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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  • Bush Iraq Speech Tonight

    BEN LANDO Bush has repeatedly called for the passage of the proposed Iraqi oil law. The lead story in today’s New York Times is “Iraq Compromise on Oil Law Seems to be Collapsing.” Lando is energy editor for UPI and is just back from a major conference on Iraqi oil in Dubai in the United…

  • Is Petraeus Lying?

    RICK ROWLEY Just back from a month and a half in Iraq, Rowley is a journalist with Big Noise films. He said today: “When Gen. Petraeus says that he’s merely applauding the new Sunni militia allies from the sidelines, he’s lying. While embedded with the U.S. military, I filmed U.S. commanders handing wads of cash…

  • Anti-Peace-Movement Police Violence in D.C.?

    Reverend, Marine Mom Hurt by Police in Separate Incidents. Rev. LENNOX YEARWOOD Jr. Yearwood is president of the Hip Hop Caucus. A statement from the group says: “Rev. Yearwood was attacked by six Capitol police [Monday], when he was stopped from entering the Cannon Caucus Room on Capitol Hill, where Gen. Petreaus gave testimony ……

  • Petraeus and Crocker Testimony

    ADAM KOKESH Co-chair of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Kokesh attended the hearings where Petraeus and Crocker testified today. Kokesh said: “I was escorted out of the hearings after I shouted ‘swear them in, why do you still trust these people?’ … Petraeus is … being forced to draw down the five brigades for which…

  • Petraeus and 9-11

    The group September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, made up of families of the victims of the 9-11 attacks, has released a statement regarding the timing of the testimony of Gen. David Petraeus. It reads in part: “The timing of this testimony is another attempt by government officials to force a non-existent connection between the…

  • Finkelstein * Mearsheimer/Walt * Khalil Gibran School

    AP reports that “a DePaul University professor who has drawn criticism for accusing some Jews of improperly using the legacy of the Holocaust agreed Wednesday to resign immediately ‘for everybody’s sake.’ “University officials and political science professor Norman Finkelstein issued a joint statement announcing the resignation, which came as about a hundred protesters gathered outside…

  • Oil Law * Outlawing Unions * Iraq Benchmarks

    The Washington Post published an article yesterday on the proposed Iraq Oil and Gas Law. The piece quotes Issam al-Chalabi, a former Iraq oil minister: “This was a very bad move by the Americans to push for this law. … Now it looks like … the Americans are after oil — they will bring their…

  • Iran and Threats

    The Sunday Times in London reported over the weekend: “The Pentagon has drawn up plans for massive airstrikes against 1,200 targets in Iran, designed to annihilate the Iranians’ military capability in three days, according to a national security expert.” TRITA PARSI Parsi is author of the just-released book Treacherous Alliance: The Secret Dealings of Israel,…

  • Bush and Iraq: * Air War * Drawdown of Troops?

    The New York Times is reporting in its front-page lead story today that President Bush’s statements yesterday — which included a reference to the possibility of withdrawing some troops from Iraq — were “embracing and preempting this month’s crucial Congressional hearings on his Iraq strategy.” CONN HALLINAN Hallinan wrote the recent article “Death at a…

  • Katrina: The National Guard Shows Up

    The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reports that protesters held a sit-in at the offices of the Housing Authority of New Orleans today, “while public housing residents remain shut out of their former complexes two years after Hurricane Katrina.” The newspaper reported that “New Orleans police and National Guard troops have sealed off the streets surrounding”…

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