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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  • Haiti: “Militarization Hinders Relief”

    The front-page headline in the Washington Post this morning says: “Haiti relief efforts stifled by chaos.” Patrick Elie, former Haitian Secretary of State for National Defense, told Al Jazeera English: “There is no war here. We don’t need soldiers as such. … The choice of what lands and what doesn’t land [at the airport] ……

  • Martin Luther King’s Relevance Today

    From Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam — A Time to Break Silence” speech on April 4, 1967 at Riverside Church in New York City: “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. … A true…

  • Haiti: * Debt * Aristide * Letting Haitians Stay

    MELINDA ST. LOUIS Melinda St. Louis is deputy director of the Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of more than 75 religious denominations, human rights organizations and development agencies. The group just released a statement, “Debt for Disaster? Jubilee USA Dismayed by IMF Proposal for $100 Million Loan to Haiti.” The group is calling for cancellation…

  • Financial Hearings

    THOMAS FERGUSON Ferguson recently wrote the piece “Ask Holder to Be Bolder: Resolving the Mysteries of AIG.” He is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston; a member of the advisory board of the Institute for New Economic Thinking, and a senior fellow at the Roosevelt Institute. He is the coauthor, with…

  • Haiti Earthquake

    BRIAN CONCANNON Director of the Institute for Justice & Democracy in Haiti, Concannon lived in Haiti for eight years. He said today: “In the short term the Haitian people need the international community to respond to this tragedy with massive amounts of disaster relief. But in the long term, the Haitian people need the international…

  • Suicide Rate for Vets Increases

    USA Today reports: “The suicide rate among 18- to 29-year-old men who’ve left the military has gone up significantly. The rate for these veterans went up 26 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to preliminary data from the Veterans Affairs Department.” AARON GLANTZ Aaron Glantz is an editor at New America Media and author of…

  • Roots of Terrorism

    ABC News reports that “President Obama convenes a meeting of national security officials in the Situation Room today.” AHMED SALAH http://6aprilmove.blogspot.com A leader of the pro-democratic movement in Egypt, Salah said today: “I see the threat of groups like Al Qaeda growing by the day and much of it is the result of the actions…

  • Americans Attacked in Cairo over Gaza March; Video Available

    A high-stakes standoff continues today in Cairo. On New Year’s Eve — shortly after the Egyptian government had prevented buses from taking them to Gaza — hundreds of people, including scores from the U.S., who were attempting to march in Cairo were kicked, punched and dragged into a holding area by plainclothes Egyptian government forces.…

  • Will Egypt Prevent Marchers from Entering Gaza?

    HEDY EPSTEIN DANA BALICKI ANN WRIGHT MEDEA BENJAMIN Balicki, Wright and Benjamin are with the group CODEPINK, which is organizing the Gaza Freedom March on Dec. 31. A delegation to Gaza will begin in Cairo on Dec. 27, one year after the start of the “Cast Lead” bombing of Gaza by Israel. Among the people…

  • Doctors and Nurses Calling for Defeat of Health Insurance Bill

    STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER, M.D., M.P.H. DAVID HIMMELSTEIN, M.D. OLIVER FEIN, M.D. 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; Almberg is communications director. Addressing the Senate in an open letter, they write: “We ask that you…

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