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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  • Major Protests: * Greece * Egypt

    CNN is reporting: “Greek lawmakers Wednesday approved a package of austerity measures demanded by international lenders, despite protests outside Parliament as they were voting.” JOSEPH DANA, joseph.dana at gmail.com Dana is a reporter in Greece. He recently tweeted: “The main protests in Athens are taking place on the Athenian 5th Avenue. Imagine an HSBC bank…

  • Prosecuting Gadhafi, Prosecuting U.S. Leaders

    The Washington Times editorialized Tuesday: “The Obama administration is backing the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrants for Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. It is a dangerous precedent for the United States to rush to affirm the jurisdiction of this relatively new international body, particularly with a president whose counterterrorism strategy has made his name synonymous with…

  • Study Estimates Costs of U.S. Wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan at $3.7 Trillion, 225,000 Killed

    Reuters reports: “When President Barack Obama cited cost as a reason to bring troops home from Afghanistan, he referred to a $1 trillion price tag for America’s wars. “Staggering as it is, that figure grossly underestimates the total cost of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the U.S. Treasury and ignores more imposing costs…

  • Propaganda on Libya

    BRUCE FEIN, bruce at thelichfieldgroup.com Obama legal adviser Harold Koh is scheduled to testify on Libya and war powers this morning before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Koh maintains that the attack on Libya is legal because it does not amount to “hostilities,’ a position reportedly at odds with virtually every other legal view from…

  • Save the Budget, Cut the Military?

    The Washington Post’s lead story today is “GOP Compromise on Debt: Cut Military Spending?” which reported: “As President Obama prepares to meet Monday with Senate leaders to try to restart talks about the swollen national debt, some Republicans see a potential path to compromise: significant cuts in military spending. “Senior GOP lawmakers and leadership aides…

  • Gaza Flotilla Under Threat

    KATHY KELLY, kathy at vcnv.org Coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence, Kelly just wrote the piece “Staying Human: Preparing to Sail to Gaza,” which states: “Last week, newly-arrived in Athens as part of the U.S. Boat to Gaza project, our team of activists gathered for nonviolence training. We are here to sail to Gaza, in…

  • NYT: “Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush”

    Today the New York Times published a piece titled “Behind Veneer, Doubt on Future of Natural Gas.” On Saturday it ran the article “Insiders Sound an Alarm Amid a Natural Gas Rush,” which reported: “Gas may not be as easy and cheap to extract from shale formations deep underground as the [drilling] companies are saying,…

  • House Rejects Libya War; Administration Embraces Torture

    Reuters reports: “House rejects measure authorizing Libya mission.” JULES LOBEL, lobel at law.pitt.edu Vice president of the Center for Constitutional Rights and professor of law at the University of Pittsburgh Law School, Lobel said today: “The House refusal to authorize the Libya war makes clear the president doesn’t have any authority under the Constitution or…

  • Denied Right to Vote in Michigan: “Democracy Emergency”

    The New York Times reports: “More than two dozen residents of Michigan filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against top officials in the state, contending that a new law broadly expanding the powers of emergency managers in the most financially troubled cities violates Michigan’s Constitution. The lawsuit, filed in Ingham County Circuit Court, contends that the…

  • More Warnings on Nuclear Dangers

    AP IMPACT began running a series of investigations into the safety of nuclear energy this week. The first part was titled “U.S. nuke regulators weaken safety rules” and stated: “Federal regulators have been working closely with the nuclear power industry to keep the nation’s aging reactors operating within safety standards by repeatedly weakening those standards,…

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