News Items

  • Affidavit by Daniel Ellsberg for Plowshare Activists Being Allowed a Defense of Necessity

    In 1971 I gave the U.S. Senate, the New York Times and the Washington Post copies of what have come to be known as The Pentagon Papers. I was arrested on twelve felony counts. My trial was dismissed because of government misconduct which figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon…These considerations bear on two other elements of the necessity defense, the “lack of legal alternatives” and the “imminence” of the harms to be averted. Again, I speak from my own experience, but not only mine, in saying that it is the perceived insufficiency of other means, by themselves not…

    Read more »


  • A Long List of Democratic Candidates Requires a Large Catalog of Their Funders

    By Sam Haut: As the first debates for the Democratic primary begin, and the list of candidates has grown to 24, it can be difficult to contextualize where each candidate has received funding from over the course of their time in office. What follows is a list of the Democratic candidates and the top sources for how much money they’ve made and where those top sources come from.

    Read more »


  • NATO and US Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead

    RootsAction.org held a news conference Thursday on “NATO and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead” hosted by the Institute for Public Accuracy. Speakers include former State Department officials Matthew Hoh, Ann Wright, as well as Martin Fleck. The event was moderated by Norman Solomon.

    Read more »


  • Media Advisory: “NATO and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead”

    At 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at the National Press Club: On the same day that President Trump is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House, this news conference will focus on the U.S.-NATO relationship. Speakers include former State Department officials Matthew Hoh and Ann Wright.

    Read more »


  • Statement by Floyd Abrams in response to Attorney General nominee William Barr’s remarks on the First Amendment

    “It’s one thing to say that there could be circumstances in which a journalist’s need to protect her sources could lead to a potential finding of contempt of court if she refused to obey a court order requiring such disclosure. But the notion that a journalist could properly be jailed for publishing material that the government thinks could ‘hurt the country’ is something else entirely and would be deeply threatening to First Amendment norms in general and journalistic freedom in particular.”

    Read more »


  • Statement on NAFTA’s “Kafkaesque” Turn

    The supposedly concluded renegotiation of NAFTA has reached a Kafkaesque stage. As the United States Trade Representative has stated: “The United States and Mexico have reached a preliminary agreement in principle, subject to finalization and implementation.” Not only the negotiations have not been finalized, and without Canada, but the texts remain hidden from the public.

    Read more »


  • What’s the Cost of Medicare for All?

    Even a Koch-backed think tank finds Medicare for all would cut health care spending. In a report released by the Mercatus Center, a single-payer health care system would offset costs with even greater savings. The Intercept and other media reporting on this are citing the work of Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler. They are distinguished professors of health policy at the City University of New York at Hunter College and lecturers in medicine at Harvard Medical School. They have written an analysis of the work of the Koch-backed think tank, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which is…

    Read more »


  • Trump Team Hired Israeli Spy Firm Used by Harvey Weinstein to Attack Obama Officials on Iran Deal

    “Aides to Donald Trump, the U.S. president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a ‘dirty ops’ campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal. People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to ‘get dirt’ on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.”

    Read more »


  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    Read more »


  • 15 Years Later: The Whistleblower Who Almost Blocked the Iraq War

    Media Advisory: Press Conference to Mark 15th Anniversary Of Leak by GCHQ Translator Katharine Gun Revealing US “Dirty Tricks” at UN for Iraq War When:  Thursday, 1 March 2018 at 11:00 a.m. Where:  Head office, National Union of Journalists Headland House, 72 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NB Who:  Katharine Gun, Thomas Drake, Matthew Hoh, Jesselyn Radack This press conference will take place the day before the 15th anniversary of the Observer’s publication of the explosive March 2, 2003 story “US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war” — based on a leak by GCHQ translator Katharine Gun — revealing the US National Security Agency’s UN surveillance memo that aimed to grease the way for the…

    Read more »


  • Antisemitism Charge Used to Silence Criticism of Israel in U.S. and Britain

    “Trump’s Executive Order allegedly targeting campus antisemitism is the culmination of decades of attempts by anti-Palestinian organizations to suppress Palestinian organizing, advocacy, research and teaching on college campuses. The EO, which would codify a dangerous and overly broad definition of antisemitism into federal civil rights law, fails to offer any protection to Jewish students. Instead,…

  • Unimpeachable: Congress Backing Unconstitutional Wars “with the Truth”

    “While observers and critics of the war in Afghanistan have stated many of the issues brought up in the Post’s report, this report shows persistent malfeasance on behalf of national security officials in the military, State Department and White House for nearly two decades. The larger context of this report should be considered as it…

  • Iraq Protests Escalating Against Foreign Interference and Sectarianism

    “On December 10th, to mark International Human Rights Day, massive protests are planned in Baghdad. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are traveling from all over the country, and they’re all heading to Tahrir Square. …A massacre took place last weekend when sectarian militias opened fire and killed and injured dozens of unarmed protesters in and…

  • Biden and Kerry’s “Experience”: “Right-Wing Minority” of Democrats Who Backed Bush on Iraq War

    John Kerry is now actively campaigning for Joe Biden, touting his experience and ability to get things done. The two were the most notable Democratic backers of the Iraq invasion resolution in 2002, with Biden chairing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the buildup to war. …”Both men falsely claimed that Iraq had reconstituted…

  • Video: Biden Questioned on Climate Advisor’s $1 Million from Fossil Fuel Company

    Common Dreams reports in “People Who Want to Ban Fracking Immediately, Says Joe Biden, ‘Oughta Vote for Someone Else’” that: “If you want a candidate committed to banning fracking in the United States immediately, find another candidate than Joe Biden. “That’s the advice of Biden himself, given to an activist from the Sunrise Movement in…

  • * French General Strike * The Attacks on Corbyn

    Noted author and academic, Jean Bricmont said today: “I was at the demo in Paris. I have never seen such a dense crowd except during the anti-missile marches during the 80’s and I have been to lots of demonstrations. …Also the tone was very militant and I heard that many people who never go to…

  • Russophobia, Ukraine and the 2016 Election

    Levine recently wrote the piece “Yes, Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election,” which notes that many impeachment witnesses have repeated the claim that interference by “Ukrainian government officials did not happen in 2016 and that anyone who says otherwise is spreading toxic Russian propaganda.” But Levine cites several mainstream pieces from 2016, including “Ukraine’s…

  • Warsaw Pact is Gone, Why Does NATO Exist?

    “During the past 30 years, NATO has become an extremely expensive anachronism. The purpose of the NATO alliance disappeared altogether when its communist counterpart, the Warsaw Pact dissolved in 1990, with the end of the Cold War. Since that time, NATO has expanded relentlessly into the former Eastern Bloc states, in violation of an explicit…

  • Thanksgiving? Bolivian Coup Targeting Indigenous People

    Kathryn Ledebur is director of the Andean Information Network in Cochabamba and researcher, activist, and analyst with over two decades of experience in Bolivia. See the group’s Twitter feed — @AndeanInfoNet — which has recently highlighted the coup government preventing human rights groups from doing their work and a recent statement from the Center for…

  • Progressives Vote to Extend Patriot Act

    “Members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus capitulated to the surveillance state last week, by supporting a continuing resolution that included a three month extension of Patriot Act mass surveillance authorities, which they claim to oppose. As Ed Snowden revealed, the NSA and FBI were using Section 215 of the Patriot Act to obtain the records of…

Mastodon