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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  • 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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