Meanwhile in Iraq, U.S. forces continue an offensive against insurgents in the city of Falluja, where hostility to the American occupation has grown after weeks of constant air strikes. In mid-October, 18 U.S. soldiers of the U.S. Army's 343rd Quartermaster Company made headlines when they refused to deliver a shipment of fuel from the Tallil air base near Nasiriya to a base in Taji, in the north. The soldiers, who claimed their trucks were unsafe and did not have an adequate armed escort, are now under investigation for insubordination. The incident underscores long-standing charges that many American troops in Iraq are ill-equipped and have been placed in unnecessary danger by the Pentagon's poor war planning.

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In his latest book, "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," MIT professor of linguistics and philosophy Noam Chomsky examines U.S. foreign policy and concludes that our government's aggressive military posture and disdain for international treaties and conventions on arms control, the environment and human rights, threaten the very survival of human kind. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with professor Chomsky, America's most honored intellectual dissident, about his views on the primary motivation for the Iraq war and the choices before voters in the Nov. 2nd U.S. presidential election.

Noam Chomsky's latest book "Hegemony or Survival: America's Quest for Global Dominance," is published by Metropolitan. Read more about professor Chomsky's work online at www.chomsky.info or www.zmag.org

Related links:

• Half-hour interview with Noam Chomsky, conducted by Scott Harris, Counterpoint, 10/18/04
• Project for the New American Century's Letter to President Clinton on Iraq, Jan. 26, 1998 Excerpt: "We are writing you because we are convinced that current American policy toward Iraq is not succeeding, and that we may soon face a threat in the Middle East more serious than any we have known since the end of the Cold War. In your upcoming State of the Union Address, you have an opportunity to chart a clear and determined course for meeting this threat. We urge you to seize that opportunity, and to enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power. We stand ready to offer our full support in this difficult but necessary endeavor ... " Signers include several Project for a New American Century members who are either now part of George W. Bush's administration or among his inner circle: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, as well as former chairman of the Defense Policy Board Richard Perle and former Unocal energy company advisor Zalmay Khalilzad, now U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan.

Growing Income Inequality in U.S.
All But Ignored in
Presidential Campaign

Interview with Ellen Frank,
senior economist, Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College
conducted by Scott Harris

Economic issues being debated in this year's presidential election campaign include unemployment, health care, tax policy, the deficit and more recently Social Security. But growing income inequality across the U.S. is one critical issue that has been all but ignored by the candidates and corporate media coverage of the campaign.

The U.S. Census Bureau reported in September that the number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year. Alarmingly, children were among the hardest hit segments of the population with an increase of about 800,000 living in poverty during 2003. In all, 12.9 million of those under the age of 18 now live below the poverty line. During Bush's administration, 4.3 million Americans have slipped into poverty and 5.2 million have lost their health insurance coverage.

The income gap along racial lines also worsened during the last recession. Analyzing the most recent census data, the Pew Hispanic Center found that white households had a median net worth 11 times that of Hispanic households and 14 times that of African American households. Between The Lines' Scott Harris spoke with Ellen Frank, senior economist at the Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College and member of Dollars and Sense magazine's editorial board. Frank examines income inequality and President Bush's campaign proposals in his so-called "Ownership Society" initiative.

Ellen Frank is author of "The Raw Deal: How Myths and Misinformation about the Deficit, Inflation and Wealth Impoverish America." Read Franks' articles in the pages of Dollars and Sense magazine or online at www.dollarsandsense.org

Related links:

• Contact United for a Fair Economy at (617) 423-2148 or www.faireconomy.org
• Contact Economic Policy Institute at (202) 775-8810 or www.epinet.org

Shocking History of Voter Disenfranchisement
Based on Race Still Haunts
U.S. Electoral Process

Interview with Khalilah Brown-Dean,
assistant professor of African-American Studies
and Political Science at Yale University,
conducted by Melinda Tuhus

Today almost five million Americans are prevented from voting because they committed a felony crime. Currently, African American men are disenfranchised at a rate seven times the national average. Depending on what state an ex-felon lives in, he or she may be barred from voting for life, or may have their voting rights restored at some point during or after they complete their sentence. In two states, incarcerated individuals may vote, as is the case in many countries around the world.

Much of the racial disparity in the U.S. prison system today is attributed to high levels of poverty and the sale and use of illegal drugs, with punishments apportioned inequitably by race. Khalilah Brown-Dean, assistant professor of African-American studies and political science at Yale University, wrote her doctoral dissertation on the historical roots of this problem. Her work, soon to be published is titled, "Stolen Democracy: Disenfranchisement Laws and American Political Inequality."

Between The Lines' Melinda Tuhus spoke with Brown-Dean about what her research revealed about the history of voter disenfranchisement and what it means for democracy today.

Khalilah Brown-Dean's research can be found on the Sentencing Project's website at www.sentencingproject.org

To report election irregularities, call the Election Protection Coalition at 1-866-OUR VOTE or visit their website at www.electionprotection2004.org

This week's summary
of under-reported news

Compiled by Bob Nixon

• Auditors can't find billions of dollars in U.S.-provided Iraq war reconstruction funds. An audit commissioned by the United Nations has found that 50 percent of the Iraqi reconstruction funds provided primarily by the U.S. and spent in the first half of 2004 are not accounted for by the Bush administration. ("Iraq audit can't find billions," by Bryan Bender, Boston Globe, Oct. 16, 2004; "Auditors Can't Account for Iraq Spent Funds," by Larry Margasak, The Associated Press, Oct. 15, 2004)
• New documents in a French criminal investigation show that Halliburton, which Vice President Dick Cheney ran in the late 1990s, was more deeply involved in a Nigerian corruption scandal than previously thought. ("Investigation widens in Nigeria Oil Case," Los Angeles Times, Oct. 13, 2004)
• After handling the disputed Florida recount for the Bush campaign in 2000, former Secretary of State James Baker is now back at his law firm Baker Botts, whose biggest and most lucrative client is the Saudi Arabian government. ("It's a Baker Botts World," The Nation, Oct. 11, 2004)
  

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Credits:
Senior news editor: Bob Nixon
Program narration: Denise Manzari
News reader: Indu Anand
Segment producer: Melinda Tuhus
Distribution: Anna Manzo, Harry Minot, Jeff Yates, Bill Cosentino
Senior Web editor/producer: Anna Manzo
Web producer: Jeff Yates
Newswire editor: Hank Hoffman
Executive producer: Scott Harris
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