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…

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • 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.

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • 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.”

    Read more »


  • From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    From the desk of Noam Chomsky

    Read more »


  • 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…

    Read more »


  • Behind Bush’s “National Strategy” on Iraq

    CLOVIS MAKSOUD Maksoud is just back from Cairo, where he met with Iraqis participating in the recent Arab League meeting. He is former ambassador of the Arab League to the United Nations and is currently director of the Center for the Global South at American University. Maksoud said today: “President Bush is clearly trying to…

  • Global Warming Summit

    Reporting on the 10-day U.N. Climate Control Conference, which has begun in Montreal, the Associated Press noted that it is “considered the most important gathering on global warming since Kyoto, bringing together thousands of experts from 180 nations to brainstorm on ways to slow the alarming effects of greenhouses gases.” KEVIN KNOBLOCH President of the…

  • Hurricane Evacuees: No Home For the Holidays

    Last week, Katrina evacuees received notice that the Federal Emergency Management Agency will stop paying their hotel bills on Dec. 1. Currently, implementation plans are unclear. SUSHMA SHETH Sheth is communication director for the Miami Workers Center, which has been organizing relief efforts for families displaced by Hurricane Wilma. She said today: “Low-income residents face…

  • “Crude Designs”: New Report Charges Big Oil “Rip-Off” of Iraq

    GREG MUTTITT The British group PLATFORM has just released a report: “Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq’s Oil Wealth.” Among the group’s findings: · “Current Iraqi oil policy will allocate the development of at least 64 percent of Iraq’s reserves to foreign oil companies.” · “The estimated cost to Iraq over the life of the…

  • Iraq Debate

    MICHAEL HOFFMAN Hoffman is a co-founder and national coordinator of Iraq Veterans Against the War. He was in the U.S. Marine Corps for over four years and was part of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. More Information NORMAN SOLOMON Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy, is the author of the new book…

  • Wal-Mart Under Scrutiny

    This week, the documentary “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” has been released theatrically, along with thousands of home and community screenings of the DVD version. LIZA FEATHERSTONE Featherstone is the author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers’ Rights At Wal-Mart. She said today: “Most people wouldn’t like to live in…

  • Bush in Asia

    THOMAS KIM Kim is acting executive director of the Korea Policy Institute and professor of politics and international relations at Scripps College. He can address the six-party talks to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis, South Korean attitudes toward the Bush administration and the Bush administration’s relationship with the South Korean government. KARIN J. LEE…

  • Scrutinizing the Koch Deal to Buy Georgia-Pacific

    Bloomberg reported Monday: “Koch Industries Inc. agreed to buy Georgia-Pacific Corp. for $13.2 billion … to become the largest privately held company in the U.S.” But some underlying political implications of the move have not yet been publicly addressed. The following analysts are available for interviews: BOB WILLIAMS A project manager at the Center for…

  • Rewriting How the War Began

    President George W. Bush stated on Friday: “While it’s perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began. Some Democrats and anti-war critics are now claiming we manipulated the intelligence and misled the American people about why we went…

  • Bombings in Jordan

    MICHAEL BERG Michael Berg’s son Nicholas Berg was killed in Iraq in 2004. More Information NASEER ARURI Aruri is chancellor professor emeritus of political science at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. He has written extensively on the Mideast and U.S. policy in that region, including the book Jordan: A Study in Political Development. ALI…

Mastodon