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Latest Policy Publications
POGO’s experts push policymakers to enact commonsense reforms that tackle waste, corruption, and abuse of power; hold those who’ve violated the public trust accountable; protect our constitutional rights; and make the government work for all people.
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Analysis
INSIGHTS: Terrorism and the Law: A Few Reflections
War as we have come to know it assumes the destruction of armies, the capture of enemy leaders and capitulation followed by negotiations for peace. But these conditions, which normally constitute victory, no longer exist. Capture the capital — and you have not won. Capture Sad...
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Analysis
INSIGHTS: Car Bomb Blast Rips Apart UN Headquarters in Iraq
The bomb that exploded in the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad is another in an escalating series of attacks on soft targets in Iraq.
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Analysis
When is a Nuke not a Nuke?
The critical issue at stake is the counting rules being used: in particular, U.S. plans to keep many more than 2,200 weapons in storage for potential re-deployment later. With nuclear weapons kept in various stages of readiness and dismantlement, there are many ways to measure...
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Analysis
Nuclear Time Warp
President George W. Bush's new Nuclear Posture Review harks back to the stone age, or at least to the 1950s, when America's most beautiful minds struggled to devise a strategy to deal with the original rogue state — the Soviet Union. The latest exercise to devise a nuclear str...
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AnalysisNuclear Attack: A Remote if Real Possibility
Today, as the United States bombs terrorist sites and other targets in Afghanistan, the prospect of a nuclear terrorist attack looms larger as a domestic security concern. The likelihood of such an attack, government officials and experts say, may be small - but the possible c...
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Analysis
Controlling Costs in Tactical Aircraft Programs: CDI Congressional Testimony on the F/A-22
CDI Congressional Testimony on the F/A-22
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Analysis
Another War, another round of landmines?
While UN inspectors are searching for dangerous weapons hidden in Iraq by Saddam Hussein, they must also be wary of American weapons already lurking there.
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Analysis
Beware The Phony Defense-Budget Prognosticators
The Bush administration has just rolled out its fiscal 2005 defense budget. Starting with a literal confusion of numbers, much of what journalists will write about it will be confusing, if not misleading, and many of the prognostications from Capitol Hill, the Pentagon and the...
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Analysis
A Swift, Elusive Sword, Second Edition
This study of national security and military strategy by Col. (Ret.) Chester Richards (USAF), suggests that ancient strategic wisdom may help solve the dilemma confronting the U.S. military.
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AnalysisSept. 11, 2001, Congressional Pork Rises to New Heights
The long-running joke on Capitol Hill is that there are two things one should never see in the making: sausage and legislation. The story of “pork barrel politics” in Congress is not new. But in a new book, “Mr. Smith is Dead: No One Stands in the Way as Congress Laces Post-Se...
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Analysis
Lessons Learned: Using Landmines in a War with Iraq
Today, landmines have gained a reputation as indiscriminate tools of war, killing thousands of innocent civilians every year. The majority of countries in the world have signed the Ottawa Mine Ban Treaty that prevents the use of landmines in conflicts around the world.
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Analysis
Landmines and UXO Endanger Iraqi Population
Iraq’s population has suffered immensely from decades of war. Iraqi civilians feel not only the effects of years of sanctions, malnutrition, and disease, but are plagued by hidden, deadly killers throughout the country: landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO).