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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  • Mining Disaster: Big Picture

    JORDAN BARAB Barab edits the blog “Confined Space: News and Commentary on Workplace Health & Safety, Labor and Politics.” His most recent piece is “Mine Safety: Bush Administration to the Rescue?” More Information CHRIS KUTALIK Editor of Labor Notes, Kutalik said today: “The tragic deaths of 12 miners at the Sago mine isn’t really an…

  • Fallout from Abramoff: · Congress for Sale? · Religious Right for Sale?

    FRANK CLEMENTE CRAIG HOLMAN Director of Public Citizen’s Congress Watch, Clemente said today: “Make no mistake about it: Abramoff is a crook. But crooks like Abramoff can flourish in the environment on Capitol Hill where lobbyists and their clients offer lawmakers campaign contributions and gifts, arrange travel junkets for lawmakers and their staffs to luxurious…

  • NSA Leak Probe: Shooting the Messenger?

    SIBEL EDMONDS WILLIAM WEAVER Edmonds is director of the National Security Whistleblowers Coalition. She said today: “Without whistleblowers the public would never know of the many abuses of constitutional rights by the government. … But will they be listened to by those who are charged with accountability?” Weaver, senior advisor to the group, added: “Ordinarily…

  • Big Economic Picture: · Budget · Transit Strike

    FRANCES FOX PIVEN Author of the book The War at Home: The Domestic Costs of Bush’s Militarism, Piven is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. Her past books include The Breaking of the American Social Compact. She said today: “Even…

  • · Catholic Workers Back from Guantanamo · Bethlehem

    ANNA BROWN FRIDA BERRIGAN Berrigan and Brown are among the 25 activists, many with the Catholic Worker, who have just returned from a march to the U.S. military base at Guantanamo. While holding vigils, they fasted outside Guantanamo. The Associated Press recently reported that “32 prisoners [in Guantanamo] are on hunger strike to protest what…

  • · Domestic Spying · Torture

    MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD RUTH CONNIFF Editor of The Progressive, Rothschild writes the “McCarthyism Watch” web column. Conniff covers national politics for The Progressive; her most recent piece is “Bush as Nixon.” Rothschild’s latest article, “Bush Takes the Crown,” quotes from one of the three articles of impeachment that came out of the House Judiciary Committee in…

  • · Do They Know It’s Christmas Time: IMF Blocks the G8 Debt Deal · Bolivia Elections

    In its meeting starting Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund is reportedly planning to announce that it is partially canceling the debt reduction deal originally agreed by world leaders in the G8 meeting last summer. (Meanwhile U2 rocker Bono has been named a Time Magazine “Person of the Year.” He played a leading role in brokering…

  • Bush’s Use of NSA Spying and the Law

    “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)] The following analysts are available for a limited number of interviews: CHRISTOPHER H. PYLE In 1970, Pyle disclosed the U.S. military’s surveillance of civilian politics and worked as a consultant to three…

  • Major Civil Liberties Issues

    News reports are shedding light on government surveillance of political activists. The following are available to comment on various civil liberties issues: JONATHAN TURLEY The New York Times today published a story headlined “Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts.” Turley is a professor of Constitutional law at George Washington University; he has worked…

  • WTO and Wal-Mart

    A controversial World Trade Organization services agreement that will be discussed at this week’s WTO ministerial meeting in Hong Kong poses a serious threat to state and local authority over land use policy, according to a briefing paper released by Public Citizen. SARA JOHNSON Johnson is state and local outreach coordinator for Public Citizen’s Global…

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