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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  • Myth: Raising Taxes on Wealthy Kills Jobs

    CHUCK COLLINS, chuckcollins7 at mac.com Collins just wrote the piece “A Tax Plan to Rally Around: The Buffett Rule,” which states: “Over the last decade — and really over the last fifty years — the portion of income paid in taxes by our wealthiest citizens has steadily declined. In 1961, when Barack Obama was born,…

  • Wall Street Protests

    ABC News reports: “Protesters who vowed to ‘occupy Wall Street’ are holding their ground in downtown New York, and say they have no plans to leave anytime soon. “The protest started Saturday with a ‘Day of Rage,’ when thousands of people gathered in the Financial District and vowed to stay on Wall Street as long…

  • Palestinian UN Bid and Uniting for Peace

    The Wall Street Journal reports in “Palestinian UN Move Options at UN Lead to Legal Threat to Israel’s Military,” that: “If the Palestinian Authority succeeds in winning even an incremental upgrade of its status at the UN, it could subject Israel’s military to international courts for actions in Palestinian territory — as well as allow…

  • Japanese Delegation on Fukushima and Nuclear Safety

    A farming family from the now radioactively contaminated Fukushima region in Japan, along with one American and three leading Japanese anti-nuclear campaigners, will be available for interviews while visiting the U.S. The group will deliver eye-witness accounts about the health impacts and continued contamination produced by the Fukushima-Daiichi reactor units that suffered catastrophic damage on…

  • U.S. Vetoing Palestinian State It Claims to Support

    FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle at law.uiuc.edu Professor of international law at the University of Illinois College of Law in Champaign and author of Palestine, Palestinians, and International Law, Boyle said today: “This week, President Obama has attacked the Palestinian UN membership bid as a ‘distraction’ and Secretary of State Clinton has claimed the U.S. ‘strongly supports’…

  • Solyndra: Partisan Politicking Obscures Growth of Solar Power

    The New York Times is reporting: “A House subcommittee released documents on Wednesday morning suggesting that a final review of more than $500 million in loan guarantees for Solyndra, a California solar company that recently declared bankruptcy, may have been rushed so that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could announce its approval at a…

  • * Gender Poverty Gap * 50 Million Uninsured

    Census Bureau numbers released yesterday found that nearly one in six Americans are in poverty. The following are available to further analyze other findings: ELIZABETH GRAYER, TIMOTHY CASEY, tcasey at legalmomentum.org Grayer is president of Legal Momentum, Casey is senior staff attorney with the group, which just released the memo “Reading Between the Lines: Women’s…

  • * Ron Paul and 9/11 * Perry and Mandatory Vaccines

    At last night’s Republican candidate debate, Congressman Ron Paul said “There’s a difference between military spending and defense spending. I’m tired of all the militarism we’re involved in. … I agree, we’re in alot of danger but most of the danger comes from a lack of wisdom in our foreign policy. … We’re under grave…

  • Will Record Levels of Poverty Increase Further?

    On Tuesday morning, the Census Bureau will release this year’s poverty numbers. ALICE O’CONNOR, aoconnor at history.ucsb.edu Author of Poverty Knowledge: Social Science, Social Policy and the Poor in Twentieth Century U.S. History, O’Connor said today: “The Great Recession has sent millions more Americans below minimally acceptable standards of living, while heightening the extremes of…

  • Perry Executed 9/11 Hate Crimes Murderer Despite Victim’s Pleas

    At Wednesday night’s Republican debate, Texas Governor Rick Perry said (when talking about mandatory vaccines for girls and women) “I will always err on the side of saving lives.” Later in the evening, he drew cheers for his record number of 234 executions, saying “Americans understand justice.” Video of death penalty exchange. Full transcript.

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