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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  • 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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