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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  • Ukraine Crisis: How Cooler Heads Can Prevail

    “While talking about storming the parliament in Simferopol and Russian war maneuvers, [Christiane] Amanpour on CNN this morning invoked the Budapest Agreement saying that Russia must stay out, they have a legal obligation. This is noteworthy because the Budapest Agreement also states that the U.S., Russia, Ukraine, and UK need to immediately jointly ‘consult’ –…

  • “Most Revolutionary Mayor” Dies — Will the “Jackson Plan” Proliferate?

    “Chokwe Lumumba’s passing is a significant blow for progressive politics in the U.S. and especially for the aspirations of African Americans.

  • Ukraine Crisis Leading to a New Cold War? Or Worse?

  • Partitioning Ukraine? Threats to Jews and Others; Does Brzezinski Want to Partition Russia?

    “In Kiev there are public demands for murdering Russians, Jews and Communists by neo-Nazi, fascist and rightist groupings. The situation is so dire that the Ukrainian Chabad Chief Rabbi Reuven Azman has recommended that Jews leave the city and perhaps the country.”

  • * Military Spending * Comcast-Netflix Deal

    “This agreement is in no sense the outcome of a free market. This isn’t voluntary. This is Comcast having Netflix over a barrel, and striking a deal only once it became clear that degrading Netflix could potentially derail their merger with Time Warner Cable… This deal is a glimpse of the future of the Internet…

  • Ukraine: Coup with Far Right Calling Shots

    “Who’s behind the Revolution? Three forces. It was set in motion by genuine civic frustration with the government’s decision to delay the signing of the EU Association Agreement. This was then seized upon by the parliamentary opposition parties, who pressed the government for further concessions. Finally, it was actually accomplished thanks to the armed intervention…

  • Threats in Ukraine: Coup, Fascism and War — And Western Culpability

    Cohen cited “credible reports” that opposition forces are seizing weapons, raising the “possibility of civil war.” He warned of a new Cold War divided “right through the heart of Slavic civilization” with the prospect of war “for decades to come.” Cohen warns of the rise of fascist forces as “so-called moderates” lose control of the…

  • North American Summit: NAFTA and TPP Agenda

    “Mexico could be poised on the brink of a major increase in violence and environmental destruction. Under the NAFTA-Narco model of resource exploitation, organized crime has become deeply involved in mining, as seen in northern Mexico and Michoacan, and in cross-border oil and gas sales, as evidenced in the lawsuits against major transnational oil companies…

  • 84-Year-Old Nun Among Activists Sentenced While “Real Crime” of Nuclear Arms Ramps Up

    “Judge Thapar has tried to strike a compromise that reflects the nature of this nonviolent action but satisfies the government’s demand that Megan, Michael and Greg’s sentence send a deterrent message to the wider community. For now, their bodies remain in prison. But their voices are free, reminding us that the central issue of this…

  • Venezuela: Is U.S. Backing Destabilization?

    “Of course we all know who the U.S. government supports in Venezuela. They don’t really try to hide it: there’s $5 million in the 2014 U.S. federal budget for funding opposition activities inside Venezuela, and this is almost certainly the tip of the iceberg — adding to the hundreds of millions of dollars of overt…

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