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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  • What Trump is Right About: NATO

    “Trump’s recent criticisms of the NATO alliance are reasonable. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has provoked post-communist Russia into a stance of belligerence vis-a-vis the United States and its Western allies. The new Cold War with Russia resulted from NATO’s expansion to Russia’s borders, in violation of a 1990 U.S. commitment that…

  • Convention Spin vs Actual Issues

    “Issues at our convention included climate, the military-industrial-congressional complex, money in elections and the mis-named ‘trade deals’. The establishment politicians are rarely addressing these and when they do, it’s in a twisted fashion. We tried to go beyond reacting and responding, to put forward a positive vision. “The rally against poverty brought out over 1000…

  • The Trump-Pence Threat to Religious Liberty

    “Governor Mike Pence signed into law an Indiana state version of the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 2015 which would have effectively allowed businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people if they claimed a religious reason for doing so. He claimed that it was identical to federal legislation and bills by the same name in…

  • 9/11 Widow/Activist on Declassified Saudi Arabia Pages

    “Our government’s relationship to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) is no different than an addict’s relationship to heroin. Much like a heroin addict who will lie, cheat and steal to feed his vice, certain members of our government will lie, cheat and steal to continue their dysfunctional and deadly relationship with the KSA —…

  • Sanders Delegates See Clinton VP Pick Causing Clash

    “We Sanders delegates represent millions of progressive voters and activists. This survey suggests that a large proportion of the base that delivered 23 states and 13 million votes for Senator Sanders would be repelled by the potential running-mates for Secretary Clinton who are now being most widely touted. Can any Democratic presidential candidate afford to…

  • Terrorism and the “Series of Absurdities”

    “Our policies are a veritable series of absurdities: we invent enemies like Putin and Assad who have done nothing to us, and we help our real enemies, like the Islamic terrorists, in order to fight our imaginary ones. On top of that, all our politicians are fighting each other to prove that they are more…

  • Are Police Targeting People Who Take and Distribute Damning Videos of Them?

  • Dem Platform “Colonialism” and NATO’s “Provocations”

    Khalek, associate editor at the ElectronicIntifada.net and co-host of the “Unauthorized Disclosure” podcast, live tweeted much of the meeting, writing: “Cornel West: ‘We’re in same condition party was in 80yrs ago when they didn’t wanna deal w Jim Crow.'” “Hillary supporter argues against universal healthcare in #DemPlatform bc it would disrespect Obama’s accomplishment with ACA.…

  • Escalating Militarization of Police

    “Police cannot use deadly force unless there’s an imminent threat of death or great bodily injury to them or other people. If the suspect was holed up in a parking garage and there was nobody in immediate danger from him, the police could have waited him out. They should have arrested him and brought him…

  • Police Killings

    Kelly is co-coordinator of the group Voices for Creative Nonviolence. President Barack Obama at a NATO meeting in Warsaw decried the violence in Dallas while at at meeting of the military alliance. Kelly writes regularly on issues of violence and peace. She recently wrote the piece “Of Lethal Drones and Police Shootings.” Her books include…

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