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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  • Millions Dead in Congo Virtually Ignored in Election

    This week is “Break the Silence” Congo week, a global initiative led by students to raise awareness and provide support to the people of Congo. Events are planned in more than 30 countries and on 125 college campuses. The Congo has been virtually ignored during the campaign. It was raised in one debate by Tom…

  • Will Rightful Voters Be Able to Vote: Ohio and Colorado

    JENNY FLANAGAN Flanagan is the executive director of Colorado Common Cause. She said today: “The State of Colorado should accept registration applications that contain all necessary identifying information, but lack a checkmark in a superfluous box. Currently, the state is treating these applications as ‘incomplete.’ If this policy goes unchanged, thousands of eligible Colorado voters…

  • The Fed System: Banks Regulating Banks

    AP is reporting this morning: “Testimony is on tap today by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. He’s to talk about the economic outlook before members of the House Budget Committee.” ROBERT AUERBACH Auerbach is professor of public affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He was an economist with the House Committee on Financial…

  • Debate Fallout: * Economic Discussion * D.C. Education System * Colombia

    MAX FRAAD WOLFF Wolff is an instructor at the Graduate Program in International Affairs at the New School University. He is a frequent contributor to Huffington Post, Asia Times and The Indypendent. He cites a disconnect between the economic crisis and the lack of meaningful discussion in the presidential race: “We are still talking tax…

  • Will Mickey Mouse Vote?

    TOVA WANG Wang is the vice president for research at Common Cause. She said today: “It is unfortunate that some would seek to distract us from the real work that needs to be done to ensure a fair election in which every eligible voter can cast a ballot and all the ballots are counted. While…

  • Bomber Pilot McCain: War Heroism or War Crimes?

    ROBERT RICHTER Richter is an Emmy-winning documentary filmmaker and was political director for CBS News from 1965 to 1968. He notes that McCain has repeatedly invoked his record in the Vietnam War during the campaign, but that the effect of bomber pilots like McCain and of the Rolling Thunder bombing campaign has not been sufficiently…

  • Priorities of the Financial System

    NJOKI NJOROGE NJEHU SOREN AMBROSE Co-coordinator of Africa Jubilee South, based in Nairobi, Kenya, Njehu said today: “Governments are bailing out the banks — profit-making institutions — hundreds of billions were found instantly for them. Meanwhile, the debt crisis has continued to devastate life around the world. The G8 has promised to act but has…

  • Allegations of Voter Registration Fraud

    ALEX KEYSSAR Keyssar is the Stirling Professor of History and Social Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard and the author of the book “he Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States. He said today: “Once again we seem to be finding a pattern where allegations of fraud…

  • “Open Bigotry: Islamophobia in the 2008 Presidential Campaign”

    The media watch group FAIR has just launched the web page “Smearcasters: How Islamophobes spread fear, bigotry and misinformation.” ISABEL MacDONALD MacDonald is communications director with FAIR. She recently wrote the piece “The Anti-Muslim Smear Machine Strikes Again?” The piece states: “In the midst of remarkably cynical election-time mud-slinging, the ‘Obsession’ campaign is truly in…

  • Global Financial Crisis

    THOMAS FERGUSON Available for a limited number of interviews, Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He is the author of Golden Rule: The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems (University of Chicago Press). Ferguson noted that the Financial Times reported in its Thursday…

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