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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  • Whistleblowers Ellsberg, Gun Call for Massive Leaks on Iran

    KATHARINE GUN Shortly before the U.S./U.K. invasion of Iraq, in early 2003, Gun was a British government employee when she leaked a U.S. intelligence memo indicating that the U.S. had mounted a spying “surge” against delegations on the U.N. Security Council in an effort to win approval for an invasion of Iraq. President Bush continues…

  • Upheaval at World Bank and IMF Meetings

    Reuters is reporting that “World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz on Friday called Singapore’s restrictions on the entry of activists for the World Bank/IMF meetings ‘authoritarian.’” The news service added: “The city-state has put 27 civil rights activists on a blacklist for entry to the annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank, and some would-be…

  • IAEA: Congress Panel Cooking Intel on Iran

    The Washington Post is reporting today: “U.N. inspectors investigating Iran’s nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran’s capabilities, calling parts of the document ‘outrageous and dishonest’ and offering evidence to refute its central claims.” CARAH ONG Ong is Iran Policy…

  • Bush’s Plans for Detention and Eavesdropping

    MICHAEL RATNER Ratner is president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, which is holding a news conference in D.C. today with family members of Guantanamo detainees. He will discuss the two bills proposed by President Bush and Senator Warner to legislate military commissions. Ratner said today: “However problematic the [proposed military] commissions are, they are…

  • 9/11 Victims’ Families Host Conference Against Terrorism

    Marking the fifth anniversary of 9/11, more than 30 victims of political violence from around the world will gather with 9/11 families for a conference highlighting solutions to terrorism that break the cycle of violence. The gathering is being initiated by September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an organization founded by family members of those…

  • Environmental Fallout of WTC Attack

    JUAN GONZALEZ Available for a very limited number of interviews, Gonzalez is author of the book Fallout: The Environmental Consequences of the World Trade Center Collapse, which came out in 2002. He co-hosts the program “Democracy Now!” and will be moderating a community forum this evening at St. Paul’s Church, near the site of the…

  • Realities of Afghanistan: Behind the Rhetoric

    SONALI KOLHATKAR JAMES INGALLS Kolhatkar and Ingalls are co-authors of the book Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence, which is being released next week. They are co-directors of the Afghan Women’s Mission. Kolhatkar said today: “All too often, discussion of U.S. policy in Afghanistan focuses exclusively on the crimes of others. The…

  • Views of Bush Stance on Detainees, Torture and War

    MARJORIE COHN Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president-elect of the National Lawyers Guild, Cohn said: “Today, Bush criticized the Supreme Court’s recent decision in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld because it will put a crimp in the CIA’s interrogation program. The Court declared that Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions protects all prisoners…

  • Unrest Over Election-Rigging Charges in Mexico

    The Los Angeles Times reported this morning: “As President Vicente Fox prepares to deliver his final state of the nation address today, Mexico remains divided over who should be declared his successor, and many fear an escalation in unrest by protesters who feel betrayed by the electoral institutions Fox is expected to applaud in his…

  • Confronting Iran

    MUHAMMAD SAHIMI Sahimi is professor of chemical engineering at the University of Southern California. He co-wrote, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, the Los Angeles Times op-ed “Defusing Iran with Democracy.” Sahimi said today: “The only way to have a peaceful resolution of Iran’s nuclear program is through negotiations without any preconditions and/or threats.…

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