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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  • Jimmy Carter Began the Free Market Revolution Before Reagan, New Historical Evidence Shows

    “My research has found that Carter was far more conservative than previously recognized. Evidence from newly opened archives show that Carter initiated the deregulation of U.S. industry and finance, reduced the power of organized labor, lowered taxes on business, and imposed austerity measures that intentionally raised unemployment among working people.”

  • Israel Targets Media Again 

    CommonDreams reports: “Israel Launches Massive Bombing Campaign in Lebanon as ‘U,S, Weapons Continue to Flow.'”  Antiwar.com reports: “Netanyahu Considers Ethnic Cleansing Plan for North Gaza.” See Antiwar news with Dave DeCamp. Jeremy Scahill posted: “Media should stop saying Israel is telling people in southern Lebanon to ‘evacuate.’ Israel is engaged in psychological warfare against civilians as…

  • Israel and a Wider War

    “One of the Biden administration’s biggest mistakes over the past few months has been to frame the protracted ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel as only focused on Gaza, without recognizing that all of Iran’s allies in the region, especially Hezbollah and the Houthis, have made clear that they too would stand down once the…

  • Tax-Exempt Nonprofit Electioneering to Boost GOP

    A new Center for Media and Democracy report found that American Majority, a tax-exempt group, trains Republican candidates and party organizations on how to win elections. But the organization’s tax-exempt status prohibits it from such activities. CMD filed complaints with the Internal Revenue Service and the Minnesota attorney general’s office, requesting a thorough investigation into…

  • UN Demands Israel End Occupation

    “Implement the findings of the World Court that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza is entirely unlawful and must be quickly dismantled, Palestinians must be compensated and allowed to return, Israel is practicing apartheid and racial segregation, and all states are obliged to cut off all support and end the occupation.”

  • Humanitarian Groups Demand Pressure to End “Israel’s Systematic Aid Obstruction”

    The Norwegian Refugee Council and 15 other aid organizations just released a statement: “Israel’s siege now blocks 83 percent of food aid reaching Gaza, new data reveals.” They “demand international pressure for an immediate ceasefire, arms embargo, and end to Israel’s systematic aid obstruction.” The groups stated: “New data has revealed the scale of aid…

  • UN to Vote on “Mild Resolution” From Court Rulings on Palestine

    “UN General Assembly, using Uniting for Peace, with a two-thirds of voting members could suspend Israel from participation in its activities as the General Assembly did to the former criminal apartheid regime in South Africa and to the genocidal Yugoslavia; Set up an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel in order to prosecute its highest level…

  • Peace Groups Call on UN to Impose Arms Embargo on Israel

    They call on members states to “embargo arms, oil and tech on Israel to stop settler terrorism and destruction in the West Bank and Israeli military genocide in Gaza.”

  • New Census Data on Poverty

    Census data on poverty rates from 2023 were just released. The data shows the consequences of failing to apply lessons from the pandemic’s anti-poverty measures. Poverty rates remain high relative to the progress made in 2021.

  • Uninsured Numbers Grew Under Trump

    The number of U.S. residents without health insurance rose by 2 million during Donald Trump’s presidency and fell by 3.3 million under Joe Biden’s. That decrease led to the lowest rate of residents without health insurance in U.S. history. Under Trump, meanwhile, 39 states saw increases in their uninsured rates. 

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