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…

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • A Resurgence of Separatist Terrorism in Iraq

    AP is reporting: “Suicide bombers, including at least three women, struck Shiite pilgrims in Baghdad and Kurdish protesters in the northern city of Kirkuk on Monday, killing at least 57 people…” STEVE CONNORS and MOLLY BINGHAM Connors and Bingham are co-directors of the documentary “Meeting Resistance,” which features interviews with insurgents in Iraq. Connors said…

  • Obama’s Economic Team

    NAOMI KLEIN Available for a limited number of D.C.-based interviews, Klein is author of the book The Shock Doctrine and the recent piece “Obama’s Chicago Boys.” The piece notes: “Barack Obama waited just three days after Hillary Clinton pulled out of the race to declare, on CNBC, ‘Look. I am a pro-growth, free-market guy. I…

  • Activists Challenge the Siege of Gaza

    The Free Gaza Movement is organizing a boat of activists to enter Gaza by sea via Cyprus. Among the activists: HEDY EPSTEIN Born in Germany, Epstein is a survivor of the Nazi Holocaust. She said today: “I wish Sen. Obama had talked about walls not only in Berlin, but also when he was in Israel,…

  • Impeachment on the Table?

    The House Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing today “on the Imperial Presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses.” The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports: “While Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan is not billing the hearing as an effort to impeach Bush, Cleveland Democratic Rep. Dennis Kucinich will attend to make his…

  • Minimum Wage Hike

    The federal minimum wage will increase 70 cents per hour Thursday to $6.55 per hour. HOLLY SKLAR Co-author of the report “A Just Minimum Wage: Good For Workers, Business and Our Future” and the book Raise The Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All of Us Sklar said today: “The July 24 minimum wage…

  • Foreign Policy

    PHYLLIS BENNIS A fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis just returned to Washington, D.C., from the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A piece she wrote is scheduled to be published at The Nation this afternoon. PEPE ESCOBAR Author of Red Zone Blues: A snapshot of Baghdad during the surge and Globalistan: An Antidote to ‘The…

  • Implications of Torture

    RICK SHENKMAN Editor of the History News Network, Shenkman is author of the just-released book Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter. He said today: “Despite Watergate, Republicans have never given up their belief in an imperial presidency. If the president does something, it’s not illegal, was Nixon’s line of…

  • Can the President Detain Anyone Indefinitely?

    Ali Al-Marri, who was living in Peoria, Illinois, with his wife and children, was awaiting trial in 2003. A month before his trial, he was deemed an ‘enemy combatant’ by the president. He has been held in solitary confinement ever since. On Tuesday, the Fourth Circuit ruled that the president has the authority to detain…

  • * Stagflation * The Military Drain

    DOUG HENWOOD Henwood is author of the book Wall Street and editor of Left Business Observer. He said today: “The U.S. economy continues to be dominated by the contradictory forces of stagnation and inflation — a reincarnation of that 1970s monster, stagflation. This morning we learned that inflation is running at a 5 percent annual…

  • Fannie Mae Bailout

    ROBERT POLLIN Pollin is the Political Economy Research Institute’s founding co-director and professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Pollin recently wrote the piece “The Housing Bubble and Financial Deregulation: Isn’t Enough Enough?” which states: “The collapse at the end of 2007 of the U.S. housing bubble and the speculative market for…

Mastodon