News Items

  • 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 heart of Silicon Valley.”

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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 of the press and democracy. They are traveling as a delegation co-sponsored by the U.S.-based organizations RootsAction.org and ExposeFacts, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy. The news conference is being hosted by the Foreign Press Association.

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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, that he would never divulge their identities nor what information they provided him with.

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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 Dept. of Homeland Security since 9/11 — along with growing emphasis on military hardware and tactics — is the expansion of police militarization throughout entire police departments — and indeed, the entire police institution.

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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, but he promised there will be no U.S. boots on the ground. … The announcement seemed almost an afterthought as the president headed for vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. He neglected to seek approval of Congress before authorizing bombardment of the military forces of ISIS, the…

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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 America. I’m the president of the United States of America…’

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  • Ukraine War: Why We Need a Real Debate

    The publisher and editorial director of The Nation, Katrina Vanden Heuvel writes, “It’s time to challenge the orthodox view on the war in Ukraine. As Russia’s illegal and brutal assault enters its fourth month, the impact on Europe, the Global South and the world is already profound.”

  • Biden on Taiwan: “A Casus Belli”

    Chas Freeman, a former U.S. diplomat, businessman, and current chair of Projects International Inc. says, “This is the fourth time in a year that the White House has had to walk back a pledge by President Biden to go to war with China over Taiwan that is inconsistent with both the terms of U.S.-China normalization…

  • Epidemiologist: “‘No doubt” the U.S. in middle of new Covid surge”

    The author of the popular Covid-19 newsletter, Your Local Epidemiologist, says there is “no doubt we are in the middle of a case surge in the U.S. Unfortunately, it’s not getting communicated properly.” According to Katelyn Jetelina, current transmission rates (higher than 50 reported cases per 100,000 people) across 66 percent of counties correspond to…

  • Bereavement Activists Push for Support of Covid-19 Orphans

    Media outlets are increasingly focusing on the plight of children across the U.S. who have been orphaned by the Covid-19 pandemic. But advocates for the bereaved and pediatricians say that too little has been done to materially and emotionally support this growing group of young people, who still have “no return to normal.” An updated…

  • Biden in Asia: * Threat of War with China * Need to End Korean War

    Christine Ahn, executive director of Women Cross DMZ, said: “Biden must use his trip to South Korea to take the lead on diplomacy with North Korea by abandoning failed approaches of sanctions and pressure and instead focusing on building trust and reducing tensions. Most important would be officially ending the Korean War with a peace…

  • In Upcoming Summit, Latin America Calling out U.S. Double Standards

    “This is because many Latin American and Caribbean governments are unhappy with the U.S. government’s decision to exclude Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua from the summit. The countries of the hemisphere have grown accustomed to U.S. double standards when the arguments of democracy and human rights are flaunted. Who can forget that the United States managed…

  • Congress Goes All in With War

    The Senate could vote on a $40 billion Ukraine aid package as soon as Wednesday. DAVID SWANSON, [email protected], @davidcnswanson Executive director of WorldBeyondWar.org, Swanson said today: “The pretense that there are ten (or even one) members of Congress who can be relied on to oppose warmaking is dead. War opposition in the public theater of Congress is purely for…

  • Crisis in Science Labs: The Supply Chain Spiral

    Supply chain disruptions are affecting scientific lab work across the globe, from worsening vaccine inequity to delaying new research on both Covid-19 and other vaccines. Lee Riley, a professor of epidemiology and infectious disease, told IPA that we can expect similar problems if the case numbers continue to surge in this winter.

  • Facebook Lifting Ban on Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion “Stunning”

    “‘The ‘grand wizards’ of battling fake news have even dabbled with Holocaust distortion, downplaying WWII-era paramilitaries who slaughtered Jews as mere ‘historic figures’ and Ukrainian nationalist leaders, while attacking members of the U.S. Congress who had denounced Ukraine’s glorification of Nazi collaborators.'”

  • Ukraine: “Horrible Dangers” of a Proxy War; Nuclear War

    Anatol Lieven writes: writes: “To judge by its latest statements, the Biden administration is increasingly committed to using the conflict in Ukraine to wage a proxy war against Russia, with as its goal the weakening or even destruction of the Russian state. This would mean America adopting a strategy that every U.S. president during the…

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