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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  • Pelosi: Image vs. Record

    TIM REDMOND Executive editor of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Redmond has been tracking Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi’s career for over a decade. He recently wrote the article “Pelosi is not one of us,” in which he stated: “Pelosi is by no means a San Francisco liberal. She’s a Washington insider, a born and bred…

  • Bush Administration and Legal Accountability

    ELIZABETH DE LA VEGA Elizabeth de la Vega served as a federal prosecutor in Minneapolis and San Jose for 20 years. She is author of the new book U.S. v. George W. Bush et. al. She said today: “Over half the people in the United States believe that the president misled the country into a…

  • Hawk Slated to Chair International Relations

    Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) is the ranking Democrat on the House International Relations Committee and is reportedly slated to chair the committee in the next Congress. His foreign-policy views are widely deplored by antiwar analysts. For several articles about and by Lantos, see: Peninsula Peace and Justice Center. PAUL GEORGE George is director of the Peninsula…

  • Olmert in Washington

    DANIEL LEVY Lead Israeli drafter of the unofficial Geneva Initiative detailed peace plan and former official Israeli peace negotiator and advisor in the Prime Minister’s Office to the Barak government, Levy is now senior fellow at the New America Foundation and the Century Foundation and directs their respective Middle East and Peace initiatives. His upcoming…

  • Post-Election Iraq Politics: Peace Mandate?

    NANCY NAHVI CINDY SHEEHAN Both Nahvi and Sheehan have lost sons in the Iraq War. Following a White House press conference where President Bush announced the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, they were arrested during a protest organized by the group Gold Star Families for Peace. Nahvi met Sheehan in summer 2005 when Sheehan set up…

  • Behind Gates and Rumsfeld

    ROBERT PARRY Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek and is the founder and editor of ConsortiumNews.com. He has written extensively about Robert Gates. Parry said today: “There have been suspicions that Gates was involved with secret dealings with both Iran and Iraq during the 1980s.…

  • Virginia Recount?

    SPENCER OVERTON A law professor at George Washington University, Overton was a commissioner on the Carter-Baker Commission on Federal Election Reform. Author of the new book Stealing Democracy: The New Politics of Voter Suppression, Overton just wrote the piece “Bush v. Gore II?: Virginia Election Irregularities and Recount Procedures.” More Information WARREN STEWART Stewart is…

  • Second Look at Saddam Verdict: · Timing · History

    SCOTT HORTON Horton is chairman of the International Law Committee at the New York City Bar Association and adjunct professor at the Columbia University Law School. He makes frequent trips to Iraq, working as an attorney representing arrested local-hire reporters of U.S. media. On Oct. 26, Horton was quoted on a news release from the…

  • Voting Integrity on Election Day

    WARREN STEWART Stewart is the policy director of VoteTrustUSA.org and will be available for interviews in New York. More Information JUSTIN LEVITT Levitt is associate counsel with the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law. More Information DEBORAH NARRIGAN JOE IRRERA Narrigan works in Tennessee with Gathering to Save…

  • Oceans in Peril?

    DAVID HELVARG Helvarg is president of the Blue Frontier Campaign and author of the book Fifty Ways to Save the Ocean. He said today: “The new study in Science magazine that asserts we could run out of edible fish in the world’s ocean by 2048 is based on our continuing business as usual. But there…

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