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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  • UN Gathering & Private Meeting with Ahmadinejad

    STEPHEN ZUNES Zunes was part of a private two-hour meeting today with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Zunes is Middle East editor of Foreign Policy in Focus, a professor of politics at the University of San Francisco, and the author of Tinderbox: U.S. Middle East Policy and the Roots of Terrorism. More Information IAN WILLIAMS Author…

  • UAW’s GM Strike: Major Issues

    CHRIS KUTALIK Editor of Labor Notes magazine, based in Detroit Michigan, Kutalik said today: “Many have portrayed the national strike launched at General Motors as something that fell from the sky. For United Auto Workers’ members and other labor observers the only surprise was in how long such a confrontation took to develop. Industrial restructuring;…

  • Lieberman-Kyl: Declaration of War on Iran?

    Sen. James Webb (D-Va) said on the Senate floor today about the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment on Iran: “It could be read as tantamount to a declaration of war.” (Copy of the legislation is available online.) GARETH PORTER Investigative journalist Porter has just written the piece “The Evidence Against the Lieberman-Kyl Amendment.” He is author of several…

  • Ahmadinejad in the U.S.

    Today Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is speaking to the National Press Club and at Columbia University. JOHN LEINUNG A member of September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization of family members of people killed in the 9-11 attacks, Leinung said today: “If he really wanted to go lay a wreath [at the WTC site],…

  • Iran Threats * Gaza Crisis

    STEPHEN ZUNES Middle East editor for Foreign Policy in Focus, Zunes said: “[Iranian] General [Mohammed] Alavi’s comment regarding Iran’s contingency plans to attack Israel with air and missile raids was explicitly in reference to how Iran would respond if attacked by Israeli forces. Despite White House claims to the contrary, Iran was simply re-stating the…

  • Iraq Bases and the Korea Model: An “Enduring” Relationship

    ZOLTAN GROSSMAN Grossman is a geographer and faculty member at The Evergreen State College (Olympia, Wash.) and wrote the new article “The Korea Model Rationale for Staying in Iraq: An Endless Occupation?” He said today: “The ‘Korea Model’ is President Bush’s rationale for extending the U.S. occupation of Iraq from four years to four decades…

  • Clinton Health Plan

    DAVID HIMMELSTEIN, M.D. Himmelstein is associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He said today: “Hillary Clinton is combining two failed Massachusetts plans: the [former Gov. Michael] Dukakis plan, which fell apart 20 years ago, and the [Gov. Mitt] Romney plan, which is in the process of falling apart. “Clinton is advocating the Marie…

  • Blackwater: Expelled from Iraq?

    CNN is reporting that “[Iraqi] Government ministers Tuesday backed the Iraqi Interior Ministry’s decision to shut down Blackwater USA’s operations in Iraq after the American security firm was involved in a Baghdad firefight that authorities say killed eight civilians. “The ministers also stressed the need to ensure foreign security firms operate within Iraqi laws, according…

  • Greenspan: * Oil * Fed

    JAMES PAUL Executive director of the Global Policy Forum, Paul has written several pieces about oil including “Oil in Iraq: The Heart of the Crisis” in 2002. He said today: “Finally, the cat is out of the bag! After years of denial by political leaders and cautious intellectuals, we finally know — from former Fed…

  • Abu Risha Killed * Bush’s Speech

    DAVID ENDERS RICK ROWLEY In his speech last night, Bush referred to the recent killing of Abdul Sattar Abu Risha, who he met with just last week in his visit to a U.S. military base in Iraq. Available for a limited number of interviews, journalists Enders and Rowley interviewed Abu Risha for their special report…

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