Cato Daily Dispatch for October 21, 2003
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Iran: Stopping Uranium Enrichment "Totally Unacceptable"U.S. Sanctions Against Sudan About to End?
High Court to Revisit Sentencing
Iran: Stopping Uranium Enrichment "Totally Unacceptable"
Reuters reports that "a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying on Tuesday Iran was not prepared to totally abandon its disputed uranium enrichment program that Washington says could be used to make atomic bombs.
"'We believe that stopping enriching uranium is totally unacceptable and we think nobody agrees with [doing] that in Iran,' Supreme National Security Council chief Hassan Rohani was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency."
In "Logical Conclusions: North Korea, Iran, and Unintended Consequences", Cato's vice president of defense and foreign policy studies, Ted Galen Carpenter, writes that "in his 2002 State of the Union address President Bush explicitly linked both North Korea and Iran to Iraq... in an "axis of evil." It is hardly surprising if Pyongyang and Tehran concluded that they were next on Washington's hit list unless they could effectively deter an attack" with a nuclear weapons program.
"U.S. behavior may have inadvertently created a powerful incentive for nuclear-weapons proliferation -- the last thing in the world Washington wanted to occur."
In "Staying Out of Potential Nuclear Crossfires", Carpenter makes several recommendations on how the United States can prevent further nuclear proliferation.
U.S. Sanctions Against Sudan About to End?
According to The Washington Post, "Secretary of State Colin L. Powell dangled the prospect Tuesday of renewed diplomatic ties and a lifting of sanctions against Sudan if the two sides in a long-running civil war reach an agreement and the Sudanese government moves against anti-Israeli militant groups operating in its capital.
"'We are looking at the whole range of restrictions, sanctions, listings that exist with respect to Sudan and they are considerable,' Powell told reporters as he flew to Kenya, where peace talks are being held."
Cato has produced a wealth of publications addressing the issue of sanctions and their harmful effects on not just the target nation, but also the United States.
In the book "Economic Casualties: How U.S. Foreign Policy Undermines Trade, Growth, and Liberty", several analysts lay out evidence that sanctions are not effective instruments of foreign policy. Contributors include Cato senior fellow Richard Rahn and vice president for defense and foreign policy studies Ted Galen Carpenter.
Cato's Center for Trade Policy Studies maintains a comprehensive list of articles and studies on trade sanctions.
High Court to Revisit Sentencing
"The Supreme Court significantly broadened its continuing examination of the role of judges and juries in criminal sentencing when it agreed on Monday to decide whether judges alone can impose sentences greater than the normal range provided under state guideline laws," The New York Time reports.
"While ostensibly about the state systems, the new case, Blakely v. Washington... also raises questions about federal sentencing guidelines...."
In "Misguided Guidelines: A Critique of Federal Sentencing", University of Utah associate law professor, Erik Luna, writes that "the [Sentencing] Guidelines [have] both perverted constitutional principles and produced grave injustices. In promulgating detailed sentencing rules that bind federal courts and individual parties, the U.S. Sentencing Commission is making law through an unconstitutional delegation of legislative authority. This practice not only violates the constitutional principle of separation of powers, but also severs the typical lines of political accountability in American democracy. Moreover, the Guidelines themselves violate a number of constitutional rights by, among other things, punishing defendants for uncharged or acquitted conduct.
"...The commission's micromanaged rules expressly forbid judges from considering personal characteristics like the defendant's age and family responsibilities. That rigidity in sentencing has lead to intentional deception among judges, prosecutors, and defense attorneys attempting to avoid the prescribed consequences of the Guidelines. Such dishonesty is flatly inconsistent with the commission's stated goal of 'truth in sentencing.'"
Christopher Kilmer, editor, ckilmer@cato.org
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