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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  • Malcolm X’s Legacy

    February is Black History Month. Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965. KEVIN GRAY Author of the new book The Decline of Black Politics: From Malcolm X to Barack Obama, Gray said today: “Whenever anyone uses the phrase ‘by any means necessary’ we automatically think of Malcolm X, otherwise known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz.…

  • Obama and Canadian Healthcare

    President Obama is in Canada today. CLAUDIA FEGAN and via Mark Almberg Co-author of the book Universal Health Care: What the United States Can Learn from the Canadian Experience, Fegan is former president of Physicians for a National Health Program. She said today: “Obama has said that if we were starting over, a Canadian-style system…

  • Afghanistan Escalation Creep

    The New York Times reports: “President Obama will send an additional 17,000 American troops to Afghanistan this spring and summer in the first major military move of his presidency, White House officials said on Tuesday. The increase would come on top of 36,000 American troops already there, making for an increase of nearly 50 percent.”…

  • Auto Industry and the Environment

    SUSAN HELPER Professor of regional economic development at Case Western University in Ohio, Helper focuses on the auto industry. She recently co-wrote a piece in the New Republic magazine: “Better Than a Bailout: Here’s how to rescue Detroit without forcing them into bankruptcy.” More Information AL BENCHICH Retired president of UAW local 909 and a…

  • Who Was George Washington?

    George Washington’s birthday is February 22. HARVEY WASSERMAN Author of Harvey Wasserman’s History of the United States, Wasserman said today: “Washington inherited substantial riches from his wife Martha, the widow of Daniel Custis, a wealthy plantation owner who died when she was 26. She married George soon thereafter. He was (and is) often referred to…

  • Obama, Lincoln and Native Americans

    JAY WINTER NIGHTWOLF Nightwolf is host of “The Nightwolf Show” on WPFW Radio in Washington, D.C. and a member of the Echota Cherokee nation. More Information ROXANNE DUNBAR-ORTIZ Author of the forthcoming books Home of the Brave and Myth and Empire: Indigenous History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz said today: “President Barack Obama, speaking at…

  • GOP “Filibuster Hypocrisy”

    ROBERT PARRY Parry is editor of ConsortiumNews.com, a reader-supported investigative webpage. He recently wrote the piece “The GOP’s Filibuster Hypocrisy,” which states: “Though seemingly forgotten by most TV talking heads, it was only three years ago, when the Republicans had control of both the White House and Congress — and ‘filibuster’ was a dirty word.…

  • Venezuela Referendum

    Reuters reports: “Venezuelans will vote on Sunday in a referendum on lifting a two-term limit on presidents, which would allow Hugo Chavez to remain in power for as long as he keeps winning elections.” DEBORAH JAMES Director of international programs at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, James said today: “It is not surprising…

  • Getting the Credit Card Industry Under Control

    The Senate Banking Committee is holding hearings today on the credit card industry. ROBERT MANNING Available for a limited number of interviews, Manning is author of Credit Card Nation. He said today: “The credit card industry is the most unregulated sector of retail banking with an economic impact that could play an even greater role…

  • The Year of Lincoln — and John Brown

    DAVID S. REYNOLDS Distinguished professor at the CUNY Graduate Center, Reynolds is author of John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights. He said today: “This is a year for Americans to remember not only Abraham Lincoln but also his great antislavery contemporary, John Brown. This bicentennial…

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