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.”

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.’”

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  • 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.”

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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…

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