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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  • Dangers of — and Subsidies to — U.S. Nuclear Industry

    The Boston Globe reports today: “Nuclear plant emergency generators like those that failed in Japan following the March earthquake and tsunami also failed during tests at the Seabrook Station in New Hampshire and 32 other U.S. plants in the past eight years, according to a report by U.S. Representative Edward J. Markey’s office.” HARVEY WASSERMAN,…

  • Beyond bin Laden Killing: Drone Strikes the “New Norm”

    Reuters is reporting this morning: “A U.S. drone aircraft fired missiles at militants in Pakistan on Thursday, killing eight of them, Pakistani officials said, the third such attack since U.S. forces found and killed Osama bin Laden in his Pakistani hideout.” KATHY KELLY, kathy  at vcnv.org Kelly is with Voices for Creative Nonviolence and was…

  • Immigration: “U.S. Drug Demand Destabilizes Mexico”

    JOHN GIBLER, john.gibler at gmail.com Author of the forthcoming book To Die in Mexico: Dispatches from Inside the Drug War as well as Mexico Unconquered: Chronicles of Power and Revolt, Gibler said today: “Immigration from Mexico to the U.S. is largely the result of failed policies by the U.S. and Mexican governments. These include trade…

  • “Major Corporations Are Threatening Us”

    RICHARD WOLFF, [in NYC] rdwolff at att.net, rdwolff.com Wolff just wrote the piece “The Threats of Business and the Business of Threats,” which states: “More and more we hear that nothing can be done to tax major corporations because of the threat of how they would respond. Likewise, we cannot stop their price gouging or…

  • Repression in Honduras “Worse than After Coup”

    Committee of Families of the Detained and Disappeared in Honduras reports a dramatic increase in the ongoing violent repression of human rights in Honduras. This includes government attacks against protests at a “Honduras is Open for Business” conference this weekend, which attracted Carlos Slim, the richest man in Mexico, among others. DANA FRANK, dlfrank at…

  • U.S. Drone Strikes Kill in Pakistan and Yemen

    Voice of America is reporting: “Pakistani intelligence officials say a U.S. missile attack close to the Afghan border has killed at least 15 people.” Other media are reporting that a U.S. drone strike has killed individuals in Yemen. David Dayen writes: “Trifling about legality of raids on bin Laden when the U.S. routinely carries out…

  • Bahrain-Saudi Crackdown Targets Doctors; Demonizing Iran

    RICHARD SOLLOM, via Megan Prock, mprock at phrusa.org, bahrain.phrblog.org Sollom is deputy director of Physicians for Human Rights and was recently in Bahrain, which was invaded by Saudi Arabia on March 14 to help the monarchy put down protesters. Sollom is co-author of the new report, “Do No Harm: A Call for Bahrain to End…

  • Release bin Laden Photo? “Instead Release Afghanistan and Iraq”

    The Washington Post is reporting: “The Obama administration is seeking to use the killing of Osama bin Laden to accelerate a negotiated settlement with the Taliban and hasten the end of the Afghanistan war, according to U.S. officials involved in war policy.” SONALI KOLHATKAR, sonali at afghanwomensmission.org Kolhatkar is co-author of Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords,…

  • Views of Pakistanis

    Politico reports: “The White House backed away Monday evening from key details in its narrative about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, including claims by senior U.S. officials that the Al Qaeda leader had a weapon and may have fired it during a gun battle with U.S. forces. “Officials also retreated from claims that…

  • Bin Laden: Celebrating Death, or End of War?

    TARIQ ALI, tariq.ali3 at btinternet.com, tariqali.org Ali is author of numerous books including “The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power” and “The Obama Syndrome: Surrender at Home, War Abroad.” He just wrote the piece “Who told them where he was?” ALLAN NAIRN, allan.nairn at yahoo.com, http://www.allannairn.com A noted journalist, Nairn said today:…

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