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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  • Will Holder Uphold the Law on Torture?

    CHRISTOPHER H. PYLE Pyle is professor of politics at Mount Holyoke College and author of the new book Getting Away with Torture, about war crimes of the Bush administration. He said today: “By refusing to enforce the laws against torture impartially, President Obama and Attorney General Holder are not only violating their oath of office;…

  • Insider on Health Insurance PR

    The Bill Moyers Journal webpage states: “Last month, testimony in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation by a former health insurance insider named Wendell Potter made news even before it occurred: CBS News headlined: ‘Cigna Whistleblower to Testify.’ After Potter’s testimony the industry scrambled to do damage control: ‘Insurers defend…

  • Honduras: Will a Coup Continue to Stand?

    ANDRES THOMAS CONTERIS Andrés Thomas Conteris is director of Nonviolence International’s Program on the Americas. He is in contact with various political groups and officials in Honduras, is available for interviews and can also facilitate arranging interviews with others. He is also founder of Democracy Now! en Español and was on Democracy Now! recently. HECTOR…

  • In Norway, Obama a “Right Winger”

    GEORGE LAKEY Lakey, who is writing a book on Norway, just wrote the piece “Seeing Obama as Norwegians See Him,” which states: “I just returned from a research trip to Norway where the people I interviewed often brought up the topic of our new president. The first was Kristin Clemet, the director of a conservative…

  • “The Obama Justice System”

    The Wall Street Journal reports today: “The Obama administration said Tuesday it could continue to imprison non-U.S. citizens indefinitely even if they have been acquitted of terrorism charges by a U.S. military commission. “Jeh Johnson, the Defense Department’s chief lawyer, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that releasing a detainee who has been tried and…

  • Obama, Africa and Priorities

    Obama is scheduled to go to Ghana on Friday evening after spending several days at the G-8 meeting in Rome. The G-8 are scheduled to include African and other representatives in some of their meetings. EMIRA WOODS Woods is co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies, specializing in Africa and…

  • McNamara: U.S. a Violator of Proliferation Treaty

    President Obama emphasized proliferation issues at his news conference with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today. Robert McNamara, who died today, is most noted for presiding over much of the escalation of the Vietnam War during the Johnson administration; he was also an increasingly outspoken advocate on nuclear non-proliferation. In 2005, former Secretary of Defense McNamara…

  • Obama in Russia

    BORIS KAGARLITSKY Director of the Institute for Globalization and Social Movements in Moscow, Kagarlitsky is the author of Empire of the Periphery: Russia and the World System and The Revolt of the Middle Class. He was arrested under Brezhnev and under Yeltsin for his political activism. Kagarlitsky was just interviewed by Russia Today. KATRINA VANDEN…

  • U.S. Withdrawal from Iraq: Looking Ahead

    RICK REYES A veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Reyes has testified in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He said today: “Obama’s plan to step down our presence in Iraqi cities only to step up our presence in Afghan cities gets us no closer to ending these disastrous occupations. Obama’s renaming the…

  • Coup in Honduras

    GREG GRANDIN [in New York City] Greg Grandin teaches history at New York University. He is the author of Empire’s Workshop: Latin America, the United States, and the Rise of the New Imperialism and The Last Colonial Massacre: Latin America in the Cold War. He said today: “Obama needs to align his position with the…

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