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Article

14 Feb 2009

Author:
Stephen Zunes, AlterNet

Obama's Caterpillar Visit a Thumb in the Eye for Human Rights Activists

Over the objections of church groups, peace organizations and human rights activists, President Barack Obama decided…to visit the headquarters of the Caterpillar company, which for years has violated international law, U.S. law and its own code of conduct by selling its D9 and D10 bulldozers to Israel…The Caterpillar boycott has been endorsed by scores of church groups, peace organizations, and human rights groups…[T]he Church of England announced three days prior to Obama’s visit that it had sold off $3.3 million in stockholdings in the company... Caterpillar CEO Owens…insists that his company has “neither the legal right nor the ability to monitor and police individual use of that equipment.”