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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  • 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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