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.”

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.’”

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  • 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.”

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • U.S. Bases in Iraq: The Meaning of “Permanent”

    AP is reporting: “The House voted 399-24 on Wednesday to pass a bill proposed by [Rep. Barbara] Lee that would ban permanent bases in Iraq.” PHYLLIS BENNIS Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies, Bennis said today: “The bill states an important principle opposing the ‘establishment’ of new bases in…

  • U.S. Troops and Iraqi Civilians

    Last week, McClatchy newspapers reported that, according to the U.S. military’s own statistics, “U.S. soldiers have killed or wounded 429 Iraqi civilians at checkpoints or near patrols and convoys during the past year. … The statistics don’t include instances of American soldiers killing civilians during raids, arrests or in the midst of battle with armed…

  • · Torture · Executive Privilege

    DAVID COLE Professor at Georgetown University Law Center, Cole wrote in the recent piece “Bush’s Torture Ban is Full of Loopholes”: “[A]n executive order that categorically bans torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment is a significant step in the right direction. … But how much of a step the administration has really taken remains…

  • Soldiers Reveal Disturbing Patterns

    In this week’s issue of The Nation, an article details interviews with fifty U.S. combat veterans. According to The Nation: “It is time to reckon with the weight of evidence that American forces regularly kill Iraqi noncombatants. Occupying armies with little knowledge of the local culture, fighting guerrillas who mingle among the population, have usually…

  • Lotteries: A Regressive Tax

    ALICIA HANSEN BILL AHERN Hansen is staff writer and Ahern is the communication director for the Tax Foundation. Hansen said today: “Most Americans don’t think of lotteries in terms of tax policy. The lottery conjures up images of smiling Powerball winners displaying $10 million checks for the TV camera or perhaps stories of lottery players…

  • Reporting From Iraq

    DAVID ENDERS Available for a limited number of interviews from Baghdad, Enders is a freelance journalist who has spent more than 18 months in Iraq over the past four years. He is author of the book Baghdad Bulletin. Enders said today: “The last time I was here was in May 2006. It’s never been this…

  • Pakistan: Aftermath of Storming of Mosque

    Agence France Presse is reporting: “Pakistan’s army said Thursday that women and children may have been among those killed in the Red Mosque raid, as the burials of militants killed in the assault sparked angry Islamist protests. President Pervez Musharraf was due to address the nation in a bid to defuse tensions after the storming…

  • Washington’s Current Debate on Iraq Echoes the Rhetoric of Vietnam Era

    While debate over Iraq intensifies in Washington, a new film’s rarely-seen archival footage shows that current arguments against withdrawing U.S. troops are eerily reminiscent of persistent claims from the Johnson and Nixon administrations during the Vietnam War. Parallels emerge sharply in the documentary, “War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death.”…

  • Poll on Cheney — Critical Mass on Impeachment?

    A new poll by the American Research Group shows a majority of the U.S. public in favor of the House beginning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney by a 54 to 40 percent majority. The same poll found a near tie on President George W. Bush and impeachment, with 45 percent in favor and 46…

  • “Targeting Iran” — Iraq Redux?

    The editor of Editor & Publisher, Greg Mitchell, is charging that Michael R. Gordon — “the same [New York] Times reporter who, on his own, or with [Judith] Miller, wrote some of the key yet badly misleading or downright inaccurate articles about Iraqi WMDs in the run-up to the 2003 invasion” — is “now writing…

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