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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  • Crucial Background on Gaza and Lebanon

    JAMAL DAJANI Dajani is producer of the TV program “MOSAIC: World News from the Middle East,” which features dramatic recent footage of the conflict. He said today: “We try to provide in a half-hour program a comprehensive look at both the narrative and pictures from the TV networks in the Mideast. From the footage that…

  • U.S.-Russia: Conflict and Convergence

    STEPHEN F. COHEN KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL Available for a very limited number of interviews, Cohen is professor of Russian studies at New York University and author of the book Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia. Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor of The Nation and, with Cohen, author of the book Voices of…

  • G8 Meeting

    JOCHEN HIPPLER Bush is now in Germany. Senior research fellow at the Institute for Development and Peace at the University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany, Hippler is author of a number of books, including Pax Americana? He said today: “In the general population here, there is still a deep mistrust of Bush, mostly in regard to his…

  • · Just Back from North Korea · Just Back from Lebanon

    PAUL CARROLL Carroll is a program officer at the Ploughshares Fund, which works on disarmament issues. He has just returned from North Korea, where he had rare, detailed conversations with North Korean officials, including Vice Foreign Minister for U.S. Relations Kim Gae Gwan and his deputy, Li Gun, their former UN ambassador. Said Carrol: “We…

  • Gaza: Is it the “Largest Prison in the World”?

    Dr. MONA EL-FARRA A physician and community activist in northern Gaza, El-Farra wrote in Monday’s Boston Globe: “Most Gazans … believe that Israel’s latest assault was pre-planned, that the soldier’s capture is merely a trigger. Israel dropped thousands of shells on Gaza, killing women, children and old people, long before his capture. This time, Israel…

  • Questions About Mexico Election: Is Recount Needed?

    LAURA CARLSEN Carlsen just wrote the article “ Mexico’s Dramatic Vote Count Lacks Credibility.” She is director of the International Relations Center Americas Program in Mexico City, where she has worked as a writer and political analyst for the past two decades. GILBERTO LOPEZ RIVAS Gilberto López Rivas is an anthropologist with the National Institute…

  • Israelis Denounce Attack on Gaza

    Though rarely featured in recent news coverage, Israeli critics of the Gaza attacks are speaking out loudly. TANYA REINHART Professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University, Reinhart is author of the forthcoming book The Road Map to Nowhere: Israel/Palestine Since 2003. She said today: “The present Israeli ‘operation’ is not about releasing the captured Israeli soldier…

  • · North Korea and U.S. Missiles · UN Hypocrisy · Mexico Election Credibility

    The Washington Post reported today that North Korea’s missile testing prompted “a hastily called session of the UN Security Council after the Stalinist state unnerved the region.” The Associated Press reported on June 14: “The Air Force successfully tested an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile early Wednesday, officials said. The missile traveled 4,800 miles…

  • · Mexico Cliffhanger · Iraq: Troops Home Fast

    JOHN ROSS A U.S. journalist currently in Mexico City, Ross is author of the book Mexico in Focus: A Guide to the People, Politics, and Culture. NADIA MARTINEZ Policy analyst for Institute for Policy Studies, Martinez said today: “While it isn’t yet clear who will be Mexico’s next president, the overwhelming support garnered by Lopez…

  • · Welfare Changes · Federal Reserve

    HEATHER BOUSHEY An economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Boushey said today: “New changes to the 1996 welfare reform law mean that more welfare participants will need to be in work activities and states will have less flexibility in defining what those activities are, all without significant increases in funding for child…

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