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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  • Immigration

    LARRY BIRNS Birns is director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs based in Washington. He said today: “Immigration is a bilateral issue very much involving Mexico, and must be addressed as such, with comprehensive strategies that treat not just the symptoms (illegal workers in the U.S.) but the illness as well (Latin America’s lack of…

  • Bush’s Signing Statements: Suppressing the Power of Congress?

    CHARLIE SAVAGE Savage is Justice Department correspondent for the Boston Globe. In a piece published Friday headlined “Bush Shuns Patriot Act Requirement,” Savage reported: “When President Bush signed the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act this month, he included an addendum saying that he did not feel obliged to obey requirements that he inform Congress…

  • Death Squads in Iraq

    ROBERT PARRY In early 2005, Parry wrote the article “Bush’s ‘Death Squads,’” which examined the “Salvador Option” in Iraq, referring to the 1980s U.S. government’s “supporting El Salvador’s right-wing security forces, which operated clandestine ‘death squads’ to eliminate both leftist guerrillas and their civilian sympathizers.” Parry is editor of ConsortiumNews.com. He broke many of the…

  • U.S. Military Bases: Iraq and Beyond

    DAHR JAMAIL Jamail, who has spent extensive time in war-torn Iraq, is author of the recent article “Iraq: Permanent U.S. Colony.” He said today: “Bush refuses to set a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq because he doesn’t intend to withdraw. He doesn’t intend to because he’s following a larger plan for the U.S. in the…

  • Bush Deceptions Today About Origins of Iraq War

    At this morning’s news conference, responding to a question from journalist Helen Thomas about the real reason for initiating the Iraq war, President Bush said: “I didn’t want war. … No president wants war. … And the world said, ‘Disarm, disclose or face serious consequences.’ And therefore, we worked with the world. We worked to…

  • Iran and Iraq

    KATHARINE GUN Gun is available for a limited number of interviews. 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…

  • Three Years After Iraq Invasion

    NANCY LESSIN Lessin is co-founder of Military Families Speak Out, which is protesting the war with 50 events in 26 states listed on their web page. She can put media in touch with their members around the country. Lessin said today: “As we commemorate the third year of this war that should never have happened,…

  • Myth: Israel’s Strike on Iraqi Reactor Hindered Iraqi Nukes

    Today, the Bush administration releases a major national security strategy document which reaffirms the U.S. policy of so-called “preemption” and depicts Iran and its nuclear program as major threats. Many advocates of striking at Iran’s nuclear facilities cite Israel’s 1981 bombing of an Iraqi nuclear facility. The following specialists are available for interviews: RICHARD WILSON…

  • Iran and the United States

    Members of the U.N. Security Council are reportedly considering a U.S.-backed statement on Iran. MUHAMMAD SAHIMI Sahimi is professor of chemical engineering at the University of Southern California and co-author, with Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, of the recent op-ed “Defusing Iran with Democracy.” He said today: “There are struggles within Iran right now;…

  • · Israeli Raid · Iraq War Costs

    NASEER ARURI Aruri is chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth and author of the book Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine. He said today: “The storming of the Jericho prison and kidnapping of Ahmed Saadat and his four colleagues by Israeli troops only 15 minutes…

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