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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  • 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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