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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  • 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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