gain if NMD is in fact deployed, the nations' "Big 4" weapons contractors (Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and TRW) are eager to please the powers that be. National Missile Defense presents one of the few bright spots on the horizon for a defense industry that has witnessed the end of the Cold War and a shrinking demand in Pentagon procurement. These four firms dominate missile defense contracts, which soak up $3 to $4 billion a year of taxpayer funds. In fiscal year 1998-99, they accounted for 60 percent of the missile defense contracts issued by the Pentagon. MORE>>

The Money Trail: Corporate Investments in U.S. Elections Since 1990

by Robert Weissman

Whatever else happens in the 2000 elections, one thing seems certain: campaign finance records will be shattered. Unregulated soft money is pouring into the two major parties, congressional candidates are raising record sums, George W. Bush proved his mettle to Republican kingmakers with his fundraising ability and "independent expenditures" are filling the airwaves with political advertisements.

Often lost amidst the recognition of the surge of private funding of electoral campaigns is a more careful analysis of who is giving what to whom. MORE>>

The Injudicious Judiciary: Private Judicial Seminars and the Public Trust

An Interview with Doug Kendall

Doug Kendall is executive director of Community Rights Counsel, a public interest law firm with a mission of helping local governments defend land use laws, typically against challenges brought by developers under the U.S. Constitution's Takings Clause. In July, Community Rights Counsel issued the report, "Nothing For Free: How Private Judicial Seminars Are Undermining Environmental Protections and Breaking the Public's Trust." MORE>>

 

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