News Items

  • Affidavit by Daniel Ellsberg for Plowshare Activists Being Allowed a Defense of Necessity

    In 1971 I gave the U.S. Senate, the New York Times and the Washington Post copies of what have come to be known as The Pentagon Papers. I was arrested on twelve felony counts. My trial was dismissed because of government misconduct which figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon…These considerations bear on two other elements of the necessity defense, the “lack of legal alternatives” and the “imminence” of the harms to be averted. Again, I speak from my own experience, but not only mine, in saying that it is the perceived insufficiency of other means, by themselves not…

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  • A Long List of Democratic Candidates Requires a Large Catalog of Their Funders

    By Sam Haut: As the first debates for the Democratic primary begin, and the list of candidates has grown to 24, it can be difficult to contextualize where each candidate has received funding from over the course of their time in office. What follows is a list of the Democratic candidates and the top sources for how much money they’ve made and where those top sources come from.

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  • NATO and US Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead

    RootsAction.org held a news conference Thursday on “NATO and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead” hosted by the Institute for Public Accuracy. Speakers include former State Department officials Matthew Hoh, Ann Wright, as well as Martin Fleck. The event was moderated by Norman Solomon.

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  • Media Advisory: “NATO and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead”

    At 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at the National Press Club: On the same day that President Trump is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House, this news conference will focus on the U.S.-NATO relationship. Speakers include former State Department officials Matthew Hoh and Ann Wright.

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  • Statement by Floyd Abrams in response to Attorney General nominee William Barr’s remarks on the First Amendment

    “It’s one thing to say that there could be circumstances in which a journalist’s need to protect her sources could lead to a potential finding of contempt of court if she refused to obey a court order requiring such disclosure. But the notion that a journalist could properly be jailed for publishing material that the government thinks could ‘hurt the country’ is something else entirely and would be deeply threatening to First Amendment norms in general and journalistic freedom in particular.”

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  • Statement on NAFTA’s “Kafkaesque” Turn

    The supposedly concluded renegotiation of NAFTA has reached a Kafkaesque stage. As the United States Trade Representative has stated: “The United States and Mexico have reached a preliminary agreement in principle, subject to finalization and implementation.” Not only the negotiations have not been finalized, and without Canada, but the texts remain hidden from the public.

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  • What’s the Cost of Medicare for All?

    Even a Koch-backed think tank finds Medicare for all would cut health care spending. In a report released by the Mercatus Center, a single-payer health care system would offset costs with even greater savings. The Intercept and other media reporting on this are citing the work of Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler. They are distinguished professors of health policy at the City University of New York at Hunter College and lecturers in medicine at Harvard Medical School. They have written an analysis of the work of the Koch-backed think tank, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which is…

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  • Trump Team Hired Israeli Spy Firm Used by Harvey Weinstein to Attack Obama Officials on Iran Deal

    “Aides to Donald Trump, the U.S. president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a ‘dirty ops’ campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal. People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to ‘get dirt’ on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.”

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  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

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  • 15 Years Later: The Whistleblower Who Almost Blocked the Iraq War

    Media Advisory: Press Conference to Mark 15th Anniversary Of Leak by GCHQ Translator Katharine Gun Revealing US “Dirty Tricks” at UN for Iraq War When:  Thursday, 1 March 2018 at 11:00 a.m. Where:  Head office, National Union of Journalists Headland House, 72 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NB Who:  Katharine Gun, Thomas Drake, Matthew Hoh, Jesselyn Radack This press conference will take place the day before the 15th anniversary of the Observer’s publication of the explosive March 2, 2003 story “US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war” — based on a leak by GCHQ translator Katharine Gun — revealing the US National Security Agency’s UN surveillance memo that aimed to grease the way for the…

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  • * New Healthcare Ads * Corrupted Finance Committee?

    MIKE FARRELL, CLARK NEWHALL Farrell is an actor best known for playing Dr. B.J. Hunnicutt on M*A*S*H. He appears in a series of just-released TV ads calling for healthcare reform. Available for a limited number of interviews, Farrell is author of the book Just Call Me Mike: A Journey to Actor and Activist. One of…

  • Mother’s Day: A Day Against War?

    The first Mother’s Day proclamation, an impassioned plea for peace, was written by Julia Ward Howe in 1870; see here. SUSAN GALLEYMORE, via Karen Pomer Galleymore, author of the new book Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak About War and Terror, said today: “During a trip to Iraq in 2004 to visit my soldier son on…

  • Doctors Arrested at Senate “Roundtable” on Healthcare

    Doctors and other advocates of a national single-payer health system — also known as improved Medicare for All — directly confronted senators at a Senate Finance Committee “roundtable” on health reform today. Videos are available here and C-SPAN coverage is here. One by one, single-payer advocates in the audience stood up and asked why single-payer…

  • Wolves Targeted

    AP reports: “Wolves in parts of the northern Rockies and the Great Lakes region come off the endangered species list on Monday, opening them to public hunts in some states for the first time in decades.” RODGER SCHLICKEISEN, SUZANNE ASHA STONE President of Defenders of Wildlife, Schlickeisen said: “This delisting is a potentially disastrous turn…

  • AIPAC

    The American Israel Public Affairs Committee is holding its annual convention. Speakers include Democratic and Republican leaders from both houses of Congress. On Friday, the administration dropped espionage-related charges against two former officials of AIPAC. MEDEA BENJAMIN RAE ABILEAH Benjamin is co-founder and Abileah is national organizer of the peace group CodePink. During Israeli President…

  • Kagan on the Supreme Court?

    Solicitor General Elena Kagan is widely reported to be a leading contender for the Supreme Court position being vacated by David Souter. FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of law at the University of Illinois, Boyle is author of Tackling America’s Toughest Questions. He said today: “As dean of the Harvard Law School, Kagan hired Bush’s outgoing director…

  • Swine Flu and Factory Farms

    ROBERT WALLACE Wallace is visiting professor in the department of geography at the University of Minnesota and author of the forthcoming book Farming Human Pathogens: Ecological Resilience and Evolutionary Process. He writes a blog called “Farming Pathogens: Disease in a world of our own making.” His most recent piece is “The NAFTA Flu,” available at…

  • Torture, State Secrets and Spanish Prosecution

    FRIDA BERRIGAN In his news conference last night, Obama seemed to claim that the detention center at Guantanamo Bay was closed: “We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantanamo Bay.” Berrigan is an organizer with Witness Against Torture, which is protesting outside the White…

  • Swine Flu: Budgets and Immigration Status

    DAVID KATZ Katz is a family physician at CommuniCare Health Centers in Yolo County, California. He said today: “We have had decreased capacity in our clinics in dealing with something like swine flu because we’ve had county and state cutbacks over the last year. … “CommuniCare is a network of community health centers that cares…

  • Swine Flu and Sick Days

    BARBARA GAULT, via Elisabeth Crum Director of research for the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, Gault said today: “The Centers for Disease Control has recommended that those who are sick should stay home from work or school to avoid infecting others. “However, analyses of Bureau of Labor Statistics and other data conducted by the Institute…

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