Nader Slams Bush and Post-911
Corporate Opportunism

Ralph Nader attacks post-Sept. 11 response of corporate America,
Bush and Western Europe

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20020517/ap_wo_en_po/sweden_nader_1

Fri May 17, 2002

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Consumer advocate and former U.S. presidential
candidate Ralph Nader on Friday accused U.S. corporations and the
Bush administration of exploiting public fears after the Sept. 11
terrorist attacks.

Nader said the growing U.S. defense budget was "a direct result of
the exploitation of the post Sept. 11 period by giant corporations
that are shaping our defense policy as a profitable business
proposition rather than as meeting legitimate defense needs."

He also said "autocratic ideologues" led by U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft and President George W. Bush were "undermining the
democratic process" with sweeping anti-terrorism laws introduced
after the attacks in New York and Washington.

Nader, who was in Stockholm en route to a meeting of European
Green parties in Berlin, called the U.S. Patriot Act, which was
passed by Congress last year, "the most serious statutory attack
on civil liberties" since the 18th century.

He also said Western European leaders were becoming "lap dogs" of
the U.S. president in the fight against global terrorism and
should push the United States harder to pursue a more multilateral
approach.

"For years we've looked to Sweden as a national demonstration of
conscience on issues wide and far, domestic and foreign. There
seems to be a decline in that level of performance in (Sweden) as
well as other countries in Western Europe," he said.

Nader, who ran on the Green Party ticket in the 2000 U.S.
presidential election, said he would decide on whether to run in
2004 after congressional elections later this year.