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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  • Crucial Issues from New Orleans

    WILLIAM ARKIN An intelligence analyst, Arkin writes a blog called Early Warning on the WashingtonPost.com website. He has written extensively on the role of the military during emergencies and recent calls for the curtailment of the Posse Comitatus Act as well as responsibility for the lack of proper governmental action in the aftermath of Hurricane…

  • DeLay Indictment

    CRAIG McDONALD Director of Texans for Public Justice, McDonald said today: “On March 31, 2003, we filed a formal complaint with the Travis County District Attorney requesting an investigation into what appeared to be unlawful uses of corporate funds by Congressman Tom DeLay’s Texans for a Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) to influence Texas’ 2002 legislative…

  • Does the Buck Stop at Lynndie England?

    A military jury has sentenced Army Pfc. Lynndie England to three years for her role in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. ORLANDO TIZON Tizon is the assistant director of Torture Abolition and Survivors Support Coalition International and a survivor of torture under the Marcos regime in the Philippines. He said today: “Lynndie England was convicted…

  • War Powers: The Hijacking of the Constitution?

    PETER IRONS Author of the just-released book War Powers: How the Imperial Presidency Hijacked the Constitution, Irons said today: “There’s no question that John Roberts is an advocate of virtually unlimited executive power. He has already voted on the circuit court to allow the president to hold alleged enemy combatants indefinitely, for example in Guantanamo.…

  • Stories Breaking Today: · Civil Disobedience and Arrests in D.C. · FBI Killing in Puerto Rico · Al-Jazeera Reporter Convicted in Spain

    CINDY SHEEHAN STEVE CLEGHORN NANCY LESSIN AL ZAPPALA Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in combat, founded “Camp Casey” in Crawford, Texas. Cleghorn and Lessin are with Military Families Speak Out. Zappala’s son Sgt. Sherwood Baker was the first Pennsylvania National Guardsman to die in combat since World War II. They are engaging…

  • Perspectives on Iraq War and Protests

    Major protests against the war in Iraq are planned in Washington, D.C., this weekend. The following activists and analysts are available for interviews: Rev. GRAYLAN SCOTT HAGLER Rev. Hagler is national president of Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice. He is also senior minister of the Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ in Washington,…

  • Prisoners of Conscience Against the War

    TINA GARNANEZ Currently in Washington, D.C., Garnanez was in the Army for five years and was a medic in Iraq from July to December 2004. She said today: “A lot of us would ask, What are we doing in Iraq? Eventually, my higher-ups would say it’s for oil — to make rich men richer. But…

  • With Wolfowitz at the Helm, World Bank Meeting Along with IMF

    The World Bank and International Monetary Fund are holding their first global meetings after the G-8 Summit in July in Gleneagles, Scotland, where a debt cancellation deal for 18 very poor countries in Africa was announced. NEIL WATKINS DEBAYANI KAR Watkins, national coordinator of the Jubilee USA Network, said today: “The G-8 made a promise…

  • Hurricanes and Global Warming

    KEVIN TRENBERTH Head of the Climate Analysis Section of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Trenberth said today: “There is no doubt that environmental changes related to human influences on climate have changed the odds in favor of more intense storms and heavier rainfalls. A reasonable estimate of the effect of global warming on storms,…

  • Military Families and Veterans in D.C.

    CINDY SHEEHAN Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq in combat, is arriving today in Washington, D.C., with the “Bring Them Home Now Bus Tour,” which has traveled around the U.S. the last several weeks. She and other military family members will be participating in major protests in D.C. this weekend. Other military family…

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