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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  • Saudi Occupies Bahrain

    CHRISTOPHER DAVIDSON A scholar in Middle East politics at Durham University, Davidson said today: “What is happening is an invasion and occupation of Bahrain by Saudi Arabia under the guise of the Gulf Cooperation Council. This is done at the request of the regime in Bahrain to put down the pro-democracy movement there. … “The…

  • Japan Nuclear Disaster

    ARJUN MAKHIJANI Makhijani is president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, which has just released a paper “Post-Tsunami Situation at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan: Facts, Analysis, and Some Potential Outcome.” In addition to meltdowns, the paper highlights the problem of the storage pools, which could be even more dire.…

  • Threat of Nuclear Disaster in Japan

    AP is reporting: “Japan ordered thousands of residents near a northeastern nuclear power plant to evacuate today following a massive earthquake that caused a problem in the plant’s cooling system.” KEVIN KAMPS Kamps is a specialist in nuclear waste at Beyond Nuclear. Last year he was in Japan assessing the state of nuclear facilities there.…

  • Wisconsin Struggle: Now Come the Tractors

    The Wisconsin State Journal reports: “‘General Strike!’ Thousands Storm, Reoccupy Wisconsin Capitol in Response to Legislative Votes.” ROBERT KRAIG Kraig is executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin. He has been at the Capitol in Madison and is closely following developments. He said today: “[Gov. Scott] Walker has been claiming that this is about the…

  • Democracy and Saudi Arabia

    Increased protests are planned for Friday in Saudi Arabia. For a list of online resources that is being updated, see: accuracy.org/uprisings TOBY C. JONES Jones is an assistant professor of history at Rutgers University and author of the book Desert Kingdom: How Oil and Water Forged Modern Saudi Arabia. He said today: “The U.S. government…

  • Debate on Libya and Intervention

    ALI AHMIDA Available for a limited number of interviews, Ahmida is a leading analyst and historian of Libya. He said today: “Given Libya’s brutal colonial past under Italian fascism, foreign interference could be disastrous. Many Libyans will oppose it and it would revive Qaddafi’s dying dictatorship. Instead, other countries could recognize the new government in…

  • Obama “Institutionalizing” Guantánamo

    KAREN GREENBERG Greenberg is executive director of the Center on Law and Security at New York University Law School. She just wrote the piece “Guantánamo: No Closure for Obama,” which states: “In the nine years since the opening of the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, the country has moved incrementally towards institutionalizing the existence of the…

  • Who is the Government Jailing? * Environmentalists * Whistleblowers * Peace Activists

    In response to the question: “Is it illegitimate for people to say that some of those CEOs on Wall Street should have gone to jail?” White House Chief of Staff William Daley said Sunday: “Well, I — look at, I don’t know if it’s illegitimate or not. People have a right to say what they…

  • Behind U.S.-Backed Bahrain Regime’s “Dialogue”

    Protests in Bahrain today took to the U.S. embassy with signs including “Stop Supporting Dictators.” For updates on the Bahrain uprising, see the #Feb14 hashtag on Twitter; for breakdown: accuracy.org/uprisings REEM KHALIFA Available for a limited number of interviews, Khalifa is senior editor for diplomatic affairs at Al Wasat in Bahrain. She said today: “The…

  • Environmentalist Faces 10 Years for Bids to Stop Drilling

    AP reports today: “Environmental activist Tim DeChristopher knew what he was doing when he made $1.8 million in false oil and gas drilling bids at a federal auction. He knew he couldn’t possibly pay for them. And he knew he could end up behind bars. “But he did it for the cause. On Thursday, a…

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