News Items

  • Calls to Suspend Syrian Refugee and Other Recent Anti-Muslim Statements by Government Officials

    Compiled by the Institute for Public Accuracy with Arun Kundnani and Deepa Kumar. Kundnani said: “While it’s very easy to denounce Trump’s recent repugnant, bullying statements — and much of the political class has — it’s important to keep several things in mind: First, as the compilation of statements by elected officials makes clear, he made these statements after many officials from across the country made scores of statements playing on unfounded fears against Syrian refugees and other Muslims.”

    Read more »


  • Classified Politics: A System and a Clinton in Disrepute

    It is most unlikely, however, that Hillary Clinton will fall victim to accusations that rely on improper over-­classification. The State Department and White House, including President Obama himself, sought to protect her and to minimize the effects of her behavior. The case is extremely high­-profile, Democrats in Congress would attack any borderline classification, and a host of well-­paid lawyers would rise to her defense. Improperly classified items or those deemed Sensitive but Unclassified may be redacted from publicly released documents, but it is hard to imagine that Mrs. Clinton would be falsely accused of felonies.

    Read more »


  • Video of Sterling News Conference

    Please enjoy the full video of Holly Sterling’s news conference, which was her first such appearance since her husband’s trial and imprisonment. The news conference also featured Thomas Drake, Delphine Halgand, Ray McGovern, and Jesselyn Radack.

    Read more »


  • Open Letter to President Obama from Holly Sterling

    Does the government have no shame in destroying one man’s life and wasting tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to punish a man who had the audacity to do two things: Stand up for his constitutional rights and utilize proper channels provided to him to express concern for the citizens of our country? I am deeply saddened by our lives’ events that Jeffrey and I have suffered and endured. You publicly committed to a transparent government led by your administration, yet it has been shrouded in mistruth and secrecy.

    Read more »


  • Unprecedented News Conference: Wife of Imprisoned CIA Whistleblower to Speak Out

    Jeffrey Sterling was convicted under the Espionage Act as a source for New York Times reporter James Risen’s book State of War. He began serving his three-and-a-half year prison sentence in June. His wife’s news conference will be the first time the spouse of a CIA whistleblower has made such an appearance.

    Read more »


  • Cultural Shift Needed on Police Militarization

    Police militarization is a 25 year long trend that has only grown in momentum over time. The restrictions on militaristic gear directed by the White House while important symbolically, will certainly not substantively impact this trend in and of itself. Police militarization at this point is as much a cultural problem as it is a material one, and reversing the cultural trend toward police militarization will require more far reaching efforts.

    Read more »


  • Watch the Short Documentary “The Invisible Man: CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling”

    “‘The federal courtroom in northern Virginia where Holly and Jeffrey Sterling returned for the sentencing on May 11 was the scene of a disturbing, though scantly reported, simulation of justice in late January. At the outset, covering the trial, I noted that ‘prospective jurors made routine references to ‘three-letter agencies’ and alphabet-soup categories of security clearances.’ Steeped in a local atmosphere of deference to mega-employers like the CIA and Pentagon along with numerous big contracting firms nearby, ‘the jury pool was bound to please the prosecution.’”

    Read more »


  • On Jeffrey Sterling: From the Filmmaker of “Invisible Man”

    “The most shocking element of this story it that Jeffrey Sterling seems to be punished because he ‘pulled on Superman’s cape’ first with a racial discrimination suit they were able to squash and then by reporting what he considered a dangerous CIA operation to the proper government channels for hearing such a concern.”

    Read more »


  • News Conference: Whistleblowers Weigh In on Policy

    William Binney (NSA), Thomas Drake (NSA), Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), Raymond McGovern (CIA), Jesselyn Radack (Justice Department), Coleen Rowley (FBI) and Kirk Wiebe (NSA) spoke at this news conference, sponsored by ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

    Read more »


  • Netanyahu Victory Opens Door for One-State Solution

    Just before the election, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu ruled out the creation of a Palestinian State, which means that he repudiated the two-state solution to the dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This has been the pronounced objective of American foreign policy since the Madrid Conference and the Middle East Peace Negotiations in 1991 held under the auspices of the United States government and with the full support of the international community.

    Read more »


  • Al Qaeda Leaders Killed — or Construction Workers?

    REESE ERLICH, PETER COYOTE Available for a limited number of interviews, Erlich and Coyote wrote the just-published piece “The Murders at al-Sukariya” for Vanity Fair after visiting Syria. Vanity Fair summarizes the piece: “On October 26, 2008, U.S. helicopters stormed a farm near the Iraq-Syria border in order to assassinate leading al Qaeda operative Abu…

  • Afghan Election Runoff

    “ZOYA” via Sonali Kolhatkar Twenty-eight-year-old Zoya is a member of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan. Because RAWA is an underground organization, members like Zoya do not reveal their real identity for fear of being persecuted. She said today: “Neither Hamid Karzai nor Abdullah Abdullah deserve to be in a second round of…

  • “Wall Street Is Mocking Us”

    NOMI PRINS Prins, a former investment banker turned journalist, is author of the new book It Takes a Pillage: Behind the Bonuses, Bailouts, and Backroom Deals from Washington to Wall Street. ROBERT WEISSMAN President of Public Citizen, Weissman said today: “Wall Street is mocking us. The giant Wall Street firms likely would be out of…

  • Abbas Reverses on Goldstone Report

    NASEER ARURI Aruri is chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He said today: “The Abbas government, whose term in office has expired long ago, had succumbed to pressure being exerted by Israel and the U.S. to defer all discussion of the Goldstone report on the war crimes in…

  • Nobel’s Will

    FREDRIK HEFFERMEHL A Norwegian lawyer, Heffermehl is author of the book Nobel’s Will, which argues that “since 1948 the parties in the Norwegian parliament have misused the Nobel Committee seats to reward party veterans lacking insight in the peace politics that Nobel wished to support. Over half of the awards since 1946 have not conformed…

  • Nobel Peace Laureate: Obama Choice “Disappointing”

    MAIREAD MAGUIRE Mairead Maguire, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in l976, said today: “I am very disappointed to hear that the Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama. They say this is for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and co-operation…

  • Veterans on Afghanistan

    RICK REYES Reyes is recently back from Afghanistan. After enlisting in the Marine Corps, Reyes served as an infantry rifleman. He was deployed in “Operation Enduring Freedom” (Afghanistan) 2001 and then “Operation Iraqi Freedom” (Iraq) 2003. In 2008 he got involved in the Brave New Foundation’s Rethink Afghanistan project and testified in front of the…

  • Helen Keller: Radical, Socialist

    AP reports today: “Alabama is updating its historical presence in the U.S. Capitol, swapping out a statue of a rather unknown former congressman for a new bronze likeness of Helen Keller.” KIM NIELSEN Nielsen is author or editor of several books on Helen Keller, including The Radical Lives of Helen Keller and, most recently, Beyond…

  • Cause of Credit Card Debt: Stagnant Wages

    RICHARD WOLFF Wolff is author of the new book Capitalism Hits the Fan: The Global Economic Meltdown and What to Do About It. He said today: “Since the 1970s, U.S. employers stopped paying their workers rising real wages even as worker productivity kept rising. Over the previous century, U.S. workers’ real wages had risen together…

  • $1 Trillion for War: What Could It Have Gotten?

    JO COMERFORD Comerford, executive director of the National Priorities Project, said today: “Wednesday, October 7, marks the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. Our analysis find that, to date, U.S. military operations in Afghanistan have cost U.S. taxpayers $228 billion, $60.2 billion of which was spent in FY 2009 alone. Monthly costs in…

Mastodon