News Items

  • Calls to Suspend Syrian Refugee and Other Recent Anti-Muslim Statements by Government Officials

    Compiled by the Institute for Public Accuracy with Arun Kundnani and Deepa Kumar. Kundnani said: “While it’s very easy to denounce Trump’s recent repugnant, bullying statements — and much of the political class has — it’s important to keep several things in mind: First, as the compilation of statements by elected officials makes clear, he made these statements after many officials from across the country made scores of statements playing on unfounded fears against Syrian refugees and other Muslims.”

    Read more »


  • Classified Politics: A System and a Clinton in Disrepute

    It is most unlikely, however, that Hillary Clinton will fall victim to accusations that rely on improper over-­classification. The State Department and White House, including President Obama himself, sought to protect her and to minimize the effects of her behavior. The case is extremely high­-profile, Democrats in Congress would attack any borderline classification, and a host of well-­paid lawyers would rise to her defense. Improperly classified items or those deemed Sensitive but Unclassified may be redacted from publicly released documents, but it is hard to imagine that Mrs. Clinton would be falsely accused of felonies.

    Read more »


  • Video of Sterling News Conference

    Please enjoy the full video of Holly Sterling’s news conference, which was her first such appearance since her husband’s trial and imprisonment. The news conference also featured Thomas Drake, Delphine Halgand, Ray McGovern, and Jesselyn Radack.

    Read more »


  • Open Letter to President Obama from Holly Sterling

    Does the government have no shame in destroying one man’s life and wasting tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to punish a man who had the audacity to do two things: Stand up for his constitutional rights and utilize proper channels provided to him to express concern for the citizens of our country? I am deeply saddened by our lives’ events that Jeffrey and I have suffered and endured. You publicly committed to a transparent government led by your administration, yet it has been shrouded in mistruth and secrecy.

    Read more »


  • Unprecedented News Conference: Wife of Imprisoned CIA Whistleblower to Speak Out

    Jeffrey Sterling was convicted under the Espionage Act as a source for New York Times reporter James Risen’s book State of War. He began serving his three-and-a-half year prison sentence in June. His wife’s news conference will be the first time the spouse of a CIA whistleblower has made such an appearance.

    Read more »


  • Cultural Shift Needed on Police Militarization

    Police militarization is a 25 year long trend that has only grown in momentum over time. The restrictions on militaristic gear directed by the White House while important symbolically, will certainly not substantively impact this trend in and of itself. Police militarization at this point is as much a cultural problem as it is a material one, and reversing the cultural trend toward police militarization will require more far reaching efforts.

    Read more »


  • Watch the Short Documentary “The Invisible Man: CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling”

    “‘The federal courtroom in northern Virginia where Holly and Jeffrey Sterling returned for the sentencing on May 11 was the scene of a disturbing, though scantly reported, simulation of justice in late January. At the outset, covering the trial, I noted that ‘prospective jurors made routine references to ‘three-letter agencies’ and alphabet-soup categories of security clearances.’ Steeped in a local atmosphere of deference to mega-employers like the CIA and Pentagon along with numerous big contracting firms nearby, ‘the jury pool was bound to please the prosecution.’”

    Read more »


  • On Jeffrey Sterling: From the Filmmaker of “Invisible Man”

    “The most shocking element of this story it that Jeffrey Sterling seems to be punished because he ‘pulled on Superman’s cape’ first with a racial discrimination suit they were able to squash and then by reporting what he considered a dangerous CIA operation to the proper government channels for hearing such a concern.”

    Read more »


  • News Conference: Whistleblowers Weigh In on Policy

    William Binney (NSA), Thomas Drake (NSA), Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), Raymond McGovern (CIA), Jesselyn Radack (Justice Department), Coleen Rowley (FBI) and Kirk Wiebe (NSA) spoke at this news conference, sponsored by ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

    Read more »


  • Netanyahu Victory Opens Door for One-State Solution

    Just before the election, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu ruled out the creation of a Palestinian State, which means that he repudiated the two-state solution to the dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This has been the pronounced objective of American foreign policy since the Madrid Conference and the Middle East Peace Negotiations in 1991 held under the auspices of the United States government and with the full support of the international community.

    Read more »


  • NBC Keeps Kucinich Out of Debate

    ISABEL MacDONALD Communications director for the media watch group FAIR, MacDonald said today: “NBC’s exclusion of Kucinich from the Jan. 15 Democratic debate represents a particularly egregious example of preempting voter choice by the GE-owned network. “After inviting Kucinich to the debate, the network arbitrarily changed the criteria for participation, and disinvited him. When a…

  • Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy

    I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without having first spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today — my own government. … There is something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that would praise you when…

  • White House for Sale?

    CRAIG HOLMAN Holman is government ethics lobbyist for Public Citizen, which has launched the web page White House for Sale that keeps tracks of money to candidates; they just updated their numbers Tuesday, below. He said today: “The practice of bundling, which allows candidates to take unlimited unregulated cash pulled together from connected operatives, has…

  • Suharto’s Legacy

    Reuters is reporting: “Indonesia’s ailing former President Suharto has pneumonia and is developing a blood infection which could lead to blood poisoning, causing a further deterioration in his health, his doctors said on Tuesday. Doctors have been battling to save the 86-year-old former strongman, who ruled the vast Southeast Asian nation for more than three…

  • Bush Trip — Interviews Available

    Bush is continuing his Mideast trip, meeting Tuesday with Saudi King Abdullah and Wednesday with the Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. MADAWI AL-RASHEED Available for a limited number of interviews, Al-Rasheed is author of A History of Saudi Arabia and Contesting the Saudi State: Islamic Voices from a…

  • Lancet Study Author Assesses New Report on Iraqi Death Toll

    The World Health Organization reports on findings just published in the New England Journal of Medicine: “A large national household survey conducted by the Iraqi government and WHO estimates that 151,000 Iraqis died from violence between March 2003 and June 2006.” LES ROBERTS Roberts is co-author of a study published in October 2006 by the…

  • Former Legal Adviser to Palestinians Blasts Bush

    FRANCIS BOYLE Professor of international law at the University of Illinois, Boyle is author of Palestine, Palestinians and International Law. He said today: “Contrary to what many are saying — that Bush has not accomplished much in his trip to the Mideast — he has accomplished a great deal of harm. “Bush called for ‘new…

  • Iraq Airstrikes

    AP reports: “U.S. bombers and jet fighters unleashed 40,000 pounds of explosives on the southern outskirts of Baghdad within 10 minutes Thursday in one of the biggest airstrikes of the war, flattening what the military called safe havens for al-Qaida in Iraq.” Al Jazeera reports that “a local Sunni tribal leader told Al Jazeera that…

  • * Mideast: Bush and Presidential Race * Rallying against Iran * Elliott Abrams

    STEPHEN ZUNES Zunes is Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus and author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism. He said today: “The only way there can be real progress towards Israeli-Palestinian peace is if President Bush is willing to pressure Israel to: 1) suspend its construction of additional…

  • Clinton: Emotion and Policies

    KATHA POLLITT Columnist Pollitt just wrote the piece “Hillary Shows Feeling, Is Slammed,” which states: “Hillary Clinton, long criticized as cold, shows a bit of feeling and is attacked as overly emotional. It’s the latest installment of the ongoing double bind in which if she wears a black pantsuit she’s too masculine and if she…

Mastodon