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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  • Estimate: 120 Veteran Suicides Per Week

    Late last year, a CBS News investigation found that in 2005 “there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year.” Last week, CBS News reported on data it had just obtained from the government on veterans who were recently treated…

  • Five Years After Invading Iraq

    IMAD KHADDURI Khadduri is author of the book Iraq’s Nuclear Mirage: Memoirs and Delusions. He worked on the Iraq nuclear weapons program beginning in 1981 and left Iraq for Canada in the late 1990s. Before the invasion of Iraq, Khadduri argued that, contrary to what the Bush administration was claiming, the Iraqi nuclear weapons program…

  • Churches Criticizing Governments

    Rev. JOHN DECKENBACK Conference minister for The United Church of Christ (the same denomination as Rev. Jeremiah Wright), Deckenback said today: “UCC has in its DNA from its very beginnings being responsible critics of our society. That’s rooted in the Amistad story (which holds a special place in UCC’s teachings). “There is a need for…

  • Fed Giving Wall Street a Nanny-State Bailout?

    Reuters reports: “A fire sale of Bear Stearns Cos Inc stunned Wall Street and pummeled global financial stocks on Monday on fears that few banks are safe from deepening market turmoil. … The combination of Bear Stearns’ bailout and the Fed’s offer on Sunday to extend direct lending to securities firms for the first time…

  • Five Years Later — Oil Contracts: Success of War?

    BEN LANDO President Bush has repeatedly called for the passage of the proposed Iraqi oil law. Lando is energy editor for UPI. He has recently launched the web page IraqOilReport.com. ANTONIA JUHASZ Juhasz is the author of the book The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time and is with the group…

  • Adm. Fallon and Attacking Iran

    The Washington Post reports on its front page today that Adm. William Fallon “had made several comments reflecting disagreement with the administration’s stance on Iran, most recently in an Esquire magazine article last week that portrayed him as the only person who might stop Bush from going to war with the Islamic republic.” GARETH PORTER…

  • Iraq Veterans Speak: Winter Soldier Hearings

    ADAM KOKESH KELLY DOUGHERTY Kokesh is co-chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War; Dougherty is the group’s executive director; they can direct media to other veterans from around the country. IVAW released a statement: “Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan is a four-day summit that will bring more than 200 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans together ……

  • Five Years into Iraq War, a Key Question: How Did This Happen in the First Place?

    Drawing on extensive archival research, the documentary film “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death” makes its New York City theatrical debut with an engagement starting Friday (March 14) at the Quad Cinema in Manhattan. Coinciding with the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the documentary’s premiere in New…

  • Bush and McCain on Torture

    President George W. Bush said in his latest weekend radio address: “Congress recently sent me an intelligence authorization bill that would diminish these vital tools. So today, I vetoed it. And here is why: The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror — the…

  • The Presidential Candidates and South America Tensions

    ABC News reports: “Standing side by side in a show of solidarity, Venezuela President Hugo Chavez and Ecuador President Rafael Correa stood firm in their support of one another after days of accusations lobbed back and forth between the two countries and Colombia.” JO ROSANO Rosano is the mother of Marc Gonsalves, a Pentagon contractor…

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