News Items

  • Calls to Suspend Syrian Refugee and Other Recent Anti-Muslim Statements by Government Officials

    Compiled by the Institute for Public Accuracy with Arun Kundnani and Deepa Kumar. Kundnani said: “While it’s very easy to denounce Trump’s recent repugnant, bullying statements — and much of the political class has — it’s important to keep several things in mind: First, as the compilation of statements by elected officials makes clear, he made these statements after many officials from across the country made scores of statements playing on unfounded fears against Syrian refugees and other Muslims.”

    Read more »


  • Classified Politics: A System and a Clinton in Disrepute

    It is most unlikely, however, that Hillary Clinton will fall victim to accusations that rely on improper over-­classification. The State Department and White House, including President Obama himself, sought to protect her and to minimize the effects of her behavior. The case is extremely high­-profile, Democrats in Congress would attack any borderline classification, and a host of well-­paid lawyers would rise to her defense. Improperly classified items or those deemed Sensitive but Unclassified may be redacted from publicly released documents, but it is hard to imagine that Mrs. Clinton would be falsely accused of felonies.

    Read more »


  • Video of Sterling News Conference

    Please enjoy the full video of Holly Sterling’s news conference, which was her first such appearance since her husband’s trial and imprisonment. The news conference also featured Thomas Drake, Delphine Halgand, Ray McGovern, and Jesselyn Radack.

    Read more »


  • Open Letter to President Obama from Holly Sterling

    Does the government have no shame in destroying one man’s life and wasting tens of millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money to punish a man who had the audacity to do two things: Stand up for his constitutional rights and utilize proper channels provided to him to express concern for the citizens of our country? I am deeply saddened by our lives’ events that Jeffrey and I have suffered and endured. You publicly committed to a transparent government led by your administration, yet it has been shrouded in mistruth and secrecy.

    Read more »


  • Unprecedented News Conference: Wife of Imprisoned CIA Whistleblower to Speak Out

    Jeffrey Sterling was convicted under the Espionage Act as a source for New York Times reporter James Risen’s book State of War. He began serving his three-and-a-half year prison sentence in June. His wife’s news conference will be the first time the spouse of a CIA whistleblower has made such an appearance.

    Read more »


  • Cultural Shift Needed on Police Militarization

    Police militarization is a 25 year long trend that has only grown in momentum over time. The restrictions on militaristic gear directed by the White House while important symbolically, will certainly not substantively impact this trend in and of itself. Police militarization at this point is as much a cultural problem as it is a material one, and reversing the cultural trend toward police militarization will require more far reaching efforts.

    Read more »


  • Watch the Short Documentary “The Invisible Man: CIA Whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling”

    “‘The federal courtroom in northern Virginia where Holly and Jeffrey Sterling returned for the sentencing on May 11 was the scene of a disturbing, though scantly reported, simulation of justice in late January. At the outset, covering the trial, I noted that ‘prospective jurors made routine references to ‘three-letter agencies’ and alphabet-soup categories of security clearances.’ Steeped in a local atmosphere of deference to mega-employers like the CIA and Pentagon along with numerous big contracting firms nearby, ‘the jury pool was bound to please the prosecution.’”

    Read more »


  • On Jeffrey Sterling: From the Filmmaker of “Invisible Man”

    “The most shocking element of this story it that Jeffrey Sterling seems to be punished because he ‘pulled on Superman’s cape’ first with a racial discrimination suit they were able to squash and then by reporting what he considered a dangerous CIA operation to the proper government channels for hearing such a concern.”

    Read more »


  • News Conference: Whistleblowers Weigh In on Policy

    William Binney (NSA), Thomas Drake (NSA), Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers), Raymond McGovern (CIA), Jesselyn Radack (Justice Department), Coleen Rowley (FBI) and Kirk Wiebe (NSA) spoke at this news conference, sponsored by ExposeFacts.org, a project of the Institute for Public Accuracy.

