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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  • Is There a Real Foreign Policy Debate?

    Peter Van Buren, a 24-year veteran Foreign Service Officer at the State Department, spent a year in Iraq. He is author of We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. He just wrote “Don’t Ask and Don’t Tell: Six Critical Foreign Policy Questions That Won’t…

  • Beyond the Horse Race: Issues Driven Polling

    Taylor Peck is co-founder of iSideWith.com. He said today: “iSideWith.com is an interactive, non-partisan website that helps voters track how their views compare the 2012 presidential candidates’ views. Users answer a series of questions on important issues including taxes, Medicare, gay marriage, the war in Afghanistan and global warming.”

  • Meningitis Outbreak “Highlights Failure of FDA”

    Deputy director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, Dr. Michael Carome said today: “The now widely publicized outbreak of life-threatening fungal meningitis in back-pain patients linked to steroid injections prepared by a compounding pharmacy highlights the failure of the Food and Drug Administration’s regulatory oversight of drugs prepared and sold by such pharmacies. What is…

  • Ten Years After Iraq War Vote: Will Biden and Ryan be Asked About Yes Votes and False Statements on WMDs?

    Among Phil Donahue’s many media credits is executive producer for the 2007 feature documentary film, “Body of War.” He said today: “Over 4,000 Americans died in Iraq and over 2,000 Americans have already died in Afghanistan. Both vice presidential candidates voted for the Iraq invasion — neither they nor the men at the top of…

  • Americans Heading to Drone-Targeted Area of Pakistan; U.S. Amb. Questions Confidential U.S. Casualty Numbers

    Policy director of Just Foreign Policy, Robert Naiman just wrote the piece “Americans Press U.S. Ambassador for End to Drone Strikes in Pakistan, and the Ambassador Responds,” which states: “On Wednesday, as a member of a U.S. peace delegation to Pakistan organized by Code Pink, I delivered a petition from more than 3,000 Americans to…

  • Venezuela’s Election

    Mark Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. (CEPR will be live-blogging the elections Sunday, with updates from election accompaniers on the ground in Venezuela.) Weisbrot’s most recent column appears in The Guardian. He wrote: “Here is what Jimmy Carter said about Venezuela’s ‘dictatorship’ a few weeks ago:…

  • Debate: * Economy * PBS * “Energy Independence”

    Richard Wolff is author most recently of the book Occupy the Economy: Challenging Capitalism. He said today: “The debate was notable mostly for what it evaded. (1) In the last comparable economic crisis (1930s), unemployment was treated by a massive federal jobs program, yet neither candidate had anything to say on such an approach despite…

  • Debate: Independent Analysis

    Director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, Lori Wallach said today: “While President Obama and Mitt Romney both claimed that their trade policies would create U.S. jobs, both quietly support a massive Trans-Pacific Partnership free trade agreement that would greatly expand U.S. jobs offshoring, give Chinese firms a waiver to ‘Buy American’ procurement policies and…

  • “Congressional Report Card for the 99%”

    With the end of the congressional term, a new “Congressional Report Card for the 99%” grades lawmakers on a series of bills that either “feather the nest of America’s most affluent” or “enhance economic opportunities of our 99 percent.” The report card, by the Institute for Policy Studies, assigns each lawmaker a grade “A+” through…

  • Penn. Judge Halts Voter ID

    Wendy Weiser is democracy program director of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. She said today: “Today’s decision is a clear victory for Pennsylvania voters and the cause of voting rights across the country. As the Commonwealth Court ruled, implementing a sweeping new voter ID law so close to an election…

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