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…

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.”

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  • 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.

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  • 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…

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  • 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.”

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  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

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  • 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…

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  • Bolivia: What a Coup Looks Like

    “A military coup” is happening in Bolivia, CEPR Co-Director Mark Weisbrot says. “Nobody voted for Williams Kaliman, the commander of the Bolivian armed forces. Some of the major media are already burying the fact it was he who pushed Evo [Morales] out of the presidency. Bolivia no longer has an elected, legitimate government. …The latest…

  • Veteran Suicide and Moral Injury

    Hoh writes that Veterans Administration “data shows among veterans that had deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan, those in the youngest cohort, i.e. those most likely to have seen combat, had suicide rates, again adjusted for age and sex, 4-10 times higher than their civilian peers. … “The answer to this question of veteran suicide is…

  • At UN: U.S. and Israel Alone Vote Against All Russian Resolutions to Prevent Arms Race in Space

    “The resolutions, namely ‘Further Practical Measures for the Prevention of an Arms Race in Outer Space,’ ‘No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space’ and ‘Transparency and Confidence-Building Measures in Outer Space,’ respectively received 124, 166 and 166 votes in favor. …The first resolution urges the global community to continue undertaking efforts to maintain peace…

  • Is the OAS Interfering in the Bolivian Election?

    “The OAS is interfering in Bolivia’s elections process without explanation or justification. The OAS admitted in its preliminary report that it was possible for Morales to be elected in the first round, but said there should be a second round anyway. They’re saying in effect that Bolivian law doesn’t matter; the results were too narrow…

  • Gorbachev Warns of “Colossal Danger”; Weapons Agreements Targeted; Activists “Railroaded” for Nuclear Protests

    Late last month seven Plowshares activists, motivated by the biblical edict to turn swords into plowshares, were convicted on four counts for entering the first strike Trident missile arsenal based at Kings Bay, Georgia to “symbolically disarm” the weapons. They are known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7. During the trial, the judge prevented the jury from hearing…

  • Adam Schiff “No Friend of Progressives”

    “Schiff’s record on foreign policy, civil liberties, human rights and other key issues has often put him more in line with Republicans than with liberal Democrats. … It is ironic, therefore, that Trump and the Republicans are portraying him as some kind of left-winger. …while Schiff has emerged as a marquee foe of Trumpism, we…

  • Pakistan: “Father of the Taliban” Trying to Oust Democratically Elected Government

    “After more than a year in power, the popular Prime Minister Imran Khan’s PTI (Movement for Justice) ruling government is confronting its most dangerous assault yet. Despite the country being dogged by unscrupulous, criminal, and illegal capital flight by the ruling elites of the country as soon as Khan took power, as well as a…

  • The Rise of ISIS: War and Torture

    In 1998, Denis Halliday, who had just resigned as assistant secretary general of the United Nations and the head of the UN “oil-for-food” program in Iraq, warned that the long-term U.S. policies of bombings and sanctions threatened the rise of a “Taliban-type” movement — in effect foreseeing the rise of ISIS even before the 2003…

  • Report Exposes FBI’s Systemic Surveillance of Activists

    “A new report from Defending Rights & Dissent finds that nearly every major social movement of the past decade — including Occupy Wall Street, Black Lives Matter, Standing Rock protesters, environmental activists, and supporters of Palestinian rights — has been targeted by the FBI.​..’This report exposes FBI political surveillance as systemic and part of a…

  • “Kangaroo Court” “Railroading” Noted Peace Activists

    “These activists have spent varying amount of time in jail for having entered a major nuclear facility to nonviolently ‘symbolically disarm’ the massive nuclear arsenal stationed there…’But decisions of the judge have largely shut the door to the jury hearing anything about such defenses of ‘justification’ or ‘necessity.’ On Friday, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood of…

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