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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  • Clinton in Africa

    [Kenya]: GERALD LEMELLE Lemelle is the executive director of Africa Action. He said: “Kenya’s role as a manufacturing and financial hub for East Africa makes it an appealing partner for Western investments. The country’s geographic location, bordering on Somalia, a collapsed state, also appeals to U.S. security interests. However, the unhelpful and contradictory U.S. diplomatic…

  • Obama’s Doctor, Others: Not Doing Single Payer a “Terrible Mistake”

    DAVID SCHEINER, MD, SIDNEY WOLFE, MD, via Barbara Holzer MARGARET FLOWERS, MD At a news conference at the National Press Club today, David Scheiner, who was Obama’s personal physician for 22 years, said he would not support a proposal currently working its way through Congress: “If we don’t go the route of single payer, we’re…

  • Medicare Anniversary

    Thursday is the anniversary of Medicare’s enactment. JOHN GEYMAN Geyman is professor emeritus of family medicine at the University of Washington. He is past president of Physicians for a National Health Program and author of the book Shredding the Social Contract: The Privatization of Medicare. He said today: “Medicare on its 44th birthday is remarkably…

  • Obama’s Doctor for Single Payer * Skewed Healthcare Debate

    DAVID SCHEINER, MD, SIDNEY WOLFE, MD, via Barbara Holzer MARGARET FLOWERS, MD Available for a limited number of interviews, Scheiner was President Obama’s doctor from 1987 until he entered the White House. Today Dr. Scheiner is publicly opposing Obama’s health plan and is calling for a single-payer system. See: http://i2.democracynow.org/2009/7/22/president_obamas_longtime_physician_opposes_white. Wolfe is acting president of…

  • Will Ousted Honduras President Return?

    SUYAPA G. PORTILLO VILLEDA Suyapa G. Portillo Villeda is a research fellow at Pomona College and is originally from Honduras. She said today: “With the elected president Zelaya in Nicaragua and saying he will enter Honduras shortly, thousands are gathering at the border and there is a very tense standoff between them and the military.”…

  • Minimum Wage Raise

    On Friday, the federal minimum wage is set to rise to $7.25 an hour, from $6.55. HOLLY SKLAR Co-author of the report “Raise the Minimum Wage to $10 in 2010” and the book Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work For All Of Us, Sklar said today: “The minimum wage is stuck in the…

  • Iraq: Myth and Reality

    President Obama met this afternoon with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. JAMES PAUL Paul is executive director of Global Policy Forum and has written extensively on Iraq. He said today: “For all the talk of ‘U.S. withdrawal’ from Iraq, the reality on the ground is starkly different. U.S. troops still patrol the cities, in flagrant…

  • Congress Copying Massachusetts’ Failing Healthcare?

    STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER Woolhandler is a primary care physician at Cambridge Hospital and associate professor at Harvard Medical School who has studied and written about the Massachusetts healthcare plan. She said today: “As Washington politicians climb on-board a Massachusetts-style health reform, Massachusetts healthcare sinks. “Congress seems poised to include an individual mandate in health reform, copying…

  • Afghanistan Policy: Assessing the Latest

    In recent days, Defense Secretary Robert Gates has publicly opened the door to more U.S. troop deployments in Afghanistan while declaring that “nobody is prepared to have a long slog where it is not apparent we are making headway.” On Sunday, the Los Angeles Times reported that Gates said in an interview: “If we can…

  • Congress Protecting Insurance Companies from States?

    KAY McVAY, MICHAEL LIGHTY CHARLES IDELSON McVay, a registered nurse, is president emeritus of the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee. Lighty and Idelson are spokespersons for the group. McVay said: “With debate underway in the House Education and Labor Committee [on healthcare], an amendment by Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio would remove potential legal…

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