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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  • From Cairo and U.S.: Interviews on Egypt

    Philip Rizk is an independent blogger and filmmaker based in Cairo. Rizk is editing video of some of the most critical parts of the protests. He is reporting on the Egyptian government apparently releasing criminals against protesters, looting, lack of police protection and other critical events. He can also address economic inequality, the lack of…

  • Egypt: Resources and Interviews

    Professor of political science and international studies at Richmond University and currently visiting at the American University in Cairo, Sheila Carapico told the Institute for Public Accuracy shortly before phone lines were cut: “Earlier this week Hillary Clinton said that Egypt is ‘stable’ — but Egyptians are not interested in stability. They’re interested in change.…

  • Anti-Drone War Protesters Given Time Served

    AP is reporting: “A judge says protesters’ moral opposition to drone warfare overseas didn’t absolve them of guilt for trespassing at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada in April 2009. Las Vegas Justice of the Peace William Jansen delivered a 20-page ruling Thursday finding a group dubbing themselves the ‘Creech 14’ guilty of trespassing at…

  • Obama Economic Policy: Change or More of the Same?

    Rick Wolff is author of the book Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. He said today: “Some 20-30 million unemployed, underemployed, and no-longer-even-looking workers were not worth addressing nor offering any new governmental program … . The past program of Bush and Obama to rely on the…

  • The Mideast * “A New Era” * From Cairo

    Seif Da’Na is an associate professor of sociology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside specializing in Mideast and North Africa. He said today: “Repercussions of the Tunisia example will be deep and significant and will be felt throughout the region. The uprising signifies not only the failure of the neo-liberal economic model that…

  • Social Security Cuts Hurt Future Recipients

    Vice president for income security policy for the National Academy of Social Insurance, Virginia Reno said today: “There’s much talk about cutting Social Security to reduce the deficit. Deficit commission co-chairs, Bowles and Simpson, said cuts are needed to ensure the future of our children and grandchildren. Yet, their benefit cuts fall directly on those…

  • Is Manning, Alleged WikiLeaks Source, Being Held Illegally?

    David MacMichael, who commanded the facility where Manning is being held, last week wrote a letter to General James F. Amos, Commandant of the Marine Corps. The letter reads in part: “I wonder, in the first place, why an Army enlisted man is being held in a Marine Corps installation. Second, I question the length…

  • The Real Context of the GE Appointment

    Thomas Ferguson said today: “Volcker out and Immelt in, because the administration now wants to emphasize ‘recovery’ and ‘jobs’ instead of ‘crisis stabilization’? Since when did any stabilization not include jobs as a top priority? What we actually have here is the disappearance from the scene of the best known and most visible critic of…

  • Interviews Available with Tunisians: “A Third Way”

    In Tunisia, activist Houeida Anouar said today: “Ben Ali has left, but we still have his party. People are in the streets every day now calling for officials from this party to step down from the interim unity government and for that party to be dismantled. This party is very powerful, with offices in every…

  • As House Votes to Repeal “Obamacare,” Vermont Moving Toward Single Payer

    Margaret Flowers is congressional fellow for the 18,000-member Physicians for a National Health Program; Mark Almberg is the organization’s communications director. Flowers said today: “The Republican repeal of the health law in the House yesterday would initiate a race to the bottom. Their plan to open the sale of insurance across state lines would lead…

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