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…

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • Starting Another Year of War in Afghanistan

    Wednesday, October 7, marks the eighth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. MEDEA BENJAMIN JODIE EVANS ANN WRIGHT Benjamin, Evans and Wright are just back from Afghanistan. Benjamin and Evans are co-founders of the women’s peace group CODEPINK. See the blog here. Wright, a former State Department diplomat and retired Army colonel, helped re-open…

  • White House Cherry-Picking Doctors for Meeting

    Dr. Margaret Flowers and Dr. Paul Hochfeld will lead a delegation of physicians to the White House on Monday to seek a place at a meeting between President Obama and an estimated 50 doctors who have been invited by the White House to show their support for his health insurance plan. MARGARET FLOWERS, M.D. also…

  • “World Peace March” Begins

    This Friday, October 2, the World March for Peace and Nonviolence kicks off in New Zealand, marking the start of the world’s first six-continent peace march calling for the elimination of wars, nuclear weapons and violence of all kinds. Launched by the international organization World Without Wars, the World March has been endorsed by Desmond…

  • Iran Nuclear Story “Doesn’t Add Up”

    GARETH PORTER Porter recently wrote the piece “U.S. Story on Iran Nuke Facility Doesn’t Add Up,” which states: “The story line that dominated media coverage of the second Iranian uranium enrichment facility last week was the official assertion that U.S. intelligence had caught Iran trying to conceal a ‘secret’ nuclear facility. “But an analysis of…

  • “Obama’s Olympic Error”

    DAVE ZIRIN Sportswriter Zirin just wrote the piece “Obama’s Olympic Error,” which states: “To greater or lesser degrees, the Olympics bring gentrification, graft and police violence wherever they nest. … It’s also difficult for Chicago residents to see how this will help their pocketbooks, given that [Chicago Mayor Richard] Daley pledged to the International Olympic…

  • Crackdown in Honduras

    ADRIENNE PINE Pine is assistant professor of anthropology at American University, has done extensive research on Honduras and has been blogging about recent events. She said today: “The coup regime is imposing a horrific crackdown on democracy and the Honduran people — on freedom of assembly, on freedom of speech, on the few remaining independent…

  • “Mad as Hell Doctors” in D.C.

    Dr. BARBARA BLAYLOCK, Dr. MICHAEL HUNTINGTON, via Fiori Cippoletti Blaylock and Huntington are part of the “Mad as Hell Doctors” who left Oregon in early September in a “Care-A-Van” traveling across the U.S. They will be holding a rally in Washington’s Lafayette Park from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. on Wednesday, September 30. A retired…

  • G-20 in Pittsburgh

    For updates and links to the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh, see here. PAIGE CRAM Cram is communications coordinator for the National Lawyers Guild, which just put out the statement “NLG Observes Improper Use of Force by Law Enforcement at the G-20.” SOREN AMBROSE Ambrose is development finance coordinator of ActionAid International (based in Nairobi, Kenya).…

  • UN and Disarmament: Will Obama Get Real?

    On Thursday, President Obama is chairing the United Nations Security Council meeting on nuclear nonproliferation and disarmament. ALICE SLATER New York director of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, Slater said: “On nuclear proliferation, Obama singles out North Korea and Iran, but he doesn’t acknowledge that under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the U.S. is not just…

  • Assessing McChrystal and Afghanistan

    ANN WRIGHT Wright, a former State Department diplomat and retired Army colonel, is going to Afghanistan with a delegation on Friday. Among her numerous assignments, Wright helped re-open the U.S. embassy in Kabul in 2001. She resigned from the State Department in protest of the Iraq invasion in March of 2003. GARETH PORTER Porter recently…

Mastodon