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OB OY Le VEN? PROJECT CENSORED 2005: THE 25 BIG STORIES IGNORED BY THE US NEWS MEDIA Human rights lawyers have pur- sued 100 cases under the ATCA since 1980. Ten years ago, vic- tims began using the act to go after corporate profiteers, too. But Attorney-General John Ashcroft's Justice Department has set its sights on the Act, claiming in a brief last year [2002] that the law threatens "important foreign policy interests" associated with the War on Terrorism. very year, researchers at Bes Censored pick through volumes of print and broadcast news to see which of the past year's most important stories aren't receiving the kind of attention they deserve. Every one of this year's picks merited prominent placement on the evening news and the dailies’ front pages. Instead, they went virtually ignored. 3. Bush administration manipulates science and censors scientists Govemment interference in scientific research has become so bad that 60 of the country's top scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, issued a state- ment in February citing the ways the Bush administration has distorted sci- entific data "for partisan political ends" and calling for regulatory action. 1. Wealth inequality in 21st century threatens economy and democracy D2 the official line about the USA's supposed eco- nomic recovery, wealth inequality in the United States has almost doubled over the past 30 years. In 1998, the richest 1% of households owned 38% of the nation's wealth. The top 5% owned almost 60% of the wealth. Today, almost one-sixth of the world's population—940 million people—"already live in squalid, unhealthy areas, mostly without water, sanitation, public services, or legal security," John Vidal wrote in the UK Guardian. torturers, toppled democratically elected governments and propped up brutal dictatorships abroad—all in the interest of corporate profits. But rarely are the agents of repression ever held accountable for the tens of thousands of deaths and the brutal cycles of poverty, subjugation, environmental destruction and violence they leave in their wake. But recently, lawyers have found a way to seek at least a modicum of justice for victims. The Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), a 215-year-old law originally passed to prosecute pirates for crimes committed on the high seas, allows non- citizens to sue any individual or corporation present on US soil. 4. High uranium levels found in troops and civilians Imost 10,000 US troops died within 10 years of serving in the first Gulf War, researchers have found. And more than a third of those still alive have filed Gulf War syndrome-telated claims. More recently, the Uranium Medical Research Center, an independent group of US and Canadian scientists that has conducted studies of Afghan civilians, found overwhelming evidence that the United States is also using non-depleted uranium in its weapons, which is far more radioactive than depleted uranium. 2. Ashcroft vs the human rights law that holds corporations accountable F decades the United States has trained right-wing insurgents and 5. Wholesale giveaway of US natural resources lhe US administration has launched the greatest giveaway of public natural resources in more than a century. Yet few in the mainstream media have bothered to analyse these plans and uncover the lies ehind the administration's rhetorical manipulations. Vice-President Dick Cheney's infamous, secretive, industry-laden energy task force roduced what can be boiled down to two main recommendations: "lower the environmental bar and pay corporations to jump over it", writes Adam Werbach, executive director of the Common Assets Defense Fund and former Sierra Club resident. 6 = NEXUS "..and that one's for surviving a four-month media attack at Abu Ghraib prison." www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2004