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  • NSA Whistleblower Thomas Drake Statement on Surveillance Legislation

    At this late hour (with all the fear mongering by national security authorities pushing to reauthorize and expand an unconstitutional warrantless surveillance program), unless the Amash-Lofgren Amendment is passed, Congress may end up passing a bill (S. 139) that actually gives criminal suspects more Fourth Amendment protections than innocent people.

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  • News Conference at Department of Justice on Threats to WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange by Attorney General Jeff Sessions

    CIA Director Mike Pompeo recently called WikiLeaks a “hostile intelligence service.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently stated that Julian Assange’s arrest is a “priority” of the Trump administration. This has caused numerous individuals — with differing perspectives on WikiLeaks — to warn of a growing threat to press freedom. The following will address U.S. government…

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  • Trump Education Policy

    Rhee and Moskowitz would certainly be zealous proponents of school choice. Selecting either of them would be a thumb in the eyes of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, who campaigned mightily for Clinton. Both have tangled with the unions and made clear their distaste for public schools and for teachers’…

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  • Costas Panayotakis on the Brexit

    “The Brexit vote may have partly been an expression of right-wing xenophobia but it is also an expression of disgust across the continent with the neoliberal monstrosity that the EU has become. It remains to be seen, of course, whether the result will be honored. In the past, European political and economic elites have often…

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  • Breaking Down the Brexit Decision

    The political center has lost its commanding appeal and the public is drawn to vague slogans like “freedom” and “independence.” Right-wing projects are implausible as solutions to the problems faced by ordinary citizens but the electorate acts in desperation. The process has been under way for many years. Reagan and Thatcher were early signs. The…

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  • From “An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States”

    All the laws and customs of civilized warfare may not be applicable to an armed conflict with the Indian tribes upon our western frontier; but the circumstances attending the assassination of Canby [Army general] and Thomas [U.S. peace commissioner] are such as to make their murder as much a violation of the laws of savage…

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  • Bradley on His Visit to the Philippines

    Princess Alice sipped punch under a hot tropical sun as “Big Bill” Taft deliver a florid speech extolling the benefits of the American way. A century later I ventured to Zamboanga and learned that the local Muslims hadn’t taken Taft’s message to heart: Zamboanga officials feared for my safety because I was an American and…

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  • Video of Sterling News Conference

    On February 17th, 2016, Holly Sterling, Jesselyn Radack, John Kiriakou, Tim Karr, Delphine Halgand, and Cornel West spoke at a news conference at the National Press Club, then delivered a petition containing over 150.000 signatures to the White House calling for the pardon of CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling.

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  • Media Advisory — Cornel West, John Kiriakou among speakers to urge Obama pardon for CIA whistleblower

    News Conference: Release of Petition Urging Obama to Pardon Imprisoned CIA Whistleblower; Speakers to Include Cornel West, John Kiriakou, Jesselyn Radack, Holly Sterling When: Wednesday, February 17 at 9:30 a.m. Where: National Press Club (Bloomberg Room), 13th Floor, National Press Building, Washington

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  • Noam Chomsky & Abby Martin: Electing The President Of An Empire (Full Transcript)

    At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Abby Martin interviews world-renowned philosopher and linguist Professor Noam Chomsky. Full transcript included.

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  • Tragedy in Syria, Farce in Washington

    NORMAN SOLOMON, solomonprogressive at gmail.com Solomon just wrote the piece “Obama Will Launch a Huge Propaganda Blitz — and May Attack Syria Even If He Loses the Vote in Congress.” He said today: “The Obama White House has come up with a stunning new innovation in what Senator J. William Fulbright called ‘the arrogance of…

  • Syria: Is the U.S. Government Trying to Prolong the Civil War?

    VIJAY PRASHAD, vp01 at aub.edu.lb Edward Said chair at American University in Beirut, Prashad is co-editor of Dispatches from the Arab Spring and author of The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. See his new interview with The Real News in which he argues that a possible missile strike against Syria has…

  • A “Dodgy Dossier” Instead of a Congressional Debate?

    FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at illinois.edu Boyle is a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of Tackling America’s Toughest Questions. He said today: “The test the Dossier [PDF] uses is ‘high confidence’ — but the appropriate standard by the International Court of Justice (in the Corfu Channel case) is ‘beyond a…

  • Left and Right Opposing Bombing Syria

    The Hill reports: “The opposition to President Obama launching unilateral military operations in Syria exploded on Thursday when dozens of liberal Democrats joined scores of conservative Republicans in warning the administration that any strikes without congressional approval would violate the Constitution.” The letters are lead by Rep. Scott Rigell (R-Va.). and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.)…

  • Administration Claims on Syria Questioned

    The Washington Post reports this morning: “The Obama administration appeared Wednesday to be forging ahead with preparations to attack Syria. It dismissed a Syrian request to extend chemical weapons inspections there as a delaying tactic and said it saw little point in further discussion of the issue at the United Nations.” “We have concluded that…

  • U.S. Tried to Derail UN Syria Probe; Dubiously Claimed Too Late for Evidence

    The sudden reversal and overt hostility toward the UN investigation, which coincides with indications that the administration is planning a major military strike against Syria in the coming days, suggests that the administration sees the UN as hindering its plans for an attack. “Kerry asserted Monday that he had warned Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem…

  • UN Admits It Didn’t Ask for Access in Syria Until Saturday

    “Haq read out a press statement from August 22, in which Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said a request is being sent. Then, Haq said, Ban’s High Representative on Disarmament Angela Kane ‘stepped forward with the request’ — on August 24, Saturday. “It was granted the next day. “Inner City Press asked again, was there any…

  • An Illegal War Forced on Syria that Benefits Al-Qaeda?

    MAIREAD MAGUIRE, mairead.home at btinternet.com Nobel Peace Laureate Maguire, who has done peace work based in Northern Ireland, recently lead a delegation in Syria. She recently released a statement: “Contrary to some foreign governments’ current policies of arming the rebels and pushing for military intervention, the people of Syria are calling out for peace and…

  • “Divorcing ‘Civil Rights’ from Economic Justice”: Myths of the March

    To truly honor the legacy of this anniversary, teachers should have students compare the King of the actual speech with the King from the clips. It would also be useful to have students read and discuss some of the day’s other speeches. For example, in Randolph’s opening speech he proclaimed that those gathered before him…

  • MLK vs. Obama

    GLEN FORD, glen.ford at blackagendareport.com Executive editor of BlackAgendaReport.com, Ford said today: “The organizers of the 50th anniversary commemoration [of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom] are committing a sacrilege. “The most appropriate question to ask on this occasion is: What would Dr. King say, if he had such a podium, today?…

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