News Items

  • Affidavit by Daniel Ellsberg for Plowshare Activists Being Allowed a Defense of Necessity

    In 1971 I gave the U.S. Senate, the New York Times and the Washington Post copies of what have come to be known as The Pentagon Papers. I was arrested on twelve felony counts. My trial was dismissed because of government misconduct which figured in the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon…These considerations bear on two other elements of the necessity defense, the “lack of legal alternatives” and the “imminence” of the harms to be averted. Again, I speak from my own experience, but not only mine, in saying that it is the perceived insufficiency of other means, by themselves not…

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  • A Long List of Democratic Candidates Requires a Large Catalog of Their Funders

    By Sam Haut: As the first debates for the Democratic primary begin, and the list of candidates has grown to 24, it can be difficult to contextualize where each candidate has received funding from over the course of their time in office. What follows is a list of the Democratic candidates and the top sources for how much money they’ve made and where those top sources come from.

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  • NATO and US Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead

    RootsAction.org held a news conference Thursday on “NATO and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead” hosted by the Institute for Public Accuracy. Speakers include former State Department officials Matthew Hoh, Ann Wright, as well as Martin Fleck. The event was moderated by Norman Solomon.

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  • Media Advisory: “NATO and U.S. Foreign Policy: Dangers Ahead”

    At 10 a.m. Tuesday, April 2, 2019 at the National Press Club: On the same day that President Trump is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the White House, this news conference will focus on the U.S.-NATO relationship. Speakers include former State Department officials Matthew Hoh and Ann Wright.

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  • Statement by Floyd Abrams in response to Attorney General nominee William Barr’s remarks on the First Amendment

    “It’s one thing to say that there could be circumstances in which a journalist’s need to protect her sources could lead to a potential finding of contempt of court if she refused to obey a court order requiring such disclosure. But the notion that a journalist could properly be jailed for publishing material that the government thinks could ‘hurt the country’ is something else entirely and would be deeply threatening to First Amendment norms in general and journalistic freedom in particular.”

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  • Statement on NAFTA’s “Kafkaesque” Turn

    The supposedly concluded renegotiation of NAFTA has reached a Kafkaesque stage. As the United States Trade Representative has stated: “The United States and Mexico have reached a preliminary agreement in principle, subject to finalization and implementation.” Not only the negotiations have not been finalized, and without Canada, but the texts remain hidden from the public.

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  • What’s the Cost of Medicare for All?

    Even a Koch-backed think tank finds Medicare for all would cut health care spending. In a report released by the Mercatus Center, a single-payer health care system would offset costs with even greater savings. The Intercept and other media reporting on this are citing the work of Drs. David Himmelstein and Steffie Woolhandler. They are distinguished professors of health policy at the City University of New York at Hunter College and lecturers in medicine at Harvard Medical School. They have written an analysis of the work of the Koch-backed think tank, the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, which is…

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  • Trump Team Hired Israeli Spy Firm Used by Harvey Weinstein to Attack Obama Officials on Iran Deal

    “Aides to Donald Trump, the U.S. president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a ‘dirty ops’ campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal, the Observer can reveal. People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to ‘get dirt’ on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.”

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  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

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  • 15 Years Later: The Whistleblower Who Almost Blocked the Iraq War

    Media Advisory: Press Conference to Mark 15th Anniversary Of Leak by GCHQ Translator Katharine Gun Revealing US “Dirty Tricks” at UN for Iraq War When:  Thursday, 1 March 2018 at 11:00 a.m. Where:  Head office, National Union of Journalists Headland House, 72 Acton Street, London, WC1X 9NB Who:  Katharine Gun, Thomas Drake, Matthew Hoh, Jesselyn Radack This press conference will take place the day before the 15th anniversary of the Observer’s publication of the explosive March 2, 2003 story “US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war” — based on a leak by GCHQ translator Katharine Gun — revealing the US National Security Agency’s UN surveillance memo that aimed to grease the way for the…

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  • Haiti: A Natural Disaster?

    MATT MAREK Available for a limited number of interviews, Marek is head of programs for the American Red Cross in Haiti. He is in rural Haiti, where he is traveling in isolated communities to facilitate aid deliveries. PAUL FARMER Available for a limited number of interviews, Farmer is just back from Haiti. He is author…

  • * Outsourcing the G.I. Bill? * Making of “the Greatest Generation”

    The House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs is holding a hearing Thursday on the G.I. Bill. AARON GLANTZ Author of the forthcoming book The War Comes Home: Washington’s Battle Against America’s Veterans, Glantz reported extensively from Iraq as an unembedded journalist from 2003 to 2005. He has been covering U.S. war veterans since his return. He…

  • 9/11 Family Member Just Back from Iraq

    TERRY ROCKEFELLER Rockefeller is just back from Iraq. She lost her sister, Laura, in the attacks on the World Trade Center and is a member of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, which just released the following statement: “On Thursday, September 11, 2008, the first bell will ring at 8:46 am. Bells will ring at…

  • Causes of Fannie’s Collapse — and How to Stop the Speculators

    JAMES K. GALBRAITH Galbraith’s latest book is The Predator State: How Conservatives Abandoned the Free Market and Why Liberals Should Too. He said today: “The collapse of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is partly the result of their own practices, but it is also part and parcel of the broader collapse of regulation that took…

  • Group Calls for Making Presidential Debates Contract Public

    GEORGE FARAH Executive director of the group Open Debates, Farah said today: “Sen. Lindsay Graham of the McCain campaign and Rep. Rahm Emanuel of the Obama campaign have negotiated a detailed contract that dictates the terms of the 2008 presidential debates, including who can participate and the structure of the formats. The Commission on Presidential…

  • “You Can’t Win an Occupation”

    ADAM KOKESH Kokesh held up a sign — “You Can’t Win an Occupation” on one side and “McCain Votes Against Vets” on the other — at the beginning of McCain’s speech at the Republican convention last night. Video is online. A member of the board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Kokesh said today: “It’s…

  • Palin: * Record * Teen Moms * Disability Rights

    SHANNYN MOORE KELLY WALTERS Moore is a radio talk show host in Anchorage. She has covered Palin for years and interviewed her numerous times. Walters is Moore’s producer. Several recent pieces by Moore and other material on Palin are at the “Progressive Alaska” blog. MIMI ABRAMOVITZ Abramovitz is professor at Hunter College School of Social…

  • McCain: Vietnam and Iraq

    BEAU GROSSCUP Author of the book Strategic Terror: The Politics and Ethics of Aerial Bombardment, Grosscup is professor of international relations at California State University in Chico. He said today: “McCain was part of Operation Rolling Thunder, which was bombing ‘military targets’ in North Vietnam. Military targets by then included civilian ‘dual use’ infrastructure; thus…

  • Why was al-Arian Imprisoned?

    AP reports today: “A former Florida professor once accused of being a leading Palestinian terrorist was released from custody yesterday for the first time in more than five years, hours ahead of a judge’s deadline for the government to explain why he was still being held by immigration officials. … “A federal judge on several…

  • Convention Clampdown?

    EILEEN CLANCY Founder of I-Witness Video, Clancy said today: “It seems that we’ve been targeted by the FBI for disruption. On Saturday, the FBI visited the house we were staying at and a few hours later it was raided by the police. Several members of I-Witness Video were held inside for at least three hours.…

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