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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  • Tomorrow: Trial on Drone War

    In a piece titled “U.S. drone strike kills ‘six militants’ in Pakistan,” AFP is reporting: “Pakistan has seen a sharp spike in U.S. drone strikes in its rugged northwestern tribal region in recent days, amid a surge in suicide attacks and bombings across the country. “The Pakistani Taliban said Tuesday they would continue to target…

  • K Street “Almost Giddy” about “Speaker Boehner”

    The New York Times reported Sunday — in “A G.O.P. Leader Tightly Bound to Lobbyists” — about “Mr. Boehner, the House minority leader and would-be speaker if Republicans win the House in November.” Wrote the Times: “He maintains especially tight ties with a circle of lobbyists and former aides representing some of the nation’s biggest…

  • 9/11, Burning Qurans and Burning People

    COLLEEN KELLY TERRY ROCKEFELLER Available for a limited number of interviews, Kelly lost her brother, William, and Rockefeller lost her sister, Laura, in the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center. They are members of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows. On Sept. 11, the group will launch the web page “911 Stories: Our Voices,…

  • Europe Protests a Model?

    Protests in Europe against austerity measures are expected throughout September. STEVEN HILL Hill (who travels to Europe on Monday for an extensive speaking tour and research trip) is author of the new book “Europe’s Promise: Why The European Way Is The Best Hope In An Insecure Age” (http://www.EuropesPromise.org). In observing the rash of labor actions…

  • “Great American Stickup” Author: Obama Should Dump Econ Team

    ROBERT SCHEER Editor of TruthDig.com, Scheer is author of the new book The Great American Stickup: How Reagan Republicans and Clinton Democrats Enriched Wall Street While Mugging Main Street. Scheer recently wrote the piece “They Go or Obama Goes,” which states: “When homes are foreclosed in a neighborhood, the equity of those in the area…

  • Pakistan: IMF — Savior or Parasite?

    ERIC LeCOMPTE, MELINDA ST. LOUIS LeCompte is executive director and St. Louis is deputy director of the Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of more than 75 religious denominations, human rights groups and development agencies. The network just released a statement: “Jubilee USA joins global advocacy groups in an outcry against the new debt that Pakistan…

  • Europe Protests

    RICHARD WOLFF Recently back from Europe, Wolff is author of the book Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. He said today: “Today’s general strike across France represents a major escalation of mass opposition to governments seeking to make the mass of people pay for the economic crisis…

  • CEO Pay, Unemployment and Labor

    Monday is Labor Day. Today the unemployment rate rose to 9.6 percent. The U6 rate, which includes those accepting part-time work instead of full-time work and those who have stopped looking for work, rose to 16.7 percent. SARAH ANDERSON, via Tamar Abrams Anderson is global economy project director at the Institute for Policy Studies and…

  • Washington’s Mideast Talks

    Amb. EDWARD L. PECK Available for a limited number of interviews, Peck was chief of mission in Iraq and Mauritania and deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration. On May 31, he sailed from Athens aboard the M/S Sfendoni as part of the flotilla taking humanitarian supplies to…

  • Obama’s Iraq Speech

    NIR ROSEN Available for a limited number of interviews, Rosen is author of In the Belly of the Green Bird: The Triumph of the Martyrs in Iraq and a fellow at New York University’s Center on Law and Security. RAED JARRAR Jarrar is an Iraqi-born political analyst and Iraq consultant with the American Friends Service…

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