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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  • 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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