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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  • Pro-Mubarak Media Disinformed, Driving Cairo Embassy Protests

    A lecturer at Stanford University and an investigative journalism fellow at University of California, Berkeley, Emad Mekay returned from Egypt a week ago after three months. He said today: “In the U.S. media and the media in both Egypt and Libya, I do not see division lines clearly and perhaps almost deliberately so. The protests…

  • How Poverty Affects a Majority of Americans

    “Later this morning, when the Census Bureau releases its latest data, it is likely to show that poverty rose in 2011. Again. And while it will be tempting to explain that rise by pointing the continued effects of the Great Recession and the very slow recovery from it, poor, working-class, and middle-class Americans have all…

  • First Federal Drone Trial: “Guilty”

    Brian Terrell, one of the activists protesting Missouri’s Whiteman Air Force Base, was convicted in a federal court for trespassing yesterday. He said today, “I cross-examined the head of security, asking him if I would be deemed to be criminally trespassing if I saw a child being attacked on the base, which is in a…

  • How the Government Could Have Prevented 9/11: Read the Documents

    Coleen Rowley, a former FBI Special Agent and Division Counsel whose May 2002 memo described some of the FBI’s pre-9/11 failures, was named one of Time Magazine’s “Persons of the Year” in 2002. She said today: “In the New York Times, Kurt Eichenwald characterizes the Bush administration’s ‘Deafness Before the Storm’ ignoring of pre-9/11 warnings…

  • Chicago Strike “Tip of Iceberg” in School “Reform’s” “Disastrous Consequences”

    A policy analyst for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing (FairTest), Lisa Guisbond said today: “The Chicago strike is the tip of the iceberg of teacher frustration with so-called ‘reform’ policies, which place the blame on educators for problems largely caused by the impoverished settings in which their students must live. Instead of…

  • Obama, Romney “Playing Games” with Environmental Disaster

    Daphne Wysham is a fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and is the founder and co-director of the Sustainable Energy and Economy Network. She said today: “While it is heartening to hear President Obama affirm that climate change is not a hoax, he — like his Republican opponent — seems to place a higher…

  • Democratic Party Forces Jerusalem Position on Delegates

    Ali Abunimah is co-founder of the Electronic Intifada website and author of the book One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He wrote the piece: “Did Democratic Delegates Just Vote Down Obama Bid to Pander to AIPAC on Jerusalem?” The piece states: “An extraordinary thing happened at the Democratic National Convention [Wednesday].…

  • Obama and Romney vs the 99 Percent?

    Arun Gupta is a co-founder of the Occupied Wall Street Journal and The Indypendent. He said today: “In terms of the protests, these security scare stories around the conventions keep the public away from substantial protest and dissent. The Olympics are about pushing the poor out through massive gentrification and infrastructure projects. What these conventions…

  • Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel to Speak at Convention as Teachers Strike Looms

    Policy analyst at FairTest: National Center for Fair & Open Testing, Lisa Guisbond said today: “The looming Chicago teachers strike may well have a lasting impact on the course of school so-called ‘reform’ efforts.” Guisbond recently wrote the piece “New School Year: Doubling Down on Failed Ed Policy,” for the Washington Post, which states: “As children…

  • Charlotte: “Wall Street South”

    Ben Carroll and Zaina Alsous are media contacts with the Coalition to March on Wall Street South, which helped organize a march of over 2,500 over the weekend and is organizing other actions around the Democratic Convention. These activists are critical of both major political parties and their ties to major corporations. They can connect…

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