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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  • Responses to Obama’s Cairo Speech

    JOEL BEININ Professor of Middle East History at Stanford, Beinin was recently a visiting professor at the American University in Cairo. MEDEA BENJAMIN ANN WRIGHT Currently in Cairo, Benjamin is a founder of CodePink and was just in Gaza, where she was given a letter to Obama from Hamas. She said today: “While Osama bin…

  • Chomsky on Obama Speech

    NOAM CHOMSKY Chomsky, whose recent books include Interventions and The Essential Chomsky, sent the following to the Institute for Public Accuracy this morning: “A CNN headline, reporting Obama’s plans for his June 4 Cairo address, reads ‘Obama looks to reach the soul of the Muslim world.’ Perhaps that captures his intent, but more significant is…

  • Healthcare: What Can We Learn from Europe?

    President Obama is scheduled to be in Germany on Friday and France on Saturday. BRIGITTE MARTI MARGARET FLOWERS Marti and Flowers are co-chairs of the Maryland chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program (a national organization of 16,000 physicians, medical students and health professionals who support single-payer national health insurance). Sen. Max Baucus of…

  • Obama in Cairo

    HOSSAM EL-HAMALAWY El-Hamalawy is a journalist and blogger in Cairo. More Information HEDY EPSTEIN Epstein, a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust, is author of Remembering Is Not Enough. After World War II, she worked at the Nuremberg Medical Trial, which tried the doctors accused of performing medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. She said today:…

  • Nader on GM

    RALPH NADER Consumer advocate Nader first came onto the national scene with his book Unsafe at Any Speed about GM and its Chevrolet Corvair. He said today: “We have to recognize the total autocratic, secretive way this bankruptcy was initiated. Congress, which in 1979 had thorough public hearings on the Chrysler bailout and a few…

  • Obama Urged to Go to Gaza

    Obama is scheduled to meet with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and to make a speech in Cairo on Thursday. AMJAD SHAWA Shawa, the Palestinian Non-Governmental Organization Network coordinator for Gaza, said today: “Gaza is still under siege — there’s been no real movement from the U.S. to pressure Israel to allow the…

  • North Korea’s Logic

    TAD DALEY Daley is a writing fellow with International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War and author of the book Apocalypse Never: Forging the Path to a Nuclear Weapon-Free World, forthcoming from Rutgers University Press. He recently wrote the piece “Maybe We Should Take the North Koreans at Their Word.” Daley said today: “Both…

  • GM and Unemployment

    AP reports that according to government data released today, “the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits rose to 6.78 million — the largest total on records dating back to 1967 and the 17th straight record week.” FRANK HAMMER Hammer is a retired GM employee of 32 years. He was president of United Auto…

  • North Korea and Malign Neglect

    JOHN FEFFER Co-director of Foreign Policy In Focus, Feffer is author of The Future of U.S.-Korean Relations. He said today: “North Korea’s second nuclear test is certainly not good news. But the Obama administration would make a mistake to treat North Korea with malign neglect. Pyongyang has backed away from using its nuclear program as…

  • Sotomayor Nomination

    MARJORIE COHN Cohn is the president of the National Lawyers Guild and a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. She said today: “It is significant that President Obama has nominated the first Latino to the Supreme Court and Sonia Sotomayor will bring to two the number of women on the high court. She will…

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