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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  • VA and Education Nominees

    President-elect Obama is nominating Chicago public school CEO Arne Duncan (hearing Tuesday) to be secretary of education and Eric Shinseki (hearing Wednesday) to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. AARON GLANTZ Author of The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans, Glantz is Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism at The Carter Center.…

  • * Clinton * Ross

    Hillary Clinton’s hearing in the Senate for Secretary of State is scheduled for Tuesday. The Financial Times recently reported that Dennis Ross has been selected by President-elect Obama for Mideast envoy, a position Ross held in the Clinton administration. STEPHEN ZUNES Professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and a contributor to Foreign…

  • As Attacks on Gaza Continue

    RICHARD FALK Just back in the U.S. and available for a limited number of interviews with major media, Falk is the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. Last month he was denied entry to Israel. He said today: “It is irresponsible to exclude Hamas from international participation…

  • Obama, Stimulus and Entitlements

    DAVID ROSNICK An economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Rosnick said today: “While short on specific numbers, President-elect Obama helped prepare the country for a large, but much-needed stimulus package to be negotiated by Congress over the next few weeks. Speedy and large should be our watchwords, as the recession continues to…

  • Sanjay Gupta: In Whose Interest?

    AP reports: “President-elect Barack Obama’s reported choice for surgeon general, CNN medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta, could bring a dose of star power to a job that hasn’t had that much clout in decades.” TRUDY LIEBERMAN Lieberman is director of the health and medicine reporting program at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. She just wrote…

  • Intel Nominee “Aided Perpetrators of Killings”

    ALLAN NAIRN Currently in New York City, Nairn is available for a limited number of interviews. A noted independent journalist, he runs the weblog “News and Comment.” Nairn just wrote the piece “Admiral Dennis Blair, Prospective Obama Appointee, Aided Perpetrators of 1999 Church Killings,” which states: “Reports say that President-elect Obama wants to nominate retired…

  • Context for Gaza

    CHRIS HEDGES Hedges just wrote the piece “Lost in the Rubble,” which, among other things, recounts his meeting with Nizar Rayan, who Israel killed in a targeted assassination on Thursday. Author of several books, Hedges covered the Mideast for the New York Times for seven years. AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil is author of several books on…

  • Gaza: Crucial Perspectives

    EDWARD L. PECK Available for a limited number of interviews, Ambassador Peck spent November with a delegation to the Mideast organized by the Council for the National Interest. He was chief of mission in Iraq and Mauritania and deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration. He said today:…

  • Pressing Obama on Peace

    ANN WRIGHT, Reuters reports: “A small group of placard-waving pro-Palestinian demonstrators gathered near U.S. President-elect Barack Obama’s vacation retreat in Hawaii on Tuesday to protest against the Israeli airstrikes in Gaza. … Obama has made no public comment on the strikes, which Israel launched on Saturday.” Wright is a former State Department diplomat and retired…

  • Israeli Military Refuseniks

    OMER GOLDMAN JESSE BACON Goldman is one of the “Shministim” — high school seniors who refuse to enter the Israeli military process. She said today: “I’m proud to refuse to serve in an army that claims to be for humanity and defense but hurts people on a daily basis.” She recently wrote: “I first went…

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