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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  • Bin Laden Killing

    GARETH PORTER, porter.gareth50 at gmail.com, ipsnews.net Porter is an investigative journalist and historian specializing in U.S. national security policy. He said today: “The U.S. could have had bin Laden delivered to another Islamic country or to the Organization of Islamic Conference in Saudi Arabia for a trial in mid-October 2001 but wouldn’t deal with the…

  • Torturer at Royal Wedding as Monarchies “Hijack” Uprisings

    Dr. SAEED AL SHEHABI, mrsam13 at hotmail.com General secretary of the Bahrain Freedom Movement, Al Shehabi said today: “We were able to prevent the crown prince from attending the royal wedding by stating that his attendance would be considered backing of human rights violations that are taking place in Bahrain. Now the attendance of the…

  • Big Oil “Swimming in Revenue”

    ROBERT WEISSMAN, via Barbara Holzer, bholzer at citizen.org, Dorry Samuels, dsamuels at citizen.org President of Public Citizen, Weissman said today: “ExxonMobil and Shell today announced skyrocketing profits, as did BP yesterday, and as Chevron will tomorrow. The reason is simple: Prices at the gas pump are jumping, even though the cost of drilling hasn’t changed…

  • Assessing Panetta at Pentagon, Petraeus at CIA

    Reuters reports this morning: “President Barack Obama will nominate CIA director Leon Panetta as defense secretary and Army General David Petraeus as head of the American spy agency, officials said on Wednesday.” MELVIN A. GOODMAN, goody789 at verizon.net, , http://mel-goodman.dailykos.com Goodman is senior fellow at the Center for International Policy. His most recent book is…

  • EPA Office of Civil Rights “Dysfunctional”

    Politico reported Monday: “A whistleblower group is calling on the EPA to fire its civil rights director in response to allegedly sexist and racist remarks he’s made involving ‘pink elephants’ and Rosa Parks. “The National Whistleblowers Center sent a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson on Wednesday demanding the immediate dismissal of Rafael DeLeon, director…

  • WikiLeaks and Torture

    Numerous media outlets — including McClatchy, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The New York Times and NPR — are now releasing information from classified files originally obtained via WikiLeaks on more than 700 past and present Guantanamo detainees. LOGAN PRICE, logan — at — bradleymanning.org, @kstrel, bradleymanning.org Late last week, Price questioned President Obama at…

  • Drone Use in Libya, Pakistan Condemned

    KATHY KELLY, kathy at vcnv.org JOSHUA BROLLIER, joshua at vcnv.org Kelly and Brollier are with Voices for Creative Nonviolence. Kelly was recently in Afghanistan and today will be participating in a demonstration at a drone command base in New York. VCRN just put out a statement condemning “the hypocrisy and immorality of the United States…

  • Targeting Environmentalists

    WILL POTTER, will at willpotter.com Author of the new book “Green Is the New Red: An Insider’s Account of a Social Movement Under Siege,” Potter said today: “With Earth Day approaching, everyone is talking about ‘going green.’ But most people are unaware that anti-terrorism resources are being used to target environmentalists and animal rights activists.…

  • Escalating Iraq Protests: U.S. “Playing with Fire”

    AFP is reporting today: “Moqtada al-Sadr on Wednesday blasted a ban on public rallies in the Iraqi capital, saying it was ‘undemocratic’ and based on fear of rising protests. “Iraq’s government announced last week demonstrations would be allowed only at three football stadiums, ostensibly because shopkeepers in the city’s main Tahrir Square complained of losing…

  • Pickens’ Gas Fracking Offensive Debunked

    T. Boone Pickens and Ted Turner speak at the National Press Club this afternoon. At 10 a.m. ET, a group of environmentalists and scientists are holding a conference call to expose what’s behind Pickens’ plans. For more information, contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch reports: “Congress’s upcoming consideration of the…

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