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.”

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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…’

    Read more »


  • One Million Iraqis Killed?

    ROBERT NAIMAN National coordinator and senior policy analyst at Just Foreign Policy, Naiman said: “Just Foreign Policy is publishing updated estimates of Iraqi deaths due to the U.S. invasion and occupation starting in 2003. And the way that we constructed this estimate is to extrapolate from the Lancet study that was published last fall. “The…

  • Nagasaki and the Second Bomb

    August 9 is the 62nd anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Nagasaki. WILLIAM D. HARTUNG Hartung is the director of the Arms and Security Project at the New America Foundation. He said today: “Even more so than Hiroshima, the U.S. decision drop a second atomic bomb — this time on Nagasaki —…

  • Iraqi Oil Law Impasse: Good News for Democracy?

    Iraqis oppose plans to open the country’s oilfields to foreign investment by a ratio of two to one, according to a poll released yesterday. ANTONIA JUHASZ Juhasz is the author of The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time and a fellow with Oil Change International. She said today: “For the first…

  • Anniversary of Tonkin Gulf Resolution — August 7

    With only two dissenting votes in the entire Senate and House, the Congress passed the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution on August 7, 1964 — clearing the path to escalate the war in Vietnam. Passage of the measure came after the Johnson administration falsely claimed that U.S. vessels in the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of…

  • · Presidential Politics and Nuclear Weapons · Hiroshima Anniversary

    The New York Times reports: “[Senator Barack Obama’s] remarks about removing nuclear weapons as an option in the region [Afghanistan or Pakistan] drew fresh attacks from Democratic rivals who had already questioned his foreign policy experience. American officials have generally been deliberately ambiguous about their nuclear strike policies.” JIM WALSH Walsh is a research associate…

  • Bush Threat to Veto Health Insurance for Children

    President Bush has announced that he would veto any expansion in the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, which provides health insurance for children in low-income families. Congress will be considering legislation to renew or expand funding for the program this week. On Monday, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote: “When a child is enrolled…

  • Military Budget

    The House is expected to debate the Fiscal Year 2008 “Defense appropriations” bill this week. WILLIAM HARTUNG Director of the Arms and Security Project at the New America Foundation, Hartung said today: “While Democratic leaders in the House talk about withdrawing from Iraq and closing Guantanamo, the only action that will come out of this…

  • Mideast Arms Deals

    CNN reports: “The United States is cutting new arms and military assistance deals with Middle Eastern countries in an effort to counter terrorism and improve stability in the region, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday.” AS’AD ABUKHALIL AbuKhalil is author of several books on the Mideast including The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism,…

  • The 50th Anniversary of the IAEA

    This Sunday marks the 50th anniversary of the founding of the International Atomic Energy Agency. ROBERT ALVAREZ A former senior policy advisor to the U.S. Secretary of Energy and now a senior scholar at the Institute for Policy Studies, Alvarez said today: “As the IAEA marks its 50th anniversary, it faces major challenges associated with…

  • Democrats: Hurting Republicans Rather Than Ending War?

    JOHN BERG Professor and chair of the government department at Suffolk University in Boston, Berg is author of Unequal Struggle: Class, Gender, Race and Power in the U.S. Congress. His doctoral dissertation, “Why the Doves Failed,” analyzed the failure of Congress to end the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War. He said today: “The Democrats…

Mastodon