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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  • Rich Nations Stopping Global Reforms?

    AP reports today: “Developing nations’ hopes for forging a new, more just economic world order appear unlikely to be quickly realized as the United Nations’ Conference on the World Financial and Economic Crisis draws to a close Friday.” On Thursday, Ecuadorean President Rafeal Correa said member states should consider abolishing the International Monetary Fund. He…

  • The Need for Mass Transit

    National Transportation Safety Board officials have stated in recent days that they had warned the D.C.-area Metro that trains were in need of upgrades or replacement. Video is here. FRANK HAMMER Hammer is a retired GM employee of 32 years. He was president of United Auto Workers local 909 and also worked in the GM…

  • A Twitter Revolution?

    REESE ERLICH Just back from covering the Iranian election, Erlich is available for a limited number of interviews with major media. Foreign correspondent and author of The Iran Agenda: The Real Story of U.S. Policy and the Middle East Crisis, Erlich said today: “This isn’t a ‘Twitter Revolution.’ That description trivializes the broad mass movement…

  • General Strike: Possible in Iran? In the U.S.?

    The British Guardian reports today that Mir Hossein Mousavi “appears to be planning a general strike. A discussion on his Facebook page says: ‘We are working on a general strike plan. Please help us with your ideas if you have expertise on this issue.’” BILL FLETCHER Fletcher is co-founder of the Center for Labor Renewal…

  • Cut Out Insurers, Save $400 Billion on Healthcare?

    QUENTIN YOUNG, M.D., via Mark Almberg National coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, Young will be testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.), on Wednesday. Young is past president of the American Public Health Association and is a master in the American College of Physicians. A…

  • “Regulatory Laws Legalize Corporate Harms”

    RICHARD GROSSMAN Grossman’s work on regulation, corporations and governance includes the books Defying Corporations, Defining Democracy (2001); Fear At Work: Job Blackmail, Labor and the Environment (1982) and the best-selling pamphlet Taking Care of Business: Citizenship and the Charter of Incorporation (1993). He said today: “Regulatory laws and agencies legalize corporate harms, rights denials and…

  • More Power for the Fed?

    The New York Times reports: “The plan the president will formally announce on Wednesday would give the Federal Reserve greater supervisory authority over large financial institutions whose problems pose potential risks to the economic system.” ROBERT AUERBACH Professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, Auerbach wrote the book Deception and Abuse…

  • Kennedy Plan Problems and Single-Payer Solutions

    NICHOLAS SKALA Skala, a Juris Doctor candidate and Harry L. Kinser Scholar for Health Law at Northwestern University School of Law and a former senior research associate at Physicians for a National Health Program. He said today: “The Congressional Budget Office estimate predicts that the Senate’s HELP [Health, Education, Labor and Pensions] Committee [chaired by…

  • Carter: Netanyahu ADDING Demands

    The British newspaper the Guardian reports today that Jimmy Carter, who has been in Israel and just met with top Hamas officials in Gaza, said of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s recent speech: “My opinion is he raised many new obstacles to peace that had not existed under previous prime ministers. … He still apparently…

  • Obama, AMA and “Our Traditions”

    Today, President Obama spoke before the American Medical Association. ANNE SHEETZ, MD, via Jim Rhodes A Chicago-based physician, Sheetz only does house calls to elderly home-bound patients. She is protesting with others today across from the AMA convention, where Obama noted that a single-payer option works in other countries but stated that we in the…

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