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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  • Can Obama Be FDR? — Or is he Hoover?

    RANDALL WRAY, WrayR at umkc.edu Currently in New York, Wray, is professor of economics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He recently wrote the piece “With $300 Billion, The President Could Reduce Unemployment to Zero,” which was published by TruthDig and is available on Wray’s blog: http://neweconomicperspectives.blogspot.com He said today: “President Obama gave a good,…

  • Lessons of 9/11

    DAVID POTORTI, [in NYC] dpotort at gmail.com, ANDREA LeBLANC, aldvm at comcast.net, PAUL ARPAIA, paularpaia at mac.com Potorti, LeBlanc and Arpaia (who is recently back from Afghanistan) are members of September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, a group whose family members were killed in the attacks. The group recently issued the following statement: “The members…

  • What Kind of Spending Creates the Most Jobs?

    HEIDI GARRETT-PELTIER, hpeltier at econs.umass.edu Assistant research professor at the Political Economy Research Institute, Garrett-Peltier is author of several reports on employment impacts of spending including “The U.S. Employment Effects of Military and Domestic Spending Priorities” (with Robert Pollin) and “Pedestrian and Bicycle Infrastructure: A National Study of Employment Impacts.” She said today: “Many people…

  • Left-Right Coalition Urges $380 Billion in Cuts to “Polluting Technologies”

    McClatchy reports that “the bipartisan ‘super-committee’ of six Democrats and six Republicans has a goal of finding at least $1.5 trillion more in deficit reduction by Thanksgiving … will hold its first meeting on Sept. 8 [Thursday].” A coalition of organizations from both sides of the political spectrum recently released Green Scissors 2011, a report…

  • Who Will be Hurt by Obama Administration Ditching Clean Air Plans?

    Reuters reports: “President Barack Obama unexpectedly asked the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday to withdraw a plan to limit smog pollution, handing a big win to business and Republicans…” BILL GALLEGOS, via Bobbi Murray, murratus at earthlink.net Gallegos is executive director of Communities for a Better Environment, which “organizes in working class communities of color…

  • Jobs Numbers, Labor Day

    MAX FRAAD WOLFF, mfwolff at aol.com Wolff is an instructor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University and senior analyst with Greencrest Capital. He just wrote a blog entry analyzing jobs numbers released this morning: “For the second time in monthly jobs report history we have created no new jobs.…

  • U.S. Massacre and Cover-up in Iraq Exposed by WikiLeaks

    RAED JARRAR, jarrar.raed at gmail.com An Iraqi-American blogger and political analyst based in Washington D.C., Jarrar was in recently in Iraq. He said today: “This week, a U.S. diplomatic cable that was made public by WikiLeaks confirmed the news that in March 2006 U.S. troops handcuffed then executed eleven Iraqi civilians in Al-Ishaqi, north of…

  • Disaster Management Funding: “Cut Fossil Fuel and Nuclear Subsidies to Pay for Disaster Clean-Up”

    AIMEE ALLISON, aimee at rootsaction.org Allison, co-executive director of Roots Action, said today, “Let big oil/coal pay for hurricane damage. Government welfare for oil, gas, coal, and nuclear should be eliminated. If cuts are to be made to reduce the national debt, they should begin with these kinds of subsidies, rather than in useful programs…

  • * 25 CEOs’ Pay Exceeding Corporate Taxes Paid * Nurses Protest Wall Street

    SARAH ANDERSON, CHUCK COLLINS, via Lacy MacAuley, lacy at ips-dc.org Anderson and Collins are among the authors of an Institute for Policy Studies report released today titled “Executive Excess 2011: The Massive CEO Rewards for Tax Dodging.” Among the findings: “The 25 tax-dodging CEOs the IPS report spotlights averaged $16.7 million in pay last year,…

  • 40 Years Since “Powell Memo” Laid out Corporate Agenda

    In 1971, Lewis F. Powell, then a corporate lawyer and member of the boards of eleven corporations, wrote a memo to his friend Eugene Sydnor, Jr., the director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, titled “Attack of [sic] American Free Enterprise System.” The memorandum was dated August 23, 1971, two months prior to Powell’s nomination…

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