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.”

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.’”

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • The Secret World of Voter Purges

    MYRNA PEREZ WENDY WEISER Pérez is counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law and the author of the report “Voter Purges.” Weiser is the deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center. The Brennan Center is today releasing one of the first systematic examinations of…

  • Is McCain’s “League of Democracies” an Attempt to Kill the UN?

    During the first presidential debate, Sen. John McCain repeatedly referred to his proposal for a “League of Democracies.” The following analysts have followed this proposal and can assess it: THOMAS CAROTHERS Director of the Democracy and Rule of Law Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Carothers wrote the policy brief “Is a League…

  • Bailout: “A Gun Pointed at Their Head”

    DEAN BAKER Co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Baker just wrote the piece “Why Bail? The Banks Have a Gun Pointed at Their Head and Are Threatening to Pull the Trigger,” which states: “There is no plausible scenario under which the no-bailout scenario gives us a Great Depression. There is a more…

  • Will There Be Any Meaningful Foreign Policy Debate?

    STEPHEN ZUNES Professor of politics at the University of San Francisco and a contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus, Zunes said today: “It is ironic that the John McCain [campaign] has used the financial crisis as an excuse to call for postponing the foreign policy debate in Oxford, given that the enormous deficit spending resulting…

  • Economic Crisis

    Protests are planned today around the United States. Among the organizers: Arun Gupta, citizen organizer, New York City Cesar Maxit, FranklinkShelter.org Andrew Boyd, citizen organizer, New York City Matt Holland, TrueMajority.org David Elliot, TrueMajority.org/USAction THOMAS FERGUSON Available for a limited number of interviews, Ferguson is professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Boston.…

  • Michigan and Ohio Voter Issues

    The Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Michigan and the law firm of Pepper Hamilton LLP filed a federal lawsuit challenging two statewide voter purge programs in advance of the November 2008 presidential election. BRADLEY HEARD Bradley Heard is a senior attorney with the Advancement Project, which released the following statement:…

  • Veterans But Not Voters?

    SHARON KUFELDT Kufeldt is the vice-president of Veterans for Peace. She said today: “More than 100,000 people reside for a month or longer at Department of Veterans Affairs facilities nationally. Instead of working hard to enable veterans to register to vote, the VA is obstructing nonpartisan groups who are working to register these people. Even…

  • As the U.N. Meets: The Spy Who Tried to Stop a War

    Katharine Gun, a former British government employee, faced two years imprisonment in England for leaking a U.S. intelligence memo before the invasion of Iraq. The memo indicated that the U.S. had mounted a spying “surge” against U.N. Security Council delegations in early 2003 in an effort to win approval for an Iraq war resolution. The…

  • Corporate Power: Is Regulation Enough?

    EDWARD S. HERMAN Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He said today: “Essentially, the Bush administration plan is Wall Street bailing itself out with taxpayers’ money, after Wall Street had failed to carry out its financial functions with efficiency and integrity, and with the bailout organized…

  • Paulson Plan “Would Be Disaster”

    AP is reporting: “The man behind the Bush administration’s sweeping intervention in the U.S. financial system is a former Goldman Sachs executive who came to Washington two years ago hoping to streamline regulation of the financial services sector.” DORENE ISENBERG Isenberg is chair of the Economics Department at the University of Redlands. She said today:…

Mastodon