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  • Media Advisory: Whistleblowers to Speak About Surveillance and Cyber Issues

    “President Barack Obama is set to sign an executive order on Friday aimed at encouraging companies to share more information about cybersecurity threats with the government and each other, a response to attacks like that on Sony Entertainment. … Obama will sign the order at a day-long conference on cybersecurity at Stanford University in the…

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  • Delegation of U.S. and UK Whistleblowers in London: News Conference on “Special Surveillance Relationship” — News Advisory

    Whistleblowers from four American and British “national security” agencies will hold a news conference in London on November 21 in a direct challenge to surveillance policies of the U.S. and UK governments. The whistleblowers — from the NSA, FBI, State Department and GCHQ — will speak about the effects of their governments’ policies on freedom…

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  • In Response to the Government’s Lynching of James Risen

    It has been a sharp learning curve for Jim Risen, but by having numerous grand juries and two administrations relentlessly hounding him, he has learned how deeply the government’s malevolence descends. But there was always one steadfast assertion he wound not compromise, Jim Risen assured his sources, from the very start of their first encounter,…

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  • Militarization of U.S. Police: Ferguson, Mo.

    Community policing reforms came about as a corrective to the 1950-60s professional police model which created a large gulf between police and citizens. Few noticed that underlying all the CP rhetoric was a little noticed yet foretelling trend of para-militarism as found in SWAT teams. What we’re witnessing today, though, with the influence of the…

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  • Unconstitutional acts of war in Iraq

    President Obama ignored the wise direction of President George Washington when he casually told the nation — and Congress — that U.S. military forces will engage in acts of war in Iraq for an extended period of weeks and maybe months. Bombing, he said in a brief statement last week, is needed here and there,…

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  • News Conference: Edward Snowden’s Passport, Political Asylum and Related Issues

    Ray McGovern, Coleen Rowley and Norman Solomon spoke at this news conference, sponsored by RootsAction.org and hosted by the Institute for Public Accuracy.

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  • NSA Veterans and Whistleblowers Respond to Obama Speech

    Minutes after President Obama’s major address on NSA surveillance on Friday, Jan. 17, the Institute for Public Accuracy held a news conference with noted NSA veterans and whistleblowers.

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  • The War on Poverty at Fifty

    Fifty years after Lyndon B. Johnson made it the centerpiece of his first State of the Union address on January 8, 1964, the War on Poverty remains one of the most embattled—and least understood—of Great Society initiatives.

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  • Edward Snowden: Profile in Courage

    Edward Snowden may go down in history as one of this nation’s most important whistleblowers. He is certainly one of the bravest.

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  • Obama’s Economic Race Legacy

    From the start, President Barack Obama has shown little interest or loyalty in the issues that affect the poor, working class and people of color in the United States. For almost his entire first term he didn’t utter the words poor or poverty. Early on he reminded African Americans: ‘I’m not the president of black…

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  • Behind the Satellite Shoot-Down

    The Times of London reports that the U.S. government’s “decision to destroy a defunct spy satellite orbiting Earth by firing a missile into outer space provoked a diplomatic row today, with both China and Russia accusing the U.S. of having carried out a covert weapons test.” ALICE SLATER Slater is director of the Nuclear Age…

  • Information Control: * Satellite * Internet

    * Arab League Going After Al-Jazeera? The Guardian in Britain reports: “The head of al-Jazeera has launched a scathing attack on Middle East governments, accusing them of framing new laws giving them powers to close down the Arabic-language news channel and other broadcasters.” JOEL CAMPAGNA Campagna is program coordinator on the Middle East and North…

  • Stagflation?

    AP reports: “Consumer prices rose by a bigger-than-expected amount in January, reflecting big increases in the cost of food and health care, the government reported Wednesday. “The Labor Department said that its closely watched Consumer Price Index posted a gain of 0.4 percent last month, matching the December increase and was higher than economists had…

  • Clinton vs. Obama on Poverty Issues

    GWENDOLYN MINK Co-editor of the two-volume Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy and author of Welfare’s End, Mink said today: “Although Obama insists he is the candidate ‘for change,’ his record on poverty issues does not offer bold new visions for economic justice. Quite the opposite, in fact: Obama’s…

  • How Important Is the President?

    “I would point to the fact that Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, when he was able to get through Congress something that President Kennedy was hopeful to do, the president before had not even tried, but it took a president to get…

  • China and Pollution: Global Impacts

    * Polluting a Country, Polluting the World * Beijing Olympics A cover story in the current issue of Mother Jones magazine — “The Last Empire: Can the World Survive China’s Rush to Emulate the American Way of Life?” — documents the grim realities and the global environmental impacts of China’s economic boom. The article, written…

  • Guantanamo Detainees Face Death Penalty

    The Washington Post reports: “The Pentagon announced today that it has charged six detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay military prison with conspiring to carry out the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and that military prosecutors will seek the death penalty for each.” MARJORIE COHN Cohn is the author of the book Cowboy Republic: Six…

  • Clinton vs. Obama on Health Care

    STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER, M.D. QUENTIN YOUNG, M.D. Woolhandler is professor of medicine at Harvard University and a co-founder of Physicians for a National Health Program. She said today: “Hillary and Obama are both right. Hillary’s individual mandates would, as Obama charges, financially punish uninsured families. Obama’s plan contains no individual mandate, but would, as Hillary charges,…

  • Powell at the UN: Five Years Ago

    Five years ago, on Feb. 5, 2003, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell made the U.S. case for war before the United Nations Security Council. The following analysts are available for interviews: ROBERT PARRY Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, just released, is…

  • What’s Wrong With “Super Tuesday”

    ROB RICHIE Richie is executive director of FairVote, which just released a report titled: “Understanding Super Tuesday: State Rules on Feb. 5 and Lessons for Reform.” STEVEN HILL Hill is director of the political reform program at the New America Foundation and author of the books 10 Steps to Repair American Democracy and Fixing Elections:…

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