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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  • Romney “Tax Issues Cheat Sheet” Released

    LEE SHEPPARD, via Wendy Harris, Wendy_Harris at tax.org Available for a limited number of interviews, Sheppard is a contributing editor at Tax Analysts, an influential provider of tax news and analysis. She just published Your Mitt Romney Tax Issues Cheat Sheet. Sheppard said: “It is often said that the rich get rich and stay rich…

  • Social Security at 77: “Budget Target”

    VIRGINIA RENO, vreno at nasi.org, www.nasi.org Reno is vice president for income security policy for the National Academy of Social Insurance. Today they released the video Social Security: Just the Facts: HEIDI HARTMANN, via Caroline Dobuzinskis, dobuzinskis at iwpr.org, www.iwpr.org Dr. Hartmann is president of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She said today: “Social…

  • NBC Under Fire for Post-Olympics Transition to War Games

    Nine Nobel Peace Laureates issued an open letter to the Chairman of NBC Entertainment, as well as General Wesley Clark and others involved in the new “reality” show that premiered on NBC last night — “Stars Earn Stripes” — calling on them to walk away from the show immediately. In the letter, the Laureates –…

  • The Ryan Budget Plan

    WILLIAM HARTUNG, whartung at ciponline.org, www.ciponline.org William Hartung is a fellow at the Center for International Policy. He said today: “Over the next decade, Paul Ryan’s budget plan would throw hundred of billions of dollars at the Pentagon beyond what the department is even asking for. While posing as a budget cutter who makes the…

  • The Ryan Choice: “A Collective Gasp from Wisconsin”

    ROBERT KRAIG, robert.kraig at citizenactionwi.org, www.citizenactionwi.org Kraig is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. He said today: “Paul Ryan is a smooth politician, but beneath the optimistic rhetoric, genial demeanor, and wonky reputation, the substance of his budget proposals would have devastating consequences for the freedom to have a fair shot at the American…

  • Nuclear Protesters Raising Fundamental Issues, Not Posing “Security Concerns”

    KnoxNews.com is reporting: “A federal grand jury has returned a three-count indictment against three Y-12 protesters, consolidating the previous charges lodged against them and adding another felony count of ‘depredation’ of government property, involving cutting, painting and defacing that resulted in damages exceeding $1,000. The new charge carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in…

  • Nature Study on Diminishing Groundwater Resources “Another Reason to Ban Fracking”

    The journal Nature just released a study titled “Demand for Water Outstrips Supply.” WENONAH HAUTER, Kate Fried, kfried at fwwatch.org Executive director of Food & Water Watch, Hauter said today: “Nothing shows the dangerous connection between drought and fracking more than the study released by the journal Nature this week, which shows groundwater demand is…

  • Chevron’s Latest Disaster in California

    AP reports: “Investigators were looking at how a small, seemingly insignificant leak at one of the country’s biggest oil refineries quickly unraveled into an intense fire that sent acrid black smoke into the sky and hundreds of people to hospitals with health complaints. “This latest disruption at Chevron’s refinery in this city about 10 miles…

  • For-Profit Hospital Chain Pushed Unnecessary Heart Operations

    Today’s New York Times features a front-page piece titled Hospital Chain Inquiry Cited Unnecessary Cardiac Work. HOWARD WAITZKIN, M.D., waitzkin at unm.edu Waitzkin is distinguished professor emeritus of clinical medicine at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. He said today: “Such unnecessary, dangerous, and costly procedures reflect an inherent tendency in for-profit medical systems…

  • The Coming Food Crisis and Global Unrest

    MICHAEL KLARE,

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