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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  • U.N. Meetings: A Critical Look at StopGenocide.com

    StopGenocide.com will be carrying a livestream of the U.N. meetings which begin tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. ET featuring real-time critical analysis, especially noting how various countries have enabled or been complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The U.S. government cast its sixth veto against a ceasefire last week, but the General Assembly can use Uniting for Peace to overcome that and take…

  • Overcoming the US Veto

    “For the sixth time, the US has vetoed a ceasefire in the Gaza genocide, underscoring once again the grave threat to the world posed by the US-Israel axis. The violent, racist, and lawless rampage of the axis is leaving a trail of murder and destruction across Western Asia and the wider world, corrupting governments and…

  • Equating Jews and Israel Assessed as a “Propaganda Technique”

    “Equating Israel with all Jews and Israel’s future with theirs is an effort to sanctify Israel and shield it from criticism by brandishing the charge of antisemitism,” Norman Solomon wrote in The Guardian this week. He added: “By insisting that it is the embodiment of Jews all over the world, the state of Israel seeks…

  • Live, From New York: LifelineForPalestine.com

    Thursday marks the one year deadline given by the UN General Assembly for Israel to end its illegal presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Major multinational grassroots organizations will hold a rally and march “demanding the UNGA take immediate action to stop the genocide now.” It will be livestreamed beginning at noon at LifelineForPalestine.com. 

  • U.S. Hospitals in Crisis

    Last month, Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) joined Protect Our Care in relaunching the organization’s Hospital Crisis Watch. Protect Our Care hosts an interactive map and a report that outlines how the new federal budget will shutter rural hospitals, slash healthcare services, and leave communities in crisis. By limiting the ways that states fund Medicaid and…

  • Israel’s Attack on the UN Charter and How to Stop a Genocide

    An Israeli sniper detailed in comments to Haaretz the killing of unarmed Palestinians, including children, who were attempting to get aid in Gaza. AntiWar.com reports: “Israel Kills Over 100 Palestinians in Gaza as It Launches Ground Offensive to Conquer Gaza City.” The UN Independent Commission of Inquiry finds in their in-depth report released Tuesday that Israel is committing genocide, that top…

  • IUD Insertions Do Not Need to Hurt

    Intrauterine devices (IUDs) are among the most effective forms of contraception, but they can create pain upon insertion. Reporting in Slate reveals that healthcare providers with a subspecialty in complex family planning are more likely to offer pain management––including paracervical blocks like lidocaine, or sedation––for IUD insertion. One insidious consequence of the closures of abortion…

  • Flotilla, After Being Attacked, Sailing to Gaza

    The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia, Ireland, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Oman, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain and Türkiye just issued a joint statement expressing “their concern about the security of the Global Sumud Flotilla, a civil society initiative in which citizens of their countries are participating.”

  • New President of the UNGA Has Openly Backed Israel’s Genocide

    “Baerbock is not just any diplomat. As Germany’s foreign minister from 2021 to 2025, she tried to justify over and over again Israel’s war crimes as ‘self-defence,’ rejected ceasefires, and her country continued to provide Israel with hundreds of millions of dollars in weapons, making it its second biggest arms supplier. She de facto became one of…

  • UN Passes “Problematic” Resolution as Push for Measures to Stop Israel Continues

    “The UNGA voted overwhelmingly today to ‘endorse’ the New York Declaration put forward by France and Saudi Arabia.     Among its many problematic provisions, the Declaration supports a ‘stabilization force’ (with many bad elements as well), instead of a protection force as such.”

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