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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  • Bloomberg Backs Off Clearing Occupy Wall Street

    AP reports: “The cleanup of a plaza in lower Manhattan where protesters have been camped out for a month was postponed early Friday, sending cheers up from a crowd that had feared the effort was merely a pretext to evict them.” For more, including video streams from various cities, see. MICHAEL RATNER, mratner at michaelratner.com…

  • Breaking: Protests at Armed Services Committee

    Contacts: Leah Bolger, Vice President of Veterans for Peace, leahbolger at comcast.net Medea Benjamin, Code Pink, medea.benjamin at gmail.com Protesters are currently demonstrating at a meeting of the House Armed Services Committee, standing up one by one and denouncing the continuing wars. Live video stream. They released the following statement this morning: “In 2120 Rayburn…

  • Alleged Iranian Plot Against Saudi Arabia and Israel

    MUHAMMAD SAHIMI, moe at usc.edu Sahimi is a professor at the University of Southern California and lead political columnist for the website PBS/Frontline/Tehran Bureau. He has published extensively on Iran’s political development and its nuclear program. He just wrote “Questions over Alleged Islamic Republic Assassination Plot in U.S.” BEAU GROSSCUP, bgrosscup at csuchico.edu Grosscup is…

  • Protesters Enter Congress; Trade Deals Show “Contempt”

    According to organizers, there were at least three arrests this morning as protesters entered Congressional office buildings and chanted “We are the 99 percent,” “End the wars, tax the rich” and “Senators for sale go to jail.” For further information and forthcoming video clips, see. Meanwhile, Congress is reportedly close to holding a vote on…

  • Wall Street Protests and Columbus Day

    As Occupy Wall Street — OccupyWallSt.org — begins its fourth week, OccupyTogether.org reports there are “occupy” meetups in over 1,100 cities. Roving live video at: livestream.com/globalrevolution KENT LEBSOCK, oweakuinternational at me.com Lebsock is coordinator of the Owe Aku International Justice Project. He will be speaking at Occupy Wall Street at 5 p.m. ET today. He said today: “Corporate greed…

  • Nobel Peace Prize and Protests Against Wars

    Today marks ten years since the U.S. began its invasion of Afghanistan; protests against war and corporate power are underway in D.C. in coordination with protests around the U.S. The New York Times reports: “The Nobel Peace Prize for 2011 was awarded on Friday to three campaigning women from Africa and the Arab world in…

  • Ten Years of Afghan War: * Protests * Costs * From Afghanistan

    DAVID ROVICS, drovics at gmail.com Friday, October 7 is the tenth anniversary of the United States’ invasion of Afghanistan. “Occupation” protests begin today at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C. opposing wars and corporate power:  livestream rotating from different cities. Singer-songwriter Rovics will be preforming at the launch of the Freedom Plaza protests today. At a…

  • Protests: “Another World Is Possible”

    Reports indicate that today is seeing the largest Wall Street protest to date, see. For more information and for livestreaming see and see. ARUN GUPTA,  ebrowniess at yahoo.com A founding editor of the New York City based Indypendent, Gupta also helped found the Occupied Wall Street Journal. COSTAS PANAYOTAKIS, cpanayotakis at google.com Panayotakis is associate professor of…

  • Largest Wall Street March Yet, Nurses and other Unions Join

    The largest march yet is expected today on Wall Street, see. For more information and for livestreaming, see or see. ROSEANN DeMORO, DEBORAH BURGER, via Carl Ginsburg, cginsburg at nationalnursesunited.org, Charles Idelson, cidelson at calnurses.org National Nurses United, the largest union and professional association of nurses in the U.S. — with 170,000 members — will…

  • “Occupation” Protests Starting in D.C.

    KEVIN ZEESE, kbzeese at gmail.com MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D.  mdpnhp at gmail.com Zeese is a core organizer of October2011.org and co-director of ItsOurEconomy.US. He said today: “The Occupy Movement goes to the next level on Thursday with the occupation of Freedom Plaza. This Washington, D.C. occupation, which has been growing for the last six months, before…

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