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…

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.

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  • 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.”

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  • 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.

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  • 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…

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  • 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.”

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  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

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  • 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…

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  • Iraq Oil Law: Mission Accomplished?

    AP is reporting: “The Iraqi Cabinet has approved a draft law to manage the country’s vast oil industry and distribute its wealth among the population. Parliament will take up the measure when it reconvenes early next month after a recess. “With all major parties endorsing the bill, approval is likely, although some politicians predicted a…

  • Schwarzenegger on Health Care: People or Profits?

    In his speech at the National Press Club yesterday emphasizing his health care proposals and “bipartisanship,” California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said: “Whether you’re Republican or Democrat, you don’t have to give up your principles at all. But isn’t the ultimate principle to serve the people? To do the things that are good for the people?”…

  • Study: 16 Million Americans in Dire Poverty

    McClatchy Newspapers published an analysis on poverty today. It reports: “The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation’s ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ continues to widen. “A McClatchy Newspapers analysis of 2005…

  • Arrests at Congressional Offices

    Arrests occurred in several states yesterday and today as peace activists pushed for commitments from elected officials to vote against President Bush’s request for an additional $93 billion to fund the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Arrests occurred in Fairbanks, Alaska; Chicago, Illinois; Toledo, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; and St. Louis, Missouri. Office occupations were also underway…

  • Safety Alarms at Nuclear Weapons Factory

    The Los Angeles Times featured a front-page piece on Wednesday headlined “Safety Alarms Raised at Nuclear Weapons Plant,” which reports: “Electrical failures have shut down the plant. The roof has leaked. Decrepit machinery dates back more than 40 years. Safety lapses led inspectors to levy fines twice within two years. And employees, under deadline pressure,…

  • Rice and Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Empty Theatrics?

    AP is reporting today: “Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas were scheduled to hold separate meetings in Berlin on the pact he made with Hamas.” JEFF HALPER Coordinator of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and a professor of anthropology, Halper is author of Obstacles to Peace: Reframing the Israel-Palestine Conflict…

  • Leaked Iraqi Oil Law

    The New York Times reported this week: “A draft version of the long-awaited law that would govern the development of Iraqi oil fields and the distribution of oil revenues has been submitted to Iraq’s cabinet, the first step toward approving the legislation, two members of a senior negotiating committee said this weekend.” A leaked copy…

  • Iran: Claims and Context

    DAVID BARSAMIAN Barsamian has just returned from Iran and is author of the forthcoming book Targeting Iran. He said today: “Virtually everything the Bush administration has done has made things more difficult for Iranian reformers. The moderate Khatami government helped the U.S. oust the Taliban in 2001; in return Bush called Iran part of the…

  • Former NSC Official Contradicts Rice on Iran Peace Offer

    Reuters reports today — in a piece headlined “Ex-aide says Rice misled Congress on Iran” — that “Controversy over a possible missed U.S. opportunity for rapprochement with Iran grew on Wednesday as former aide accused Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of misleading Congress on the issue. “Flynt Leverett, who worked on the National Security Council…

  • Exxon, AEI and Climate Change

    BRENDA EKWURZEL Ekwurzel is a climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, which recently released a report titled “Smoke, Mirrors and Hot Air: How ExxonMobil Uses Big Tobacco’s Tactics to ‘Manufacture Uncertainty’ on Climate Change.” The report states: “ExxonMobil has funneled nearly $16 million between 1998 and 2005 to a network of 43 advocacy…

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