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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  • The Presidential Candidates and Israel

    Rabbi ARNOLD JACOB WOLF Sen. Barack Obama lives across the street from Rabbi Wolf’s synagogue, KAM Isaiah Israel, Chicago’s oldest Jewish congregation. Wolf, who has known Obama for about 10 years, said today: “Some of what has been ascribed to Obama is ridiculous. He takes very cautious positions on the Mideast. I am a supporter…

  • With McCain Visiting the White House, New Spotlight on Lobbying Scandal

    “At no time have I ever done anything that would betray the public trust nor make a decision which in any way would not be in the public interest and would favor anyone or any organization.” — Sen. John McCain, Feb. 21, 2008 JEROLD STARR Starr just wrote the Nation magazine piece “The Other Side…

  • From Gaza

    AFP is reporting today: “Israel vowed on Monday to keep hitting Gaza even as troops pulled out of the … territory after clashes that killed at least 120 Palestinians.” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will travel to Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories and Brussels from March 3 to 7. The following individuals are in Gaza,…

  • Obama Finance Chair Tied to Sub-Prime Disaster

    DENNIS BERNSTEIN Bernstein just wrote the piece “Obama’s Sub-Prime Conflict” for ConsortiumNews.com. He said today: “During a recent campaign stop in south Texas, Obama met with San Antonio-area residents who had been particularly hard hit by the sub-prime meltdown. He expressed dismay over how lobbyists for the sub-prime lending industry had spent more than $185…

  • The White House Agenda on Iran

    The New York Times reports: “The [UN] Security Council is expected to vote in the coming days on a third resolution to tighten sanctions against Iran… [Iranian ambassador Mohammad] Khazaee … brought up a new report released by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna on Friday, which said that suspicions about many Iranian activities…

  • Why do McCain, Obama and Clinton Want a Bigger Military?

    ERIK LEAVER Leaver is a research fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. He said today: “Obama and Clinton have both talked about cutting some wasteful systems but both have also talked about increasing the size of the military — a far more costly endeavor. So any of those savings will be dwarfed by troop…

  • Cuba and Terrorism: Villain or Victim?

    “I think it’s naive to think you can sit down and have unconditional talks with a person [Raul Castro] who has [been] part of a government that has been a state sponsor of terrorism not only in the hemisphere but throughout the world.” — Sen. John McCain, Feb. 23, 2008 http://www.democracynow.org/2008/2/25/headlines#2 WAYNE SMITH Available for…

  • Cuba and Castro

    AP reports: “On Sunday, the [Cuban] assembly will name the president, first vice president and five other vice presidents, and 24 other members of the Council of State. Fidel, who was re-elected to the National Assembly, could remain on the council but is unlikely to receive a top position.” PETER ROMAN Author of People’s Power:…

  • Serbian-Kosovo Crisis

    STEPHEN ZUNES Professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, Zunes returned from Serbia last week. He just wrote the piece “Kosovo and the Politics of Recognition.” Zunes said today: “Even among longstanding supporters of independence for Kosovo, the eagerness with which the Bush administration extended diplomatic recognition immediately upon that country’s declaration of…

  • Behind the Satellite Shoot-Down

    The Times of London reports that the U.S. government’s “decision to destroy a defunct spy satellite orbiting Earth by firing a missile into outer space provoked a diplomatic row today, with both China and Russia accusing the U.S. of having carried out a covert weapons test.” ALICE SLATER Slater is director of the Nuclear Age…

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