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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  • Poverty Policy

    GWENDOLYN MINK Co-editor of the two-volume Poverty in the United States: An Encyclopedia of History, Politics and Policy and author of Welfare’s End, Mink said today: “The Administration for Children and Families is THE critical agency for low-income families with children: It is the administrative center of federal poverty policy. Given its reach into family…

  • Mitchell as Mideast Envoy

    NASEER ARURI Aruri is chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and author of the book Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine. He said today: “This is Senator Mitchell’s second assignment in the Middle East since the year 2000, and it may not prove to be…

  • New Evidence: Top Intel Nominee Lied About Knowing of Massacre

    ALLAN NAIRN Currently in Indonesia, Nairn is available for a limited number of interviews with major media outlets. A noted independent journalist, he runs the weblog “News and Comment.” He just wrote the piece “U.S. Intel Nominee Lied About ’99 Massacre. U.S., Church Documents Show Adm. Dennis Blair Knew of Church Killings Before Crucial Meeting,”…

  • “To the Muslim World…”

    ALI ABUNIMAH Abunimah is co-founder of the Electronic Intifada web page and is author of the book One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse. He said today of Obama’s speech: “When he talks about ‘the Muslim world,’ he is reinforcing the idea of conflict between ‘the West’ (which he also mentioned) and…

  • Will Obama Uphold his Oath?

    BRUCE FEIN Author of the book Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy, Fein was a Justice Department attorney in the Nixon administration. Today he and Ralph Nader sent a letter to Barack Obama: “The United States ratified the United Nations Convention Against Torture in 1994. Article 12 of the…

  • Inauguration and Citizenship

    “I don’t think Dr. King would endorse any of us. I think what he would call upon the American people to do is to hold us accountable, and this goes to the core differences, I think, in this campaign. I believe change does not happen from the top down. It happens from the bottom up.…

  • * Healthcare as Stimulus? * Another Wall Street Giveaway?

    GERI JENKINS CHARLES IDELSON SHUM PRESTON Jenkins is co-president of the California Nurses Association. The group has just released a study that finds: “Establishing a national single-payer style healthcare reform system would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs, and infusing $317 billion in new business and public…

  • Obama Inaugural and King’s Legacy

    The following commentators offer different perspectives on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the meaning of Obama’s inauguration: Rev. GRAYLAN S. HAGLER Hagler is national president of Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice of The United Church of Christ. He said today: “In many respects what is happening early next week with…

  • Getting Through the Barriers to Gaza

    LAILA EL-HADDAD A freelance journalist currently in North Carolina, El-Haddad writes the “A Mother From Gaza” blog. HUWAIDA ARRAF, (Cyprus/Gaza) EWA JASIEWICZ, (Gaza) RAMZI KYSIA, (U.S.) The Free Gaza Movement ship, “Spirit of Humanity,” left Cyprus Wednesday on an emergency mission to Gaza. The group states that the ship “is expected to arrive in Gaza…

  • Treasury Pick and Openness

    Timothy Geithner, President-elect Obama’s nominee as Treasury Secretary and president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York since 2003, has had his Senate hearing postponed until Jan. 21. ROBERT AUERBACH Professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, Auerbach wrote the book Deception and Abuse at the Fed: Henry B. Gonzalez…

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