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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  • 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…

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