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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  • Turning Downturn into Depression?

    THOMAS FERGUSON Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The first part of his article “Too Big to Bail: The ‘Paulson Put,’ Presidential Politics, and the Global Financial Meltdown,” written with Robert Johnson, appears in the next issue of the International Journal of Political Economy. He is the author of…

  • Assessing Geithner

    JANE D’ARISTA D’Arista is an economic analyst at the Financial Markets Center. She said today: “Secretary Geithner asserts that the new bailout approach is designed to provide the largest benefit at the least cost to taxpayers. Accordingly, it relies on guarantees in addition to direct lending by the Fed (with capital from the Treasury) and…

  • Solicitor General Nominee Hired Torture Memo Writer

    Harvard Law School Dean Elena Kagan is scheduled to have a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday for the position of solicitor general. She has frequently been mentioned as a possible nominee to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s seat on the Supreme Court. FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of law at the University of Illinois, Boyle…

  • Stimulus and the “Destructive Center”

    Nobel Prize-winning economist and columnist Paul Krugman writes today in a piece titled “The Destructive Center“: “What do you call someone who eliminates hundreds of thousands of American jobs, deprives millions of adequate health care and nutrition, undermines schools, but offers a $15,000 bonus to affluent people who flip their houses? “A proud centrist. For…

  • Afghanistan: Endless War 2.0?

    Reuters reports: “Afghan President Hamid Karzai renewed criticism of U.S. and NATO-led forces on Wednesday and said he was determined his government would take a stronger role in the deployment and work of foreign troops. … The U.N. said on Tuesday the civilian death toll in 2008 had increased by 40 percent to 2,100, more…

  • * Iran * Afghanistan

    GARETH PORTER Porter recently wrote the piece “Is Gates Undermining Another Opening to Iran?” Porter is following the Iran envoy issue. He is an investigative historian and journalist specializing in U.S. national security policy and author of the book Perils of Dominance: Imbalance of Power and the Road to War in Vietnam. More Information RAY…

  • Can the Stimulus Expand the Safety Net?

    Many media outlets have echoed a Wednesday front-page piece in the New York Times headlined “Relief Seen for Jobless and States in Health Care Plan,” which asserted: “The stimulus bill working its way through Congress is not just a package of spending increases and tax cuts intended to jolt the nation out of recession. For…

  • Obama Claims U.S. Not Born a Colonial Power

    “America was not born as a colonial power.” — Barack Obama in his interview on Tuesday with al-Arabiya ROXANNE DUNBAR-ORTIZ Author of the forthcoming Myth and Empire: Indigenous History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz said today in response to Obama’s claim: “The United States was founded as a European settler state, with maps and plans…

  • * Will Mitchell Go to Gaza? * What is Al-Arabiya?

    KATHY KELLY AUDREY STEWART AP reports that Mideast special envoy George Mitchell’s trip “will include stops in Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian West Bank and Saudi Arabia.” Kelly and Stewart are just back from six days in Gaza. Kelly is co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Nonviolence. She said today: “Mitchell has such an opportunity to make…

  • Effective Stimulus: Food Stamps vs. Tax Cuts

    JOSH BIVENS Bivens is an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, which has posted information contrasting the economic benefits of various stimulus provisions, per dollar spent: Food stamps: $1.73 Extend unemployment benefits: $1.64 Infrastructure spending: $1.59 Aid to states: $1.36 In contrast: Make dividend and capital gains tax cuts permanent: $0.37 Corporate tax cuts: $0.30…

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