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…

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • Two Huge Issues to Hit Screens in Washington the Same Night: D.C. Premieres of “Sicko” and “War Made Easy” on June 20

    Two pathbreaking documentary films on major political issues will be unveiled in the nation’s capital on Wednesday evening (June 20). The targets are the healthcare industry and the warfare industry. Shortly before “Sicko” is shown that night at an invitation-only screening, “War Made Easy” — based on the acclaimed book by Norman Solomon and narrated…

  • Hamas Victory?

    EDWARD L. PECK Peck, a former ambassador who was chief of mission in Iraq and Mauritania, also served as deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration. He met with high Hamas officials while observing the Palestinian elections in 2006 and has been monitoring the situation closely since. ALI…

  • FBI Audit Finds Thousands of Violations of Privacy

    The Washington Post reports today: “An internal FBI audit has found that the bureau potentially violated the law or agency rules more than 1,000 times while collecting data about domestic phone calls, e-mails and financial transactions in recent years, far more than was documented in a Justice Department report in March that ignited bipartisan congressional…

  • Academic Freedom Being Debated; Denial of Tenure Sparks Student Unrest

    Inside Higher Education reports that Professor Norman Finkelstein’s tenure bid, while “backed by his department and a collegewide faculty committee,” was denied by the president of DePaul University. Professor Finkelstein, whose parents survived the Holocaust, has been a critic of Israeli policies and what he dubbed the “Holocaust industry.” Inside Higher Education notes that “while…

  • Nationwide Release of “War Made Easy” Documentary

    On June 21, the day after its scheduled Washington premiere, the powerful new documentary “War Made Easy” will go into nationwide distribution. The full-length movie — narrated by Sean Penn — is based on Norman Solomon’s acclaimed book War Made Easy: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death. Through painstaking research and fast-paced…

  • 25 Years After Historic Protest: Nuclear Weapons and Power Today

    LESLIE CAGAN Lead organizer of the June 12, 1982, Central Park protest, Cagan is now national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice. She said today: “The march from the UN to Central Park was probably the largest single protest in U.S. history, with the police saying it was 750,000 people. New York City was…

  • · Israel’s 40-Year Occupation · Palestinian Civil War? · USS Liberty

    MONA EL-FARRA, M.D. Currently in New York City, Dr. El-Farra is a physician and human rights activist from Gaza. She just began her first U.S. speaking tour. She writes the blog “From Gaza, with Love.” More Information Rabbi JEREMY MILGROM and HUSAM EL-NOUNOU Co-founder of the Gaza Community Mental Health Program and editor-in-chief of Amwaj…

  • G8 Meeting

    GEORGE MONBIOT Author of the books Heat: How to Stop the Planet from Burning and The Age of Consent: A Manifesto for a New World Order, Monbiot said today: “The one issue the G8 leaders will not discuss is power: their ability to tell the rest of the world what to do. They present themselves…

  • Giuliani, Rep. Paul and “Blowback”

    CNN is televising a live Republican debate tonight. During the last GOP debate, Rep. Ron Paul, citing the concept of “blowback,” stated about attacks like 9/11: “They attack us because we’ve been over there, we’ve been bombing Iraq for 10 years. We’ve been in the Middle East. … I’m suggesting that we listen to the…

  • Fact-Checking the Candidates: · Health Care · Iraq War

    QUENTIN YOUNG, M.D. National coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, Young said today: “It was ironic to hear Clinton talk about standing up to the the insurance companies. She’d tried to work them into her plan, which is a large part of why it failed. The biggest insurance companies actually backed her plan…

Mastodon