On Wednesday the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) released a report entitled
"Coalition of the Willing
or Coalition of the Coerced?" The 13 page report is available
on their website.
IPS UN and Middle East expert Phyllis
Bennis spoke about the report with the KPFA
Morning Show staff today. The tone of the interview is set at the start, with Bennis
noting:
"The U.S. is claiming that every country is free to make up its own
minds, and that [the U.S. is] only trying to persuade other governments on the
merits of the case. ... What's actually going is a huge campaign of bribes and
pressures on every country on the council that has not yet declared itself in
support of the U.S. position."
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Runtime: 22:32
Bennis notes that the U.S. has even been attempting to set the terms of the
debate by showing indignation at the suggestion that bribes and coercion is
central to it's policy making strategy. An example can be seen with Ari
Fleischer's White House Press Briefing on February 25th. Fleischer was literally
laughed off the stage when he failed to counter the press corps view that
bribes and arm twisting is the norm. Fleischer can be seen sprinting off
the stage on CSPAN's most watched video
section (advance to the last two minutes) and an mp3 audio clip of the
conference is here.
News story here.
