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Fact of the Week

**Fact of the Week**
Last month, the United States formally withdrew from the ABM Treaty and started construction on an anti-missile battery in Alaska. Data from the Brookings Institution and the Center for Defense Information point to the fiscal sinkhole that has been the real end result of missile defense over the years. Through 1983, ballistic missile defense cost some $34 billion, including an operational system in North Dakota that was so obsolete when finished that the Pentagon shut it down after four months. Since 1983, the United States has spent $95 billion on ballistic missile defense, including about $44 billion on a national defense system. Sources: Brookings Institution Nuclear Weapons Cost Project; Center for Defense Information Issue Brief.

**This week's columns**
Tax Cuts on Stolen Money Paul Corrigan George Bush and Dick Cheney have delivered on their major campaign promise, "Tax Cuts on Stolen Money." Of course, they did not put their promise in such simple and honest terms but that is, in effect, what they promised and what they have delivered. Go to article!	Upper Class Warfare Tim Francis-Wright A class war is brewing in America, but it is not the kind that Marx would have predicted. Go to article!

A Strange Kind of Freedom: The biggest threat to American liberty may come from Jewish and Christian fundamentalism (Robert Fisk, The Independent).
A Racist Bill: A bill in the Knesset to allocate state land for exclusively Jewish towns is a threat to democracy and decency (Leader, Ha'aretz).
Three Million Face Starvation in Malawi: A good climate may not save Malawi from famine if a bad economy and incompetence win out (Jeremy Lawrence, The Independent).
Fowl Play: You might think twice about eating chicken nuggets if you knew how they were made (Felicity Lawrence, The Guardian).
U.S. Accuses 2 Audit Firms of Assisting Tax Violations: KPMG and BDO Seidman have helped hundreds of companies and rich individuals through secretive tax shelters (David Cay Johnston, New York Times).
Accounting for Anguish: Kim Emigh was fired by WorldCom for trying to stop the phony accounting that brought the company down (Gayle Reaves, Fort Worth Weekly).
Bush's Insider Connections Preceded Huge Profit On Stock Deal: George Bush had extraordinary help all throughout his business career (Knut Royce, Center for Public Integrity).

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