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.”

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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…’

    Read more »


  • Iraq and Afghanistan: Turning Point or Going in Circles?

    KHALIL BENDIB Bendib is a cartoonist; his first collection of cartoons is titled “It Became Necessary to Destroy the Planet in Order to Save It!” His latest cartoon depicts Bush repeatedly claiming to be reaching a “turning point” in Iraq while in fact he is just going around in circles; see it here. Bendib said…

  • Exit Strategy

    MOUNZER SLEIMAN Sleiman is Washington bureau chief for the magazine Almustaqbal Alarabi, which is published by the Center for Arab Unity Studies, based in Beirut, Lebanon. The director of the Center for Arab Unity Studies, Dr. Kheir deen Haseeb, an Iraqi native, recently proposed a 21-point plan to end the U.S. occupation of Iraq and…

  • · Iran and Israeli Nukes · Iran Peace Offer Rebuffed?

    “Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program, according to U.S. officials, Iranian analysts and foreign diplomats,” the Washington Post reported in a front-page article on May 24. “The eagerness for talks demonstrates a profound change in Iran’s political orthodoxy, emphatically erasing…

  • Memorial Day

    CELESTE ZAPPALA ELAINE JOHNSON NANCY LESSIN “It serves no purpose to have more and more servicemen and women die in an unjust and unjustifiable war, and have more families experience the unbearable and unending pain that my family has experienced,” said Celeste Zappala, mother of Sgt. Sherwood Baker, the first Pennsylvania National Guardsman to die…

  • Enron Convictions

    GREG PALAST Palast is an internationally recognized expert on regulation of power markets and coauthor of the book Regulation and Democracy. He said today: “Just like Al Capone, who went to jail for failing to file his taxes, Lay is convicted merely of stock fraud. This is nothing compared to the manipulation by Lay and…

  • Mr. Olmert Goes to Congress

    The Jerusalem Post is reporting today: “Amid a lengthy round of applause, including a standing ovation from U.S. lawmakers, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the U.S. Congress…” EDWARD L. PECK EUGENE BIRD Peck, a former chief of mission to Iraq, was deputy director of the White House Task Force on Terrorism in the Reagan administration.…

  • Why Won’t the U.S. Acknowledge Israel’s Nuclear Weapons?

    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets with U.S. President Bush today and speaks to a joint meeting of both chambers of Congress on Wednesday. The U.S. government does not publicly acknowledge Israel’s nuclear weapons arsenal. MORDECHAI VANUNU Vanunu is a former Israeli nuclear technician who in 1986 revealed through The Sunday Times of London the…

  • Rep. Murtha and Haditha

    JOHN SIFTON Sifton is a researcher with Human Rights Watch. He said today: “Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, a retired Marine colonel, has provided key new facts about the Haditha incident. If what Rep. Murtha is saying regarding the Haditha incident is indeed true, this can only be considered a serious war crime. Retaliations…

  • Hayden and Warrantless Surveillance

    CHRISTOPHER SIMPSON Professor of Communication at American University and author of the books Blowback, Science of Coercion and National Security Directives of the Reagan and Bush Administrations, Simpson said today: “There are two problems here: One is that the capability to collect this type of information is built into the networks involved. The other is…

  • Bush and Hayden vs. The Law?

    “I have two paths in front of me, both of them lawful, one FISA, one the presidential — the president’s authorization.” — Michael Hayden, National Press Club, January 23, 2006 “Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance … may be conducted.” — FISA; 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2511(f)…

Mastodon