    Read more »


  • Netanyahu Victory Opens Door for One-State Solution

    Just before the election, Israel Prime Minister Netanyahu ruled out the creation of a Palestinian State, which means that he repudiated the two-state solution to the dispute between the Israelis and the Palestinians. This has been the pronounced objective of American foreign policy since the Madrid Conference and the Middle East Peace Negotiations in 1991 held under the auspices of the United States government and with the full support of the international community.

    Read more »


  • Crisis in Nepal: An Opportunity for Democracy

    REESE ERLICH Freelance foreign correspondent Reese Erlich just returned from Nepal on assignment for Canadian Broadcasting Corp. Radio and Australian Broadcasting Corp. Radio. He said today: “Nepal is on the verge of a democratic revolution. When the country’s political parties and Maoist guerrillas jointly supported a general strike two weeks ago, most analysts thought the…

  • Tax Day

    ANITA DANCS Research director of the National Priorities Project, Dancs said today: “With the cost of the Iraq war at $315 billion through fiscal year 2006, taxpayers should reflect this tax day on where their money is going. That’s enough money to have built 18,000 elementary schools across the country and paid more than 900,000…

  • Behind the Immigration Crisis: Policies in Latin America

    ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ, Rodriguez writes the syndicated “Column of the Americas” with Patrisia Gonzales. He said today: “The effect of the Sensenbrenner proposal may well be to make a ‘guest worker’ program seem reasonable. Such a proposal would create a two-tiered society of citizens and non-citizens. Or better yet, a system with full-fledged citizens and dehumanized,…

  • Peru Elections

    MARK WEISBROT The AP is reporting that “Ollanta Humala, a populist retired army officer … [is] in first place” in Peru’s first round of presidential elections. Weisbrot is co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and author of the recent paper “Peru’s Election: Background on Economic Issues,” which notes: “In the last several…

  • “The Israel Lobby” — A Debate

    The paper “The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy,” by John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of Harvard University, has come under attack from various quarters. It was published in edited form as “The Israel Lobby” in the London Review of Books. The authors write: “The thrust of U.S. policy in…

  • U.S. Plans on Iran

    “There is a growing conviction among members of the United States military, and in the international community, that President Bush’s ultimate goal in the nuclear confrontation with Iran is regime change,” Seymour Hersh writes in the new issue of The New Yorker. He also reports: “One of the military’s initial option plans, as presented to…

  • Leak Story: Rogue President?

    The Washington Post reports today that “President Bush authorized White House official I. Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby to disclose highly sensitive intelligence information to the news media in an attempt to discredit a CIA adviser whose views undermined the rationale for the invasion of Iraq, according to a federal prosecutor’s account of Libby’s testimony to a…

  • The Massachusetts Health Plan: Behind the Hype

    The lead story in today’s New York Times reports that “Massachusetts is poised to become the first state to provide nearly universal health care coverage with a bill passed overwhelmingly by the legislature Tuesday that Gov. Mitt Romney says he will sign.” The following Boston-based health care analysts are available for interviews: STEFFIE WOOLHANDLER, MD…

  • Saddam and Attacks on Kurds

    AP is reporting: “The Iraq tribunal Tuesday announced new criminal charges against Saddam Hussein and six others for alleged genocide and crimes against humanity in [the] 1980s crackdown against the Kurds.” The following analysts are available for interviews; many of them point to U.S. policy during the 1980s as helping Saddam Hussein. For background, see:…

  • U.S. in Iraq: Big Picture · Election Interference · America’s Blinders · The Logic of Withdrawal

    JERRY STARR Author of The Lessons of the Vietnam War, Starr said today: “The U.S. government is openly manipulating the construction of the Iraqi government. For the past half century, the U.S. has intervened in elections on behalf of candidates and parties considered most responsive to U.S. interests, including Iran and Guatemala in 1954, Vietnam…

Mastodon