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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  • Hague Group: Action or More Rhetoric?

    The only thing that Israel understands is power. So governments that would truly enforce international law and protect Palestinians from Israel’s depravity must impose economic pain and render it vulnerable to attack by cutting it off from trade, weapons and fuel.”

  • Will The Hague Group Live up to Their Legal Obligations?

    Colombian president Gustavo Petro is hosting a meeting of The Hague Group in Bogota and recently wrote the piece “Governments like mine have a duty to stand up to Israel. Far too many have failed.”

  • 80 Years After Trinity Atomic Test, “Oblivious to the Threat of Oblivion”?

    Eighty years after the atomic age began with the Trinity bomb test in New Mexico on July 16, 1945, American media and politics are “routinely oblivious to the threat of oblivion,” says an article published today by The Nation.

  • Peace Force for Gaza “the Least” the Hague Group Can Adopt

        “The Uniting for Peace precedent was established to break Security Council deadlocks and to uphold the UN’s founding promise: to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, as well as to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights and in the dignity and worth of the human person, and to establish conditions under which justice and respect…

  • Measles: U.S. May Soon Lose Elimination Status

    The U.S. is at risk of losing its elimination status for measles after the CDC reported the highest number of cases of the virus in 33 years. Cases have been reported in 38 states, with the highest concentration in West Texas. 

  • Epstein, Blackmail, Israel: Trump “Annihilates” His Credibility

    The Trump administration has made numerous false and contradictory statements about Jeffrey Epstein — and Trump himself has attempted to dismiss the story as old news.  Marcetic highlights some of the critical information and falsehoods:  BRANKO MARCETIC, [email protected], @BMarchetich Marcetic is a staff writer at Jacobin magazine, and is working on a piece on Epstein. He writes for other outlets…

  • Latest “Draconian” Assault on Free Speech Targets Palestine Action

    “For 20 months the Israeli military had been committing acts which most genocide scholars and experts consider to be genocide. The population was now being starved, and the very distribution of humanitarian aid had been turned into a killing field, according to UNRWA. “To say that Palestine Action were committing terrorism was the precise opposite…

  • Netanyahu: Crimes and Lies

    Israel killed a reported 288 Palestinians in Gaza over the last three days. Middle East Eye reports: “Secret Trump letter would let Israel resume war despite ceasefire: Report,” citing Israeli media. AntiWar.com reports: “Israel Carries Out ‘Intense’ Airstrikes in Yemen.” The Intercept reports: “The Israeli Plot to Extinguish the Journalists Documenting Genocide.”

  • Israel Killing 100 Palestinians a Day; 1,844 Strikes on Healthcare, 2,792 Infants and Toddlers Dead

    “Israeli forces have struck health-care facilities and personnel in Gaza at least 1,844 times, killing hundreds of patientsand health-care workers. According to the World Health Organization, 94 percent of hospitals in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. All are starved of the most basic medical supplies, electricity, and even clean water.”

  • Corporate Capture in the Iran Strikes

    The U.S. missile strikes in Iran reveal how the business of military works in action.

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