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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  • Amazon Deal Taxpayer Costs “Far Understated, Exceed $4.6 Billion”

    “The taxpayer costs of these two deals is high, both in absolute terms and on a per job basis, contrary to Amazon’s artful spin. Together, we believe they exceed $4.6 billion and the cost per job in New York is at least $112,000, not the $48,000 the company used in a selective and incomplete press…

  • Paul Ryan Tries to Keep Saudi Attack on Yemen Going

    “Tuesday evening, in a classic Nixonian dirty tricks maneuver of the Washington swamp, Paul Ryan’s House Rules Committee approved a rule for consideration of H.R. 6784, the ‘Manage our Wolves Act,’ that would ‘de-privilege’ H. Con. Res. 138, the Khanna-Massie-Smith-Jones-Pocan Yemen War Powers Resolution to end unconstitutional U.S. participation in the Saudi regime’s war-blockade-famine-genocide in…

  • Amazon HQ2: “Massive Transfer of Wealth from Taxpayers to Shareholders”

    “We don’t know the cost per job. But we do know that both deals were negotiated in secret, without any public input. We also know that past U.S. ‘megadeals’ have cost an average of $658,000 per job. At that price, taxpayers can never come close to breaking even. Such deals convey a massive transfer of…

  • * WWI * Shootings and Militarism * Armistice Day

    “On this anniversary, we need to celebrate not the politicians and generals who led the world into the carnage of 1914-1918, but the brave, outspoken people of that time who had the wisdom to know that the war was a catastrophe and should be stopped. They included Americans like pioneer social worker Jane Addams and…

  • Trump’s “Nuclear Option” Against a Free Press

    “Assange has never been charged with a crime in Sweden. At the secret urging of the UK government, Sweden refused for several years to question Assange in London regarding sexual assault allegations. That kept the case in ‘preliminary investigation’ limbo, while Sweden also refused to guarantee that Assange would not be extradited to the United…

  • As Millions in Yemen Face Starvation, Protests at Saudi Consulate at UN

    “The United Nations warns that some 14 million people, half the population of the country, are on the verge of starvation as war pushes the country toward the biggest famine the world has seen in 100 years. … Reporting for the New York Times, Declan Walsh writes that the Saudi-UAE led coalition is using economic strangulation…

  • Trump Going to France; 100 Years After World War I: Who to Celebrate?

    “November 11 is the 100th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the First World War. The most destructive conflict the world had yet seen, it killed more than 9 million soldiers, wounded another 21 million, left millions of civilians dead as well, and left a toxic legacy of bitterness that led to an even greater…

  • Trump’s “Populism” and How Big Money Drives Elections

    “While agreeing that racial resentment and sexism were important influences, the paper shows how various economic considerations — including concerns about imports and job losses, wealth inequality, social welfare programs, and starved infrastructure — helped Trump win the Republican primary and then led significant blocs of voters to shift from supporting Democrats or abstaining in…

  • “Rocks Are Not Guns”

    “According to Border Patrol Victim’s Network, the Border Patrol has killed over 100 people since 2003. This trial will be the first time a Border Patrol officer has been criminally indicted since Nicholas Corbett was tried twice in 2007, both times ending with a hung jury.”

  • Israeli Influence on Full Display; Russiagate MIA

    “The influence of the Israel lobby is pervasive and detrimental to the cause of peace and democracy. Israel has also provided a proving ground for heinous policies, like shooting children who may throw stones. Quite predictably, Trump is proposing adopting this practice now along the U.S.-Mexican border. This highlights the authoritarian alliance between Netanyahu and…

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