News Items

  • Calls to Suspend Syrian Refugee and Other Recent Anti-Muslim Statements by Government Officials

    Compiled by the Institute for Public Accuracy with Arun Kundnani and Deepa Kumar. Kundnani said: “While it’s very easy to denounce Trump’s recent repugnant, bullying statements — and much of the political class has — it’s important to keep several things in mind: First, as the compilation of statements by elected officials makes clear, he made these statements after many officials from across the country made scores of statements playing on unfounded fears against Syrian refugees and other Muslims.”

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  • Classified Politics: A System and a Clinton in Disrepute

    It is most unlikely, however, that Hillary Clinton will fall victim to accusations that rely on improper over-­classification. The State Department and White House, including President Obama himself, sought to protect her and to minimize the effects of her behavior. The case is extremely high­-profile, Democrats in Congress would attack any borderline classification, and a host of well-­paid lawyers would rise to her defense. Improperly classified items or those deemed Sensitive but Unclassified may be redacted from publicly released documents, but it is hard to imagine that Mrs. Clinton would be falsely accused of felonies.

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  • Video of Sterling News Conference

    Please enjoy the full video of Holly Sterling’s news conference, which was her first such appearance since her husband’s trial and imprisonment. The news conference also featured Thomas Drake, Delphine Halgand, Ray McGovern, and Jesselyn Radack.

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  • Open Letter to President Obama from Holly Sterling

    Does the government have no shame in destroying one man’s life and wasting tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to punish a man who had the audacity to do two things: Stand up for his constitutional rights and utilize proper channels provided to him to express concern for the citizens of our country? I am deeply saddened by our lives’ events that Jeffrey and I have suffered and endured. You publicly committed to a transparent government led by your administration, yet it has been shrouded in mistruth and secrecy.

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  • Unprecedented News Conference: Wife of Imprisoned CIA Whistleblower to Speak Out

    Jeffrey Sterling was convicted under the Espionage Act as a source for New York Times reporter James Risen’s book State of War. He began serving his three-and-a-half year prison sentence in June. His wife’s news conference will be the first time the spouse of a CIA whistleblower has made such an appearance.

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  • Cultural Shift Needed on Police Militarization

    Police militarization is a 25 year long trend that has only grown in momentum over time. The restrictions on militaristic gear directed by the White House while important symbolically, will certainly not substantively impact this trend in and of itself. Police militarization at this point is as much a cultural problem as it is a material one, and reversing the cultural trend toward police militarization will require more far reaching efforts.

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  • Watch the Short Documentary “The Invisible Man: CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling”

    “‘The federal courtroom in northern Virginia where Holly and Jeffrey Sterling returned for the sentencing on May 11 was the scene of a disturbing, though scantly reported, simulation of justice in late January. At the outset, covering the trial, I noted that ‘prospective jurors made routine references to ‘three-letter agencies’ and alphabet-soup categories of security clearances.’ Steeped in a local atmosphere of deference to mega-employers like the CIA and Pentagon along with numerous big contracting firms nearby, ‘the jury pool was bound to please the prosecution.’”

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  • On Jeffrey Sterling: From the Filmmaker of “Invisible Man”

    “The most shocking element of this story it that Jeffrey Sterling seems to be punished because he ‘pulled on Superman’s cape’ first with a racial discrimination suit they were able to squash and then by reporting what he considered a dangerous CIA operation to the proper government channels for hearing such a concern.”

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  • News Conference: Whistleblowers Weigh In on Policy

    William Binney (NSA), Thomas Drake (NSA), Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), Raymond McGovern (CIA), Jesselyn Radack (Justice Department), Coleen Rowley (FBI) and Kirk Wiebe (NSA) spoke at this news conference, sponsored by ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

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  • Netanyahu Victory Opens Door for One-State Solution

    Just before the election, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu ruled out the creation of a Palestinian State, which means that he repudiated the two-state solution to the dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This has been the pronounced objective of American foreign policy since the Madrid Conference and the Middle East Peace Negotiations in 1991 held under the auspices of the United States government and with the full support of the international community.

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  • Syria War Resolution Contradicts Constitution, International Law

    “Perhaps the worst single clause in it was a reaffirmation of the illegal power Obama claims he has to bomb Syria without congressional approval: ‘the President has authority under the Constitution to use force in order to defend the national security interests of the United States.’ No such authority exists — except in self-defense –…

  • Religious Leaders Opposing War in Syria

    National Catholic Reporter states in “Francis chides world leaders on Syria, calls military intervention ‘futile'”: “Francis has declared Saturday a day of ‘fasting and prayer for peace in Syria, the Middle East and throughout the world.'” There have been a litany of statements from various Mideastern-based churches against U.S. military intervention in the strongest of…

  • “‘Credibility’ to be Chief Bully”

    “The merits or demerits of a U.S.-led war on Syria should be debated independently of the CW [chemical weapons] attack. It may well be that the armed opposition, not the Syrian regime, was responsible for the CW attack. And we are fully justified in taking assertions by American officials that claim the opposite with a…

  • Ruses for War

    JOHN QUIGLEY, Quigley.2 at osu.edu Professor emeritus of international law at Ohio State University, Quigley recently wrote a piece scrutinizing the legal justifications for an attack on Syria: “John Quigley on Intervention.” He is author of the book The Ruses for War: American Interventionism Since World War II. In addition to the false claims being…

  • Syria Facts: * Rebels Refusing to Talk * 43 Percent of 100,000 Dead are Pro-Government Combatants

    RANIA MASRI, rania.z.masri at gmail.com, @rania_masri Masri is assistant professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Balamand in Lebanon and is currently visiting the U.S. She said today: “There are a host of falsehoods being made about Syria. The issue is falsely being framed as either bomb or ‘do nothing,’ ignoring…

  • U.S. and Chemical Weapons: “No Leg to Stand On”

    “International law provides no exception for the ad hoc use of force by states in cases involving the actual or possible use of prohibited weapons, such as chemical weapons, by states with which they are not at war. Standing alone, the allegations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government do not provide a legal…

  • How Intelligence Was Twisted to Support an Attack on Syria

    GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com, @GarethPorter Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy. He just wrote the piece “How Intelligence Was Twisted to Support an Attack on Syria” for TruthOut, which states: “Secretary of State John Kerry assured the public that the Obama administration’s summary of the intelligence on…

  • Tragedy in Syria, Farce in Washington

    NORMAN SOLOMON, solomonprogressive at gmail.com Solomon just wrote the piece “Obama Will Launch a Huge Propaganda Blitz — and May Attack Syria Even If He Loses the Vote in Congress.” He said today: “The Obama White House has come up with a stunning new innovation in what Senator J. William Fulbright called ‘the arrogance of…

  • Syria: Is the U.S. Government Trying to Prolong the Civil War?

    VIJAY PRASHAD, vp01 at aub.edu.lb Edward Said chair at American University in Beirut, Prashad is co-editor of Dispatches from the Arab Spring and author of The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of the Global South. See his new interview with The Real News in which he argues that a possible missile strike against Syria has…

  • A “Dodgy Dossier” Instead of a Congressional Debate?

    FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at illinois.edu Boyle is a professor at the University of Illinois College of Law and author of Tackling America’s Toughest Questions. He said today: “The test the Dossier [PDF] uses is ‘high confidence’ — but the appropriate standard by the International Court of Justice (in the Corfu Channel case) is ‘beyond a…

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