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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  • 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…

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