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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  • Toxic Sludge Stance by Alice Waters Sparks Protests

    RONNIE CUMMINGS JOHN STAUBER Cummings is director of the Organic Consumers Association; Stauber is an advisory board member of the group and co-author of the book Toxic Sludge Is Good for You! OCA said in a statement: “Thursday, April 1 is the 30th birthday of the famous Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley, California, owned by…

  • Myths of Energy Independence

    STEVE CLEMONS Clemons directs the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation and is the publisher of the political blog The Washington Note. ROBERT BRYCE Bryce‘s latest book is Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence.” He is the managing editor of Energy Tribune and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute.…

  • Obama vs. Martin Luther King?

    Tonight, “Tavis Smiley Reports” on PBS airs “MLK: A Call to Conscience.” See video and background. In a recent interview, Smiley stated about King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech: “If you replace the words ‘Iraq’ for ‘Vietnam,’ ‘Afghanistan’ for ‘Vietnam,’ ‘Pakistan’ for ‘Vietnam,’ this speech is so relevant today. … “One of the pieces that comes out…

  • How to Assess Right-Wing Christian Militia

    FREDERICK CLARKSON Author of Eternal Hostility: The Struggle Between Theocracy and Democracy, Clarkson is editor of the book Dispatches from the Religious Left: The Future of Faith and Politics in America. He is founder of the interactive blog “Talk to Action” about the religious right. Clarkson said today: “As we approach the April 19 anniversary…

  • Obama and Afghanistan

    MATTEO DELL’AIRA, via Simonetta Gola Matteo dell’Aira is medical coordinator of the NGO Emergency’s hospital in Lashkar Gah and has worked in Afghanistan for the past ten years. NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon just wrote the piece “A Bomber Jacket Doesn’t Cover the Blood” about Obama’s visit to Afghanistan. He is author of War Made Easy: How…

  • Student Loan vs. Healthcare Policies

    SHELDON H. LASKIN Adjunct professor of law in the University of Baltimore’s Graduate Tax Program, where he teaches state and local tax, Laskin said today: “One of the ironies of the health insurance reform bill is the two dramatically different positions the administration and Congress took on single-payer health insurance as contrasted with single-payer student…

  • START Agreement

    Amb. ROBERT GREY, via Kevin Davis Available for a limited number of interviews, Grey is former U.S. Representative to the Conference on Disarmament. He is now director of the Bipartisan Security Group, a project of the Global Security Institute. ALICE SLATER Director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Slater recently wrote the piece “NATO Goes…

  • Exposing U.S.-backed Indonesian Military Assassinations Leads to Arrest Threats and Censorship for Journalist

    Investigative reporter Allan Nairn recently broke a story of assassinations by the Indonesian military: “According to senior Indonesian officials and police and details from government files, the U.S.-backed Indonesian armed forces (TNI), now due for fresh American aid, assassinated a series of civilian activists during 2009. The killings were part of a secret government program,…

  • Pressure on Israel?

    Tonight, President Obama is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Netanyahu were among the speakers at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. ANDREW BACEVICH Professor of history and international relations at Boston University, Bacevich is an author whose latest book…

  • Health Bill “Like Aspirin for Cancer”

    STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER DAVID HIMMELSTEIN OLIVER FEIN, M.D. MARGARET FLOWERS MARK ALMBERG Woolhandler and Himmelstein are professors of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-founders of Physicians for a National Health Program. Fein is president of the group, Flowers is president of the Maryland chapter and Almberg is communications director. The group just released a statement:…

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