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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  • Devastation and Reconstruction of New Orleans

    JORDAN FLAHERTY Flaherty is a union organizer from New Orleans and editor of Left Turn magazine. He wrote the article “Notes from Inside New Orleans,” and a series of follow-up pieces about the devastation and prospects for reconstruction in New Orleans. He is now in Tennessee. More Information CURTIS MUHAMMAD Muhammad is co-founder of Community…

  • Beyond the Political Spin: New Orleans Realities

    ROBIN ROCQUE Rocque said today: “I’m one of the fortunate. My family evacuated New Orleans early Sunday morning, before the horror. We sat in my uncle’s living room, in Arcadia, La., and stared at the television. I am a native New Orleanian and I had a difficult time identifying my city’s landmarks through water and…

  • New Orleans Disaster: Where’s the National Guard?

    NANCY LESSIN Lessin is a founder of Military Families Speak Out. She said today: “The numbers we have are that there are 11,000 National Guard personnel from Louisiana, of whom about 3,000 are in Iraq with most of the heavy equipment. This included generators and high-water and other vehicles which could assist with the rescue…

  • The Neglected Levees of New Orleans: A Victim of Iraq War Spending

    “It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security…

  • Katrina: · Global Warming · Homeland Security

    ROSS GELBSPAN Today’s Boston Globe features a piece by Gelbspan titled “Katrina’s Real Name” in which he writes: “The hurricane that struck Louisiana yesterday was nicknamed Katrina by the National Weather Service. Its real name is global warming. When the year began with a two-foot snowfall in Los Angeles, the cause was global warming. “When…

  • Back to School — Military Recruitment

    RICK JAHNKOW Jahnkow works with two San Diego-based organizations: the Project on Youth and Non-Military Opportunities as well as the Committee Opposed to Militarism and the Draft. He said today: “The Pentagon is having major shortfalls recruiting people. … High school students are getting a distorted picture of the military and war from recruiting ads…

  • Robertson and Chavez: Deeper Issues

    A full transcript and video of Pat Robertson’s recent statement advocating the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez are available at Media Matters. The following are available for interviews: Rev. GRAYLAN SCOTT HAGLER Rev. Hagler has written the article “Pat Robertson Is Not a Christian.” He is national president of Ministers for Racial, Social and…

  • Critical Analysis on Iraq

    GREG ROLLINS A member of the Christian Peacemaker Team, Rollins has just returned from a three-month stay in Iraq, his fourth visit to that country. He has written several articles including “The Other Iraq,” “A Police State” and “Life in the Green Zone.” More Information DANIEL ELLSBERG Ellsberg is author of the book Secrets: A…

  • * Kofi Annan in Niger * What About Mali?

    U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan is touring famine-stricken Niger today. KEVIN PHELAN In a statement released today, Nobel Peace Prize recipient Doctors Without Borders stated: “Recently-begun food distributions in Niger are not reaching those with the greatest needs, especially children under five years of age in the worst-affected areas. … The U.N. was slow to…

  • * Bush Challenged in Utah and Idaho * Iraqi Constitution

    CELESTE ZAPPALA Currently in Utah, Zappala is available for a very limited number of interviews. Her oldest son, Pennsylvania National Guardsman Sgt. Sherwood Baker, was killed in Baghdad in April 2004 while protecting the Iraq Survey Group, which was looking for weapons of mass destruction. She is a co-founder of Gold Star Families for Peace.…

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